Pepperberry harvest
Pepperberry harvest
Every year in autumn we head out into the bush to harvest pepperberry. It’s an activity that we love and of course it keep us in pepperberry supply.
We have a unique harvest
model
We hand-forage berries from a dozen different properties across Tasmania where we have made agreements with the land holders. All of these sites have this in common: pepperberry dominates the flora because of substantial land clearing activities occurring in the 20th century. Pepper thrives with such disturbance provided that disturbance is followed by a long period of recovery. These sites include ex-mining sites, forestry and farms.
Quality control in the bush
We want to sell the best quality pepperberry we can. We have learnt the importance of timing harvest right since under-ripe berries lack full flavour development. We have also developed an understanding of regional differences in aroma and flavour characteristics.
We harvest
sustainably
We’ve identified a number of issues that need to be addressed when harvesting pepperberry.
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- Minimising damage to trees – we don’t prune branches to access berries. We ensure that berries are ripe enough that they release berries easily – so as not to damage next year’s growing tips.
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- Leaving berries for the birds and environment – we don’t strip mine these areas – high berries are hard for us to reach and well placed for birds. Again harvesting later in the season gives birds opportunity before berries fall to the ground.
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- Managing phytophora risk – we have identified that we may be the agent that brings this fungal disease into these areas – as such we wash down vehicles and boots between sites.
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- Low impact camping.
- See our sustainability section for further consideration.
We pay royalties to landholders
We believe that by paying landholders royalties for berries we harvest we are encouraging them to conserve the natural bush as it is. As most farmers appreciate, natural bush provides a boost to farm productivity by enriching the ecosystem, keeping pests in check, providing shelter for animals, lowering the water table, reducing salinity and reducing erosion.
Wild harvest is a bush experience
Wild harvest requires full immersion in the bush experience for up to 3 months in a busy season. We were lucky enough to have ABC come out with us for one day in 2022. Look down below to find the ABC video It is a great snap shot of what wild harvest actually entails.
