one month ago i became a mother (not counting the 9 months i carried the chicken in my womb). one day i wasn't and the next day i was. one day there was two of us and the next there was three.

as a one month old mother i have not walked enough sleepless nights to qualify me to speak much on this topic but what i can tell you is that golly we are in love with our little fella. let me introduce him, spencer joel prokic. he has the most precious red hair, blue eyes and and the cutest hairy little ears that i have ever seen (talk about things you thought you would never say).

so far from what we can tell his favourite past times include drinking milk, farting - he and we are extremely proud of his work, smiling only in his sleep, taking long showers with daddy, having morning cuddles with daddy - the warm cosy kind before the day starts, going to sleep on daddy's chest and basically anything that involves daddy. and mummy ... well he just loves to wee on mummy!!

these early days are precious and hard and already passing quickly. feed and wake and sleep times seem to run together and if it wasn't for the rising and setting of the sun i fear i would be completely lost to the reality of time. for now i am allowing myself to lose track of the days and just be present in this new life that we are learning to live. golly does that give me the space to not be totally overwhelmed? because at times like most, well i hope like most i do become overwhelmed by trivial things like washing and damp burp cloths, on time dinner and nappy rash. when everything in the early days of motherhood seems hard and painful, a completely gracious husband is the greatest gift. better than any 'push present'. i have needed and received much more grace from him than i usually require in this last month. he is the best daddy and husband ever.

our adjustment to parenthood maybe littered with tiredness and snappy episode but the whole giving birth part... well there was nothing that could have prepared me for such a thing! to those who have done it and have done it more than once... i salute you and kiss your feet and marvel at you. to those who are yet to do it... i have no words for you. sorry. there is an element to giving birth that is powerful and reminds you that you can actually do hard things, i had this revelation in hindsight. i went into it confident that my body would know what to do, that if i relaxed and went with the flow it would help... and i guess it did, but generally that thing was just a beast! so much love and gratitude to granny who was there helping us through the whole thing!! people tell me that the memory will fade, i am confident that it will, but i will never forget haha and perhaps nor would i want to. we are so in love with this new life of ours.

my newborn doesn't feel so small any more and he is fast growing out of his 0000 so i best go and cuddle him some more!

i think that we have established that i am no florist, i am a wannabe grower, a simple living endeavourer, a homemaker, no florist. but oh how i love flowers, foliage and foraging. i can guarantee you will be glad that it was a beautifully skilled florist composing those valentines flowers that you received today and not me but i can not resist the desire of fresh greens in the house.

on a recent trip home to the mother country where i am free to forage without fear of fines or bad looks from the neighbours, i was inspired by the textures, colours and bounty of natives that are available. there is something wildly endearing and simple about a bouquet gathered from the garden that is thrown together, flawed design technique and all.

husband, if you read this, do not take it as a hint that i do not love, need and deeply appreciate farmed flowers arranged with love from the florist because i do!!!! we are not ones however to budget in fresh flowers every week, so a girl has to be resourceful and hunt her own (we are actually in the process of growing our own so i don't have to be so stealth).

having plants in the house is my favourite thing. they add life to an interior, they help purify the air and generally make you feel more happy and peaceful. who doesn't need that! if my table is clear and there is a fresh gathering of flowers, store bought, gathered greens or potted plant i feel calm and ready for the day ahead. crazy and simple minded i may be, but it's my thing.

my tips for adding some foliage into your frame.

- work with what you have. go out into the garden with clippers or kitchen scissors if need be and start looking around for what can be cut and taken inside. the silver dollar eucalyptus is totally trending in the interior world (and thus ends my knowledge of what's on trend) but if eucalyptus is not what you have, find something else, what's local to you, what's in the garden that you haven't looked at before? i don't often have a lot of flowers so i go with just bunches of greens adding in colour and texture with different plant varieties. if i am really desperate a vase filled with fresh green murrayais an easy fix.

- try not to be put off by thinking that you lack design knowledge and styling technique. place your foliage in a jar, a vase, a cup, whatever you have and just enjoy creating something that is simply beautiful on its own. i have been know to hack off a whole branch and stick it in a bucket and say 'voila perfect'. or go here for some additional real tips from a pro.

- add water! and keep topping it up in the days after, cut greens drink water!

