With growing, there is always a portion of the crop that is not a supermarket grade product. A portion of the harvest is wasted. With kumara having just one harvest annually, utilizing every product that comes out of the ground, counts.
Here at Fieldco, as part of our sustainability plan,we have grown various divisions of our business to utilise as much as we can from each harvest.
A few years ago Fieldco acquired a processing factory, called Turiwiri Produce, which turns our smaller, non-retail grade produce into food ingredients. This helped us to get more value out of every crop we grow and is helping to put meals on New Zealanders plates!
We recently launched Humble Heroes, our own retail brand of secondary grade product. These little heroes have been out battling the elements and sometimes look a little worse for wear, but are just as good inside!
After every harvest, the foliage on the tops of the kumara plants are then tilled back into the soil. This helps to naturally give back to the soil and add to its nutrients.