As you drive east along Waikawa Beach Road you see the blueberry farm up near SH1. It’s a great place to visit in summer for fresh blueberries, but they are also award winning olive oil producers:
Success for Waikawa Glen at olive oil national awards
… Waikawa Glen, in Manakau, just north of Ōtaki, won reserve boutique in the New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oils Awards held in Wellington.
The company, owned by Lisa Buchan and partner Glenn Wigley, received more accolades at the awards …
“We were absolutely blown away and very pleased,” Lisa said.
Their olive grove became fully certified as organic this year after an organic certification programme.
“A lot of people were telling us that if we were organic we wouldn’t be sustainable.”
The awards are an impressive result for the company, which is in only its third year of harvesting.
Waikawa Glen received a silver medal in 2018 and 2019 before this year’s cluster of awards.
The couple’s story started 13 years ago when they hatched a plan to find a place in the countryside to grow blueberries and make olive oil.
After an extensive search around the country, the pair, with a keen interest in horticulture, bought a slice of land in Waikawa Beach Rd, which had the ideal soil and climate.
“We can get the cold chilling for the blueberries as well as the long hot days of summer for olives.”
Waikawa Blueberries, at the front lower level of their property, has been going strong for about six years, while the olive grove, at the back higher end of the property, has been producing for three years.
It has been quite the transformation for a property that used to be bare paddocks. …
The olive oil, in various blends, is sold locally as well as at the farmgate during pickyour-own blueberry times. …
Local results:
Waikawa Glen won reserve in boutique, best in class and a gold medal in the boutique medium-blends category. Best in class for their frantoio in the boutique medium — single varietal category. Gold medal for its leccino in boutique mild — single varietal. Gold medal for its frantoio in boutique medium — blends. Gold medal for its koroneiki in boutique medium — single varietal. …
Source: Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 Oct 2020, Page 6, by David Haxton.