Staff at Windermere Berry Farm are picking strawberries now.
Always looking for the world’s best
Windermere Berry Farm in Whanganui opens its cafe on October 14 for what is expected to be its best season yet and intends to export to Vietnam for the first time.
In 2011, the Boswell family took over Windermere, which was started 73 years ago as Windermere Gardens, operated by the Forks and Walker families. Director Tony Boswell said the farm’s focus was all about flavour. “We grow six different cultivars of strawberries now.
“We get the highest calibre of strawberries available in New Zealand. We span a nine-month growing season (it was only 10 weeks when we started.) We grow all our strawberries on table tops with superior cultivars that flower at different times of the year. San Andreas is being picked at the moment.”
Boswell lives on the site and says it’s a privilege to live there and grow strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
“Windermere is best known for its strawberries, with their extraordinarily high flavour. We are planning on exporting to Vietnam for the first time this year in addition to Thailand and Malaysia and have also exported to Singapore in past years, but don’t expect to have enough strawberries to supply Singapore this year.
“That’s exciting for us, going through the hoops with MPI to become an MAO [ministry-approved organisation). The free-trade agreement between the NZ and Vietnam Governments seven years ago has taken this long to get all the ducks in a row with Strawberry Growers New Zealand, MPI, exporting agents, Vietnam Government and Vietnam customers. It will be great to finally send them some world-class strawberries.
“Only three orchards in New Zealand will be exporting strawberries to Vietnam. They’ll be able to eat some decent strawberries, they’ll be blown away.
“Windermere grows for flavour and quality. All our crops are grown under cover, so there is no hail damage. In our raspberry crops, we’re expecting an 80% increase from last year – we’re quite excited about that.
“Efficiencies over the last few years and two new varieties of both raspberries and blackberries means we think they’re going to be pretty special.
“When we came here, Windermere achieved six tonnes per hectare for raspberries. Now we are harvesting 28.5 tonne/ha. There are stringent controls over nutrient levels, tunnel protection and cultivars. We’re always looking for the world’s best.
“The strawberries we were growing here 11 years ago, none of them would be good enough now. The raspberries were a hotchpotch of varieties with flavour that wasn’t good enough. They were suitable for processing into wines, purees and jams.
“We’ve moved to high-flavour raspberries, all the varieties grown now are dessert-grade ready to eat. We’re here to grow a magnificent berry for people to eat.”
The Whanganui region had the fourth most temperate climate in the world, he said. “That’s awesome. We have a magnificent water source here from a spring-fed dam, which used to be sold to the public it is that good. It’s now used to irrigate the farm and is very good for growing berries.
“Although the loam volcanic soil is considered to be the best in the world, we actually grow our berries in coir, so there is no risk of soil-borne diseases, which means not having to spray for soil-borne pests and diseases.
“Windermere Berry Farm is not organic but is mostly spray-free. Liquid seaweed is the most common spray we put on our berries to enhance the growth of the plants.”
In 2011, the farm grew 50 tonnes of produce with a staff of 30. This year it will be 500 tonnes with a staff of 100.
Passionate team
“We’re lucky with our staff,” Boswell said. “It takes a long time to build a team on a berry farm, we are fortunate with both full-time and seasonal staff who come back year after year. Our berry farming is becoming highly skilled.
“We have 29 RSE workers coming over from Samoa each year to make up for the number we can’t find here. They’re special to us, the same ones come back each year for six months’ work, which is life-changing for their families as the pay from Windermere is more than 10 times what they would earn in Samoa in a year.
“I get the privilege, along with our general manager, Grant Davis, to visit our RSE workers once a year in the winter when it is 12 degrees here and 32 degrees over there!”
■ Windermere Berry Farm, at 313 SH3 Westmere RD4, Whanganui, has been picking strawberries for several weeks already (two weeks earlier than last year). The raspberries are due in November, while the blackberries and blueberries are due in December. Phone (06) 3458390 or visit www.windermerefarms.co.nz