Food Resilience Network: the smallest things are making a big difference
Some of the tiniest living things on the planet are making a monumental impact within the inner city, unbeknown to most commuters, inner city dwellers and dog walkers.
Although squeamish sounding, millions of microscopic bacteria and fungi (which are related to but not as familiar as your average edible button mushroom) are being encouraged to grow in the soil of Ōtākaro Orchard urban farm, as a way to maintain soil health and promote community based, local food production. The farm’s nearly one-acre plot of land is located between Cambridge Terrace and Peterborough Street in the CBD.
“So many people don’t understand that bacteria are really important …because we’re sort of sold this idea that bacteria are ‘dirty’ and you need to use a bacterial wipe,” says Roz Rolls, permaculture expert and project coordinator of the farm.
“We can all too easily forget about all those amazing little microbes, those bacteria, those fungi in the soil and how important they are to our whole life cycle, really.”
The farm operates by permaculture and food resilience principles and is a hub of land-nurture education as well as a small but growing supplier of food. Currently, some of the organic produce is sold at low cost to locals, which also helps with fundraising towards the project’s operating costs.
Future plans for the farm include supplying a cafe in the yet-to-be completed building at Ōtakaro Orchard food forest, a sister project to the urban farm.The ‘passive energy’ building and associated food forest orchard are sited across the road from the urban farm and, together, form the flagship project of the city’s Food Resilience Network.
“We have an incredible demonstration, a living lab, in our central city now,” says Roz. “People can just come in and see what’s happening.”
Roz enjoys people popping by and learning about the above-ground aspects of the project as well as about the soil beneath their feet. Her approach to her work combines indigenous knowledge drawn from her Cook Island ancestry (she’s lived on Rarotonga and maintains a close connection with a family run environmental group on the small island of Mauke) with knowledge gained through academic studies at the Royal Horticultural Society and Permaculture Association in the United Kingdom.
Part of Roz’s role in overseeing the farm includes managing a tribe of volunteers who turn up each Wednesday morning to weed, plant, compost and condition the soil. Inner city resident Kryska Wiek is one of the regular volunteers who goes the “extra million yards” according to Roz.
“I live centrally and the farm was on my run route,” explains Kryska. “I was so excited the first time I saw the plan of it and then one day I was running past …and the next thing is I was signed up.”
Kryska’s involvement, spanning the past 2 years, helped her reconnect with people after the COVID pandemic restrictions.
“It’s so holistic,” she says about the ethos of the farm.
The dedicated band of workers and volunteers are working hard to bestow Christchurch with the title of ‘the edible garden city’ – in tandem with the small microscopic marvels that live in the soil.
“The whole thing about growing ‘good’ [organic] vegetables in a ‘good’ ecosystem is that it’s not only good for our physical health but also our mental health,” says Roz. “Being in touch with nature and nature’s cycles is so important for our well being.”
The urban farm is on privately owned land over which the Food Resilience Network has a 5-year right of use. The land was formerly the site of youth training and employment programme Cultivate Christchurch, whose work on the site ceased in 2022.
The network is also known as Edible Canterbury, and has a charter under which a range of food producing groups operate across the city.
(June 2024)
Photo 3: Kryska Wiek (L) and Roz Rolls (R) with produce from the urban farm.
