Two Manawatū couples with a big vision made hard choices, distilling their operation down to its essence. Rachel Rose talks to the owners of Live2Give about how their business has grown, diversified, adapted, and prioritised, all the while keeping the culture of doing it for good.
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For more than five years, Wholegrain Organics had a commercial kitchen, bread bakery, café, and retail outlet on The Square in Palmerston North, and its team ran food technology and hospitality classes at local schools, under the Hands-On Food banner.
It was underpinned by a big philanthropic vision of serving people and planet, but the operation had become a complex, sprawling operation. By mid-2022, it was fragmented and financially unsustainable – some hard choices were required of founders Naomi and Rob Hall.
“We had a tree with 10 branches, but it was not financially viable,” explains Naomi. “We pruned off eight of the branches and left the two that we saw as foundational, where we can make the greatest difference. The farm is our number one priority – it’s pioneering work, a research farm that shares what we learn. The online shop is the connecting link between the farm and the rest of the world.”
A year on, Live2Give Organics grows vegetables on leased farmland in Aokautere, just south of Palmerston North. Their innovative farming methods produce organic food bursting with nutrients while also improving soil. They are creating healthy, diverse ecosystems on former lifeless paddocks and documenting practices so other growers can benefit.
The relaunched online shop has steadily grown to 160 orders per week, a mixture of subscriptions and one-off orders. It sells certified organic fresh fruit and vegetables grown on the farm (and from other organic suppliers), and a wide range of dry goods from wholesalers.
Lessons hard-earned at Wholegrain Organics have informed the shape and structure of the new enterprises. “Wages are a huge thing, but so are fixed overheads,” notes Naomi. “So now we work from home, out of our garage. It’s tight but we make it work, we’ve reorganised the space four or five times! We also have two chillers, 4.8m and 2.4m long, sitting in the driveway. This way we are not duplicating overheads like rent, phone, internet, and electricity.”
The online shop shares the name and a public face with the farm but is a separate company, run by Naomi and Gosia Wiatr. Rob and Tobi Euerl (husband and fiancé respectively) are responsible for the farming operation, which is a not-for-profit enterprise [see bottom section] but each team helps the other out during peak demand, whether that’s urgent orders to pack or long rows of onions that need weeding.
Supporting other organic growers
Naomi and Gosia are forging relationships with other organic growers to offer diversity to their customers and support to new, small-scale growers. One of these is Crooked Vege Ōtaki, a social enterprise that operates a CSA (community-supported agriculture) intent on regenerative food production that is accessible to all.
“Crooked Vege is an absolutely beautiful start up. Sometimes they have excess produce and we can take that because we sell bigger volumes,” says Naomi. “This week
it was 70 bunches of pak choi and a crate of zucchini. I basically say yes to whatever they have. It was an $800 sale this week, that’s a big boost for them.”
The challenge for small growers is always freight, Naomi explains. Growers can’t access chilled delivery unless they have an entire pallet of produce to move. But Live2Give runs its own chilled delivery truck from Palmerston North to Wellington every week and can backload Crooked Vege’s produce to its hub. It’s a win-win-win situation for both businesses and their customers.
Selling seconds is another considered strategy that helps growers as well as households. “Last year we had crooked cucumbers and cauliflowers that were slug-damaged. We discussed it and decided to let the customer decide,” says Naomi. “We take very realistic photos so people know what they would be getting. We find lots of people don’t mind if organic [produce] doesn’t look perfect.”
They’ve found offering seconds doesn’t harm their sales of first-quality produce. “We still move the ‘firsts’. Also, what we’ve found is people will buy two or three seconds instead of one that’s top quality.”
Selling cheaper seconds is hugely beneficial for budget-conscious customers and great for growers who don’t have a market for imperfect produce. An organic avocado grower in Tauranga, for instance, could only irregularly supply export-quality fruit, but has loads of very slightly imperfect avos. Live2Give customers are loving them.
Live2Give prefers to source from certified organic growers, but make exceptions for small-scale growers they personally know are using organic methods.
While customers are welcome to just buy what they want as they need it, or customise their box subscriptions on a week-to-week basis, it is the regular orders that are incredibly valuable to an organic grower.
