Kia ora,
Welcome to the Mangaroa Farm Shop / Kete Kai update.
We’re excited to share that the shop is now open 7 days a week, with the new addition of opening on Mondays 11am – 5pm. Drop in any day to say hello and chat with Sarah, Mel, Kari, Tracy, Dani, and Juno about local food and news from the farm.
This edition has a list of new products in the shop, a feature on Heritage Nursery plants and trees, and some upcoming events for the community.
Ngā mihi nui,
Your friends & farmers at Mangaroa Farms
Updates from the Farm Shop / Kete Kai
As always, you’ll find the best of what’s coming out of our gardens and pastures, plus some new gems that just landed in store.
🌱 From the Farm:
Fresh prime cuts of pasture-raised beef and lamb, prepared in our local butchery with a diverse range for all your cooking needs.
Slow cook veges such as pumpkins, potatoes, and parsnips to see you through the end of winter.
Our sausages are sold out, but we’ve been listening to customer feedback, and are focusing on new sausage flavours with quality ingredients made in our butchery. While you wait, we’ve got both lean and smash burger beef mince to help with a quick hearty dinner.
Heritage Nursery plant species for food forests such as hawthorn, hazel, sweet chestnut, and white mulberry. We’re also stocking edible natives like Horopito and Kawakawa.
🥫 Locally Sourced Items:
Three Oaks Raw Milk 2L is back for the season, and ready to pick up at the shop. To purchase, simply sign up with Three Oaks, and collect your milk weekly in store on Thursday afternoons. Organic raw milk is a nutritious food full of vitamins and minerals. If you haven’t tried raw milk, it’s ideal for drinking, making cheese, butter, or yoghurt and baking at home.
Citrus including mandarins, oranges, lemons and limes.
Orchard & tropical fruit including bananas, apples, kiwi green & gold, and avocados.
Roots, nuts & staples including walnuts, kumara and potatoes.
Pantry staples including beans, legumes and grains for from-scratch meals, rice and local Monty & Sons pastas, plus granola, nuts and seeds.
Dairy including Hohepa & Zany Zeus cheeses, Three Oaks and Biogro organic yoghurts, Three Oaks milk (raw & pasteurised) and Udderly milk.
Ferments including Wildly Kefir, Good Bugs kraut range and Urban Hippie miso.
Shop Opening Hours
Monday – Friday 11am – 5pm Saturday 9am – 5pm Sunday 10am – 5pm
📍 98 Whitemans Valley Road, Upper Hutt.
+64 27 369 4758 | shop@mangaroa.org
Updates from the Garden
Cam and Tyler are busy preparing the garden for Spring, which means expanding into the Permaculture Orchard, readying the gardens for new Pick Your Own crops (PYO returns in October), planting flowers for bouquets, and finalising the season’s planting plan.
Our microgreens are now certified organic through Organic Farms NZ. We’re very excited about this first organic certification and continuing to work towards a whole garden organic certification. Read more →
We still have an abundance of sweet winter vegetables, including carrots, parsnips, leeks, beetroot, baby turnips, and sweet cured pumpkins.
Nutritious greens and alliums fill the shelves with microgreens, mesclun, cos lettuce, kale, and rainbow chard, elephant garlic, red and brown onions.
Heritage Nursery
Heritage Nursery NZ is a small nursery located right here at Mangaroa Farms that specialises in heritage, native and rare plants that grow well within the Wellington region. It is run by Ryan and Hannah Dawson, local community educators and friends of Mangaroa. They focus on endemic and bioregional plants that are suited to this local climate, to improve resilience against disease and produce a fuller and healthier crop.
In the shop, we’re excited about stocking a mix of Heritage Nursery’s beneficial plants and trees suitable for local growing and supporting good health. Right now we’ve got support species for food forests like hawthorn, hazel, sweet chestnut, and white mulberry for $20–$25 (any 5 for $100), alongside edible natives like Horopito and Kawakawa.
Nothing gives a young tree a better start than a winter planting, with wet soil, dormant roots, and plenty of time to settle in before the dry season comes.
If you have any questions or are looking for a particular plant, just pop in to the shop or email shop@mangaroa.org. We’re happy to take orders or help source in bulk.
Upcoming Events
We’ve got a range of exciting events coming up over the next couple of months, including our tree planting for the Fruit & Forage loop, following our recent crowdfunding campaign with Ma Earth which raised $13k NZD for a publicly available 24/7 free food supply along the existing farm walking trail.
Tree Planting + Grafting Day for Fruit & Forage Loop Sat 29th August, 9:30am–1:30pm at the Farm Shop. Plant the first section of the Fruit & Forage walking track, with grafting and heritage fruit tree tips from Hannah Dawson and Eric Cairns, then a sausage sizzle to finish. Sign up free →
Foraging with Earth School Aotearoa | Spring has Sprung Sat 5th September, 11:30am–12:30pm at the Market Garden. A pram-friendly early-spring forage walk exploring fresh roots and seasonal edible and medicinal plants, priced per family. Sign up →
Vegetable Fermentation Workshop Sat 12th September, 10:30am–2:00pm at the Wharekai. Learn the art of small-batch kraut with Hella Coenen, take home three jars to ferment, and share a meal of krauts, kombucha and sourdough. Book your spot →
Somatic Breathwork Journey Tue 22nd September, 6:00pm–7:30pm at the Wharekai. An immersive breath and music journey with Amy Webber to release stuck energy and reconnect with yourself. Book your spot →
Sourdough Bread Baking Workshop Sat 17th October, 10:00am–1:00pm at the Wharekai. Mix, knead and bake alongside Doris Zuur; leave with a living starter, a warm loaf and her full recipe collection. Book your spot →
Mangaroa Farms Spring Festival Sat 31st October, 10:00am–3:00pm at the shop. Our biggest day of the year: live music, kids activities, farm and garden tours, workshops and vendors. Register free →
Thank you for being a part of this growing community.
Ngā mihi aroha, Mangaroa Farms