2008 the year of Green!

This year is set to be a green one at the Greenhaus.

Simply Good Food
We have recently joined the Simply Good Food CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and are waiting for the fresh organic goodness to start flowing in!
This scheme is the first of its kind in NZ and (I hope) is the beginning of a return to the old way of buying food - from farmers instead of supermarkets.

Our Gardenbox
Late 2006 the Greenhaus team spent the day hacking slashing and digging a thick row of agapanthus on the sunny east side of our house, at the top of a steep slope. This was preparation for the gardenbox we were going to put in so that we could run a shared veggie garden with the flats next door.
After the clay was exposed, the GH crew got busy with the festive season, and then with all the activities of the new year (including the birth of Asher DC) and suddenly the growing season was over and it was too wet to build anyway.
Come spring '07 and with renewed frenzy holes were dug and filled with concrete and 100x100 posts. Last weekend we began to nail landscaping boards to the sides (which to our severe frustration were severely warped from lying in the rain all year - bad form Nic) and with any luck we'll get the thing finished and filled with dirt and veggies before winter.

Better T-shirts
Last year we talked extensively about what we could contribute as a community to our wider community, and how we could support friends of ours in the developing world. The idea we eventually struck upon was sourcing t-shirts which had been made using fair trade and organic practices and printing and selling them through our networks.
Clothing is not classifiable as Fair Trade - there are simply too many steps in the production process, and consequently, ethically produced clothing is hard to come by. You can however- and we have - source t-shirts that use only fair trade organic cotton, and that are manufactured following fair trade principles. We got our through a little company based in Linton near Invercargill called Micah Clothing. Check out their website here.
Anyway, over the next month or so we will be selling a limited range (under 200) which will be printed to order. If it's a roaring success we might repeat the process.

Nic DC