Jubilee Farm NZ

30/09/2026

August and September are generally the months for grafting stonefruit and pipfruit trees in New Zealand, and I have been busy. Grafting involves carefully attaching and growing budwood or a scion on top of the rootstock from another tree. Sometimes you use the same type of tree like apple on apple. Sometimes you graft a different type of tree together like pear on quince rootstock as otherwise a pear tree can grow massive!

The second photo shows a pear graft with two scions as some varieties do not take directly with quince and need an interstock of a different variety. Just a little bit trickier!

Other photos show cleft grafting onto the rootstock of established plum trees. I bought commercial plum rootstock but it turned up months too late and got planted into the ground. Now some of it has grown tree-like and required felling to graft this year. That makes plenty of rootstock cuttings for next year.

There are also a dozen new apple varieties on various rootstocks grown from cuttings. Many of these have come from an amazing project run by the NZ Tree Crops branch in coastal Otago who are working to identify some of the really really old apple trees grown by early settlers and gold miners in Otago remaining from the 1800s. Adding these to our collection takes us to 48 heritage apple varieties here on Jubilee Farm. All pre-1945 but mostly from the 1800s or earlier. Research shows that these old varieties have much higher levels of nutrients, antioxidants and health benefits, than modern varieties that have been selected for sugar levels and uniformity.

We are looking forward to lots of delicious and nutritious fruit in the years to come. Next year's job will be to find places to plant all the new trees!

14/09/2026

Spring is well underway on Jubilee Farm and there are calves everywhere. Spring is such a busy time on the farm with so many jobs that all need doing at the same time. The amazing Spring juggling act is underway. So far, all balls are still in the air.....

27/08/2026

Soil scientists tell us that a teaspoon of healthy soil contains about 8 billion microbes. And by healthy soil they mean soil that has adequate air, moisture and organic matter, and that does not contain synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides.

Gut microbiologists tell us that healthy soil contains the same beneficial microbes as a healthy human gut microbiome. Health researchers keep coming back to a healthy gut microbiome for its role in immunity, disease prevention, emotional regulation and prevention of depression and other conditions.

So really, if we all ate way more fresh raw vegetables straight from the garden, we would be healthier and happier. But maybe you already knew that!

I have unfortunately had to take a round of antibiotics this week which is something I try very hard to avoid as healthy microbiology is important, and of course they say prevention is the best cure. Now that I have wiped out all my good guys with the bad guys, it is really important to recolonize my microbiome with the good guys. I have been eating lots of homemade yogurt, pineapple kvass I found in the back of the fridge and chicken bone broth. But what would really put the right microbiology back inside is a spoonful of healthy soil. Can I eat a whole spoon of soil????

21/08/2026

August has been a month of extreme weather for much of the country, including here in the "winter-less north." We are blessed to be able to grow lots of subtropical and even some tropical plants here. That is until there is a massive frost! All 500 bananas are brown and shriveled. They grow from a corm so they are not dead and they will grow back, but it is a bit heartbreaking working around the farm at the moment. We use a lot of tithonia /mexican sunflowers for biomass and they definitely don't like frosts along with lots of our other subtropicals. On the bright side, we should have a bumper disease-free crop from our heritage apple collection.

28/07/2026

One of our goals in going farming was to produce our own food. Food that is both organic and nutrient dense. Food that we know where it comes from and what is in it. What you buy in the supermarket comes with none of this.

A key part of the plan was a house cow to produce milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and sour cream. We are there! Farming and producing our own food is a big job and for our own sanity we haven't tried to do everything at once. We try to find a rhythm where everything works and just add one thing at a time when we have mastered what we already have on our plate. Goldie, our house cow started as a calf bred on farm, trained for calf club by our son, and is now our house cow, so this has been four years in the process but daily milking has become part of the farm rhythm and provides beautiful nutritious and delicious dairy products for our family.

