Char Chit Chat

Jon joined Dylan for a Char Chit Chat recently. Jon lives in Taipa, Northland and got into biochar while working on a large Māori corporation property called Pārengarenga. His interesting story reveals a passion for feeding biochar to livestock as the positive results occur in less than 3 months.An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biocharThe national biochar association in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/

Toula from Southland Carbon joined me for a chat this week about her journey of biochar discovery to being the largest commercial producer in NZ.

Toula and partner Andrew set up the facility in the old Pukerau Brickworks which is near Gore in Southland.Southland Carbon produces livestock grade biochar for feeding to animals as well as wood vinegar (condensed wood smoke).

Their website is full of great information and their Instagram is a place for inspiration: https://www.instagram.com/southlandcarbon/

An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biochar

The national biochar association in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/

Episode 14 was a fun chat with Kevin Rapson from Buzi-B Flower Farm. We chat about how he has used biochar to improve his and his wife Trish's soil for growing flowers commercially on their small holding on the Kaipara Coast, North West of Auckland.

I met Kevin and Trish at the Fieldays in June at the Biochar Network stand and I could tell straight away that Kevin was passionate about biochar. He agreed then to be interviewed and so here is his journey into learning about biochar, making it, and now helping others to learn about it (as well as composting and flower growing).

Episode 13 of the Char Chit Chat with Amanda from Tinwald Farm covered a lot of cool stuff. I feel like more women are needed in the world to run farms so that they become way more connected with the living systems that they are part of.

Amanda farms regeneratively near Cromwell where her challenges are improving degraded soils and reducing inputs. She is doing this by breeding and applying microbes at scale and incorporating biochar into various aspects of the farm. Amanda has studied extensively with the Soil Food Web Foundation where soil life education is paramount.

Amanda explains in detail how microbes are extracted from home made compost and applied to the vineyard and pastures at scale. And also how grapes can be grown in a regenerative way. Current trials involve applying mixed compost and biochar under a wool mulch to those vines that need it.

And of course, how biochar is made and with what feedstocks in the Kontiki Kiln with skids for ease of mobility...

An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biochar

The national biochar network in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/

Episode 12 features well known regenerative farmer Greg Hart from Mangarara Farm in the Hawkes Bay region. Dylan has known about Greg and his tree planting for many years and met Greg at the Underground Festival in 2025 after he attended his biochar workshop. It's great that Greg is now seeing the benefits of biochar to his farming systems and he is an excellent advocate for its widespread adoption.

Greg talks about his farming journey and his move towards exploring better ways of raising animals without the abundant use of fossil fuels once he realised it's completely unsustainable around 20 years ago. Trees on farm are a massive part of this as are other ways of cycling nutrients such as on farm slaughter and charring of bones.

Greg also is interested in intentional communities and is setting up an agrihood to address the "more people needed on the land" issue in a proactive and practical way.

Lovely photos at: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/char-chit-chat-with-greg-hart/

An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biochar

The national biochar association in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/

Shakēd is involved in a large variety of endeavours and we talk about these for awhile before biochar comes up, but hopefully you will still find it all interesting!

We chat about a 3 year black soldier fly trial using food waste to make fertiliser and high protein animal food, gold mining awareness and activism, local resilience and education through The Basket Hauraki organisation, and of course about biochar at home at the intentional community where Shakēd and his family live (https://www.pakarakafarm.co.nz).

More info and photos at: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/podcast-with-shaked/

Dylan's first face to face podcast with an update from Phil in Ashhurst about what he is up to (S1E2 here). We had just returned from Hamilton with John after Fieldays 2026 and I was spending two days staying with Phil on my way to Wellington.

Phil has been at this property, soon after arriving from the States, for 21 years. It was great to have a tour of his permaculture influenced block of around 1 ha in size. Captioned photos show some of what was on show: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/2026/06/20/phil-stevens-podcast-no-2/

Phil also showed me a small local community garden at the library and community orchard near his farm. It seems Ashhurst has benefited from like minded people contributing towards community resilience over the years.

Phil is the current Chair of Biochar Network New Zealand and also has some great biochar info on his Slow Farm website: https://slowfarm.co.nz/services/biochar

Listen to the podcast on your favourite podcast app, including YouTube podcasts.

Episode 9 with Lydia from the Wairarapa covers the relationship between soil health, plant nutrition, and human health. Lydia is a qualified nutritionist on a mission to pickle household food scraps using bokashi buckets along with her bone char made from her friend's Complete Cow farm business, and supporting people on a mission to improve their health.

We talk about her 2 businesses; Pickled Compost and her personalised nutrition support and her work in public health and as a market gardener. There are some great images from Lydia's websites on the supporting blog post: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/2026/05/26/char-chit-chat-with-lydia-thomsen/

Episode 8 with John explores his recent discovery of biochar for his compost and his method of making it in a stainless steel bucket. This takes some work to do, but in a social context such as hanging out with his grandchildren, is way more like constructive play and not really work at all.

John has embedded himself into the community in various ways along the Kapiti Coast, living in Paraparaumu, working in Raumati and hanging out at the community gardens in Paekakariki, especially when the char-b-que is fired up and cooking some sausages! He talks about his sustainability work and his passion for biochar really shines through.

John created a video of his Biochar Bucket method after our interview: https://youtu.be/SccW3YW8IE8 and here are some photos of him enjoying his biochar burns.

Listen on your favourite podcast app and how about leaving a comment on here or the podcast app you use? it'd be cool to hear your thoughts...

An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biochar

The national biochar association in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/

Episode 7 features Stephen who lives just north of Auckland on 23 acres. He is one of the farmers who receives food waste from the City To Farm project featured in Season 1 Episode 6. We talk about how he deals with that food waste on his property and what he is using the resulting biochar enriched compost for.

We learn about Stephen's dung beetle breeding endeavour and how good dung beetles are for livestock based systems.

Stephen's passion for regenerative agriculture comes across nicely and is evidenced with the work he does with Kaipara Regenerative Farming Group, Future Ready Farms, and Out The Farm Gate. We chat about each of these projects. Well worth a listen, thanks Stephen!

Buy dung beetles: https://dungbeetles.co.nz/