Posts

Working with the earth

/in , , ,

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.  

We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ.  Join us to access more, exclusive member-only content

Coral’s journey to organic regenerative growing 

Sarah began by asking Coral how she became a regenerative grower and how the Earthworkers course helped shape her path.

“My journey into regenerative farming began far from the soil and was an unexpected turn,” says Coral. “I actually trained as an interior designer in Spain, but had to move to London in 2008 after the recession made it impossible to find any work there. It was in London while living in a tiny flat with no access to nature, that I started to notice I was developing a longing for a connection to the outdoors.”

So when the opportunity arose to volunteer at one of London’s educational farms, Coral joined the team.

“I have always been a vegan passionate about sustainable food systems, so I quickly gravitated towards the growing team, where I discovered a deep sense of belonging with like-minded individuals who shared a desire to create a food system that nourishes both people and the planet.”

ABOVE: Left – polycropping at Earth Stewards; right – Coral Ramiro
Photos: Sarah Smuts-Kennedy

Challenges: catalysts for change

But despite her growing passion, she faced challenges breaking into the sector due to a lack of experience. This was a catalyst for Coral and her partner embarking on their big OE (overseas experience), first going to Australia before ultimately landing in New Zealand.

“I completed my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) at Whanganui Eco School before I was lucky to secure my first role in the sector at Earth Stewards in 2019, just as the farm was getting off the ground,” says Coral.

During Covid-19 Earth Stewards lost its manager and Coral was encouraged to step up and take the reins. It was a daunting task, but luckily six months later, she was invited to take the Earthworkers Hort 101 course, which proved to be a pivotal moment in her career.

Earthworkers course: valuable learning

“The course really opened doors for me,” says Coral. “It helped me become an informed decision-maker. I needed to understand something before I can truly embrace it. The course gave me the base knowledge of why we do what we do, especially when it comes to growing regeneratively and organically. I came away with answers that gave me clarity and confidence in my role as a market garden manager.”

One of the key takeaways for Coral was understanding the science behind regenerative practices, particularly the relationship between soil microbiology, chemistry, minerals, and nutrients.

“It was overwhelming at first. I had a headache for days trying to absorb all the new information, but by the end of the course, I really understood how everything fits together.”

As a creative person, Coral also loved how polycropping allowed her to apply her design skills to farming.

“I get a lot of joy from the colour patterns that appear across the beds over the growing season. We got really excited at Earth Stewards as a team about planning our polycrops, and it gave us a simple way to contribute and learn together.”

“I needed to understand the why behind what we do—why we grow in ways to protect the soil and the whole ecosystem” – Coral Ramiro

Supportive network of growers

In addition to the valuable knowledge gained, the Earthworkers course provided her with the opportunity to connect with other like-minded growers.

“Through the course, I met Jenny Lux of Lux Organics and Brit from Tomtit Farms, and we’ve formed a lasting, supportive connection. Our farms collaborate by sharing produce, seedlings, and knowledge, and we’ve visited each other’s farms, like Jenny’s in Rotorua. It’s been a reminder that we’re not alone. Being part of a network of like-minded growers makes all the difference, especially in a field where the challenges can feel isolating.”

Coral has found the Earthworkers support network to be crucial for her and the Earth Stewards team, especially when it comes to managing pest and disease pressures.

“Having access to the post-course WhatsApp group has been vital. It’s reassuring to see other growers experiencing the same challenges—it makes you feel better about the difficulties you’re facing.”

ABOVE LEFT: Earthworkers participants at Highwic House, left to right: Coral Ramiro, Richard Conyngham, Jenny Lux, Pippa Hayes and Kaitlyn Lamb
ABOVE RIGHT: Coral, standing in the centre, and Brit Stembridge at the front, with other Earthworker participants at Highwic House, learning ‘flipping beds’ with no-till systems. Photos: Sarah Smuts-Kennedy

Stepping up to share knowledge and innovation

“Brit and I are excited to host the 2025 Earthworkers Hort 101 course at Earth Stewards and Tomtit Farms. The Earthworkers course was a game-changer for us, and being able to see these practices in action at the FTLOB (For the Love of Bees) model farm OMG in Auckland really made it feel real and achievable. Now, as we step into hosting the course on our own farms, we hope to inspire local growers in Waikato to embrace biology-first regenerative growing systems.”

