PHIL Rowe started farming with an unbridled enthusiasm for doing an active job and growing healthy food.
“I also like sweet things – so berries were an obvious choice,” he said.
“I like picking berries and regard it as therapy. As a scientist, jam seemed the logical next step.”
For 37 years, Phil Rowe and Cathie Taylor have owned Sunny Creek Organic Berry Farm, in the Strzelecki Ranges at Trafalgar South, Victoria.
They bought the original farm with its initial plantings of berry vines and chestnut trees, added an extensive irrigation system, expanded the plantings by acquiring more land, built nets to exclude possums, parrots and blackbirds and erected fences against kangaroos and wombats.
The couple looked for avenues to sell their fruit and turned to direct sales through pick-your-own berries and farm gate (as frozen and fresh fruit) and the Melbourne wholesale markets.
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Weed control incorporated mowing and mulching and the berry vines and currant bushes were planted as an understorey to chestnut, hazelnut and heritage apple trees.
They then looked outside those obvious avenues to expand both their capacity and their income.
They decided planting northern hemisphere berries, seeking organic certification and value-adding the whole business by making jam would give them several points of difference.
Planting incorporates more than 100 varieties of berries, with 40 kinds of raspberries alone in colours of red, black, golden, pink and purple.
“Chasing obscure berry types for our own aesthetic, and the organic certification, have given us our point of difference in the market,” Mr Rowe said.
Organic certification occurred in 1988 and birds and frogs are used as natural predators to control insects.
Jam is 50 per cent of turnover – sold at the farm-gate, online and through retail outlets; direct sales deliver 20pc of turnover and the remainder is mostly wholesale market – to specialist retailers selling certified organic produce.
“We grow berries and nuts and sell them by any means possible,” Mr Rowe said.
“We specialise in supplying the organic food sector.”
Harvest time is November to June and the peak season December and January coincides with demand from people on summer holidays to pick-their-own berries.
“Pick-your-own is ideal because people can pick the berries that are ripe,” Mr Rowe said.
“So we provide photos of the ripe berries to make it easier for people to enjoy their experience.
“It’s a great family day out and we get a lot of return visits. We introduced a grazing pass which people have really liked.
“Unfortunately, there is always a number of people who aren’t honest about what they eat or do what we think are silly things – like throw a bucketful of berries on the ground.
“I’ve even had people stand in front of me and eat all the berries they gathered then walk out without paying.
“But most people enjoy the experience and we always expect people to eat a certain amount of what they pick before they come back to us.”
Between late December and mid-January, pick-your-own accounts for 50pc of turnover.
There are a range of management issues involved in the venture.
Two permanent part-time employees year-round support Mr Rowe’s full-time status and Ms Taylor’s part-time contribution.
“I spend time pruning, planting, weed control, picking and harvesting. Cathie is responsible for jam making. Everyone has their responsibilities and it just increases during peak picking season,” Mr Rowe said.
During peak harvest period, they employ seasonal workers, many of them regular ‘pickers’ with some new employees every season.
Induction is two training days and the time is used to review skills and identify prospective employees.
“As an organic berry farm, hand weeding and applying mulch as a strategy to suppress weeds requires a reasonable amount of skill and time, as does harvesting the berries,” Mr Rowe said.
“I think gardening skills are more important than farming skills.
“People have to be patient and enjoy hand weeding – and they also have to be able to recognise weeds.
“Then there’s the cropping. We pay people by the hour because we want them to maintain the best quality as they harvest the berries and that takes time. Picking for us is not about speed.
“We like our pickers to be able to pick many varieties of berries, using a variety of skills.
“Of course, taking that extra time means there is a higher cost for the end product.”
Some of the plants spread outside their planted zone.
“We’ve learned how to grow mixed crops because we’ve been forced somewhat by raspberries and red currants volunteering their presence into spaces where other canes grow,” Mr Rowe said.
“That has enabled us to come up with some unique ideas for training the canes; and those ideas have helped make it easier picking the berries.”
Mr Rowe said the size of the business was an issue, particularly buying and storing the trays used for pick-your-own and jars for jam.
“There’s always a minimum order, so we’re challenged with storing and physically moving those stores around,” he said.
