Bob's berry farm - thorny, thrifty and thriving
Bob Teal's resourcefulness has allowed him to keep growing a niche range of berries into his 80s.
On his 1.5-hectare orchard near Cambridge, Teal uses upcycled push chairs as picking trolleys at harvest time.
He's adapted his golf cart to spray the fruit - much of which is grown in tunnel houses he designed and built after 25 years of trial and error.
"Anything that's less than 50 bucks. I pick it up," he told Country Life, showing off one of the prams outside his workshop - the hub of Bruntwood Orchard - his one-man commercial growing operation.
A golf cart has been adapted to hook up a trailer and old car battery for spraying
RNZ/Sally Round
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In the months of downtime before late autumn, Teal gets a small crew in to help him tie up the canes ready to support the next season's growth.
That's when he puts on his heavy-duty gloves, normally used for welding, to protect his arms and hands from the thorns which are a feature of the early season fruit, a trait which puts other berry growers off the variety.
A keen golfer, Teal's golf cart is pressed into service when not on the course.
"When I saw one of these on the golf course, I thought, 'Jeepers! That's just what I need for going down my tunnel houses with spray behind me."
This April, Teal won agribusiness management and innovation awards run by the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust for this small-scale horticulture operation.
His orchard was described as a valuable example for aspiring growers, and Teal impressed judges with his "adaptability, efficiency and strategies maximising value over volume".
Teal has been in horticulture for 45 years, after 20 years spent dairy farming near Morrinsville.
"I always wanted to get on the land. And my parents had very green fingers."
His parents grew and showed orchids and gerberas, his father winning a competition for his garden.
"He had a great eye for beauty and great eye for colour and of timing, everything had to be timed for the competition."
Bob designed the tunnel houses himself and has modified them over the years
RNZ/Sally Round
Teal proudly shows off his 100 metre-long tunnel houses, the fourth modification over 25 years.
Plumbing pipes give stability in the wind and hold up the polythene roof stretched between a structure made up of four by twos.
No irrigation is needed, Teal explained, as the plants' roots reach beyond the structure to soak up water which falls off the roof.
"The beauty of having enough tunnel-housed fruit is that you can pick outdoor fruit if you know it's going to be fine.
"You've got the indoor fruit for the wet day, and you can have a continuous supply of fruit, because all the supermarkets love to have a continuous supply of fruit. Unreliability is not what they want."
Teal takes on two or three people to help at harvest and tying up time, otherwise it's a one-man operation.
Bob uses old prams to hold punnets when harvesting the fruit. “Anything that's less than 50 bucks. I pick it up.”
RNZ/Sally Round
The berry-growing skills he's acquired over many years aren't taught these days, Teal says.
"When it comes to actually the hands on how-to-do-it, you really just have to go to another grower to find out."
"It's hard to imagine that you can actually manage crops that have got such thorny plants.
"One of the varieties at the far end of this block came onto the market, and it was well received, as far as the fruit was concerned, but more than one grower said, "oh, no, I'm not going to handle that."
As for Teal, he has no plans for giving up, despite the thorns, and, with his talents for adapting and upcycling, he could be at it for some time yet.
"As long as I don't mind getting up in the morning. If it becomes a struggle? Yeah, I might give it away, but it's a pretty good lifestyle."
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