- pick early in the morning if you can, this is when the plants are most hydrated and will last longer than if you pick in the middle of the day.

- and finally compost them when you're done so they can complete their life cycle.

i did a little hunting and gathering and put together a bunch for the entry way. like i said you will be glad a professional is designing your valentines bunch, but after those blooms have faded why not cut your own.

happy foraging x.

yes that is just some of husband's favourite silky oak (added by the editor)

it's summer time and every social platform is full of bountiful harvests; tomatoes, cucumbers, greens you name it and this is no exception.

we have an overload and i am not complaining. i had tomatoes growing from every corner of the garden this year. while they were mostly offspring from last years hybrid seedlings and had reverted back to their small dominate form, they were still ok. i have been carefully harvesting and freezing our excess with only one thing in mind ... making this tomato soup. this recipe is simple and delicious. it is one of husbands favourites!!

so the soup.

fresh cherry tomato soup

1 kg of cherry tomatoes or any type really

4 rashes of bacon (optional)

1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar

10 large garlic cloves

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

coarse sea salt, to taste

freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 onion (brown or red)

handful of fresh basil (or whatever generous amount you like)

3 cups chicken stock

sprinkle of parmesan cheese

1. preheat the oven to 200'C, combine the tomatoes, vinegar, garlic, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. transfer to a baking tray. bake for about 30 minutes until the tomatoes are lightly charred on the edges.

2. in a large saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and sauté the onions. add the basil and bacon and cook until the onions are soft. stir in the roasted tomatoes and 3 cups of chicken broth. bring to a boil, lower the heat and allow to simmer for about ten minutes.

3. taste and add what you need. using some kind of blending device, blend the soup to your liking. sprinkle salt & pepper to taste & serve.

note: this is perfect with parmesan, we also sometimes add small soup pasta and fresh peas for a minestrone type dinner. everything we eat is usually accompanied with bread!

enjoy.

we have managed to keep the new lawn alive now for 8 weeks, a reassuring accomplishment considering the impending birth of our first child in around about 8 weeks time!

this front yard reno was a long time coming and by far the one i had been looking forward to the most. while we had a few specific goals in mind for the front i was still in constant war with myself about our options; creating a wild food forest, one that is rambling and overgrown and wildly productive....can you imagine it! but i also longed for a place to picnic and to kick the ball around with our wee man. my husband also weighed in on the discussion and as you see the lawn won out and what's a 'farm' without some rolling paddocks right! there will be time and space for wild and free foliage soon enough.

enjoy a few, before, during and afters.

before.

day one.

demolition day. lets just say that this fence would never have been shaken. it was legit and perhaps a little over the top and in totally the wrong place for our dreams. it had to go.

day two.

new driveway, framed and poured (is that the correct terminology!).

days later.

fence construction. in the meantime the chickens were truely free range visiting (and eating from) everyone in the street.

sometime later.

lawn.

after.

and now, a few weeks later still we have lawn that is green and fresh red tips on these photinia red robins! we left only one tree from the original garden, a rainforest tree commonly called a native frangipani though it's not actually related to the exotic variety.

there is certainly plenty of space to play and picnic. #lawnporn

there are still plans to create something of a food forest, or a harvest space where i can pick blooms and create, but for the minute we are still planning and scheming and for the minute the house looks like it's been plonked on the block from out of space into a sea of green. progress folks, progress. oh and we painted the front landing! no more retro green! not that i'm a hater of retro but they were just all wrong!

x.

we are almost 25 weeks pregnant now and i thought that i would be swept up in this nesting thing early, the ultimate house wife, the domestic goddess of pregnancy. reality is very different to those long gone fantasies. reality is, feeling too lazy to get out of bed, to clean the house, to wash more than one day a week, too lazy to weed the garden or even harvest it, seedlings that decay in the place i first left them, it's when the simplest of challenges is put in the procrastination basket and it's seriously pushing the limits on what is acceptable in the marriage bed ... i'm talking about intense leg and pit hair and hair that is way too far past its wash date. i reason with myself that this is a season right? just something that happens right? reassure me women!

either way, phase or not, i had to muster up a little something something and kill of the leg hair to make myself feel more normal and decided that a gingerbread baking sesh just might put me in a good mood and make me feel accomplished for the day :)

i was right. feeling accomplished (don't mind that it took me 3 days to put some icing on them!) and of course completely grateful for the season that we are in, just a new one that we are learning to navigate and be present for.

ginger bread recipe

the simplest recipe that you will ever read because as we've established laziness is my biggest pregnancy symptom.

