For most of her life Belinda Clark has enjoyed good health, despite a tendency to do too much, but her skin has often shown when something’s amiss. Here she shares her story.
Fortunately my mother started learning about healthy food when my sisters and I were young, and my parents eventually converted their citrus orchard to being organic and biodynamic.
Our mother’s research into wellbeing strongly influenced my own choices with holistic health later. These helped me stay generally well through student and overseas years and teaching in a New Zealand Steiner school, mostly while raising three children.
I sometimes enjoyed sweet food, concerned only for my teeth and very occasional candida outbreaks, although I knew of naturopaths who advised clients to avoid it. Dr Rudolf Steiner had recommended it for some, I’d heard, and most people ate it, so I took little notice.
Twenty-two years ago, my daughters, our pets and I moved to a lifestyle block near Napier. It was lovely and brought many benefits but also new pressures, especially when I accepted a herd of angora goats.
ABOVE: Belinda Clark with granddaughter Isla and Caspian the cat, by a raised vege bed.
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Belinda Clark is a Soil & Health member who lives near a daughter and granddaughter at Birdsong Nature Sanctuary.
She enjoys learning from and supporting Nature, writing poems and short stories for her ‘Unusual Encounters’ book, being part of an International Peace Group and singing in Napier Community Choir.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/IMG_20221227_164633-cropped-scaled.jpg12562560Staff Writerhttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngStaff Writer2024-12-19 11:25:302025-04-03 16:26:54My journey to healthier skin
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.
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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 need 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 need 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.
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.
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This coming January, we have a unique opportunity to experiment, and see the impact a particular aspect of the calendar can have on our environment. With the node coming up at 3pm on Sunday 19 January, we can sow radish seed hourly from 9am to 9pm, to see how the negative influence can arrive, and subside.
Negative influence can be perceived as stunted or unusual growth, pest and disease occurrence, slow growing, and lack of yield. Some practitioners avoid garden work for the whole day due to the negative influence, some avoid two hours either side; in the calendar here we suggest avoiding six hours before, and three hours after.
For this, I suggest sourcing a large tray, good quality seed raising mix, and new seed. Radishes do prefer cooler temperatures, so ensure the tray is not in full sun or a very hot seedling house. It is also important to clearly label by the hour, as in weeks to come these are very important data points! Each hour, on the hour sow a line of radish seed in the tray and water in gently. I would also suggest sowing one more row of radish seed the next day on Monday 20 January in the morning, as a control.
Radishes are great for this experiment, as they germinate quickly. It could be a great little school holiday project for the kids! In the coming days you will see life emerge, and the opportunity to witness. Photographs are a great tool in this, to create a catalogue of the changes through the growth period in the coming weeks.
This particular node also falls during an ascending period, on a root day, which is when we typically would sow radishes in the garden. You are welcome to repeat this experiment multiple times, but also consider the constellation and placement in the sky of the moon where the node is present, as it most likely will differ next time from a root day during an ascending period.
If you would like to share your results, please contact me here.
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Monique Macfarlane is a holistic food systems facilitator, teaching biodynamics, planting by the moon, no-dig food growing and self-sufficiency. See www.natural-wisdom.net
Monique co-creates with organic, biodynamic, regenerative, no-till, and natural principles on eight hectares in Waihi that includes a small market garden, orchard, pastoral grazing, chickens and agroforestry.
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.
Yellow Admiral butterfly on Scotch thistle
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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.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/IMG_20241120_080942.jpg14261080Staff Writerhttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngStaff Writer2024-11-25 11:56:302025-07-04 16:45:41Stop, look and listen to the weeds
Many shop-bought protein bars hit your protein numbers, but they come with so many other sweeteners and additives that aren’t great for you to be eating habitually. With this recipe I tried to create a protein bar that was healthy.
Images and text from Food for Menopause by Dr Linia Patel, photography by Clare Winfield. Murdoch Books RRP $45.00
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Clients (especially those who are on the go a lot) are always asking me to recommend a protein bar. To be honest, there isn’t one that I would recommend for regular consumption! They’re okay as an occasional get-out-of-jail card, but not for regular consumption.
