Mark and Denise Wren
We bought the property in March 2009. We had been searching for our special bit of dirt for a long time. Akaroa has always been a special place for us and we were delighted when this beautiful property became available. It had three streams, a woodlot and 250 walnut trees and sheds but no house. It was everything we had been looking for except we were not looking for a walnut orchard!
Four days after first seeing it we bought it, we had much to learn and some hard graft ahead of us.
The trees were seven years old back then and we were excited by our first harvest of about 100 kg with high expectations for future harvests. This was to be our “smallest harvest” ever! Most of the nuts came from four golden oldie trees that were more than 100 years old having been planted by the early settlers here.
After 16 years we still have one of those dearly loved old trees with the others having faded away with old age (root rot)
There is plenty of variety within our small farm. We have a flock of 20 sheep which we lamb in August. All lambs head for sale in December, and we head to Little Akaloa each February for replacement girls and boys (young ewes and ram lambs). The orchard is closed to grazing from Xmas time. In March we start the process of preparing the orchard for harvest and think about improvements for the season ahead.
Our family is small, there is our cat Milly, the flock of ewes, the two of us and Lucy the goose. We are blessed by a lot of bird life which we foster through plantings and controlling pests. At certain times of the year the morning chorus can be deafening and we need to close the windows to restrict the bedlam! Bellbirds, tui and the rest of the ensemble are something we love about living where we do.
We have a simple walnut operation, partly because of climate and partly to minimize complexity as we both have busy employment outside the farm. Mark works for Synlait managing their dairy farm best practice program “Lead with pride” and Denise runs her Beauty Therapy business seven minutes away in Akaroa. Simplicity for us means we do not spray our trees, don’t have irrigation and we have minimal input of fertilizers. Sheep do much of the seasonal maintenance of the orchard floor.
We look forward to the harvest this year where our new washing, sorting, drying and storage facilities will get a run for the whole season. Putting this new processing line in place and getting it operational was a classic example of what is best about being part of the Walnuts NZ Co-op.
We sought and took on board advice from Frank and Margaret, Andrew and Jo, Basil and Trudy and Colin and Karen. We are thankful and it made a huge difference to the success of our setup. We are proud of the nutritious, quality product we produce and the Co-op of nutty enthusiasts we are associated with.