Kalafatis Coolstores, VIC

Have you got a sweet tooth? Well, look no further than William Bartlett Pears. That's what Jimmy Kalafatis says. And he should know. His family has been producing pears since 1960, when his father Angelo bought his first 15‐hectare orchard in Victoria's Shepparton area in the Goulburn Valley, where pears have been produced for the past 100 years. Now Managing Director of Kalafatis Coolstores, Jimmy presides over 300 hectares producing pears all‐year round and his family business has been supplying Woolworths with pears for the past 40 years.

Truly a unique pear, the William Bartlett pear is also synonymous with Woolworths' reputation for quality fresh produce, because the William Barlett pear ripens very quickly once picked and must be savoured soon after purchase ‐ there's no leaving it to sit around in a supermarket! "The thing that sets the William pear apart from the others is that it ripens very quickly and once it does it tastes so sweet, like honey." Jimmy says, "There's no other pear that goes as sweet and that's why it's so popular". Harvested in the middle of summer and the first new‐season pear to come in to stores, Jimmy says it's his favourite type and has a simple, yet effective, way to enjoy them: pre‐cooled once ripened so it's extra cold.