The primary reason for having a vegetable garden is to produce food, to be truthful it’s the only reason to grow your own fruit and vegetables. There is certainly an element of online gardeners desperately trying to build their followers for ego stroking or financial gain that have a garden, or fake a garden, for show rather than the resultant produce.    In my previous profession as a marketeer I learned that social media was a channel to market which marketeers had within the range of all possibilities, TV, Radio, Direct Mail, Billboards, newspapers …….ect. Like all channels to market Social Media has it’s benefits but also many pitfalls for inexperienced players. A marketeer must look at each channel and understand who is the audience that can be reached and is that the audience that ultimately that can be converted to purchase your product and/or service. When looking at a magazine advertisement, as a marketeer the magazine will give us the number of ‘paid’ subscribers the...

 While it sounds dramatic life on a farm of any size is about life and death and how well you manage the turmoil around that.  Now for starters this image is about life, this little bloke is doing great, he is an example of life. Then he is a boy and too many boys are not good on a farm, and unfortunately his dad is a bull from an adjoining farm so this little guy wont be staying with us. Although a pure bread lowline angus he is still a boy and we have a big boy already so from the moment this little guy hit the ground and I checked the calf's sex, he was always leaving. If the calf had been a girl, then is would be staying, that is life and my mates would argue, rolling their eyes, "that would be bloody right, women".  Also this week, well over the last few weeks, we have been hatching chickens and turkeys from some incubated eggs. It's so easy to get attached to little fluff balls. Of those hatched we have one with a twisted foot which we have all bandaged up tryin...

First my circumstances; I'm retired, knocking on the door of 60 years old. I live alone on my small farm which I purchased for my retirement to keep active and health.  My initial purchase of the watch was encouraged by my daughter concerned about what would happen if I had a bad accident, who would know? I'm sometimes up a tree with a chainsaw, sometime on a mower on steep slopes, my farm has its share of deadly snakes - you get the picture.  Security   This gets a big tick from me. The Apple Watch has 'Fall Detection' built in and a simple internet search shows it has saved lives. The concept is that if you fall down it detects your fall, activates the watch with vibrates on your wrist and asks if your ok. If there is no response within about a minute the phone rings emergency services and your emergency contacts. Now I've set mine off at least a dozen times in the last year so I know it works and each time i've been able to answer the question "Are you o...

To be a good educator you need to be an entertainer. When we are interested in the subject matter, we are more likely to learn and retain it - intrinsic motivation.   You can take go and visit a farm, see some cows, collect eggs, see some vegetables growing, pat a baby animal. But if you want to really reach children, their parents and loved ones, there must be some interactive entertaining elements that capture and hold their interest. I’ve had some large groups visit the farm…30 or 40 school children at once and family groups of 10 or more.  For them to walk past a paddock with some Black Angus feeding and be told that’s what you eat – well it’s a bit all ho-hum and they are more interested to know what fish are in the dam they can’t even see.  However, if the same groups of children are shown a McDonald’s burger wrapper they recognise, then shown a KFC wrapper and then see a rooster go past riding on a Black Angus bull’s back, then they are receptive enough t...

 I chose the name Amaphupho for my small farm as it basically means to have a dream (Zulu language). My dream was to create a place families and people could visit and discover a little about where food comes from and what farmers do.  By appointment only, it's Free. That dream continues to become a reality and I have to say there is nothing more rewarding than to see the reaction of children as they discover that food indeed does not come from a wrapper, or a box, a supermarket or even from a delivery person knocking at the door.   It's not just about the animals although they get the best reactions but seeing children in the vegetable garden discovering how vegetables grow and to hear them crunching away on fresh snow peas is a real treat to myself.  To open a bag of licorice then show people that they can get the same flavour from a tree leaf without all the sugar or to see someone pick a ripe peach and eat it fresh off the tree is amazing to me, it must be e...

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.”  ― Luther Burbank I have often wondered myself why I grow some flowers. For me, the animals on my farm are company, all with their own personalities and moods. The vegetables, fruit, nuts, berries and bush tucker are sustenance and survival and are a source of great pride tp produce. Interspersed as you walk the farm, are flowers. The linking elements between paddocks, orchards and vegetables keeping the conversation flowing and creating another treat at every turn. I wonder why I grew them and continue to plant more. Are they just my little luxury to look at and photograph? Could it be the flowers are to stroke my ego as people enquire about their beauty and I tell a story of where it came from and how hard was to grow? No,  I think not.  I prefer the thoughts of Audrey Hepburn; “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”  I plant flowers as...

 Somewhere back I wrote about being somewhat of a coffee snob. But still I set out grow and roast my own and I did it on my first go. Totally surprised but it is really good.  Here is the video of the process 1. Growing. I started without any knowledge, I just saw a coffee tree at a nursery and thought I'd give it a go. Turns out the little tree was actually a miniature so it less than a meter high after 3 years but is covered in fruit. I started out with the tree planted in a position where it just got too wet and the leaves all fell off. I then moved it to a dryer position which is actually under the drop line of a huge gumtree.  2. Pulping. You just squeeze the berries and the seed covered in a slimy substance shoot out. Derrrr keep the seeds and feed the skins to the chooks.  4. Fermentation. It should be called simply, soaking. Toss the seeds in fresh water and leave them for around 2 days - 18 to 24 hours.  Don't be too particular you can feel the regular ...