From the satellite picture, Otama Hazels is a deep green oasis amid the lighter green of sheep pasture, with neatly ordered blocks of nut trees encircled by shelter belts. Graham Leach and Rosemary Innes decided to grow
hazels because they were familiar with them from England, where they’re part of the fabric of European culture and folklore since prehistoric times, for food, basketry, fencing, hedging and fuel. They were sure that the Southland climate, with its winter chilling and generally reliable rainfall would be ideally suited to growing hazels in a natural system.
Starting out
In 2003 the couple bought a block of nearly five hectares 20 minutes north of Gore. It was the most exposed of the sites they’d looked at, and the locals said they’d never grow trees there. But the place felt right, with
