Growing food and connections on Aotea

As an island community, Aotea / Great Barrier is often reliant on food and resources arriving by air or sea.

To support steps towards creating homegrown food sources, Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board funds Caity Endt’s Food Resilience Coordinator role.

Caity manages the monthly Aotea Growers and Makers Market at the Claris Conference Centre, as well as low-cost food resilience workshops and other initiatives.

The markets are usually on the first Saturday of the month. Caity says the market has different offerings each time, with seasonal produce and the occasional new stall holder.

“The February market was really nice, we had extra growers coming – a young man who had a lovely collection of pumpkins, and a beautiful collection of purple-skinned potatoes,” says Caity.

“And another guy came with a whole bunch of white fleshed peaches; it felt a bit more on the grower’s side which is great.”

Learning how to grow food is also a big focus. Last spring, Caity ran a six week gardening course, with one full day of learning each week with around a dozen people taking part.

Participants travelled from all over the island, from Tryphena in the south to Okiwi in the north. The course was detailed and hands on, covering everything from planning a garden to growing plants from seeds and cuttings. It gave people the basic skills they need to grow more of their own food at home. At the end of the course, the group visited each other’s gardens in the south of the island.

“It was fabulous,” says Caity.

“The students got so much out of it because they were all sharing stories and ideas and that’s always the best way – you steal other people’s ideas.

“We shared all our food, and most of it was out of people’s gardens as well. The students have done incredibly well.”

The group included people from many walks of life, some with lots of time and others very busy, yet everyone made great progress.

Caity is hoping to run a similar course this year.

Another workshop series in the pipeline is “cooking from scratch”.

Caity understands that we’re all busy and pre-made food is convenient, but says it’s surprising how easy it is to make some really nutritious things from start to finish.

“One of the things I’m really keen to cover is making stock – or bone broth as it’s now called,” she says. “I also plan to do workshops on making yoghurt, kefir, and mayonnaise.”