Visiting a multigeneration berry farm in Tasmania | Discovery | Gardening Australia

Hannah visits a small berry farm that has been run by the same family for four generations. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe

Former presenter Peter Cundall visited with the Gardening Australia team more than 30 years ago!

The farm is now being run by Tom Wolfe and his uncle Tony. The family has German heritage and so has always grown a wide range of heritage European fruits, including gooseberries.

Tony Wolfe explains the colour and taste differences between a few varieties that his grandfather planted: ‘Leatherjacket’ stays yellow, but ‘Crown Bob’ gets a red tinge and becomes a bit sweeter. However, gooseberries have some large thorns, so Tony says to pick towards the middle of the bush to go with the shape of the thorn.

Gooseberries are quite hardy in Tasmania’s cool climate, making them easy to grow. The farm also grows raspberries, red and black currants, loganberries, jostaberries, Kentish cherries, and plums.

Jostaberries are a thornless hybrid that combines the flavour of gooseberries and blackcurrants. Prune them like raspberries, removing old canes, as the new canes will provide the fruit. They can be prolific, so it helps to aim for a vase shape and avoid a thicket that’s too hard to pick from!

Loganberries are another hybrid – a cross between raspberries and blackberries. They are ripe when deep purple. Tony trains canes horizontally to waist height for easier picking.

The Kentish cherry trees are pruned low and small for easier picking and to avoid a lanky, fragile crown that can break in the wind. It’s an heirloom variety from England with bright red skin and pale flesh that is great for jams and cooking.

The raspberries are grown from 100-year-old stock.

Tom took on the partnership with Tony after his father, Tony’s brother, died suddenly, but they are determined to keep the farm in the family. Tom’s young children are now growing up to love the farm.

Music is also a large part of the family tradition, with members playing in bands and orchestras over many decades. Tom’s father’s band, Midnight Revival, once played backup for AC/DC! Now Tom and brother Nick are often on tour with their country music band, The Wolfe Brothers.

Featured plants:
Gooseberry ‘Leatherjacket’ (Ribes uva-crispa cv.)
Gooseberry ‘Crown Bob’ (Ribes uva-crispa cv.)
Jostaberry (Ribes x nidigrolaria)
Loganberry (Rubus x loganobaccus)
Kentish Cherry (Prunus cerasus)
Raspberry (Rubus idaeus cv.)

Filmed in Neika, Tas
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I’m heading to a berry farm in Neika, around half an hour from nipaluna/Hobart. Despite being relatively close to the city, Wolfe’s Berry Farm is in a little rural hamlet nestled on the foothills of kunanyi/Mount Wellington. This fourth generation family farm is a bit of an institution around here.

They’ve been growing produce in this part of the world for over 150 years. What have you got there? Peter Cundall even visited the farm in season one of Gardening Australia. Good boy. Every now and then, I get this overwhelming ancient, ethnic craving for gooseberries, of all things. I love them.

So today, more than 30 years later… Hello. ..I’m heading back to the Wolfes’ place to see what’s growing. Let’s go. And then you start… And then you start swearing. These days, Tom Wolfe and his uncle Tony run the farm. In a nod to the family’s German heritage, the farm has always grown a lot of Old World varieties of European fruits. I haven’t grown any gooseberries before, but should I be? Yes, yes, they’re good. A good hardy. This variety, Leatherjacket,

You only get just that little tinge of red, but they stay yellow. Ah. Whereas the Crown Bob here, he will go really ruby red. And then they become sweeter and it makes it even better for cakes and that because you’ve got that lovely colour.

And then you can have these ones, which are a little bit sour. They’re what my grandfather planted early in the piece. And my brother and I kicked it on for my father. And here they are. Yeah. And they’re my best seller. Yeah. And they’re really hardy and quite easy to grow.

Exactly. Yeah. That’s fantastic. Yes, they’re hardy and good. Yeah. So every backyard should have one. I’m convinced. I will have some. (LAUGHS) It takes a pretty strong family connection to run a farm across generations. What has it been like to pick up where your parents have left off?

You know, it’s been very interesting to not only now be working with Tony. Our relationship’s changed. You know, where he was just my uncle, now, in ways, he’s my business partner. We have to do things together. And overall, we get on pretty well. We don’t butt heads. Not too much. (LAUGHS) Sometimes. Sometimes.

We lost my dad. Dad and Tony ran the place the generation before us, and it was pretty interesting. We lost Dad pretty suddenly, to sort of be, I guess, thrust a little bit into that. But I think what’s been really beautiful is, is how much we’ve sort of rallied together.

