If you want to be in a food-producing space where unpredictable weather isn’t a concern, harvest requires no additional labour, crops are low maintenance and animal welfare isn’t on your radar then you should consider the world of walnuts.
Golden Hills Walnuts owners, Neil Pomphrett and Carol Whitfield, say they both knew the 4.77-hectare property that hosts 400 walnut trees, which produce about four tonnes of walnuts per season, was suited for them.
Neil had spent 23 years working for the American giant Pepsi while Carol had, and still does, dedicate her time to work in the health sector. “I was never going to retire fully, but I was ready for a change from the corporate work I had been in,”
says Neil.
“Carol and I came to Tasman on our honeymoon and had always planned to retire here. So, when the time came, we explored avocados, berries, and hops but everything was either very expensive, very run down, or the wrong crop for various
reasons.”
In 2019 the couple purchased the walnut farm, in Redwood Valley, Tasman.
“There are so many good things about the world of walnuts. The nuts drop off the trees so we don’t need to pick them, the trees are low maintenance and walnuts are so good for you and your heart,” Carol says Four years on and Neil says: “The adventure has been full of trials and learnings.
We have had a tractor
burst into flames, lost 700 kilos of walnuts in a flood, and then there was the tornado.” Mowing is an essential and big job; walnuts are collected by a roller towed behind a tractor. “You can’t roll the walnuts up if the grass is long. Long grass gives you a hopeless shaggy pile rug effect,” Neil says. Walnut blight is the only disease the couple must routinely spray for.
Blight causes black lesions on the walnut husks which can go through and rot the kernel. “Blight affects us and the olive, grape, and pip fruit growers. It’s brought on by warm and wet conditions, so if it’s warm and it has been raining, as soon as it stops, I spray the trees with an organic copper spray,” Neil explains.
The nuts are turned into cold-press oil, walnut butter, pastilla, pickled walnuts, walnut vinegar, and walnut meal, as well as being available roasted, shelled, and unshelled. “We also supply a few Auckland winemakers with green walnuts which they turn into a traditional Northern Italian liqueur called Nocino,” Carol says. Cold-pressed oil takes around 16 weeks from harvest to finished product. It starts with the harvested nuts being washed, dried, and then cracked. Once cracked, they need to be used while fresh, so they are put through the cold press immediately. The oil settles over 8-weeks before it’s filtered and bottled. Leftover shells are used as mulch under the trees.
“There is a demand for walnut shells. We get requests all the time from high-end companies wanting to use it as walnut blasting on delicate cars and jet engines. However, we have such small volumes that it’s better for us to use them as a resource for our trees to keep the moisture in,” Neil says.
Both Neil and Carol say they are thoroughly enjoying their decision to enter the world of walnuts, Neil says: “It’s been harder than we expected, but when we are standing in the Saturday market surrounded by things we have produced, and people are rushing to see us it really is rewarding.”