Many shop-bought protein bars hit your protein numbers, but they come with so many other sweeteners and additives that aren’t great for you to be eating habitually.
With this recipe, I tried to create a protein bar (without using protein powder) that was healthy. One that I would be happy to recommend my clients eat regularly. Each bar gives you about 5 grams of protein – perfect for a snack. They are high in healthy fats, so, as yummy as they taste, keep it to one per snack!
Makes 10-12 bars
Ready in 20 minutes, plus chilling
Vegan
Gluten free
Ingredients
2 tbsp tahini
4 tbsp almond or peanut butter
60g (scant ½ cup) dark (70%) chocolate chips
200g (7oz) cooked quinoa
70g (½ cup) whole unpeeled almonds, chopped
30g (1oz) whole linseeds or flaxseeds
Method
Line a small loaf, baking or cake tin with parchment paper.
Either in the microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, melt the tahini, nut butter and chocolate together until smooth.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Tip into the prepared tin and chill for at least 1 hour, then cut into 10–12 small bars.
Tips
These will keep in the fridge for up to 10 days. If you like, you can drizzle with extra melted chocolate before slicing (as per the photo).
“Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one ‘right’ way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits”. This is the introductory sentence on the Harvard Education blog “What is neurodiversity?”
However, unless we dig a little bit deeper that catch-all term doesn’t explain the glaringly obvious struggles some people live with or the subtle, hardly noticed nuances that make life very difficult for others.
While I applaud inclusive language and thinking, my experience as a specialist in the management of autism spectrum in schools tells me that despite changing the terminology every 30 years or so, we are still very short on understanding how to help neurodiverse people survive and even thrive in our society that caters to the less diverse majority.
Understanding what is going on for people – especially children – is the only way to inform strategies and systems to help them cope with life.
The shape of walnuts is similar to the human brain
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Mary Allan is a retired special needs educator who still maintains a focus on managing ASD and severe behaviour. She is a keen gardener, spurred on by the limited range of organic and GE-free foods in the supermarkets, and the need to provide gluten-free and dairy-free food for her family.
Our Calendars are back by popular demand. We have the sought after ‘N*de Gardening’ calendar, as well as a requested ‘Beautiful Gardens’ calendar (for those who prefer to hang a calendar that doesn’t get so much attention!). Both calendars include the moon phases.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/beautiful-gardens-calendar2-2025-soil-health-nz.jpg10801080Claire Flynnhttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngClaire Flynn2024-11-05 13:08:572025-02-20 21:47:012025 Calendars for Sale
As the weather warms, the garden fills with the beginnings of summer abundance. I am such a fan of fruiting crops such as tomatoes, beans, eggplants, chillies, as they just keep on giving. It is important to ensure you are planting out healthy, well established seedlings, as this will help with transition into the garden, and assist in everything flourishing with ease.
When I first started growing food, I had a very structured approach to all the tasks that needed doing – setting up beds, sowing seeds, growing seedlings, transplanting, plant care, nutrition sprays, mulching, harvesting. The more years I have been with the garden, the more that a new approach has arisen: one that flows with the garden.
Instead of writing a never-ending to-do list, once I arrive in the garden, I focus first on the suggested daily task in the calendar, as the cosmic power is in alignment with it, and then I leave the rest of the time open, to tend to what needs doing as I witness it.
Timeliness is always key. When we do the job that needs doing as soon as we see it, or have an internal prompt to check in on it, I find it is far more efficient. As soon as I notice that the tomato laterals need to be pinched, it’s a quick and easy job, whereas if I add it to the to-do list – they are a forest by the time I get back to it!
Changing the approach to being with the garden in this way, following the cues of the entire ecosystem, allows us greater connection to ourselves, as well as everything that surrounds us.
A worthy gift this season, and beyond.
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Monique Macfarlane is a holistic food systems facilitator, teaching biodynamics, planting by the moon, no-dig food growing and self-sufficiency. See www.natural-wisdom.net
Monique co-creates with organic, biodynamic, regenerative, no-till, and natural principles on eight hectares in Waihi that includes a small market garden, orchard, pastoral grazing, chickens and agroforestry.
Chaos Springs at Waihi run regular workshops about soil health, composting, and creating on-farm fertility. Jenny Lux reports on a recent workshop.
