Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, the owner and grower at MeadowSweet, Minette Tonoli, has always been a nature lover, primarily interested in culinary and medicinal herbs. This passion led her down a path of interest in horticulture.
After completing her Bachelor of Arts majoring in Communications, Tonoli initially began her career as an applications developer. However, in her free time, she was working on her herbs, and she had the idea to create a small herb business to have a little side income.
Immigrating to New Zealand in 2013, Tonoli was offered a role as a horticulturist in a herb project, requiring her to earn a diploma in horticulture in New Zealand. However, the project never took off. Despite this, the diploma gave Tonoli the tools she needed to create MeadowSweet, where Tonoli grows herbs and flowers on an acre of land in Waikuku.
Tonoli's interest in unusual and exciting edibles led her to grow white alpine strawberries. Familiar with common red alpine strawberries for their culinary and medicinal prowess, Tonoli saw an online advertisement of someone growing white alpine strawberries in 2014. She was determined to get her hands on this unique varietal. Through a Facebook connection, Tonoli was mailed seeds and has been growing this rare and unique variety ever since.
White alpine strawberries grow in clumps, compared to their traditional red counterparts, which send out long runners from which new berry plants grow.
"They are beautiful large mounding plants that can be split up through the season from that centre clump," said Tonoli.
The white alpine strawberry has a unique flavour. While it maintains a similar tartness to the red strawberry when not fully ripe, the berry has a more tropical profile, resembling a pineapple. This variety also self-seeds from birds or fruit that may have missed falling to the ground and can be pretty prolific.
"I'm forever potting on small berry plants from the garden."
The crop continues to produce berries in the warmer seasons, such as spring and summer, until the very first big frost. Tonoli continued that the variety does as well in her gardens in shady spots as in full sun positions. White strawberries need adequate water and quality soil.
Tonoli practices living soil cultivation, which means no chemical intervention and plenty of companion planting, mulching and compost to create a soil teeming with micro and macro-organisms, from which she has observed and gathered significant yields from her white strawberry plants.
Growing white strawberries may be easier than traditional red strawberries. Tonoli said the white strawberry variety seemed to have better resistance to the pests and diseases that harm the growth of red strawberries.
"While birds get a few berries, main crops are left for human enjoyment. I don't think they'll do well as a commercial crop because they tend to go soft and mushy shortly after picking."
Tonoli said that the uptake of the berry and the current season has been phenomenal. Tonoli has attributed this to the shortage of common strawberry plants in garden centres and a significant price increase due to the shortfall.
In the past, red and white alpine strawberries were generally purchased by people with young children interested in having a cute harvestable edible in the garden. However, now more people are interested in fruit and edible gardening.
Moving forward into 2024, Tonoli said the most significant challenge for the growing industry would be the rise of input costs. Tonoli's most significant current expense is her soil.
"If the weather predictions are correct, we're also in for drought, which is always challenging."
Read more about White Strawberries through the latest issue below.
