"We produce a range of natural herbal products of the highest quality – health and healing from our family farm on Banks Peninsula to your doorstep.

We provide education to help you on your journey towards health and wellbeing."
the herb farm

At KoruKai Herb Farm, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, we grow over 90 medicinal herbs and harvest and process 50 of them to be used for our products.

We are farming in a biological and regenerative way by actively building soil, testing for nutrient density of plants and sequestering carbon with the aid of the soil food web. Our inputs are made right on the farm: Compost, compost extract, vermicast and fish hydrolysate. They inoculate our seeds, bring vitality to the soil and introduce vital soil microroganisms to cycle nutrients for our plants.

Harvesting of herbs is done at the peak when they are full of volatile oils and potency to achieve the best possible results. The harvest starts in spring with leafy crops like plantain and ends in winter with medicinal roots like echinacea, licorice and valerian, giving us a total harvest of half a ton of plant material per year. The plants are harvested by hand and dried on racks in a solar ventilated drying shed. This method retains the colour, potency and constituents of the herbs and we achieve an outstanding quality. The herbs are then used in our various product ranges – blended into herbal teas, extracted for the health remedies and incorporated into our skin care products.

We believe that our health is anchored and directly related to the health of the soil. Chemical-free, seasonal, local and nutrient-dense food makes and keeps us healthy and strengthens our immune system. Through our workshops we get to share our knowledge of organic horticulture, herbalism, wild medicinal plants and fermentation.

Please have a look at our upcoming workshops, where we share our passion for health and gardening and help you on your journey to wellbeing.


Cornelia is an herbalist and slow food educator with a passion for soil health, simple living, DIY, herbs and self-sufficiency. A certificate in Organic Horticulture, Soil Food Web training by Dr. Elaine Ingham, an Apprenticeship in Herbal Medicine at Valmai Becker's Phytofarm and living on a farm in Pigeon Bay equip her with a lot of knowledge and experience with growing food and living a healthy life. A master’s degree in education and a thirst for new scientific studies keep her well informed. She shares her vast knowledge with others through workshops, the blog, public demonstrations and talks.

Kai has many skills and passions. A software developer by trade, he oversees the technical side of the website and online workshops. He answers customer emails, harvests and processes herbs, packs orders and makes sure that workshops run smoothly. He is the main beekeeper in the family and is passionate about organics, permaculture, food forests and trees in general.

Rebecca is a Landscape Architect by profession who has a passion for all things horticulture and rural living. She spends much of her time developing a large lifestyle block with all the usual suspects, plus a small herd of gorgeous angora goats, raising a young family and trying to be as self-sufficient as possible. Rebecca is overseeing our native planting project at KoruKai Herb Farm. She has done the architectural design for our resource consent of extending the herb farm and establishing two large growing terraces as well as a series of ponds. She helps with planting trees and growing herbs as well as harvesting and processing of herbs throughout the year. She also packs orders, labels products and helps out wherever needed.

Nicholas and Julia are enthusiastic growers and help in the garden: sowing, planting, watering and harvesting. They love life on the farm and because they are homeschooled, they get to be involved every day. They are our biggest fans and are the driving force to develop our children's health remedies. They let us know if the remedies taste good for other children to enjoy.


As soon as herbs are fully dry and ready for processing, we make tinctures, infusions, decoctions, syrups and glycetracts to harness the herbs' healing powers in liquid form. Those form the base for our Herbal Health Remedies. The herbs are blended without any additives for our range of flavorful and healing herbal teas.

For our natural skin care products we choose herbs for their skin calming, anti-inflammatory and beautifying properties. Those herbs are then infused in cold pressed and certified organic sunflower seed oil over a 6-week cold infusion period. All other ingredients are chosen with great care and most of them are certified organic.

The customer feedback and the many happy, returning customers prove that our skin care and herbal products are among the best of the best and we are proud to supply such high quality products for our customers.

Try for yourself and see the difference it makes when herbs are NZ grown, potent and fresh and not imported from all over the world.


We try to keep this list up to date, but it is never complete as we find more healing herbs in our regenerating native bush and trial new and exciting varieties. Before making herbs available for purchase they are grown on the farm for 2 years and the products made from them are tested by our team for their potency and effects on the body. Only the ones that tolerate our climate and growing conditions, producing sufficient yields and are highly effective make their way into our marketable range.

Please view the list of herbs we grow here. But please let us know if you are after a specific herb that is not on the list as we might grow it or might want to trial it if you believe it is a winner.


It's a great pleasure for us to share what we do at KoruKai Herb Farm. We are a scenic 1.5 hour drive from Christchurch on beautiful Banks Peninsula in New Zealand. The French inspired seaside town of Akaroa is 30 minutes from our farm.

We offer two open days per year and run guided farm tours once a month over the summer period. You can also book private guided tours with us, which makes a great trip with a group of friends. A guided tour takes between 2 and 3 hours and will give you an insight into the work we do here at KoruKai Herb Farm. It covers aspects of self-sufficiency, growing nutrient dense food and potent herbs, permaculture design, forest gardens and biological/regenerative horticulture. You will see the growing beds and drying sheds where we process over 40 medicinal herbs.

We also offer a range of workshops, where you may see parts of the farm (depending on the workshop).

Please bear in mind that this farm is also our home. We do not have a shop on site and do not have regular opening hours. You find a list of retailers that stock a selection of our products here. On most days we are crafting products, packing orders and harvest and process herbs, especially over the very busy summer season.

Thanks for your understanding and respecting our privacy.

Online orders can get collected straight from the farm for free. Please select "Collection from KoruKai" as a free shipping option and we will send you directions. Orders can be collected within 48 hours.


Country Calendar Season 2021, Episode 31 (October 2021): KoruKai Herb Farm

Country Calendar: Family grow their own medicine at KoruKai Herb Farm (October 2021): Article and preview

Radio NZ, Country Life programme (July 2020): "A Hilly Haven for Herbs"

Latitude Magazine (Feb/Mar 2020): "More Than a Gardener's Paradise"

Plains FM 96.9 interview (June 2020): "Lorraine interviews Cornelia Holten from KoruKai Herb Farm"

Press Article (June 2019): "Fermentation Workshop Teacher says Stinging Nettle Weed a True Superfood"

National Radio NZ (July 2019): "Weed Eating - Frittata with Stinging Nettle"

Untaming Podcast (July 2019): "Foraging - Permaculture - Education"

Documentary (Dec 2018): "Sustainable People on Banks Peninsula"


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