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I am Cecilia. A New Zealander who farms in Illinois.
My farms are organic and regenerative and full of stories. I have been writing here about environmentally sustainable farming and food and travel since 2011.
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LATEST POSTS
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Make Chicken or Turkey Stock.
This was originally posted in December of 2016. When we are cooking big feasts for holidays it is fun to cook with an eye to leftovers. Making stock from the carcass of the turkey is the first step towards a fab soup the day after. The main difference between stock and broth is that stock
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A Bad Worker Blames His Tools
If I waited until I had the proper gear for each of my ventures I would never get anything done at all. Instead I use what I have lying around. Like this stock trailer. I put a big iron hog house inside this trailer, filled the in-between space between walls of the hog house and
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We Can Do This
After months of clear weather the sky out here in central Illinois has turned sullen and leaden. Days of it. Right until sunset then the sun fans her elegant fingers into the gap between sky and low clouds and the world lilts into spectacular panoramic colour. The sky lifts her petticoat clouds just a little
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All Bark and No Bite
It was a wild looking storm yesterday with significant winds and quite the chill but after a few hours, the temperature rose again, it eased off and the farm was left a gray sloppy mess. I still love snow though! If you would like to watch the snow falling go HERE. I loaded one of
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Keeping Food out of Dumpsters
I am working through my list, getting the last things ticked off before I leave for the antipodes in a couple of weeks. The winter wall has gone up for the hens. This is an old ping pong table we found that fits almost completely across the lower front of the chook house. It took
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Sharing The Puddle
For some extraordinary reason – puddles have better water than bowls. Especially in the rain. The retirement home for chooks is growing! Though this one black chicken in the front of the above shot is a layer. When we sort out the hen house she will go back in. Some of the roosters are being
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