OFN June Newsletter
Healthy and resilient communities need healthy and resilient food systems
Kia ora koutou
Takurua / winter is a time when things slow down in the garden. It is a chance to reflect on summer's bounty, as well as things learnt through another season of growing. It is also a time to start planning for the next growing season and tidying up the garden shed.
In this newsletter we have stories on Give to Grow – an organisation that refurbishes those unused tools you have in the back of the shed and gives them to people wanting to start a garden. We find out about biochar from Dennis Enright, give a summary of the Community Fruit Harvest and share a snippet of local food history.
Check out the up-coming events at the end of the newsletter.
Don’t forget we have some great growing resources on our website and we are still looking for someone to take on the treasurer role with OFN.
And as always, if you have an event you want us to add to Our Food Network’s calendar or a story you want to share, please get in touch at ourfoodnetwork@gmail.com.
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Kā mihi
Robyn Zink
Give to Grow
The idea for Give to Grow was seeded during a contract with OFN where Carla was supporting whānau to start their own edible gardens. She saw that one of the biggest barriers to food gardening was a lack of suitable tools.
In mid-2022, Carla told her 80 something year old father about a whānau who were trying to garden with absolutely no tools - using their hands to dig in hard clay. The next day her Dad, who had been a keen gardener, gifted a set of his garden tools to this family. From that seed the idea of Give to Grow geminated. The name, Give to Grow Ōtepoti, describes what they are about: giving garden resources so that people can grow food. It is a call to action, and an acknowledgement that, through giving, both recipient and donor grow.
Give to Grow collect surplus garden tools and most other gardening resources, refurbish them if necessary and redistribute them to help people grow food. 20 families were given tools in 2024. Anyone who has a community services card, or lives in a Kāinga Ora or DCC home or is referred by a social support agency is automatically eligible for tools.
Watering cans/watering systems, spades and long handled forks are always in high demand, but they will take most tools. (Give to Grow don’t accept chemicals etc, open potting mixes, axes and battery or power tools). To donate tools, get in touch with Carla carla@givetogrow.nz. Someone can collect them or arrange a time to drop them off at their Bridgeman st. work site. They are currently looking for permanent drop off sites in a couple of locations - so watch this space for that. Financial donations are welcome as they help run the operation.
You can help Give to Grow by:
refurbishing donated tools, either through attending working bees (these are mainly bespoke workshops for teams/groups) or taking small tools home to refurbish in your own time.
Become a regular volunteer: they have a range of volunteer roles (fundraising; workshop support; tool collection/distribution). volunteer@givetogrow.nz
Spread the word to your networks about what Give to Grow do
Give to Grow is also able to support community food gardening initiatives with tools. Contact carla@givetogrow.nz 022 499 0568 to inquire directly about tool support.
What is Biochar?
Dennis Enright from New Zealand Biochar spoke at the recent OFN networking hui on the role of biochar in regenerating soils and sequestering carbon as well as how to make biochar.
Dennis has always had his hands in the soil, growing up on a remote farm, working as a soil scientist at Invermay for 20 years, and running an organic market garden. His attention was drawn to biochar about a decade ago and he gave examples of how biochar has been used over thousands of years around the world, including by Māori.
Incorporating biochar in the soil significantly increases the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients, enhances microbial diversity, stimulates plant growth and sequesters carbon. Biochar is not a fertilizer; it is a soil conditioner. The porous surfaces of the mainly organic carbon material holds water and minerals and acts like a reef coral for tiny soil critters to live in. Biochar and compost work well together as compost provides the nutrients which the biochar holds in the soil.
Dennis has experimented with different ways to make biochar on a small and large scale. The basic principle is that biomass (e.g. dry wood) is heated in a low oxygen environment (pyrolysis). The biochar needs to be conditioned with nutrients, e.g. chicken manure and can be added to your compost or onto soil at a rate of 2 L per 1m2. As biochar accumulates in the soil, it only needs to be added for a couple of years.
Dennis stressed that it is important to use good quality ingredients, that is, no tanalised wood which contains toxic heavy metals. Quality biochar must have at least 30% carbon content and show evidence that best practice was used. The IPPC recognises that biochar is a key method of sequestering carbon.
Check out Dennis’ website for more information on biochar and he is happy to provide advice on making biochar. Just remember large scale production of biochar is not possible in urban areas.
Contact: Nzbiocharltd@gmail.com
Images: Above is a simple pit for making biochar. Below is Dennis' latest homemade biochar burner.
The Community Fruit Harvest
Our Food Network, in conjunction with The Valley Project, ran another successful community fruit harvest over the summer. We connect people who have excess fruit with volunteers to pick that fruit and then distribute it to food banks, pātaka kai, the Bowling club and Yours café etc. We also ran three preserving workshops upskilling people on preserving methods and sharing the preserves with people donating fruit, volunteer pickers and pātaka kai. Thanks to Yours Café for hosting the preserving workshops.
1,703kg of fruit was picked from 45 properties by 91 volunteers. Several families joined the picking crew. It was great to see children enjoying the mahi and learning hands on where fruit comes from.
A big thank you for everyone that donated fruit and helped with the picking. We will be back in November so get in touch if you have excess fruit or what to get involved with picking.
Thanks to our funders: DCC waste Minimisation Fund, The Healthcare Otago Charitable Trust and Lottery Grants Board.
Thanks to Harraways and Bunnings for sponsorship for this project.
A Snippet of local food history
For local Māori, barracouta was the most important fish species. It was caught by canoe using a rod, line and lure. Dried barracouta was a staple of the local diet and a key trading item. They were plentiful in the area and a fisherman could catch thousands of fish per day at a rate of four per minute. J. West, The Face of Nature: An Environmental History of the Otago Peninsula, Otago University Press 2017, pp. 82-83.
Māori unloading a catch of barracouta, at Ōtākou. On the right are racks for curing fish so it could be stored. C. 1844.
Shetland Street Community Garden open day
Ever wondered what happens at a community garden? Or are you involved with a community garden and want to see how others do things? Come to the Shetland Street Community Garden open day:
28 Shetland St, Wakari, Ōtepoti
Thursday 3 July between 10am and 3pm.
Tour the garden, share stories and connect with other community gardeners.
Optional: bring kai to share or plants to swap
It's time for the Science Festival again
There are lots of great free events running from the 28 June to 6 July at the NZ International Science Festival. On the 4th and 5th July, you can learn all about invasive plants that grow in our gardens and how to control them. From the 1st to the 6th of July find out how to make your backyard a happy place for you and nature. Find out more by going to the programme
Village Agrarians events
The market Garden Showcase: A winter webinar series
This is a series of 5 webinars starting 12 June, showcasing the lessons, joys and challenges of the growing season. You can book here
The Local Growers Hui. This is for you if you are a market gardener, a grower planning to move into local commercial production or an aspiring grower. 18-20 July at Waihola, Otago. You can book here
Farmers Market NZ Biannual
Conference
14th and 15th July in Wellington - registrations open now.
Did you know that in the 1980s there were over 24,000 vegetable growers in Aotearoa. Now there are around 900. The focus of the conference is how to effectively advocate for small growers and sustainable local food systems.
You can find more information about the conference here
Upcoming working bees!
Buzz along to one of many local community garden working bees, help dig out some weeds, plant some vegetables, and watch nature grow!
Check out the calendar here!
If you would like to list an event, please get in touch!
Got a story or announcement to share? We'd love to hear from you!
Send us your updates, and we'll feature them on our social media, website, and in our newsletter.
Email us at: ourfoodnetwork@gmail.com