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup golden syrup

3 2/3 cup self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1. melt butter and golden syrup together

2. add all other ingredients, combine

3. when dough can form a ball roll it out (2mm or something) on a sheet of baking paper and chill in the fridge for 5 minutes - this makes it super easy to cut

4. cut out cute shapes and bake for 10ish minutes at 160'C

eat them all at once :) x

christmas is coming, can you believe it? i love this time of year. i love the sticky heat and the afternoon storms that roll around, i love the smells of summer and the watermelon face's, i also love the reasons to celebrate, to gather, to plan and to decorate. christmas can bring with it however a lot of stressful anxiety if you let it. like most things in our life we are attempting to approach this summer and christmas period with intentionality and consideration.

so in an effort to simplify this christmas we have decided as a family to (again) attempt a handmade christmas. previous christmas’s have been wild with excess and we are in need of a change. for us is this time, something that is handmade leaves a different kind of impression on both the receiver and the giver and i see it as a way of grounding the season that can sometimes get the better of us.

i realise for some that the thought of making things can be just as daunting as shopping and purchasing gifts!!! so i thought a list of fun handmade gift ideas could give you some inspiration in a different direction.

beautiful jars of preserves - blueberry, strawberry, apple jams, lemon butters, marmalade, chutney whatever you can dream of putting in a jar!

harvested seed envelopes from the garden

story stones - if you have little story tellers about go here for details

knitted dishcloths - if you've got the talent or even if you don't! I certainly don't but i can make a killer square

homemade muesli - here for some recipe ideas

cloth bags of any kind! these bento's are too much to handle - you can never have enough

a peg apron - okay maybe this is really showing my daggy side, but you can't argue with its cute practicality!

diy seed bombs... whats a seed bomb you ask? a cottage garden stored in a clay ball until the perfect time, its kind of wonderful!

watch out family, some of these things are coming your way. have fun dreaming about the possibility of doing things a little bit differently and maybe even a little handmade.

x

we battled and competed for sometime, the chickens and i, but i was always going to lose this one. it was me and the garden, against them!

in our little yard the chickens and vegetable gardens must co exist together, not ideal but we have to make the best of it. in reality they do not co exist at all, one is the food source for the other! this battle was beginning to be more than i could bare and created constant frustration. i needed an alternative. the one we finally landed on is not pretty but it is very effective and cheap. since putting it in we have had zero meals lost to those little feathered hens. except the ones i chose to share of course.

we used;

adjustable garden archways (we got the cheapest ones we could find)

bird netting

and it took us all of 20 minutes to put together. it was the best 20 minutes spent in the garden. predators in the garden can be so frustrating, you work so hard to get anything to grow in the first instance only for it to be eaten by a curious fella. it is necessary to know the predators you have and what they are coming for so that you can be appropriately battle ready.

heres a little peek at whats growing in the garden at the moment.

cherry tomatoes galore - they have been popping up out of every compost pile around the place.

rocket flowers and leaves have been gracing our salad bowls.

sweet peas! on my they are my favourite, they are great for picking and popping out that pea goodness or for eating whole. not many are making it to the dinner table!

peace x

this post is a little behind the times, we have been on our small slice of suburban farm land for over a year now, so i thought it was time for a interior progress update.

in our hunt for a home i was always looking for windows , joel was always looking for storage. we eventually found our windows (and our storage). we had been looking for places for a while and joel was convinced when he saw this one, that it was it. long story short, the husband is always right and i moved in a few months before we got married. looking at a house that is not perfect and seeing the potential is like seeing the potential in people or other situations - though not as easy to fix with a drill and brute force, unfortunately.

keen to get started on making it feel like ours, the first thing to go was the carpet, the metal bars and heinously filthy fly screens. these are the before's!