“You do feel vulnerable because you’re waiting to hear the dings on the phone as the orders come in,” reflects Naomi. “There’s absolutely no guarantee that people will order anything. It’s really heartwarming how order numbers have steadily increased this year.”
Growing the business
Gosia and Naomi knew they’d miss the personal interaction they had with customers and students through Wholegrain Organics so thought hard about how to stay connected. Gosia launched a weekly email before they had produce to sell and now their mailing list is over 5000 people. They use Shopify for ecommerce and their email campaigns. Gosia gathers a lot of insight based on what people read, what they click on, and what they buy.
She observes that some people may subscribe to the email for months before they start to order and thinks that an online retailer needs to win people’s trust and that may take time. The newsletter, website, and social media feeds are important ways to educate people about the benefits of regenerative farming, to show the passion and labour involved, and to illustrate the costs behind organic production.
Social media is a clear winner when it comes to growing their customer base with 80-90 percent of new customers acquired from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Gosia says it is useful to be able to target very specific audiences. Their advertising highlights the freshness of their food, the way it is grown, and the benefits to the environment and those who eat it.
Everyone involved puts a lot of effort into providing the freshest possible produce: harvesting at the ideal time, immediately chilling vegetables to remove field heat, and using sturdy reusable crates to keep produce cool and undamaged in transit.
The vertical interaction of their operations starts on the farm and finishes with handing produce personally to their customers. Gosia has been at the wheel of their chilled truck all last year, dropping off boxes to customers right down to Wellington every week. They’re looking to hire a driver but want to find the right person to be the face-to-face link with customers. “It’s important to have someone who has worked on the farm, in the shop, and shares the same values around connecting with the community, working with nature, and having a healthy lifestyle,” says Gosia.
Community connections
Live2Give hosts an open day once a year at the farm sites, one for customers and another for farmers interested in knowing more about the innovative regenerative agriculture techniques they are using.
Happily, the new business model hasn’t seen an end to interactions with youth. “We’re so close to Massey and IPU [universities]. We have students that seek us out; it’s great to work with young people who are interested in what we do,” says Naomi. And Gosia thinks being hands on, at the farm or in the packing room, is a more powerful learning experience than simply reading about regenerative agriculture. As well as part-time staff, there are a couple of older volunteers who like to help out because of a shared commitment to Live2Give’s goals.
“What I love about this business is we’re holding hands with our customers to get to the same goal,” says Naomi. “Us, the growers, our customers, all together we’re making it work.”
Live2Give are pioneering farm-scale regenerative horticulture in Aotearoa, building on 12 years of research and development in Germany by a farm of the same name. “Always cover, always roots” is their mantra: the soil is protected and improved by growing carbon crops in between cash crops. The roots are left to decay in the ground, improving structure and feeding the soil microbiome.
Rob and Tobi grow crops on three parcels of leased land, of which approximately four hectares is in full production. The sites have no history of chemical use and are certified with OrganicFarmNZ. In addition to the mulch, crops are fed with granulated fertiliser. Seaweed sprays, bought-in compost, and EM (effective microorganisms) sprays are currently being trialed.
Only the greenhouse crops are irrigated. It’s not a high rainfall area, about 900mm/pa. Drought years are a concern but dumping rain is just as much of a problem. The main site has a gley (sticky clay) soil, wet in winter and spring.
Detailed crop planning balances a strict seven-year crop rotation while also ensuring the farm can supply produce for 12 months of the year. Their record-keeping is exemplary and the numbers feed into farm planning and fine-tuning their methods.
About a quarter of the farm’s produce is currently sold through the Live2Give online store; the rest is sold to organic retail outlets in the major cities. Having multiple outlets creates flexibility and ensures they won’t be left with more produce than a single market can sell.
Some 70 percent of the vegetable offerings in the Live2Give shop are from its own land. It could be more says Rob, but that would limit the time he and Tobi have to devote to research, which they see as fundamental to their purpose. The farm has funding from MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures for an almost four-year proof-of-concept trial, of mulch-direct planting for commercial vegetable production in New Zealand conditions.
