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A Family from Te Puke
By Bryan Wilshire
It is going to be a hard year. So say the pundits, media commentators and neighbours. Everywhere you look there is doom and gloom. Therefore we must brace ourselves, tighten the ship, discard, put off, delay expenditure and generally follow the rules of slowing down. Great. No, not great. Just what we don’t need.
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It reminds me of a story I read some years ago of an Orchardist living and working with his family on their farm near Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty. ...
The family toiled to produce the best crop of apples, pears and vegetables to supply the local market. They operated a road side store at the orchard gate and served a steady stream of locals out for a drive to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. They did reasonably well. They invested in more land, buying a block that fronted a second but less travelled road near the back entrance to a freezing works. There were enough fruit and vegetables to sell at a second stall and that improved sales beyond expectations. The second stall tapped into the community of staff from the local freezing works. The Orchardist bought a new tractor, had purpose built bins made, extended the house and the packing shed and all was great.
The eldest son George soon left home and joined Shell Oil as a rigger. He was posted overseas and became settled in that way of life. It was thought unlikely he would return to take over the farm. The second son Mathew wanted to move to Wellington or Auckland or anywhere. Anywhere away from small township Te Puke. In his last year at Te Puke High School with the support of his Mum and Dad he enrolled at Massey University to study Farming with a Marketing slant. He returned home at harvest time each year, helped with the pruning and grafting and generally pitched in like the good son he was.
Towards the end of his last year at Massey, Mathew spoke to his Mum and Dad about Economics and Marketing and how tough things were. The orchard was producing better crops of both apples and pears each year and the farm produce sales had continued to grow, not spectacularly but certainly nothing to really worry about. Mathew said they should be aware of how tough things were and that they would not sell nearly as many apples or pears as they did the previous season.
“What should we do?” asked his Dad.
“Close down the second stall and reduce the opening hours to save on labour” Matthew advised. “You’re not going to sell as many apples or pears this year. The staff at the freezing works won’t want to buy anything.”
Mum and Dad listened to their well educated son and thought they should act on his advice. And they did.
Mathew was right. After closing the second stall and reducing hours on the main stall, they did sell far fewer apples and pears and then things really did get tough.
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