- exterior, master bed, lounge, dining, bathroom, toilet and laundry -

inside, the bathroom and laundry were the two rooms that needed most attention, we left the layout of the house the same. the whole house got a fresh paint of january dawn by taubmans and the floors in the lounge and dining were sanded and polished. we had new roman blinds installed and a few other little things.

here's a little collection of after.

most recently we removed one set of casements in the dining room, cut the biggest hole in the wall and installed glorious by fold doors (insert heart eyes). on the other side of those doors is a new deck, perfect for sunday naps and breakfast - i'll share more pictures when it's all dressed.

we have a big bunch of unfinished lists around the place and the yard is an ongoing mission and things are constantly evolving as we hatch new plans, but i love it. if you need us, we'll be here pottering away.

what projects have you been working on?

peace x

365 days on - that means we've been married for one whole year. does that mean we are legit now?

i've been reminiscing a lot lately on the last year and the lead up to the wedding, there was so much anticipation and everyday was a count down, there was always planning and decisions to be made and talk of nothing else. life is simpler now, without the pressure of a big change looming (although there might be, you never know) and without this definitive end to a season approaching. we don't count down days anymore and i am surprised that so many have passed since this long anticipated day, when the 100 before it felt like a life time. i like this simpler life.

when i ask him what his favourite thing about being married is, he says, just being here every day - i think i'd have to agree (as i type he is curled up asleep next to me tying to hide from the sunlight blazing through the window - under glorious linen bedding i might add!), the picture is quite perfect.

our wedding day was pretty cool i must say - we eloped into the forest with the help of our family and a talented camera crew, and surprised our guests with a beautiful film edition! they were surely surprised. and because i've been looking back at them lately heres a wedding day recap for you - sorry there is a lot, maybe you want to grab a cup of tea!

peace and love x

photography by yaseera mossa

this little 'farmer' has certainly not mastered the winter season this year, our garden is looking more like a dry moon scape than a lush kitchen garden. i planted out winter crops when the hot weather still lingered, causing death to most things and frustration to this gardener. to rub salt in my wounds the chickens have been largely free range this month while their new coop has been in construction - need i say anymore.

i am hugely experimental in the garden which does not always have a good success rate and it certainly does not always produce dinner! i attended an organic gardening workshop at the beginning of june to help attack this point and shoot approach to gardening.

my mind was blown away at all that i had been doing wrong or just didn't even know i should have been doing. when it came to organic gardening i was doing it the lazy way, yes not using sprays and yes not using chemical fertilisers, but in actuality i was missing out on real potential by not showing enough care in the details. details like soil fertility and ph levels, things that floated around in my thoughts but had no grounding point. soil is key and building healthy, balanced, life sustaining soil is what makes your garden grow - bunnings seedlings and potting mix will not do all my life.

so while the month has not been overly productive when it comes to harvesting, aside from a few snow peas, egg plants, the usual herbs and an exciting ginger harvest, i have been working on preparing the soil for the spring. so that looks like composting, building up the organic matter, trying to reduce the ph of the soil and breaking down the rocky clay that we have to work with.

everything looks frightful at the moment, mostly a sea of browns, but i am hopeful for the coming change in season.

whats growing in your garden this month?

this little space of the interweb was intended to be a kind release and a thoughtful diversion of energy, when other areas of life were some what draining my excitement and enthusiasm - dramatic i know. like most things though i have allowed a little anxiety and fear to also dampen this joy and have been over thinking it way too much and procrastinating like crazy. i'm so over that little story of fear that plays through my head and really want to kick it in the butt. i tell you my simple thoughts to set some expectations or dispel yours (but really it's for myself) about what this space is, and isn't, and therefore release me from disappointing you.

i think deeply about things but never really get to the point of articulating my thoughts into sound personal revelations like some - you know the kind of people that i am talking about. so this little farm is not intended to provide deep reflection on the complexities of life - though it might at some point, or to have you laughing in stitches at my wit - though you might, i'm not really that funny so i wont pretend. it is intended though to take a little stroll with you, cup of tea in hand, to share ideas with you about what has worked, failed and is a working process in our education of life, as we learn to live more simply, intentionally and productively.

so to end this little downer moment with the climax of todays short story, i will be posting here more frequently than i have been. join me if you so desire as we tackle the complexities of life with simple thoughts, shampoo bars and a slice of bread and honey.

peace x.

bread is an old love, but dough is a whole new thing, i think i am in love. i love how simple yet complex it is and that i almost feel transported to another time that was slower and more methodical when i knead. it reminds me to move slowly and more considered - i am positive when i rush, the dough feels my tension and is tight.