What’s ahead? “We are unsure of what [growth] to project for the next 12 months but our aim is food security. The Covid lockdowns highlighted that need and extreme weather events are a constant reminder of how difficult the environment can be for food production. We are caring for both the environment and the local community, connecting these things together. This needs healthy growth for ground level food producers, not skyrocketing demand because of a pandemic, or scarcity because of flooding or drought,” reflects Rob.
(Photo Credits: Rachel Rose / Live2Give)
When she returned to New Zealand in 2010, Rachel Rose retrained, studying organic horticulture, biodynamics, and permaculture. She used her knowledge to establish extensive gardens and orchards on a 1400m2 urban plot, and is now applying it to a 28-hectare farm near Whanganui.
Planning the home orchard/food forest/lifestyle block
/in Organic Week7 Puketirau, Tirau, Waikato, 3484 | Saturday 4 May, 10 am
Sheryn Dean, former editor of OrganicNZ and TreeCropper magazine, has been collecting and trialling food-producing plants on a 3ha lifestyle block in the Waikato for 15 years. She has experimented with growing a wide range of fruits, nuts, vegetables, stock fodder and hopefully, one day, truffles. Come and discuss the variety of trials, pruning techniques, and microclimate manipulations she has experimented with to grow a wide range of plants.
Topics covered: planning, species selection, planting, formative pruning, micro-climates, and considerations for ongoing maintenance. View a mature orchard to see the results of different techniques.
Bring lunch and a chair, a notebook, and labels and bags if you wish to take cuttings. Please dress to be outside for the weather.
Hot and cold drinks are provided—$20 per person, payable on the day.
Email Sheryn to confirm your attendance sheryn.dean2@gmail.com
How can we best celebrate our great growers this organic week?
/in Organic WeekWhat to eat during Organic Week? Hopefully, we will consume local organic and biodynamic products. Even better, we will consume products rich in nutrients and phytochemicals such as phenols and antioxidants, beneficial to our health and well-being. And even better, we will choose to eat, drink, wear and use such wholesome goodies every day, everywhere.
Sustainable growing systems – organics and biodynamics – do influence the quality of food, drink and fibre produced. Grown well, these products can benefit us in so many ways.
At a global level, a recent study by the Food System Economic Commission, in association with the University of Oxford and London School of Economics, concluded that existing “conventional” food systems destroy more value than they create. For the first time, the value of a move to sustainable food systems has been quantified. It comes in at US$10 trillion of benefits a year, including reduced production costs and better health and environmental outcomes.
The study proposes moving away from tax breaks and subsidies for large-scale monocultures that rely on fertilisers, pesticides and clearance. Instead, smaller, sustainable units with wildlife can turn economic production into carbon sinks.
Current food production is the largest contributor to biodiversity decline, freshwater breakdown, one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, growing food insecurity, and to adverse health outcomes.
“Changing the way we produce and consume food will be critical to tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, and building a better future. It’s time for radical change,” according to Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
This and other studies also conclude that the “radical change” is neither too expensive nor too difficult to achieve in the relative short term. It is clearer every week the choices we need to make to growing systems and policies to produce the necessary medical and environmental outcomes we increasingly need. And Aotearoa can help lead this change.
Recently, the Kete Ora Trust, a sponsor of Organic Week, funded an extensive first stage study by Plant & Food Research examining links between growing systems and nutrient dense food. Kete Ora Trust funds research and education to promote biodynamic and organic land use.
Food nutrient density has declined rapidly since the 1940s due to agriculture practices and applications. It now takes more conventional food to produce the same amount of nutrients from the same food consumed by our forebears.
”biodynamic and organic can improve not only soil and human health, but also produce positive environmental and net economic gains for growers and consumers. This is a quadruple win for people and the planet.” – Sam Weaver
Chair of the Kete Ora Trust, Sam Weaver says there is strong evidence that sustainable growing systems have real advantages over conventional systems to produce food and drink rich in certain minerals and phytochemicals, beneficial to our health.
“More sward diversity and healthy growing means more soil life and more soil nutrients available to plants and therefore to animals and humans,” says Sam.