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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 rightSteve 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.
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.
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.
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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 towelOpening 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.
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My journey to healthier skin
/in Features, Health and FoodDiet and the skin-sugar connection
For most of her life Belinda Clark has enjoyed good health, despite a tendency to do too much, but her skin has often shown when something’s amiss. Here she shares her story.
Fortunately my mother started learning about healthy food when my sisters and I were young, and my parents eventually converted their citrus orchard to being organic and biodynamic.
Our mother’s research into wellbeing strongly influenced my own choices with holistic health later. These helped me stay generally well through student and overseas years and teaching in a New Zealand Steiner school, mostly while raising three children.
I sometimes enjoyed sweet food, concerned only for my teeth and very occasional candida outbreaks, although I knew of naturopaths who advised clients to avoid it. Dr Rudolf Steiner had recommended it for some, I’d heard, and most people ate it, so I took little notice.
Twenty-two years ago, my daughters, our pets and I moved to a lifestyle block near Napier. It was lovely and brought many benefits but also new pressures, especially when I accepted a herd of angora goats.
ABOVE: Belinda Clark with granddaughter Isla and Caspian the cat, by a raised vege bed.
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Belinda Clark is a Soil & Health member who lives near a daughter and granddaughter at Birdsong Nature Sanctuary.
She enjoys learning from and supporting Nature, writing poems and short stories for her ‘Unusual Encounters’ book, being part of an International Peace Group and singing in Napier Community Choir.
Working with the earth
/in Education and Knowledge, Farming and Horticulture, Features, Free Online, GardeningCoral 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.
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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.”
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 need 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.”
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 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.”
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:
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.
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.
Moon Calendar Jan-Feb 2025
/in GardeningCosmic planting calendar
By Monique Macfarlane
This coming January, we have a unique opportunity to experiment, and see the impact a particular aspect of the calendar can have on our environment. With the node coming up at 3pm on Sunday 19 January, we can sow radish seed hourly from 9am to 9pm, to see how the negative influence can arrive, and subside.
Negative influence can be perceived as stunted or unusual growth, pest and disease occurrence, slow growing, and lack of yield. Some practitioners avoid garden work for the whole day due to the negative influence, some avoid two hours either side; in the calendar here we suggest avoiding six hours before, and three hours after.
For this, I suggest sourcing a large tray, good quality seed raising mix, and new seed. Radishes do prefer cooler temperatures, so ensure the tray is not in full sun or a very hot seedling house. It is also important to clearly label by the hour, as in weeks to come these are very important data points! Each hour, on the hour sow a line of radish seed in the tray and water in gently. I would also suggest sowing one more row of radish seed the next day on Monday 20 January in the morning, as a control.
Radishes are great for this experiment, as they germinate quickly. It could be a great little school holiday project for the kids! In the coming days you will see life emerge, and the opportunity to witness. Photographs are a great tool in this, to create a catalogue of the changes through the growth period in the coming weeks.
This particular node also falls during an ascending period, on a root day, which is when we typically would sow radishes in the garden. You are welcome to repeat this experiment multiple times, but also consider the constellation and placement in the sky of the moon where the node is present, as it most likely will differ next time from a root day during an ascending period.
If you would like to share your results, please contact me here.
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Monique Macfarlane is a holistic food systems facilitator, teaching biodynamics, planting by the moon, no-dig food growing and self-sufficiency. See www.natural-wisdom.net
Monique co-creates with organic, biodynamic, regenerative, no-till, and natural principles on eight hectares in Waihi that includes a small market garden, orchard, pastoral grazing, chickens and agroforestry.
Images: Arina-Ulyasheva, VeraPetruk
Stop, look and listen to the weeds
/in Education and Knowledge, Farming and Horticulture, Gardening, Magazine ArticlesPaige 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.
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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.
Dark chocolate crunch bars (aka ‘healthy’ protein bars)
/in Free Online, Health and FoodBy Dr Linia Patel
Many shop-bought protein bars hit your protein numbers, but they come with so many other sweeteners and additives that aren’t great for you to be eating habitually. With this recipe I tried to create a protein bar that was healthy.