other than being an aid to my mindfulness baking our bread at home has other benefits for us; it is free of artificial preservatives and all other additives, it reduces the waste that we bring into the house because we are not buying it in plastic bags and it is significantly cheaper than the store (i can make a loaf, less cooking gas for $1.25).

i have purchased bread from the store maybe four times in the last year, all other bread that we consume at home i prepare. i say this not to be boastful but to encourage, i am by nature a lazy girl, bread making has taken hold of me though.

currently i make a about three loaves a fortnight, we are only a family of two so those number are bound to change as we grow but i am determined to persist as the demand increases. you may have no desire to quit store bought bread, excellent, this recipe makes for a great treat or a gift or what ever you want. like i said i'm a lazy (and cheap) girl and making a loaf of bread for a dinner gift is my go to.

here are the details. take a few deep breaths, relax, be calm, remember the dough may imitate your mood.

this recipe is based on the laucke crusty white bread mix and is made by hand and oven, not a machine. i only use laucke crusty white bread mix. it's consistently great, it's gmo free and the large 10kg calico bags make the perfect hand bag (much to my husbands horror)! but there are plenty of options out there for you to choose from.

500gm laucke crusty white bread mix

2 teaspoons of dried yeast

350ml warm water

1. combine laucke crusty white bread mix and yeast in a large bowl (i use are really big one). add warm water and mix to form a dough.

2. knead vigorously by hand for about 10 minutes. more kneading produces better bread (so they say, i am no expert). you can test the dough by stretching a small amount of dough into a rectangle: it should form a thin translucent 'window' in the centre. for more tips about kneading click here.

3. lightly flour the bowl and return the dough, cover with a cloth to prevent skinning. place the bowl in a warm draft free place until the dough has doubled in size. this should take about 40-60 minutes. if it's a cold morning i sometimes turn the oven on and leave the bowl near by.

4. once the dough has risen, knead lightly on a floured surface to 'degas' the dough. shape the dough as required and place in an oiled bread tin. leave the dough, covered and in a warm draft free place until it has again doubled in size.

5. before the bread goes in the oven i always like to add some sesame or poppy seeds to the top. use a pastry brush to apply a little milk to the top of the loaf this will help the seeds stick, sprinkle as required.

6. bake in preheated oven (200'c) for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. you can test that they loaf is done by tapping the top (the bottom is better but you have to take it out of the tin first), if it sounds hollow you should be good to go.

7. once your loaf is done remove it from the oven and turn it out immediately onto a cooling rack. if you leave it in the tin to cool it will sweat and turn a bit soggy. for best sandwich slice results allow the loaf to cool completely before slicing (an electric knife is golden for slicing). but if you can't resist eat warm with butter and honey!

enjoy with a thick slab of fresh butter.

peace x

so cleaning products don't have ingredient labels. while we don't ingest them intentionally of course they are in the air, on the surfaces, in our clothing and on our dishes. my pessimistic mind leads me to believe that if they don't tell you it's probably bad!

i looked at the washing powered i was using mainly to be honest because i did not like the conventional little blue colours found in most powders or the smell that was intended to be pleasant and for whatever reason this was the catalyst to finding out more about what we wash our clothes in.

i found to no surprise that when you start looking all sorts of words start flying around, skin irritants, carcinogenic, surfactants, hazardous air pollutants and fillers! the list of chemicals and side affects got me going but the fillers just felt like a waste of time! in an attempt to simplify our lives and rid it of unnecessary things, laundry filler found it self on the top of the todo list.

now please excuse my ignorance, i am sure that washing powder creators have spent much time labouring over what makes a good detergent, my short google marathon can not compare but at the end of the day we are just washing dirt from cloth, it can't be that technical.

to make our washing powder i use;

700g pure soap flakes (or grate a bar)

1 cup of baking soda

blend it all together until the flakes resemble a super fine powder. some people add a couple of drops of essential oils for smells i have never bothered myself. i use only one heaped teaspoon of washing powder per wash! this lasts for ages (because there are no fillers!). be sure to store it in an airtight jar though.

to be honest when i started this process i used lux flakes from the store, the box says pure soap right? but they still can't tell me whats in it. so i am still searching for different soap options but lux was a good enough place to start.

happy washing.

