Māra kai Term 2 2020

Term 2 started with the whole of the country in lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic.  The school holidays had been brought forward and all of the planning and mahi for that time had to be put on hold….. Although the country stopped (with the exception of the amazing essential workers) PLANTS/GARDENS DON’T STOP GROWING!  A bonus, we were lucky to have had the beautiful weather that we did during this time.

Just before the restrictions were lifted, we were able to get back into the mara.  The unwanted plants (weeds) had started to take over.  There were still kumara and pumpkin to harvest and the seeds that were sown during the lockdown for our winter crops, had grown into beautiful seedlings and needed to be planted out.  It was a busy time with weeding, harvesting, planting and deciding the best way to deal with our old plant material.

Broccoli, spinach and beetroot seedlings. From seeds sown during the lockdown.

When the tamariki came back to Yendarra, our sessions in the mara were organised a bit different.  They adapted so well to it.  Our focus for the term was how we could use this older plant material and that was by making compost and some of the different composting methods available to us….

We talked about what can be used to make a good compost.  You need ‘browns’…. small sticks, dead leaves, shredded paper and cardboard and ‘greens’ …. fruit and vegetable scraps and chopped up plant material, to name a few, plus temperature, moisture and time. 

Methods for making the compost include, trenching, where you dig a hole, place the material in it and cover it back up with the soil.  It’s a quick and easy way of composting and one of the only ways of getting rid of meat scraps and dairy products.