Member Spotlight - Alison Bentley, Tikitere Farm

This season we were lucky to connect with Alison Bentley from Tikitere Farm . She produces hazelnuts and beef in Rotorua and has  spent the last year doing research into local food systems. Find out more about her work below, and if you're in the area, support her small business!

How did you get into farming?
Generational - as long as we can trace back my family has grown food. Initially it was feeding the family, then in my parents' generation different members of the family became farmers in business, industrial farmers by default. But my father chose to discontinue use of herbicide in his crop about 25 years ago.
Growing food for the family alongside commercial production is still strong within our family. Two of my daughters are supplementing their purchased food from potted gardens in their rental accommodations :)
I have diversified. I have a small beef farm and a small hazelnut orchard with commercial intent. Also I have two separate mixed fruit orchards, a subtropical corner (north-facing, southern sheltered slope micro climate) and a house vege garden.
I usually grow enough kumara to keep the family going for most of the year, one year I tried scaling up to sell kumara.

What do you like best about farming?
Working with nature - nature is truly amazing when you take notice!!

What do you find to be the hardest part?
1/ Consumers (or "eaters") are very disconnected with food - real produce food (not the processed substances often called food!).
I couldn't sell my kumara because they were "too big" - sure they were the size of small pumpkins, but everyone cuts a pumpkin ... so cut a kumara too ... apparently not!!
I hear people want food traceability, local, etc but because my beef is from a small seasonal farm I don't have continuous supply, the price is a little more, the butchery cuts are not exactly consistent etc ... so people stick with their supermarket habits - their actions are not where their words are!
The effort for me as a small producer, to educate / tell my story / market / my produce destroys the business equation.

2/ The status quo "food system". 
It's incredibly hard for growers of fresh produce to operate financially sustainable businesses unless they are producing on a scale acceptable by the supermarket supply chain.

The "system" is a commercially driven, dominating, engine.
New Zealand is so focused on food exports that our domestic food system has submerged in the wake. 

What kind of supports would you like to see for "small-scale" local food production?
1/ Fresh produce safety protocols that are relevant to locally grown, short supply chain frameworks - not the current large scale, export relevant regulations.
2/ Well designed, collaborative, seasonal, national, marketing campaigns educating consumers ("eaters") about fresh produce grown in "their local" community, including "Know Your Farmer" 

Can you share a bit about the research you recently completed?
I really enjoyed the recent research project I did - A Kellogg Rural Leaders Programme and Lincoln Post Grade certificate.
Interviewing growers was definitely a highlight, and a privilege that they shared aspects of their produce growing operations in detail.
Discovering that international academic literature on advancing agriculture practices aligns with current practices of NZ small growers was very insightful.
In all growers interviewed, no grower had any ambition to scale up.
The discussion that came forth about economies of scale and economies of scope, and diverse systems was really interesting.
Recently released New Zealand research into peri-urban design identifies characteristics of food growers in such zones - current practices of NZ small growers align with those characteristics. (Peri-urban zones are the transition between urban and rural, refer https://ourlandandwater.nz/news/rethinking-the-whenua-around-our-cities-could-help-turn-the-table-on-our-food-crisis/ )
Small growers (in NZ) do not have a united voice from which they can be seen and heard by general consumers ("eaters") in the status quo food situation.
Further investigations include:
There is a gap between "affordable food" and "sustainable growers" in the context of consumers' voices for affordable food and financially sustainable small grower businesses. 

What volume of produce is actually grown by small growers, and (how) can such production systems be duplicated ( with diversity) not scaled up, to have meaningful impact in improving NZ food security and resilient communities?
Read the full report here 

Do you have a favourite seasonal recipe you'd be willing to share?
AhhHaaa - I'm a freedom cook ... so I seldom follow recipes!!
However, I have made a Hazelnut kumara caramel tart. It's amazing!! Recipe linked.

Footnote: Eat New Zealand is "a platform which encourages and enables collaboration between all parts of our food system encouraging regeneration. We do this by building stronger, more resilient food communities, ..."

https://www.eatnewzealand.nz/about-us

Member Spotlight - The Organic College Market Garden

Fergus, Jamie, and Lydia in the newly established BHU market garden with their trusty chook crew members.

Canterbury-based BHU Organic College Market Garden is a space for growing, learning and connecting with community. This model small-scale market garden has been recently established to teach organic, agroecological farming methods via experiential education and they have recently taken on two interns. We caught up with head farmer, Jamie Tucker, and interns Lydia and Fergus.

