('COUNTRY CALENDAR' THEME) - The best of New Zealand's rural heartland... - Geoff has a certain type of madness, I think... - (SNICKERS) - ...a certain type of being driven. - I'm very passionate about growing bananas. My passion started right back after I left school. - That passion has spread to growing all sorts of tropical fruit. - It's a nice big flower. Pretty happy about that one. Captions by Tom Clarke. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (IDYLLIC MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) Got a huge bunch of bananas in here, almost the entire length of the bag. - After a long career in the city as a planner, Geoff Mansell has thrown himself headlong into his passion for growing subtropical fruits. - I'm looking to see whether I've previously de-belled the male flower and taken that off. - Every few days, he meticulously checks each of his 800 banana plants. - There's quite a bit of work with each plant. I'm seeing a bell on this one. These are the female parts to the flower, which is the actual fruit that we eat, and I'm just taking off these frizzy flowers which will never eventuate to fruit. That's the male part of the flower, and de-belling is removing that so that more of the energy can go into the fruit production. I'm just cutting the bell... straight off. Whatever you do, don't stand under that drip or you'll get stains on your shirt forever. Another thing that I'm looking for is any snails or any evidence of any pests inside the bag. (IDYLLIC MUSIC) I qualified and horticulture back in 1981 and then travelled and worked in that field for 12 or 13 years, and worked in planning for 14 years. (MUSIC CONTINUES) - In his 50s, Geoff began to look for a rural property, ultimately to retire to with his partner, Craig. They found a Kotare Farm in Maungatapere near Whangarei. It's 4.7ha. It had three established blocks of feijoas and three with pasture, and then we expanded into planting all the blocks with either figs or feijoas. The bananas came along in 2018, and then three years ago, we decided to do the nursery and invested in a greenhouse and diversified it from just being an orchardist house to being a nurseryman-orchardist - Any thoughts of relaxing were short lived. - It is a dream. It was a retirement dream. (CHUCKLES) So we came for a lifestyle block, but sometimes they called life-sentence blocks. This is fairly busy in terms of life sentence ` seven days a week working on the orchard at the moment. So far we haven't managed to have that much time off. Craig looks after the finances and the administration side of things. I'm much more hands-on in the orchard and go around and maintain the site. We're both full time on the orchard currently, with the harvest and transporting the fruit and packing every day. - I'm a city lad. When we first came here, I would say to people that I had been dragged kicking and screaming to the` to the country. We've been here for 10 years. It's very beautiful. You know, you go outside and you kind of pinch yourself and think, 'My goodness, I'm very lucky.' - Coming out every day keeps you very fit ` lots of bending. I mean, it's not aerobic fitness, but it's good overall body fitness just for flexibility and so on. There's one lurking on the ground here, just gonna pick that one up. Good for the joints? I suppose so. Sometimes even with the young pickers, we have to really encourage them to pick under the trees, cos it does require you to get down low and, uh, to go up and down quite a bit. - These ones in this row are Apollo. These ones here are only just starting to colour up and show that they're ready. And that row we've got Kakariki, which is the early variety. I'm looking for a lighter colour, uh, so you'll see there, that one's` that's just come off, but it's not ready, so that one will have to be a second now. They are a good size, and kakariki is first to the market ` so people like seeing the large size at the supermarket. - But before it hits the shelves, Craig and Geoff have to grade, pack and weigh the fruit. - The muscles, they're always growing because some of these quite heavy crates. Craig's filling up the crates to a 13kg weight, and I'm just looking for the guava moth holes or soft fruit so that we can grade those out. Can't see many guava moth holes. - They have to have no bruising. Anything that's bruised or has sun damage, then that can't be sold. - The guys have a love-hate relationship with their grading machine. - It's from the last millennium. (BOTH LAUGH) Neither of us are particularly mechanically minded, so it does operate on a fair amount of swearing. - (SNICKERS) Last year, it wanted to stop all the time and kept on making a horrendous noise. - But it's been reasonably well behaved this year, hasn't it, so far? - So far, yeah. - Yes. - Most of the feijoas are sold locally. - There are people who have been very good to us, retailers. They really take a very small margin, and the petrol station in Maungatapere is one of those great local stores that sells a lot of local produce. - We make a little bit of money, but there's not a lot of money in feijoas. It is quite nice lifestyle, living in the country. It's a beautiful spot. You're your own boss. Hi, Pam. - Hi. - Feijoas for you. - Excellent. We're just about out. There're going really, really well. - Selling fruit is not a massive earner, but selling fruiting plants and teaching the community to grow them is taking off. - I'm feeling very excited about this. (BEES BUZZ) (BIRDS CHIRP) (SOFT PIANO MUSIC) (BEES