rachelle x

this past weekend we headed to the hills to spend a little time in the tent. it was the first time that we had camped alone! and while the husband questioned whether we would have enough to talk about, i think we did pretty okay, we didn't even get in a fluster about tent poles and where they belonged! martial success right there (or maybe i just have a very patient husband!)

we tried to keep our waste to a minimum so i prepared all of our meals in advance, i brought a tonne of rags and cloths to be used instead of paper towels (you can never have too many), a container to take compostables home and a couple of calico baggies for foraging and incidentals. it goes with out saying that we took the cutest (reusable) enamel plates and bowls ever and before we left i sewed up some cutlery rolls that i will never camp without again. the spot we camped at also had no option for recyclables so we brought those home with us.

although i love the simplicity of camping we don't exactly rough it , we have an amazing dunemattress (it is big to take but we are not the hiking camping type), we sleep in a blackwolfturbo tent and because i haven't yet purchased camping sheets we took the delicious linen ones from the bed (maybe i will not be purchasing any more!). additionally for this trip the husband purchased a thule cargo carrier which gave us enough extra space to fit in that luxury bed! most of our camping supplies like most of our things have been purchased second hand off gumtree or the like.

i noted down a few things that i notice and appreciated about our few days outside

the way the hammer sound echoes as you hammer in tent pegs

the sound of the axe splitting fire wood (not ours we forgot ours, note to self bring axe, wait get axe to bring!)

the smokey smell of the camp fire

ladies carrying tubs of dirty dishes to the wash up area (i dont know why this make me feel homey)

dads instructing sons on how to pitch the tents

foraging for treasures

ladies napping on day beds with books resting on their chests

girls collecting fire wood

men sharpening sticks to cook meat over the fire

the light streaming through green leaves that look almost fluorescent

hot coco and cards by the camp fire

warm flannelettes in the morning

the long talks that keep coming when you think all the words have been used

camping is all about the simple things its my dream. whats your dream?

peace x

ok, so honestly i think i actually make these more than i make dinner! ;)

i am actually for serious here, i feed my husband cinnamon scrolls more than i feed him steak. i am yet to have any complaints about this so he must not mind terribly.

i suggest you make them, make them right now. they will dig you out of any hole that you have dug for your self and add cinnamony brightness to your day. i promise.

rolls

2 and 3/4 cups (345g) bread mix flour (i use laucke) NB: plain flour will work a treat also but the bread flour gives the rolls a delcious bready consistancy

3 tablespoons raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast

1/2 cup (120ml) water

1/4 cup (60ml) milk

2 and 1/2 tablespoons (40g) butter

1 large egg

filling

3 tablespoons (45g) butter, softened to room temperature

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar

icing

1 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons milk

the dough: Set aside 1/2 cup of flour. In a large bowl, toss the 2 and 1/4 cups flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast together until evenly dispersed. Set aside.heat the water, milk, and butter together on the stove until the butter is melted and the mixture is hot to touch. add the butter mixture into the flour mixture, add the egg and only enough of the reserved flour to make a soft dough. on a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes and let rest for about 10 minutes.after 10 minutes, roll the dough out in a long rectangle. spread the softened butter on top. mix together the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it all over the dough, i always add more cinnamon and sugar. roll up the dough tightly. cut into 11-12 even pieces and place in a 9-inch round pan so that the rolls are almost touching. cover the rolls with a cloth and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place for 60-90 minutes. sometimes if the weather is cooler i place the rolls on top of the heating oven. preheat the oven to 190°C.after the rolls have doubled in size, bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned. to make the icing mix icing sugar, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of milk together until smooth and drizzle over rolls. add more or less depending how much icing you like (i don’t usually measure anything for the icing).

boom. you did it.

prepare for the onslaught of baking requests. share your baking adventures with #prokicfarmedgoods

peace x

all of my recipes can be found here.

ps i must credit sally from sally’s baking addiction for the recipe because i just bake the things.

i find myself increasingly wondering what becomes of the things that i throw in my little red bin. is anyone with me? perhaps i don’t have enough to think about and I’m left to ponder my rubbish? (said no one ever!)

