Concrete jungle to garlic farm
Gridlock, house prices and the cost of living pushed former Aucklander Luke Groombridge to ditch the rat race in pursuit of a new career in the provinces.
One year later, Groombridge, 50, has no regrets about leaving his comfortable job as a graphic designer in TVNZ’S newsroom to farm garlic in A¯ piti, a remote Manawatu¯ village, 40 minutes’ drive north of Palmerston North.
Fearing his lifestyle had become repetitive, Groombridge was inspired by a fellow Aucklander who had shifted to Tauranga and forged a small-scale commercial garlic operation.
He decided to do the same. He took to Trade Me, where he bought $400 of garlic cloves and planted it on 2 hectares of land in A¯ piti. Once harvested, it should yield more than $4000.
Although this year was a trial crop, he planned to lease more land next year to expand the farm.
It would take a couple of seasons to grow the crop, but Groombridge had already learned ‘‘a lot about dirt’’. His clay-based soil wasn’t ideal for growing garlic, which is why he has his eyes set on a patch of land down the road.
‘‘It takes six months to grow. The wives’ tale is to plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest.
‘‘You’ve got to turn the soil and use plenty of compost.’’
Following the sale of his West Auckland home, Groombridge had enough to buy a small cottage and some land in A¯ piti, and a rotary hoe to be towed behind a tractor to plant future crops. It also freed up enough cash to live comfortably for about six months.
In that time, he picked asparagus part-time and sold it to green grocers, which helped to prepare him for when it came time to market his own produce.
Although ditching the concrete jungle of Auckland for the pastures of rural New Zealand had been a culture shock, it was a breathtaking experience.
‘‘It feels like this is a much more New Zealand experience. Before, I had only lived in cities – Auckland, London and Sydney – and cities are all the same. You can see the mountains [Ruahine Range] from here and the neighbours turned up on the second day and gave me a crayfish.’’
That sense of neighbourhood was something he never experienced in the big smoke.
‘‘I had really oppressive neighbours [in Auckland] who were always screaming. They were really rough people.’’
He enjoyed working for TVNZ, but Groombridge said he was restricted to Auckland and, when he got sick of the super city, he began searching for greener fields.
‘‘Working in news can be a bit cynical and I didn’t want to sit there and get bitter and twisted.
‘‘I liked the idea of growing something I could make money from, and I wanted to do something more physical, more outdoors.’’
‘‘It feels like this is a much more New Zealand experience. Before, I had only lived in cities – Auckland, London and Sydney – and cities are all the same. You can see the mountains from here and the neighbours turned up on the second day and gave me a crayfish.’’