Learnings From Wilderland

Eco-Community and Organic Permaculture Farm

Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

Over the past month I have been reminded that we can never really predict what lessons we will learn from the people and places that we encounter. Wilderland is an eco-living community on the North Island of New Zealand. It was set up as a charitable land trust, by its late founders Dan and Edith Hansen, and has been growing food and selling organic produce for over 50 years.

Wilderland was one of the few places that I knew I was going to visit even before I arrived in New Zealand. While I initially chose to visit to learn more about food and agriculture, the past month has been filled with learning experiences that go far beyond just learning about food systems. I have learned a great deal about how people interact and have been exposed to a wide range of different thoughts and ideas. Although I have spent a lot of my time here learning about much more than agriculture, there are still some important lessons that I will take with me as I continue to piece together a broader understanding of our global agri-food system.

Five Key Lessons:

Educational gardens and farms are essential to create a more resilient agriculture system:

A garden of many different types of herbs that I have been learning to identify and use during my time at Wilderland.

Coming from a perspective based on working in larger scale agribusiness, I think a lot about measuring gardens and farms on efficiency and the amount of food that can be grown on the smallest amount of land. Wilderland’s gardens, along with other permaculture farms that I have worked on during my time in New Zealand, have taught me that the success of some farms and gardens should be measured differently.

If the only measurement of success is efficiency, growing the most amount of food in the least amount of land, there are critical benefits that can get left behind. Producing food on a piece of land in the long term, has to be balanced with the impact on the soil and the natural systems that allow that land to be productive. Leaving garden beds fallow and planting a diverse crop rotation are two examples of practices that will actually help the soil stay productive and healthy in the long term. While I understood this concept before working on permaculture farms, I didn’t see it practiced to its fullest extent until the past couple of months.

Additionally, Wilderland has taught me that some gardens’ purpose shouldn’t necessarily be about growing the most food, but about education and helping people to learn more about different cultivation techniques. At Wilderland there are a wide range of different types of gardens and agricultural methods being used. They are definitely not all running smoothly or efficiently, but the process of learning and experimentation is present in all of the gardens. For example, one of the gardens here is an experiment to see if perennial self seeding plants can take hold of the garden and produce food year over year without planting new seedlings. Given New Zealand’s temperate climate, this is very much a possibility because frosts are rare over the winter. While the presence of weeds and the empty space in the garden beds drives me a little bit crazy at times, Wilderland has helped me see the benefits of experimentation and using gardening as an avenue for education on growing food and self sufficiency.

“Weeds” are in the eye of the beholder:

A violet leaf that is high in nutrients and a great add to salads.

Over the past month I have been exposed to many plants that are traditionally labeled as “weeds” that are either edible or have beneficial properties for the soil. For example, during my time here I have been eating violet leaves, nasturtium flowers and chickweed among other plants that are traditionally labeled as “weeds.” Many of these plants have health benefits and add an amazing flavor to salads.

Additionally, I have been using the leaves of both comfrey and doc, two common weeds, as a source of nitrogen in new compost piles and in garden beds. Comfrey and doc are “weeds” that have very deep root systems and store a lot of nutrients in their leaves. In organic farming in New Zealand, it is common to pick comfrey leaves as a nitrogen source to add into a garden bed or mix into a compost pile. I’ve learned that “weeds” are not weeds solely based on the type of plant, rather the definition of a “weed” is all in the eyes of the gardener or farmer.

Small scale gardening and large scale farming are not on the same continuous spectrum of growing food:

Since day one of learning more about food and agriculture, I have been interested in finding points of common ground between disparate viewpoints in the food and agriculture space. It has always been very apparent that there are many differences between small scale gardening and farming and the larger system, but I maintained the belief that it all fits under the same umbrella of growing food.

Over the course of the past couple of months I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that small scale food systems and the large scale industry are simply two separate worlds. They have different beliefs, different knowledge bases and different growing methods. A one acre market gardener is going to have a completely different skillset and knowledge base than a thousand acre row crop farmer. While I was reluctant to come to this conclusion, I stand by my belief that there are still points of common ground and knowledge from each side that are important to share. I am also coming to recognize the different but equally important roles that different scales of agriculture play in developing an agri-food system that is better for people and the planet.

Soil is common ground:

A hot compost pile that was built during my time here.

Building off of accepting the fact that small scale and large scale agriculture largely live in two separate worlds, I think it is critical to recognize that soil is a critical shared resource and is the foundation of all types of agriculture. All types of cultivation, with the exception of certain systems that grow hydroponically, need soil to function. Soil health is the building blocks of any successful garden or farm. Successful small scale gardeners, all the way to large scale farms should have a good understanding of their soil type, nutrient deficiencies, erosion management and what their soil needs to grow a healthy crop.

I have witnessed this on a small scale through the necessity of a strict regimen of adding compost to the gardens at Wilderland given the naturally nutrient-poor and sandy soils in this part of New Zealand. I look forward to continue learning and focusing on soil health and the critical role that healthy soils play in all sizes and types of agriculture systems.

Food creates community:

My last learning at Wilderland isn’t anything revolutionary, but it is something that has been exemplified during my time here. Sharing breakfast and lunch everyday with the community of folks living here has shown me just how important of a role food can play in bringing people together. It has been great to have set meal times and be mindful of how the food that I am eating got on my plate everyday. By switching off “cheffing” for the 25-30 other people at Wilderland, I have learned the joy of cooking for others and giving gratitude when someone else cooks for me.

It was also an amazing experience to put on an “American Thanksgiving” meal for a group of international travelers a couple of weeks ago. Along with two other Americans, we cooked a Thanksgiving feast for a group of travelers from the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Argentina, Canada, the UK and France. For many, it was the first time they had ever experienced “Thanksgiving”, and while we didn’t have a turkey or stuffing, we had plenty of food to go around and a meal filled with gratitude and community. For me, this experience was a reminder of the ways in which food can create community and make up an important part of a culture and a place.

Overall, Wilderland has taught me to be more open-minded and not to dismiss different ways of growing food or different perspectives of our food and agriculture system. There is truth in every viewpoint and perspective, and I am grateful to have been able to take the time to listen, learn and work alongside a group of people that are passionate about learning more about where their food comes from.