RNZ: Country Life

The Scent of Lavender, Neville Martin's Musings, Happily Hydroponic, New Zealand India Apple Partnership, Fruit Logistica and the Regional Wrap.

The blacksmith's shop in Teddington opened for business in 1889, and after years lying semi-derelict is now restored to a working forge – one of the few left in the country.

American Miniature Mediterranean donkeys were introduced to New Zealand 17 years ago. The little, very expensive donkeys can all be traced back to the island of Sardinia and range in size from 76cm to 90cm tall.

It has only taken half a hectare of land to make regional Victoria, Australia feel like Africa.

East Coast cropping farmers are flat out. Sweetcorn is coming to an end, the first shipment of squash has left for Japan and brassica crops are maturing quickly. A storm on the West Coast has damaged crops, brought down trees and left a farmer in Hokitika without power in his milking shed.

Farm consultant Gary Massicks says the feed cupboard is bare for many downland Manawatu farmers.

Forging Ahead, Dinky Donkeys, Public garden helps refugees settle, farm consultant Gary Massicks and the Regional Wrap.

Heirloom tomatoes can be gnarly, luscious, beautiful and extremely difficult to grow. Angela and Anthony Tringham like to grow 'show off' tomatoes. They persevere with about 40 varieties in their greenhouses near Clevedon, south-east of Auckland.

Spring Collective is a co-operatively run organic market garden. A year ago Penny Sewell, Dominique Schacherer and Logan Kerr pooled their resources, secured an eight hectare block in Leeston and started growing vegetables. Now they employ three full-time staff and are looking for more fertile land to lease. Their business supplies fresh produce to the local community through farmers markets, veggie boxes, restaurants, and organic wholesalers.

The blackcurrant crop has been harvested and volume is down on last year says Geoff Heslop, a Canterbury blackcurrant grower, cropping farmer and chairman of Blackcurrants New Zealand.

Most of the North Island is looking surprisingly green, Marlborough is too but farms at the bottom of the South Island are experiencing drought-like conditions

More than 90 percent of the pasture on Andrew Davis' Miranda farm has been killed by sea water sitting on his paddocks for days. His farm was inundated by king tides and a storm in earlier this month.

Curious Croppers, Growing Greens, Harvesting Blackcurrants and the Regional Wrap.

About 90 percent of the 200,000 turkeys farmed in NZ every year are eaten at Christmas, so it's a busy time of the year for Kyle and Monique Smith of Crozier's Free-Range Turkeys.

The tiny fishing village of Ngawi, on Wairarapa's south coast, has found itself on the tourist trail. Thousands of tourists now pass through as they head out to Cape Palliser; stopping along the way to watch seals sunning themselves on the rocks and bulldozers launching and landing the crayfish boats.