Teresa Tosi has always loved gardening and growing her own kai.
It’s part of the reason why she is front-footing the inaugural Paeroa Crop Swap event on May 31.
The keen plant nurturer enquired on an online Paeroa community group about crop swap gatherings in town and received a lot of encouragement to kickstart one.
“Kai is just so expensive to buy at the moment. People are struggling with what’s happening with fuel… This is [the] perfect timing for something like this,” she told The Profile.
“It’s also a reason for some people to socialise.”
The community is invited to head along to the event in the Paeroa War Memorial Hall side room with the intention to “share what you can and take what you need”. People can take along items such as fresh fruit and vegetables, seeds, seedlings and plant cuttings, home baking or preserves, fresh eggs, unwanted gardening tools, spare jars and even old seedling trays and plant pots.
People who aren’t gardeners can also head along.
“If you don’t have any produce to bring, don’t let that stop you from coming. Even if you don’t garden, but you’re keen to know a bit more, just come along and learn.”
“If you’ve got an old favourite family recipe, write your recipe down and bring that,” she said.
“I’m really hoping to find a couple of people that want to jump on board and help me with this, setting up tables and everything else that goes into it.”
It’s not just a crop swap either, Teresa said: it will also be a time to share and learn from each other. “There’s lots of other gardeners around Paeroa. I’ve seen some beautiful gardens around here and, you know, we can all learn a little bit off [each other].”
Teresa will share a short presentation on growing kai in Grow Bags before everyone kicks into swapping items, sharing and connecting. Her plan is to continue hosting the event on the last Sunday of each month.
This event won’t be Teresa’s first crop swap rodeo. The seasoned gardener visited the Karangahake Crop Swap earlier this year, and recently presented to a Manurewa Crop Swap group about a product called Biochar through her home and gardening business Tee’s Pots.
She has also led presentations and workshops at various farmers markets and different garden groups across the years in Waihī, Thames, Ngatea, Hamilton, Turangi, Whanganui and Feilding. Teresa’s own garden has been thriving since she moved to Paeroa around one year ago. Back in Waiouru, it was freezing and there were minus 10 degree mornings, she said.
“We didn’t have snails and slugs and all the frogs [and] pests that they have up here, but we couldn’t grow down there cause it was too cold.” But the options for growing fruit and vegetables in her Paeroa backyard were endless, she said, waving her arm across her backyard towards the various food storage areas, fruit and vege vines, trees, and assortment of raised garden beds.
“I remember going out with my koro [and] nan. [Koro] had huge gardens, we were always gardening [and] we would go to the sea and collect seaweed that he used in his gardens and the old kina shells and mussel shells. You put them into water and he used that for the gardens,” she said.
“[I’m] starting to realise now that I’ve kind of been educating myself more around soil – it was happening right in front of me and I didn’t even notice.”
DETAILS: Paeroa Crop Swap on May 31 at the Paeroa War Memorial Hall side room from 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
