Our Life

Make your own seed saving envelopes using our downloadable pdf.

The Inch family farm red deer with a velvet hand and a soft touch, but it has been a learning curve for his city-born-and-bred wife.

With roots too deep to easily move, the Hart family found a temporary fix - two transportable cabins beside the estuary at Point Wells.

Three experts share their wisdom on how to create a profitable food product.

The Off-Topic Book Club can't agree about whether George Saunders' Man Booker winning novel lives up to the hype.

If you’ve ever grown gourds you’ll know just how prolific these cucurbits can be, but do you know how to turn them into an art form?

You’ll know when your digestive system is working the way it should.

Here’s how to profit from bees without becoming a beekeeper.

When everybody knows your name, a private space becomes a treasure and Jools Topp has found hers in a country caboose.

Southerly gales invigorate the Hills family life in a holiday house by the sea.

Multi-roomed tents with real furniture make communing with nature a very smooth operation at Wainamu.

Iron deficiency is common. How much do you need, and why? Dr Libby sums up a vital mineral.

Hula girls, grass skirts and a pineapple ice bucket... the only thing missing from this Hawaiian homage is a coconut palm swaying in the warm Waiheke breeze.

Food product developer Martyn Atack looks at why you need to start with pen and paper in your office, not the kitchen.

Unwanted waste might disappear from the immediate environment, but it has to go somewhere.

The earth moved for the Feckless Miss Scott on her first three-day tramp high in the Naumann range north of Lake Ohau.

Fifty private huts, hidden in native bush in the Orongorongo Valley near Wellington, have played an important role for generations of families.

Kelli Walker felt a business was brewing inside her, and found one that can’t stop bubbling, burbling and babbling about itself.

This week in the water cooler, we bask in the deliciousness of the cheese that Nadene brought to the Christmas party, put some garden watering hacks to the test and  try to avoid bun fights.

Make sure your eggs stay intact when carrying them from chook house or farmer's market with this easy-to-make DIY egg carrier.

Doing up a vintage or retro caravan is a bit like doing up a vintage car. Not only is it addictive, but you are also faced with a number of very similar decisions to make.

Don Jessen shares his experience restoring a rusty 1958 14-foot (4.2 metre) Liteweight Kiwi caravan, one of only 28 built, to her former glory.

The more we demand organic foods and reject pesticides, the more available organics will become.

This week in the water cooler: Cheree gets crafty making marbled paper gift tags, Nadene has some handy advice ahead of the hot summer and Emma says, 'Yes, cheese'.

Organic, biodynamic and natural skin care products were once on the fringe. Now they are all the rage.

Ho, ho, ho! These cute reindeer finger puppets double as wine bottle toppers.

The Off-Topic Book Club has a lively discussion about John Green's latest novel Turtles All the Way Down. The club discuss the depiction of mental illness, tuatara and the Young Adult genre.

Eric Swinbourn hankered after a friend’s cobalt blue Alfa Berlina, and then his chance came his knocking.

This week in the water cooler: we're saving the world in the latest superhero ensemble, Justice League  and baking with pomegranate.

A NZ home-brew company has doubled its turnover after launching an electric brewing machine called The Grainfather.

A tale of pioneering in the 1980’s in one of  NZ’s most remote high-country stations captures book reviewer Peter White’s imagination.

Cakes are a blank canvas for a talented baker and author of Melie's Kitchen.

How to build a house of hemp

When you take the magic ingredient out of marijuana, you get a building product to keep you warm, cosy and very happy.

This week in the water cooler:  we learn how to look after dogs on Guy Fawkes Day, let boy bands navigate us and are eating cakes that can't be beet-en.