Pepperberry

The Tarkine is where this pepper thing all started.  Rolling red dirt hills, deep gullies full of giant Myrtles, Blackwoods and fast flowing rivers with natural tannin stained waters. Cows not far away.   Often rainy. Sunny in blocks.  Quite windy. Rugged and remote. This is pepper country. The heart and soul of Wild Pepper Isle.

Wild harvest is the backbone of the Pepperberry industry

Most of our pepperberries are sourced through wild harvest and we pick them ourselves.  That way we can select our favourite berries just as we like them.  Wild harvest is a romantic and natural idea for some yet at the same time exploitative and intrusive to others.  In truth it is often misunderstood.

Wild harvest means that the plants we pick were not planted by anyone.  They were self-sown or put there by a bird.  It does not mean that these plants come from undisturbed forest land.  Pepperberry thrives in ground that has been disturbed through land clearing for forestry or agricultural purposes.  Pepper can grow like an orchard in such areas, provided that disturbance is followed by a long period of recovery.

Chris picking pepperberry like only he knows how!

Wild harvest can encourage conservation

We wild harvest on the forgotten corners of farmland from the Tarkine through to Tasmania’s east coast.  That includes natural bush areas such as shelter belts, wild life corridors, paddock edges, gullies and other ‘non-productive’ parts of the farm.  By paying farmers royalties for berries we harvest we are encouraging them to conserve the natural bush.  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.

We’re looking after our patch

We are careful to make sure that we balance our need for berries with environmental concerns. We leave berries on every tree for birds to eat and to replenish the seed bank. A rich seedbank is important to ensure good recovery from wild fire, which is an ever present threat in the Australian bush.

The future is in orchard production

Pepperberry is a young industry.  Currently in 2020 the whole industry is greater than 95% based on wild harvest. As it grows it will need to transition to orchard production.  We want to participate in this transition and are currently in the process of establishing an orchard on our property in the Southern Midlands, about an hour north-east of Hobart.  We are very fortunate to have access to a number of different properties that we harvest across three different growing regions in Tasmania – this enables us to select from a diverse population to suit our needs.

Our little pepperberries growing…. slowly!

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