HANUI LAWRENCE

THE FOUNDER, AND NAMESAKE, OF AUNTY’S GARDEN AT WAIPATU MARAE, HASTINGS, WHERE FOR A KOHA LOCALS CAN PICK THEIR OWN FRESH, SPRAY-FREE PRODUCE

Hanui Lawrence (Ngāti Kahungunu) has grown food all her life. So in 2003, when the local DHB offered funding to support initiatives promoting healthier eating, she suggested that the paddock next to her marae be converted into a productive garden. That funding was withdrawn a few years later (although Hanui still receives some aid from Te Puni Kōkiri, as well as support from local businesses), but by then Hanui had established a 0.8ha vegetable garden where she continues to work almost every day, and where locals can harvest affordable fresh food (she also donates surplus crops to local food bank Nourish for Nil). Aunty’s Garden has been visited by two prime ministers, in 2010 by Sir John Key (“I had him do some planting”) and in 2019 by Jacinda Ardern. Last year Hanui was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to Māori and sustainable food production. “I’d love for every marae to have a garden like this,” she says. “Every marae used to have one when I was growing up.”

KŪMARA

Hanui has a passion for growing kūmara, sprouting runners from her own seed kūmara each year and planting according to the maramataka. She grows a lot of ‘Owairaki Red’, some of a white kūmara ‘Taputini’ and a few orange kūmara. “I don’t like them as much, they tend to be watery. But I know people like them for making kūmara bread.” Kūmara love heat, and even in the dry Hawke’s Bay summers require limited irrigation. “Water well when you plant and then sparingly.”

MĀORI POTATOES

Hanui grows numerous sorts of Māori potato, and rates the waxy taewa ‘Huakaroro’. “I grow a lot of these. They are a bit ugly and knobbly, rather than nice and round, but lovely to eat.” This is another crop she plants according to the maramataka, but apart from that it doesn’t need any particular special treatment. “Just before planting

I just put in a handful of lime, a sprinkle of blood and bone, and a little compost.”

‘SCORESBY DWARF’ TOMATO

Hanui remembers picking ‘Scoresby Dwarf’ tomatoes for the Watties’ cannery in the 1960s and 1970s. “They can grow as big as your hand. One slice covers a whole sandwich.” The fruit is succulent and lovely, she says.

SCARLET RUNNER BEANS

Hanui grows all sorts of beans, butter beans, green beans, and broad beans in winter. But she admits that old-fashioned scarlet runners are her absolute favourite. “They are lovely to eat especially when they are young. Plus they come up year after year.”

KAMOKAMO

This mild tasting cucurbit is hugely popular, Hanui says. “It’s the number one vegetable that we love here.” You can boil it or steam it – “I steam mostly” – just harvest when they are about the size of an apple. “That’s when they are the most lovely.”