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Hyundai Country Calendar (1966) Season 61 Episode 7
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Short filmTranscript
00:05Proudly celebrating 60 years of rural New Zealand.
00:09Hyundai Country Calendar.
00:15A lawyer turned grower determined to bring local food to her local community.
00:21It takes a village to feed a village.
00:24By creating a community of little farms.
00:27The only way for us to survive and to make a difference is for all of the small producers to
00:33collaborate.
00:34But we're massive idealists.
00:55This garden which is about half a hectare feeds my whānau, our wider farm community and contributes to the little
01:02farms veggie box business.
01:06Where we work with multiple growers in the Wairarapa, all organic, to provide a weekly variety of fresh produce to
01:14our beautiful customers.
01:17Alex Morrissey of South Wairarapa has designed her business to fit around raising three small children.
01:24The whole system of this garden is designed around efficiency with the deep mulch so that I don't need to
01:32water and weed.
01:33Lots of preneal so I'm not planting all the time.
01:37Easy harvest so I can harvest quickly.
01:40So it's all about working with our lifestyle.
01:44I do no dig potatoes planted on top of the ground then covered with a deep hay straw mulch.
01:49So when you're harvesting you just have to pull the straw back.
01:54They come out super clean so we don't have to wash them.
01:58And I can harvest them with a baby on me without back breaking work.
02:02Super easy.
02:06This is the secret about this garden is I do not spend very long in a week here.
02:11That's what we want.
02:14And so it all rotates around the kids and working with our lifestyle.
02:20It all started when Alex discovered that little of the organic produce grown in Wairarapa was available in Wairarapa.
02:29That food was all going to the big cities, to organic stores and local people couldn't access it.
02:34So the only logical thing was to start my own market garden.
02:47One of the reasons that Little Farms is such a passion project is for local food resiliency.
02:53And things like Covid or Cyclone Gabrielle really showed us in New Zealand how reliant we are on imports
03:01or food that's travelling quite far and has high food miles.
03:06The Little Farms model aims to benefit the growers as well as the consumers.
03:13It is quite hard to sell your food locally.
03:16At the moment the food system is all set up for that food to go to big distribution centres
03:21and to the supermarkets or to go overseas.
03:23So it's actually really hard for the person next door to get access to your food.
03:28So creating a system where it's easy for those farmers to say,
03:32hey I have this product, can we sell it, is a really powerful thing.
03:45There is lots of people doing awesome mahi, growing epic things and the problem has been
03:51we've all been working in isolation and repeating the same systems right next door to each other.
04:00It's hard not to compete at the end of the day you're trying to get the best dollar for what
04:04you do
04:05but collaboration is I think the way forward.
04:11It gives you more power.
04:14Craig Griffiths grows fruit and vegetables just outside of Martinborough.
04:20Alex has managed to bring us together.
04:24Morning Griff.
04:27The weather's been okay?
04:28It's been alright eh?
04:30Yeah the wind?
04:30Did you get that heat?
04:31Yeah no that wind was a bit of a pain.
04:32How was it down there for you?
04:33Very windy.
04:34Lost a few tall plants.
04:36Oh did you?
04:36Yeah not the end of the world.
04:38Alright mate we'll see you next week.
04:40Yeah thanks Griff.
04:40See ya.
04:41See ya.
04:53When you're a small scale producer selling direct to customer you're everything.
04:58And that is huge and overwhelming.
05:01So if we can take away a lot of that pressure that can really help all of those growers focus
05:07on
05:07growing so they can do better at that and not be bogged down with all the other stuff.
05:19Joining Little Farms has changed the way that Ali Farr and Sheldon Levitt run their market garden, Vagabond Veg.
05:27We had to be everything.
05:29We were always kind of struggling week to week growing 25 different crops.
05:33We were also, you know, doing all of the marketing, doing all of the admin, kind of almost fighting for
05:41the same amount of customers within our community.
05:44It just started to make more and more sense that doing all of that by ourselves was not the way
05:50forward.
