Curious Croppers

Nestled in the rolling green hills of Clevedon, South Auckland, is a small but vibrant tomato farm owned by self-proclaimed “tomato lovers” Anthony and Angela Tringham. Anthony is the tomato grower and Angela handles business, alongside a dedicated team of four. However, the Curious Croppers farm isn’t just any ordinary tomato farm; it’s one with a functional organic pest-control system set up in an unexpected way.

The farm, which grows a large variety of tomatoes — “too many to count,” Anthony says, specialises in heirloom tomatoes and has a growing fanbase across culinary New Zealand. From their somewhat-reluctant beginnings at their local Clevedon markets 17 years ago, to their recognition in cookbooks by chef Sean Connolly and restaurants across the country, Curious Croppers are going from strength to strength.

Walking onto the property in Clevedon is, at first, not what you’d expect. To the unknowing eye, the grounds are covered in what look like weeds, wildflowers, different grasses, and the air is full of insect and bird song. However, as Anthony explained, there is structure to the chaos. The Tringhams have implemented an agroecology approach to manage pests.

“If we can do this on our own, then we control our insects and pests with no chemicals. We want meadows of wildflowers, and interesting funky things. We want plants growing in our greenhouses that attract beneficial insects. We want chaos, but with a little bit of science.”

Agroecology is a sustainable farming practice that works by creating a fully functioning ecosystem within the farm’s microbiome, and manipulating plant and flower growth to benefit the overall farm. It is an approach that is almost completely organic.

Tomato growers struggle with insects like whitefly, which can cause stunted growth for tomato plants, causing wilting and defoliation. Agroecology eradicates these insects without the use of pesticides by attracting and introducing predator species. An example of this at Curious Croppers is the planting of tobacco plants to attract Engytatus, a bug which is a natural predator to whitefly but is harmless to tomatoes. “It eats tomato pests but doesn’t like tomato plants. It sounds simple, but there’s lots of research that’s gone into it,” Anthony explained.

The Curious Croppers farm has been the subject of university research into agroecology.

“Our farm was a trial farm for a professor at Lincoln University, and he’s the one that researched agroecology with his PhD students,” Angela continued. “He set out to prove that this system of pest control works. Anthony would say, ‘oh we got this result, and that result’, but the professor wanted to prove it. That’s why it’s so important to have scientists and farmers working together,” she said.

The Tringhams led us to the ‘Clevedon Meadows’, a flat expanse of land outside of their greenhouses where an array of wild plant species and grasses are growing in abundance. Anthony explained another aspect of agroecology using plantain; a common weed in New Zealand. “This plantain feeds hoverflies, and that gives them the protein they need to reproduce. Then they lay syrphids — larvae that kill and eat harmful insects like aphids.”

Aphids cause damage to plants directly through feeding or by carrying harmful viruses. The Tringhams also use pheromone traps to manage other harmful insects like stemborers.

The agroecology approach to pests is not very common, Anthony told us, with larger farms often meeting it with scepticism. The Tringham’s host field trips where other horticultural businesses come to see how Curious Croppers manages their pests. “They expect us to be a failure. They jump out of the car with their magnifying glasses, and they go, ‘this is like the worst thing you could do, Anthony,’ but then they can’t find any bugs,” he laughed. It is a system that has worked for them, despite the usual challenges of farming, such as weather fluctuations and regulatory changes.

“That is the whole point of the Clevedon Meadows. It’s full of life, it’s full of complex ecosystems; lots of insects. When I went to university in 1984, this was the worst thing you could ever do outside a greenhouse, because the argument was that you were attracting insects,” Anthony said.

“It was the scorched earth policy. Outside of greenhouses was just concrete,” Angela added.

“Our objective is to farm sustainably, not heating in winter, and using beneficial insects to control our insect pests. We want to be a low emissions greenhouse, and that’s something we wanted from the beginning,” Anthony explained.

This focus on sustainable farming not only shaped their pest-control practices, but also influenced their approach to growing produce that stood out for its uniqueness and quality.

This dedication to quality farming set up the beginnings of the business. Curious Croppers was an idea that bloomed from a tough time, Angela told us. “As per usual, an interesting business starts from disaster, and ours started from a major disaster. We discovered Tomato Potato Psyllids (or TPP as they are known to tomato farmers) in 2006,” she said. “We had to start on a completely new route.”

After months of restoring balance on the farm, the Tringham’s were approached by a neighbour who ran the famed Clevedon Village Farmers Markets. At fi rst reluctant, because of their young children and their busy lives, the Tringhams eventually agreed to sell their tomatoes at the markets. This sent their small farm on a whole new trajectory.

“We’ve been there for 17 years. Our daughter was two and son was near five. They’ve watched our children grow up,” Angela said. “There’s something so beautiful that you have when you’re dealing face-to-face with people.”

Now the Tringhams and their hardworking team produce many different varieties of tomatoes. They are the only growers in New Zealand of some, like the Vintage Brandywine, taking pride in the uniqueness of their produce. The Brandywine tomato is a tomato that is difficult to grow and does not have a large yield. Most tomato growers avoid growing them, Anthony says.

“But it is one of the most beautiful, and if we didn’t grow them, no one would,” Anthony explained.

“We make people happy with tomatoes; what’s not to like?”

Curious Croppers provide mixed boxes of their tomatoes, inside which the types vary depending on the different plant yields. The tomatoes come in all different sizes, shapes, colours and flavours, which “adds to their specialness”, Angela said.

The season runs from October through to March with planting beginning in winter, and they have worked closely with chefs and restaurants to align them with heirloom tomato season.

Curious Croppers’ tomatoes can be found at the Sunday markets in Clevedon and in many popular restaurants across New Zealand. But for Anthony and Angela, their success isn’t just about growing unique, high-quality tomatoes — it’s about challenging traditional farming practices, and providing sustainably-produced, chemical-free tomatoes to their customers. Curious Croppers are proof that farming with nature, not against it, can give some great results.