Kia ora,
Our biggest day of the year is almost here. Join us on Saturday 31 October for the Kōanga Spring Festival - a free day on the farm for the whole whānau, with blossoms on the trees and tractors, sheep-dogs and lambs in the paddocks.
On the day:
- Sheep shearing, sheepdog demos and spinners & weavers
- Kapa haka and a hāngī from the whānau at Ōrongomai
- Mangaroa lamb buns, beef sausages
- Organic coffee & baked goods
- Market stalls and workshops
- Live music from Casual Healing
- Kids’ zone with pony rides, a maze, treasure hunts & flower crowns
Go behind the scenes - $20 guided tours
Entry is free, but for $20 you can walk the land with our growers and see how healthy soil feeds everything else.
- Market Garden Tours - 10:30am or 12:30pm
- Permaculture Orchard Tours - 11:30am or 1:30pm
Spots are limited, so book ahead. Register for $20 tours.
A Day of Farm Charm
On the day, enjoy local kai with our delicious Mangaroa lamb buns and beef sausages, grab a coffee from our cart, and send the kids off to the kid’s zone where they can enjoy the multispecies maze, treasure hunts, machinery demos, lawn games, flower crown making + pony rides.
- 10:00am – Gates open.
- 10:30am – Sheep shearing with Karl & Stef Howard, plus a spinners & weavers demo. Market Garden Tour, $20. Book now.
- 11:00am – Kapa haka and a sheepdog demo.
- 11:30am – Live music until 1:30pm. Permaculture Orchard Tour, $20. Book now.
- 12:00pm – Ōrongomai hāngī, sheep shearing demo, and spinners & weavers demo.
- 12:30pm – Flower crown workshop. Market Garden Tour, $20. Book now.
- 1:30pm – Maypole dance, sheepdog demo, sheep shearing demo, and spinners & weavers demo. Permaculture Orchard Tour, $20. Book now.
- 2:30pm – Farming Q&A with our farm manager.
- 3:00pm – Event close. Thanks for coming!
Interested in connecting deeper? Volunteer to be a part of the weekend, connect deeper with Mangaroa Farms, and see how the operations run behind the scenes. Register here.
Recent Updates
Mangaroa Farm Shop / Kete Kai is now open 7 days a week, stocking fresh Mangaroa produce, meat, and artisan products from around the country. Visit us.
Lambing season has finished with all our little ones being born, and now calving season is fully underway. Grass is pumping across the paddocks, ready for a hot summer ahead.
Water management systems are a current focus for us as we establish regenerative management across the farm, with help from our friends at Groundshift.
Fresh meat back in stock as of next week, after our butcher Rob is back from holiday. Find your favourite beef and lamb cuts available straight from the Mangaroa Butcher. Order online.
Come play disc golf at our new course launching on October 17th. Free to join, with optional $20 koha to fundraise for baskets for the course. This is also happening alongside our meat BBQ launch event. Sign up.
Garden workshops start this spring. A monthly series for home gardeners, from building your first no-dig bed through to seed raising, winter planning, harvesting and preserving. Sign up here.
Homefulness is running a fundraising campaign for an interview series about creating pathways for those wishing to enable, create, or join housing that is values-driven and affordable. Learn more.
We’d love your feedback. Tell us what you think of what we’re doing, and we’ll say thanks with a $15 farm shop voucher. It takes two minutes and genuinely shapes what we do next. Share your thoughts.
Stay at Mangaroa Farms in one of our beautiful spaces - offering a peaceful escape in nature for you and the family. Check out our accommodation options here.
Interested in living at Mangaroa Farms? Leave your details on our expression of interest form here.
New in the Farm Shop / Kete Kai
The Mangaroa Coffee Cart is open on Saturdays from 9am-1pm, serving delicious Karamu Coffee and organic goodies from Half Baked Catering Co. Visit us.
Fresh from the garden: carrots, leeks, parsnips, broccoli coming in the next few weeks.