“We have seeded a study that offers other sponsors the chance to demonstrate that biodynamic and organic growing systems and products can improve not only soil and human health, but also produce positive environmental and net economic gains for growers and consumers. This is a quadruple win for people and the planet.”
Sam Weaver added that as a wine grower and producer he is greatly encouraged by research showing biodynamic wine growing produces more beneficial phenolic compounds in wine, compared to conventional growers. The same outcome is achieved from organic and biodynamic olive and other production. Phenolic compounds can reduce oxidation that helps prevent disease in cells and organs.
Further stages of the Kete Ora Trust initiated research will add to mounting evidence that organic and biodynamic management systems produce the healthiest products from lower inputs, improved biological processes, low/no contamination and greater species diversity.
“The evidence is either there or nearly there. The need is palpable. The Kete Ora Trust is inviting other funders to join us to enable food production to move to a healthier level. As we celebrate Organic Week, let’s continue in the knowledge that each one of us, this country, and the world can greatly benefit from organic and biodynamic production.”
Find out more about Organic Week proud silver sponsor, Kete Ora Trust:
Natural skincare from Goodbye
/in CompetitionsCompetition now closed. Thank you to Goodbye.
goodbye.co.nz
Cooking with oil – which one is good for you?
/in Features, Health and Food, Magazine ArticlesTrans or saturated, polyunsaturated, or monosaturated? What’s the difference between cold-pressed and virgin, light and refined? Paula Sharp smooths out the choices of what is best for our bodies in terms of oils and fats.
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To GE or not to GE?
/in Features, Free Online, Health and Food, Magazine ArticlesWe are at a critical point in decision-making about releasing genetically engineered organisms into New Zealand’s environment. Philippa Jamieson outlines some of the potential risks and benefits of our options.
We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ. Join us to access more, exclusive members-only content.
Live2Give: Focusing on foundations, making good ethics a viable business
/in Farming and Horticulture, Free Online, Health and FoodTwo Manawatū couples with a big vision made hard choices, distilling their operation down to its essence. Rachel Rose talks to the owners of Live2Give about how their business has grown, diversified, adapted, and prioritised, all the while keeping the culture of doing it for good.
We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ. Join us to access more, exclusive members-only content.
For more than five years, Wholegrain Organics had a commercial kitchen, bread bakery, café, and retail outlet on The Square in Palmerston North, and its team ran food technology and hospitality classes at local schools, under the Hands-On Food banner.
It was underpinned by a big philanthropic vision of serving people and planet, but the operation had become a complex, sprawling operation. By mid-2022, it was fragmented and financially unsustainable – some hard choices were required of founders Naomi and Rob Hall.
“We had a tree with 10 branches, but it was not financially viable,” explains Naomi. “We pruned off eight of the branches and left the two that we saw as foundational, where we can make the greatest difference. The farm is our number one priority – it’s pioneering work, a research farm that shares what we learn. The online shop is the connecting link between the farm and the rest of the world.”
A year on, Live2Give Organics grows vegetables on leased farmland in Aokautere, just south of Palmerston North. Their innovative farming methods produce organic food bursting with nutrients while also improving soil. They are creating healthy, diverse ecosystems on former lifeless paddocks and documenting practices so other growers can benefit.
The relaunched online shop has steadily grown to 160 orders per week, a mixture of subscriptions and one-off orders. It sells certified organic fresh fruit and vegetables grown on the farm (and from other organic suppliers), and a wide range of dry goods from wholesalers.
Lessons hard-earned at Wholegrain Organics have informed the shape and structure of the new enterprises. “Wages are a huge thing, but so are fixed overheads,” notes Naomi. “So now we work from home, out of our garage. It’s tight but we make it work, we’ve reorganised the space four or five times! We also have two chillers, 4.8m and 2.4m long, sitting in the driveway. This way we are not duplicating overheads like rent, phone, internet, and electricity.”
The online shop shares the name and a public face with the farm but is a separate company, run by Naomi and Gosia Wiatr. Rob and Tobi Euerl (husband and fiancé respectively) are responsible for the farming operation, which is a not-for-profit enterprise [see bottom section] but each team helps the other out during peak demand, whether that’s urgent orders to pack or long rows of onions that need weeding.
