A farm in the centre of our largest city is helping feed a community — and fostering connections between chefs and diners at the same time.
On a sloped, rocky section of land loaned from the City Rail Link, the 'earth workers' at OMG Urban Farm are up every morning tending to their forest of food.
"We do have crops. We've got carrots, we've got some leafy greens, we've got these leeks but we have got lots of lovely weeds coming through," farm manger Jake Clarke told Seven Sharp.
The urban farm, located on Symonds St, is a For the Love of Bees initiative. After five years, they're now growing thousands of kilos of food in the middle of the city.
"There's kind of an understanding that farming goes on out there and city things go on in here," assistant Tom Scott said.
"If you can have one of these every few kilometres and feed everyone in your local spot you don't all of the carbon for transport, you don't need to worry about as much packaging."
For OMG Urban Farm, it's not just about the food but educating others and working with the community.
"We're only growing what's appropriate for the season and that again is another opportunity to educate people on what is actually available," Clarke explained.
"For this to have real impact, we also want to be able to educate other people to do it."
Leading chef Sid Sahrawat's restaurants, Cassia and The French Café, feature flavours pulled straight from the beds of the garden.
"There's so much going on. You've got the Yukons, you've got the fig leaves, you've got bronze fennel — you can't pick up the phone and order those kinds of things. You need to harvest them every day," he said.
"To be in the middle of Auckland city, to have a garden like that, it means everything to us. It keeps that real strong connection between the diner and the chef and the community."
Scott said the "staying power of this place is the community interaction".
"We're right in the middle of all these apartments that people can't have gardens. They come here, they volunteer and be in a green space and get nutrient-dense food."
Last year, the farm harvested almost 4000kgs of produce from 350 metres of growing space.
"I feel, and the organisation feels, that this is really where it really needs to happen — within urban areas where people are disconnected from their food and green spaces and the enjoyment of watching carbon-based life grow," Clarke said.
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