Wild cherry trees give farmer the pip

Black Siberian cherry trees are thriving on the river flats at Nigel Wilson's family farm in North Canterbury.

Their fruit is proving popular with local chefs keen to add foraged ingredients to their dishes.

Nigel's farm, at the end on an unsealed road in the Mount Thomas area of North Canterbury, is bordered by the Garry River.

He says about 14,000 of the invasive trees have found the sweet spot on his property.

"The riverbed freezes and the sunlight never reaches it during the winter so it stays frozen and then as a result, all of these cherry pips germinate."

Cherry trees have been in the area for more than 100 years, Nigel says.

"A local character who owned Birch Hill Station brought some specimen trees back and planted them in his garden and the birds just went nuts. So that's how they all got here, they're spread by wild birds."

According to Nigel, it's not only the small, intensely sweet cherries that people are after, it's also the cherry wood.

"It's fantastic for furniture-making, if you're into bodgery, the green stick style, and for barbeques as smoking wood. It's the best for smoked pork, fish or chicken or whatever," he says.

The Wilson family runs a herd of deer at the farm with 300 breeding hinds and a mixture of Wapiti and Elk stags.

Nigel also runs a timber framing and woodwork business from the former shearing shed.

His most recent job was building a Viking drinking hall in Rangiora for a craft-beer fillery.

"'I do that 80 percent of the time and I farm 20 percent of the time when my Dad calls on me...It's a really good mix," he says.