Supporting other organic growers
Naomi and Gosia are forging relationships with other organic growers to offer diversity to their customers and support to new, small-scale growers. One of these is Crooked Vege Ōtaki, a social enterprise that operates a CSA (community-supported agriculture) intent on regenerative food production that is accessible to all.
“Crooked Vege is an absolutely beautiful start up. Sometimes they have excess produce and we can take that because we sell bigger volumes,” says Naomi. “This week
it was 70 bunches of pak choi and a crate of zucchini. I basically say yes to whatever they have. It was an $800 sale this week, that’s a big boost for them.”
The challenge for small growers is always freight, Naomi explains. Growers can’t access chilled delivery unless they have an entire pallet of produce to move. But Live2Give runs its own chilled delivery truck from Palmerston North to Wellington every week and can backload Crooked Vege’s produce to its hub. It’s a win-win-win situation for both businesses and their customers.
Selling seconds is another considered strategy that helps growers as well as households. “Last year we had crooked cucumbers and cauliflowers that were slug-damaged. We discussed it and decided to let the customer decide,” says Naomi. “We take very realistic photos so people know what they would be getting. We find lots of people don’t mind if organic [produce] doesn’t look perfect.”
They’ve found offering seconds doesn’t harm their sales of first-quality produce. “We still move the ‘firsts’. Also, what we’ve found is people will buy two or three seconds instead of one that’s top quality.”
Selling cheaper seconds is hugely beneficial for budget-conscious customers and great for growers who don’t have a market for imperfect produce. An organic avocado grower in Tauranga, for instance, could only irregularly supply export-quality fruit, but has loads of very slightly imperfect avos. Live2Give customers are loving them.
Live2Give prefers to source from certified organic growers, but make exceptions for small-scale growers they personally know are using organic methods.
While customers are welcome to just buy what they want as they need it, or customise their box subscriptions on a week-to-week basis, it is the regular orders that are incredibly valuable to an organic grower.
“You do feel vulnerable because you’re waiting to hear the dings on the phone as the orders come in,” reflects Naomi. “There’s absolutely no guarantee that people will order anything. It’s really heartwarming how order numbers have steadily increased this year.”
Growing the business
Gosia and Naomi knew they’d miss the personal interaction they had with customers and students through Wholegrain Organics so thought hard about how to stay connected. Gosia launched a weekly email before they had produce to sell and now their mailing list is over 5000 people. They use Shopify for ecommerce and their email campaigns. Gosia gathers a lot of insight based on what people read, what they click on, and what they buy.
She observes that some people may subscribe to the email for months before they start to order and thinks that an online retailer needs to win people’s trust and that may take time. The newsletter, website, and social media feeds are important ways to educate people about the benefits of regenerative farming, to show the passion and labour involved, and to illustrate the costs behind organic production.
Social media is a clear winner when it comes to growing their customer base with 80-90 percent of new customers acquired from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Gosia says it is useful to be able to target very specific audiences. Their advertising highlights the freshness of their food, the way it is grown, and the benefits to the environment and those who eat it.
Everyone involved puts a lot of effort into providing the freshest possible produce: harvesting at the ideal time, immediately chilling vegetables to remove field heat, and using sturdy reusable crates to keep produce cool and undamaged in transit.
The vertical interaction of their operations starts on the farm and finishes with handing produce personally to their customers. Gosia has been at the wheel of their chilled truck all last year, dropping off boxes to customers right down to Wellington every week. They’re looking to hire a driver but want to find the right person to be the face-to-face link with customers. “It’s important to have someone who has worked on the farm, in the shop, and shares the same values around connecting with the community, working with nature, and having a healthy lifestyle,” says Gosia.
Community connections
Live2Give hosts an open day once a year at the farm sites, one for customers and another for farmers interested in knowing more about the innovative regenerative agriculture techniques they are using.
Happily, the new business model hasn’t seen an end to interactions with youth. “We’re so close to Massey and IPU [universities]. We have students that seek us out; it’s great to work with young people who are interested in what we do,” says Naomi. And Gosia thinks being hands on, at the farm or in the packing room, is a more powerful learning experience than simply reading about regenerative agriculture. As well as part-time staff, there are a couple of older volunteers who like to help out because of a shared commitment to Live2Give’s goals.
