Ambitious farming sisters develop fashion and food hub

PHOTO: Anna in the Sprig & Thistle caravan at the entrance to Davaar Station. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

The shearers’ quarters at Davaar Station are a popular stop-off for locals and tourists on the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway.

Inside, Anna Macdonald tickles their taste buds with sweets while her older sister Kate fits them with luxury jerseys made from wool grown on the family farm.

Kate has always had a passion for wool, which is not surprising considering her parents James and Fiona have been farming sheep since before she was born.

One of the key motivations for starting the knitwear company Davaar & Co was the lack of value-added innovations with strong wool, she says.

“I really wanted to showcase the crossbred fibre and how we can use it in a different way so I decided to do fashionwear.

“I could never really understand why farmers were getting such little money for such an amazing natural, biodegradable, renewable fibre.”

Kate, Fiona & James Macdonald Photo: supplied

Shorn sheep at Davaar Station. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

From the start, a “Made in New Zealand” approach was always going to be at the core of Davaar & Co’s ethos.

“We wanted to ensure that we keep the whole process – from shearing and scouring, spinning, dyeing and the final knitting stage- done here,” Kate says proudly.

After two years of wool production R&D, the brand was launched online in February 2022.

The shearers’ quarters on Kate and Anna’s family farm is home to the first Davaar & Co shop which sells jersey designs with names like Lucky Lass, Wild Wanderer and Suave Shepherd.

Kate says the way their colours mirror the local landscape is inspired by their grandmother Sally’s approach to wool.

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“She used to dye sheep’s wool from the farm here with lichen and moss and foraged materials and make us these beautiful garments.”

Kate in the Davaar & Co shop that was a bedroom in the shearers quarters. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

Outside Davaar & Co is the Sprig &Thistle – a food and coffee caravan that 24-year-old Anna opened in December after graduating from Wellington’s Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

Every day, the culinary artist arrives in the kitchen at the crack of dawn.

“Smashing out the cinnamon buns, the muffins, scones… it’s really important to me that everything I do is homemade.

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“I’ve found that a lot of customers ask me, ‘wow, did you make all this?’ and I’m really proud to say that I do.”

Luckily Kate’s mum Fiona is also up the road when things get too busy.

Jodene Kennedy. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

Rural postie Jodene Kennedy is a regular at the Sprig & Thistle.

Her daily run covers 160 kilometres, 100 of those on isolated gravel roads, so she enjoys a bit of social interaction along the way.

“Sometimes I have coffee or sometimes I just chat with people who are having coffee,” Jodene says with a big smile.

Davaar Station. Photo: supplied

Hungry hikers take a coffee break. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

Nearly 30 years ago, Kate and Anna’s parents James and Fiona took over the reins at Davaar Station, which had been in his family for over 100 years.

On the long and skinny 1100-hectare farm, that runs up to the Takitimu Mountains, the couple farm cattle and about 6,500 Romney-Perendale breeding ewes.

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Te Araroa – the 3,000-kilometre hiking trail that goes from Cape Reinga to Bluff – passes through the property and it’s common to see hikers making a beeline for Kate and Anna’s shopping hub, Fiona says.

“It’s quite entertaining seeing their faces, worried that it might be closed, as there’s nothing between Mossburn and Te Anau so the location is quite advantageous for the girls.”