BUZZ) - Northland nurseryman Geoff Mansell has determined to cultivate a vibrant subtropical industry by sharing his expertise and his plants. (SOFT PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES) - I think it's good to share the knowledge. We absolutely would like more growers growing bananas. We would really like to see a banana industry in New Zealand, and we do do training and consulting on particular elements of cultivation. We have a banana-growing manual. We would like as many people as possible to learn how to grow bananas correctly. - So as well as growing and selling fruit, Geoff provides fruiting plants to other growers. - It does take a bit of strength training, keeps me fit doing this kind of work. We call this de-suckering or de-pupping, removing some of the suckers so that they don't overcrowd the clump, and we're trying to get three suckers. So we've got grandmother ` who has the flower on it, the fruiting stem ` and then we have the mother following the grandmother, and then we have a low sucker, which will be the daughter, and that's the one that we leave on the clump. - Removal of the spent flowering stem each year, allowing the next one along to mature, has given rise to the idea that banana trees can walk. - Absolutely, they're walking, yes. We keep one plant, one sucker, on the side that we want the plant to creep in so that we're creeping all of the row in one direction, and that gives us a new bit of ground for the new sucker to come away in. (GENTLE MUSIC) Because we're a nursery business, we're potting up the suckers today to go into the greenhouse and grow on there overwinter so that when it comes springtime, we can sell those. - While Geoff pots up the spare pups, his assistants are readying another subtropical crop for sale. - Willow and Scott are processing the turmeric ` trimming off the roots, washing off the soil, and then making it ready for either storing over winter in some sand, or selling as fresh turmeric. - Selling plants and encouraging more growers is part of a bigger plan. - For the consumers, it gives a wider range of choice. We're also working on food security, so enabling New Zealand to have sufficient supply. Should there be some interruption of the imported bananas, then we're growing our own foods here, and the turmeric is part of that story. (GENTLE MUSIC) I'm very passionate about growing bananas. (CHUCKLES) My passion started right back after I left school. Yeah, still going strong. (CHUCKLES) (GENTLE MUSIC CONTINUES) - There is another way to grow bananas, so long as you don't plan to eat them. - This is an ornamental banana, a seeded ornamental banana, um, so the fruit is inedible. - This variety is called Musa sikkimensis. - This particular variety is very tall and is very hardy. It's actually being grown here as a windbreak. We're just going to extract some seed from the fruit, hopefully. - He has a customer keen to buy some seed, and this is a first for Geoff. - So, here we have our bunch, and the exercise is to take one of these fruits off and see how viable the seed is inside. Peel that open and then you can see a very, very small banana with some black seed inside. I haven't extracted these seeds before. This is the first time I've had an order for some ornamental, uh, seeded variety. So, yeah, it's quite exciting. Breaking new ground. (LAID-BACK MUSIC) - Although the nursery's becoming the major revenue earner, Geoff and his partner, Craig Blockley, keep up a year-round supply of banana fruit for local supermarkets and greengrocers. - I've noticed that it's been quite close for a while now. Just see a colour change up the top. - Yeah, it's looking very plump. - Geoff has experimented extensively to find varieties suitable for conditions here in Aotearoa. - This is Goldfinger, one of the five Honduran types that we have here. Goldfinger we're very happy with cos it's got the thicker skin suited to go into the supermarkets. It extends the shelf life, it travels better, and there's less risk of it splitting. It's ready for hanging, and that's how we leave it, and come back to it on Monday for the de-handing. (LAID-BACK MUSIC CONTINUES) - It's late April. The bananas can be harvested year round. The feijoas are peaking now, and the fig harvest is winding down. - When we first got here, the first thing that we actually planted were the figs. We were very excited to be growing figs. - But a virus infected the fig orchard, and most of the trees had to be destroyed. They replanted with their own fig cuttings here in a block that catches the last of the afternoon sun. - These trees up here always look very lush, but don't actually produce many figs. Geoff has a theory that it's because of the macrocarpa, and I have a theory that it's because that the soil is too good. But these trees are beginning to lose their leaves, and once they've lost their leaves, then you don't get sugar generation any more, and so even though these figs are looking quite... quite good, they don't feel as if they've really plumped up. - Oh, this one. - I found one. It feels quite plump. That should be quite nice. - One fig each. - Just as well we can charge $1000 per fig (!) Figs is a reasonably very small part of our business. We don't get that much money, but I think we love them, and there's something very nice about being able to sell someone or give someone some figs, and they just go completely mad. It's a little bit of money, but a lot of love. - Craig keeps the balance sheets, which gives me freedom to be able