About us
Winding River Homestead is a small (65 acre) farm and homestead overlooking the Waima River in Hokianga. Our focus is on self-reliance, producing nutrient dense food, using permaculture principles and concepts to manage and look after the land in a regenerative way and to support ourselves, living simply and preparing for a low energy future. We are organic (not certified) and have a productive garden, orchards, woodlots, and a range of livestock including Dexter and Guernsey cattle, Wiltshire Sheep, Geese and Chooks. For many years we also had a beautiful flock of Arapawa Sheep (the coloured sheep in some of the photos) which we loved having but sadly sold as we had too many variables to manage. They are a fantastic breed though, hardy and healthy, but better on a farm with smaller paddocks than ours! John hand milks our cows so we can make our own yoghurt, cream, cheese and butter. We are gardeners, heritage seed savers, permaculturalists, orchardists and plant propagators. John is also a green woodworker. We make our livelihood from the land and at times we have other people staying here and we are open to people gaining experience and skills here and helping out on the land.
We spend much of our time working here on our farm but see the importance of and value our links with the broader community. Among other things we host and participate in occasional music evenings and seasonal celebrations and are involved in the local garden group and environmental group.
Our goal is to manage this land as best as we can regeneratively, to sell quality produce, plants, seeds and trees when we have surplus and to share our knowledge and experience through workshops, tours and this website. We are fortunate to have beautiful native forest and salt marsh here and we greatly value and strive to protect and enhance these valuable ecosystems.
We are keen to support people on their journey towards living simply and regeneratively so take wwoofers (world wide opportunities on organic farms), sometimes for long stays. We are particularly open to wwoofers from Aotearoa so please get in touch if you are interested.