“What I love about this business is we’re holding hands with our customers to get to the same goal,” says Naomi. “Us, the growers, our customers, all together we’re making it work.”
Live2Give are pioneering farm-scale regenerative horticulture in Aotearoa, building on 12 years of research and development in Germany by a farm of the same name. “Always cover, always roots” is their mantra: the soil is protected and improved by growing carbon crops in between cash crops. The roots are left to decay in the ground, improving structure and feeding the soil microbiome.
Rob and Tobi grow crops on three parcels of leased land, of which approximately four hectares is in full production. The sites have no history of chemical use and are certified with OrganicFarmNZ. In addition to the mulch, crops are fed with granulated fertiliser. Seaweed sprays, bought-in compost, and EM (effective microorganisms) sprays are currently being trialed.
Only the greenhouse crops are irrigated. It’s not a high rainfall area, about 900mm/pa. Drought years are a concern but dumping rain is just as much of a problem. The main site has a gley (sticky clay) soil, wet in winter and spring.
Detailed crop planning balances a strict seven-year crop rotation while also ensuring the farm can supply produce for 12 months of the year. Their record-keeping is exemplary and the numbers feed into farm planning and fine-tuning their methods.
About a quarter of the farm’s produce is currently sold through the Live2Give online store; the rest is sold to organic retail outlets in the major cities. Having multiple outlets creates flexibility and ensures they won’t be left with more produce than a single market can sell.
Some 70 percent of the vegetable offerings in the Live2Give shop are from its own land. It could be more says Rob, but that would limit the time he and Tobi have to devote to research, which they see as fundamental to their purpose. The farm has funding from MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures for an almost four-year proof-of-concept trial, of mulch-direct planting for commercial vegetable production in New Zealand conditions.
What’s ahead? “We are unsure of what [growth] to project for the next 12 months but our aim is food security. The Covid lockdowns highlighted that need and extreme weather events are a constant reminder of how difficult the environment can be for food production. We are caring for both the environment and the local community, connecting these things together. This needs healthy growth for ground level food producers, not skyrocketing demand because of a pandemic, or scarcity because of flooding or drought,” reflects Rob.
(Photo Credits: Rachel Rose / Live2Give)
When she returned to New Zealand in 2010, Rachel Rose retrained, studying organic horticulture, biodynamics, and permaculture. She used her knowledge to establish extensive gardens and orchards on a 1400m2 urban plot, and is now applying it to a 28-hectare farm near Whanganui.
Support your liver and DETOX
/in Health and Food, Magazine Articles, RegularsWhether it was a summer of excess or just daily life, Laura Hett advises how you can support your liver to eradicate toxins from your body.
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Japanese wineberry: where and how to grow
/in Free Online, Gardening, Magazine ArticlesIt thrives in forest margins and produces tasty morsels of delicious flavour. Anna-Marie Barnes introduces a hardy bramble suitable for those who like plants that look after themselves.
Rubus phoenicolasius
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The Japanese wineberry is a strikingly attractive bramble, with a strong upright growth habit and tall canes densely covered in bristly red hairs (phoenicolasius – from the Latin ‘with purple hairs’). The ripe fruit look like small, shiny raspberries but are a bit firmer, juicier, and tangier – not quite as sweet, but with its own unique appeal.
The plants are hardy and ornamental and the fruit, which ripens in mid-late summer, is a refreshing change and usually slightly later than the standard raspberry and, for some reason, not targeted by birds (at least with one grower I know). Flourishing in semi-shade or full sun, the Japanese wineberry thrives in a forest garden or in a berry patch with a bit of space.
There are numerous hybrids in the Rubus family and Japanese wineberries are often used as breeding stock as they carry a recessive gene which produces yellow fruit, and hence are useful for producing yellow-fruiting hybrid berries.