to... - Not complete freedom, some freedom. - ...indulge my passion in horticulture. - We have a good friend who calls me the chancellor. I think I play to that stereotype sometimes. Occasionally, I look askance at things like the turmeric, because in reality, selling small bits of turmeric to people, it's going to require quite a lot of effort, and in the end, we probably won't get that much money ` and the figs is the same, really. Geoff has a certain type of madness, I think... - (SNICKERS) - ...a certain type of being driven. But it's taken me places that I would never have gone, because I'm just so cautious. - Yeah, I think we complement each other in that way. (RELAXING MUSIC) - It certainly is a very enjoyable task coming and picking the figs. It's quiet and gentle and slow. - And we have a great backdrop at the back, the Tangihuas, a lovely mountain range. - When they first bought Kotare Farm, Craig and Geoff thought they'd relax and enjoy the sunsets in this spot. - We would love that, but yeah, mostly, it's work. (LAUGHS) - It's slave labour until 6, if you're lucky, you know. That's about it. - It is it. - Yep. - Yeah. - Yep. So reasonably small harvest today. (CALMING ACOUSTIC MUSIC) (GULLS SQUAWK) - It's temperate climate and rich volcanic soils make Maungatapere near Whangarei ideal for Geoff Mansell's subtropical orchard and nursery. - We are putting covers over the bananas to protect them from too much UV damage and sunlight exposure. They're actually a jungle understory plant, so we're just replicating what would happen in nature. It's about right, isn't it? - A little more that way. - A little bit more that way? We're using recycled bags from the last year's crop, and covering them, also keeps the pukekos and the other birds that like to munch on bananas away from them, and any rats or any kind of vermin off them. It warms the environment around the bananas and holds it so that they plump up further. Eventually, it's going to have 30kg of weight hanging off that. It has a propensity to fall over because of our strong winds and that added weight. So we do prop a lot of our bananas with bamboo stakes from the hedgerow on the property. - Geoff's partner, Craig Blockley, is dehydrating feijoas for snacks... - Really just home consumption. I take them tramping. I just halve the feijoa and then dehydrate them, and it ends up being quite a lovely taste, because it's still a little bit moist in the middle. - ...and Geoff is preparing the freshly harvested figs for sale. - They're terribly perishable, and unlike other fruit, don't ripen once they've been picked, so it's important to make sure they're not too hard, otherwise they won't ever ripen. That one there, to me, feels a bit too firm ` but that could be a muesli fig. (CHUCKLES) So we'll just leave that one for tomorrow morning's breakfast. - These figs are destined for a local restaurant, the bananas are heading to a supermarket, and there's quite a demand for Kotare Farm papayas too. - We are picking the green papayas off today for two markets. This one here is almost ready as well. The orange fruit is very, very sought after. We can't match supply of the orange fruit. The green papaya, the restaurants use that for making Thai green salad. On its own, very bland. It's the fish sauce and all of the other ingredients which actually make the salad. And just as we're walking past, you'll see this as our first red banana flower from a dwarf red. It's made in bunch. I'm feeling very excited about this. It's our first ever from a parent plant called a red Jamaican dwarf. I haven't ever seen the red flowering before, and the edible flesh is actually orange on those bananas and very high in carotene, which is good for us. (BEES BUZZ) (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) The greenhouse was one of the first to be established with the three-tier structure mimicking the forest. - The tall banana plants form the forest canopy, sheltering the papayas in the middle, and on the forest floor are exotics, like chocolate pudding fruit, blackberry jam fruit, and even pineapples. - We are changing the industry by experimenting and piloting trials of all these different exotic fruits. So at the moment, it looks like we're pushing the envelope, but as our climate warms, we're able to grow much more variety of fruit. It's widening the frontiers of what we can grow. It's probably all we had leftover, was it? - It's just a matter of finding the time and energy to bring over a crate of the throw-outs and scooping them. - Do you wanna pass me a bag and I'll... It's taken two to three years to just see a lot more bananas in the district, and know that there is a growing industry in New Zealand, but it does feel like we're on the cusp now of more plants being put in, and growing subtropical plants is really taking off. I'd say put a bit more in that bag, and I'll write on that one the date now. - I think Geoff will always be driven, and we'll always be striving for something that's just... (CHUCKLES) just out of reach. Are you content? - Mm. I still have my ambitions... - (LAUGHS) - ...but yes. Do you wanna taste one? (CALMING PIANO MUSIC) Very tasty, aren't they? (MUSIC FADES) - Next time ` taming this land in Samoa was a daunting prospect. - At first, I said no. I didn't wanna come. But eight years later, we're still here. - Now they're sharing the bounty. - All the food that you'll be having all comes off the farm. - Melt in your mouth just like butter. - That's next time on Hyundai Country Calendar.