🍂 As summer turns toward autumn

The Turning of the Season

As summer slowly gives way to autumn, the pace of the garden begins to shift. Seeds mature, harvests arrive, and long evenings soften into cooler nights.

Abundance at Hella's

Through our Listening Phase, an initiative led by Toru trustee Loo Connor, and a recent trustee hui, we have been considering where the energy in our community is gathering and how Toru can best support the sharing of knowledge, skills, and stories across our region.

This time of year often invites reflection. Over the past few months Toru has been doing some of that too.

We’ve also recently welcomed Adam Shand to the Toru board, and we look forward to the perspective and energy he brings as we step into this next season

We’ve shared a longer reflection on the website about what we are noticing and where this next chapter may lead.

👉 Read the full reflection: Following What Brings Us Alive

Upcoming Events

Late summer and early autumn bring several opportunities to celebrate food, harvest, learning, and community across our region.

Wellington

Newtown Harvest Festival Community Kai Celebration

Sun 22 March | 3–6pm

Newtown School

The annual Newtown Community Meal celebrating local food, culture and connection. Koha event.

👉 Join the Guest List

Hutt Valley

Mangaroa Farms Harvest Festival

Sat 21 March | 10am–3pm

Mangaroa Farms

Harvest celebration launching Upper Hutt Food Week with tours, kai, music and local stalls.

👉 See event details

Grow Your Own Groceries

Permaculture Day Course

Sun 22 March | 9am–5pm

Blueberry Fields Forever, Upper Hutt

A practical one-day permaculture course covering the foundations of productive food growing.

👉 Sign up info

Upper Hutt Food Week

21–29 March

Upper Hutt

A week-long celebration of local food with workshops, shared meals, and community events.

👉 Stay in the loop

Kāpiti Coast

Te Horo Farm Walk Series

Sundays through March and April

Te Horo

Local farmers open their properties to support Te Horo Hall. Visit dunes, farmland and wetlands with views to Kapiti Island.

👉 Learn more

Further Afield

Aotearoa National Permaculture Hui

10–13 April

Nelson / Whakatū

A national gathering of growers, educators and community leaders exploring regenerative futures.

👉 Learn more

Media Picks

Things that have recently caught our attention.

📖 Read

Wairarapa Times-Age Midweek — 11 March 2026

Wairarapa seed library: We share and we thrive

A new community seed library in Masterton is helping locals share, save, and exchange seeds for their home gardens.

The initiative supports local food resilience and encourages gardeners to contribute seeds adapted to different Wairarapa micro-climates.

👉 Read the full article

🎧 Listen

Photo by PEANUTBUTTERVIBES Photography

Country Life – Inside Aotearoa’s Regenerative Farming Festival

This RNZ Country Life episode explores the Underground Festival, a gathering bringing together farmers, growers, and thinkers exploring regenerative agriculture in Aotearoa.

The episode features Jules Matthews from Kapiti coast/Paekakariki, sharing insights from her work supporting farmers and communities to build thriving regenerative farming systems.

👉 Listen to the episode

🎥 Watch

Image courtesy of Fera

The Hive Architect

This short documentary introduces Matt Somerville, who has spent years creating natural log hives to support wild honey bee populations.

With curiosity, humour, and careful observation, his work reflects the same spirit found across the regenerative movement: working with nature rather than trying to control it.

👉 Watch the 12 minute film

Welcome

We are so pleased to welcome Adam Shand as a new trustee of the Toru Education Trust.

Adam lives on the Kāpiti Coast where he and his partner Tink are developing an experimental syntropic food forest.

His work spans technology, facilitation, and community building, with a long-standing interest in permaculture, ecological literacy, and the ways people learn to work together well.

We look forward to the valuable insight and clarity Adam brings to Toru.

Why we share

Across our region there are many people quietly growing food, restoring ecosystems, sharing knowledge, and nurturing community.

Much of this work happens in small places such as gardens, farms, classrooms, community kitchens, and local gatherings, and often it remains largely unseen beyond those directly involved.

Toru exists to help make these threads more visible and connected. Through stories, events, and shared learning, we hope to celebrate the people doing this work and strengthen the relationships that allow it to grow.

If this resonates with you, you can help by:

Forwarding this email to a friend or neighbour
Encouraging them to sign up to receive it directly
Sharing it within your community networks

And if this newsletter was forwarded to you, welcome! 👋

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If you’re hosting an event, workshop, or course that aligns with our kaupapa, you are welcome to list it on our website. Check out our event listing guidelines and create an account. Event listings are always free and are one small way we can help support the wider network.

Event listings are always free and are one small way we can help support the wider network.

Thank you for being part of this growing network.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Emma Ellison

on behalf of the Toru Education Trust

We would love to hear from you. Please email us at info@toru.nz or simply reply to this email.

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