Growing now firmly second nature

from NZ Grower | June 2021

by Horticulture New Zealand

Supie springs to life

GROWING NOW FIRMLY

SECOND NATURE

Words by Helena O’Neill

Dave Wilson with his produce

A long-loved pillar of Southland’s community, loyalty and hard work has helped Wilson’s Veges weather the pandemic and other unsettling events over the years.

Dave and Kathy Wilson are the force behind the Lochielbased market gardens. The bulk of their produce is sold at their roadside shop on the Winton-Invercargill Highway, and the family regularly attends the Southern Farmers Market in Invercargill.

The business has come a long way from its early days when Dave brought home swedes and sold them at a roadside stall outside the family farm. That eventually developed into growing and selling his own vegetables from that roadside stall before building the shop in 1993.

The shop now sells a wide range of fresh vegetables grown on the farm as well as fruit sourced in Invercargill and essentials like milk and eggs.

“We have spinach, fennel, kohlrabi (German turnip), we do a lot of stuff that supermarkets don’t actually have. It just gives us a full variation,” Dave says.

“I decided that I would have a go at growing everything that I can. It keeps me out of the wholesale system and it means that I only have to go to town to buy the bananas and apples and things that I can’t grow. Then we have everything ourselves as fresh.”

Supplying their own produce to local people is hugely rewarding for Dave and Kathy.

“We’ve stayed seasonal – Southland actually has a winter. We can’t grow broccoli all year round, it's just not possible, but we tend to grow the varieties we can until late April. Once you get into May then we start getting frosts.”

To help with the cooler climate, three 20-metre-long tunnel houses are used for propagating brassicas and pumpkins.

“Because our summer is so short, I start them off in there before planting them out.”

The business did not escape the effects of last year’s nationwide lockdown.

“We got shut down, we opened up three days later for orders. We already had a website … we actually got swamped with orders after about three days. We were starting to pick 10 days ahead of ourselves with the panic buying.”

“Once we got into the box orders we were away again.”

Many locals were keen to avoid going into town during the lockdown so demand remained for box orders while restrictions around trading were in place.

“We were well-supported afterwards as well. We did a lot of box orders, and with some couriers shut down or doing limited routes so we clocked up quite a few kilometres. We were delivering orders everywhere.”

We have spinach, fennel, kohlrabi (German turnip), we do a lot of stuff that supermarkets don’t actually have. It just gives us a full variation

Dave says a lot of leftover produce was donated to the wider Southland community through charities.

“We probably gave away over 1,500 boxes of veges. We also did two or three loads to Queenstown. I didn’t want to see anything go to waste.”

Both the roadside shop and website are closed from October to January, which gives Dave a break from 5.30am starts and weekday buying trips to Invercargill to pick up fruit and other supplies not grown on the farm.

“We run a dairy farm as well. We basically plough the veges in and the residue is eaten by the cows. Then we just start again with a fresh crop, there’s no carryover with bugs or anything like that. It’s all back into doing it all over again.”

We probably gave away over 1,500 boxes of veges. We also did two or three loads to Queenstown. I didn’t want to see anything go to waste

The dairy farm is run by a manager and a small number of employees, although Dave likes to help out when he can, whether it’s to move irrigation or fix fences.

“It’s quite nice being out on a tractor.”

The whole farm is across 250 hectares but only 10 hectares is used to grow vegetables, with paddock rotations.

“We try to stay away from a paddock for 10 to 12 years.”

The cooler climate means fewer sprays are needed to control pests and diseases, he says.

“We don’t have any fungals – and the bugs seem to die off. So there are some advantages to being in a colder region.”

Swedes have dipped in popularity over the years, while carrots and parsnips remain firm favourites. “People who bottle vegetables love the long beetroot, we also get all sorts of orders for yellow or candy-striped beetroot. We grow the savoy cabbage and the red, we even grow the kohlrabi.”

“When we go to the farmer’s market, we have 43 (product) lines of vegetables.”

For Dave, growing vegetables in Southland has been a labour of love for more than 30 years and he has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s second nature. I probably need a bit more practice,” Dave laughs.