05:50The answer for us really actually felt like working more collaboratively with the other growers around us that had the
05:58same values.
06:00Because we can work directly with Alex, the cut that she needs to maintain her system is lower than the
06:06larger middlemen.
06:07So we get a better return per unit.
06:10And so it meant that we could start, you know, attempting crop planning together.
06:15And yeah, a lot of that comes down to Alex having the knowledge around what people want in the boxes.
06:20And she's also just such a big advocate for growers and such a great kind of puller together of lots
06:28of farmers in a way too.
06:34Hey guys.
06:36Good to see you.
06:37How's it going?
06:38Good. Beautiful day.
06:40This is Jeremy and Alex.
06:42And without particularly Jeremy, Little Farms wouldn't exist.
06:46Back when I was 21, he gave me a job when I knew nothing about growing food or even really
06:52eating vegetables.
06:53I was pretty clueless to the whole thing.
06:56I asked him, show me your hands.
06:59My hands were perfectly clean, never been used other than holding a pen.
07:04And he said they won't look like that for much longer.
07:07And he was right.
07:09And the rest is history.
07:10I'm special this week.
07:11Jeremy and his son Alex run Te Manaya Organics, one of the Little Farms community of suppliers.
07:19Every week they let me know what is available on a Friday.
07:24On a Tuesday they harvest it.
07:25And then on a Wednesday we pack.
07:28So from this point it's a race against time to get the food to customers in the freshest possible condition.
07:35We've used, yeah, many different couriers.
07:37And no one has been able to ensure that the box gets to the door of the customer in one
07:42piece.
07:42We've had so many boxes being left on the street or they've been stolen or eggs being broken.
07:48And we want to ensure it's perfect.
07:51So Alex bought some vans and now the Little Farms team do the deliveries themselves.
07:57Our delivery drivers will be opening the boxes and checking them before they're putting them down.
08:01And if they notice anything wrong we will refund the customer before they get the problem and let them know
08:07that we've seen it.
08:17From Thursday to Monday the Little Farms Pack House in Masterton sits quietly.
08:29Then for a few hours every week it comes alive with farmers delivering, staff packing and babies playing.
08:44Who wants to work for five hours a week? Not many people, but mums with little babies.
08:49Hey matey.
08:50Mums with little babies are pretty keen to come, get out of the house, make a little bit of money
08:54and go home with a box of veggies.
08:57Have as many breastfeeding breaks as you need, change their nappies.
09:00And I know that a mum is the most efficient person in the world.
09:04So worker productivity is out the gate.
09:10Alex Morrissey sells the produce from 11 organic growers, herself included, in weekly boxes all over Wararapa in Wellington.
09:20Customers can choose their own, they can get a box of seasonal surprises or they can buy uglies.
09:28So this is all the seconds produce, it's things that aren't looking their best.
09:32We get quite a bit of that in organic produce so we don't want it to be wasted and so
09:37we offer this at a discounted price.
09:42Reducing waste is key.
09:45Vegetable scraps become pet food or compost.
09:48And packaging is minimal.
09:54I'm packing Max Gordy's order for Grey's Wine Bar and they are an almost zero waste restaurant in Wellington.
10:01So we send them all of their produce with no plastic, no rubber bands, nothing other than some paper and
10:07the cardboard box.
10:16When Max first started ordering from us, he was getting a seasonal mixed box.
10:21He, for the longest time, had no idea what was going to turn up in his restaurant every week.
10:25And then he would plan the menu around what had been dropped off to him.
10:28And for us that's the absolute dream of a restaurant to be working with.
10:40I think we should all be eating a lot more local.
10:43We use little farms up in the Waiarapa.
10:46They grow some of the best produce I can get in Wellington.
10:49It supports a local food economy, but we all get to share a piece of each other's success.
10:54I also love working with the smaller producers because the care, we get to know each other as people doing
11:02what they love and supporting each other to do that.
11:06Max Gordy and Steena Persson only use local sustainable suppliers.
11:12I feel like part of the responsibility as a chef is to know where your produce comes from.
