Blue Tongue Berries prepare for summer harvest

A year on from the devastating floods which hit the Goulburn Valley fruit bowl, berry farms across the state are preparing for better returns this season.

As spring turns to summer, fruit and berry producers are making their preparations for harvest.

And for Cynthia Lim of Blue Tongue Berries in Seymour, Victoria, this means getting ready to hand-pick the farm’s 12 varieties of blueberries, all by herself.

She said harvest will commence in December, ongoing until January.

As the Blue Tongue Berries enterprise is small-scale, Ms Lim harvests all fruit solo, by hand.

“It’s pretty stable now, we haven’t had drought for such a long time,” Ms Lim said.

“Our blueberries have been in for 15 years now, and we’ve gone through a lot of change and seasons in that time.”

Harvest was looking “on track”, with picking to start about a week earlier than usual.

A typical crop at Blue Tongue is about 300-500kg of fruit, Ms Lim said.

Cynthia Lim and Nick Bray of Blue Tongue Berries in Seymour, getting ready for their blueberries to ripen. Picture: Jay Town

“This week is when they’re really going to start increasing their sugars, and it looks like they’ll start plumping soon,” Ms Lim said.

She said while conditions on-farm were ideal for her, many other producers have felt the pressure of weather, industry conditions, and labour issues in recent years.

“At the start of October, we had heavy rains and it was a little scary, almost like 12-months ago with floods,” Ms Lim said.

“Tensions are still a little high, the community is hurting, and people are not back in their homes.”