Taking a moment to acknowledge the huge Open Day weekend at Mangaroa Farms 🙌🏽🌿🌻 We welcomed over 1000 people through the gate, many of whom enjoyed themselves listening to live music in the tipi, dabbled in some tree planting, watched fencing, felting, sheep shearing, took part in kids games, and enjoying our famous lamb buns. It was a great day out there to experience and authentic farm day out with the whānau.

We’re close to that time of year, and team will be taking a well-deserved break over Christmas - meaning our shop and online sales will be closed periodically.

Any online orders that are placed during 25th Dec - 6th Jan (while we are closed) will automatically be sent the week we resume work from Tues 7th January 2025.

A few shots from out in the paddocks last week, where our Stock Manager Gav has been busy caring for our young calves / yearlings as they begin their journey in the world. Every day, new life emerges, bringing fresh energy to the herd 🌱

Stock management at this stage is crucial to ensuring our young ones grow to their full potential before they mate. Proper nutrition is key, and we make sure that each calf gets what it needs through a technique called break feeding. With break feeding, we open up fresh areas of pasture and fence off the sections they’ve just left, to provide fresh food for the cows, while protecting the land they’ve just grazed. By doing this, we’re ensuring our whenua doesn’t get worked too hard, while ensuring a steady supply of nutrient-rich kai for the herd.

It’s a balance – making sure they’re well fed while keeping the land in a state of regeneration. Like much of life on the farm, it’s a slow, thoughtful process. And sometimes, we’re faced with tough realities. Unfortunately, we lost one calf in birth last week – a natural but sad part of working with animals. We do our best to look after each new arrival, but nature can be unpredictable.

While it’s not always easy managing weather fluctuations, invasive species, and keeping up with the needs of our growing herd, we believe that with careful planning and respect for the land, we can create a system that supports both our animals and the whenua. What this results in is restored biodiversity, a healthy ecosystem, and ultimately nutritious meat products that are produced with care, in alignment with nature.

Ngā mihi to our crew for their mahi out on the land – and to the calves, for reminding us of the beauty in new beginnings 🧡

You might have noticed if you drive over the one lane bridge, that we’ve done a whole lot of planting along the Mangaroa River bank and next to the road 🌿🌳

You might notice our garden is looking a bit more wild than it used to, and we’re pretty stoked about that. Our Mangaroa Market Garden is making a shift towards a permaculture approach, where every bit of "mess" is actually part of a natural cycle – turning waste into resources. This enables us to work more efficiently, while feeding the soil and increasing the nutritional quality of the kai we grow.

We’ve been returning mulch to the soil, which breaks down and adds valuable nutrients. This mulch includes silage—cut grass from local farms—which helps keep the soil healthy, feeding the worms and microbes that create a thriving ecosystem. It also protects the soil from erosion, compaction, and the elements, all while helping us step away from using plastic ground cover.

We’re also introducing more flowers to the gardens, bringing in biodiversity and encouraging companion planting. With more flowers come more pollinators and predatory insects to help control pests naturally, creating a harmonious balance.

This approach makes it easier on our garden team and keeps us in sync with nature—feeding the soil, supporting the plants, and letting everything thrive as it was meant to.

As Aotearoa considers its agricultural future, it seems that genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) are finally about to enter our soils. Up until now, GMO’s and gene editing have been banned in New Zealand. Mangaroa Farms shares a range of reasons why GMO's could be a problem for NZ

As we look towards the future of Mangaroa Farms, we want to take a moment to honour someone who has been an integral part of our journey—Jules Matthews

Mangaroa Farms will be featured on Country Calendar tomorrow night, New Zealand’s longest running and highest-rated television series, celebrating rural life and land. Country Calendar is an iconic institution, so it feels like we’re getting our five minutes of fame.

