YOUR INDUSTRY
REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE: THE LEADING EDGE OF LAND MANAGEMENT Words by Heather Woods
Streamside Organics owner-operators, Dominique and Logan. Photo; Heather Woods
Streamside Organics is a certified organic grower operating in the rural town of Leeston, just south of Christchurch. Owners, Dominique and Logan, have been working their slice of heaven for around three years now and believe that regenerative agriculture is the way forward. They started small scale with just a single acre. Slowly, they grew to five acres and now, 50 acres later, they have scaled up in a way that suits their tools and range of produce. Despite offering a diverse range of crops, they’re very efficient. The team have their hands full, managing 30 to 40 species and 60 varieties across the farm. Dominique says growing such a diverse range keeps things fun and different. “Plus, it’s attractive to buyers to have a range of options – we like to make it easy and fun for our customers.” Such diversity means more investment in staff training and crop management, to ensure that harvesting techniques across all the crops are up to scratch and that their people feel happy and challenged in their roles. And the benefits are clear, with consistent revenue from multiple streams helping to maintain a healthy operation: Farmers’ Markets, New World supermarkets, restaurants, 24 NZGROWER : NOVEMBER 2021
organic retail stores and their popular vegetable boxes that held their own at the height of the pandemic and have continued thriving since. Streamside Organics has always operated as a grower of organic food. Everything they do meets AsureQuality standards and when it comes to trial and experimentation, they are forward-thinking. “We’re open to changing things, conducting trials with different species, and we don’t just grow the one variety of crop, even if we know it works,” Logan says.
A NEW GREENHOUSE WILL SOON ADD TOMATOES, CUCUMBERS AND EARLY COURGETTES TO THE OPERATION, ALONG WITH SEEDLING PRODUCTION