Coral’s enthusiasm for soil science as a result of the Earthworkers course led her to undertake more study with Dr Elaine Ingham via the Soil Food Web. Participants in the next Earthworkers course in March 2025 will be able to see some of the research project she did.

Earth Stewards is certified organic with OrganicFarmNZ. It has come a long way since its early days, and Coral and the team will share some of the farm’s innovations with course participants in March.

Enhancing soils with compost and cover crops

“One of the things we’re really proud of is our ability to grow all the inputs we need to produce high-quality compost. We’re now self-sufficient in compost production, which we use for our seed-raising mix. Knowing that we control the quality of our seedlings has made a huge difference.”

“We’ve also had our first successful season managing our cover crops, allowing us to have in-situ mulch on most of our beds. This has drastically improved our moisture management and weed control, while also providing nutrition to the plants as they grow.” “This season while we were planting out our seedlings we experienced the soil being bouncy underfoot for the first time, and found preparing for planting carrots much easier. Over time we are seeing a change in the physical conditions of the farm as a result of the practices we are using.”

ABOVE: Abundant growth in the Earth Stewards greenhouse. Photos: Sarah Smuts-Kennedy

Finding the best sales model

At Earth Stewards they have also made real progress with their sales system, which they discovered is just as important as the growing.

“We started out doing farmers’ markets and had just started implementing the CSA (community supported agriculture) model as Covid started,” Coral recalls. “In a few weeks we went from doing a few CSA boxes to over 100, which put us under untenable pressure. It took us a while to find the right balance, and model, for selling our produce, but now we have a thriving shop on site which is open one day a week with talk of opening another day.”

“On sunny days there is a queue to buy produce which comes from a few local growers we are collaborating with. This gives us a very practical way to contribute to local growers who are also needing to sell their produce.”

The importance of a sense of community in organic regenerative farming is huge. Farming can be isolating, especially when you’re committed to healing the ecosystem the community gets even smaller. But for Coral and others the Earthworkers network has helped them feel supported and connected to others who are facing similar challenges.

“Together, we’re learning, growing, and turning our farms into models of biology-first regenerative practice.”

Earthworkers Hort 101

24–28 March 2025, Hamilton

Hosted by:

  • Coral Ramiro and team at Earth Stewards
  • Brit and James Stembridge of Tomtit Farm
  • Chris McIntosh at Ethos Café’s new start-up farm

These three farms will showcase regenerative farming practices in action. Participants in the course will learn from these growers who have experience of managing farms and offer models of what’s possible using biology-first regenerative methods.

Find out more and ENROL HERE by 9 March 2025.

ABOVE: Earthworkers lead agronomist Daniel Schuurman showing soil samples to Earthworkers participants at OMG in central Auckland. Photo: Kate Micaela

Earthworkers alumni – continuing the journey

Since it was launched in 2020 the five-day Earthworkers Hort 101 course has encouraged nearly 200 alumni to turn food production into an ecosystem restoration tool. Continuing this support via post-course mentoring they have established a network of optimistic like-minded growers who help each other in the day-to-day stresses and joys of learning how to work alongside nature to feed their local communities.

As a result, Earthworkers lead agronomist Daniel Schuurman and Earthworkers co-founder Sarah Smuts-Kennedy are developing the Earthworkers Educational Pathway to include opportunities for those wanting to take their learning to the next stage.

In 2024 For the Love of Bees (FTLOB) ran the Communities of Regenerative Learning (CORL) programme) in Tāmaki Makaurau, supporting six urban growing projects engaging alumni to step into mentoring roles. In 2025 this is being rebranded as the Earthworkers Alumni Research Group and will support a small group of alumni who want to deepen their knowledge using their own projects to do this.

