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Caramel Walnut Slice
“In my eyes, a seasonal fruit tart is hard to beat. This tart is the perfect way to use up any of the final sun-ripened autumn fruit.”
This is the first of three recipes Jaz Mathisen shared with us from her cookbook, A Year at Awakino Station.
Chat on the Chathams
Greer Paterson, 32, our resident columnist – and also a school teacher, fencing contractor, mum of two and much-loved Shepherdess team member – shares the special highlights and challenges of teaching in a place as remote as Rēkohu Wharekauri Chatham Islands.
Still on the Station
Cath Ward (Ngāti Raukawa) found a new purpose for both herself and Pahi Station when she and her husband, Zander, established the Pahi Coastal Walk – a private walk that takes in the farm’s sweeping coastline, rolling farmland and native bush.
Leek & Cauliflower Cheese
“Cauliflower cheese is a classic family favourite, made even tastier with chunks of sweet and tender leeks and crunchy breadcrumbs. This is fab served with a roast or sausages, or it could easily be served as a vegetarian main dish with fresh crusty bread and a green salad.”
This is the third comforting recipe Olivia Galletly shared with us from her first cookbook, The Hungry Cook.
Rustic Fruit Tart
“In my eyes, a seasonal fruit tart is hard to beat. This tart is the perfect way to use up any of the final sun-ripened autumn fruit.”
This is the first of three recipes Jaz Mathisen shared with us from her cookbook, A Year at Awakino Station.
Turning up for Each Other
Kath Menpes, 48, a born and bred Southlander, grew up inland in Heddon Bush and now lives in Orepuki, a small coastal settlement, with her husband, Paul, and their two children, Jamie, 15, and Lizzy, 13, on Paul’s family’s third-generation sheep farm. Three years ago, she joined PGG Wrightson as the store manager at Tuatapere. Five times a week, she channels her commitment to staying active into community fitness sessions for local women, where it’s not just muscles that get strengthened.
A Dream & Hard Graft
A way of life with a love of horses at its core, encompassed by a strong belief that horses can heal.
The Power of Planning
Mum-of-three Janelle Downs, 34, packs her days with raising a family, farming, teaching and community work from her farm near Strathmore in Taranaki.
Education as ‘succession planning’: shaping future generations with manaaki and aroha
Maikara Ropata, on how she uses waiata, kapa haka and education in te ao Māori to help shape future generations of decision makers.
Returning age 63 to run the family farm and “fixing this place up so my mum would have smiled”
Now the Waitahora Valley’s oldest resident, Sue left for boarding school at twelve and returned aged sixty-three to work the family farm.
The seventeen-year-old spending her spare time helping to make Aotearoa predator free
Not many teenagers choose to spend their spare time setting, monitoring and emptying pest traps, but Becca is doing just that.
How a young country-school teacher is using lessons learnt on the farm in her teaching
Teaching wasn’t always the plan for Eden Warrender, and nor was returning to her old primary school seventeen years after leaving.
Forging Friendships
Four women from across the country share how they got stuck in to their new homes and found connections through local clubs and social groups.
Takurua Winter 2026 Edition
Twenty-Sixth Edition
Our beautiful Takurua Winter 2026 Edition is out now.