We're feeling the autumnal essence drifting our way, watching the leaves turn yellow as they let go of their branches. Winter crops are being sown in the garden, lamb fleeces are growing thicker, and the team is taking stock of all that was learnt throughout summer.

Our annual Harvest Festival was a cracker - with over 1500 people through the gates, hundreds of locally produced meals, educational garden & orchard tours, and perhaps most important of all, forging a collective connection to local food production & resilience.

With global challenges looming, we're shifting the way we think about community engagement, food and accessibility. This means more opportunities for participation, easier access to nutrient-dense food, and an increase in our community resilience.

We're collecting ideas on how to increase a sense of community resilience in our bioregion, and would like your input on how to go about this. Find the link to a survey below, which we invite you to share your ideas, in exchange for a $15 Mangaroa Farms produce voucher at our local farm shop.

Thanks for walking with us on the journey.

Ngā mihi aroha,

Your friends and farmers at Mangaroa Farms

Increasing Community Resilience

As the global landscape continues to change - it's more important than ever to increase our sense of community resilience. Fuel shortages aren’t just about transport - they are embedded in food, farming, & manufacturing.

Themes for the immediate future at Mangaroa Farms include:

Shifting toward growing staple foods, with less focus on luxury products. More focus on kai that is affordable, filling and high quality.
Expanding DIY and Pick-Your-Own (PYO) gardens to create more pathways for people to feed themselves directly, to support as food prices increase.
Focusing on beef over lamb - we're doubling down on beef and reducing lamb, due to cost and welfare challenges. This will enable us to provide higher beef quality products at a lower cost.
Creating partnership opportunities to help people earn income independently, through shared access to equipment, land, useful byproducts, and supply swaps. Mangaroa Farms should strengthen the local economy by supporting our neighbours, not competing with them.
Hosting local discussions - we’ll open our spaces for free community events focused on resilience, local solutions and practical collaboration, while still maintaining the beauty and hope that is core to Mangaroa Farms.

All of these ideas are held with an awareness of our privileged position, the responsibility for our community, and the humility that we don't always know exactly what our community needs

Recent Updates

Upper Hutt Food Week & Harvest Festival was a great success with eight events run across Upper Hutt and over 1,500 people turning up to our harvest festival in the sunshine, bringing our community together in a big way. More

Pick‑your‑own kale, beetroot and pumpkins is back Saturday 11th April between 9am - 11am. Register

Our Local Butchery will be fully operational within the next month, which will bring some new and exciting shop offerings for the community.

The Garden Tunnel House is being shifted into salad greens, so expect a steady stream of baby lettuces, spinach and microgreens in the coming weeks.

Pumpkins are being harvested, coming in a little late this year, but the crew are out gathering the best of the patch for the shop and pick‑your‑own days. Watch

Garlic Planting is scheduled for the end of the month, with beds prepped and seed cloves ready for next summer’s bumper harvest.

Winter planting will soon be underway is bringing hardy greens and root crops into the beds now to steady supply through the colder months and keep the soil building ahead of spring. Expect volunteer days to engage with.

The Seeding Hope Interview Series was filmed recently at Mangaroa Farms in collaboration with Papawhakaritorito Trust to explore indigenous seed, soil & kai sovereignty. More updates coming soon.

Frozen Tomatoes are available in the Farm Shop now for sauce-making and preservinfeaturing ready-to-use packs while we plan the next fresh harvest.

More cattle and less sheep is the way forward for us on the farm. We're slightly increasing cattle and gently decreasing sheep numbers to balance workload and pasture goals.

BROS recently hosted a four‑day experience at Mangaroa Farms, focused on men's wellbeing, brotherhood & connection - a powerful weekend of transformation. More

Host your event with us - We offer premium event spaces & accomodation options for those looking for a bespoke venue, grounded in nature. More

Stay at Mangaroa Farms in one of our beautiful spaces - offering a peaceful escape in nature for you and the family. Check out our accommodation options here.

Interested in living at Mangaroa Farms? Leave your details on our expression of interest form here.

New in the Farm Shop

🍅 The Mangaroa Fresh Garden Collection includes Pumpkins Potatos, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Rhubarb, Fennel, Spring Onion, Beetroot, Leafy Greens, Carrots, Chives, Rosemary, Cabbage & more.

Poet Botanicals Magnesium Oils with roll on and spray options, also kids available, locally made by our shop assistant Mel.

Live Wild Super Greens & Super Reds, high quality nutrients in a powder format, made by our friend Amber Rose.

Taco Addicts Sala & Tortillas, locally made, great ingredients and delicious.

Restocked Books from Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust about Māori Organics, local food sovereignty and seed saving.

VISIT US
Tuesday - Friday 11am-5pm
Saturdays 9am-5pm
Sunday 10am-5pm

📍 98 Whitemans Valley Road, Upper Hutt.

+64 27 369 4758 | shop@mangaroa.org