KELLIE Potts, the Sandy Beach based farmer-founder of Potts of Berries, has blueberry juice running through her veins.

The earth she treads every day, tending to her fourteen-acre blueberry plantation, is fourth generation land, originally bought by her great-grandmother during the Depression of the 1930s.

Fifth generation, now, with Kellie’s two teenage children, living here and lending a picking-hand in school downtime.
“This year (2021) has been the most difficult year on record for us,” Kellie told News Of The Area.

“It’s been horrendously hard,” she said,

“With picker numbers dramatically reduced…but it will all bounce back with new ideas.”

With a horticulture science degree under her belt, Kellie has introduced one of the most basic, but often underused natural resources: bees.

“We’ve introduced Australian native bees to increase the pollination of our berries.

“I just love them.

“They’re efficient pollinators which gives us the best flavour and a good size, which matters when we’re paid for our berries by weight.

The Coffs Coast farms and supplies around 80% of Australia’s blueberries.

Kellie is a member of a cooperative of around 150 blueberry growers which advocates ethical farming standards and practices.

“We’re selling as one so we’re all in the same boat.

“I find everyone amazing and hard-working.

“We’re all committed to producing a high-quality product.

“We desire the post-harvest result to be that consumers enjoy beautiful fruit with a long shelf life.

“I genuinely want every farmer to be the best farmer they can be.

“I’m more than happy to share anything we find beneficial on our farm with other growers, such as our native bee experience which we recently shared in a bee workshop.”

Kellie’s proud of her sentimentality about the land she farms and gives back to the earth in order to reap the best.

“I’ve invested in many organic inputs for our soil, such as humic and fulvic acids, extracted from brown coal, which deliver nutrients, applied as a liquid.

“We also brew our own fungus and bacteria; it’s not an easy process but these biologicals are essential in feeding a good soil and can help plants in times of stress,” she said.

“I feel blessed to be a farmer and a great custodian of our land.

“Looking to the future for generations to come.”

 

By Andrea FERRARI