Otago Polytechnic’s Living Campus will be open over the holidays and staff are inviting people to harvest the fresh vegetables.
Lettuce, herbs, silverbeet and various other vegetables will be available for the community to help themselves to while the polytechnic is closed.
Living Campus gardening team member Jeannette Spooner said staff would be in sporadically over the holidays so people would be able to ask them what was available.
Some of the edible flowers would be a nice addition to a summer salad, she said.
Fellow team member Paula Griannah said ‘‘fresh is best’’ and encouraged people to take some for their friends and neighbours.
Otago Polytechnic permaculture lecturer Kim Thomas said the food was spray free, as insecticides were not used.
‘‘People may also notice some plants are left to go to seed. ‘‘If not all the produce is collected, then we are just as happy to allow the natural cycle of self-seeding to occur.’’
The older plants were composted when room was needed for new seedlings, she said.
People can start their foraging at the terraces at the corner of Harbour Tce and St David St and the main campus. Berries and fruit are due to ripen in January and February.