Des Samuels (left) and Mountain Blue Orchards founder Ridley Bell, who visited last month. Photo / Ant Low
Six years ago, Des Samuels admits he would be the last person you’d call on to look after your plants.
As a school caretaker, his job involved simply watering the gardens and pulling out the weeds.
But after he “winged it, learned it and Googled it”, the 60-year-old now manages nearly 11,000 plants on a 2ha blueberry farm on Matakana Island.
This is the sweet success story of how Samuels and his whānau have built a business out of blueberries.
It was never Samuels’ intention to get into blueberries.
He was happy working as kaitiaki kura (school caretaker) of Te Kura o te Moutere O Matakana.
“My idea of looking after plants was Roundup,” he said.
“On paper, I was the most under-qualified person.”
One day, he was helping build a plant nursery on the whenua, owned by Hamiora Whānau Trust, when it was suggested he try growing blueberries on a smaller section of the farm.
Knowing little about how to grow them, Samuels started researching.
“We just winged it, learned it and Googled it,” he said.
“Our advantage is growing up here on the island.
“We have the can-do, fix-it attitude.”
By 2019, the whānau had planted their first blueberry plants. But it wasn’t easy.
In the beginning, cows broke in and ripped up the plants, and howling winds tore down about four blueberry tunnels two months after planting the first trees.
Samuels, however, was determined.
“If you had told me what we’d been through, I think I would have turned it down in a heartbeat,” he said.
“But I was never going to start something I wasn’t going to finish.”
Six years on and the farm has nearly 11,000 blueberry plants, growing world-leading varieties that stand out because of their jumbo size and sweet taste.
The varieties are licensed through Tauranga-based global berry marketer BerryCo NZ and marketed under the “Blue Royal” brand across New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
Berries grown by Samuels and his whānau on Matakana Island have been sold as far away as Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.
At peak harvest from October to December, the blueberry farm has about 50 workers.
Most are backpackers from Argentina, Chile and Germany, as well as locals who live on the island.
“The blueberries have been a tool to help build relationships, and we are really big on looking after people,” Samuels said.
“We have lots of hāngī, we cook together, we fish together. It’s an open-door policy. The importance is whānau.”
Samuels’ wife Kristy said up to 1.5 tonnes of blueberries are picked each day during the peak season, averaging about 4.5kg per tree.
The berries are then delivered to the packhouse in Paengaroa.
“There is no typical day. During peak harvest it’s full on,” she said.
“It’s a 7am start and we work until lunchtime when it gets too hot.
“The pickers usually go home or have a swim at the beach and come back at 4.30pm and work through until about 7.30pm.”
Looking back, Des said he’s proud of what he and Kristy have achieved.
“All we do is blueberries. Even the office is in the lounge,” Kristy laughed.
But to them, it’s a privilege.
“Because it’s on our own land we have a sense of ownership,” Des said.
“It’s a legacy. I’m starting something up for my children and grandchildren, not just my own but others too.”
The island’s youngest blueberry picker is Des’ niece, Mia Samuels.
The 14-year-old began picking blueberries on the farm last year to fundraise for a rugby trip to Hawaii.
Mia lives on the mainland with her parents, Leon and Lynda Samuels, and travels to Matakana Island by boat about three days a week to pick berries during harvest.
“I like picking blueberries, and I like being outdoors. It’s not like a normal job like in a store,” she said.
Kristy said it was a “whānau-run” multi-generational blueberry business.
“It gives the older ones an opportunity to have a holiday job, especially on the island where there isn’t the usual supermarket or cafe job.
“It’s cool to know that for them it will forever be their first job picking blueberries on uncle’s farm.”
Aside from the blueberries business, Des also runs school camps on the island, giving children the chance to disconnect from screens and schedules and reconnect with nature and island life.
“Our camps are a lot of fun and help build resilience and relationships,” he said.
“Some kids don’t get the chance to swim or jump off the jetty and just be kids.”
It’s something Samuels said he learned from his late mother, Mere Matekino Palmer (nee Samuels).
Raised on Matakana and neighbouring Rangiwaea Island in the 1930s, Mere later received an MBE in the 1990 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to Kōhanga Reo.
She also once worked with the Tabulam and Lismore Aboriginal communities as an early childhood education adviser, sharing the same community as Mountain Blue Orchard blueberry farms, whose berry varieties Samuels grows on the island today.
“That was a pretty special moment of discovery,” he said.
“What mum demonstrated through her work is what was sowed into me.”
As for the future, Samuels hopes to continue expanding the blueberry business.
“We have a passion to be the best we can be.
“That’s what gets us up in the morning.”