And I have been asked to be the first guest blogger whilst Celi is away.
I live in Australia but I was not born here. I grew up in the British countryside then spent many years in various cities (London, New York, Sydney) before settling here on the beautiful far North coast of NSW, back to being a country girl again. Here is the street I live on, that is my dog Rueben.
and
Here is my house,
I farm trees and pigs. There are a thousand Black Butt trees down in that forest very quietly going about their business, growing for nearly twenty years with probably another ten or so years to go before they amount to anything.
I also farm pigs in a small way. I started out with two male pigs that I grew to eat because I don’t agree with the way pigs are raised commercially in this country. I wanted to eat pigs that have lived a good life, digging and running around outside so I decided to raise my own.
My dad raised pigs so I thought I knew all about it, but I didn’t. I didn’t know for instance that uncastrated male pig meat tastes and smells bad if the pigs are left to mature so my two boys were quickly hustled off to the butcher before that could happen. The result was way too much meat for me so I started a business, Red Box Pigs, selling pork, ham and bacon to other likeminded folk.
Recently I tried my hand at breeding my own piglets, the 1st home grown litter resulted in eight piglets who are now 10 weeks old.
I am on thirty acres, the view is lovely from up here but the land is steep and hard to tame. I have to try and strike a balance between what is attainable with going to work and having a social life and sometimes I yearn for five flat acres!
This area of NSW is classified as sub tropical. This means that we can grow stuff that, despite being here for nearly 20 years, I still think of as exotic like bananas and avocados. I grow lots of citrus, lemons, limes, mandarins and ruby grapefruit.
Winter here is not that cold, this high up we are frost free so we are able to grow lots of stuff all year around. The down side of that is that there is never really a period of intense cold to kill off disease in the ground and it is way too warm for apples so I am deeply envious of all you bloggers who make cider. Summer is too hot for many veggies and I can actually grow more in the winter, stuff like beans and spinach and broccoli grow better in the cooler months. Normally this area get lots of storms and rain but this winter has been dry and spring has been unusually dry and hot. My water is collected in tanks and dams so I have to be careful what I use now as it has only rained twice since June.
Tonight it looked as though we were going to have a big storm but it turned out to be all effing and blinding and no actual tears. But then we got a double rainbow.
I feel obligated to leave you with some Australian fauna as we are known for our outsize creepy crawlies and scary reptiles like this Python which we call a carpet snake.
It has taken up residence in the pig pen just in time for me to blog this photo, for three days now he has been right on the table where I sort out the feed.
Finally here is a bit of Aussie cuteness to give Boo and the Marmalade Kitten a run for their money.
This is Inez and her bub. My neighbour Joy, who also reads Celi’s blog (she is Two Engaging Goldens) is a koala carer. Inez came into Joy’s care as a “soft release” koala, this means she was orphaned as a wee baby, raised by an organisation called Friends of the Koala, then taken to Joy’s half way koala house before being released back into the wild.
The bub is evidence that her integration into the wild koala population has been hugely successful.
Well this was fun, see you in the comments lounge?
Sally
PS in the spirit of Celi’s blog all of these photos were taken in the last day or two, the exception is the photo above of Inez and her bub which was taken a few weeks ago but just too cute to leave out.
The Kitchen's Garden 
131 responses to “Hello I’m Sally, AKA Red Box Gal –”
You’ve showcased Australia and the NSW North Coast beautifully. It’s a beautiful, bountiful area. We live in Sydney & and part time on the Mid North Coast. If we were nearer we’d definitely be a Red Box Pigs customer. Alas, we also have had little rain, and are wondering what weather summer will bring.
Thank you Ella Dee Along time ago I read one of your posts when you talked about your lovely community where you have your cottage. Was it at Taylors Arm? That farmers market at Everleigh looks enormous. I just went down town to our local saturday morning market and got a big box full of fruit that the veggie stall man was throwing out, perfect for the pigs. It is full of huge paw paws and rockmelon and bruised tomatoes. I have a paw paw tree but they never seem to ripen, stay green for months on end seeming to rot from the inside out.
Good memory 🙂 Yes, our house is at Taylors Arm. We are very lucky to be near Eveleigh Markets in Sydney – a big variety of great produce.
I love the local markets, and the stallholder, it’s a great form of community 🙂
Paw paws are a mystery – our neighbours at TA have a tree, the fruit ripens but is tasteless – even the birds don’t care for it.
Greetings Sally from me here (Chris) from the Pacific Northwest of the US. Washington state. Wow, what a beautiful, gorgeous piece of land you live on down under! Thanks so much for the lovely guest post…it’s so fun to see some of the Fellowship’s whereabouts and who they are! Wow again…piggies, another Big Dog, rainbows, snakes and adorable koalas…Oh my!! 🙂
And hi C. over there in sunny Cali! Hope you’re having a blast with your little family!!
I am chris .. thank you darling, just back from a gorgeous lunch! c
Thanks for the nice words Chris, it has been fun to share.
Hello Sally, how special to get a glimpse into your life. Love the pictures. We live in N. California, near Mt. Shasta. We have snakes, too. Rattlers. We don’t co-exist with them. Love that Cecilia popped in. Hope she is having fun. Our winter brings snow. Am so envious of your tropical fruit. The Koalas are so cute. Love your dog Reuben, he looks so huggable. Thanks for sharing.