but honestly i have this consciousness rising up in me when i throw something out (i know this can develop hoarding tendencies thanks for the heads up). i have finished with it but its life is far from over. it will likely live on in a plastic bag and if it’s lucky, slowly rot away definitely producing leachate. i am not about to let you think i believe inanimate objects have feelings and that i feel for the rubbish, but i do have some concern for the toxins it will create and the soil it will contaminate. within myself i know that it is an unprofitable waste of resources. and trash is just stinky. on the farm we are aiming to return to the basics of living simply, limiting our landfill bound waste and making our own products reduce's our dependancy on others and i actually find it so liberating to live in alignment with my values.

this is a huge topic and their are some legendary zero waste warriors out there who actually fit all of their landfill waste into a tiny jar!! we are not those people (yet), far far far from it. we are slowly chipping away at replacing single use items in our home with more sustainable ones. can i assure you zero waste or in our case reduced waste is way sexier than trash.

heres some ideas to get you thinking:

- get a compost bucket and start creating beauty from your trash. ABS tells us that 47% of household waste is made up of food scraps and garden wastes most if not all of this is compostable. in the days before chickens i dug a hole in the garden and buried the scrapes, that was it. perhaps not the most sophisticated gardening advice you will receive but try it.

- take your own. start with a water bottle. find one that you love it will help i promise, we are loving our Kleen Kanteen’s. once you are mastering the water bottle try other things; replace your paper cup at the coffee shop with a take you own, take your own containers when you get take out, carry chop sticks or cutlery and say no to the plastic ones.

- recycle what you can. long before we really started reducing our landfill bound waste we recycled. i now shred all paper and cardboard waste to use in the garden and with the chickens and i am surprised at how much of these things we generate. there are also some places that will take your soft plastics which can not be collected in normal recycling, find these places here. do the scrunch test if you can scrunch it in your hand it's probably soft plastic, and best left out of the recycling bin, these include things like glad wrap, lollie packets, bread bags and the like.

- refuse plastic bags! be prepared with your canvas totes and carry spares in the car if you have to so you don’t get caught out. don’t just take them to the grocery store, carry one in your hand bag for when you are clothes shopping or for other random items.

- refuse to purchase fruit and vegetables wrapped in packaging.

- dig out your hankies or ask gran for some. replace the tissue boxes in your house with piles of hankies and don’t worry you don’t have to iron them just fold! someone did the research to say that hankies out way the tissue even though you have to wash and dry them. hang them out in the sun and you will be winning! the trick is having plenty in stock.

- cull glad wrap from your shopping list. last year i purchased our last roll of glad wrap and perhaps to your surprise we have survived and we have not contracted any food poison related illness’s. at the same time i stopped buying glad wrap i purchased bees wax wraps to replace it. they fill places in my heart that glad wrap never could. we use bee eco wraps. trust me you will not miss it and your lunch will be cuter than anyone else’s. my husband takes them to work and the mocking subsides when they realise that he doesn’t care (jokes they don’t really mock).

why not try something. maybe you already do. share your ideas! i need some. we are novices after all and starting small.

next on my list of things to do is sew up some produce bags for the markets and bulk foods, at the moment i am just avoiding the grapes or using paper bags. so stay tuned.

peace x

welcome to prokic farm. prokic, pronounced pro-kick.

in our hearts we are a self sustaining family with a few children, a large flock of poultry, a goat or two and a plot of land large enough to house all that we dream of. in our hands, we are a newly married family of five; husband and wife and three chickens, with a 600+m2 suburban plot of land, a garden, and plenty of dreams.

we are working out this new life of marriage, creating plans and making decisions about how we invest what we have, this little space, our little prokic farm is the beginning of some of those dreams.

we love beautiful things and love nothing more than to be working away on projects at home and creating a space that welcomes others. we have fallen in love with the simple life (while my mind most often feels anything but simple i will work all my days to get it there!) and it is so enchanting that we are jogging after it.

this is our journey of cultivating a simpler life and creating a home by reducing waste and growing what we eat.

things, rubbish, waste, create clutter, don’t you think? i want to be rid of them and return to the days when hankies and jars were not trendy but just normal, they are normal in our household, and i can tell you my pink floral hankies are definitely not trendy. anyway this is us learning to simplify, getting to the basics of things and making it efficient enough so that we can actually go the long haul and hopefully take others along with us.

i hope that you will stick around as we narrate our journey in this little space.

happiest of tuesday's to you, and welcome.

x