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

Let’s go Walkabout on the Farmy. Ignore those men with guns!

So now for something completely different. We will go back to the post I was collating when we were so RUDELY interrupted by men with guns. Yesterday in the morning there was a snow man with a TopKnot sleeping on the roof of the barn! This is one of Houdini’s chickens, growing up. The snow is…
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Sinister is the wrong word maybe flat out scary

Is this what I think it is? I took this photo tonight. And I swear I have never seen this hole in the glass before! Is this from a gun? A rifle?. Hmm. It is pheasant shooting season. TonTon and I had words with hunters coming too close to my house today in their camouflage gear…
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Snow as Art, An award, and yes, a wee story

All my favourite artists have an ability to disconnect from the present and plunge out into the future and their art. This is why I love snow after the storm. As an artist Miss Nature is brutal, selfish and startling. She is very fond of mixed media too. She is my favourite artist today. A…
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Hiding Out from the Blizzard in The Barn

It is 14F (–10C) this morning. Snow on the ground. Yesterday we were locked inside with a blizzard hurling itself around outside. It was about 18F all day. Snow flew in swirls through the fields past the buildings and straight out across the plains. It seemed very certain of its path that snow. We were…
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How to take beautiful photographs for your blog with an ordinary camera

I am an ordinary photographer, with an ordinary old Nikon. Nothing special. No fancy pancy. People say to me “How do you do that? What kind of camera do you have?” So I thought I would jot down a few of the things I have learnt about taking photographs. I don’t want to sound arrogant.…
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The Original Mumma Munch Recipe

What do you mean you can’t read that! This is the recipe my mother wrote into my recipe book years ago, before she died. Well, obviously Before she died, I mean, if she had written it After she had died this would be a very different story!! Anyway, this was before cell phones and computers…
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