Our Story

Harry and Anne planted their first blueberry blocks in 1982 and during the 1980s were one of perhaps 18 growers in the Rotorua area registered to produce export fruit.

At their Maraeroa Road property, they cultivated three blueberry varieties on 2.4ha of netted blocks - Jersey, Burlington, and the Dixi, which interestingly ripen on the bush in that order. 

The venture into blueberries was not always an easy one; Harry and Anne received advice from multiple sources on how best to grow blueberries, mostly contradictory. Eventually, they decided that they would plant little seedlings, which weren’t more than bare twigs in rows. After months of diligently watching the twigs do barely anything at all, they finally leaped to life as spring came around, with tiny little shoots eventually becoming visible.

Through the eighties and nineties, the farm grew steadily, and with perseverance and a real passion to produce quality blueberries, it has continued to thrive.

For the next 15 years, they trialed a variety of plantings redcurrants, blackcurrants, gooseberries 30 different varieties of blueberries. Gooseberries were extremely interesting as were the Elliot variety of blueberries. They developed the gooseberry plantation on one-sixth of a hectare and removed all the unsuccessful plantings.

In 1999 they planted another 2 ha 2000 new plantings. With some of the new earlier varieties, Reka, Bluecrop, Brigitta, Duke, continuously observing the differences between the varieties, production, and harvesting times complimenting the existing orchard. In  2015  preparations for building another block of 6,500 blueberry bushes began with the first harvest in 2021, 6 years after the initial preparation was started.