Tools for Permaculture Living

The Patridge Family

This couple’s resilient lifestyle and business have been inspired by their global travels and desire for true sustainability. Tess and Marco Partridge run Crafty Gatherer, making gardening tools and domestic implements in the Papamoa Hills, Bay of Plenty. Marco is a skilled builder with a penchant for craft. He has an inventive eye for implements […]

Ethics in a cup

There’s a fair bit of hoopla involved in creating your morning cup of coffee, as IncaFé’s Joop Verbeek explains. When you choose a brew of certified organic and Fairtrade wake-up juice, you also contribute to the creation of many jobs, strong communities, and actively help sustain the planet. Ensconced in the Taranaki port city of […]

Lavender with altitude

On Mt Cook highway across the road from Lake Pukaki, 600 metres above sea level, a 20-acre mantle of striking purple creates a spectacular visual anomaly in the otherwise barren landscape. Here’s why tourists stop the bus at New Zealand Alpine Lavender. In February 2009 businessman Allan Tibby approached Blake Foster with a suggestion of partnership […]

Asparagus – Spears to Die For

Greenfern Asparagus, is a dedicated family operation. Here is how they grow their seasonal delicacy. Bill and Irene Cummings, with the help of their three children over the years, have operated Greenfern (Les Asperges) since 2000. Located at Tamahere near Cambridge on 23 hectares of flat sandy loam soil, their fields produced at peak 100 […]

Beetle Mania

Geotrupes-Springer-image-supplied-by-Dung-Beetle-Innovations

Dung beetles offer many benefits to New Zealand farmers: better soils, pastures and waterways. Entomologist Dr Shaun Forgie, is a world expert on these extraordinary insects. He breeds unusual livestock whose business is to eat the business of herbivorous mammals. He and his business partner Andrew Barber raise dung beetles at one of the world’s […]