08 December 2007

Food is life and the purveyance of it a livelihood. The nostalgic vision of viable farmland, abundant orchards, and rows of healthy, edible plants stretching up and over a hillside

brings a deep sense of comfort. In fact, many of my fondest childhood memories are garden based – munching on carrots still warm from the ground, using peas as currency, our German Shepherd who ate strawberries off the vine! 

There is no doubt that we all crave good food and this is the foundation of the increasing strength and presence of Farmers’ Markets around the country. But the story only begins there. Farmers’ Markets provide a myriad of benefits to a local community: the preservation of farmland under threat by burgeoning urban centres, reduced food miles which means higher quality food and lower transportation costs, a common gathering place, and a tourist attraction in the popular adventure tourism or gastro tourism genres. 

The Bay of Islands Farmers’ Market in Kerikeri serves as a snapshot of Northland, its people, its produce. Small businesses converge at the market every Sunday morning to sell, to educate and inform, to meet their customers face-to-face and to interact. The popular Bed & Breakfast and Orchard “Magnolia House” has seen the value of the collective and enhanced their business with guided market tours and cooking classes. Billy’s Sausages offers customers a local condiment, Burning Desire’s chili pesto, on their sausage roll. Samples of Case-Gilbert Olive Oil are soaked up by cubes of fresh German bread from Cottage Bakery. 

Farmers’ Markets, dubbed a “quiet social revolution” by Ian Thomas of Farmers’ Market New Zealand, are win-win – for the farmers and producers, the community, the tourists and visitors.

But to me, the most encouraging win is what I see each and every Sunday. Happy families, baskets brimming with food, and a small child coveting a bag of fresh sugar snap peas as a treat. What a future! 
 

Melanie Vezey

Coordinator

Bay of Islands Farmers’ Market