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.
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!
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!
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
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
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.
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 🙂
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
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 🙂
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 🙂
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! 🙂
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.
Hi Bruce, good luck! I hope your 16 year old loves them as much as I do! Laura
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
Hi! Thanks so much for commenting. I hope you enjoy the gherkins…we love them! 🙂
Your blog is beautiful. Keep it up. I have my blog too feel free to share your views here is a link to it https://rosesunshine1314.wordpress.com/about/
Thank you Shreya!
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! 🙂
Hi Claire! I’m so happy you’re here! 🙂
Hi Laura! I love your site, all of your ‘kiwi’ recipes and fun NZ farm stories. I’ve nominated your for the Creative Blogger Award, if you’re interested 🙂
Hi Laura! Thanks for linking up today, love that broth recipe. Hope to see you again next week!
Xoxo K
http://peeledwellness.com
Hi K! Thanks for inviting me over…such a great idea and so many fab bloggers! I’ll be back next week for sure 🙂 xo