How did you (Jamie) get into growing?

After a few too many episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, I was inspired to become a vegetable farmer! Without much direction, I ended up studying viticulture (grape growing) and enology (winemaking) in the Finger Lakes, NY, USA. After almost a decade working in the wine industry in several countries, I decided it was finally time to return to the original dream, and left winemaking to pursue a Diploma in Organic Agri-crop Production, jointly delivered by the BHU & Lincoln University. I haven’t left the BHU since then!

What's your current favorite plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

I love growing tomatoes- the season long commitment to pruning & trellising reminds me of my days working among the vines, and the cyclical/seasonal nature of the care and nurturing they require.

What do you like most about growing food for your community?

Whanaungatanga / The relationships we form with community members. We sell the majority of our veggies via subscription boxes, and I do most of the delivering, allowing the transaction to evolve into a relationship.

Can you tell us a bit about your new internship programme?

The Organic College Market Garden is a pilot project which aims to teach organic, agroecological farming methods via experiential education on a model small-scale market garden; participate in on-farm research to further promote organic, regenerative farming; and contribute to a thriving peer to peer agricultural extension network. The (paid) internship program was the main driver in establishing the OCMG - we wanted to provide an opportunity to bridge the gap between tertiary offerings, like the certificates The Organic College offers, and decision-making roles on farms. The role encapsulates lots of your typical farm-hand tasks like weeding and transplanting, but also includes plans for lessons in [real world] financial acumen and budgeting, crop planning, and marketing, etc.

This year we have two interns who are splitting the FTE role: Lydia and Fergus. Both are current students at The Organic College, and will join full time in December when classes are over. So far, they have been tasked with adopting thier own bed and deciding what to plant and why, when to plant it, and plans for irrigation, pest control, and harvest.

For the current interns, can you share why you were interested in this opportunity and what you hope to get from the experience?

Lydia - “Because it is an incredible one! The chance to continue learning with Jamie is pretty special. She is incredibly generous with her knowledge and time - I grabbed the chance to absorb all I can! I was also pretty keen to prolong my time at the BHU They've been an  inspiration for so many for 40+ years - I'm not ready to leave yet!

I hope to gain hands on experience in Agroecology, Regen Ag, sustainable human scale farming and minimal-till. Surely, this is the way forward! I hope to gain knowledge of the whole system (not just the parts I've been privy to as a Harvest Assistant on a large organic farm. OCMG has just begun - we're extra fortune to be part of the whole lifecycle of the farm, right from the very beginning.  I am also hoping for clarity. I'm new to this farming world - where do I fit in?”

Fergus - “Kia ora! I'm Fergus. I've been interested in growing food for a long while, but as a perennnial renter I haven't had the security to invest in a garden of my own. So for all the theory I've accumulated over the years, I've had very little practical experience -- the BHU provides both in spades.
The new internship in particular lets us novices be across all areas throughout the whole growing season -- this applies to the business and planning side of things as much as it involves getting hands dirty. Jamie is an incredible mentor, whose patience is matched by her enthusiasm, knowledge and tirelessness. And with the wider access to the expertise and resources at the BHU, there would be few similar opportunities to learn so much on the job. I'm just hoping my body and mind can keep up to take it all in!

Blue skies”

Are there ways that other people can get involved with what you're doing?

We offer weekly working bees, which currently run Thursdays from 12-3. 

With our limited resources, we also welcome community members with specific skills to donate time/skills i.e. marketing specialists, plumbers, professional grant writers, etc.
Another way to support our mahi is to share our work with the world!

Do you have a seasonal recipe you can share?

I do absolutely zero recipe development myself, though I’m an avid cookbook reader/tester and food blog follower. This past year my go-to cookbook was Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, and my most frequently visited online food spot was The Guardian Food section.

Here's a link to a recipe I'm sharing with our veggie box subscribers this week: https://cookieandkate.com/spring-carrot-radish-and-quinoa-salad-with-herbed-avocado/

Member Spotlight - Setha's Seeds

The Setha’s Seeds Team: Roddy, River Rose, Setha & Kiersten-Anna in their early spring garden!

The Setha’s Seeds team: Setha, Roddy, River Rose & Kiersten-Anna, live in the Hawkes Bay, near Tutira, in a bursting garden of all sorts of flowers and fruiting plants.

Setha and Roddy have been growing seeds and selling as Setha’s Seeds since 2013 in the long, hot summers that the Hawke’s Bay offers. They are well known for their beautiful yams, heritage potatoes and garlic, and over the years have gathered and propagated some real Aotearoa seed treasures.

