It's the chillies, chutneys and a vegetables that's attracting the punters to Grower Direct's Labour Weekend celebration event.

Jared, 7, and Brianna, 10, Whaanga hunting for chocolate at Grower Direct in Te Puna. Photos by: Cameron Avery.

That's what owner Paul Nielsen believes after witnessing more people attend Saturday's event than last year in just four hours.

'In four hours we did more than what we did in the entire Labour Weekend period last year.”

The centre's free event returned on October 25-26 with the company's popular chutneys and chillies, a free barbecue and the giant children's treasure hunt for about 500 chocolate fish.

Paul says it's a fun filled celebration, as well as an opportunity for people to be inspired by the 'phenomenal” range of vegetables grown in the gigantic seedling area.

'Our stunning seedling area boasts more than 20 varieties of tomatoes, as well as 25 varieties of our very tasty chillies and peppers and much more.”

Grower Direct's seedling area.

Paul lost count on how many people visited the Te Puna store yesterday, but estimates about 2000 tomatoes went out the door.

'Today's not as big, but yesterday was out of control,” says Paul, who believes the free barbecue, chillies and chutneys are becoming the biggest part of the event.

'They're all homemade. We make the whole lot and it's all made form stuff we produce.”

He says the home-made chillies and chutneys are all free so people can get an idea of what they can make out of the fresh produce sold at the store.

'It just something a little bit different that they're not going to experience if they go elsewhere.”