A Week on a Farm

I spent this last week living and working on an organic farm in the Eastern Bay of Plenty on the North Island for mid-semester break with Ryan.  It was such an incredible experience, and made a huge impact on the way I see my food and how I hope to live in the future.  Ryan and I decided we wanted to spend the break on a family farm because we thought it would be an awesome way to get some of the cultural exchange we miss out on in the University Flats at Otago, as well as an opportunity to learn heaps about organic farming.  It certainly did both those things, but Mike and Claire's farm is more than just a traditional organic farm - it's a really magical place.  Also, their emphasis on biodynamics (taking into account influences of the planets on growing cycles) and soil health set apart their growing styles and the exceptional quality of the products they produce.

The main house

Cabin that we stayed in

View from the outhouse

The farm we went to is a family's market garden farm.  Their main cash crops are garlic, sweetcorn, and limes, but they also grow more other types of crops than you could imagine, as most of what they eat comes from their garden/farm.  Claire manages the farm and does most of the decision-making in regards to that.  One of the things she emphasizes most in her garden is the importance of soil health, by naturally balancing nutrients and the soil food web.  Her husband, Mike, who's from Boston and spent a lot of time growing up in Maine, is a carpenter and sawmill, and helps out a lot on the farm as well as doing a lot of fishing and hunting for the family.  What struck me most about this family over the course of the week was how amazingly self-sufficient they are.  Sure, they do buy some staples such as flour and peanut butter and butter from the grocery store in the nearest town, but all of their fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, and seafood - probably about 70% of what they eat - they either grew or raised or gathered.  After just a week with Mike and Claire, I feel so passionately that this is the way that food is meant to be eaten.  I don't know if it gets much more local than this!  

Claire currently has two pigs that she's raising.  In about a month, the black one will be turned into sausages.

They have about a dozen chickens, from which they get fresh eggs every day

Garlic in the ground

Little vegetable garden near the house - kale, lettuce, celery, carrots, parsley, and more!

While I'm on the topic of food, can I just mention how well we ate while we were there?  Not only was there an abundance of fruit and vegetables and fresh salads made from their garden, but we tried 4 new types of seafood that they caught in the week we were there.  The first day, Claire and her son Dan went free-diving (and Ryan and I went along to watch) and they got a good haul of Kina (sea urchins) and Paua (the ones with the pretty shells).  From the kina, they just eat out the roe, which I thought tasted interesting and kind of enjoyed, but I can see that it's probably an acquired taste.  They absolutely loved it.  The paua meat, however, was really awesome even on my first try.  Apparently it's been called the steak of the sea...but I liked it quite a bit more than steak.  We also had some new kinds of fish that Mike caught one day, as well as some crayfish that we got to go out in the canoe to help catch.  Crayfish was awesome!  Like lobster but sweeter, richer, and more meat in each one.  I always finished meals feeling a little bit too full but oh so happy.  Ryan and I cooked a few dinner as well, including a carrot soup with carrot top pesto, beet feta salad, and pumpkin basil salad.  It was so fun making food with carrots and beets we had harvested earlier that day, as well as seeing how many of the other ingredients came from their garden!

Dan going free-diving

Kina, or sea urchins

Shucking the paua

Collecting the cray at sunrise (Mike and I are in the canoe)

Like a lobster roll, but so, so much better

In exchange for all of our delicious meals, Ryan and I did 4-5 hours of work on the farm each day.  And as would be expected on an organic farm, a big portion of it was weeding!  I didn't really mind weeding that much, though I was a little tired of it after the first few days.  Luckily, we moved on to pulling up some veges, planting potatoes, and other more exciting things.  I also spent one morning with Claire at the new community garden, helping children plant potatoes for the school.  It felt so good to get outside and actually do something, and I feel like I learned so much from all the hard work.

Freshly weeded strawberry plants

Now that's a carrot!

'barrow fulla carrots, beets, and spring onions (only some of the ones picked)

After working all morning, we had the afternoons off to play and explore the area.  Some days we stayed on the farm, just exploring or baking or playing games (at least on one rainy afternoon), and a few days we went on walks or bike rides to explore the area.  Although it's pretty hard to get anywhere in such a rural area without a car, we were able to borrow some bikes, and we went on a couple awesome rides.  

Late afternoon cribbage and tea

We biked to the beach

On the Motu bike trail

Probably the biggest highlight of each day was the evening bath.  In addition to heating the houses with wood stoves, they have an outdoor wood stove that heats water for a bath that sits out in one of the gardens in the upper paddock.  After a hard day's work on the farm, there isn't much better than a hot bath overlooking dusk on the bay, with beautiful stars above.  Oh, and after having just eaten a delicious farm-fresh home-cooked meal.  Mm, perfection.  

Staying with Mike and Claire was an amazing experience.  I loved seeing how they lived, learning about how they farm, and eating so well for a week.  A great spring break!  I hope to spend a week on a different farm in NZ at the end of the semester to see another type of New Zealand farming.