Waikato Business News June/July 2023

28 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, JUNE/JULY 2023
Market gardener winning from the ground up
For Waikato organic farmer Brittany
Stembridge, the key to producing
the best tasting vegetables with low
environmental impact is all in the soil.
Recently winning the
Organic NZ Emerging
Leader of the Year
award at the Organic NZ
Awards is validation for the
hard work she has put into
making her business Tomtit
Farm a success.
“The award recognises
somebody working in an
inspiring leadership role in the
New Zealand organics/kai atua
sector with under five years’
experience, and this year there
was a particular emphasis on
environmental protection and
leading the way to mitigate climate
change, and build a just
society in harmony with nature
and the planet. So that’s what
we took away this year, which
is really cool.”
Being certified organic
Brit says is all in the health
of the soil and coming from a
background of nutrition, she
likes to think of the soil like a
human stomach.
“Our number one goal is to
have really healthy living soil.
For example, when a person
has a diverse variety of foods
in their diet with lots of different
colours and different vegetables
they build and fuel a
healthy gut microbiome, and
this results in a healthy person.
It’s the same with the soil – if
you have lots of different plants
growing on the top of the soil,
you’re going to build more
life and diversity underneath
the soil. So essentially we are
building a living ecosystem in
the soil, which builds healthy
plants above the soil.” she says.
Located in Matangi, just
ten minutes out of Kirikiriroa,
Hamilton, Tomtit Farm is the
veggie patch Brit and her husband
James created in 2019.
Having worked in nutrition
for many years, Brit was
keen to use her knowledge in
a way that would have more
influence on people’s health
and wellbeing.
“I had been working in
health research, and I wanted
to make an impact at that grassroots
level with my nutrition.”
The opportunity to utilise a
hectare of land on Brit’s parents’
lifestyle block was the
kickstart to their market gardening
enterprise.
“We thought – why don’t
we have a go at growing good
quality sustainable food. If
we can get a few people to eat
some local, healthy food that’s
probably more than I can ever
achieve in my whole life by just
telling people,” she laughs.
With the good life beckoning,
the couple upped
sticks from Auckland, found
work in Hamilton and
began gardening.
For Brit this meant a part
time job at Waikato University
so she could put time into
developing the garden, while
James found full time work
in Agri-banking utilising his
financial skills in the business.
I found it really
hard to focus on
my other job as
well when all I
wanted to do was
be outside on the
garden
“It was quite full on, trying
to do a job and run a farm at the
same time. We had to be quite
smart about the way we set the
business model up.”
The farm offers harvest
boxes of seasonal vegetables.
Customers can choose to order
weekly, fortnightly or for the
season with a seasonal community
supported agriculture
(CSA) subscription.
“We’ve always run it as a
subscription base/veggie harvest
of the week model because
when we first started it was just
me and I was still working part
time. I didn’t have time to go to
markets on the weekend.”
Little did they know
that the Covid pandemic
was just around the corner
when they first started and
what this would mean for
online businesses.
“When Covid hit, it was kind
of good timing because everybody
slowed down. We were
already set up online. It was
good and bad because we were
so small and new to growing,
and we had so much attention
and not enough food to feed all
of the families who wanted to
support us. Not that it’s a bad
thing. We got our name out
there and just did our best at
the time.”
At the end of 2020, Brit
gave up her job at the university
and went full time in
the garden.
“I found it really hard to
focus on my other job when all I
wanted to do was be outside in
the garden. And it’s been really
awesome working full time in
the garden every day. I feel very
lucky to have that opportunity.
Don’t get me wrong when
it’s raining and freezing cold,
I am so envious of everybody
inside,” she laughs.
Sticking with the CSA
model, Tomtit Farms has
organically grown since Covid
put some wind in their sails.
The model is an important
part of the young farmer’s
ethos; it’s a way for Brit and
James to build meaningful
relationships with their customers
that go beyond a basic
sales’ transaction.
Tomtit Farm customers
commit to purchasing a season’s
subscription; where they
are investing in the farm for
the upcoming season, and in
return they receive a share of
the harvest each week.
“This is a way the community
can get behind and support
their local farmer and local
food system. Throughout the
ups and downs of the season
without any price fluctuations.
Ensuring the farmer gets a fair
price for the food they grow and
allowing the farmer to focus on
growing good quality food for
families in their community.”
Building those relationships
with customers includes more
than just selling them vegetables,
Brit also has set up a Facebook
community page to sell
seedlings, share gardening tips
and recipe ideas.
“We’re trying to build that
real community around food.
Building confidence in cooking
with seasonal vegetables, and
just thinking outside the box
and having fun when it comes
to food.”
As well as selling organic
vegetables, herbs, salad greens
and micro-greens, they also
sell flowers and hold Pick Your
Own Flowers’ days which usually
run from December – May.
“On our PYO flowers days,
all you can hear is laughter,
people enjoy being amongst
nature. The rows of flowers are
nestled amongst the vegetables
to show how everything is
grown and providing an opportunity
for people to think about
where their food comes from.”
Produce is also available
at their farm fridge at 165c
Matangi Road at the Front Paddock
Cafe.
They also deliver locally to
Hamilton, Matangi, Tamahere,
Cambridge and Te Awamutu
on Tuesdays.
Check out what the
farm has to offer at
www.tomtitfarm.com.