Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Trugs have a long history. The Sussex slatted carry-alls have been lugging veggies and fruit into kitchens in the UK for centuries.
Tony Hitchcock has been crafting the wooden garden baskets for several years using untreated willow or hazel and poplar sourced locally from around Golden Bay.
"When I start building one, I fall into a wonderful state of mind," the fifth-generation local told Country Life.
A childhood spent in the Anatoki Valley, where he still lives with his partner Maddy and their three children, in part inspired Hitchcock to become a Kahurangi National Park ranger.
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So how did a park ranger become a trug maker?
"It goes right back to when I got my first job mowing the lawns of the old trug maker, Brett Hutchinson in the Anatoki Valley near Tākaka. We became good friends, he became a mentor and over the years I helped around his workshop," Hitchcock said.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Supplied
Hutchinson had been making trugs for nearly 25 years when he decided to hang up his draw knife, a long two-handled knife used to shave wooden slats down to the required thickness for a trug.
"He said he wanted to retire and asked if we were interested in taking over the business, which was a surprise and an honour," explained Hitchcock.
He accepted and became Hutchinson's apprentice, but with young children and working part-time, it was a hectic few years.
"So yeah, I've slowly became a trug maker and I'm still learning. It's the kind of job you're always learning, you never stop."
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Supplied
Apart from the copper fixings, everything the trugs are made of come from the Tākaka River catchment, mainly from around the farm margins and orchards.
"So I'll fell the tree and cut it into logs. We have a wonderful local sawmiller and he mills the timber into two inch timber."
Once in the workshop, the wood is fillet stacked and dried. Hitchcock works the timber down to thin slats with a draw knife. Then they're steam-softened and curved to fit the body of each basket.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
The handles and rims are made from strips of split-down hazel or willow that he's harvested in winter when the sap's not running
"It means that when we process that timber under steam, the bark adheres to the timber and becomes a beautiful and a hard-wearing laminate."
Making a trug is like putting a puzzle together, he told Country Life.
"When I'm assembling a trug I'm steaming the slats and getting everything nice and symmetrical and tight so there's no little gaps, it's a real challenge!"
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
As well as making Sussex Trugs, the biggest seller, Hitchcock also makes Devon Maunds. He believes he's one of only a handful of people in the world who can make them.
The larger maunds are traditionally used for potato and apple harvesting,
"They are by far the hardest and the slowest item we make but the great thing is once you start building one you can't stop!"
Hitchcock still does some fencing and forestry work in the winter but with Christmas fast approaching, the busy season is well underway.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
"From now on it's usually pretty hectic and now that all our kids are growing up, it's getting easier be out here and making trugs full-time, it's a wonderful feeling."
His old mentor Hutchinson still lives on the other side of the Anatoki River, a stroll over a swing bridge from where Hitchcock now has his own trug workshop.
"If I'm stuck with something, he's happy to come over and we'll talk it over, and I'll show him what's going wrong and his experience comes out."
Photo: Supplied
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
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