11:16When I work with Little Farms, I know who's picking it, where it's coming from.
11:20And I know that it's, you know, going to be in season and it's going to be delicious.
11:25You can have a successful business and do what you love without it having a negative impact on the environment
11:32and the community around you.
11:41One of Alex's food producers is a complete cow.
11:46If someone says that I can't do something, it is a little bit like a red rag to a bull.
11:51A complete cow is the name of a small meat producing company owned by farming newcomer, Claire Wells.
11:59It has been a journey of just being brave enough to just give it a crack.
12:04And I've probably made more mistakes than I have not, but I think that's how you learn.
12:13It is very, very early days, but the concept for this idea has probably been in my head for 10
12:21years.
12:22The concept is growing cattle slowly and regeneratively, using the whole animal, selling meat and even tallow skin care affordably
12:32and locally.
12:36But we only went live three and a half years ago now, so still very, very early days in the
12:41farming journey.
12:44This is Claire's experimental paddock.
12:47It's been farmed conventionally for a very long time and the soil is not getting any better.
12:53So we have sown about five different grasses, four different clovers, some daikon radish, some sunflowers, some chicory.
13:02Just really as an experiment to see if we can kind of reboot the soil.
13:09I hate electric fences. I'm very good at getting electrocuted.
13:25Good food, like it's ecologically grown, that's really high quality, is really the preserve of wealthy Kiwis.
13:34Claire and her business partner Justin Connor are doing their bit to change a food system they believe is broken.
13:42Oh!
13:43There we go.
13:442.94.
13:48Perfect.
13:50Small scale localised ecological producers are going to survive, they're going to need to cooperate and they really need as
13:57many direct sales as they can.
14:00You're taught that competition's good, but I think when it comes to small scale producers, I think that mindset is
14:07really not helpful at all.
14:09I think, you know, our competition is really, is the big supermarkets and it is the big players.
14:14We're furiously working so hard for such a small market share that if we all got in the same waka,
14:21we're all going to, you know, get to that same place a lot quicker.
14:25And so, that is really the role that Little Farms is playing.
14:29Yeah, I mean, Alex is so supportive of all of the local food producers, but can we make a living
14:33in this model?
14:35We're not paying ourselves properly at the moment, but we're not just doing this for us, but we want to
14:40prove the model.
14:41So we want to be able to say, this works, other people can do it, we're paying ourselves, we're feeding
14:47the community.
14:47So it's got to work on all levels, otherwise there's, there's no point.
15:08Alex Morrissey's Market Garden is on Palliser Ridge Station on the south Wairarapa coast, where her husband Keenan is manager.
15:17Just finished main share, these are a few of the renegades that were hiding out the back blocks.
15:22So, yeah, fortunately enough we got them in before this rain, which is very good.
15:27Pasture's going to take off now.
15:30Palliser Ridge is integral to this all working.
15:33They're so supportive in that they let me get these dags that they don't need after shearing,
15:38and other material like ruined hay and wood chip that the farm doesn't need.
15:42And then I get the pleasure of being able to help feed the Palliser Ridge team with the vegetables from
15:48this garden.
16:04Palliser Ridge let me use this beautiful piece of whenua, and it is the nicest location for a garden.
16:10We are frost free, we've got beautiful soils, a nice shelter of the trees.
16:14I couldn't ask for a better location to be growing kai.
16:18It's an absolutely amazing spot just to come and hang out with the family.
16:22Is that right?
16:23These dags are my favourite resource.
16:27They're so full of nutrients and such a good weed map for an organic system,
16:31which really helps me grow this kai in a very circular, farm-orientated way,
16:36which means I can then give back to them with some beautiful veggies growing right here.
16:42I'm putting wool on the garden.
16:44Why are you putting wool on the garden, Des?
16:46To make the soil healthy.
16:49The poos are good nutrients, but also the wool has minerals in it, which break down, like you said, for
16:55the soil, Desi.
16:56And they feed all of the life in the soil for us.
17:00Yep.