I haven’t seen the episode yet, but first and foremost, I hope it portrays the farm transformation that Jules Matthews led in her three years as the Mangaroa farm manager. Starting with a more conventional dairy block and some worn down infrastructure, Jules brought in a regenerative agriculture lens and playbook - with a focus on soil, water, and living systems - and has helped Mangaroa / Whitemans Valley establish a thriving local food hub, with robust market gardens, a Kete Kai farm shop, healthy and delicious cows and sheep, significant riparian restoration, and much greater community resilience. 
Watching this transformation gives me hope that we can quickly evolve agriculture and build bioregional food systems, especially with the right mindsets, gumption, and bit of luck.

We are looking forward to being featured on Hyundai Country Calendar this Sunday 21st July - at 7pm on TV1 🙌🏽💚

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/country-calendar

This week marks the passing of the winter solstice, and the rising of the Matariki star cluster

This Friday 28th June, the Farm Shop / Kete Kai will be closed, as we take a pause to honour a remembrance of the past, celebration of the present, and preparing for the future.

The 2024 theme is “Matariki heri kai” - The feast of Matariki.

From Mānawatia a Matariki

This comes from the Māori proverb ‘Matariki whetū heri kai’ meaning ‘Matariki, the bringer of food’.

Kai is central to the celebration of Matariki, and Māori believe that the appearance of Matariki in the morning sky in winter would determine the success or failure of kai harvesting.

Different stars in the cluster have an association to the various domains from where we source our kai, in particular:
- gardens (Tupuānuku)

- forests (Tupuārangi)

- fresh water (Waitī) and

- the ocean (Waitā)
This connection reaffirms relationships with our environment and signifies the importance of food in the celebration of Matariki - a time to journey home, spend time with whānau and friends, and enjoy feasting on fresh, locally sourced produce

Follow Living by The Stars with Professor Rangi Matamua & Mānawatia a Matariki for more.

We are excited to announce that our organically grown & regeneratively raised frozen beef & lamb will available for delivery online very soon 🥩🙌🏽📦❄️

https://lnkd.in/ggzdAiTy

We had a successful weekend recently with our team of local volunteers planting over 200 trees alongside our local crew from Forest and Bird - Upper Hutt.

Jan Hania

Pest Free Upper Hutt's

To celebrate Organic Week 2024, we're hosting a garden tour, and also co-hosting a screening of reknowned documentary Six Inches of Soil.

Our beloved Weekly $35 Vege Bag is retiring

  A massive thank you to all our weekly subscribers for their continued support in our CSA (community supported agriculture) styled weekly vege bag food model.

In the past 2 years we have sold over 1100 of these bags of goodness to our local community - consisting of 7-8+ seasonal, organically grown produce, and holding its place as a foundational chapter of our history and market garden / food hub journey.

We're looking for an inspired and empowered individual to join our Mangaroa Farms team, and take our Farm Shop / Kete Kai to the next level.

Role Description:

In this diverse and unique role, you will:

• Oversee daily operations of our retail presence, both online and in-store

• Lead our Farm Shop / Kete Kai team,

• Drive sales and customer service excellence

• Collaborate with marketing and garden teams,

• Manage software & inventory systems,

• Ensure compliance with health and safety standards

• Expand and grow our retail opportunities in local and national scales

What we're looking for:

An entrepreneurial leader to oversee and apply business acumen to our daily operations -with strong business management and retail experience, preferably in organic or horticultural sales, and a passion for regenerative agriculture.

Key Attributes:

• Entrepreneurial mindset

• Excellent communication skills

• Analytical thinking

• Project management capabilities

• Commitment to lifelong learning

• Ability to work well with a team

Experience Required:

• 5+ years in relevant retail sales, including team leadership and financial management

• Degree not essential; however qualifications in Horticulture/Sales/Operations is beneficial
  

More information here: https://mangaroa.org/pages/retail-lead-application

Apply here: https://airtable.com/applELai85mtj03oW/pagRaUsTVlAvAa94B/form

Mangaroa Farms is looking at becoming a "collection depot" for Three Oaks Organics Raw Milk customers in the Upper Hutt region.

You can leave your expression of interest here:

This future service will be operated by Three Oaks Organics via their website, and picked up by the customer at Mangaroa Farms - more details below. We can proceed with this service if we reach a minimum order of bottles weekly.

You can learn more about the process here: https://www.threeoaksorganic.co.nz/how-it-works/