The Kitchen's Garden

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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

Big Scary Moggy Mousers: They have arrived!

The new barn mousers have arrived. They came from another barn across the way that has a cat problem, and we have a mouse problem: all good. I took them up into the warm hayfilled mezzanine floor of the barn, high and safe, above the big animals, to acclimatise. When they can climb down by…
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The Toughest Thing about getting Ready for NaNoWriMo…

… is the waiting. I am desperate to start my book. NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge. There will be thousands of people doing it in the month of November. We will all attempt write a 50;000 word book in a month. It will be a little book but it will be written. And My book…
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Someone left the Calf out in the Rain

Early, early morning just after the milking and Queenie and I were slogging through the mud to get to the gate to open it for Daisy. The rain is very welcome. The muck and mud; not so welcome. Mia was not feeling photogenic when we were doing the Farmy Walk the other day so here…
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Do you want to hear how John and I met?

Lynda who lives on a farm in Colorado looked at that year ago post from yesterday and asked me how this all happened. That a New Zealand girl could wind up living in the middle of nowhere with an American man. It is not a long story, but I guess it is a sweet one.…
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Rain on The Wet Skunky Dog in The Golden Leaves of Autumn

Hmm. Skunky dog on a rainy day. Not a pretty olfactory picture. Poor fellow saw the Skunk Off bottles come out and he hid under a bush, not realising that the bush was losing its leaves, and his smelly little snout and little eye could be seen peering back out at me. But Ton Ton,…
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Walkabout the FARMY with the Big Animals

Day Two of the Farmy Round up. Wow. It takes two days to walkabout the farmy now. So much to see. Here is a grubby Paisley Daisy… ..with her good friend Queenie Wineti. We tried to breed daisy twice this season but both times it did not take. Then it was too late in the…
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