Kia ora

Happy New Year! We hope you have all had a great start to 2025!

We are excited to be back with our monthly newsletter, bringing you the latest permaculture happenings in the region!

2024 was a big year for Toru as we rejuvenated our newsletter, established our monthly Toru Trail and embraced a new role - connecting you with learning opportunities delivered by our growing network of partners.

Not only because of all the inspiration gained while walking the land and hearing the stories of the evolution and regeneration of each place, but also because of the growing sense of community formed over shared lunches, with familiar faces returning each time.

Various Toru Trail events from 2024.

Alongside the Trail we hosted 10 Toru workshops covering everything from biochar, to fermentation, to compost toilets! Many of these were put on in response to requests from our community, so if there’s a topic you want to learn more about (or teach), we would love to hear from you! Send us an email here to request, or offer!

Beyond our own workshops, we also promoted over 30 events from 20 amazing partners who share our mission to provide experiential learning opportunities that nurture people, planet and spirit.

Our motivation has been to enable more people to experience the magic of permaculture, without reinventing the wheel, and we hope our network of partners will continue to grow over the coming year. Make sure to check out all the great events already in this year’s calendar and if you or someone you know hosts events that align with our vision, make sure to sign up as a partner!

We look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming events!

Ngā mihi,

Fiona, for the Toru Education Trust

Photo courtesy of Bob Zuur.

An inspiring journey of transformation in practice. Fiona Naismith reflects on the final Toru Trail of 2024, hosted at Tierra, Mary Beth and Tony’s homestead. Through their 37-year journey, Tierra exemplifies the power of patience, hard work, and permaculture principles to regenerate over-grazed land into a thriving, abundant ecosystem. Fiona also shares some highlights, including the wonderful spirit of reciprocity that wove through the day, the importance of sufficiency over excess, and creative adaptations for sustainable living.

Photo courtesy of Bob Zuur.

"The last Toru Trail of 2024 took place at Mary Beth and Tony’s homestead, Tierra, a place close to my heart, being where I first experienced permaculture as a wwoofer 5 years ago!

Over the course of 37 years, what was once a bare, over-grazed dairy pasture has evolved into a..."

Will be at Tinui Food Forest, in the Wairarapa on Sunday 16th Feb from 10am - 2pm, including lunch.

Join Deb and Ray Butterfield for our next Toru Trail event - Introduction to Food Forests at Tinui

We are thrilled to share this special day with you, where you’ll learn about sustainable living, permaculture design, and the art of creating self-sustaining ecosystems that flourish over time.

For the past 24 years, Deb and Ray have transformed their 4-acre property into one of New Zealand’s largest and most vibrant food forests, alive with mature fruit and nut trees, berries, herbs, and flowers. Their land is a testament to the possibilities of permaculture, featuring innovative elements like a living willow maze and handcrafted willow furniture. You’ll also meet their friendly farm animals, including alpacas, goats, pigs, chickens, and ducks, while gaining invaluable insights into building and maintaining your own food forest.

Click below to read more about the Toru Trail event at Tinui Food Forest and secure your ticket.

We have a humble request of you (yes, you!): please share this newsletter with folks who would like to receive it. We would love it to be read by folks right across the lower north island. 

If you like our vision to connect those who want to learn and get involved in their community projects with those creating and hosting beautiful local events please take a moment to forward this newsletter to all your friends and family who you think might be interested AND ask them to sign up to receive it each month. 

And if someone forwarded this newsletter on to you or sent you the link? Are you interested to stay up to date with our events? Would you like us to promote your events (for free)?

Sign up now! ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Fiona shares what is inspiring her about our new partner organisation: Korito Education

We are stoked to see Korito Education providing a range of amazing hands on permaculture workshops in the region in 2025.

From food forests and organic gardening to compost systems and self-sufficient living, their programs provide practical skills and knowledge to help you create positive change in your home and your community.

Korito are hosting five awesome 1 day / weekend workshops over the next few months, so don’t miss out!

More Toru Partners! 

Food Forest Planning and Planting

Join esteemed permaculture educator Carolann Murray (author of Mastering Self-sufficiency in New Zealand) to learn the ins and outs of Food Forests! Carolann will take you all the way from Site Analysis through to designing your own practical project.

Bookings essential for this two day workshop in February.

Seed Sowing and Making Soil Blocks

Our host Toby Rosenberg has been a vegetable grower for many years and is currently setting up a small market garden, we are fortunate to learn and be shown his successes in seed raising in soil blocks at his property.

Autumn Bushcraft - Tracking

Autumn is our time in the four seasons of things to get eyes to the ground and start reading the stories that the animals have left, an immersive and unforgettable experience with HUMAN Bushcraft and Wild Living in Otaki. 

This section is for asks and offers from our community (that’s you!) - we expect this section to evolve as we evolve.

This month we don't have any notices! 😢 Can it really be true that there are no local Riparian Planting days? No local school or kindergarten needs landscaping or a veg patch overhaul? No one is cleaning up a local beach or park? No local community garden is having an open day? No farmers markets are kicking off for the year and want to publicise their dates and locations? 

We don't believe it, we can't believe it!

We would dearly love to promote your asks and offers to our community, if you have one (or two, or three!), please relpy to this email and we can include it in our next newsletter, as long as it aligns with our guidelines. 

At the end of last year, a devastating fire tore through the Papawhakaritorito Trust farm in Kaitoke, a place dedicated to indigenous seed, soil, and food sovereignty.

Heartbreakingly, they lost their invaluable seed stores and more. 

This farm, rooted in kaupapa Māori, is a hub for research, education, community connection, and sustainable practices. 

If you haven’t already, please consider supporting Jessica and Jo through their Givealittle Campaign and help spread the word within your communities. 

This newsletter has come into being because we saw a disconnect in our bioregion. We knew there were many great locals with knowledge to share, and some of them were already creating great opportunities for learning, connection and community spirit.

We also saw that many folks didn't know about these amazing opportunities to wānanga together and grow connections in their own back yards. 

To address these needs, we have started with a few interconnected 'small and slow solutions': our new website to host and promote events (among other things), our series of Toru Trail events across our focus area of Kāpiti, Te Whanganui-a-Tara - Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa, as well as this monthly newsletter tying it all together and telling the story. 

If you resonate with our vision, we would love you to be involved, this can be in many ways!  

- Please share the good news far and wide, Sharing really is caring, and we want to find our people!

- Do you have an event or educational opportunity? - check out our guidelines and if it fits in with our kaupapa, then sign up and list your event with us! We are promoting local events for free.

- Join one of our events! Learn with us and our partner organisations. Invite a friend along and learn together.

- Do you have ideas for us? Reply to this newsletter or email us at info@toru.nz with your bright spark!