Images and text from Food for Menopause by Dr Linia Patel, photography by Clare Winfield. Murdoch Books RRP $45.00
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Clients (especially those who are on the go a lot) are always asking me to recommend a protein bar. To be honest, there isn’t one that I would recommend for regular consumption! They’re okay as an occasional get-out-of-jail card, but not for regular consumption.
Many shop-bought protein bars hit your protein numbers, but they come with so many other sweeteners and additives that aren’t great for you to be eating habitually.
With this recipe, I tried to create a protein bar (without using protein powder) that was healthy. One that I would be happy to recommend my clients eat regularly. Each bar gives you about 5 grams of protein – perfect for a snack. They are high in healthy fats, so, as yummy as they taste, keep it to one per snack!
Makes 10-12 bars
Ready in 20 minutes, plus chilling
Vegan
Gluten free
Ingredients
Method
Tips
These will keep in the fridge for up to 10 days. If you like, you can drizzle with extra melted chocolate before slicing (as per the photo).
Differently wired brains
/in Features, Health and FoodBy Mary Allan
“Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one ‘right’ way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits”. This is the introductory sentence on the Harvard Education blog “What is neurodiversity?”
However, unless we dig a little bit deeper that catch-all term doesn’t explain the glaringly obvious struggles some people live with or the subtle, hardly noticed nuances that make life very difficult for others.
While I applaud inclusive language and thinking, my experience as a specialist in the management of autism spectrum in schools tells me that despite changing the terminology every 30 years or so, we are still very short on understanding how to help neurodiverse people survive and even thrive in our society that caters to the less diverse majority.
Understanding what is going on for people – especially children – is the only way to inform strategies and systems to help them cope with life.
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Mary Allan is a retired special needs educator who still maintains a focus on managing ASD and severe behaviour. She is a keen gardener, spurred on by the limited range of organic and GE-free foods in the supermarkets, and the need to provide gluten-free and dairy-free food for her family.
2025 Calendars for Sale
/in Competitions, Features, Free Online, Gardening, NewsOur Calendars are back by popular demand. We have the sought after ‘N*de Gardening’ calendar, as well as a requested ‘Beautiful Gardens’ calendar (for those who prefer to hang a calendar that doesn’t get so much attention!). Both calendars include the moon phases.
Moon Calendar Nov-Dec 2024
/in GardeningCosmic planting calendar
By Monique Macfarlane
As the weather warms, the garden fills with the beginnings of summer abundance. I am such a fan of fruiting crops such as tomatoes, beans, eggplants, chillies, as they just keep on giving. It is important to ensure you are planting out healthy, well established seedlings, as this will help with transition into the garden, and assist in everything flourishing with ease.
When I first started growing food, I had a very structured approach to all the tasks that needed doing – setting up beds, sowing seeds, growing seedlings, transplanting, plant care, nutrition sprays, mulching, harvesting. The more years I have been with the garden, the more that a new approach has arisen: one that flows with the garden.
Instead of writing a never-ending to-do list, once I arrive in the garden, I focus first on the suggested daily task in the calendar, as the cosmic power is in alignment with it, and then I leave the rest of the time open, to tend to what needs doing as I witness it.
Timeliness is always key. When we do the job that needs doing as soon as we see it, or have an internal prompt to check in on it, I find it is far more efficient. As soon as I notice that the tomato laterals need to be pinched, it’s a quick and easy job, whereas if I add it to the to-do list – they are a forest by the time I get back to it!
Changing the approach to being with the garden in this way, following the cues of the entire ecosystem, allows us greater connection to ourselves, as well as everything that surrounds us.
A worthy gift this season, and beyond.
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Monique Macfarlane is a holistic food systems facilitator, teaching biodynamics, planting by the moon, no-dig food growing and self-sufficiency. See www.natural-wisdom.net
Monique co-creates with organic, biodynamic, regenerative, no-till, and natural principles on eight hectares in Waihi that includes a small market garden, orchard, pastoral grazing, chickens and agroforestry.
Creating on-farm fertility
/in Education and Knowledge, Farming and Horticulture, Free Online, GardeningBy 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.
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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!
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.
Spring into Kōanga!
/in Features, Free Online, Gardening, Health and FoodBy 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.
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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.
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).
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