Crooked Vege, Waitohu Valley Road, Otaki (2026)

22/05/2026

Last week Apostle Hot Sauce & Duncan's Brewing Co. hosted a taco & nacho themed launch party for a one-off run of Apostle's St Isidore (Tropical Charred Sweetcorn Salsa with passionfruit, habaneros and huacatay) and Duncan's accompanying beer of the same name (a pineapple, passionfruit, habanero huacatay sour).

What does this have to do with us?

Well firstly, we grew the huacatay that's in the beer and the sauce. Huacatay is an unusual mountain herb from Peru. I first tried it when visiting O.M.G - Organic Market Garden and loved its hard-to-describe flavour (it's tropical, minty, citrusy, passionfruity, tarragon-y... etc), and was eventually able to source seed from a friend with a small market garden in Whiteman's Valley. Our huacatay has featured extensively on the menu 50-50 who's also enamored with the unique flavour, pairing it with dessert, meat and vege dishes. We've also been experimenting with its use in cover crops, after finding a reference to its use as a cover crop on a peruvian farming website.

Secondly Saint Isidore is the patron saint of farmers. A little of each sale of goes to supporting a few different regenerative, kai security and community focussed small farms across Aotearoa. Kaicycle Urban Farm and Composting, Kelmarna Community Farm, Te Waerenga Ōtautahi Vege Bags and ourselves. For us the funds will help us keep making improvements to our infrastructure (the rather unphotogenic project that's been sitting on the whiteboard "install rabbit fencing" for about a 18 months), which ultimately supports our ability to keep running the pay-what-you-can Otaki Vege Bag kaupapa. A core part of how we fund the ourselves is through growing niche (and staple) crops for local artisans and retailers.

We're stoked with the other growers being supported here - each of them have been important influences on the direction we've taken. They're all kaupapa we've leaned on for (and reciprocated with) advice and resources, from organisational structure and health and safety policy, to the mechanics of payment processors.

Sauce is available around the country (see the last slides for locations currently stocking), Apostle's website and the beer is available from Duncan's Tap Room and website.

Chur chur

12/05/2026

A few weeks ago, we finished setting up at Vege Bag pick a bit early, so Jack (from Ahoaho), Merryn and I (Jon) start shucking the 200+kg of Hokianga Maize we harvested a couple of weeks ago with the carb club crew.

The first person who arrived to collect their vege immediately sat down to start helping.

So many others sat down too. Some did a few cobs, some did a few crates worth, some stayed through the whole process.

No one was asked to, there was no organised working bee, no comms. People just observed a simple task and decided to lend a hand.

It's a tiny example, maybe not particularly profound. But its a simple, clear example of the sense of community we hope the kaupapa cultivates.

Ōtaki Vege Bags gets a lot of attention for our focus on equitable access to ecologically grown, local kai through our pay-what-you-can/pay-it-forward model.

Which is understandable at a time when most people are conscious of industrial agriculture's culpability in pretty much every existential environmental problem, when inflation outpaces wages, and when fuel crises and pandemics are exposing the supply chain frailties of a globalised commodity food system.

But a less tangible, less headline-able output is the community building, the deepening of relationship between vege-eaters, vege-growers, the kai, and the whenua it grows on. Quietly, we believe this is one of the most important outputs. Crooked Vege sells approx 50% of our produce wholesale. Yet Saturday's vege bag pick up morning is by far the most rewarding part of our week - due to the sense of community we experience as growers. A regular reminder of the "why" during the challenging periods we experience as small-scale growers.

Industrial food systems have broken those relationships. How often have we helped the workers at the supermarket stock the shelves, or clean down at the end of the day?

"Community" has become an overused buzzword for marketeers and politicians. In our hyper-individualised society, I'm not sure we have a true grasp on what "community" really means. I think we could be doing a better job of "building community," but on my hopeful days I think we *might be* moving in the right direction.

23/02/2026

We've lost a so much genetic diversity in vege - somewhere around 80% - since industrialisation.

Modern plant breeding has improved yields, management efficiency & disease resistance. For those following the incoming relaxation on GMO legislation, GMOs will partially focus on pesticide & herbicide resistance (with all the environmental issues attached).

Modern breeding focusses on the needs of convoluted, globalised supply chains. Produce has to store for a long time & travel huge distances. The commodification of kai + our increasing disconnect from kai systems means that uniformity is key - wonky carrots don't sell very well.

The loss of our heirloom varieties comes at the cost of flavour, texture + often nutritional value - e.g. modern tomatoes lack tetra-cis-lycopene.

Breeding is typically hybridised, meaning growers can't save their own seed - you have to keep purchasing from seed companies. This isn't a slight on work seed producers do - it is technical, skilled work.

But a localised kai system, where eaters are connected to growers & whenua, doesn't have the same pressure. We CAN grow some heirlooms. Kai is mostly harvested & collected/delivered the same day - it doesn't need to survive forklifts, trucks, planes & boats.

Complicated industrial supply chains need firm tomatoes to survive this - which is why supermarket tomatoes are often pretty bland & "mealy."

So why don't we grow more heirlooms?

An example from last year: an heirloom zucchini we trialled yielded 90% less than a modern variety. It's hard enough to earn a fair wage. We can't increase prices 10x to cover increased labour cost in management, reduced yield, increased risk from diseasess.

BUT we're always trialing a few heirlooms. This season is edamame, pumpkins + squash trials. Alongside our usual heirloom radicchio, tomatillo, chillies, tomatoes & collards. It’s a commitment to better kai & a step away from dependence on the trappings of industrial kai. Varieties that yield well-enough & are able to command a fair price (e.g. some are willing to pay more for the improved flavour + appearance of heirloom tomatoes), will make it into the crop plan the next season.

