And for that reason, Mr Butler, who has sold strawberries in the Waimate district since 1967, said the district’s identity was linked with the sweet, juicy summer fruit.
"We don’t know whether it’s the soil, the climate ... we don’t know what it is," Mr Butler said at Saturday’s 32nd Waimate Strawberry Fare where business was again brisk at the Butler’s Berry Farm and Cafe stall at Seddon Square.
Mr Butler’s wife, Jackie, founded the now annual celebration of the fruit that has been grown in the Waimate district since 1880. And though at first the fair was a means for the Waimate Art Group to hold an outdoor exhibition, and was held at Butler’s Berry Farm and Cafe off State Highway 1, to the north of the Waimate township, now the calendar event draws up to 14,000 people to two parks — Seddon Square and Boland Park — at the centre of the town.
Mr Butler praised the "marvellous" growth of the fair and its ability to "energise the industry" at the weekend.
New strawberry varieties helped the Butlers through an unusually wet spring.
The Butlers once exclusively grew red gauntlet strawberries — a variety known to spoil as soon as there were "dark clouds on the horizon" — but the farm had "three or four" varieties now, and with the wet spring, the albion strawberries had proven the season’s best, Mr Butler said.
The fair hosted just four strawberry sellers this year, but Waimate Strawberry Fare stalls convener Clare Saunders-Tack said with 270 stalls it was again "well and truly booked out".
She continued to field inquiries from would-be stallholders up to Friday this year, but the stalls, as usual, had been booked out since May. The waiting list had 30 vendors on it this year.
The 23degC day at the weekend had many in the crowd seeking shade under the trees that line the edge of the park as six musical acts entertained from 10am at the 1911 band rotunda in Seddon Square.
