The Kiwi Country Girl

Easy & delicious made from scratch recipes...with a slice of farm life!

Our story

Hi, I’m Laura!

Thanks for stopping by! I live on a farm in rural New Zealand with my husband Josh, our daughter Sadie, our puppy Sage, pigs (on occasion) and too many chickens to count. We have a big vege garden and we are trying our best to become just a little bit more self-sufficient, one thing at a time.

I grew up on a farm and even though I moved into town to go to university I always knew I would end up back in the country. After all, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl!

I am happiest when I’m cooking a meal from scratch in the kitchen or up to my elbows in dirt in the garden. I love the idea of knowing where my food has come from and raising our daughter so that she knows the same.

The Husband

This is Josh.

July in photos - a snapshot of farm life in July | thekiwicountrygirl.com

He is my favourite person in the whole world and I am lucky enough to now call him my husband! We met when we were both living in the city, travelled overseas together and lived in London for a year before coming home and settling in a small farming community where Josh’s family lives. It is awesome!

He is the greatest person I know, builds epic chicken coops and even does the laundry. I totally hit the husband jackpot.

We got married in February 2016 – it was an amazing day and you can read all about it here!

Josh-Laura-2294

Sadie

In May 2017 we welcomed our gorgeous daughter Sadie into our family! She is the sweetest little girl and it is so much fun having her around. She has reinforced how important it is to me to live a natural and healthy life as I want to set a great example for her. Sadie already loves being outdoors, eating dirt in the garden and just adores all animals which makes me so happy!

Life with Sadie 7-8 months - Christmas, summer, crawling, eating and growing up way too fast! Life with Sadie gets more and more fun each day | thekiwicountrygirl.com

Fun facts

We have a black lab puppy called Sage who is SO cute and totally mischievous. We love her and you can read all about her here

May in photos | thekiwicountrygirl.com

I love Friends and How I Met Your Mother – nothing is better than a rainy day on the couch watching re-runs over and over again!

Yellow is my favourite colour – my bridesmaids wore it at our wedding!

I am the oldest of 4 awesome siblings

We love to travel – Josh & I have been to over 25 countries and counting – you can read about our latest adventures here

I don’t like peanut butter on it’s own but am obsessed with it paired with other things…jam, chocolate, banana…you name it. Josh is the opposite!

I hope you enjoy reading, and feel free to contact me, I’d love to hear from you:

Email: laura@thekiwicountrygirl.com
Instagram: kiwicountrygirl
Facebook: The Kiwi Country Girl
Pinterest: Laura | The Kiwi Country Girl

Comments

    • Hi Savannah, it will keep in the jar for several months 🙂 there isn’t anything in there that will make it go bad so I’d be surprised if you didn’t use it all up first!

      Reply

  2. Hi Laura
    Thanks for your yoghurt making description. I have a batch on the go at the moment. I didn’t have a thermometer although do have a thermos. So wish me and my starter culture luck.
    As far as costs go don’r forget to factor in the 30-60¢ cost of the half hour with your stovetop element. Still worth the while.
    Cheers
    Jennifer

    Reply

  3. Hi Laura
    My eldest daughter who is also an excellent and creative cook is called Laura 😊. I love your blog and have been reading some comments today as I just found you by looking for a recipe for Lactation cookies.
    Mine turned out a bit fatter and smaller than yours that are pictured but I will make larger balls and flatten them a little more next time. They smell glorious!
    Im making these for my daughter-in-law who has just had her second girl. She married my eldest son. (I have 5 children, 4 of which are married and have children…8 grandies in total now).
    I too have lived on farms all my life and love to cook from scratch using as much home grown or fresh ingredients as possible.
    Milked cows, grown veggies, preserved fruits etc etc…
    Its a full and satisfying life and Im so glad to hear young people still doing this and that it is a way of life that is again becoming popular.
    All the best to you and your beautiful family and great success with your blogging and recipe creating.
    Regards from the Whitsundays, Australia.
    Zorrie. 😊

    Reply

    • Hi Zorrie! Thank you so much for your lovely comment! I’m sure your daughter-in-law will love the cookies – I certainly did when I had Sadie and I’m looking forward to having a big batch in the freezer for when baby number 2 arrives! 🙂

      Reply

  4. Hi Laura, I made your BBQ pork strips recipe tonight. It was nice and quick and easy to make and everyone loved it. Thanks 👍🏼

    Reply

  5. Hi Laura,
    I found your Cheesy one pan mince pasta last night and made it. We loved it! I do not like to spend too much time in the kitchen as I am a farm girl with so much to do outside all day that I want easy meals on the table quick:). Love to read about your farm live! Warm regards from Australia!