Um I dont blame you for not co-existing with a rattler, we have two poisonous snakes here, brown snakes which I think are just plain nasty and I take myself as far away from them as quick as I can and Red Belly Blacks which are calmer and move along quickly when you encounter them. Also I think they keep the brown snake numbers down by eating the eggs or baby browns or something along those lines. Anyway a healthy respect for them all is safest. Treading on one by mistake, particularly around dusk is the way most people get bitten. When I 1st moved here I was told not to drive over them as you may not kill it and instead you end up with one very pissed off snake under your car when you get out!
G’Day Sally! What a fantastic job you have done filling in for Celi whilst she is away; I love how you have given us an insight into your world! Reuben is a huge dog, bet he’s a real sook! Having thirty acres must keep you pretty busy and I so admire your reasons for raising your own piggies.
Like you, I am originally from the UK but Oz has been home for the past 25 years. I live on the Gold Coast, but spent a year in Byron Bay which is also a beautiful area (we had a resident carpet snake too)! We just left him alone, but had to keep our small dogs away from his area!
So nice to meet you and discover your blog, of which I am now a follower!
Sorry Barb I have no blog, I am a one day wonder. I am begiinning to think that Rueben should have his own blog though like that cute little pig Bacon.
It would go something like this. “Got up and drank out of the toilet, then shook my head vigourously to get rid of the water, the old girl got way grumpy about this. Went outside and rolled in something choice then set to snoozing for most of the day with a wee dip in the dam at midday to cool off. Maybe I’ll get a walk later or ,even better, a chance to chase a piglet”!
You write so well, you should start your own blog Sally, there must be lots of interesting things you can blog about on your thirty acres!
Hello, Sally. Nice to meet you and learn about your farm. Our two climates could not be more different. Grow things in Winter? All we in Chicago seem to grow in Winter are snow drifts. I’d gladly send some to you to make up for the lack of rain. I hope that changes soon for you. This was a great guest post! You should consider starting up your own blog. 🙂
Hi john, if you sent me some of your snow I would take it, we need the water. Your weather seems to change very quickly, it seems like only a couple of days ago that you said you were putting away your shorts and now you have snow. I lived in NYC through a bitterly cold winter back in the eighties and have been to chicago in the winter so I know about the wind that comes of the lake. I am a great admirer of your blog, I really feel I know the people who lived in the old 2 flat, I can’t remember was it your father or grandfather who used to invite people around “to look at his tomatoes”!
That’s very kind of you to say, Sally. Yes, that wind off the Lake can be somthing but the city is a work of art in the Summer. It’s the anticipation of Summer’s return that keeps us all here in January. 🙂 That was Grandpa who invited everyone, neighbors and strangers alike, to see his tomatoes. He was a real character and his “tomato viewings” were well-known. 🙂
Yes, Sally has a wonderful way with words and I’ve loved reading her responses here, knowing her as I do. Piggies are way too challenging for me, I think it takes guts to rear them. I never knew about Ruebs and the toilet bowl ? Hmm. This posting has been fun and thank you Celi for giving others the opportunity to be blogger for a day. I dont know how you do it every day. Have fun in CA. Joy
I just wanted to add one of those yellow smiley faces but I dont know how to do it:)
Sally, so glad you invited us over. It looks beautiful there. As a kid we grew trees as a “crop” in East Texas. Planted tiny seedlings by hand in January – it was very cold, but those trees would help pay for our college studies. We have snakes – but not that big. Love Rueben – nice he has room to run. And Boo does have some competition in the cuteness department
You really should start a blog! It’s not too difficult – and lots here would wander over to read!
What a clever idea planting your own trees to pay for college. Trees certainly are a long term investment, My trees were ten years old when I got here, and the view along the valley was amazing. Eight years later the trees have grown out most of the view but they still have another decade or so to go, patience is a must.
Hi Sally, I looked quick @ your title & thought it said “Red Sox Gal”. Since we’re in New England & big Red Sox fans, thought yay!. Really did enjoy your blog (even tho it wasn’t about Red Sox). You did a good job with photos etc. The Koalas are adorable & your dog is, as well. Good reading, kind of parallels Celi’s.
Ha Red Sox Red Box so close! When I had my 1st two pigs, Roy and HG, they were forever breaking out. I learnt fast to get them back with food. They were fed in two square red plastic dishwashing bowls. The food rattled around quite loudly allowing piglets who had already travelled some distance to know that there was a benefit to coming back home! . As you will have read on the blog the business evolved quite quickly out of necessity so I picked a name really quickly and the Red Box was the one constant in my pig keeping.
Thank you for a wonderful look into your life on the farm! I love reading about how other people tough it out in the real world. I feel so unaccomplished sometimes with hanging tomato plants and an herb garden in the city. This is a lovely guest post! 🙂
Oh I glad it seems realistic, I dont actually feel that I have a farm at all, just some pigs and a veggie plot and even the gardening is erratic at the moment due to a lack of water. So I knew I had to bring in the big guns, the snake and the koala, and it worked very well I think!
When I lived in the city my backyard was concrete and about the size of a postage stamp, having a few veggies and herbs in containers made it a much nicer place to sit out and relax.
Hi Sally! So lovely to meet you over here at Celia’s blog. Was wonderful to read about your life on the farm, Reuben, the pigs and those gorgeous koalas. What a privilege to see Inez and her bub in the wild. Koalas are amazing creatures and it’s good to know that they’re doing well in the community. I look forward to hearing more from you!
My god that Baba Ghanoush looks good, and the photos are so fantastic, what a lovely blog you have Laura.
I’ve been out of town and unplugged, sorry I’m late to the party. Nice to meet you and learn about where you live. You’re right, the koalas are adorable!