We calf share, which makes a lot of sense to us, happier cow, healthier calf, and we dont need to wonder what to do with litres and litres of milk everyday. Calf sharing means Goldie keeps her calf and we separate them across the driveway for a few hours so we get 2-4 litres of milk each day and he gets the rest. It also means if we are away for a couple of days, milking is still taken care of. Super thankful for life on the farm, regenerative farming methods, and nutrient-dense foods for our kids!

13/06/2026

As organic farmers, these Bills could end our industry and forever change New Zealand's unique ecosystems. Almost 15,000 submissions were received by the Government on the Gene Technology Bill last year. I was one of nine hundred who were allowed to speak to the Health Committee. The Gene Technology Bill has stalled due to lack of support. Now we have two Amendment Bills to a different Committee, proposing the same intent being snuck through the back door while the GT Bill is stalled. Please submit by tomorrow evening or they will achieve the same outcome to deregulate gene technologies in NZ. It takes just 5 minutes to let them know if you agree/not with the proposals to allow GMOs or gene edited organsms to be released in NZ. OANZ has a great resource on the links below if you want to go into the details or just let them know if you want the Bill to proceed/not, or if you want gene technologies excluded from the proposals. Closes Monday night. Act now!

URGENT CALL TO ACTION!
Four days. Two bills. Two submissions. The HSNO and ACVM Amendment Bills would give regulators new powers to bypass public oversight and fast-track overseas-approved agricultural products into New Zealand, potentially opening a backdoor for GE inputs into our food system.

Download our free templates and submit before Monday 15 June, 11.59 pm. We've made it so easy, it will take you less than 20 minutes for both submissions.

Here: https://www.oanz.org/new-blog/four-days-to-protect-organic-and-ge-free-farming-submission-template

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

05/06/2026

These little shrubs, ready for planting on the farm, are part of an ambitious project to develop a new superfood for New Zealand gardens. They are Honeyberry plants and represent a huge amount of time and research by members of the New Zealand Tree Crops Association. The bright blue berries are much higher in anthocyanins than blueberries, although they are juicier and less transportable (and some have an awkward shape described like a rat dropping), with the flavour combo of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. We haven't tasted one yet as we are about to plant ours now. The fruit picture is from the Life & Leisure Magazine who ran an article on the Tree Crops trials. The Honeyberry project started in Nelson with seeds, 2500 original seedlings, then trials of selected plants around NZ over the last few years. Now some of the trial plants have been made available to members of the NZ Tree Crops, and we are going to see how they go here in Northland along with other Tree Crops members. You can check out the NZ Tree Crops Association at https://treecrops.org.nz/ and if you are near Whangarei, the Northland Branch has our annual Plant Swap on 21 June, which is definitely worth being a member for!

12/05/2026

Every year we try and grow one more crop that we normally spend money to buy. Last year we decided that would be kumera. The ground has been pretty wet and it has taken us a while to get them out of the ground. Some of them are massive! It is not a whole year's worth by any means but it feels like success for a first go.

25/04/2026

There is a lot of worry in the world right now. A lot of "what ifs", lots of online click bait and AI too. I find the best way to beat stress anytime for myself is to plant a tree, sow some seeds, grow some food. No matter what is going on in the world, our kids will be fed well. Can I encourage you to grow some food yourself (mung beans and herbs on your windowsill are easy and will give you a feel-good and vitamin boost), and get to know your local farmers and growers. We grow most of our food, and three years ago we gave ourselves a five year goal to give up the supermarket entirely. That doesn't mean we grow everything we eat, it means things that we don't grow we source from organic wholesalers or local growers. I picked up the supplies below from a local farm shop for $16.50 this morning. That is our grocery shop for this week. Go and check out your local farm shops and roadside stalls and farmers markets. If you are local to us, go and check out Muriora Farm on Hailes Road on a Saturday. Support local growers and supply your table with beautiful fresh food. Real food security is local supply, yours and your local growers.

18/04/2026

We had a tour of the farm and our Dexter herd with the Northland branch of the Dexter Cattle Society yesterday. The rain thankfully held off and we had a wonderful time chatting all things Dexter and Northland farming. You can check them out at https://dextercattle.nz/