Plant family: Rosaceae
Relatives: Raspberry, blackberry, and other bramble berries
Native to: Japan, Korea, and China
Where to grow
Given the right conditions, Japanese wineberries are potentially invasive as their long canes will droop to the ground and form roots like a blackberry does, so you’ll want to keep rampant growth in check. They prefer a slightly acidic soil pH and a well-drained loam with good water-holding capacity as the plants are thirsty, with surface roots that are not at all drought-tolerant. Mulching in summer helps keep the roots moist while fruiting. In terms of cold-hardiness, established plants will tolerate temperature drops down to about -15°C.
Allow one to two metres between plants if planting several – you may find that given the vigour, length, and height of the canes (up to four metres), one is enough in smaller gardens.
Maintenance
Like many brambles, Japanese wineberry fruits on one-year-old canes (wood in its second year of growth) so don’t expect a crop in the first year of growth – these canes will be vegetative, initiating flower buds in the autumn which will develop and go on to produce fruit the following year.
Because Japanese wineberry canes grow so long, in a smaller patch you might like to cut them back to a more manageable 1.5-2 metre length in year one, and anchor them to a support structure (a wooden trellis or wire framework). This also prevents them from trailing on the ground and self-rooting.
Once canes have fruited, they will look a bit old and tatty and it’s time for them to be removed at ground level. Once you’ve removed the worse-for-wear spent canes, train and tie in some new, flexible shoots ready for cropping the following year. It’s good practice to burn old canes in case pests or pathogens are lurking.
Left to their own devices, they will ramble and produce without any maintenance but choose your site carefully – Japanese wineberries have attained problem weed status in several US states.
An application of compost or sheep pellets at planting, plus a couple more in spring, will go a long way in keeping your Japanese wineberry productive. As with most fruiting plants, too much nitrogen-rich material ends up encouraging the plant to produce foliage over fruit.
Harvest
Japanese wineberry fruit ripens in mid-late summer to autumn (December to April). The flower buds open November to January, revealing snowy white blooms that are enclosed by a bristly red calyx. The calyx splits open at flowering, forming an attractive star-shaped backdrop for the bright red fruit. Unlike blackberries, the fruit picks cleanly from the receptacle. Eat the fruit fresh within a couple of days – like raspberries, they don’t store well. They have a similar nutrient profile to standard raspberries and can be substituted for them in desserts and fruit salads. Enjoy fresh or they make fantastic jam, pie fillings and of course, fruit wine.
Where to source
Specialist nurseries may stock plants but you may have to track down your wineberry from a friend or shout out to NZ Tree Crops members on their Facebook page – anyone with a clump will be able to pass on a rooted shoot tip or two.
(Photo Credits: Claire Flynn and Gianni Prencipe)
Anna-Marie Barnes is the New Zealand Tree Crops Association’s South Island Vice-President. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Primary Production) with a background in agroecology and entomology, and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning (Secondary). A lifelong gardener, she is a dedicated self-sufficiency enthusiast and endeavours to grow as much of her own produce as possible on a lifestyle block on the West Coast, with three unruly Orpington hens.
Underground interactions: how roots communicate
/in Farming and HorticultureThey may be out of sight, but Dr Charles Merfield tells us what science is beginning to understand about the complexity of root interactions.
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Dr Charles ‘Merf’ Merfield is an agroecologist who heads the Biological Husbandry Unit Organics Trust Future Farming Centre, consults and advises in sustainable agronomy and is co-owner of Physical Weeding. See merfield.com
(Image Credit: iStock – stereohype)
The battle for the future of food
/in Features, Free Online, Health and Food, Magazine ArticlesJon Carapiet outlines why the push for automatic acceptance of unproven technologies that have the potential to irreversibly contaminate our food and environment (aka GE) is the wrong direction.
We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ. Join us to access more, exclusive members-only content.
Governmental plans to liberalise regulation of genetic engineering in Aotearoa New Zealand has implications for consumers and our export markets.
The push for GE is part of the international industry lobbying for more technology in agriculture. GE, AI, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology are converging. Advocates for the ‘end of farming’ are even calling for cellular lab-based food to entirely replace agriculture, purportedly to save the planet.
Public concern around genetic engineering is expressed politically and in people’s preferences which have defined today’s consumer landscape.
