Recollections of the SHaG Show

It was a few weeks ago now but not too late to share my recollections of the Sustainable Home & Garden Show organised by KCDC - nicknamed by our Kakariki competitors as 'the SHaG Show' - it seems to have caught on :-)

Pete, Pat and I headed down on the Friday to set up, armed with goodies from Watsons Nurseries, a variety of native seedlings, and a whole lot of street produce - preserves, pickles, macadamia nuts, and an abundance of fresh vegetables courtesy of Steven - and, of course, the mammoth pumpkin which Pete and Pat had grown in their Patch!

Somehow I ended up over at the Council offices helping to construct the street displays, wrestling with huge sheets of paper and recycled real estate boards as Stacey applied her creative skills and hand painted the Street Signs (very cool).  It was a lot of fun and a great way to get into the spirit of the event from another perspective!  The display boards also gave me an insight into the community spirit that was alive and well in the other Streets and had me looking forward to meeting these enthusiastic people and sharing ideas!

With a cup of Streetwise coffee and gumboots I arrived at the Show on the Saturday and it was great to see so many of my Street buddies already there donning their Street teehshirts!  Mon brought along her first ever batch of apple shortbread,  I'd made the bacon and egg pie, and the coffee was on tap (thanks Stacey - great idea).   It was obvious that we were in for another awesome Street get together and this continued into the Sunday with another huge showout from our Street.  This time Bobbie bought a platter of smoked salmon and crusty bread, Mon surpassed herself with another batch of apple shortbread and we had plenty of fresh fruit, nuts and pickles to boot.

There was this one little boy who visited our stand and he was right into the whole 'grow your own' deal and had an established herb garden of his own!  He guessed all but one of the fresh herbs in our huge bouquet (the Soapwort) and said the Vietnamese mint was his favourite.  It was such a buzz to talk to so many people who had similar interests and to get them involved in the Green Street initiative.  We all had a few walks around the stands and got so many ideas. 

My personal favourite was the 'Tāngata Whenua – of the Land' site where the kaupapa (theme) was: Rongoa Māori - which is the Maori term for medicines that are produced from native plants (including weeds) in New Zealand).  I was spellbound by the presentation on how we can use common backyard weeds for healing and wellbeing - more of that in my next blog!