YOUR INDUSTRY
BOYSENBERRY HARVEST A THREE-GENERATION LABOUR OF LOVE Words by Anne Hardie
Jono Sutton, a third generation boysenberry grower, is hoping for the right weather during the brief harvest this year
Three generations of the Sutton family will be involved in the “organised chaos” of the boysenberry harvest that is about to crank into action on their Nelson orchard. Jono Sutton has always associated summer with the frantic pace of the boysenberry harvest, working alongside his father, Stephen, and grandfather, David, to get the berries off the vines at the point they are ready to drop to the ground. And he thrives on it. “I’m a bit of a freak in the sense that I enjoy being under the pump.” Winner of the 2019 Young Grower of the Year competition, Jono is the younger generation on the family’s horticulture enterprise which grows 30 hectares of boysenberries and 30 hectares of apples. Today, Eden’s Road Fruit sits on the Waimea Plains west of Richmond where the family moved the business after urban sprawl overtook their original Daelyn’s Orchard. Back then, the business was largely selling fruit direct to the public and it was a summer destination for locals and visitors. Despite the site shift, boysenberries have remained part of the family’s operation, with a transition to five harvest machines instead of hand picking.
For 11 months of the year the machines sit in the shed but come December 15 they are powered up to take the crop off the vines. Jono says the technology for the machines has been around since the 1980s but the newer models still have the same picking apparatus that was designed back then.
Early morning is the best time for the harvesters to shake the soft fruit from the vines. Jono says it‘s all about the physiology of the plants; capturing the fruit when the plant is relaxed A limited window for harvesting means the harvesters are working whenever the crop and weather allow. Consequently, the orchard needs a fully stocked spare parts department to rectify any failure on the machines as quickly as possible. The harvesters start at 4am, weather permitting, and continue through to midday with a team of regular staff – many of whom only work for the Suttons during the boysenberry harvest. NZGROWER : DECEMBER 2021 27
