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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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100 cabbages
Yesterday we planted out 100 cabbages in the cows garden. (There are 100 more in the glasshouse and 100 more to sow). Today fifty pepper plants of different varieties will follow – the peppers are not for the cows, they are for the Farmers Market market. Roxanne is having trouble adjusting to the high protein pasture…
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Taste the season
Asparagus. With everything. We recognise the season by what is on our plates. Tima has discovered the front steps. Lady’s udder is still unchanged. We are closing in on the penultimate “two weeks to go” period. I am not ordering the new milking bucket until I know for sure. All the electric fences are up…
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We fed..
… the chickens on the tin house while Alex continued to dig out the winter accumulations from the chook house. I forgot Sheila was out and about. And how tall she is. She and Mr Flowers helped them clean up. Above is one of the tables of vegetable plants. We have another table full and…
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Growing
Isn’t everything on the farm about growing. The piglets are growing, the garden is growing (but not fast enough yet), the pasture is growing, the cobwebs in the barn are growing and my team is growing. Ellie – wwoofer number two came yesterday – right on time. She will do just fine. Another good, strong…
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Storms of Flowers
Amidst the storms in our skies – there are flowers in the garden. When I as young and had about the same amount of time for the flower garden as I do now, I used to plant piles of annuals that grew from seed. Riots of cool colors and white blooms. In New Zealand my…
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Up and At ‘Em
You will be pleased to hear that all of the little piglets have quite suddenly popped their heads up above their doldrums and are behaving like little piglets now. I found them outside playing a few times yesterday and heard Molly calling them in to feed more often. I can’t tell you how relieved I was. Alex…
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