    Reply

    • Hi Tanja! That’s so great that you loved the mince pasta! It’s been very popular so I’m planning a bunch of similar recipes for the blog for next year – quick and easy as I am the same as you – too much to do outside! Thanks for your comment 🙂

      Reply

  6. Hi So nice to see a fellow Kiwi blog so many are over seas. I am three weeks in to raising my first ever batch of cobbs for meat. I have never done this before. My cobbs are huge and wobbly and I am concerned they are growing too fast. I tired to space out their feedings and they went mad. I also have 5 brown shavers and I had to separate the cheerleaders from the linebackers as it was just crazy. There are two coupe in love but I feel it would be better to separate them now then on processing day. Should I only be feeding them twice a day and removing the feeder? Not sure if I am doing this right.Any advice is helpful thanks.

    Reply

    • Hi Tina! Thanks so much for getting in touch! Oh my goodness, you are doing nothing wrong…those Cobbs are a strange breed! We found that they did exactly the same…they just guzzle their food and go crazy for it! We ended up removing the feeder and feeding them twice per day because I honestly think they would eat themselves to death. They seem to be bred to grow unusually fast which we didn’t like! I wrote a series of posts on raising these birds so if you go to “country life” and “chickens” and go back in the archives you will find them. We also had them separate from the other hens as they eat different food and if they were together the meat birds would have eaten the layer pellets! I would keep all the meat birds together unless those 2 are causing trouble…much easier than separating them. We actually breed Australorps and Rhode Island Red chickens now for meat as they are regular chickens, not the crazy things that the Cobbs are! Good luck! Feel free to email me if you have any more questions – laura (at) thekiwicountrygirl.com 🙂

      Reply

  7. What a great site. I have just found it and it will be something I will check out on a regular basis. I have just taken Dow your B,B,Q pork strip recipe and am making it tonight. I am an elderly widowed woman, who just love cooking. Have through the years, like you, made pickles jams bottled fruit and veg. I still pickle my own veges they are so much nicer and of course if you have the product growing, a lot cheaper, you know what you are putting in your tummies. My middle name is Sadie and spent the best part of my life trying to hide it. But of course now I just love it. Funny how we change. One thing that has never changed for me is my love of good food. My Dad was a wonderful garden and we never had bought veges. Mum was the best cook in the world both baking and cooking. So I have lived this way all my life. Now if ciyrse I have no garden, but have pots everywhere with my herbs etc, and in summer I still grow one tomato plant in a large pot, it is the only way to get a tomato that is worth eating. So keep up your wonderful work, there definitely is a rainbow in view for you and yours. THANK YOU

    Reply

    • Hi Jude!
      Thank you so much for commenting and for your kind words! I love hearing about other people who have always grown produce and preserved it too – it’s funny how that way of living is making a bit of a comeback – such a great thing! That is so funny that your middle name is Sadie – we obviously think it’s a beautiful name 🙂 Growing veges and herbs in pots is a great way to do it – much easier and I find lots of herbs actually do better in pots anyway. I’ve not tried tomatoes in a pot but I bet Sadie would love having one on our front porch to eat all she wants over summer – maybe we will try it this year!
      I’m so glad you’re here, I hope you enjoy reading our stories and trying more of my recipes!
      Laura 🙂

      Reply

  8. Hi Laura,
    I made your lasagne last night and it was delicious! Super easy but in the kitchen I’m like a chicken with my head cut off, ha! I did have a lot of meat sauce and some cheese sauce left over (I think I used the same size dish as you). Do you ever have that problem? I know for next time to use less meat and cut down on the sauce.

    Can’t wait to try another recipe 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi Sarah! Yay I’m glad you liked it! All dishes are such different shapes/sizes it’s hard to get it exactly right! It would definitely work to make a little less, but the extras would also be delicious served up on spaghetti or stirred through any other pasta! 🙂

      Reply

  9. Hi Claire,

    Thanks for the tips, I have been struggling for a fast efficient way to pickle cucumbers and am going to adapt your gherkin recipe to use. Will let you know the outcome in a few weeks, my 16 year old is the food critic in the family. And also the pickle lover.

    Reply

  10. Hi there just joined and called in to say kia ora from Paraparaumu. Found you by looking for gherkin recipe. Will try your one as it sounds easy hopefully to follow. . Ka kite

    Reply

  12. Hey! I just found your blog and am so glad I did. I love reading about your life in the country and you’ve got some awesome recipes on here! 🙂

    Reply

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