‘Ordinary’ is how organic berry farmer Suzanne Stocks, who owns Berry Organic farm along with her husband in Inverleigh, South West Victoria has described the 2014/2015 season so far. The weather has impacted growing this year, and in the end Berry Organic is only expected to produce about 70% of the volume of last year’s harvest.
Berry Organic crops are not just battling unpredictable weather, but also the threat of two different bugs – the rutherglen bug and the western district flower. Both pests can impact non-organically grown strawberries as well as organic varieties, and render the fruit useless according to Ms Stock. “I threw out 40kgs of strawberries today. They are useless, you’ve just got to give them to the animals,” she adds.
On top of the strawberry decline, the boysenberry harvest was severely impacted by a blistering hot 40 degree day in early January, which the fruit can’t recover from well enough to harvest later on “You only get four weeks out of them [boysenberries], the plants just can’t cope.”
Growing berries, especially strawberries, organically is ‘labour intensive hard work’ but well worth it, according to Ms Stocks,. “Strawberries are one of the hardest fruits to grow. If it rains they’ll suck all that water in, and you get no flavour. You’ve always got to be looking after them,” she explains.
Depending how badly affected the berries are, strawberries can also be sold as seconds at local farmer’s markets, but Ms Stocks says the farm does depend on premium quality organic produce, and needs to supply enough to fulfil demands from retailers for frozen berries. “There’s certainly a market there for it, but with that market comes labour costs, and I pay labourers what they’re meant to get paid,” she explains.
For more information contact Berry Organic Farm
Suzanne Stocks
Phone: +613 52651476
E-mail: berryorganic@vic.chariot.net.au
Website: www.berryorganic.com.au