When Lena and Vince Zagami inspected their lemon tree farm at Wairewa following the Black Summer Bushfires they were staring at huge financial losses.
The heat from the fires in the surrounding forest had burnt the leaves of their lemon trees to a crisp.
It was painful for them to look at the trees and assess the long road ahead to recovery.
Mr Zagami and his team of workers set to work planting new trees in neat rows, not certain if the burnt trees would survive.
When the coronavirus pandemic arrived, the lemon orchard lost many of the regular backpacker workforce the Zagamis had relied on over the years and the trees, with their scorched leaves, remained.
IMAGE: Strong winds and heavily laden lemon trees have resulted in branches snapping and lemons being brought to the ground. Inset: Farm manager, Damian Curt, with one of the massive lemons the trees are producing. K289-4868
