Run on berry popular treats
A New Plymouth berry farm sold out of pick-your-own strawberries in 15 minutes yesterday as hundreds hit the rows to get their Christmas berries.
When Paradise Berry Farm owners Steve and Kathleen Smith opened at 9am, the paddock car park was already at its capacity of 120 cars and more cars were lined the road outside.
Steve Smith had to close the pick-your-own 15 minutes later. But don’t despair – it will be open today, Smith said.
He said it was their main pickyour-own day today, so they would have more blocks open.
‘‘We’ll have a bigger patch. And a little more for latecomers in the afternoon. Hopefully we’ll be open all day. As soon as I see people coming with light coloured fruit I shut [the pickyour-own]. It’s a bit of a juggling act.’’
But there’s still plenty of packed fruit, he said.
Three-year-old Harry Bishop, with a little help from sister Cassidy, 6, checked each berry carefully before he picked them. They were for the Christmas pavlova, Harry, who wants a toy drone for Christmas, said. Harry reckons the best thing about strawberries is picking them.
Stephanie Burgess was out early picking strawberries for her children’s grandparents who were over from England, she said.
‘‘I thought we’d beat the rush, so we came out at 9 o’clock. But there were already cars for Africa.’’
Smith said this season has been better than the last couple of years.
‘‘Last year we were all over in a week’s time and the year before it was cold, so we didn’t have a lot of fruit.’’
He has raspberries, boysenberries and blueberries, but strawberries are the favourite, he said. Smith’s preferred way to eat strawberries are straight from ground, while they are warm from the sun. He doesn’t see any need to add chocolate sauce or icing sugar.
This is the couple’s 15th year at the Berry Farm and they could never grow enough for the Christmas rush, he said.
‘‘You’re always going to run out. We flushed three weeks ago, so the most you’re going to get in a day was three weeks ago. They’re starting tailing down now. It doesn’t happen for Christmas. The flush is always the end of November or beginning of December. If we had what was coming off three weeks ago...’’
He has no idea how many strawberries he sold, Smith said.