I witnessed the truly phenomenal power of food to bring people together during the aftermath of the Christchurch and Kaikoūra earthquakes. With local food supply chains severely disrupted, many businesses were unable to get their produce to market and many consumers were unable to access the food they needed. To find a solution, I helped set up local fresh food markets that included free donated food and fundraisers to help those that were impacted by the earthquakes.
It was an inspiring time, and it showed me how major obstacles can be overcome when people combine their food-producing resources. Food is so much more than fuel. It’s a conduit for community – a way we can connect with each other and share what we grow in times of hardship.
As a small farm owner I hear and read a lot about self-sufficiency, and see people trying to prepare to survive without connection to the outside world. We often get asked if we’re completely “self-sufficient” and I always reiterate that this is never our goal or purpose. For a start, I have no intention of surviving without coffee or chocolate, neither of which I imagine I’ll be able to grow here in North Canterbury. Interestingly, climate change threatens both, but for the meantime I rely on imports to access these “essential” products.
There are other things I struggle to grow as a small farmer. While we’ve experimented with chickpeas, and grow a fair amount of dried beans and maize for polenta and masa flour, growing grains is difficult to do on a small scale without industrial machinery. We therefore have to buy our wheat to make bread, and oats to make our Food Farm muesli.
While we have milk from our own cow, it’s not year-round, so we need to access dairy from elsewhere at certain times. And I just don’t always have as much time as I think I do to make my own butter and cheese. This makes me hopelessly dependent on the 1kg block of Colby cheese to keep my three teenagers nourished with cheese toasties.
Olives, olive oil, sea salt, sugar, apple cider vinegar – even bacon and chicken when we run out of our own – are all sourced from other growers. All this is to say that, despite the Food Farm’s growing capacity, we can’t grow everything, and are dependent on local and regional growers to fill the gaps.
This makes our local farmers market at Amberley hugely important. It’s a place where I can buy the goods I can’t grow, while connecting with my community and supporting other local food businesses.
The impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on food production in the North Island is recent proof of the importance of community sufficiency to get through tough times. If we want to survive and thrive during future disasters that disrupt supermarket supply chains, we need to know who our local growers are, and ensure our regional food production systems are as robust and diverse as possible.
Community sufficiency roast vegetable salad
May is a wonderful month to reflect on the past growing season, what worked out and what didn’t. What did we manage to grow? What did we need to source from others? What are our plans for the next growing season? These are all the questions we need to ask ourselves at this time of year.
I chose this recipe to share because it uses many of the crops of the Food Farm’s growing season, along with ingredients that I rely on from my community and beyond.
While we do grow pomegranates I’ve never had enough (or the skill) to turn them into molasses, so it comes from a part of the world that does. The olive oil comes from our beloved South Australia, and the sea salt from Marlborough. I can substitute vegetables I don’t have from the farmers market where I can also find nuts which supplement what we grow here. I love our local cheesemaker, Little Farm Goat Dairy, and Andrea makes the most delicious crumbly cheese that works perfectly with this dish.
Finally, it’s a dish that’s designed to be shared and can stretch to feed a large number of people.
Ingredients
- 2kg prepared locally-grown vegetables (a combination of beetroot, carrots, onions, potatoes, courgettes, celeriac, pumpkin, parsnip, kūmara)
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 1 handful of rosemary or thyme
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 5 tsp flaky sea salt
- 150g walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts or pinenuts, or a combination
- 150g locally-sourced goat cheese
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- Parsley and basil to garnish
Preheat oven to 200°C. Wash the vegetables. Peel them and cut into bite size pieces. Put aside. Smash the garlic cloves in a mortar and pestle. Roughly chop a handful of rosemary or thyme and mix in a large bowl and add the olive oil and the flaky sea salt.
Toss the vegetables, garlic, herbs, oil and salt together well and tip onto a roasting tray lined with baking paper.
Place in the oven and bake for about an hour, turning the vegetables occasionally, so they’re evenly coloured and caramelised. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Meanwhile, roast the nuts in a frying pan without oil, keeping a close eye on them so they don’t burn.
Tip the roasted vegetables onto a platter and garnish with the parsley and basil. Crumble the goat cheese onto the vegetables and add the nuts. Drizzle lightly with the lemon juice and finish with a splash of olive oil and some more flaky salt if needed. Best served alongside conversation and connection with your food community. •