A reflection by one of the Dublin CSA’s growers, Seamus:
This is written on reflection of a recent trip to New Zealand. Firstly it is on the opposite side of the world and so is in the opposite season to here. When I arrived it was the end of January, coming out of our northern winter but over there – just coming to the end of the summer. Not that it felt like it – the daily temperature was usually in the twenties. This made for a Mediterranean like climate and although there was quite a variation between the top of the north Island (tropical) and bottom of the south Island (more like Ireland) New Zealand has a climate very suitable for growing plants and animals.
Travelling by bus down the North Island from Auckland the thing that struck me initially was the sheer devastation imposed on the landscape as a result of modern industrial, commercial agriculture. Yes, the land was green for the most part but this was a monoculture of grass which grazed monocultures of sheep or cows with very little in the way of native vegetation evident. Even where animals were replaced by trees – these again were monocultures on an industrial scale for the most part. It was clear that Europeans settlers have left a lasting legacy on both the character of the landscape and also on the mentality of their descendants – that land is of value when it can provide financial return to people.
I travelled to the Hawkes Bay area where I was to spend a week and a half working in exchange for bed and board WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). The area I was in – close to the town of Hastings – was renowned for its orchards. The farm I was to work with was quite unique locally and indeed within New Zealand – growing a wide variety of crops mainly for the domestic market. http://www.epicureansupplies.co.nz/
The farm comprised some 20 hectares (50 acres) although not all in the one block. This was big coming from half an acre plot. Being big meant a lot of labour, a good deal of efficiency and quite a bit of mechanisation. There was a seeding machine for planting up modules – a nifty bit of kit but quite excessive unless you were on this kind of scale. Many crops were direct seeded – i.e. planted directly into the soil without being raised to seedling stage. These included turnips, coriander, dill, some salad, radish and surprisingly pumpkin – with the seeds being dropped using a potato planter. Many crops were raised to the seedling stage and for this there was one employee seeding module trays more or less full-time.
In terms of variety of crops there was nothing that I hadn’t at least heard of but many that I had much less success growing. This was down to the weather with tomatoes, peppers (capsicums), aubergines (egg plants) and basil all growing happily outside. With the good weather came the need to water and this was carried out using a drilled well and industrial pump; quite a task given that standard beds were 100m long! The heat was also an issue when out harvesting – especially in the midday sun. I was lucky enough not to be sent to any of the 100m long basil beds which were planted through plastic – meaning heat from above and below.
Another interesting aspect to the farm was the growing of herbs. This was novel as it showed that perennial plants could also be profitable enterprises with sage, oregano, thyme and rosemary planted in beds that were harvested to order daily. Rosemary in particular really excelled in the hot climate and harvesting stems from rosemary hedges above head height meant wearing sunglasses at work was not just to look cool.
In a technical growing sense I learned a lot there. From the size of modules used, to the preparation of beds for planting I gained some hints and tips. The need for machinery once a farm goes beyond a certain size was clearly apparent with several tractors employed there to do a variety of jobs from rotavating, seeding, ridging up (leeks/pumpkins), and pulping crop residues.
The need for labour given the size of the farm was also clear from the outset. There were probably a dozen full-time staff. When I arrived there were 9 woofers. By the end of my first week there were only 4 as some were moving on – some having spent several months there, others several weeks. The loss of this many workers placed a burden on Clyde, the owner of the business, having to re-jig work hours to fit in all the essential tasks. At this point it was clear to me that wwoofers were intrinsic to the successful operation of this farm and showed how volatile dependency on this cheap source of labour could be. That said, wwoofers seemed happy to do the work and get some pay for work over the basic three and a half days to cover their bed and board for the week.
Overall, my experience on this farm was positive – meeting other wwoofers and workers and learning about vegetable growing in the southern hemisphere. Although still an enterprise geared for profit – it provided a respite from industrial farming generally and showed that a massive amount can be grown on a relatively small area.
In a more general sense I was struck by the price of vegetables in New Zealand. Vegetables in supermarkets were generally more expensive than in Ireland. It was also surprising that vegetables were actually less expensive at farmer’s markets than in supermarkets. As I understood, much of the land in New Zealand is used for producing food for export – generally on quite industrial scales. Those people growing vegetables to sell at farmer’s markets were by-in-large the exception and did not have ready access to the export market. They were happy to sell their food at markets rather than being stuck with it or selling it for very little to wholesale buyers. This was good news for me and others who were able to avail of the bounty of produce available at this time of year but raised questions as to the suitability of people of land to the industrial food model.
Dublin CSA 