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We now have the green light on our council application for the Ren Xue retreat centre and community dwellings on the farm in Golden Bay! A huge milestone for the project! The process of making our Resource Consent Application (RCA) has been quite the journey - from our early assessments of the farm in Onekaka, to our draft designs for the Retreat Centre, through to negotiating the final set of conditions with our local Council. So what does this mean for the project? It means we can now develop our detailed plans for both our Community Living, and the Retreat Centre, before we head into the building consent process. Getting our RCA approved is a significant milestone for the project, a celebration well worth savouring, but by no means the end of the consenting journey! Please join us in celebrating this achievement with your heartfelt gratitude for all those who have helped us along the way this far and to all those who will continue to help in the future.
Here is a photo album with significant moments so far.. what a journey!
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Kia Ora! You may remember meeting Lulu last year with her honours project to grow a variety of pasture plants in soil from the farm. (See the link HERE) Lulu is now diving deeper into the soil for her PhD research at Lincoln Uni. Here you can find out more about this exciting research. She will plant a variety of trial plots in one of our paddocks. Each plot will contain a mixture of different pasture species. Lulu wants to investigate how the roots of these plants grow and particularly what relationships evolve between the different plants and between the mixtures of plants and other soil life such as invertebrates, bacteria and fungi. This is is exciting stuff as very little is known about this part of how soils function. In the past soil science was seen basically as chemistry, but now scientists are expanding our understanding of soil life. This is critical a piece of the sustainable agriculture puzzle. Through learning about the soil, we hope to understand better how we can support a thriving and beneficial ecosystem, living with our principles of 'beneficial for all'. Watch this video to learn about what she found last year.. What does her research look like? Lulu takes soil samples from the farm and here is what she does when she gets back to the lab....
So - she has found out what grows well and had some interesting findings - she found that lotus was the best performing legume which grows wild in the pasture NOT white clover which is the one most commonly planted in this area. Now she wants to find out why - what's next for Lulu and what does that mean for the farm?
Sharing a beautiful gathering January 2023 saw the 2nd Ren Xue camping event. New Zealand and overseas visitors gathered to connect with the Ren Xue home.  Farm tours, group practices, beach and river swims, games, walks and cups of tea were shared. Enjoy the slideshow, connect to the people, the place, the hearts. Be part of the magic! Special thanks to Chris Turton and Jay Glubb for your organising and holding of the event. Many thanks to Verena Jonker for her photos
Feel part of the land as you experience the Kaixin verse on the site of the future Ren Xue retreat centre in Aotearoa. Enjoy the magic. With thanks to Ollie Clifton for his inspiring sharing. More summer camp stories and photos to follow very soon.
With gongjing, from Golden Bay Kath Flight, a Ren Xue teacher, gardener and member of the Farm working group, came to the Ren Xue farm recently with a mission: to get the garden of the old farmhouse back to a state of harmony. She lovingly called it ‘The Great Reveal”. She put up her tent on the verandah (there were a few deluges of rain,high winds and the old building is currently too damp to provide a healthy living space) and immersed herself in the Qifield of the place - including the weeds. The birds gave her a very special welcome with the dawn chorus.. To listen, click the video below. And here are 2 of the birds we hear - the tui and the bellbird.
When she first arrived, Kath found overgrown bamboo, banana passionfruit vines taking over the vegetation, self seeded plum trees which had passed their prime and obscured the beautiful views to the estuary and river below. Here are some steps along the journey....and some of our volunteers - Wayne, Simon, Nathan and Chris. Kath shares some of her video diaries...
Some of the team take a well deserved rest at the Mussell Inn! Kath, Chris, Wayne and Renee  The History of the old farmhouse The old farmhouse is a building which is particularly special for a few reasons: the situation it is in, overlooking the estuary and bordered by the Onekaka river makes it a peaceful and beautiful place to be. It was a home for many years for the farming family who lived and worked there - the Bennet family. It was built in the early 1900’s and has served as a general store, a library and a post office so it already has a Qifield for communications and a hub for gathering community. With this in mind, a group has been formed to work on what this building might be used for on the Ren Xue farm. Ideas so far have been - a healing centre, a visitors accommodation, a practice space, a community gathering space. Many people, including local community members, have already formed quite a love for this building and have been involved in projects such as fixing up the leaky roof (link to blog post here) If you are keen to know more, or you have skills to get involved with a project like this, we would love to hear from you - please contact Ollie Clifton our Project Coordinator.
