Hemp Crop

Smoko at the hemp field

Trialling of hemp crop over summer 2006/07

Riverside Community and a team of varied volunteers successfully produced 100's of kilos of hemp seed and fibre in a trial production of hemp this year. The crop of Cannibis Sativa has multi uses including nutritional oil from its seed, fibre from the stalks and ethanol from the cellulose.

Community Garden

Our beautiful garden

Organic Growing

We welcome WWOOFers and volunteer labour at Riverside to work in our organic community garden, market garden and orchards.
Contact Verena Gruner on 03 52670 33 ext. 19, Michel D'Hondt ext. 30 or Philip Vincent ext. 24.

Effective Microorganisms

Riverside is presently implementing EM technologies in the farm; this includes on the garden, orchard and dairy plant.
We also sell EM, bokashi and bokashi buckets.

Effective Microorganisms (EM) was developed in Japan in the early 1980s by a distinguished professor of horticulture, Professor Dr Teruo Higa. A horticulturist by training, he had worked on the intensive use of agrochemicals and had realised the damage it causes to humankind and the environment. As a reaction, he developed a mixture of beneficial microorganisms, first by accident and thereafter by diligent research, to enhance the productivity of conventional organic farming systems. The results were remarkable and the expansion process of the technology, which is now commonly reffered to as EM, began in 1989 with the inception of the Kyusei Nature Farming Conferences.

EM is a combination of 4 different strands of microbes found readily in nature. The use of EM in agriculture has many significant beneficial impacts. The most researched and stated are as follows -
1. EM promotes germination, growth, flowering, fruiting and ripening in crop plants.
2. EM enhances the photosynthetic capacity of plants.
3. EM increases the efficacy of organic matter as fertilisers.
4. EM develops resistance of plants to pests and diseases.
5. EM improves the physical, chemical and biological environments of the soil.
6. EM suppresses soil borne pathogens and pests.

For further information contact
Michel D'Hondt
03 5267033 ext. 30
em@riverside.org.nz
www.emnz.com