As Community Farm Managers we (Ellie and Rose) often get asked what an average day on the farm looks like, and the truth is that each day varies wildly! From hosting volunteers, giving talks, answering emails, and some good old weeding, we get up to all sorts and never know exactly what each week will bring, especially with Wellington’s increasingly unpredictable (and intense weather). It keeps us tino pukumahi (very busy) and on our toes, and we love the variety of mahi and the variety of people we get to meet.
But we thought to give you a glimpse into our day-to-day, we’d tell you all about our average Thursday at Kaicycle.
Rufus helping with our harvest for the Kai Ora Collective
On Thursday mornings, our alarms go off at 6am for a 7am start in the māra rain or shine - at this time of year, it’s only just starting to get light, so the last couple of months we’ve been equipped with headtorches. That first harvest is for the Kai Ora Collective - where we sell our organically grown veggies to local people as cheaply as possible. This co-op is especially designed to support local and small growers which is awesome! Each week we’re sent a list of what produce has been ordered. We harvest with hand tools (buckets and knives) and give the produce a good rinse before its picked up at 8:15am to be taken to the collection point where customers get to pick it up mere hours after harvest - fresh as!
The Quick Kai crew at Newtown Community Centre getting ready to turn some of our produce into yummy kai for the community
Then we usually share a flask of coffee (and sometimes a vegan Belen doughnut from Franks, one of the perks of being an URBAN farm) - it can get chilly as before dawn, so it’s good to warm our hands up. Then straight on to the harvest for the Newtown Community Centre - when we’re harvesting, we use sharp knives and cut close to the stem, causing as little damage to the plant as we can. Then the plants recover more quickly and keep producing! We donate as wide a range as possible, and as much as we have that’s fresh and ready to go - this time of year it’s leafy greens, celery, broccoli and more. Then one of us jumps on our bike with a bucket full of veggie goodness strapped onto the back and rides up the road to the Community Centre on Colombo Street to drop off the veg to the chef team there - it’s the Quick Kai team on Thursday and they’re all there setting up the kitchen, it’s great to chat to them and find out what they’ve decided to cook! They cook up a couple of options, including a veggie/vegan one, and put the meals into (recycled) single portion containers for the freezer - available for free or koha at the Community Centre. They also use our veggies for Friday’s Free Soup Friday - a lunch that anyone is welcome to attend.
Harvesting yams with the 3 and 4 year olds from CKC
Then it’s back to the farm to spend half an hour in the māra with a group of tamariki from CKC preschool (who also happen to be our neighbours). Depending on the season we might do seed planting, mulching, garden obervation, or the ever popular snail hunt. It’s always impressive to see how brave the tamariki are with tasting things from the māra.
The Spectrum Care Green Team helping to re-pot seedlings
As the preschoolers are leaving the awesome Green Team crew from Spectrum Care show up to help us out for the next hour and a half. We get all sorts of jobs done with them - Finlay loves using the backpack sprayer, Emily is an expert mulcher and if you’ve ever received produce in a Kaicycle paper bag, it was likely stamped by Patrick, Liang or Morgan!
Finally it’s lunch time and we get a sit down after already having achieved so much!
Depending on what needs doing, and how friendly Tāwhirimātea is feeling, with either spend the afternoon getting stuck in to more farm work or head to our desks for a little computer mahi. If we’re lucky we might be able to spend an hour or two working in the māra listening to a audiobook (such a treat!), otherwise there is always plenty to catch up on in administration land - answering emails, writing newsletters, crop planning, writing fundraising applications, doing social media posts (the list goes on…).
Then at 3pm (or thereabouts) we get to knock off for the day and go home to have a well-earned nap!
