Meet the makers: Zeaberry Blackcurrant Powder

Vibrantly coloured, juicy and tart blackcurrants are a goldmine of health benefits. Meet the growers of these nutritious nuggets

Vanessa Lewis

There was a chill in the air when Taste visited blackcurrant growers Robbie Reynolds and Janet McLennan, deep in the Motueka River Valley. You wouldn’t think that would be a pleasant sensation for the Tapawera berry farmers, but the couple welcomes the chill to help set the flowers and fruit of their blackcurrant crop.

The small, tart fruit also requires plenty of sun to ripen, and that’s why Toka Farm orchard, which sits at 180m above sea level, is so well-suited to growing blackcurrants – they get the ideal combination of chills and 30°C days.

Robbie and Janet first planted blackcurrants on seven hectares of the family farm 12 years ago. Packed with anthocyanins, antioxidants and vitamin C, the berries are well known as a superfood and Robbie and Janet, who have two sons Fergus, 13, and Mac, 10, grow different varieties for different purposes.

At nearby Stoke, the Ben Ard variety is freeze-dried and transformed into a vibrant powder that’s sold under Robbie and Janet’s Zeaberry brand. One teaspoon is said to be equivalent to eating 30 whole berries, providing a decent whack of natural, high-value nutrition. Meanwhile, other blackcurrant varieties are individually quick frozen (IQF) for retail.

To bring a crop to fruition and maximise its nutritional benefits, there are always going to be nervous times for growers, particularly with delicate fruit such as berries. When we visited, the risk of frost was high – a scary business indeed.

Temperatures need to be cold to set the fruit, but if the plants are in flower during a frost, it can cause the flowers to drop off, running the risk of an entire crop being lost. When the weather warms up the fruit starts to ripen, culminating in harvest time around the first week of January. The window to harvest is weather-dependent and very short.

To showcase the delicious versatility of their crop, family friend and local chef Miles Drewery and his wife Steph treated us to a three-course dinner at Toka Farm. We started with an entrée of blackcurrant-cured salmon, served with sourdough rewena bread. Next up was succulent blackcurrant-smoked lamb fillet with locally grown asparagus and potatoes dressed in a creamy pea aioli.

To close, Miles served a show-stopping sweet sensation – pavlova roulade filled with chocolate mousse and whole blackcurrants. To round out the blackcurrant experience, we sipped Kir Cider made with heritage Moutere apples and whole-pressed blackcurrants in a dry English style by local brewer Peckham’s.