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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


  • Introducing Sheila who has spotty ears and .. um, Charlotte.. OOPS

    The Swine Herd was sitting on a lawn chair,  in the shade,  just inside his stables.  Like an old gunslinger outside a dusty tavern. He was an old man, tall, handsome and vigorous.  He unfolded himself from his chair and strode across to open the door of the car as I came to a halt.…

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  • In my kitchen and Sheila the Babe comes today

    It is dawn of  June the 1st here. Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial has a little tradition of greeting the new month with a look at some of the new bits and pieces in her kitchen.  And she very kindly invites us to do the same. As we are still waiting for Daisy…

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  • The Sleepy Eye of my Mind

    When I first dreamed of having peacocks, this was the scene I saw in the sleepy eye of my mind. Kupa up on a fence surveying the farmy.  His colours  flashing but somehow blending with the surroundings. A tail like a collection of impossibly precious emerald brooches draped so casually across  the rustic fence.  Kupa…

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  • Northern Cardinals come home to roost.

    Hairy MacLairy has been brought into the barn for a short visit because he keeps scraping his knees. Blood and flies in the field can be a nasty mix.  I have been trying to treat his grazes in the field but he hates the wound spray and gallops away when he sees me coming.  Then…

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  • A rare sighting of miss c and Broccoli with Garlic Soup

    I have begun to investigate slow cooking. With the arrival of Daisy’s calf fast approaching, and Sheila the Babe (hopefully this week), then the  milking and the cheese making, I will have at least another two hours work a day and that does not include the clean up. The barn I can clean with a…

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  • Hot Chicks.. the unsung heroes of Sustainable Farming!

    Our John said if I wrote Hot Chicks in the title I would attract the wrong kind of reader. But I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  And If you like Hot Chicks you might like the farmy too.. everyone eats. But it was so hot yesterday, hovering just under 100 degrees, as the Coke…

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