Mangaroa beef & lamb fresh from the butchery from 9 October, or frozen for North Island delivery. Order online here.
Rongoa Māori guides in store: Māori Herbal Medicine by Rob McGowan/Pā Ropata, and Donna Kerridge.
Three Oaks Organic Farm raw milk and yoghurt is back. Register to collect your weekly supply from us here.
Weekend bread: Shelly Bay Bakery on Fridays, Dough Bakery on Saturdays and Sundays.
Want something on the shelves, or a particular cut? Email the shop team at shop@mangaroa.org.
Visit us
Monday - Friday 11am-5pm Saturdays 9am-5pm (Coffee cart til 1pm) Sunday 10am-5pm
📍 98 Whitemans Valley Road, Upper Hutt. +64 27 369 4758 | shop@mangaroa.org
Pick Your Own is back
Spring is here and the garden is picking up pace. We’re seeding, prepping beds and planting, while bringing in the last of the winter harvest. The winter cover crop is in full bloom and about to be chopped and dropped to feed the soil. Healthy soil comes first - everything else grows from there.
Pick Your Own - starts this Saturday
Get your hands in the soil and see where your kai comes from.
- Carrots: mixed sizes, mostly baby. $2/kg, weigh and pay
- Pumpkins: $4 each while stocks last
- When: Saturdays until the carrots run out - we’ll confirm each week
- Coming soon: beetroot, kale, rainbow chard, elephant garlic, lettuce and early potatoes
Home Garden Workshops with Cam
Cam’s advice: make the most of the sunny days and get outside. Join our expert gardener Cam Dixon for monthly Saturday workshops, running until May. Last week covered bed prep, cardboard and compost.
Next up: seed sowing and propagation Sat 24th October.
Upcoming Events
Home Garden Workshop Series
Spring Edition (Sep, Oct, Nov) · 1pm - 2:30pm
Learn to grow your own kai in a real working market garden. Our Home Garden Workshop Series runs monthly through the growing season - hands-on, practical, and designed for beginners and developing home gardeners.
Pick Your Own Veges
Weekly Saturdays in October · 9am - 11am
Experience the joy of harvesting your own fresh, spray-free produce straight from the soil. Make a morning of it with your whānau. Meet our gardeners, explore our market garden and permaculture orchard.
Disc Golf Course Official Opening
Sat 17th October · 10am - 5pm
Join Mangaroa Farms for the official opening of our Disc Golf Course. We’re hoping for fine weather and planning a good day out on the course with tunes, the BBQ fired up, coffee cart running and the Farm Shop open. We’ll be on the course from 10am till late afternoon.
Mangaroa Butchery Launch BBQ
Sat 17th October · 11am - 2pm
Join us for a special celebration of our newly opened onsite butchery. Come along and taste the delicious cuts of meat grown right here on the farm, raised with care on our regenerative pastures. Perfectly paired with our disc golf launch event above.
Somatic Breathwork Journey
Thu 22 October · 6pm - 7:30pm
Somatic Breathwork™ is a full embodiment experience designed to help you release stress, trauma, emotions and stuck energy from the body. This is a modality that utilizes your own breath to help shed the layers of yourself that no longer serve, making room for you to call in what will help facilitate change within your life.
Mangaroa Farms Spring Festival
Sat 31 October · 10am - 3pm
We’re back again for our biggest day of the year. Come and welcome the return of the sun with a day of farm charm - live music, garden tours, kids activities, delicious kai and more.
Sourdough Breadbaking Workshop
Sat 7 November · 10am - 1pm
Learn Sourdough Breadbaking with Doris Zuur, who has been baking the slow way for decades. Her bread is the kind that fills a house with its smell and a table with quiet conversation. This workshop is very popular and will surely sell out, so be sure to sign up soon.
Host your event with us - Bespoke event spaces and accommodation, grounded in nature. Learn more.
We’re learning and growing through this journey, and always welcome community input as we continue finding our way together.
Thanks for being a part of this regenerative movement alongside us.
With gratitude, Your friends at Mangaroa Farms