Judith Lacy’s Jottings: Manawatū Food Stories unearths hidden gems

Some of the cows at Wind River Organics at Aokautere, the friendliest cows I've encountered. Photo / Judith Lacy

OPINION:

I patted a cow and I liked it. Her name wasn’t Katy, but No. 59.

I grew up on a dairy farm, but it was never my wheelhouse. Cows were big, their faeces hard to avoid and they had a habit of getting into the garden and munching anything but grass. And leaving unwanted presents.

When I was about 11, I was trying to help separate cows from their calves. One mother, understandably, went for me. She didn’t make contact, but that experience was enough for me to limit my contributions to around the house.

I’ve never come across such a friendly cow as No. 59. While her herdmates kept an understandable distance from outstretched human hands, she went right up to a former zookeeper, seriously, who gave her a good scratch.

No. 59 lives at Wind River Organics dairy farm at Aokautere.

It was the second stop in the inaugural Manawatū Food Stories event, held on Saturday.

Mike Chapman told us the farm has been in his family since 1959, when his parents came to a run-down sheep farm. They built a cow shed, built the farm up and bred their labour - Mike is the youngest of five.

In the 1990s, Mike started to question the inputs going into the farm as he hated writing cheques. He found homeopathic remedies worked just as well as penicillin to treat mastitis.

In 2004 the farm achieved organic certification, the same year much of it was flooded.

Mike told us that when you sit back and observe, animals will tell you what to do. He has discovered when he does less to the land - the longer he gives it time to repair - the whole farm improves.

Mike is passionate about producing healthy food and says people’s health starts with the soil.

On his LinkedIn profile, Mike describes himself as a caretaker. I love that - helping the soil and animals help us.

I’d never heard of Wind River Organics until the tour. As its name says, it backs on to the Manawatū River and has stunning views of the wind turbines.

A selection of Warren Meyrick's organic produce welcomed visitors to his patch. Photo / Judith Lacy

I had seen the sign for organic produce outside Bin Inn in Albert St and kept meaning to investigate, but on Saturday, the answer was laid out for me by the man himself.

Warren Meyrick has planted about four-fifths of a hectare at Wind River Organics in vegetables and fruit.

“To cover that ground, you need to not be scared of work.”

There are avocadoes, tamarillos, watermelon, olives, tomatoes, leeks, capsicum, chilies, aubergine, celery and cabbages.

He uses neem oil as an insecticide and is establishing a microclimate across his two patches with a two-tier planting system. Trees and taller plants provide shade and collect water.

Warren says it is important to plant at the right time. His produce looks like it has been airbrushed, but this is nature at its best.

Warren Meyrick discusses his organic vegetable growing techniques with Manawatū Food Stories participants. Photo / Judith Lacy

Manawatū Food Stories was organised by food producers with help from Palmerston North City Council and the Central Economic Development Agency.

It was a pilot, so I’m sure the debriefing will result in some tweaks to future events. For time-poor people like me, 10 hours is way too long. That is the type of thing I would do on holiday, not in between reclaiming my bedroom floor and scrubbing the shower. But the tour provided extra crunch to my celery, more brightness to my tomatoes, than I would get from a farmers’ market.