Fishing Weekend on the Farm 10-11th of January

Bring your curious children and adults along and let some very keen anglers teach them how to cast and tie flies. Use a spinning rod and then to make things even more interesting there will be a NIWA scientist coming to talk about fish farming.

It is going to be a fantastic weekend. The activities will start around noon both days.

Earth Camp Schedule 2009 released

THis years Earth Camp events have been decided.
To find out what awaits the new year click here for the Calendar of Events

Earth Camp Kid's Cookbook Announced

The Blueberry Farm hosts an Award Winning Earth Camp each year. This is a family friendly series of activities where children learn about organics along side their parents through hands on activities. The most popular activities usually involve food (surprise, suprise), so this year a childfriendly cookbook will be produced as well during the following Earth Camp Days: 1 Feb, 1 March, and 4 April. The cookbook is being done in conjuction with the development of the Sustainabelly Cookbook Series which feature Cherished Recipes from New Zealand Organic Growers. The children will make the recipes and the best ones will make the cookbook. This activity will also be a fundraiser for the Earth Camp as all images taken by Mandi Lynn of the children preparing the meals for the book will be available for purchase by the family for $40.00 for an 8x10. All profits from the image sales will go towards future Earth Camp Activities. Win - Win.

Pictures from the Tipi Pitching Party

See Malous pictures from the Tipi Pitching Party . The day was great fun with lots of food being shared and then the hard work starting on full tummies. As predicted the helpers divided into two distinct camps. The worker bees and the wine drinking ones who laughed and pointed. The gold star of the day definately went to Pieter and his efforts at chopsticking the thing together as well as Counselor Katy Austins brilliant work as crew chief. THe worker bees were fantastic and we were impressed that nothing had to be redone and it only took us about 3 hours to pull it off! Yeah team!

That night Sam, Brucesonam, and Bob and I cristened the tent with the first bare ground tipi sleeping party. It was good fun and much warmer than expected but I think the next time I put my aging body in there, I will have a cushion and ear plugs (the wind picked up around 0400 and it became noisier than I was used to sleeping with, and of course the roosters thought it was a nifty new thing to crow at around 0500).

All and all a brilliant success though!

The tipi will be available for activities and can be booked out for organic birthday parties in the Summer time.

TIpi Pitching Party this Saturday

The weather is supposed to be mostly sunny on Saturday which is fantastic for our Tipi pitching party plans. The idea I had in my mind is that we would get the directions and half of us could try to put the thing up and the rest could have a glass of wine and laugh and point at us doing it. So you will either fall into the laughing and pointing wine drinking group or the pitching group. Both are welcome just bring a beverage and a dish to share for an afternoon meal. We will be starting the shenanigans around noon. Children are very welcome!

The reality is we have no idea what we are doing and the goal is to have a tipi that is standing by the end of the adventure. I am awaiting the arrival of the directions from Jaia tipis. THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN!!!! Hope to see you there.
Cheers,
Mandi

Fishing at the Farm Weekend announced

We are very blessed to have had two lovely gentlemen volunteer their expertise to put on a fishing weekend on the farm.
The first gentleman is from NIWA (National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research) and he is going to give a "hands on" talk on Fish Farming which should be very interesting. His name is Dr. Philip Heath and he is the Manager, Mahanga Bay Aquaculture Facility. He travels all around the world learning and teaching people about Aquaculture and we are lucky to have him volunteer his time to share some of his knowledge with us. The date for this event will be the 10th of January.

The next lovely chap who has decided to share some of his passion for fly fishing is our bank manager John Olds from Kiwi bank. When John came to visit me on the farm to see how he could help my photography business, I saw him eyeing up my barred rock chooks. We got to talking and it turns out that John is fly fishing mad and the feathers on my chooks were quite coveted for making flies. When I told John about the trust he said he would be more than happy to teach children how to tie flies for fly fishing. Luckily I have a bag full of feathers waiting for a good use.

Our plans are to have Saturday the 10th be a day to learn about fly fishing and Sunday the 11th to be a spinning fishing day. We are right on the Akatarawa River and there is at least one old cagey trout down there who likes to tease the Anglers. So if you know anyone who would like to teach families how to fish, or anyone who would like to learn how to fish sustainably then come out that weekend it should be good fun. We are hoping people who have extra fishing equipment will bring it along to share for the day as well as their wisdom on how to protect our fish resources. Looking forward to seeing you.

Jean Gwatkins leads Trip to Chatham Islands

Our Earth Camps own 88 year old jam making guru and keen fisher woman, and last years Wellington Gardener of the Year, is taking her spritely self and a group of people to her favourite fishing grounds of the Chatham Islands. There are two separate trips. One is a fishing trip where you are promised to come home with loads of kina, crayfish, and various other fish. The second trip sounds like a gourmets delight where you travel all around the islands experiencing all of the beauty and culture that abound and then are fed royally at the hotel from fresh food from the sea and gardens prepared by two fabulous chefs. Jean knows more of the details and would be happy to fill you in. Give her a call at 388-6733 to learn more. I think it would be worth it just to spend a week getting to know this fantastic lady that we are fortunate enough to have volunteering for our Earth Camp...she has agreed to repeat the Preserves class this year (31 January) and has also agreed to teach us all how to make blueberry wine (4 April) so mark your calendars.