Ohoka Farmers' Market

The Ohoka Farmers Market is a true country market with many of the 40 or so stallholders coming from lifestyle blocks and orchards in the surrounding countryside. Produce on sale includes local artisan bread made largely from local ingredients, organic and spray free vegetables, organic apples and juices, free range eggs as well as venison, salmon, cheese, and several stallholders promoting milking goats and alpacas.

It took Barb Warren a year to set up. It has now been going two and a half years and has had a very positive impact on the local economy. About 300 regular customers turn up each Friday to enjoy the picturesque surroundings and friendly atmosphere.

About three and a half years ago Barb Warren started work on the possibility of setting up a farmers market locally in Ohoka.

“I started because I always felt ripped off having to go to town to buy freshly baked bread and I thought it would be great to have a market out here. I had been to a lot of farmers markets and I thought it was just screamingly obvious that we could support one because we have so many people producing all these things and it would make it a lot easier to sell them,” says Barb.

“It took a lot of work to set up – some people were very enthusiastic and others had to be talked into it. It was all very well having a vision but not everybody could see it. However, I was pretty enthusiastic and fortunately many of the stall holders were too.”

It took Barb a year to put everything together including the very good location in the Ohoka Domain. Expectations were such that she would have been happy to have just had around 10 stallholders as long as one of them was bread. Attracting stallholders has just got easier and easier but dealing with the local council health inspectors has not. They have been very hard on stallholders for no good reason, however, locals and visitors from Christchurch have been very enthusiastic.

And it has gone from strength to strength. This year there are about 40 regular stallholders, 15 seasonal casuals, and another 10 in the plant section.

“The effect on local small enterprises has been extraordinary. Donald Ellis of Stony Creek Bakery is a good case in point – he gave up his regular work to build a bakery and bake full time. At the other end of the scale there are local people who have existing fruit trees on their properties and now they have somewhere to sell their feijoas, peacharines, apricots and nuts” says Barb.

“The advantage over city-based farmers markets is really our stallholders. We’ve got some very, very good food and you can get just about everything you could want here. It really is a seriously good place to shop for fresh produce. The public are becoming more and more aware of what they are eating and where it is coming from, and that has helped us.”

Ohoka is the only large market in the Waimakariri district, and the effect of the earthquake has meant that people now come out from Christchurch to buy fresh food and other items. Although it is not the norm in farmers markets, the Ohoka market incorporates a few local artisan craft stalls as a sideline with an emphasis on traditional methods of craft.

Barb has a perennial nursery herself ‘Ohoka Nursery’ and wishes the market had been around 20 years ago when she first started growing plants. She is also working at creating a food business next spring, which means she will join the ranks of the food producers at the market. ‘That’s if the food bill doesn’t make it too difficult!”. Otherwise her role these days is managing stall holders, sending out a weekly newsletter to them and to customers, promoting events, editing the ‘Market Magpie’ (the markets own newspaper) and running the website www.ohokafarmersmarket.co.nz .

Says Barb: “It has been a bit of a battle at times but it is a real joy in our lives, we love it.”

Stallholders include :

Donald Ellis, Stony Creek Baker. Bakes about 400 items for the market, uses locally grown and milled rye and spelt flour, gave up his day job to do full time baking because of the market, has built a bakehouse on his lifestyle block.

Andrea, hobbyist milking goat farmer, has two goats at the market to do milking demonstrations. Has been milking goats for about 13 years, anywhere between 12 & 20 goats during the season. During the winter keeps a few goats in milk to provide for the family. At the farmers market she promotes the idea of dairy goats for people who want to get into self-sufficiency on small blocks. She works in conjunction with the Canterbury Milking Goats Assn whose members have a lot of experience that can be shared.

Annabel from Ashley Organics Orchard, Loburn, has fresh BioGro certified organic, apples and pears for sale and also apple juice, apple and lime, and pear juice. Her brother has a juicing plant and bottles juice for her. The orchard has many varieties including Royal Gala, Cox’s Orange, Braeburn, New Zealand Rose, Granny Smiths, Pink Ladies, Ballarats, Sturmers, Golden Kisses, etc. It means people can try a few varieties that they wouldn’t normally get in the supermarkets. Says Annabel: “Because we can manage our product from growing to picking to getting it straight to the customer,, it makes a big difference to quality. There is no middle man and so that’s good for us and good for the customer because we can sell it to them cheaper than they could buy certified organic produce in the supermarkets. People really enjoy buying their produce from the grower, one lady said to me that it was just like going back 40 years in time being able to talk to the person who is growing what you are going to eat.” This is her second season at the Ohoka market, she also sells at the Canterbury market.

Mark Vogel – sells free range eggs and home-grown potatoes. He buys fertile eggs and incubates them at home. Also grows potatoes on their 10 ha block in composted shavings from their calf rearing operation. It means that the potato plants can be pulled out by hand rather than being dug out. Joined the market late last year, always sell out of eggs. “We were told our eggs are good and that is why we went into the potatoes and we have had good feedback on them as well. With the potatoes we can harvest them the afternoon before the market so they are very fresh and people like that and the fact that they are grown spray free.” He sells about 30 to 35 dozen eggs each week. He has 99 laying hens, and keeps it at that number because if he had 100 he would be deemed to be commercial and would have extraordinary bureaucracy to deal with.

Ellis Sanders, vegetable grower, sells organic garlic, onion, celeriac, zucchini, beans, and also sells a range of spray free produce grown in tunnel houses — tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies, eggplant. Ellis has been with the market almost since the beginning but actually started selling vegetables seven years ago at other markets. “People are always pleased with the freshness and the price of vegetables,” she says. “The Ohoka market is very cosy with lots of people and has been very successful for us. We have a really good market manager who is really onto it. She keeps us well-informed with newsletters, weekly specials and an website.” Alice and her husband are seasonal growers and usually finish at the market early in May and come back in the spring. Currently she has pumpkin, celeriac and leaks, the winter vegetables.