Sally Round

1 month ago | radionz.co.nz | Sally Round

Old pack horse saddles slung over beams, a sack of ancient kauri gum and a well-thumbed Ready Reckoner on the counter tell just one chapter of the Devcich Farm story. The items are in the farm's old trading post where, early last century, gum diggers and loggers came to buy stores for their camps up the Kauaeranga Valley on the Coromandel Peninsula. There's also an old blacksmith's forge, a timber mill with sawpit and a winery complete with antique wine-making tools and a pungent aroma of sherry.

1 month ago | rnz.co.nz | Sally Round

Daniel Tarrant and his whānau are among Rakiura Māori who have the right to carry on the ancient tradition of harvesting tītī or muttonbird on about 30 tītī islands. He is the fifth great grandson of the last chief of Ruapuke Island near Rakiura Stewart Island. He spoke to Country Life from a small hut on one of the motu where he is staying for the month-long harvest. Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

1 month ago | radionz.co.nz | Sally Round

Daniel Tarrant and his whānau are among Rakiura Māori who have the right to carry on the ancient tradition of harvesting tītī or muttonbird on about 30 tītī islands. He is the fifth great grandson of the last chief of Ruapuke Island near Rakiura Stewart Island. He spoke to Country Life from a small hut on one of the motu where he is staying for the month-long harvest. Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mar 27, 2025 | rnz.co.nz | Sally Round

Volunteers at the food growing collective Kai Rotorua are excited about their new kūmara storage house made from hempcrete - a material made up of the woody stems of the hemp plant, mixed with lime. It is hoped the hempcrete panels, which make up the three-by-three metre hut at the entrance to the charity's small vegetable farm and fruit orchard at Kaharoa, will create a dark environment with an even temperature for the root crop, and spark interest in hempcrete.

Mar 21, 2025 | rnz.co.nz | Sally Round

It is hard to imagine the neat paddocks of green rolling pasture on Highlands Station once covered in metres of thick wet mud. On 10 June 1886, the slopes within the horseshoe of lakes to the southwest of Mount Tarawera were splattered with metres and metres of mud from the floor of Lake Rotomahana as part of a massive six-hour eruption which killed more than 100 people. So, what has it been like to farm in an area which had been so devastated?