Sarah Smuts-Kennedy is the founder of For the Love of Bees and OMG (Organic Market Garden in central Auckland), and co-founder of the Earthworkers programme. 
Gorse in flower

Stop, look and listen to the weeds

/in , , ,

Paige Murray explores how we can work with weeds as organic gardeners and growers. 

Growing organically, as you well know, is not without its challenges: weeds in abundance, certain insects wreaking havoc out in the fields, not to mention the constant soil remediation and conditioning.

While these obstacles may be at times overwhelming, there are ways to manage them – and let’s be brutally honest here: if you’re taking the leap and growing without synthetic chemicals, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve completely weed- and pest-free crops. 

Monarch butterfly on Scotch thistle

  

The following content is only available to logged-in members. Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.

Paige Murray lives near Christchurch and loves any excuse to get outdoors. Passionate about organic and regenerative agriculture, she works for Quorum Sense and Streamside Organics, and spends most of her free time gardening, making cheese and preserves, or climbing up rocks.

Steve Erickson, second from right, and group in pasture

Creating on-farm fertility

/in , , ,

By Jenny Lux

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

We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ.  Join us to access more, exclusive member-only content

Chaos Springs workshops 

I have been an avid follower of Chaos Springs since I first went there in 2014 on a field trip as a student doing an evening class in Level 3 organic primary production. Recently I did a cheeky entry into one of their competitions for a free place in a workshop and I won!

So on a sunny spring Friday in October I attended the Creating On-Farm Fertility workshop taught by Steve and Jenny Erickson. This proved to be equally useful and stimulating to me, a market gardener, as it was to the many pastoral farmers, orchardists and general public attending, who all had a common interest in living off the land in some way.

ABOVE: Jenny Erickson (left) and Steve Erickson by the vege garden, looking at the health and quality of the soil. Behind Jenny is a huge lemon verbena.

The biological engine

It all comes back to what Steve calls the ‘biological engine’ and getting that really humming. It’s an analogy that suits a mechanic like Steve, who is the man behind the innovative Cyclone multi-task sprayer. This machine allows you to combine compost, minerals and fertilisers in a liquid format for a single application onto land, and can handle particles up to 15mm – an amazing tool!

Steve (centre) with workshop group and the Cyclone at right
Steve Erickson (centre) with barrels of comfrey extract

The day began with a couple hours of lectures, and a sumptuous morning tea, followed by a BYO packed lunch and a farm tour. We started looking at the plant extract facility, then onto the commercial composting area (with a demo of the Cyclone), and a walk through some paddocks to dig holes and observe soil structure and visible biological activity. We finished at Jenny’s biodynamic home garden, where you could see and also feel the energy of plants growing in balance.

This Chaos Springs workshop attracted a lot of practitioners with many years of knowledge, so there was a really rich exchange of ideas and advice. My only criticism was that it didn’t really seem long enough!

If you are managing any piece of land, I would highly recommend attending one of the Chaos Springs workshops. There is an on-farm composting workshop coming up on 29 November.

https://www.chaossprings.co.nz/events

Jenny Lux, immediate past co-chair of Soil & Health, is an organic market gardener at Rotorua.

ABOVE: Jenny Erickson with her ashwagandha plant inside her glasshouse.
ABOVE: Steve Erickson of Chaos Springs (second from right) speaks of his journey in pasture management over the last 22 years, from a fairly degraded base of ragwort-infested conventional dairy pasture on clay, to a currently thriving mixed sward on a darker clay-loam that provides optimal nutrition for his animals and is maintained only twice a year with a biological liquid spray, all made on farm.

Spring into Kōanga!

/in , , ,

By Tanya Batt

Tanya Batt shares the story of Spring into Kōanga, a seasonal celebration on Waiheke Island. It’s one of the Kai for Community projects run by the Once Upon an Island Charitable Trust These projects focus on reconnecting with true seasonal celebrations and the stories and traditions around growing, harvesting and sharing food in the Waiheke community.  

We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ.  Join us to access more, exclusive member-only content

Egg time! 