17:00Yeah.
17:01Can I help?
17:03Of course you can, Zola.
17:04Grab a big bat and throw it on some of the wood chip.
17:12This is sort of my leisure time to come in here and hang out with the kids
17:16and be able to get our hands actually dirty with them.
17:19People have been growing food for thousands of years with babies on their backs,
17:22with kids in tow.
17:24And having young children and growing kai, it just lends so well together.
17:29They're learning so much.
17:34This is my third market garden and the first time to now is polar different.
17:40We started off with very linear, straight rows of the garden, different crops in each row, tidy, clean.
17:47And I spent most of my time maintaining wood chip paths.
17:52It just didn't make sense when they aren't a productive area of the garden.
17:56And now as you can see, it is a bit of a jungle,
17:59but that is the magic, diversity, poly crops, lots of beneficial plants, companion plants.
18:07I'm not fertilising or watering them.
18:09I'm just letting nature do its thing.
18:13It's essentially a zero dollar budget.
18:15So this is all about using waste materials to build soil and soil health
18:21without needing to buy in lots of inputs,
18:23making it a circular but also very cost effective garden.
18:31I often joke that this is my apocalypse garden and that if the road got shut off,
18:35we'd be okay because we do so much seed saving and things self-seed.
18:40And I focus a lot on preennials, so I don't need to be buying in large seed every year.
18:47I genuinely believe that we could keep feeding ourselves forever from this garden.
18:52We're getting that seed for free and we're getting the mulch material from all the plants to keep the soil
18:56health maintained.
19:05Come on.
19:12Here Desi, this looks like a good spot.
19:14Shall we get Daddy to dig a hole for us and have a look?
19:17Okay.
19:19We're going to check to see how the soil's looking.
19:22Considering what it was.
19:23Wow, you can see the colour difference of how black this soil is here at the top,
19:29which it definitely wasn't a year ago.
19:31So we've only been here 18 months now, Kay?
19:34Yep.
19:34What we're trying to achieve with Alex's garden and out on the farm is trying to create healthy microbes
19:41to sort of build immunity in your soil.
19:44And then you have immune plants and then immune animals and immune humans.
19:50It all starts in the soil.
19:53This is just what spins our wheels, you know, like me and Alex have our passions
19:56and it's so cool that we can share it together but in different ways, you know.
20:00Mine's more out on the farm and hers is more in the garden.
20:07Also, I want this to be a great educational tool for other people on how they can grow a garden
20:13without large capital.
20:18It's been just 18 months since this was a bare paddock
20:21and today Alex is hosting a community open day in her garden.
20:28I often joke about how I'm trying to get everyone to grow their own food
20:33which could put us out of business and I'd be glad.
20:35If everyone had their own garden and was growing their own Kai,
20:38I would feel like I have achieved so much more
20:40because local resiliency for our region actually requires people to be growing their own Kai.
20:46So within this garden, because the reasons you would crop rotate is pests.
20:50Probably the thing I'm most passionate about actually is teaching other people
20:54and the empowerment that comes with being able to grow your own food for your family,
20:59that is what lights me up.
21:03Through Little Farms, we have actually built a community,
21:07a community of growers, a community of eaters.
21:12It takes a village to feed a village.
21:15This is not one person's job, one farm's job.
21:18This is a whole community, a whole village feeding itself.
21:23That's what we're here for so that we can share that abundance with each other
21:26and make sure that we're all having the best food possible.
21:40This mob is headed for the local sale.
21:43Local for Terence means Ōterahonga, two hours away.
21:47To get them there, he's checked the time for dead low tide
21:50and has had to plan everything around it.
21:54For Tricia, it's a half day off schoolwork
21:56to get the sheep to the jumping off point at Maricopa.
22:02To see the rest of this classic episode and more gems from the past 60 years,
22:07head to TVNZ+.
22:41Country Calendar was proudly brought to you by Hyundai New Zealand.
22:50And then, the last time,試騻ing, I guess,
22:50After all that company we stand and choose the первому one'srist,
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