Fable to Table

21/03/2026

One of the least glamorous parts of growing your food and flowers… 😅

Today’s job: brewing up a homemade liquid feed with molasses + fish carcasses 🐟🌱
Let’s just say… it’s a process.

Hoping this turns into plant gold and not a full-blown blowfly situation 🤞😂

But this is the behind-the-scenes no one talks about — building soil, feeding life, and doing things the natural (and sometimes smelly) way.

Wish me luck… I’m going in 💪

FlowerFarm RealFarming

13/03/2026

You can see it, but I wish you could smell it. The edible pineapple sage tucked into this week’s leaves and shoots is dreamy. 🍃✨

On the table this week: loads of salads, a few cheeky bags of rocket (next week there’ll be heaps), carrots, spring onions that look like leeks (an inside joke for those who remember my leeks that looked like spring onions 😅), beetroot, and big pumpkins rolling in as we turn the corner of the season.

It’s also the last of the beans, cucumbers and tomatoes, plus plenty of blooms to cheer the mood. 🌸

Fresh, local and naturally grown.

See you tomorrow at the Matakana Village Market. 🧺🥕🌿

06/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1B9BmPXpPc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

It seems you really can’t beat locally grown produce.

06/03/2026

Your Farmher won’t be at the market this weekend, my regulars.

Instead, I’ll be celebrating our wedding anniversary and the birthday of the first man of the garden — the one behind all things infrastructure (and everything mechanical I break 😅).

He doesn’t have a green finger, but this little market garden absolutely couldn’t run without him.

While I won’t be spending two days prepping for market, I’ve managed to start flipping beds from spent summer crops into winter ones — a quiet but satisfying seasonal shift happening behind the scenes.

See you all next week 🌿

27/02/2026

There’s something about putting your name on what you grow.

Snazzy new workwear ✔
Proud market garden ✔
A whole lot of love in every harvest ✔

We might be slightly cheesy… but we’re fully committed 💛🌿

23/02/2026

Fourteen weeks ago I “lightly” raced the kids underwater in the pool… and smashed my finger into the end.

It hurt.
Not quite “go to the doctor” hurt.
Apparently quite “you fractured that” hurt.

This is not my first rodeo.
Skating the pump track with the kids? Fractured right elbow.
Re-enacting Super Mario Bros and heroically jumping from a tree? Broke the left one.

Conclusion: I am not built for competitive play.

Anyway. Back to the finger.

The cast situation has been… humbling.

Last week while harvesting flowers and mixing 10kg of salad greens, the finger cast disappeared. VANISHED.

I tore apart the wash station.
I searched the salad mix three times.
I mentally drafted the red-headline nightmare:

“What’s worse than finding a plaster in your salad mix?
A finger cast.”

I had resigned myself to composting the entire batch.

Turns out… it was in my glove.
Where logic would suggest I check first.
But panic is not logical.

Finger casts are now officially in the bin.

All produce remains cast-free.
And yes — we’re reviewing farm protocols for “over-enthusiastic mother injuries.”

Moral of the story:
1. Don’t race your children underwater.
2. Check the glove.
3. Maybe stick to gentle gardening.

Fresh, local and naturally grown — slightly accident-prone farmer included 🌿

19/02/2026

It’s feeling really autumnal in the garden 🍂
Hot one day, cold the next. I’m never quite sure when to water because the soil underneath is still holding moisture. The top looks dry… but down below it’s doing just fine.

The abundance right now is full, messy, delicious.

Some of it comes with me to market.
Some of it I’m tending for future years.

Melons. Apples. Bananas (seven flowered this year — small bunches because I haven’t given them the love they deserve, but still 🥹).
Pomegranates and basil all grown in living soil.
Humongous cucumbers.
Tomatoes outgrowing the tunnel house and reaching for more.
Vibrant flowers everywhere.
An out-of-control pumpkin patch with huge pumpkins quietly swelling underneath it all.

Three years of hard work.
And also… how cool is it that this is my job?

See you with plenty to share at 🌻

13/02/2026

Happy Valentine’s Day 💝 my market faithfuls.

We’ve had a beautifully busy morning and still have plenty of produce left — a true reflection of just how abundant the Fable to Table gardens are right now.

I’ve been playing cherub today… quietly supporting Valentine’s romance, Galentines catch-ups, and all the love in between 💐💘 And honestly? It’s been pure joy.

The Matakana Market is absolutely vibing 🌞🌿
Fresh, local and naturally grown — just the way we love it.

Come down and soak it up x

30/01/2026

🍅 Mid-season tomato reckoning 🍅

So peps, this week has been a lot of pulling out vines that just gave up in this wet, humid summer… and picking rotten or split tomatoes thanks to all that excess moisture 🙃

We’re halfway through the season now, and you can really see it:
some varieties are absolute legends, and some are… not coming back next year.

This is my third summer growing tomatoes.
The last two? Drought by now.
This year? A hot, soggy mess. Nature keeps us humble.

Confession: I don’t usually even like tomatoes 😅
But this year I’ve surprised myself. Turns out I love the creamy, softer-fleshed ones with lower acidity.

✨ My standouts
– Brandywine Pink
– Beefsteak Select
– Ananas Noire

🚫 Won’t grow again (outside at least)
– Rouge beefsteak (likely Costoluto Florentino) — splits and rots from the inside out
– Red pear cherry — split city

🌱 Mixed bag but worth it
– Yellow pear & Black cherry: split badly, but WOW the production

💪 Consistent performers
– Golden Sweet
– Fantastico
– Artisan Blush Speckled Roman
– Indigo Gold

🤷‍♀️ Honourable mentions
– Russian Red: bumper crops, but wildly floppy plants
– Cherokee Purple:… where are you?? 👀 Zero production so far

I’ll have loads of tomatoes again this week 🍅
See you all tomorrow.

👇 Tell me — what are your favourite tomato varieties to grow or eat?

23/01/2026

Despite the deluge this week 🌧️ the garden is absolutely thriving (including the weeds).
We’ve got loads of glorious summer edibles (bags of basil, loads of heritage tomato’s, beans, zucchini, salad mixes to name a few) and gorgeous flowers picked fresh for tomorrow morning.
Come say hi and fill your basket 🌿🌸

16/01/2026

Bursting with colour and taste.

13/01/2026

“This is what tomato season really looks like…”