It’s egg time. Many people often fail to make the connection between eggs, Easter and spring – kōanga. Probably because we celebrate Easter (a northern spring festival) in Australia and New Zealand in autumn.

However if you are lucky enough to have the company of a few chickens, that connection will come as no surprise to you. At this time of year you can be sure of an egg for breakfast. But for many of us, eggs (if you eat them) come from shops and shops always have eggs regardless of the season.

When we lose the connection between our seasons and celebrations, a vacuum is created and celebrations become superficial. Instead of connecting us to our environment, they become focused on what we can buy and how things look, and reverence is often diminished or lost. Upcoming spring Halloween celebrations demonstrate this perfectly.

ABOVE: Laying the tāpapa beds, Piritahi Marae, Waiheke Island, September 2024

September: Laying the tāpapa beds 

Here on Waiheke, we’re seasonally celebrating with Spring into Kōanga – a story in two parts.

The first part took place during September with the return of the pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoo), in the māra of the Island’s Piritahi Marae, with the laying of the tāpapa beds from which will grow the tipu of the kūmara. These tipu (shoots or slips) will then be sown later in October or early November.

The September event was led by whaea Maikara Ropata, and kaumatua Eugene Behan-Kitto, a master kūmara grower who learnt his growing skills from the late Kato Kauwhata (Ngāpuhi), kaumata and inaugural chairperson of Piritahi Marae. The hope is to grow enough tipu this kōanga, for both the marae māra and other community garden groups, and activate island wide uptake of growing kūmara.

Growing stories and kākano (seed) for the hue (gourd) were also shared in an informal kōrero about this treasured plant – another early arrival bought by the tipuna of tangata Māori. When young, the fruit of this plant can be eaten but as a dried mature fruit it was used a storage vessel, musical instrument and taonga. The day finished with a kōrero given by Mike Smith, a climate activist who has recently won the right to take several large companies in New Zealand to court for failure to curtail their carbon emissions.

Kūmara was the first cultivated crop grown in Aotearoa. Its legacy as a primary food source of the people of this country stretches back several hundred years. The māra kūmara falls under the domain of Rongo-mā-Tāne, the atua of cultivated food and of peace.

October: Pumpkins, corn, tomatoes and more 

Our second event was held on the grounds of another of our community gardens – the Surfdale food forest – on 20 October. The programme included a talk about growing tomatoes with one of our green-fingered gurus, Eddie Welsh, seasonal kai ideas from the Waiheke Home Grown Trust, a spring posy competition, egg decorating and plant giveaways for the summer garden.

The focus was on two plants in particular: pumpkins and corn. Both plants originate from the Americas, their cultivation extending back thousands of years.

There are lots of traditions and stories associated with corn. In Europe, a ‘corn mother’ or ‘the old woman’ or ‘corn dolly’ was made out of corn (though corn was a generic word used for grain). The corn dollies were kept in the barn to protect the crops during winter, and then ploughed into the ground come spring to ensure a good harvest.

This tradition resonates strongly with another story of corn, which is told by a number of North American First Nations people from the eastern and south-western areas, where from the first mother’s body grew the first maize plants.

Attendees were given free pumpkin seedlings and corn seed, accompanied by a story and a song and were encouraged to bring their harvests to the Autumn Kai for Community Waiheke Food Festival in April 2025. The pumpkin seedlings were germinated by the students of the Waiheke Primary School’s Garden to Table programme. This programme was also the source of the pink popping corn seed that will be distributed for growing over summer, again culminating in a island-wide ‘pop-a-thon’ in autumn.

A primary focus of the Kai for Community programme is to excite and support families to grow food at home, fostering the green hearts and fingers of young children. Both Spring into Kōanga events have been generously supported by the Waiheke Local Board and are part of the Waiheke Island Climate Action plan.

The relationship we have with the land we live on, the food we grow and eat and each other are the cornerstones of wellbeing. Celebrating our seasons brings these three important things together and helps create healthy and happy hapori (communities).

