FARMING A FUSSY FRUIT
Raphaella Frame-Tolmie visits a Cape blueberry farm and learns the Smartie way to enjoy them
The sky above the mountain pass to Porterville looks like the animated backdrop from the Toy Story movies, with perfectly shaped white clouds dotted at even intervals. It feels as though the Eurafruit Local farm site was chosen for its vista, and the fact that it happens to be the perfect altitude for growing blueberries was pure coincidence.
Eurafruit’s managing director, Sven Tietz, says there are as many ways to grow blueberries as there are blueberries. “Some prefer to grow under plastic, some under net. They’ve all got different personalities.”
Blueberries were originally imported from the US, but in 1990 deregulation made it possible to grow these shiny superberries in South Africa. Tietz and his business partner started growing on a small scale, selling about 12 punnets a day to Woolworths. As word spread about the health benefits of blueberries, in particular their ability to help lower cholesterol and fight heart disease, demand grew.
“They’re convenient, taste great, are fun to eat, and because they’re good for you, people find more and more interesting ways to incorporate them into dishes,” says Tietz.
The farm is expanding quickly and the crop can be temperamental, but farm manager PW Steinberg takes it all in his stride. “Every blueberry farmer in South Africa is a pioneer,” he says. “Blueberries are very sensitive, so it’s expensive to grow them because you have to create the perfect environment. Ideally, they need peaty soil, but it’s all variety-specific.”
Blueberries grow wild in shady indigenous forests in the US and Europe. Each of the three main varieties — Southern Highbush, Northern Highbush and Rabbit Eyes — has its preferred conditions, so Steinberg has planted them on different levels of the sloping farm, which at its highest is almost as high as Table Mountain. But getting the right altitude is not the only challenge.
“Everything’s variable,” says Steinberg. “Daylight hours, latitude, soil . . . Some types can cope in hot weather, but irrigation needs to be good and they have a shallow root system, so you can also overwater them.”
Blueberry farming is labour intensive. Some overseas farms use machine harvesting, but Steinberg believes this can affect the quality and firmness of the fruit, so every berry at Eurafruit Local is picked by hand.
The best way to eat blueberries, says Tietz, is by the handful, “like Smarties”. Some might be sweet and some sour, so each mouthful has depth of flavour. Once you’ve tried it, it will be hard to enjoy blueberries any other way . . . except maybe in pancakes.