Bay of Plenty Branch
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Branch contact - bayofplenty@treecrops.org.nz
Branch news and notices are below.
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Bay of Plenty – April field day cancelled
April Field Day – cancelled
Brian is recovering well, but reluctantly he does not need to be hosting a field day.
More soon!
NZTCA 40th National Conference 2014 notice, April 11-12-13
CONFERENCE 2014 notice: NZTCA 40th National Conference
2014 April 11-12-13
Ashburton, South Island
WATER: The Elixir of Life: The field trips, north and south, allowed you to see up close the efforts being made in this part of Canterbury to ‘farm the water’, while at the same time visiting many excellent places of interest to Tree Crop members and giving a wider view of this area in autumn.
Details on page conference-2014 and in December 2013 TreeCropper.
Bay of Plenty – Hazels and tree cropping trials at Wairata Forest Farm
March Field Day
Hosts: Murray and Anne Redpath
Venue: Redpath Road, Wairata, Waioeka Gorge
At: 12 Noon, Sunday 9th March
Tree planting started on our sheep and beef farm about 30 years ago and we can show you how big trees become, the benefits they deliver, and the problems they cause.
Trees have been planted for fruit and nuts, shelter, timber and stock fodder.
Permaculture and food forests were tried and have now been rejected.
Hazels are the main crop.
Selling trees was the main source of income until the GFC occurred and investment in new crops dried up; the business is in the process of deciding whether the market will take off again. Harvest will be about 80% complete so there will be plenty of nuts to compare the quality of the different varieties.
Two hazelnut research projects will have been completed by then and the results will be discussed.
The hazelnut breeding programme now has a lot of very promising selections, including evergreen and red leafed hazels, and selections showing excellent resistance to bacterial blight and high yields.
We will look at some of the most promising selections.
How to get there:
This is a serious drive. Carpooling is recommended with a careful durable driver/vehicle.
Wairata is about 45 minutes south of Opotiki on the main highway to Gisborne.
Turn right off State Highway 2 at the confluence of the Waioeka River and Opato Stream, just after you come up and over a small hill.
The turnoff from State Highway 2 is rather dangerous as you have to cross over to the right on a bend as you come down the hill. If you have traffic behind you, proceed on to the passing/stopping lane on the next straight piece of road, do a U-turn, and come back to the turnoff.
Proceed up Wairata Road about 2 km (past the Wairata Station farm stay signs) and cross the next bridge back over the river. Proceed to the end of Redpath Road.
Bay of Plenty – Nashi and other tree cropping
February 2014 Field Day –
Host: John Pickering
Venue: Main Road, Katikati
At: 1.00pm Sunday 9th February
John has kiwifruit, avocados and nashi that he grows commercially and other fruit trees that help supply the fruit stall run on this property.
He is keen to show us the new red nashi he is trialling. Learning of our visit he was off to place bags over the fruit in the hope he could beat the birds. John also intends to show how the fruit are packed.
Event will be signposted as usual.
Bay of Plenty – January Field Day and AGM
Hosts: Ruth and Rob
Venue: Whakamarama Road, Tauranga
At: 12 Noon Sunday 19th January, 2014
The AGM will be held at 12 noon during lunch.
Bring your own lunch and a folding chair.
Tea, coffee and juice will be available.
Reports will be distributed later.
1.15pm or at the end of the AGM, the field day.
This property was set up by a Permaculturist about 15 years ago, since subdivided and more recently, somewhat neglected.
It is about 1 hectare, some covenanted bush, on a sloping site.
Ruth and Rob have been gardening here about 18 months using organic and biodynamic methods.
The priority so far has been maintenance on the home orchard, re-establishing the vegetable gardens and putting up a second hand greenhouse.
There is potential for more trees especially in the single paddock, suggestions welcome.
Bay of Plenty – December Field Day and Christmas BBQ
Hosts: Margaret and John
Venue: Capamagian Drive, Athenree
At: 3.00pm Sunday 8th December
Another wonderful tree cropping property with magnificent sea views too.
Especially interesting at this time of year will be John’s berry house with the possibility of a few samples. Yum!
There’s a great selection of varieties of berries alone but much more in the orchard.
Margaret has nearly given up bottling as there is fruit all year to eat and use, but much fruit now goes into her wine making…..
Sausages, bread, soft and hot drinks will be provided.
Please bring a salad or desert to share, plates, utensils, a glass and some chairs are required.
Bring other drinks and alternative things to cook if you wish.
Bay of Plenty – November Field Day at Pottsbury Farm
Host: Thelma
Venue: Pottsbury Farm, Ongare Point Road, Katikati
At: 1.00pm Sunday 10th November
This tree cropper’s organic orchard has much to show us.
The orchard’s focus is avocados, feijoas, and macadamias with a great selection of cropping plants for home use, all benefitting from the products of Thelma’s worm farm.
We will begin with instruction on how the worms are looked after and their products used, and follow with an orchard walk.
Thelma suggests you bring newspaper for wetting, a plastic bag and maybe a trowel if you’re interested in foraging for casimiroa seedlings.
Bay of Plenty – October Field day with Mark Christensen
Saturday 12th October 2013 at 1:30pm
Venue: St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Katikati.
Cnr of Main Road and Mulgan Street, Katikati
(This is the church right next door to the A&P Showgrounds where we held our Tree Sale, and Katikati enjoys Friday farmers’ markets)
Mark will speak on his work to compare the absorption into the body of the two different forms of lycopene and will be bringing heritage tomato seeds and maybe some bean seeds for us to try growing in our area. See the latest TreeCropper p38 for an article by Mark on this topic and background science on tomato carotenoids p40.
As usual we will follow with afternoon tea and as we have invited members of the Waikato and Franklin Branches to join us, some extra offers of help with plates would be appreciated – clipboard at intervening field day or ring Elizabeth please.
For the information of new members Mark Christensen is the man who brought us the Monty’s Surprise apple and co-ordinated the research on the active compounds in Heritage apples grown in New Zealand. Mark won the Dr Don McKenzie Award in 2006 for this work.
He is now looking into the absorption into the body of the two different forms of lycopene under the auspices of ‘The Central Tree Crops Research Trust‘.
The committee have voted to contribute to this research, which will be carried out by Plant and Food Research.
It all sounds very interesting and exciting so mark this day on your calendar.
Responses
Heard through the grapevine – a comment which just missed next-newsletter ‘deadline’-
The ever-publishing internet (imposes at worst maybe ‘dead phone-line’) was contacted;
here is that comment (slightly abridged):
[some attendees] would like to congratulate Elizabeth and the committee for organizing Mark’s thoroughly enjoyable and informative visit.While Mark was not promoting “trees” but mainly just crops, New Zealand badly needs more research into the values of the crops from our trees.
Good on Mark for the selfless manner, creating better health, that we all can benefit from.
So we would wish more of this great stuff, thankyou Elizabeth and Co.John, Heather and Donald.
The web management team was also able to attend, and fully endorse the above sentiments appreciating a quality presentation sharing some diligent research work.
Bay of Plenty – September field day – revitalised orchard
Hosts: Kevin and Ulli
Venue: Jess Road, Plummers Point, Whakamarama, Tauranga
At: 1.00pm Sunday 15th September
Three years ago Kevin and Ulli purchased 3.5 hectares of unloved land, glass houses in various states of disrepair and a run down organic kiwifruit orchard.
After much hard work they have branched out into a number of growing ventures, but what a journey.
They now sell a variety of fruit and vegetables at the markets, have planted numerous fruit trees, eucalypts for firewood and have just started planting nut trees.
There is a gully still to be planted so good ideas for this will be welcome.
