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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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Back on the Farm: Exhausted but Moving Fast
I’m back on the farm and exhausted. But it was a successful trip. In California I consulted on a bakery set up then decluttered, packed, repacked and unpacked an entire house. Mostly alone. Mostly 10 – 11 hour days. Completed in 5 days. With one day off to take kids swimming. It was a stunning
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What you Missed on the Weekend
People tell me that I should take photos all in a day then make five posts from them and send them out like other content creators all scheduled to go out day after day. A good use of my time they say. Efficient use of my content they say. WRONG! Here is why: Things on
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Today we are fixing the Back of the Hen House.
That may sound pedestrian (fixing the hen house) but to do so I need to move the big pigs ~ FreeBee and Jude. So there will be ‘backwardsing’ before ‘forwardsing’. This is a very important repair. Jude has been pulling the wooden barn siding off the back of the building to get to the chook
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The Times they are A’changing
The barn swallows are gone. The mosquitoes are rare now. The flies are still here. The starlings are appearing in great droves called murmurs. And the spiders webs have arrived. Everyone racing to fatten up for winter. Not me. I am racing to fill the shelves and freezer. The pumpkins are harvested. The blush of
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Dinner is Break Time
Which is why country people eat early. Dinner is not the end of the day. Dinner is a break in the afternoon chores. Which is why I like to call it Tea! Though no one around here knows what I mean when I say that. At 5.30 I usually sit down for tea. No cats
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Rising Before the Light
The time has come where I wake at 5.30am to make a cup of tea and start the earliest of early morning chores and it is still dark. Cool and Dark. It does make me a bit sad. The good news is that I get to watch the sun rise again. As the light makes
The Kitchen's Garden
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Letters To My Mother
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