Last August when we were busily planning our time in New Zealand, we stumbled upon The Food Farm on the NZ wwoof site. Both of us were intrigued by Angela and Nick's post, and fell in love with idea of learning more about "permaculture". So we sent off an email to see if we could spend two weeks as wwoofas on The Food Farm, and here we are!
Our hosts, Angela and Nick, along with their teenage kids Ruby, Matilda, and Flynn, are bringing the concepts of permaculture to life for us. More than sustainable living, permaculture is a way of thinking and living. Everything from growing vegetables, fruits, and rearing animals is done intentionally with an attempt to use everything, waste included, purposefully.
Here are some of the things we've noticed about The Food Farm setup:
- The veggie garden is located right outside the front door of the house, and the veggies are woven between flowers to promote pollination. How smart!
- The chooks (chickens) eat the house and garden compost.
- The pigs are fed apples that have fallen from the trees, along with anything not suitable for the chooks
- A LOT of fruits and veggies are canned or bottled
- Some of the home grown pigs and chickens, and grass fed sheep and cows end up on the dinner table
