Pick of the crop

Pick of

THE CROP

Spurred by the efforts of a couple of dedicated horticulturalists, Aparima Riverton has become a hub for retaining heritage fruit varieties, with public orchard parks and an annual heritage harvest festival

WORDS: GEORGIA WEAVER • IMAGERY: NICOLE GOURLEY

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For years Robyn Guyton has been researching lineages going back centuries. But it’s not human ancestors she’s been looking into – it’s apples.

To date she has uncovered more than 100 different varieties, many of which she can identify by sight.

Robyn and her husband Robert have lived in Aparima Riverton for more than 30 years, where they’ve combined his passion for trees and her love of heritage to help keep Southland’s horticultural history alive and educate others about sustainable living.

Upon arrival in the seaside town, the couple sought out like-minded people, starting an organic growers group that attracted 57 of the town’s 1000 residents. The group eventually evolved into the South Coast Environment Society, which runs New Zealand’s longest continually running environment centre.

Located on the main street in an historic building (built in 1908), the centre serves as a shop selling seeds, organic fruit and vegetables, and as a knowledge hub for all things organic, environmental and sustainable. Here, the Guytons have collated and digitised information they’ve collected through the years; anything from how to graft trees to splicing rope can be learnt at the centre.

Says Robyn: “All that knowledge was going to be lost, and it’s really nice to capture that from the old days when things were handwritten and put it forward into the digital age where it can be [accessed] for the future.”

Robyn’s interest in heritage apples was piqued about 30 years ago when an old sawmiller from the town taught the couple to graft apple trees. This led to another of their commitments, called

“It’s creating food for the future, but it’s also telling the stories of the settlers, honouring them and the hard work they did to come

1 Robyn Guyton picks an apple from one of the many fruit trees she has in her own backyard.

2 Robyn at one of the 14 heritage fruit orchards in Southland she has established.

3 Robert and Robyn Guyton outside the house they built in Aparima Riverton more than 30 years ago.

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Open Orchards, which aims to return heritage fruit trees to the Southland community and has saved many heritage apple varieties.

There were once hundreds of orchards in Southland, many planted with trees introduced by 19th-century European immigrants. But earlier this century, as land was cleared for dairy farming, many of these trees were cut down. During this time, the Guytons travelled to more than 100 orchards, taking cuttings to preserve that heritage.

From those cuttings they’ve now established 14 public orchard parks in Southland (from which the public can take what they can carry). Rows in the parks are named after the old stations from which the cuttings were taken, and work is underway on signs that will tell the stories of the people who established the trees on the stations.

“It’s creating food for the future, but it’s also telling the stories of the settlers, honouring them and the hard work they did to come here.”

While this all interests Robyn, it’s each apple’s unique DNA that really fascinates her.

“Every apple is a new baby, just like a human is a new baby. Apples, like humans, get all their DNA from their ancestors, not just from their two parents.”

When funding allows, Robyn plans to DNA test the trees. She will seek matches through FruitID – a community-created catalogue identifying apples grown in the British Isles – which will allow her to name some of the area’s 400 currently unidentified apple varieties. From there she will also be able to uncover the history of those varieties.

Open Orchards also runs an annual fundraising heritage fruit tree sale, offering others the chance to grow their own heritage apples. This year demand was so high the trees sold out during pre-orders.

Apple lovers are also able to get their hands on different heritage varieties at the Riverton Heritage Harvest Festival, an annual sustainability and heritage festival organised by the environment centre.

1 The Guytons established the South Coast

Environment Centre in Aparima Riverton, the country’s longest continually running environment centre.

2 A heritage apple press in the South Coast Environment Centre.

3 Robyn wanders through her backyard.

4 The Guytons provide all sorts of information in the environment centre that helps people to live more sustainably.

The event is based on 19th-century harvest festivals, traditionally held in churches, where locals would bring in items to celebrate the harvest and give away the excess to those who experienced poor yields.

Today’s festival-goers can buy a wide range of produce at the event.

“We decided to have a harvest festival that showcases the diversity of things you can grow, because when we first came to Southland, people said, ‘You can’t grow fruit trees in Southland’,” says Robyn.

The festival started in the local primary school hall in 2007 and has since grown to cover several areas of the grounds of Riverton’s high school. Like many events, the festival was interrupted by the pandemic; it was cancelled twice and moved mostly online in 2021. But preparation for the event on the last weekend of March 2023 is now well underway and the Guytons are expecting the same enthusiasm experienced in pre-pandemic years.

And while they weren’t necessarily looking for another project, the couple did spy a new opportunity due to the pandemic, launching a mobile farmers market during the first lockdown.

Called the Longwood Loop, the mobile market follows an old trading route through Riverton, Tuatapere, Ohai and Ōtautau, delivering pre-ordered produce and meat from local suppliers.

“I’d like to think that over time the community will be able to become 80 percent self-sufficient like we used to be, rather than having the supermarkets. The whole idea is that we can get localised food again. I can see all of southern New Zealand being able to do that as well.”

Southland historian Suzie Best says Aparima Riverton has a rich history that can be explored today at many places, including the local museum, Te Hikoi, and historic sites such as the Templeton Flax Mill Heritage Museum. The Guytons are doing important work, she says, that’s helping to preserve aspects of the area’s diverse heritage.

“Heritage is about more than just old buildings. It involves knowledge of and experiencing the way life used to be; included in this would be building and harvesting heritage orchards where fruits that our pioneer settlers had are preserved.”

Even how the Guytons are operating the environment centre could be compared to an old village store where all manner of things could be bought, she says.

Suzie believes the Guytons are protecting the past and present information of Murihiku Southland by sharing advice and knowledge with anyone who wants it.

Robyn and Robert have no doubt that they made the right decision moving to Riverton.

Accepted by the town from the get-go, they have since discovered that many of Robyn’s forebears were once scattered throughout the district.

“I think my ancestors would be really happy that I came here. Imagine the sacrifice they made, coming from Scotland and never seeing their family again, coming here for a better life. So that’s why I’m really happy to be back in southern New Zealand. I want to honour every effort they made.”

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