NZ: Early strawberries arrive as delicious mystery
Hammington isn't sure of the answer. It could be global warming. It could be pure luck in avoiding frost damage to the plants over winter. Or it could simply be credit to his cultivating abilities.
"I honestly don't know what it is. I think I am lucky in that where we grow them, in Fencourt, is in a bit of a microclimate. All I can say is that in the 30 years I have been growing berries they have never arrived anywhere near this early. If you have any harvestable fruit at all by Labour Day you are doing really well. The plants are absolutely laden with them."
Hammington's single hectare of 40,000 strawberry plants yields around 50 tonnes of berries each season. He used to grow around 300,000 plants, but experience had taught him a quality rather than quantity approach was the tactic to take to make a living from strawberries.
Five pickers and three packers are employed in his business. He grows the Camarosa variety, the predominant kind of strawberry in New Zealand which have their origins in the University of California's agricultural research department in the early 1990s. His wares are sold in Hamilton, Auckland, Tauranga, Nelson "and at my front gate".
The Waikato's strawberry industry is a waning one, for the meantime at least, Hammington said.
"There are nine growers in this region. There used to be more but a lot of the guys are pulling out. Most of them are over 60 years old. I'm getting on a bit too. I'm 52 now and I got into it when I was 22. Five years ago there would have been 19 million plants in the Waikato. There's now around 12 million."
But there was little chance of strawberry growing becoming a thing of the past.
"There are always new guys coming through. And people always want to have fresh New Zealand strawberries."
Although strawberries have been available in supermarkets throughout winter, "it has just been Australian strawberries on the market until now".
Source: stuff.co.nz