Politicians and lobbyists who say that strict regulation of GE is preventing innovation have forgotten the role of the consumer. They repeat old hopes for GE ryegrass, even after Newsroom published a history of failed trials on its website last year, and ignore previous field trials including 4000 GM sheep which were terminated in 2003 when the company PPL went bankrupt, and AgResearch’s GE cows reported by the NZ Herald in 2010 to be suffering cruel deformities.
The central question is: To what extent will the coalition government favour the commercial interests of the biotechnology industry over those of the environment and the public good?
National Party policy is to move regulation to a new agency under The Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) with automatic acceptance of GE products once approved by two OECD countries, and a much easier path to commercial release.
But what’s most important for regulation in the public interest is missing.
There is no mention of the importance of the Precautionary Principle for environmental protection. No requirement for commercial insurance or liability on users of GE that cause harm. No ethical framework to prevent cruelty to animals or guide the future. No mention of Māori or Waitangi Treaty principles.
And there is no mention of how the new regime will protect organic growers (or even industrialised growers) from GE contamination.
These missing pieces must be priorities for legislation.
Organic agriculture provides authentic sustainability and real climate action that people are looking for.
Research by Kantar Consulting shows New Zealand has what the world wants. “Consumers want more control and to reconnect with nature,” said researcher Dan Robertson-Jones.
The market demand for GE-free is growing.
Growth for non-GMO food is projected to reach US$144,322 million in 2031. Consumers in China and India are driving up demand for non-GMO food products.
Consumers want gene edited foods to be regulated and labelled, with 75 percent of US consumers and 80 percent of UK consumers supporting traceability for New Genomic Techniques (NGTs).
Exporters and the coalition government must take heed.
Consumer trust is vital. Leading brands have committed to avoid GE ingredients in response.
IFOAM standards exclude use of GE and build trust in the sector through certification of organics. Mandatory labelling of GE food in supermarkets has allowed consumers to influence the market.
Both major supermarkets have a GE-free policy for house-brands, including Countdown’s Own, Macro (Woolworths), and Pams (Foodstuffs).
Fonterra has a non-GMO policy but is open to GE and investing in lab-grown meat.
The science debate.
The EU Commission proposes deregulation of NGTs, against the wishes of consumers.
This is opposed by EU Ministers of the Environment who strongly support the Precautionary Principle and traceability.
Independent scientists with expertise in issues of GE safety and the environment have warned against deregulation.
Expert advice from scientists who are independent of the biotechnology industry is important. The commercial pressures in business and academia for Intellectual Property (IP) bring potential conflicts of interest in the debate.
There is a strong global lobby for cellular agriculture, synthetic biology, and GE.
In the conversation about GE we should expect more public relations hype, promises for the future, and criticism of the Precautionary Principle for ‘stopping progress’. The scientific rationale for precaution will be smeared as fearmongering. It’s already happening.
WePlanet, which campaigns for nuclear power, GE and cellular agriculture, organised an open letter signed by 34 Nobel prize winners and others.
It says the EU must “reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering and look instead towards the light of prosperity and progress” by deregulating New Genomic Techniques.
The industry pipeline for GE shows why it is of the utmost importance for regulation to protect people and the environment.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) warn of the impending risks of commercial release of GE microbes as biotechnology companies develop GE bacteria, viruses, and fungi for use in agriculture.
Environmental groups are sounding the alarm for bees and pollinators after the US EPA approved the first sprayable pesticides using ‘RNA interference’ in the field.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says research is needed into the alleged benefits for sustainability and safety of lab-grown food which remain speculative.
We must value existing natural diversity and regenerative organic systems as real action on climate change and against biodiversity loss. The biotechnology industry should not define the future of food.
(Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Alan Lieftin – GE free march Auckland 2003)
Jon Carapiet is a consumer advocate, researcher, writer, and photographer who has followed the GE debate for over two decades. He regularly comments in the media about Brand New Zealand, the advantages of non-GMO and organic production, and for regulation of new technology in the public interest. Prior to the 2023 election, he published a series of blogs on GE and the future of food, available at www.TheDailyBlog.co.nz. He is a Trustee for Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility (PSGR) www.psgr.org.nz, and the national spokesman for community group GE-Free NZ www.gefree.org.nz.