Our Story

The Berry Farm’s story begins in 1966, when two hectares of boysenberries were planted on a former Golden Queen peach orchard by the Elliott family (one of only two other owners of this property in the last 100 years.)

The first boysenberries were sold through the gate in 1968, from the exact site you will buy them from today. Fifty five years on and our berries still taste as good as the very first crop back in ‘68.

Matthew and Dianne Charlton - that’s us - purchased the property in 1983, opening the Farm Shop with Pick Your Own Boysenberries @ $1.50 per kilo in December ’83.

Back then, we operated out of a run down hundred year old shed with a dirt floor, handwritten recipe booklets, handmade signs and aprons around our waists (with the change in the pockets). We delivered many tonnes of boysenberries to Watties for canning.

We have sold boysenberries through the gate every summer since then.

As the years have passed we have kept up with the changing times. There is a new packing shed and shop, a colourful new sign at the corner, a till and an Eftpos machine.

But what stays constant is our unwillingness to cut corners. And we never compromise on flavour for any reason.

We might have been doing this for a good long while, but we don’t rest on our laurels.

Over the years we have experimented with new growing systems and new varieties that minimise chemical use, as our philosophy is minimal intervention, environmental sustainability and the promotion of good soil health.

Matthew planted new varieties in 2008 and then in 2015 under new netting, we added another 450 “McNicol’s Choice” boysenberry plants together with 1,000 “Heritage” raspberry plants, 275 blueberry plants and 40 cherry trees.

We grow this fruit on the very best soils of all of the soil on the Heretaunga Plains which has the most fertile soils in the world, but we are still in awe of how prolific the raspberry plants are. Many thousands of punnets are sold locally through our Farm Shop in February, March and April each year immediately after the boysenberry harvest which ends in January.