Te Waerenga Ōtautahi Vege Bags

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Te Waerenga Ōtautahi Vege Bags

Ōtautahi Vege Bags is a kaupapa-driven veg bag programme by Te Waerenga Trust. We grow kai and community, grounded in manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga.

Every order supports local growers and a vision of flourishing for people and place.

16/06/2026

Our Garden Manager, Wilby, is being interviewed on RNZ Checkpoint today!

Tune in if you're keen to hear more about our new garden, the journey so far, and our growing focus on supplying fresh local veges through our Ōtautahi Vege Bags programme.

Listen live on RNZ from 5.25 pm.

12/06/2026

It's pretty special to see our story featured in The Press today!

The article shares the story behind our Pay-What-You-Can vegetable bags and the people who have helped make them possible. At its heart, this project has never just been about vegetables. It's about building stronger local food systems, sharing knowledge, and helping people reconnect with where their food comes from.
Big mihi to everyone who has supported the vege bags & our kaupapa. You've given us the confidence to keep growing!

02/06/2026

Cooking with the Seasons – This Week’s Vege Bag Recipe! 🎃

A big thank you to Grace, who gets creative in her kitchen and puts these recipes together for our vege bag whānau. This week's bag includes some beautiful grey pumpkin, so here's a delicious way to make the most of it in your whare: Moroccan Pumpkin Salad Bowl.

It's squash season so time for lots of cosy meals, here's one with some lovely spices. Also making the most of some of the Apostle spice blends.

1) Slice up your pumpkin and gently pour over some oil and za'atar seasoning
2) Chop up some of your favourite veg: onion, daikon radish, beetroot, carrot are a few I used. Add some oil and sprinkle over the Apostle spice blend (Orange and Horopito shichimi)
3) Place both tray in an over at 180 degrees for approximately 45 minutes
4) While this is cooking make your cous cous as per the packet instructions but add in some spices. For 4 portions I added 2tsp tumeric, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1.5tsp cumin, 1/2 teaspoon on ground coriander, 1/8 tsp of chilli powder. Then season with salt and pepper. Once cooked add a can of cooked chickpeas that have been rinsed (you can roast them first)
5) Make the tahini dressing. In a small bowl add 2tbsp of tahini, juice from 1/2 a lemon, 1tsp runny honey, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tbsp of ice cold water. Adjust to your taste
6) To serve put cous cous at the bottom, next add some lovely rocket from your veg bag, place sliced pumpkin and veggies on top and then finish with the tahini dressing and some feta

28/05/2026

Have you tried Apostle hot sauce? 🌶️

We’re really grateful to be one of the recipients of support through the Apostle Saint Isidore sweetcorn salsa creation. Saint Isidore is known as the patron saint of farmers. It’s a limited edition salsa made with charred sweetcorn, pineapple, passionfruit and fermented habanero — great with tacos, chicken, or seafood.

In the spirit of Isidore, $1 from every bottle sold goes to charitable growing projects across Aotearoa:

Auckland — Kelmarna Community Farm Trust
Wellington — Kaicycle
Christchurch — Te Waerenga Whakatō Puāwai
Kāpiti — Crooked Vege

For Te Waerenga, the funds will go toward a new heat bench for germinating seedlings. The Isidore Sweetcorn Salsa is delicious — go grab some from their website 🙂

https://apostlehotsauce.co.nz/collections/saint-isidore/products/saint-isidore-tropical-charred-sweetcorn-salsa-150ml

26/05/2026

The leaves have been falling and the māra kai are looking very autumnal 🍂

Most of our crops have now been mulched with free leaves. The recent winds conveniently pushed them into place, where they’ve collected under the spinach and kale — helping suppress weeds, hold in moisture, and slowly break down to add more organic matter back into the soil.

Best of all, we didn’t have to lift a finger to move them there 😄. Fingers crossed, we don’t lose too many crops to the extra-enthusiastic leaf piles burying everything.

This week’s bag: arugula aka rocket, broccollini, carrots, daikon, parsley, spinach and radish microgreens.

All grown organically by us in the heart of Ōtautahi.

We currently have spaces available for our vege bags — check out our website for subscription information 😊

05/05/2026

Keep on planting, keep on planting.

We have got thousands of seedlings in the ground ready for early and late winter harvests. A special treat coming up is kohlrabi. We grew this for a couple of seasons back in 2020 - we ran out of space to grow it well. But this year it is back in the garden!

Recently we have been doing a big push to get our new infrastructure set up at our newest garden. Power & water trenching, security fencing, and a new seedling tunnel house!

Want to support our local food system?
Sign up now for a subscription vege bag on our website: otautahiveges.nz

19/04/2026

UPDATE: A few openings have come up in our vege bag subscription!

If you’ve been thinking about supporting local kai, now’s a good time.

Autumn is a big push planting season for us. The beds are now full of arugula, pac choi, kohlrabi, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, daikon, spring onion, green and red oakleaf lettuce, coriander, carrots and spinach.

This week we have some attahua butternut pumpkins in the mix. Subscribe today and get your first bag on Wednesday.

👉 Subscribe here: otautahiveges.nz

08/04/2026

Do you know your local grower? 🌱

“Z has issued a national list price advisory for commercial customers noting diesel would increase by 55c a litre.”

With diesel costs forecast to climb, it’s worth thinking about how our food gets to us. Almost everything on supermarket shelves has travelled by diesel truck — and when transport costs go up, food availability gets impacted. This winter, shopping local and eating with the seasons might not just be a nice idea — it could be one of the most practical ways to keep food affordable.

