Hanging up the tools
For 38 years Danny Burgess has grown vegetables at his Gore property to feed the masses. It is real vegetables that he grows — more about flavour than look. But by the end of the month he will be gone as he hangs up the spade. Steve Hepburn talks to the veteran gardener.
There was a fork-in-the-road moment for Danny Burgess.
In the late 1980s has was employed at the Mataura meat works and times were changing.
The government was making changes and the agriculture industry was facing tough decisions.
Employed as a meat inspector, Mr Burgess said he knew it was time to go and do something else.
"I could see what was going to happen.
"Knew the writing was on the wall.
"So I went in and took voluntary redundancy, got $40,000," he said.
"Then I thought what was I going to do?
"I could have gone back to being a shearer ... but in the end I bought a block of land.
"There was two lots — and I bought the 14-acre [5.6ha] block, and I have been there ever since.
"It was two paddocks and a hay shed when I went there."
So he set about working the land, digging in gardens and developing a business.
Vegetables would always grow in the Gore soil and were always in demand, he said.
Tomatoes and potatoes were first on the agenda.
"I got 1200 tomatoes done in the first year and they all went, so I went from there.
"The next year I did potatoes, dug them and then it was crazy.
"There was a huge queue of cars out there waiting for them.
"All waiting for their Red Kings.
His spuds eventually found their way way round the district as he secured contracts to outlets such as Croydon Lodge.
It helped he had an automatic chipper and washer which could do the job a lot faster than by hand.
His wife Mary helped him and they would be out of bed by 7am and a full day was ahead.
Mary loved growing plants using water and was a dab hand at getting tomatoes just right.
The couple dabbled in harness racing and had a few wins.
She died five years ago and was greatly missed, he said.
Work was never far away for the couple, well into the night.
"I didn’t mind doing it, as it was just what you did."
The couple had not taken long to convert almost all of the land, selling lots of different vegetables.
A personal favourite vegetable, and remains so, was the carrot.
Nairobi and Napoli carrots were very popular.
"They are the easiest to grow.
"You would just put them in the ground ... put some manure on them and away they would go.
"I do not like eating stuff that has been sprayed with lots of fertiliser.
"In Gore we have good soil.
"The water was always good and the plants grow.
"Even in winter you would have yams, carrots, parsnips and they would all get sold.
"We had chickens. You would be allowed up to 100 where we live, and you would get lots of eggs.
The peat-silt soil in Gore helped his vegetables and the soil dried out quickly.
There have been floods and downpours over the years but the gardens recovered quickly.
"I want to clearing sales, picked up the odd machine and just carried on.
"They all worked. They were nothing flash, but they did the job."
"But it is enthusiasm for the job which keeps you going.
"I tell people you should not be frightened by hard work.
"I have done all this stuff but I don’t know whether I could do it if I had to start again.
"But it was healthy stuff what I grew.
"I wanted to go away from the chemicals.
"We are eating stuff in supermarkets these days you do not know what you are eating. You can pour calcium nitrate on anything and the stuff will grow."
He said the way the market had developed was more about how much can be made and packed into a paddock rather than quality and taste.
He started in the days when vegetables could be sold to whoever and it was more of a even playing field.
That had gradually changed and he did not know if that was better.
He sold most of his produce through his roadside stall and people kept coming.
At the end of the month, that would all be finished. He has sold his land and will be moving away.
There will be a clearing sale later this month.
He was 77 last Sunday and though he still can get round all right, he felt it was time to move and finish up.
"But I’m not going far, I’m staying in Gore.
"I’m a Gore man through and through.
"Even though I was born and grew up in South Otago."
By the time he was 16 he could shear a sheep in two and a-half minutes. But that is another story.
