Gender

Male

Location

Auckland

Birthday:

December 13

Suburb

Glen Eden

Post / Zip Code

0602

I am a...

Home Farmer

I can offer

Nothing yet.

Food Growing Skill Level

Confident

Experience and Qualifications

Permaculture Experience, Bio-Dynamics, Lots of years in the garden

I am interested in...

Buying Local Food, Selling Local Grown Food, Bartering Local Food, Community Gardens, Learning, Preserving, Helping Others, Seed Savers, Offering Land for Gardeners

Tell us about your garden and what you're growing

My family and I have only been back from Australia since Spring so I have been really focused on getting my culinary and medicinal herbs in the ground to this point. As well, I have had a decent crop of potatoes - whilst kumura and pumpkin are on the way - as well as heaps of tomatoes. Other things I have been growing - in smaller quantities include; garlic, corn, cucumber, bitter gourd, capsicum, lettuces, kale, raspberries, passion-fruit and gooseberries ... and so on. My personal objective is to have around 80% to 100% of my families fruit and veges from the backyard. I have 1,320 sq metres of commercial zoned property in the commercial zone of Glen Eden with a 100 sq metres 1920s bungalow on it. So, other than a double garage and a driveway I am reflecting on the potential for using the rest of the land as a collective for members to grow food and generate income to help mobilize interest in purchasing a block of land on the verge of Auckland to do the same on a larger scale. The purpose of the planned garden collective - along with bulk purchasing of all foods for cheaper prices for all collective members - initially: To grow berries, veges and culinary/medicinal herbs for delivery service to people's doorstep. The bigger goal, to grow a sustainable socio-economic model for demonstration and practical individual and collective benefit purposes. Are you interested? Flick me an email and join the group to do it. To begin with I do not want hundreds of people -twenty to fifty for stage one is plenty. The start up stage for the first phase of stage one is February 20th 2011. A key area of interest for me in this community draws upon my organisational development consulting and political activism background and is summarized in the following points: 1. Why is the financing of community gardens, food collectives and other sustainable socio-economic models challenging? It is not in reality so ... What are the obstacles to actioning this? Why is trust an almost 'extinct species' these days? 2. If you are committed to embracing a sustainable approach - to your world and your life ... How much and what are you willing to contribute to that each week? Why? Why not? Why are the negatives often more than the positives? Can't we see what the future holds for our kids if we don't change? 3. What do we need to shift our own paradigms to make our lives and our communities truly work for us all? Why can't we mobilize self interest in a positive and rewarding way? 4. Why is the traditional paradigm so pervasive and overpowering when it is so fragile?