From backyard to plate: Cafe looks to partner with home gardeners

A Dunedin cafe is looking for keen home gardeners to supply its produce in a trial backyard to plate project.

Taste Nature hopes to contract four gardeners for 12 months - but would like to continue the scheme longer term.

It's all part of the cafe's push to use seasonal produce and know exactly where the ingredients come from.

Home gardeners will be paid for what they grow.

Managing director of Taste Nature Clinton Chambers told Checkpoint they were looking for dedicated and passionate growers.

"It's not like you pop a seed in the soil and come back six weeks later and there is a lettuce growing there.

"It takes regular maintenance, ongoing checks and lots of... tendering to grow a really good food garden," Chambers said.

"We definitely want dedicated people, dedicated but also passionate about growing food, getting their hands in the soil and being out in nature."

He said they were looking to work with urban growers with smaller plots who were keen to grow food naturally without extra additives.

"It is essential that we grow as naturally as possible without chemicals, without synthetic fertilisers, and good old tendering to the soil and the plants we can do that."

Chambers also said each grower would have to be registered with a food safety plan.

The cafe's menu will be shaped around what fruit and vege is in season, and what produce works best for the region's climate.

"We are sort of turning hospitality on its head," he said.

"Usually, cafes will design a menu and go look for the ingredients, whereas we are turning that around and we are saying 'what food is available to us in our climate and within our region' and 'how do we design a really interesting tasty menu from that'."

He said he got frustrated when cafes made dishes using ingredients out of season.

"I think it's a little bit irresponsible, you know, hospitality should have accountability for the pressure they put on the food supply chain, and also they should be conscious of their food carbon miles.

"We want to introduce a model that hopefully other cafes can take up, where they are sourcing their food locally as possible but then being flexible and creative enough to create a menu around that."

He said there were upfront costs for training and upskilling growers, but in the long run the project was aiming to cut down costs.

"We are taking out the transport costs for our food supply and potentially reduce labour costs to grow that food if they are smaller micro gardens..."

He said if the project was successful, they would look into working with orchards and wheat crops.

"The options are limitless if this project goes really well."