\u201cWe\u2019re in our 60s now, and it\u2019s great to be trying something different,\u201d Diana added.<\/p>\n
Previous owners David and Helen Walshaw established the olive grove in 2003 on dry stony soil, 2km from the coast.<\/p>\n
The move from sheep and cattle to olives has transformed the Crosses\u2019 pace of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can leave the gate open, and the trees don\u2019t disappear, and they don\u2019t stand on water lines,\u201d Diana said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day-to-day is not as hard as sheep and beef farming,\u201d Grant added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s wet and it\u2019s cold, I can make an executive decision and stay home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat took me a couple of years to get over not having to actually physically be there every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came back after two days, hey, the trees were still there, they were fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Allflex tags were not the only thing that followed them from stockyards to olive trees.<\/p>\n
They use soil testing, leaf sampling, and fertiliser knowledge from pastoral farming to maintain the trees\u2019 health and have introduced innovative practices such as drone spraying.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used helicopters and planes on the farm,\u201d Diana said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we\u2019re like the first in the area and mainly in the olive industry to be doing [drone spraying] simply because we\u2019re used to all those other technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
They enjoy meeting their customers face-to-face on market days and even delivering the oil in person to retailers, a big difference from their sheep and beef farming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lambs and the bulls went on the truck, and off they went,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re actually \u2013 and we\u2019re going to do it this afternoon \u2013 delivering oil to the supermarket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diana and Grant have taken on a whole new way of farming in their sixties, from livestock to olives. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
Intimate knowledge of the production process is something they also enjoy sharing with their customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a story about that oil in that bottle that\u2019s come from those trees,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the product we\u2019ve got is a top product, whereas, you know, I\u2019m not saying sheep and beef isn\u2019t, but we were just another leg of lamb, another roast of beef.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant maintains the grove, using problem-solving skills developed on the farm, and the task of bottling and labelling is something they share in the small factory a few kilometres away in \u014ctaki.<\/p>\n
The Crosses bottle and label their oil at their small factory in \u014ctaki. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cThese hands have done a lot of labelling and bottling,\u201d Diana said, holding a bottle under a machine to be filled with the latest harvest, then meticulously sticking on the label with the K\u0101piti Olive Oil brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t talk to the label lady when she\u2019s labelling,\u201d Grant joked.<\/p>\n
Financially, is it more rewarding than sheep and beef?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s allowed us to do what we want to do at the moment, which is, you know, just keep on going,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can get away when time allows.<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, it\u2019s a cash-positive business when there\u2019s no overdraft or no debt in it, so that has really helped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olives left for the birds post-harvest. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cAs they always say, you won\u2019t get rich, but you have a good life,\u201d Diana added.<\/p>\n
Some things are still the same; Grant keeps the habit of weather monitoring with three weather apps and a rain gauge from his farming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike farming, we\u2019re still very dependent on the weather \u2013 what comes down from the sky or doesn\u2019t come down.<\/p>\n
The Crosses grow four varieties of olives for their K\u0101piti brand. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s a very forgiving crop.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Crosses\u2019 oils have won medals in New Zealand and overseas, but Grant is still chasing one thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne more challenge before I retire is to have that trophy on the mantelpiece, and it\u2019s a nice trophy, and it says Extra Virgin Olive Oil Best in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I will \u2013 I\u2019ve got to be careful \u2013 I\u2019ll seriously consider retiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll take you up on that,\u201d Diana said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re in our 60s now, and it\u2019s great to be trying something different,\u201d Diana added. Previous owners David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,5589,138,8414,14934,2082,116484,15288,5978,111,43,139,69,4156,26201,12969,51052,108935,174742,5662,100587,6730],"class_list":["post-564844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-beef","tag-business","tag-couple","tag-farming","tag-for","tag-grove","tag-livestock","tag-might","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oil","tag-olive","tag-sheep","tag-swap","tag-tags","tag-taki","tag-think","tag-useful","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}