YOUR INDUSTRY
Riwaka’s Thomas Brothers – 160 years of growing A cherry sits on top of every ice cream that is swirled and handed out to the long lines of customers at Thomas Brothers’ cherry and real fruit ice cream shop in Riwaka. By Anne Hardie It is one of the few opportunities where you can taste cherry ice cream from fruit picked just along the road, at the orchard’s 2.5ha cherry block. Thomas Brothers – or Thomas Bros – are among the first in the country to pick cherries each year, slotting the harvest into their diversified business that employs 15 family members. It is a multigenerational business that traces its history in Tasman’s Dehra Doon valley back to their forefathers who settled there in the early 1860s. Mark Thomas is sixth generation in the business which has grown in the
past 160 years to encompass 70ha of apples, 70ha of kiwifruit plus male kiwifruit blocks and a pollen mill, then the cherry on top which is the 2.5ha cherry orchard. Mark is in charge of the day-to-day jobs on the orchards, while his cousin, James Thomas, is responsible for the cherry harvest which began in midNovember and will continue through to mid-January. Cherries are a good money earner for the business and Mark says the harvest enables Thomas Bros to keep staff employed through the peak of summer so they are good to go for
the apple harvest in February. “We’re quite a diverse business and we like to look at different avenues of income, so 16 years ago we decided to give cherries a go. “There were a few hobby blocks around the place growing cherries so we knew they would grow here. It was also another way of retaining staff by offering work through the summer period. “The cherries finish in mid-January and then we roll straight into pruning and that takes them through to the apple harvest.” The ORCHARDIST : DECEMBER 2021 43
