EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: January Q&A with Stuart & Shaye

Your questions, our answers on farming, children, and everything in between.

Hey friends,

Glad to be here with you this week as we continue to recharge and fill our winter cups. The air is crisp (though not painfully so like it was last week!) and we are marching forward with the winter tasks at hand. For us, that means beginning seedlings in the greenhouse and most importably, preparing for lambing season.

Even though winter is simple, it’s still a beautiful medley of important farming and cooking tasks. Everything from rotating storage crops, to eating through preserved summer vegetables, to watching the development of udders on the ewes (a full udder means lambs are imminent and right now I’ve got about five ewes there), to keeping track of hay rations. It’s all important because this is the culmination of effort.

Truth be told, this lifestyle is multi-faceted. We have to be capable of stretching food scraps and using up odds and ends and equally capable of recognizing pest damage on trees and how to treat it. We’ve got to understand the life cycle of native grasses, the feed requirements of pregnant animals versus growing animals, how to swing a hammer and build structures, and (new to us this year) how and when to sheer a sheep.

Like I said - there’s a lot of ground that needs to be covered at all times.

We’ve been learning on the job for almost 15 years now and some of that learning has involved more swear words and headaches than others. So if anything we’ve learned could potentially be of help to you (or if you’re just curious!) we’re here for it! So I hope you enjoy this exclusive video with Stuart and I as we sit down to answer your questions - an exclusive we will be bringing to you every month here in the newsletter.

Much to his dismay, I’ve drug Stuart in front of the camera (he very much prefers to be behind) because:

a) he’s a hunk

b) he has valuable insight

c) we cover different parts of the farm and home, so both perspectives are needed

So I hope you enjoy our new monthly q&a session for our paid newsletter supporters. Thank you for finding value in what we share and for supporting our efforts so that we can continue to offer our words, photographs, videos, and recipes to the world. From our farm to you.

If you’d like to join as a paid newsletter subscriber for $5 a month, remember that you’ll receive an exclusive q&a video each month, along with a bi-monthly printable menu plans as well. All of this is also available as an added bonus to our Cooking Community members, if you’d like some recipes + instructional videos to add to the mix.

I hope you enjoy!