The event is now in its fourth year and the project has helped around 10,000 visitors experience 100-plus open farms.
Organisers say the aim of the event is to reconnect urban Kiwis with the people and places that grow their food.
They say farmers feel a renewed sense of pride in what they do, and the team’s morale lifts when a whole lot of keen visitors get to look around their farms.
For visitors, it’s a chance to really connect with the source of their food and get the real story on the issues they care about.
Some have never visited a farm before, so it can even be life-changing for them.
Past Open Farms events have featured sheep and beef stations, permaculture orchards, dairy farms, honey producers, native restoration projects, urban farms, thoroughbred breeders and more.
The outcome is that people feel more connected to farmers, view sustainability in farming more positively and better understand the complexities of farming after an open day, say organisers.
People are looking for ways to support sustainable farming and farmers also want to connect and demonstrate how they grow the nation’s food and manage the environment.
Having a platform to connect customers and producers together is critical, say organisers.
Why Mangaroa Farms continues to be part of Open Farm Day
Jules Matthews from Mangaroa Farms.
Jules Matthews is at Mangaroa Farms, just seven minutes out of Upper Hutt, where they have a market garden and on-farm shop, and run 1700 lambs and ewes and 200 head of cattle.
She says it will be the third Open Farms Day they’ve been involved in.
“We do it because the growing population has little to no connection to where their food comes from.
“We want to give visitors an opportunity to reconnect with the land, the farmers, and the animals and realise how important it is to live in harmony with both the land and the planet.”
The team will also be offering guided tours of the market gardens as well as an opportunity to get up close and personal with some of their animals, she says.
Visitors are welcome to come and have a fun day out, bring a picnic, a good sturdy pair of walking shoes and a sun hat.
Food and drink will also be for sale at the gardens.
Open Farms is backed by three partners - Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge and the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures fund.
