Organic NZ – Natural growing knowledge sharing

Hands holding red green orange and yellow tomatoes

Features

Sheryl Stivens: Organic Pioneer

26 Mar 25

Sheryl Stivens is a Soil & Health member who embodies the motto of ‘healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people’. Mercedes Walkham traces her life and finds out what makes her an organic pioneer and champion.

Cultivating Change

25 Feb 25

Sarah Smuts-Kennedy shares her journey as an artist and advocate for regenerative farming practices, and her role in founding For the Love of Bees, OMG market garden, and the Earthworkers 101 course.

From paddock to plate and back again

23 Jan 25

As he deepens his knowledge of organic and regenerative horticulture and the links with soil, food and health, Chris McIntosh of Ethos Café has found his life journey coming full circle.

Gardening

Moon Calendar May-Jun 2025

16 Apr 25

It brings me great joy that Matariki is being celebrated in whole new ways in New Zealand – our natural new year in the southern hemisphere. In the Gregorian calendar, the ‘new year’ ticks over on an arbitrary day between ‘December’ and ‘January’.

Join the No-Mow movement!

16 Apr 25

Dr John Flux’s neighbour once called to see if he had died – because the grass had grown so long! The Lower Hutt ecologist is an advocate of the no-mow movement because of its many environmental benefits, and describes here how he has implemented it for the past four years in his garden and on the footpath verge.

Photos from Jenny’s garden

25 Feb 25

Soil & Health member Jenny Williamson shares some photos from her garden.

Health and Food

Neem: Nature’s healing gift to humanity

15 Apr 25

The neem tree has many benefits, including as a natural pesticide, fertiliser and it's a plant with various healing qualities. Katherine Smith reviews this book by Klaus Ferlow of Neem Research.

Hot cross buns

14 Apr 25

This spicy, fruity and delicious hot cross bun recipe is by Isabel Pasch, who ran Bread and Butter Bakery in Auckland.

Healthy weight loss

27 Mar 25

Diana Noonan discovered a surprising bonus while following a plant-based whole food eating plan. She also shares her super-easy and delicious recipes for bliss balls and whole-grain crackers.

Health and Food

Sri Lankan pulled jackfruit curry

23 Jan 25

A deliciously unique vegan curry recipe. If you haven’t cooked with jackfruit before, this is an easy way to start. Recipe from Healthy Kelsi by Kelsi Boocock

Easy peri peri chicken

22 Jan 25

A simple spicy chicken recipe from The Good Farm Cookbook, which features wholefood, ethical protein, gluten-free, low-sugar recipes.

Mushrooming with next-gen homesteaders

22 Jan 25

Lenny Prinz and Jodi Collins lead a busy and inspiring life that includes growing mushrooms and cultivating spawn, developing compostable mushroom packaging, creating art, raising children, gardening and community projects. Read their story here.

Farming and Horticulture

Working with the earth

18 Dec 24

Coral Ramiro is the manager of Earth Stewards certified organic urban farm in Kirikiriroa / Hamilton, and an alumna of the Earthworkers Hort 101 programme. She tells her story to Sarah Smuts-Kennedy.

Stop, look and listen to the weeds

25 Nov 24

Organic gardeners and growers can be challenged by weeds. But if we learn to work with them – to observe what weeds grow where, we'll see what they're telling us about the soils.

Steve Erickson, second from right, and group in pasture

Creating on-farm fertility

22 Oct 24

Chaos Springs at Waihi run regular workshops about soil health, composting, and on-farm fertility. Jenny Lux reports on a recent workshop.

Building and Technology

Living Better, Together

27 Mar 25

In an increasingly disconnected world, many people are seeking ways to live more closely with both the environment and one another. For Simone Woodland, a dream to create a different way of life led to the Tākaka Cohousing project in Golden Bay.

Shelf life – or human life?

27 Jun 24

There is a new system of industrial food manufacturing that produces edible substances that are not food, but rather food products containing novel, synthetic molecules never found in nature. These ever-increasing laboratory-engineered chemistry experiments are designed to simulate food.

Critical Thinking on Gene Technology Regulation

08 May 24

Layers of manipulation and obfuscation are being used to package deregulation of gene technologies as a net positive. Bonnie Flaws outlines how, and why one of New Zealand’s leading biological science professors considers regulation the best tool we have to prevent risk.

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Features

Sheryl Stivens: Organic Pioneer

Cultivating Change

From paddock to plate and back again

Gardening

Moon Calendar May-Jun 2025

Join the No-Mow movement!

Photos from Jenny’s garden

Health and Food

Neem: Nature’s healing gift to humanity

Hot cross buns

Healthy weight loss

Health and Food

Sri Lankan pulled jackfruit curry

Easy peri peri chicken

Mushrooming with next-gen homesteaders

Farming and Horticulture

Working with the earth

Stop, look and listen to the weeds

Creating on-farm fertility

Building and Technology

Living Better, Together

Shelf life – or human life?

Critical Thinking on Gene Technology Regulation

Proudly published by the Soil & Health Association NZ

Proudly published by the Soil and Health Association NZ