Four Years in the Valley

It has been a year of great growth on the land helped by two reasonably wet summers in a row. The young trees have flourished and transformed the garden, hedgerows and orchard forest. The fruit harvests this year show great promise for the years to come, with two of our seedling peaches overwhelming us with fruit. The apples are a bit slower, (especially since our two Monty’s surprizes only set a couple of apples this year) but with two neighbours about 15 km down the road who are inundated each year we have managed to brew a large barrel of Apple Cider Vinegar, dehydrate apple, make apple juice and bottle stewed apple.

The cool store shelves are full of bottled fruit, sauces, juices, pickles and relishes all low sugar as we don’t use refined sugar in our preserves. But there is also pressure canned beans, meat stock and meat (not a fan of pressure canned meat so call this our emergency meat) and of course jars and jars of rendered tallow from the processing of a heifer. Most of this should carry us through to the next years harvests, especially as we do not eat much fruit or veges now, preferring instead to eat mostly meat.

Butchering our own meat is something that has developed over many years. David had some knowledge from helping his parents with the muttons. And we both grew up with meat being processed and bagged on the kitchen table. But his butchery knowledge has been extended through self-learning, books and You Tube, though up till recently this has just been for sheep, pigs, rabbits and chickens. Butchering cattle beasts was a steep learning curve, not to mention a lot of work. But it is rewarding work as our family of four is able to consume one beast in just eight months, even with lamb, pork and chicken available. Beef is a highly important food source for us so the aim is to find the balance for how many head of cattle we can comfortably carry on our land and how many we need to ensure a continuous supply of beef.

Homekill beef steaks

A change we have made with our sheep is to move away from having to shear, this makes dealing with the sheep easier as we get older. Our breeding ewes have been replaced with Wiltshire ewes, a shedding breed. We already had a Wiltshire ram, so this year’s freezer lambs are mostly partial shedders. So far they seem to be a hardy breed in our environment, the only issue being we need to watch their feet on our often wet soft ground.

Livestock numbers are influenced by how our land is recovering from the pine harvests and the rate of reestablishing good pasture. With most of the land now cleared of post-harvest debris the main focus now is weed control as the woody weeds threaten to take over areas. This will be covered in our ‘Pines to Pasture’ article (coming soon).

Fencing the paddocks into smaller areas for better pasture management has also begun. With many of the fence posts being split from ground durable trees on our property. We had thought this would be a long-term plan but many of the trees felled by Cyclone Gabrelle are suitable for in ground use. This means there is a great pile of posts lying in our top paddock waiting to be harvested. Many of these trees were uprooted and so are still living which makes to process of splitting much easier, though still very hard manual work.

The fencing of the paddocks will allow for the creation of more hedgerows and fodder planting along the road and ravine. Many of the trees for this have been grown either by seed or from cuttings placed in our vege garden. About a third of the large vege garden has been taken over by tree, edible perennial and fruit or berry plant cuttings. Last winter we decided to sell some surplus plants on Trade Me, and it turned into a business side line. To keep our costs low we sold the plants bare rooted over the colder months. It worked so well more cuttings were taken and put in the vege garden to provide plants for this year’s sales. These will become available from July. This has added to our homegrown income together with our books.

‘Life on Fodder Farm – A journey to Self-Sufficency’ has inspired many people to live and work towards a more self-reliant, natural, homegrown life. ‘Fodder and Forage’ and ‘Edible Perennials’ are resource books to help you plan and plant more resilient foodscapes. The next Fodder Farm Handbook ‘Homegrown Homemade Alternative Flours’ is coming out soon!

‘Homegrown, homemade alternative flours’ book out soon!

Sadly, though my time writing blogs for ThisNZLife has come to an end, as yet another magazine fails in this economic climate. It is a sign of the times as people turn away from the printed word in favour of online content. But as many people are also feeling the financial pressure it is understandable that the buying of magazines has become an unnecessary luxury. It is times like these where the value of living a life on the land really comes into its own, as developing food security and self reliance are our main objectives.

As each year passes on the land we build on our own resilient foodscape, we set up systems to help us exist in this life in a more flowing and harmonious way. It can take a long time to get the infrastructure to a point which works well for us and our livestock. Where it provides for our needs without massive amounts of work and gives us the time to enjoy more of the creative side of life.

At the same time, we work towards building not only a functional property but a beautiful one too. When we first moved here it was from a property with a large ornamental garden, but also one full of weedy species like convolvulus. I decided that our garden focus here was to only be on edible plants as there was limited ornamental gardens here. But this focus changed as I realised how much I missed the rambling beauty and the wafting scents of the cottage garden. Our daughter Summer loves to photograph flowers and the insect and bird life that abounds around them. So, the flowers came back, mostly in two large cottage borders but also spread amongst the edibles. A riot of colours and scents to satisfy the soul.

And in amongst these gardens is the fungi that we encourage to grow via the spreading of wood mulch and mycelium. Some of them are naturally occurring but others like the wine caps we have specifically introduced to add to our food system. Our appreciation of these fungi has grown as we learn about and observe the health of our property. It is a fascinating journey into natural farming, land care and what can be achieved when nature is allowed to take a hand in revitalising the landscape. By working with nature and not fighting it every step of the way the land thrives in a diverse and vibrant abundance of life. The bird life here is amazing, from the great soaring kāhu and the fat kererū, to the summertime swallows and the fliting cool weather fantails, to the robin who joins us in the garden and comes as close as to land briefly on my back as I work.

An elderly friend said to us ‘when the birds return, so does the health of the land’. I feel this relates to the trees, as the trees grow the habitat increases. This brings more birds closer to our home, and the trees help bring life back to the land. They add to the diversity of the landscape, work their magic in the soil. But it is not just any tree that holds the magic. It is the right tree in the right place, the trees that hold many purposes and the trees which improve the soil, not take from it. It is up to us to learn the merits of the trees and help them to grow in the right place. But also, to understand where we need spaces free of trees to allow our pastures and food crops the sun they need. It is all about finding the balance of life, the sweet spot where we have our needs met and our land thrives.