Troy and Tracie Easter are anticipating hand-picking up to 50,000 punnets of blueberries this season from their fledgling farming enterprise Blueberry Bliss just south of Bindoon. The Easters planted the 8 hectares of blueberry bushes after a chance meeting with plant breeder Dave Mazzardis, who has developed blueberry plants suitable to grow here in the Northern Valleys.
Traditionally grown in colder climates, blueberries are native to North America where the world’s largest commercial crops are grown. However, new evergreen cultivars – the result of nearly 15 years work in plant development by the Yanchep-based Mr Mazzardis have been taken on by commercial growers all over WA. As these new cultivars reach their third year of growth, overall production in Western Australia is growing exponentially.
“We expect to reach one million punnets this year, and anticipate reaching 4-5 million punnets next year”, predicts John Mercer from WA Farm Direct, who markets the blueberry fruit sold in WA. John also looks after the PBR (plant breeders rights) to the unique blueberry cultivars, which ensures that plant breeder Dave receives enough royalties from fruit sales to continue his research and development.
Whilst production from Blueberry Bliss represents a tiny segment of this new market, it’s enough to keep Troy and Tracie, who both have full-time jobs offfarm, very busy – especially during the picking season.
The couple are passionate about their boutique crop, and while medical scientist Tracie takes charge of research and investigating more efficient methods of fertilising and increasing production, ex-crayfisherman Troy takes the more practical role of putting new ideas into practice.
They have just installed a new bird deterrent which uses a high pitch sound to keep the pests from their delicate fruit – which so far is working. Like many fruit producers birds are a huge issue and Troy’s long term plans include netting to protect the bushes. However, along with mechanical harvesters and high-tech packing equipment, such large scale purchases will have to wait until production from Blueberry Bliss increases to a commercial level.
In the meantime the Easters spend their Saturdays tending their crop by hand, enjoying the opportunity to get outdoors and make the most of their pretty 65 acre property, which is also home to their flock of pure-bred Dorper sheep.
The earliest varieties of blueberry are starting to fruit now and July will see the beginning of the season which lasts until December. The Easters will start stocking their farm gate trailer mid-month and Northern Valleys customers will enjoy the pick of the crop. “We like to put our best fruit out the front”, says Troy “ We want locals to enjoy them freshly picked”.