You can find Setha’s Seeds on their website and in some great wee organic stores and grocers across the country. See where you can find Setha’s Seeds near you on our directory!

You can read more about Setha’s Seeds in a recently released book by Sophie Merkens: Grow/Wahine Finding Connection Through Food, and in a 2019 NZ Gardener article.

Setha’s Seeds has offered all of our Village Agrarians members a 5% discount off one seed order above $30. Setha has also shared with us a little about why they do what they do and a recipe for Kale Salad.

Thank you Setha’s Seeds!

How is Setha's Seeds different from other big brand seeds companies folks run into in large chain stores?

Our point of difference is that we grow all of our seeds offered on our website. This is an important distinction from our collection to other seed companies who often purchase in most of their seeds from the multinational seed market, which are grown overseas in climates very different from ours. All of our NZ heritage seeds, which are most of the seeds in our range, came to New Zealand with the early settlers arriving on boats and waka to start their new lives in a foreign land. Some came sown into hems of women’s skirts or in their trunks or suitcases. After all these years they have been kept alive by the gardeners of New Zealand. They are very well suited to this climate by now and you can now keep them alive in your garden for your children’s children to enjoy one day. We also have some open pollinated varieties that we have decided to include here because we like them so much. These varieties are not NZ heritage but we have been growing them for some time and find them to be important parts of our collection and wanted to make them available. All of our seeds will produce true to type and therefore the seeds can be saved.

What's your current favourite seed/plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

What a hard question! I have so many favourites it is hard to pick just one. This winter I fell in love with our Chinese Cabbage Chi Hi Li! It is such a delicious winter vegetable, very prolific, and even tasty when starting to go to seed! The stalks are delicious and sweet, never woody and the leaves offer great additions to stir-fries and ferments.

As for a flower, our Strawflower Swiss Giants, is becoming a favourite. They are so beautiful to behold, make great bouquet flowers as well as flowers to use in craft projects or dried arrangements. Kids seem to really love them for their vibrant colours for free play and making creations.

What do you like most about producing seeds?

Knowing where our seed and therefore food comes from and having confidence that we are helping our family and many other NZ families develop food security. 

Do you have offerings besides seeds that you want to share?

We have some live plant material like strawberry runners, seed potatoes, yams, seed garlic and multiplying onions available seasonally throughout the year. We also offer educational workshops at Setha’s Seeds as well as at other locations from time to time. We have created several booklets with important information about seed propagation and harvesting which are also available on our website.  And our gift vouchers make great gifts for your gardening friends and family!

(If you are interested in purchasing any strawberries, potatoes, yams, garlic, or multiplying onions from Setha’s Seeds, we recommend signing up for their newsletter as they sell out quickly and you will want to know when they become available! You can sign up to the newsletter on their website)

Setha’s Kale Salad

Method:

Combine the kale, onions, and petals

Add the dressing and toss – let sit for 20 min.

Just prior to serving toss in the toasted seeds and leave some for garnish on top 😊

Ingredients:

1 bunch finely chopped kale (I often use Red Russian; we sell the seed 😉)

A few Spring Onions chopped or red onion thinly sliced

Calendula flower petals

Toasted seeds (I use sesame and sunflower)

Dressing – 1/3 each of Olive Oil, Tamari (soy sauce), Cider Vinegar or Lemon juice.

Member Spotlight - Waewae Permaculture

Fiona and Lian of Waewae Permaculture are our second member spotlight. They live and grow food in Osborne, just outside of Dunedin where they are cultivating a huge variety of vegetables, some fruit, herbs, and keep a wee herd of alpaca to manage what grass hasn’t been turned into garden beds.

You can find Waewae’s produce seasonally at the Otago Farmers Market, through their vege box scheme, and now at a roadside stall at the Holy Cow, just outside of Port Chalmers. Find out more about all they offer in their directory and CSA listings.

Besides answering some questions about themselves to help us all get to know them better, Lian and Fiona have recently hosted our market Southland Market Garden Training Programme participants during a field trip to Dunedin, and Lian led a zoom workshop for that as well. We really appreciate their willingness to share their time and expertise!

How did you get into growing?

We were both home and community gardeners with only basic growing skills but Fiona wanted to grow on a small commercial scale. Fiona started working for John McCafferty, a local organic grower who encouraged her to develop her own gardens. Lian got on board after 1 year as the challenge needed 2 people!

