Adrian Roche with a barro load of 'black gold' Kelmarna's organic compost. Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
Along the short path to Kelmarna community farm visitors are transported from suburbia to a rural oasis.
The 4 and a half acre block of land is nestled between the affluent Auckland suburbs of Ponsonby and Herne Bay, the last place you'd expect to find a farm.
Spring growth at Kelmarna. Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
The section is full of fruit trees, flower gardens, vegetables plots, and animals. As Adrian Roche shows First Up around chickens crowd around the gate of their coop hoping to be fed. Bees swarm around their hives in the spring sun.
Free range chickens hoping for a meal. Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
"We really love having the bees here to help make all that pollination happen, and we love having the honey to sell" says Roche.
There's even room for a few sheep. The breed, Wiltshires, were chosen because they're sell shedding. That means they don't have to be shorn or docked.
Kelmarna is completely organic, and produce, including fruit, vegetables and eggs are sold at the farm shop.
Produce is sold at the Kelmarna Community Farm shop. Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
But plants aren't the only thing being nurtured. The farm has a therapeutic gardening programme for people with mental health needs or intellectual disablities and participants in the programme can cultivate their own small plot of land.
"Some people need support and advice, and some people like the woman that looks after this plot neeeds absolutely no advice because she's an amazing gardener" says Roche, pointing to one plot that is bursting with spring growth.
The farm's compost is made on site, referred to as the 'Soil Factory'.
Fresh produce growing at Kelmarna Community Farm. Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
To cut down on emissions an e-bike is used to collect food scraps from local restaurants and households. they scraps are then composted at Kelmarna and either used on the farm's garden beds or sold.
Kelmarna's history is almost as rich as the soil. The land was part of 3000acres Ngati Whatua gifted to the crown in 1840. In the 20th century it was part of St Vincent's home of compassion.
"In modern speak you might call it an adoption processing centre" Roche says. "So this was common throughout New Zealand where women would be pregnant, out of wedlock, their families would generally organise them to go to places like the Home of Compassion here and have their babies and then the babies would be adopted out"
Some fruit trees from that era remain, while the shed where nuns once milked cows is now the lunch room for volunteers and workers.
The lunchroom was once a cow shed Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
The farm started in 1981 when Paul Lagerstedt lead the land from the council.
Adrian Roche began volunteering at Kelmarna in the 90s before becoming an employee in 2003.
"I've studied sustainability a lot and they always talk about, the importance of social goals and environmental goals" he says. That's why I love this project so much, because it's, doing both things. It's got really strong social goals of supporting people, supporting the most vulnerable, and then communities, community space, and then also environmental goals about how to produce food that kind of improves the world rather than detracts from the world.
With Jo-Anne Hazel, Roche has written 'Growing Together' the story of the first 40 years of Kelmarna Farm.
While researching the book, old gardening diaries were uncovered, detailing early attempts at improving growing conditions. Using fish for fertiliser didn't turn out so well after the nuns complained.
Thriving plantings Photo: RNZ Ross McNaughton
"They had to put the kibosh on that because the smell was sort of wafting over the neighbourhood and attracting a lot of flies, I suspect"
Fish wasn't the only animal fertiliser tried.
"One of the most bizarre things was they were taking ashes from cremated animals from the zoo and using it. Very high in potassium maybe, I'm not sure, but it's recorded there in the diaries"
More recent history hasn't been without controversy, including 2019's 'cowgate' episode.
"We had a bit of a moment in the glare of the media about selling some of our cattle for meat and then people complaining that the cattle were being turned into meat" Roche says.
The three steers were eventually rehomed, while Kelmarna escaped it's own brush with death last year.
Community fundraising saved the farm, and a new 20 year lease was signed with Auckland council in April ensuring Kelmarna will continue thriving and growing into the future.
Kelmarna Farm will be hosting a series of 'Growing Together' Farm tours on December 5th and 6th led by co-author Adrian Roche.
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