Ohoka Market turns 10!
Brightly coloured stalls jostle for space selling everything from local olive oil to crisply glistening fruit and veg, luscious purple bulbs of fresh garlic to oozingly creamy artisan cheeses. Some shoppers browse and chat and meander along, others dart in and out of the crowds with purpose and a shopping list. On a sunny Friday in late spring Ohoka market is buzzing.
Words: Pattie Pegler Photography: Supplied
But it’s not always like this. There are rainy winter mornings where only the dedicated shoppers hurry round to grab a few basics. There are days where the wind flaps and flutters the gazebos over the stalls. “The weather is our biggest challenge” says market founder Barb Warren. But despite the vagaries of Canterbury weather the market celebrates its 10th birthday this year and draws shoppers from far and wide every single week throughout the year. It attracts around 500 visitors a week averaged out over the year says Barb and is even frequently mentioned as a selling point in real estate ads for Ohoka homes. Not bad for a venture that started out with just a handful of stores and didn’t run through the winter.
The initial idea for the market was driven by Barb’s own desire to shop for fresh, local and organic produce. “I did it for selfish reasons” she says with a laugh, “I was having to go down to Christchurch to find a baker, a cheesemonger…those kind of things…”. And there were plenty of challenges in those early days, the idea itself was met with a less than enthusiastic response by some individuals in the council recalls Barb. When she initially met with them and said she’d like to start a farmers market in Ohoka the answer was a flat ‘no’. But she questioned and persevered and recalls how council inspectors regularly turned up at the market in the first couple of years and on occasion reduced some stall holders to tears with their confrontational approach. “It’s completely different now” she is quick to point out, “the council are very supportive of us now, it was down to individuals really”.
And Barb doesn’t seem like the sort of person who is easily deterred. A self-described ‘food activist’ she is passionate about good quality, local and organic produce and supporting small growers and food producers who can struggle alongside the huge industry that is agribusiness. “The market is a collection of 50 genuine small, local businesses” says Barb, “When you shop there, you support them”.
Barb is vocal about big business dominating our food supply and the associated effects on the environment, the community and our food choices. It quashes the small growers and the consumer’s access to fresh, local produce. And earlier this year she decided to make Ohoka Farmers Market independent, resigning it from the Farmers Market NZ Association when the association accepted funding from corporate agribusiness supporter RaboBank. “This executive decision was just a huge disappointment. But it’s a sign of the times I think, hard to survive with out some kind of industry or corporate funding” she reflects.
She is well informed and well read when it comes to the issues of our food system and argues her case for a smaller, sustainable and local approach eloquently. The farmers market might be a great way of supporting this way of thinking but it is small and this problem seems vast. Does she ever get despondent about the issue? “You just continue on your own path…The best you can do is try to provide a place that people can come to and have a different choice…the market does that”.
The market is also about more than buying and selling food. It’s about community and Barb has worked hard to make it so, from small touches like tables and chairs for friends and neighbours to sit and chat to larger initiatives like providing fresh fruit to the kids at Kaiapoi Borough School. For the last two years the market has taken 40kgs of fresh apples to the school every fortnight. Now Barb is trying to raise funds to expand that programme to include other fresh fruits – seasonal berries and stone fruits. To do this she is trying to raise $10,000 via online platform PledgeMe, to buy fruit from the local suppliers and donate to the school. It’s a perfect example of her thinking on food matters – it supports small, local growers and gives local kids access to fresh, locally grown fruit.
Determined and driven and ‘passionate about food’ Barb has been described as a ‘benevolent dictator’ when it comes to running the market. She laughs at this but agrees, she has to make a lot of decisions and sometimes quickly on market day ‘the buck stops with me’. But she’s clear on what makes the market a success - “It’s the people who support it, who come out and shop and the stall holders who are here in all weathers…it would fall over without either of those…”.
If you want to donate to help supply fresh local fruits to the kids at Kaiapoi Borough School, go to http://www.ohokafarmersmarket.co.nz/ for full details on how to donate. Or you can make a donation at the market before Friday 14th December.