Now’s a good time to:
- Find a local grower or farmers market near you
- Buy produce that’s in season (go the feijoas)

Cooking with the seasons - this week's vege bag recipe from Grace!

With so many fresh carrots coming from the garden at the moment, I wanted to find a recipe that showcases them in all their glory. It's also a great way to use some of the beautiful parsley. I had run out of risotto rice and so just used some basmati rice, I found it works just as well and saved me a trip to the supermarket. A simple and fresh dinner and it makes great leftovers if you have any spare.
Carrot Risotto with herby hazelnut sprinkle

With so many fresh carrots coming from the garden at the moment I wanted to find a recipe that show cases them in all their glory. It's also a great way to use some of the beautiful parsley. I had run out of risotto rice and so just used some basmati rice, I found it works just as well and saved me a trip to the supermarket. A simple and fresh dinner and it makes great leftovers if you have any spare.

Ingredients:
300g carrots (circular coins)
½ cup (125 ml) water
3 tbsp vegan butter or oil
1 onion (finely chopped)
3 garlic cloves (crushed)
300g risotto rice
½ cup (125 ml) white wine
4¼ cups (1 L) vegetable broth
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp parmesan
Zest of half a lemon
Salt & pepper

Boil chopped carrots in ½ cup water for ~15 min until soft.

Drain the carrots then blend carrots with all the vegetable broth until smooth.

In a big pan, cook chopped onion in butter/oil until soft.
Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds.

Stir in risotto rice, then add white wine. Cook until the wine is mostly evaporated.

Slowly pour in some veggie stock (just enough to cover rice).
Stir often.
Keep adding more as it absorbs until rice is cooked.

Stir in ground cumin, parmesan, salt, and pepper.

Herby Hazelnut sprinkle

Blend parsley, hazelnuts, garlic, lemon zest, salt & pepper.

01/04/2026

Our local food system is gonna get stretched.

For the next wee while, things are likely going to get tougher. We’re already seeing hikes in transport…and that flows straight through to the supermarket food prices.

This week we held a hui to consider how we can prep for the fuel crisis. We made a decision to plant out a extra x20 beds of brassicas for winter on top of all our standard winter crops. Its going to be a squeeze. To give our crops a good chance we need to plant them before the end of April.

Way back in early spring, we launched a “pay-what-you-can/pay-it-forward’ pricing model for our weekly vege bags. We didn’t want anyone to miss out due to financial hardship so set up our own version of a mutual aid system. A system where people could pick their own subscription price – We didnt want people to have to prove they were financially struggling so we removed any form of ‘means testing’.

5 months later, we are still here! This week 22.2% of people pay under the asking price. 11.2% of people pay it forward above the asking price. And the majority of people (66.7%) pay the break even $34 price.

Going into autumn and winter we are making some big changes with our growing plots. Over summer our walk-in-chiller has been based at our 31 Parlane St garden (less than 1/10th of a acre). Our new garden lease in Addington Park is way bigger and is producing at least x3 more veges per week. Transporting up to 100kg of veges across x12 vege crates has taken its toll on the old station wagon. We are aiming to move the chiller to the new garden by the end of Autumn. This will make things way smoother and more efficient!

Growing kai in the heart of Ōtautahi is hard mahi - We couldn’t do it without the support of our amazing vege bag subscribers. Everyone likes the idea of a flourishing local food system — one that’s climate-resilient and community-powered. Big mihi to our vege bag whānau. They don’t just “like” the idea of a local food system — they put their grocery dollars on the table and give us the confidence & security to keep sowing seeds.

24/03/2026

Meet Grace – she has been busy in the gardens over the past year, weeding and planting. She’s also been getting creative in the kitchen, cooking up delicious home-cooked meals.

Over the next wee while she’ll be sharing some of her fav recipes inspired by our weekly vege bag. Big mihi Grace for your generosity :)

This series is all about cooking with the seasons, getting creative & adding more variety to our meals. If you're also someone who would love to share your favourite recipes inspired by the seasons, please reach out.

Cooking with the seasons - this week's vege bag recipe:

—---------------

'Golden, crispy courgette & sweetcorn fritters🌽

Trialled this for the first time as I wanted a way to use this lovely, fresh sweet corn that is still in season. Lightly spiced, super flavourful (but kid-friendly), easy to alter spices if you would like to.

Simple, seasonal, great for an easy lunch, after school or work snack or for a pot luck late summer BBQ

1) Grate 2 courgettes, sprinkle with salt, and let sit 10 mins. Squeeze out excess water.
2) Mix with 1 cup sweetcorn (fresh cooked or tinned), 2 eggs, and 2 sliced spring onions.
3) Stir in 1 cup flour, 1-2 tsp cumin, 1-2 tsp coriander, 1tsp tumeric powder, a pinch of baking powder, salt & pepper.
4) Heat oil in a pan and fry spoonfuls for 3–4 mins each side until golden.
5) Serve with yoghurt mixed with lemon, garlic, and fresh mint.'

P.S. This week's vege bag is overflowing: Carrots, tomatoes, radish micros, sweet corn, rampicante, green zhuchini, salad mix, parsley & some perpetual spinach

Check out our website for more info about our subscription vege bags: https://otautahiveges.nz/

Address

31 Parlane Street, Addington
Christchurch
8041

Website

https://otautahiveges.nz/

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