Hollie Pierson with a Kai for Community tea towel
Opening ceremony, Kai for Community Harvest festival in April

Tanya Batt is a word warbler and seed sower living on Waiheke Island. Her two passions – storytelling and gardening – have found a happy union in the work she does as a storytelling gardener at a local school and through her role as creative director of the Once Upon an Island Charitable Trust’s Kai for Community (KFC) projects.

www.imagined-worlds.net

ABOVE: Tanya Batt with Chinese cabbage

When Micromanaging is Good 

/in , , ,

Microbes are a big name in organic agriculture – in fact, they are the reason for everything. I’m not exaggerating here: the first life forms thought to have existed were – you guessed it – of such tiny proportions that you and I would have thought nothing of them.  Story and photos by Paige Murray. 

Paige Murray

I’m sure you know the basics, but to be clear, ‘microbe’ is the broad term to describe organisms of microscopic size – too small for us humans to see, thus we give them far less credit than they deserve. In this case, I’m referring to the microbes colonising our soils and helping our plants to grow big, strong and healthy. Microbes are like colostrum for babies: without them, our plants would be sickly, weak and lacking a whole heap of important nutrients.

The following content is only available to logged-in members. Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.

Paige lives in a tiny house on the outskirts of Lincoln, and loves to get her hands dirty in all ways homesteading. A childhood of growing up on and around farms was the perfect way to understand that agriculture got us, as a human race, to where we are today… and it will shape who we become tomorrow. 

The past five years saw Paige working on an organic market garden. It was here that she learnt (in spite of what all her agricultural science lecturers told her) that organics can be economically viable, and is a pretty good way to grow and produce alongside nature, rather than fighting her. 

What is Syntropic Agroforestry?

/in , ,

Story and photos by Andy Jeffs  

I have been exploring syntropic agroforestry over the past three years, and in this article I’ve outlined the foundational concepts.  

My practical application and experiences of syntropic agroforestry are limited but there is a lot of information available, and some great practitioners up and down the country offering workshops and courses. 

Natural succession | Illustration adapted from Syntropic Farming Guidebook by Roger Gietzen 

  

The following content is only available to logged-in members. Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.

Andy Jeffs lives with his wife Erica in Hawke’s Bay. He manages a BioGro certified organic blueberry orchard at True Earth. He enjoys growing food at home using principles that regenerate the earth. 

Shai Magic

/in , ,

Raglan organic grower, compost maker, gardening educator and permaculture landscape designer Shai Brod shares his compost-making and spring gardening tips with Mynda Mansfield.  

Shai Brod

The following content is only available to logged-in members – log in here. Not a member? Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.

Mynda Mansfield is a writer and long-time organic gardener who lives in Raglan. She runs a homeschool group for 12 children using Waldorf education principles, and has published a book called A Eurythmy Teacher’s Handbook.

www.myndamansfield.com  

The Wild and Wonderful World of Perennial Brassicas

/in ,

By Peta Hudson and Philippa Jamieson

The following content is only available to logged-in members. Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.

Peta Hudson is a permaculture teacher and gardener, and former proofreader of Organic NZ. 
Philippa Jamieson is a writer, editor and author of The Wild Green Yonder: Ten Seasons Volunteering on New Zealand’s Organic Farms. 

Article first published in Organic NZ November/December 2019 

Winter Jobs for Blueberries in the Home Garden

/in , ,

There are many blueberry varieties available to the home gardener. Large and small, sweet and sour and everything else in between. They can be notoriously difficult to grow. So if you have some blueberry plants, here are a few winter jobs to help your plants to thrive. Words and pictures by Andy Jeffs.

The following content is only available to logged-in members. Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.

Andy Jeffs manages a BioGro certified organic blueberry orchard at True Earth in Hawke’s Bay. He enjoys growing food at home using principles that regenerate the earth. In life he seeks, shares, grows and connects.  

Photos by Andy Jeffs, taken at True Earth 

Bio-boost Your Compost!

/in

Story and photos by Christine Grieder 

The following content is only available to members. Join us to view all our content.

Christine Grieder lives with her partner on a four-acre property at Wakefield, near Nelson. She gardens using permaculture principles and tries to grow as much as she can of the things they need.