A large-scale project to grow and distribute fresh fruit and vegetables for free to those who need them is underway in the Waikato. He Tipu Ltd is transforming a 22-ha site that was home to the Taupō Native Plant Nursery up until it closed in 2018. It has a dream of supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to the community for free and building up a seed bank of edible and medicinal native plant species. It has also just planted 160,000 native plants that would be used for riparian planting and native regeneration projects and has a labor force available for planting projects, largely made up of people who have previously been out of work. He Tipu general manager Blandina Diamond said a forest garden would eventually be planted full of edible native species and medicinal plants, along with greenhouses of berries and hydroponic crops like watercress, leafy greens, and herbs.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 17, 2023 13:20 UTC