Saturday 6 April
Phil who runs Solscape has built up beautiful gardens but allows plenty of spaces
for growing food. Phil takes the philosophy of zero waste and eco friendly living
seriously, he is sensitive to the natural environment. He noticed that there is a
good deal of processed food brought in to the site so he has strived to introduce the
concept of fresh food to others.
From there we sortied out to a local food coop WOK (Whaingaroa Organic Kai) in Raglan where Jon has
developed a system with members who can join the coop and have the advantage
of getting good quality food at reasonable prices. He also grows seedlings for
a gardens where he produces some of the produce with others. He also has
relationships in the community with other growers who bring in supplies of
vegetables to his coop.
Afterwards, we went to see Cally, a short way out of Raglan, who has 3 hives of bees and
thriving organic gardens, chickens and goats. She is the member of a local and
informal bee group where members help each other to resolve problems they may
be having with their hives. After the local bees in their bush died off after varroa hit
them, Cally decided that the only thing to do was to get some of their own and so has
been learning about bees since with the help of the group.
Back in Raglan we visited the community gardens at the Union church obviously
well tended and quite productive if rather small, the other situated in the gardens of
the Police Station, the front veggie bed was also pumping a good variety of veg and
fruit trees had recently been planted.
On the way home we visited Xtreme waste where Raglan’s total waste stream goes
- apparently 75% is diverted into resale, composting,etc. We talked to Liz there about
a recent trial to collect food waste from 100 households. Eventually it is hoped this
scheme will extend to 1700 households. The trial funded by the MfE has led to
experimentation with hot composting techniques and worm bins to date and it is
hoped is going to continue. Compost from the food waste is mixed with shredded
greenwaste, and trials have been done on the compost at Kaiwhenua Organics (see Monday 8 April blog entry) to
ensure it is suited to growing before it starts to be sold back to the community to
grow food. And so the cycle is complete.
Phil who runs Solscape has built up beautiful gardens but allows plenty of spaces
for growing food. Phil takes the philosophy of zero waste and eco friendly living
seriously, he is sensitive to the natural environment. He noticed that there is a
good deal of processed food brought in to the site so he has strived to introduce the
concept of fresh food to others.
From there we sortied out to a local food coop WOK (Whaingaroa Organic Kai) in Raglan where Jon has
developed a system with members who can join the coop and have the advantage
of getting good quality food at reasonable prices. He also grows seedlings for
a gardens where he produces some of the produce with others. He also has
relationships in the community with other growers who bring in supplies of
vegetables to his coop.
Afterwards, we went to see Cally, a short way out of Raglan, who has 3 hives of bees and
thriving organic gardens, chickens and goats. She is the member of a local and
informal bee group where members help each other to resolve problems they may
be having with their hives. After the local bees in their bush died off after varroa hit
them, Cally decided that the only thing to do was to get some of their own and so has
been learning about bees since with the help of the group.
Back in Raglan we visited the community gardens at the Union church obviously
well tended and quite productive if rather small, the other situated in the gardens of
the Police Station, the front veggie bed was also pumping a good variety of veg and
fruit trees had recently been planted.
On the way home we visited Xtreme waste where Raglan’s total waste stream goes
- apparently 75% is diverted into resale, composting,etc. We talked to Liz there about
a recent trial to collect food waste from 100 households. Eventually it is hoped this
scheme will extend to 1700 households. The trial funded by the MfE has led to
experimentation with hot composting techniques and worm bins to date and it is
hoped is going to continue. Compost from the food waste is mixed with shredded
greenwaste, and trials have been done on the compost at Kaiwhenua Organics (see Monday 8 April blog entry) to
ensure it is suited to growing before it starts to be sold back to the community to
grow food. And so the cycle is complete.