Community Food Hub: Pick Your Own at Mangaroa Farms

Most people have never pulled a beetroot out of the ground. In January 2026, we opened the gates of the market garden for the first time and invited whānau to come do exactly that.

Whānau holding fresh-pulled beetroot — hands in the soil, smiles on faces

Pick Your Own runs on Saturday mornings, 9am to 11am. A $20 ticket gets your family one crate to fill with whatever's in season — beetroot, potatoes, pumpkins, kale, silverbeet, sunflowers. You bring your own bags, secateurs, and a hat. We provide the soil, the produce, and the morning.

A PYO crate — kale, beetroot, potatoes, rhubarb, straight from the garden

Despite cold and rainy weather on the first day, people came from across the Hutt Valley and Wellington. Tamariki pulled potatoes bigger than their hands. Parents knelt in the rows cutting kale. The Farm Shop and Coffee Shack stayed open for hot drinks and extra kai to take home.

Tamariki (children) holding their harvest — potatoes pulled straight from the soil

Through autumn, PYO became a regular fixture — running alongside the Harvest Festival and kicking off Organic Week in May. Wendell Berry said "eating is an agricultural act." That's what this is. Not a farm tour. Not a workshop. Just the simple act of harvesting your own kai from the ground it grew in, surrounded by community.

Families looking out across the garden — tunnelhouse and hills behind

The last PYO of the season ran on 2nd May 2026. The Coffee Shack hibernated for winter. We'll be back when the weather warms and the soil is ready again.

Mangaroa Permaculture Orchard sign — families picking in the background