Gardens for Foodies

Date: 27/11/2010
Start Time: 9:00am
End Time: 4:00pm approx.
Price: $110

 

Yes, you can do it!  Just imagine eating freshly picked fruit and vegetables from your own veggie patch.  Our annual "Gardens for Foodies" Tour will help you with ideas and information to create or develop your own garden.

We will visit several gardens, some large public gardens and some small private ones.  We start with a visit to the Meadowbank Primary School vegetable garden in the Garden to Table Trust programme.  Then we travel south to a private garden for morning coffee followed by the Botanical Gardens vege patch.

Lunch is included and this year we will visit Rock Cafe run by celebrity chef Peter Chaplin, well-known for his healthy approach to cooking.  He previously ran the former restaurant Musical Knives and has cooked for such celebrities as Madonna.

After lunch we visit the garden created by Adrienne Foote, partner of Peter Chaplin. We finish our day at the large Kelmarna Community Garden in Grey Lynn.

This will be a day to entertain, inform and inspire you. 

Tour fee of $110 pp includes transportation, visit fees to the gardens, morning coffee/tea, lunch at Rock Café and an information pack to take home. 

 

Take a look at last year's tour...

Gardens for Foodies Tour, 29 November, 2009

We received some great feedback on this special foodie adventure:

"A great way to spend a day.  Likewise thinkers and doers; level playing ground of ideas".

 

"So great to have a mind-opening experience without getting on a plane.  Best Christmas present I ever bought for my Mum who has everything!"

 

How lucky we were to enjoy almost perfect weather for our day out in the vegetable patch!  We started by heading over the Harbour Bridge to visit three diverse gardens.

 

First up was the vegetable garden in the beautiful grounds of the Wilson Centre.  The gardens here are maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers and one full-time staff member.  The vegetable garden has been created by the volunteers for their own use.  Volunteer Meredith Walker met us there and told us about it:

      

 

Then it was off to Meredith's own garden in Devonport....every inch of the garden around the historic cottage is beautifully planted and vegetables and flowers live together very happily.  

    
One of Meredith's vegetable beds   Capsicums and roses harmoniously together

 

Next was the organic communal garden of the Framework Trust.  Programme Co-Ordinator Paul Crowhurst explained the background to the garden and its purpose as a stepping stone back into the community for mental health clients.  If they can achieve such a vegetable paradise on an old parking lot (!) then none of us can complain about poor soils in our own gardens! Composting, worm farms and organic solutions of all kinds (ie fish heads!!) are just some of the ways that the soil is enriched.

 

Paul was a veritable fount of knowledge, and many of us were furiously scribbling notes during our visit.

 

The public is welcome to purchase organic vegetables and salad greens from the garden, 27 Lake Road, from 9am-3pm, Monday to Friday.

 

       
Paul shows us an endive        One area of the Framework Trust garden

Then it was back across the Harbour Bridge to visit Lynda Hallinen...she took time out from filming a television programme to show us her fascinating garden...

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No, these aren't real!                          

Tuovi sets out our lunch buffet

 

We relaxed in the sunshine and ate our lunch in Lynda's garden.  Requests for the recipes for the potato salad and lemon cupcakes were very flattering....  We indulged in a little retail therapy on our return to downtown Auckland.  Thank You to our hosts who opened up their gardens (and homes!) to make this such an interesting and relaxing day.

Ready to book? Click here for our online booking form.