Now Brydone Wholefoods co-owner and director Sue Smith is calling time on the business in the former Totara Hall, south of Oamaru, where her sister Cathy Watt has also worked since its inception.
Mrs Smith said the business was closing at the end of May, although the premises would be leased and she was excited the building, built more than a century ago, would continue to have a life under new operators.
Being able to work alongside her big sister was something that had been “really special”, Mrs Smith said, while Mrs Watt said she would “miss Sue more than anything” and they intended to continue to catch up regularly.
Family has been an enduring feature of Mrs Smith and her husband Lindsay’s business ventures; from the mid-1980s, the Smiths raised their three sons on a 28ha market garden called Brydone Growers. The land was previously owned by Mrs Smith’s family.
Brydone Growers became BioGro-certified in 1995 and the couple had an intensive horticulture operation, distributing a wide variety of vegetables throughout New Zealand.
A small shop on site, where they sold vegetables locally, eventually developed into the Brydone Wholefoods store. In 2002, they bought the old hall, next to the farm, which allowed the business to expand.
The couple sold both Brydone Growers and Brydone Wholefoods in 2008 but bought the shop back in 2012, the business combining the family’s love of the land and a passion for healthy food.
As well as certified organic, spray-free and local fruit and vegetables, the store also stocked a wide variety of other grocery lines, household and healthcare products.
Mrs Smith’s interest in wholefoods and natural products stemmed from the death of her father from cancer at 46. With medical treatment unable to do anything more for him, she started searching for alternatives. With the arrival of her own children, there was also a desire for them to have a healthy upbringing.
She acknowledged their foray into organics did raise some eyebrows.
“People stood back and looked when we first opened — they thought we’d all fallen off the planet. Somebody told Lindsay, ‘you can’t grow an organic cauli’ — you don’t tell Lindsay Smith that,” she said with a laugh.
The local Chinese community embraced the family in the market gardening community and, as well as their own children working on the farm, it also provided employed for other young folk in the district.
“It was just an amazing time — I’d do it all again and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Mrs Smith said.
Secondary school pupils were employed in the shop, including Mrs Watt’s now adult grandson Jack. They learned to clean and converse with customers and, for Mrs Watt, it was special to spend time with her grandson.
During Covid-19 lockdowns, family members were roped in to help with deliveries; the business was deemed essential so remained open throughout. But prior to lockdown, customers panic-bought goods and they could not restock so they reverted to selling fruit and vegetables, which was all they could access.
Mrs Smith said she was unsure what her next move would be. In the meantime, she was too busy focusing on winding up the business, but she needed to have a purpose, she said.
“I have got up, put my face on and driven out the gate for so long, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I said I might just park at the end of the road,” she joked.
Her garden needed some attention, but she could not think about that yet as she was too busy winding up the business. She was grateful for the ongoing support of her customers, staff and suppliers,
She was also thinking about the events that had been held in the building during its previous life, including dancing, table tennis and parties, and how it was getting another life — “that’s the best thing,” she said.
