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This Place is Going to the Birds & We Love It!

The morning of our property search in Whangarei, we stood on the 'grassy knoll' in front of what is now the Orchard Cottage and took in the view across the vast bush valley. It was a beautiful spring morning, no wind and quiet... except that is, for the chatter of birds. Now we wake in the mornings to pastel skies and the warble of Magpies, then fall into peaceful sleep at night to the soft hoot of Moreporks. It's obvious the birds run the show here alright and we're loving it! I'm spending ...

Last of the Fig Harvest - Indulgent Fig Paste

So the last of our sweet and juicy figs have ripened and provided enough bounty to preserve for enjoying in 'figless' times. I could have made a jam or a chutney but we often fork out a bit of cash for a deliciously indulgent pot of fig paste to enjoy with cheese. Whether it's just us with our first glass of wine on a Friday night or creating a more lavish spread to enjoy with friends pre or post dinner, the small portion always gets gobbled up so quickly. ...

Incredible Gluten-free Sugar-free Granola

As Autumn truly sets in here, the leaves lose their grip and succumb to the cool breeze, I'm drawn into the kitchen. It's definitely time to indulge in slow cooking, filling the house with intense aromas of comforting herby broths and fall-off-bone meats marrying with sweet veg. I've also been experimenting with different combinations of nuts, seeds and fruit for the perfect toasted granola which is part of our Orchard Cottage provisions breakfast basket. Having tried a number of recipes I ...

Quarry Gardens - an Other-worldly Experience

Sunday just gone (Mothers Day) has to rate right up there for me, a gorgeous sunny day spent with family discovering a new and quite stunning part of Whangarei. I'd seen the sign to the Quarry Subtropical Gardens and logged it as a place to visit the next time we decided it was time for a break from gardening or renovations. Lucky for me, this occasion was Mothers Day so the excursion was preceded by a relaxed morning with coffee in bed and followed by a delicious lunch at our favourite arti...

Black Garlic - What a Revelation!

So by now any readers out there will have discovered that food is a big part of our lives... I haven't quite managed to write about any other topics so far! I'm sure I'll get there but while renovations on our cottage have monopolised my time of late, I do find myself really relishing kitchen delights. Even more so now our little kitchen has been revived - oh the excitement of actually having a pantry again, yes, it certainly is the little things! One of my favourite local discoveries since w...

More Simply 'Figtastic' Goodness

While we missed out on a lot of our summer crops from the property due to pesky possums and our fruit-loving feathered friends, autumn is providing abundance. Especially in the form of plump and delicious figs... we've never eaten so many! I feel a bottling session coming soon as the trees are now delivering daily loads which mean it's hard to keep up with fresh recipes. But before the preserving begins I felt the need to share a couple more 'figtastically' simple recipes (sorry, just couldn'...

First Fruits from our Little Orchard

When we moved here in October last year, we wandered through the young fruit trees planted around the property taking guesses at the varieties and what kinds of fruit we might be enjoying in the years to come. There are no labels on these trees, we have a list from the previous owners but there are several areas of planting so no specifics about exactly what is where. It's an exciting waiting game. The first few months over summer saw peaches, plums and some apples but crops were few and fa...

Simple, Zesty Breakfast = Morning Happiness

Waking up to the warble of magpies nearby whisks me immediately back to my childhood. While those black and white painted Aussies can be a bit of a pest in the garden, there's something about their melodic morning call that fills a wakening soul with the sweet promise of the new day. This morning was another that washed the vast sky with watery pinks and blues as the sun slowly warmed the air and sprinkled it's light across the treetops. The day ahead looked like many others before it with...