Some of our Communities of Regenerative Learning members at out first weekend of workshops and site assessments.
In November 2023 we launched a learning network for six regenerative community-connected farms across Auckland City.
The participating spaces all share the goal of growing abundant & nutritious food with methods that mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss.
They’ll be receiving mentoring with FTLOB and come together to network and support one another as they upskill with biology-first principles and emerging soil science.
The aim of this network is to gather & support a community of farm teams - so they can further support their local communities with kai and knowledge about how to grow it.
We launched the network with all our Tāmaki Makaurau growers getting together for our first workshop, followed by tours of the six participating māra kai - Kelmarna Farm Growing Point at Dignan St Community Garden , TUMG Tamaki Urban Market Garden, Pourewa Māra Kai, Ihumaatao and For The Love of Bees model farm OMG Organic Market Garden. Also joining us was Grow Space Auckland, who are shadowing our workshops as they continue to develop their regenerative projects in Morningside.
Meet the farms
Tāmaki Urban Market Garden
Tāmaki Urban Market Garden or TUMG has been growing veggies in the rear section of a Glen Innes doctors office since 2021. Amidst major housing densification and development, this suburban market garden reminds us that backyard food production was once at the heart of ‘the quarter acre dream’ and a deliberate part of how Auckland suburbs were designed.
Growing Point
Growing Point at Dignan Street Community Garden has been developing its food production since 2015. Located in suburban Point Chevalier, this māra kai is on a retired bowling green at the back of the Point Chevalier Bowling Club.
Growing Point run workshops and produces kai for the local community.
They are veracious learners interested in weaving knowledge systems of mātauranga māori and western science.
Pourewa Māra Kai
Situated on land held by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Pourewa Māra Kai and Māra Rongoa was completed in 2020 to a design that incorporated the mauri, wairua, tikanga and whakapapa of the land with a traditional sustainable horticultural and agricultural practice.
The aim of Pourewa Māra Kai is to preserve traditional practices and encourage food sovereignty - knowing where food comes from and how it is grown.
Kelmarna Community Farm
Kelmarna Community Farm has 40 years of rich history as an organic community farm in Ponsonby. They have a market garden, food forest, sheep, chickens, bee hives, a compost operation and hold regular workshops. Their goal is to champion and demonstrate a regenerative local food model that supports climate change mitigation, urban resilience and community wellbeing.
Ihumaatao
At Ihumaatao the community is developing vegetable gardens on land that was previously being used by dairy farmers.
Located near the historic Ōtuataua Stonefields, this area was one of the first in Aotearoa to have intensified vegetable gardens and holds rich significance in our horticultural history. The community are in the process of developing infrastructure for māra kai and regenerating the soil so they can produce abundant nutritious vegetables.
OMG
OMG (Organic Market Garden) was started by For The Love of Bees in 2018 as an extension to their temporary teaching gardens in Auckland's city center. Both sites aimed to connect people to understanding the relationship between pollinators, plants and soil, and how we can harness the power of biology to grow abundant food.
Located on upper Symonds Street, central Auckland, this urban farm has been under the guidance of our agronomist Daniel Schuurman to model what high yielding regenerative organic horticulture can look like. It is the central hub of For The Love of Bees education programs.
For The Love of Bees has been piloting this project with Earthworker alumni Mahinga Kai and have wanted to develop into regional networks for a while.
Many people from our Earthworkers Programme are working in community-connected spaces like these and we saw a need to further support their teams as they upskill with regenerative organic horticulture.
We are delighted to finally see this Auckland-based network become a reality!
You can follow what’s happening with the Communities of Regenerative Learning on our social media accounts.
Communities of Regenerative Learning has been made possible this year through the support of the Auckland Climate Grant, Awhero Nui, Foundation North and The Jenkins Foundation.
We would also like to thank our mentoring team Daniel Schuurman Sarah Smuts Kennedy, Jenny Lux and Rebecca Swan for their dedication to this project.