YOUR INDUSTRY
GROWING PATHWAYS Words by Helena O’Neill
Hamlin Road Organic Farm team coach Sarah Hewitt
Tucked away in South Auckland is a special type of organic farm that helps people grow while they tend the land. Hamlin Road Organic Farm is run by Pathways, a community-based mental health, addiction, and well-being service which offers people employment and education. In 2002 Pathways acquired the land and funding to start Hamlin Road Organic Farm. They brought together Pathways staff, people who used their services, whānau, business people and community members to share their ideas on how Pathways should use the land. The farm started as an organic, free-range operation selling eggs alongside a small amount of watercress. In 2013 and 2014 the operation moved to solely horticulture. Farm team coach Sarah Hewitt says the shift to a sole horticulture operation was not without its challenges. “We’ve got clay soil here at Ardmore along with a high water table.” With good drainage and raised garden beds, between three and four acres of the five-acre site is now planted out. The orchard has 60 citrus trees along with avocado, apple, peach, pear, fig, plum, and feijoa trees.
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One 50-metre and six 25-metre shade houses also offer more variation in what the farm can produce alongside its orchard and outside gardens, she says. Two propagation houses offer plenty of opportunities for trialling different plants and growing methods. “I love doing different trials. We’re always exploring if we have the best seeds or if our practices are the best way. We will do trial beds next to each other. For example with coriander we would soak the seed in hot water, we would soak the seed in cold water, we wouldn’t soak the seeds.” “We’ve got some covered crops and we’ve just started doing some mustard seeds. We’ve also closed down some beds and are trying to get some approved plastic that we can use.” The farm sells its produce to Auckland wholesalers Ceres Organics and Fresh Direct, as well as at the farm gate during work hours and through its website. They are also long-standing stallholders at the weekly Clevedon Village Farmers’ Market. “The online webstore is an ever-growing business for us. It’s been awesome. “When Covid-19 hit we had an absolute influx of demand. We rebranded and created a webstore – it had been a dream of mine for years to have a webstore.”
