Friday, Jan 4, 2019
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KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY Nearly 10 years after setting their hearts on the job, two daughters are joining their mum as members of the Willowby fire unit. FULL STORY
P2 PHOTO JAIME PITT-MACKAY 030119-JPM-0002
‘Worst’ berry season BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Ashburton berry farmers are chalking up this season as one of the worst on record. Ongoing wet weather interspersed with high humidity and a handful of hot days wreaked
havoc with this season’s raspberry crop and it often became a race against the next rainfall to harvest berries, said Southberry owner Vicki Dobson. “We’ve been going 25 years and this is the worst we’ve had, but finally it’s coming right, we’ve gone
a week without rain,” she said. Dobson sells fruit to suppliers and from an on-farm shop and said she’d just managed to meet Christmas demand. “But we have got an awful lot of jam-quality berries this year.” In a normal season, berries
picked when dry could be stored for four or five days and remain in good condition if they were chilled, but this year ongoing rain meant berries were softer and even if picked dry would last just half the time in the chiller, Dobson said.
She anticipates with a run of good weather there’s likely to be another two weeks picking before the season wraps up.
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