Saturday, 21st February
9-10.30am. Orchard 1 David DeGray
10.40-12.10am Orchard 2. Bev Nicholls
LUNCH – Headquarters Cafe, Brightwater
2-3.30pm. Orchard 3. Karen and Darrell Johnston
4-5pm. HGANZ Strategy Meeting
DINNER – The Stables Tavern and Restaurant, Richmond
Sunday, 22nd February
Apologies, haven’t managed to confirm our visit with the orchard owner so holding off on the details!
David DeGray
Dave began with 4 gorse-covered hectares in 1980, but we will see ~200 sugar maples, plus ~10 different hardwood species. The sugar maples produced sap for syrup, but recent warm winters affected production. They are still valuable as millable wood and Dave’s main interest is in growing hardwoods for timber. He owns his own bandsaw and can mill timber on site. Firewood comes from coppiced Eucalyptus botryoides – no radiata here. We will learn about hardwoods and timber, and see how warmer winters can affect tree crops.
Bev Nicholls
We have 780 trees (I think!) – mostly Whiteheart with Merville de Bowillier and Alexandra pollinators.We currently manage to use up our Whiteheart making and selling locally our Just Nutz hazelnut butter and more recently roasted hazelnuts. It is definitely more of a hobby than a business at present though I’ve recently bought a 2nd hand commercial chicken rotisserie and am converting it to be a drum roaster to take the drudgery out of the roasting process in a domestic oven!Our orchard is spray free – and on a steep slope, 2 factors that increase the effort needed to run things. We use a Turbovac harvester towed behind our electric EV for picking up the nuts and the next processing steps combine kiwi (adopted!) ingenuity with learning from other field days hosts.
Karen and Darrell Johnston
River Terrace Nurseries was established in 1984, and supplies a wide variety of fruit, nut, citrus and ornamental trees and shrubs. Longtime members of the HGANZ, their property is particularly interesting to visit because of the macadamias, walnuts and hazelnuts. They also have some old grafted hazels, which is something being trialled on larger scale in Canterbury.
HGANZ Stratedy Meeting
A meeting to discuss strategy and promotion of NZ Grown hazelnuts. The Committee worked out a step-by-step approach and developed a number of ideas to start the process. Now we invite members to build on this by contributing their experience and insights. The meeting will be available via Zoom, and all members are invited to attend.
The Stables Tavern & Restaurant
Menu:https://www.thestablestavern.co.nz/uploads/1/6/5/6/16564676/the_stables_-_main_menu_29_aug_23.pdf
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