05/02/2026

Kia ora Ōtaki Vege Bag whānau & friends, Bella here! I’ve been floating around in the background of the Ōtaki Vege Bag & Crooked Vege kaupapa over the last few seasons since I left Ōtaki and I wanted to pop up to say hello and share a wee bit about what I’ve been up to.

I was in Europe over the last six months, spending time mostly in Latvija and Denmark and now I’m back on Dharawal Country in Australia. During this time, Jon and I have been navigating timezones to work on a cool project.

The project has been about re-designing our systems to allow Ōtaki Vege Bags to grow and run smoothly into the future. As the Ōtaki Vege Bag kaupapa began to take shape, we went from using pen and paper record keeping to now using some pretty nice looking spreadsheets on Airtable (we use this for crop planning, harvest records, Vege bag organising, etc.). However, over the last year we’ve felt how janky our current system is, spending too much time on computer tasks and less time in the māra. When we were lucky enough to receive funding from MSD to upscale and improve the sustainability of this kaupapa, we wanted to use some of that money to research different ways of running Ōtaki Vege Bags, so I’ve been chatting with similar projects and farms here in Aotearoa, learning about CSA’s from around the world and getting into some nitty gritty CRM system design and legal framework bureaucracy. Doing this mahi is definitely a different vibe from having my hands in the soil, but I’ve really enjoyed the feeling of slowly creating a strong system that will support Ōtaki Vege Bags to thrive into the future. The way we run Ōtaki Vege Bags is pretty niche, with the pay-as-you-can system, so we’ve had to be quite creative to design systems that work for us. We hope that in spending the time to come up with something good, we’ll be able to share our learnings with our kai growing community and support each other to build local food systems that are people and planet first.

And while we’re here, there’s some more spots available for the Autumn Season of Vege bags, 14th Feb to 2nd May (sign up link in bio). We’d love to have you join the kaupapa! 🌱

03/02/2026

Kia ora e hoa mā, Merryn here :)

We are two weeks out from the end of our summer season, and we have the capacity to be producing more pay what you can/pay it forward vege bags.

We’re super keen to expand our little community and sign ups are open for the autumn season if you (or maybe someone you know) would like to collect a bag of organic kai each week.

You can sign up here: www.crookedvege.co.nz/otaki-vege-bag

I was away for a couple weeks, visiting whānau and friends, which felt like home and was cup filling. Yet it’s the most wonderful privilege to come home to the māra. My mind tends to wander through the gardens when I find myself away from them, imagining the changes and what might be fruiting or in bloom when I return. To have my hands in the soil once again returns me to that same feeling of home.

Two weeks boasts a whole heap of change for both farms, especially this time of year. Carb Club planted maize and pumpkins out two and a bit months ago, you can no longer wander through them, the maize now standing far above head height. The flowers are in full bloom and the greenhouse hosts tomato plants laden with heavy trusses.

It was my first summer co-ordinating vege bags, and while winter has its beauty, the garden really sings when it's filled with people and sunlight.

The collection mornings have become so dear to me. It’s been a real joy getting to know everyone who collects a bag, (and those who I deliver to!) Hearing cooking ideas being shared, plant questions asked, garden tips being passed on. To so clearly see gardens, growers and the kai that comes from them foster such a safe and strong little community is exciting, like goosebump kind of exciting, and I look forward to it every week.

Anyways, that’s all from me :) Vege bag spots are filling up fast, sign up here:
You can sign up here: www.crookedvege.co.nz/otaki-vege-bag

26/01/2026

We're part way through our 3rd summer, beginning to gain a semblance of "normal work hours." No hugely intimidating infrastructure projects & we're not redesigning the crop plan (or farm) every 6 weeks.

But growing (and earning enough to pay wages) is always unpredictable.

Summer is where (most) market gardens earn a buffer to pay the bills the rest of the year - winter cash flow is lower, and it's a period of "hanging on." But we need kai (and jobs) all year, so we produce 52 weeks a year.

Turbulent spring & summer weather has been rough on some financially important crops. Cucumbers have bounced back from a very wet spring (55 kg harvest this morning!), but total yield will be about 50% of a better year.

Zucchini are normally really important, but wholesale prices have been unpredictable this season. Sadly it made more sense to remove 50 meters of healthy plants and grow something else (we're still producing them for Ōtaki Vege Bags + a few outlets).

Cucumbers and zucchini are our most important crops. So winter will be tougher than we hoped - but we’ve got better plans & more experience than a year ago. And excitingly, our tomato season should be much better than last year - though hornworms arrived early, so we’re working on that.

We're now working on improving (rather than building) infrastructure & systems:
- A mate installed a level(!) pack shed floor, which has made harvest mornings much more comfortable.
- We've upgraded the salad spinner (modified washing machine) to process twice as much salad greens.
- We've automated our nursery irrigation, which means we can sleep in a little longer on our "days off."

We've started sowing ~70,000 carrots for winter harvests, along with other staples like celery, fennel, kohlrabi and beetroot.

We've had more capacity for locals to join the Ōtaki Vege Bag Kaupapa, and increased membership 20% since last summer. We're aiming to have another 20% over the Autumn season.

Personally I'm looking forward to our first harvest of heirloom edamame (a 2 year seed saving project), winter radicchio, some unusual chillies, a bumper pumpkin, squash & maize harvest, and daily tomato & basil salads over the next few months!

- Jon

Crooked Vege

22/05/2026

12/05/2026

23/02/2026

05/02/2026

03/02/2026

26/01/2026

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