This is not the biggest place. There’s bigger farms producing more fruit. But I think what’s very special about this place is the history and the family connection. And I think we’ve got through it all together. You know, we’ve got through the grief and the sadness

And we’ve come out the other side and we’re still here, and it’s been a really good thing, you know. You can’t tell a story about this family without also talking about music. Each generation has balanced their work on the farm with a love of music. His dad’s band once supported AC/DC,

And now Tom and his brother Nick are often on tour with their country band. # Is it a wheat field behind a fence line # A 12-gauge pepper on a road sign # Is it a dirt road… # We’re very proud of where we’re from, proud of who we are,

And we draw upon that and sing about that a lot. The album, for us, was an album called Country Heart, and that was sort of written after we lost Dad, and I think we really drew upon this place, you know, and the wonderful memories

Of growing up and the fruit seasons and working with Tony and Dad and picking. And even though we were working, we were together as a family, you know, and I think we’ve taken that family unit, that bond into what we do with music. # And it’s the sum # Of all its parts

# That’s what makes a country heart… # We’re so lucky we get to go away and travel and do these things. But coming home, you realise we live really in the best place in the world and it’s very special. I can see some pretty gnarly thorns down here, Tony. Should I be worried?

Yes. (LAUGHS) Especially if they get the back of the hand. Not nice. So how you pick them is to grab the branch like that and I pick them towards the middle of the bush. Because if one…if you grab them, as you can see, they’re angled to the middle of the bush,

So you’re picking them away from the thorn. But if you pick them that way, obviously it’s going to grab you. And they’re rather nasty. Yes. But they’re really lovely fruit, though. People like eating them. Sour, green and they’ll make a magnificent gooseberry pie. Oh, I can imagine.

You must eat very well here in berry season. Well, actually, I get quite sick of it. Oh, no! (LAUGHS) There you go. Thank you. These ones are jostaberries, a thornless hybrid that combines the flavours of gooseberries and blackcurrants. As with raspberries, make sure you prune off the old canes

Because new growth will provide the fruit. Tony prunes off old canes and aims for a vase shape for better airflow and easier picking. They grow prolifically, so Tony says it’s really important to keep on top of pruning or they’ll become a thicket. These loganberries look a bit like a, you know, a blackberry-slash-raspberry.

Yes. Yes. When they get going, they’re a really purply colour. They go really deep purple, beautiful flavour, very lush. And I can see you’ve trained them all horizontally. They’re nice and waist high so you can pick them easy and you very carefully wind them around the string so that they stay there.

And I have been using bits of flax to fix them there. And then they’ll grow lovely and lush and make the most beautiful juice and jelly. Yum. That should be good now for the season ahead. Perfect. All they’ve got to do is ripen up. Yeah. Come on, summer. Come on. Yeah, yeah.

And we had that wind… I know. (MUTTERS INDISTINCTLY) Yeah, yeah. That’s why you don’t want them too lofty. Yeah. So how old do you reckon this tree is? This little tree would be somewhere around about 30 years old, I should imagine. Yeah. These small cherry trees are Kentish cherries,

An heirloom variety from England with bright red skin and pale flesh. Great for jams and cooking. Here at the farm, they keep the trees pruned low. Otherwise, the tall crown can get lanky and fragile. These raspberries are from 100-year-old stock and used to cover large parts of the hillside behind me.

They were planted by Tony’s grandparents, Tom’s great-grandparents, and they are wonderful reminder of just how long the Wolfe family have been harvesting from this farm. While we don’t produce as much fruit as what we used to, what we are really proud of is everything we do grow, we sell.

In fact, we could probably grow and sell more. The demand is still there, which is lovely, and we either sell it here in our shop, or we take it to farmer markets. And then what we don’t sell, we turn it into jams and chocolates and we sell online and ship it across Australia.

So it’s really wonderful, really wonderful that we’re managing and we’re keeping it going and we’re keeping this… ..this family tradition alive. Keeping the dream alive. Keeping the dream alive. That’s right. (LAUGHS) What’s it like to see your kids or your nephews and your nieces

Just thriving at home, but also beyond and choosing to come back? It’s very, very lovely. Yeah. Very… I feel very proud. Yeah. Sorry. Don’t cry. (LAUGHS) Throw it in? One. Two. Three. Oh! And now Tom and his wife, Ellie, are giving another generation the chance to fall in love with this beautiful place.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. There’s not many people that have a property that’s been in the family for this many generations, you know, and like all these things, the easy thing to do would be maybe sell, subdivide and go live in the suburbs. But this is history.

This is our family and this is our little piece of the world that we want to keep going for our…for our next… For our next generation. Yeah.