Strawberry picking back on the menu – Red Bridge Berries

Memories of childhood strawberry picking expeditions warm the heart for many - once a highly-sought after family day out, and strawberry picking with all its trimmings is back on the menu this summer.

A young Wānaka couple, Ben and Rebecca Trotter, started their careers in the agriculture sector in the North Island, moved south five years ago to a Wānaka farm property and decided their own treasured childhood memories should be relived.

“I grew up in the Bay of Plenty and there are a lot of strawberry gardens there where you can pick your own,” says Rebecca. “It was a real childhood thing for me. When we bought the beef farm here with our family we wondered why it wasn’t done here,” says Rebecca.

With both, Ben and Rebecca having degrees in Agricultural Science and Business they got busy, planting a traditional strawberry farm on their property - 2ha of strawberries, more than 70,000 plants. “I’m half Canadian and I knew you could grow strawberries in a cold climate so we did some research and trials.”

Using Integration Technology Systems and good practices they were able to avoid using any harsh chemical sprays last season. That was quite an achievement with the strawberry industry internationally previously having a reputation for being among the highest users of sprays in the world, she says. “There’s a whole bunch of management strategies that can be applied and many New Zealand growers are doing a fantastic job at trying to use these first,” says Rebecca.

“We use crop rotation and if we get a pest infestation we buy in beneficial insects to get it under control before contemplating using chemical sprays.” Spiders, ladybugs, parasitic wasps and the likes are set to it. “We didn’t spray at all last year.” Plants are monitored daily, dead leaves are pruned and air flow increased. “This is a dry environment and a windy site so we’ve been lucky to not face some of the challenges other growers may have with humidity and insects, and so far no birds.”

The Trotters use seaweed technology to boost plant health, but some things are out of their control. “We probably lost five tonne of strawberries – our first crop for the season, due to late frost in early October during that big snowfall, which was pretty disappointing,” says Rebecca.

Wānaka and Queenstown restaurants have been very supportive with chefs reporting strawberries are back on the menu. “They say they’re the best and most flavoursome they’ve ever tasted,” says Rebecca, proudly. They also supply Nadia Lim’s Royalburn Farm Shop in Arrowtown, and some grocery outlets.

Growing strawberries is for love not money. “Our farming costs have risen by 45 percent in the past 12 months – fertiliser’s gone up more than 100 percent, fuel’s risen, wages are up 30 percent, grass seed 25 to 30 percent, and interest rates have doubled,” says Rebecca. Ben still works full-time off farm to help with rising costs. “If you’re not a grower or farmer you don’t really understand we do this for love.”

It’s not like they have spare time either, with Rebecca expecting their third child in the peak of the season in January when the Trotters will have three under three. “There’s a shortage of good labour,” she jokes.

Just 10 minutes from Wānaka on Shortcut Road (SH8A) between Wānaka Airport and Luggate, the couple’s banking on some good local support this summer and a busy season. Their little on-site café, selling real fruit ice cream, coffees and iced coffees, offers the perfect finale to a hot session fruit picking. “This is a real family affair. That’s one reason we did it. We want kids to see how and where food is grown, while reducing carbon emissions and food miles,” says Rebecca.

There’s no waste with any surplus or damaged strawberries frozen and sold over winter. “You open the bag and the aroma comes out. It’s amazing, and with the hepatitis scare from imported frozen berries we’ve noticed a big up,” she says.

She even successfully trialled growing watermelons last year with 100 due to ripen in March, also pick your own and sold in the café shop.