Small business Q&A

The Vege Plot’s Aimee Burton talks to Aimee Shaw about harvesting to order and how an ultimatum got her started

What does your business do? The Vege Plot is in its second season. I started selling sprayfree vegetables and it grew from there. Now I sell a whole range of things including fresh bread to free-range eggs. I don’t sell the vegetables I grow at weekly markets, I send out an email every week with what I’ve got available, people choose whatever they want and then we harvest everything to order and I deliver the veggies once a week. The business is based in the back paddock of my parents’ farm in Glentui, an hour inland from Christchurch, and began in September 2016. We have around 50 types of different vegetables available. I also love to grow things that are a little bit unusual such as brown cucumbers, sweet Indian cucumbers, yellow cucumbers and all different-coloured heirloom tomatoes. What was the motivation for starting the business? I was working in a corporate environment full time and out of the blue one day I woke up and had this really random headache. To cut a long story short, it stayed around for two years and it meant that I couldn’t work full-time so I had to cut down my hours to 20 per week. There were times where my headache was so bad that I couldn’t watch TV or read a book. I’ve always had a veggie garden, and so I found myself spending more and more time in it, and I began to realise that this was the dream job for me. When I first approached the subject of growing veggies for a living people thought I was crazy. The idea sort of all came to a head when the company I was working for said I could no longer work 20 hours per week and that I either had to go back to working full-time or find a new job, and I had to make the choice. I’ve always wanted to own my own business but was scared, I think, but I was pushed into the situation where I thought: “Right, I’m going to set up a veggie business”, and I really haven’t looked back. It’s hard work growing veggies for a living but I love it. How big is your team? It’s just me, but my parents John and Denise Burton also help out. My parents were semi-retired when I asked to start growing veggies in their back paddock but they are now an integral part. Dad does all of the maintenance jobs and heavy grunt-work and Mum does all of the weeding and helps me wash all of the veggies and prepare them to be packed. We’re now looking for a parttime employee. How’s business? Ever since we started two years ago, I pretty much hamish.fletcher@nzherald.co.nz liam.dann@nzherald.co.nz jamie.gray@nzherald.co.nz tamsyn.parker@nzherald.co.nz grant.bradley@nzherald.co.nz anne.gibson@nzherald.co.nz venuto@nzherald.co.nz Phone: 373-6400 business@nzherald.co.nz hembry@nzherald.co.nz shaw@nzherald.co.nz holly.ryan@nzherald.co.nz