Our Hungarian Waxy beans are proving to be phenomenal croppers – just a couple of minutes picking gave us this haul for dinner (and some for the freezer). For small bushes they are hugely productive.

It’s been a long time coming but our wood range is finally installed and working. More details soon, but here’s our first fire in preparation for our first wood-fired cup of tea.

These are ridiculously tasty considering the healthy ingredients. They are great as an appetiser but if you double the recipe they can be a filling main meal if you feel the need for a healthy fry-up. Pea Fritters 2/3 cup frozen peas, blanched 1 400g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained 2 tablespoons chopped chives [...]

I love ciabatta (pronounced Cha-Bata) for its crusty outer and soft, chewy interior. It is fantastic fresh and toasts up a treat. My new part time bakery job inspired me to try making some at home. I’d always thought it too tricky for home baking, but while ciabatta is a bit fiddly, it’s not beyond [...]

Bree, our house cow in waiting had her first lesson this morning – wearing the halter. It wasn’t too difficult to get on – you could do almost anything to her when she’s at the milk feeder and she wouldn’t care. Next step is to attach a lead rope and get her used to the [...]

To cap off our day in the garden we planted five feijoa seedlings in a sheltered corner of the garden. Hopefully in a couple of years we’ll have all the feijoas we need (which is a lot when you love them as much as we do).

We were at the farmers market yesterday and picked up some Irish sausages. Karen decided to try a French-ish recipe for sausages and lentils and it was fantastic. Rustic Sausages and Lentils Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup diced carrot 1 medium onion, decided 5 cloves garlic, roughly minced 1 cup green lentils 2 [...]

I’ve just joined the Wairarapa Hobby Beekeepers Club and my first meeting last Sunday was a hive inspection at a member’s house. They are a great bunch and a wealth of knowledge. I’ve ordered two hives so soon we’ll have bees of our own.

These two cuties are the latest addition to the menagerie. On the left is Sir Beefington, an Angus cross who will be raised for beef. On the right is Bree, alluding to her future as the house milking cow for milk, cheese, butter etc. She’s a Fresian/Jersey cross but is 100% cute.

They don’t look like much now, but in 21 days these beauties will be chicks. One of our old hens, Victoria is an excellent mum and she’s getting a bit broody so we thought we’d put her ample, feathery posterior to good use. We got a dozen fertile eggs from a local chicken breeder for [...]