Homesteading is about growing and storing your own food without having to rely on mainstream supermarkets. Photo: 123RF
It's not a case of green thumbs - rather dishonest hands that will deprive others of fresh produce in their food parcels this week.
Someone's raided a south Taranaki garden that supplies Eltham's food bank with fresh vegetables.
This week's harvest has gone missing from the Eltham E-Kai garden.
On Wednesdays the volunteers usually hand over their supplies to the local foodbank so they can pass them on in food parcels for those in need.
South Taranaki garden that supplies food bank raided
However, this would not be the case tomorrow.
Volunteers who work in the garden noticed on Monday that it had been stripped.
Spokesperson Kylie Fletcher said it was heartbreaking as volunteers had put a lot of work in to help their community.
If the thieves had just asked, they would have been given some produce.
"It's available for everybody. It would just be nice if people came in and asked."
The rhubarb patch, cabbages and a large area with potatoes were among parts of the large section that had been stripped.
Some plants might have been killed because parts were ripped out, Fletcher said.
Among the most annoying losses was a large cauliflower which she estimated could have fed as many as four families.
It was near the gate of the section so easily seen by passersby, some of whom took photos of it last weekend.
Fletcher, a stay-at-home mum, has received help from the foodbank in the past and she was pleased she could repay this by working in the community garden a couple of mornings a week.
There were seven or eight different beds featuring many vegetables including pumpkins, brassicas, peas, tomatoes, capsicums, beans "and potatoes galore".
"You do put a lot of effort into weeding the gardens, planting the plants and feeding the vegetables so that they thrive.
"It's so great what they do, [I'm] more than happy to help."