What's your current favorite plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

Broccoli! We tried a new variety with great success, Summer Green F1 from Kings seeds. We planted it in Feb, and it produced great heads but since then has regrown large side shoots over and over all winter long and is still going strong. Nigel from Oamaru organics also gave us some advice on large brassica, that they do like to spread large roots and some cultivation is required if the soil is not perfect, so we planted it where we previously had dug potatoes for some nice loose soil.

What do you like most about growing food for your community?

It helps us connect with the community in a rural area, as well as the wider community of growers and food lovers.

Do you have offerings besides vegetables that you want to share?

We run gardening workshops in spring, and also sell a few seeds we grow ourselves. We have 2 workshops for different skill levels this spring, you can take a look at https://openfoodnetwork.org.nz/waewae-permaculture/shop

Do you have a seasonal recipe you can share?

Pan Pak Choi from The Otago Farmers Market Recipe Catalogue

Recipe by Amy Dougherty

Method

Wash and cut length ways the pak choi and cut red onions into quarters with the end left on halves, so they keep together. Heat garlic oil in a large fry and cook red onion first, then batches of pak choi. Place on a board.  To toast the sunflower seeds, use the same pan (just wipe out with a paper towel) add the sunflower seeds and then the olive salt. Toss over the heat until they start to turn golden, then sprinkle the seeds over the pak choi. 

Serve on a wooden board as a side or as a main. Grate over the fresh radish to garnish.  

 Ingredients

2 heads of pak choi 

2-3 Tbsp garlic infused olive oil or use plain

2 small red onions 

2-3 radishes 

1/4 cup sunflower seeds 

1 tsp olive salt or use plain

Member Spotlight - Tomtit Farm

Our first member spotlight is Tomtit Farm. The Tomtits, Brit and James, are located in Matangi, Hamilton and they are growing a beautiful array of produce, flowers, and healthy, happy soil! You can find out more about their offerings and how to support their work in their directory listing. They are also part of the Earthworkers programme and have recently been featured on a Farmers in the Field Episode where they talk about no-till techniques and cover cropping. Watch that here!

Tomtit Farm offers their produce through a CSA as well as a 24/7 road side fridge at the Front Paddock Cafe and they even offer delivery! Their CSA offerings include seasonal veges as well as add ons such as fresh baked bread, local eggs, and Last Jar preserves which features Tomtit Farm’s vegetables. It is so great to see the way they are connecting with and supporting other local food business, this is what building local food systems is all about!

Thanks Tomtits for supporting our work here at Village Agrarians, we love what you are doing up north and can’t wait to see what you get up to this season! We are very excited to have you as part of our community!

The Tomtits answered some questions from us about themselves, and shared with us a warming winter recipe featuring cauliflower! Learn more about them below:

How did you get into growing?

Hmmm good question, well I am a massive foodie and love anything that has to do with cooking and eating so I guess growing food is a nice compliment to this passion of mine. The growing journey started from finishing my studies in human nutrition and falling down a rabbit hole of academia where I was hungry for more impact at the community level where the idea of growing organic food came about. I quit my job and started volunteering at community gardens and wwoofing around NZ when the opportunity arose to have a go ourselves in the Waikato a few years ago now.

What's your current favorite plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

There are too many to choose from... coming into spring it would be rude not to mention the happiness dahlias and zinnias bring to our garden. Though this winter I have really enjoyed growing radicchio, the patterns and brightness they bring to the winter garden is amazing.

What do you like most about growing food for your community?

How we can inspire and provide the tools for our community to learn about seasonal produce that grow well for us here in the Waikato, we provide access to a huge variety of produce and exhibit climate mitigation focused growing. The kindness and joy we receive from our customers makes my day and the turn out we get at our community gardening workshops always blows me away.

Do you have offerings besides vegetables that you want to share?

We are just about to start our Spring Seasonal Harvest CSA in September, this is more than vegetables, this is a community between us the farmers, our members who enjoy our produce and the land that we grow the food on. We love offering the chance for our customers to stick with us for a whole season because we really get to know each other really well over this time and can really demonstrate seasonal produce and how it's produced. Our Seasonal Harvest Members become part of the Tomtit Farmily.

We are also growing flowers again this season and are bringing back the Tomtit Farm PYO flowers days.

Do you have a seasonal recipe you can share?

Yes this is one of my absolute winter favourites and it's so easy to whip up.

Whole roasted cauliflower with sesame flat bread, recipe below.

(you can find more amazing recipes from Tomtit Farm on their website)