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Sheryl and Barry Wade, of River Estate, at their olive grove at Whitford, Auckland
Organic olives a bit of an art For more than two decades, Barry and Sheryl Wade have been growing and processing olives at their Whitford property on the banks of the Turanga River near Auckland. HELENA O’NEILL reports.
A fifth-generation farmer, Barry stopped milking cows on the property in 1986, reverting to dry stock beef farming – which is still managed on some of the farm blocks today – before planting an olive grove in 1997 and operating as River Estate. The Wades spent many years researching growing olives in New Zealand before planting the grove with 90 olive trees in 1997. Even before the trees were established the venture had its challenges. Overnight, dozens of pukeko pulled out the newly
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The ORCHARDIST : FEBRUARY 2022
planted trees until the couple placed plastic sleeves around the trees for protection. With successive plantings the grove has grown to 1,500 trees on approximately six hectares. Originally there were nine different varieties of olives planted from Italy, Greece, Spain, Algeria, Israel and France. Through trials and evaluations, the duo have pared this down to six oil varieties, Chemlali, Leccino, Pendolino, Frantoio, Koroneiki, and Picual. Five of these (with the exception of Pendolino) are used to produce