It was a great step forward for the farm to start our water quality monitoring initiative last week. Find out what critters Steve and Grace found and meet local waterways expert and Onekaka local resident Claire Webster. Claire (CJ) Webster has been supporting Steve and Grace to establish the what, how, when, and where to monitor on the farm. We are now monitoring the state of 3 streams ( Tukurua, Kaituna, and Little Kaituna) across the farm. Things monitored include: temperature, water clarity, dissolved oxygen, pH, stream flow, and what is living there. Claire is Education and Partnerships Officer from the Tasman District Council, she is involved in stream monitoring and community education on environmental issues in Golden Bay. We are so lucky to have people like her! CJ says "The Tukurua and Kaituna streams are in pretty good health with just a few places where each would benefit with changes – mostly around stopping run off from paddocks during rain events. The little Kaituna has lots of potential to improve. Part of what is wonderful about your farm is you can provide excellent habitat for all 3 areas needed for the life cycle of some of the native fish – access to healthy upland streams, a spawning area at the interface of fresh and salt water and healthy marshland/estuary for juveniles to grow in. At 6 months old they then head inland (this is when some folk go whitebaiting) to find the right habitat for their species to grow up in. Each species needs different habitats – for example Kōaro are the mountain climbing fish going far inland while Giant Kōkopu need deep calm pools. New Zealand freshwater fish: native animal conservation (doc.govt.nz)
New arrivals on the farm - meet the new steers! We welcomed some new arrivals last week from nearby Bainham. We found out that some of them had actually been born on the farm! But what is a steer anyway?? Watch these videos as Steve explains.
Cow Mastitis therapy with Marie-Laure When the vet visited, this mama cow was not given a good prognosis. She has had great care - antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, homeopathics, herbal ointment, Qi therapy and scenar therapy administered by Marie-Laure. This was the first time she had worked with a cow! Amazing work from the farm team. She is doing pretty well now.
 A fine example of selfless giving from this mama cow! The unexpected pregnancies on the farm over the last couple of months have kept Steve and Jackie busy! The calves have been frisking away, enjoy a good back scratch and some new farm hands have had some training in moving cattle... And just for the sake of it ... a beautiful picture of cows and view! 
An inspiring story about local native plant grower, Meret Weiss and how she worked with local children to grow their own seedlings and plant a riparian strip on the farm.  A year and a half ago, Meret Weiss, founder of native tree nursery OkGrow , invited children from Collingwood Area School, where her own three children are pupils, to plant some seeds. Just a few weeks ago, those same children came to plant a riparian strip along the Onekaka river, which flows through part of the farm, with the 18 month old seedlings - a mixture of native grasses, flaxes, shrubs and trees. The children grabbed spades and got stuck in with digging holes (the ground was pretty rocky so this was sometimes a big challenge!) and then they labelled their trees so they can come back and find them in future. With a few willing parents, we managed to plant 130 seedlings before we had morning tea and then finished with a few games of ‘name the native tree tag’ on the paddocks. 
The Onekaka river is special for many reasons. It is home to some of the highest densities and diversities of local fish in New Zealand and the health of the estuary it flows into depends on the health of it’s waters. One of the ways in which we can protect waterways on farms is through riparian planting. We are so thrilled to have Meret as a neighbour - she has been a great support and source of knowledge on local soils and what grows well where. With her learning from her many years as a passionate grower, and a background in horticulture and nursery production, she holds a wealth of local knowledge and experience. It’s also quite contagious to feel her passion and joy when she talks of seeing water ways transformed following wetland planting, and witnessing the return to health of ecosystems. By growing the plants which will help restore our streams and waterways, Meret makes an amazing contribution for us today and for future generations. She also holds an awareness and respect for local māori tikanga around plants. You can probably see why we see her as a treasure, and we really value her involvement in the farm project. Huge thanks goes out to Meret, the teachers and pupils at Collingwood Area school, and the parents who came along that day. On Sunday 2nd October the Ren Xue farm hosted it's first Global Awakening Day gathering - to send out our heart felt intentions for awakening to the world. The farmhouse provided warmth and shelter from the cold wind for a beautiful practice. It really feels like a Ren Xue family home now! We warmed the mauri stone gifted to us at the farm blessing in June and spoke our intentions into it. We closed with a waiata (song) to honour the mihi from Jackie. The waiata (Te Aroha) shown in the video below speaks of peace, faith and love for all so it was a natural and joyful part of our practice. After some shared kai (food) the sun came out and some of us went up to the high point for a practice while others went to deal with the milking! A wonderful time and a beautiful Qifield. Huge gratitude to everyone for being a part of this wonderful day. Last week a team of Ren Xue teachers rolled their sleeves up & got some much needed roof painting completed on the old farmhouse in Onekaka. The farm house has quite the history - previously a family home for most of its life, as well as being a post office starting back in 1912. The bustling little village of Onekaka had an iron works in those days, and used to export iron down the wharf back to the UK. After being a post office for the schooners coming in and out at the wharf, and for the locals to get their precious mail, it became a library and all through also remained a home for local people. So, we hope to continue it's purpose as a place of learning and sharing knowledge and family as a Ren Xue Community House. The location is utterly beautiful - heres the view down the estuary across the lower farm, taken from the rooftop.  A special thankyou to John Shepherd, Derek Hamblett, Ariel Linklater, Marie-Laure Darricarrere & Ollie Clifton for helping out on what proved to be a sunny, warm, & fun-filled week. Great team work from all involved! A thankyou to Jackie Blunt as well for hosting John & Ollie during the week, on top of everything else she is doing to manage the Ren Xue farm in Steve's absence at the moment - top effort all round.
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