St. Kilda Berry Farm and Ruakura Berry Farm owners Kamal and Danielle Dhillon with their daughter Kyra, 2, and dog King. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
St. Kilda Berry Farm and Ruakura Berry Farm owners Kamal and Danielle Dhillon with their daughter Kyra, 2, and dog King. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
Spring, sun and strawberries are set to be the Labour weekend essentials in Waikato as several berry farms in the region re-open their gates to the first pick-your-own punters of the season.
One of the farms eager to welcome the community is St. Kilda Berry Farm in Cambridge, Waikato’s newest pick-your-own berry farm, which is celebrating its official opening.
Inspired by their love of ice cream and berries, St. Kilda Berry Farm is the second venture of Hamilton husband and wife team Danielle and Kamal Dhillon, who also run Ruakura Berry Farm.
Kamal’s passion for berries is in his blood.
“I’ve grown up around berry farms, my dad [Charanjit] went into growing berries back in 2003.”
Kamal and Danielle met at the Waikato University gym 10 years ago. They first bonded over fitness before discovering their joint passion for ice cream.
Danielle says: “We bought ice cream machines and tried to make our own ice cream in my flat.”
It wasn’t too much of a stretch going from ice cream to berries.
Together with their team, Danielle and Kamal planted 150,000 strawberry plants at Ruakura and St Kilda. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
“They just go well together. And [berries] are exciting, because it’s just a short period of the year that [the plants] are producing [berries],” Danielle says.
“You know how you wait all year for your favourite seasonal fruits - that’s berries for us. It just reminds you of summer, like summer is here, strawberries are here, Christmas is here. It’s like this whole happy holiday kind of feeling.”
In opening their first berry farm at Ruakura in 2014, Kamal and Danielle not only wanted to combine their love for ice cream and berries but also create a space for families.
“We saw an opportunity to create a family experience ... where people can bring their families for a day out, where they can pick their own berries, get a real fruit ice cream ... and that also allows kids to learn where their food comes from,” Kamal says.
The St Kilda venture was nearly two years in the making, sparked by rising demand at Ruakura.
“We started off small with just one little paddock and a shop at Ruakura. That quickly became very busy, so we had to expand the berry field and the shop. We actually extended the shop twice now and we’ve run out of space,” he says.
“It’s a 10-acre property and we’ve got crops growing on every corner that we can. We realised that we need more land, a supplementary block to support Ruakura, ‘cause I hate running out of stock.”
To be able to supply Ruakura, Kamal and Danielle were looking for land not too far away from Hamilton.
St Kilda, which is twice the size of Ruakura, will follow a similar concept to its sister farm, with real fruit ice cream and pick-your-own.
Together with their team, Danielle and Kamal planted around 150,000 strawberry plants at both farms. St Kilda and Ruakura exclusively grow the strawberry variety Camarosa which is very sweet and juicy.
During the opening this weekend, St Kilda will only have strawberries on offer, with blueberries, boysenberries, blackberries and watermelons set to follow soon, too.
Kamal says there might even be an opportunity for a couple of pick-your-own watermelon days at St. Kilda, once they are in season.
Watermelons have a special place in his heart, besides berries of course.
“I’ve always grown watermelons when I was young ... I did it as a little side hustle while I was still in school and got my friends to help sell them on the side of the road.”
But for now, Danielle and Kamal are focused on strawberries and the upcoming grand opening weekend at St Kilda. On Sunday, they offer free ice cream for PYO visitors.
