Categories: From the Farm This Week
      Date: Mar 15, 2012
     Title: 15 March 2012

Not only weird weather, a solar flare or two to swap things around.

You know this weekend is WOMAD and every year we have grapes and blackboy peaches for sale but this year the grapes are the size of peas and the blackboys like stones.

Got home from the market last week, a bit down from a low take as many of the locals were away, and then came tea time - Euro wild pork with home grown spuds, veg and salad from Naturlea stall, Shiitake mushrooms, blueberries washed down with some black raspberry wine all from the farmers market. Then the next day we had fresh tuna Jamie had caught. We filleted it, cut it into cubes, rolled in flour, fried in a hot pan for one minute. Just fantastic. Fits with our hunter gatherer diet well. You can't get food like this in any restaurant anywhere and we eat like this all the time. Fresh, local, nutritious, some people just don't know what they are missing. We all think Jamie should keep fishing. While he was out on the boat a pod of whales swam around and under the boat and he filmed it on his phone. You know we have everything in Taranaki. Aint it grand.
The Hay was cut this morning, four days fine on the forecast so in with the mower.  Came in for lunch, radio says fine today and in the morning then drizzle for two days. Blooming heck i cant glue the cut grass back on. O well can't be worried we have haylage from last season and don't have many cattle now so won't matter whatever.

On top of that i took time off to walk everywhere on the farm, a thing we have rarely time to do. The fallow paddocks are really heavy and we have grass everywhere. I always get comments from the local farmers how we always have feed and heaps of stock. They ask how we do it and what fertilizer we use. Then with a smile i say we use the Nothing Fertilizer - Shut the gate, do nothing and pay no one. The sabbatical fallow really works.

While walking around noticed the build up of wildlife here - pheasants, hares, bird life,  flocks of goldfinches, a small flock of rosella, native pigeons and other native birds. All here living from the way we farm. The slash and burn farmers don't get it and think these things are pests when in fact the biodiversity gives the soil and the food we take strength and health. I think i will be walking more often.

Have spent the week cutting up fallen trees and fixing fences, thats just time to fix but the worst thing that we can't fix is our breeding mobs of sheep are mixed up and i think we will get x breeds and that won't help the bank overdraft. Still have heaps of clearing to do but we need the firewood done as i'm behind on that.

Ila is riding Tim the pony she has broken in every night. Daisy her friend came and rode home early in the week. He is going really well.
Samuel has been putting the hours in on the local farms and trying to get money up and he is so thats good.

A new donkey foal today - a Ponui Island not sure but i think its a jack.