Country Life

It's not what you show it's how you show it and they get it right at the 152nd Selwyn Spring Show. After a two year Covid hiatus the Ellesmere A&P Association shows that any urban rural divide is absent when it comes to celebrating the culture of local farming life.

After 25 years, Margaret Bennett is stepping back from an association she spearheaded. But there is still work to be done and she maintains she will be busy as a bee, but in the background.

Clive Thompson was a curious 16-year-old when he started out growing mushrooms back in the 1960s. More than half a century on, he's now selling his Wairarapa business Parkvale Mushrooms.

Weather has been kind in Bay of Plenty with enough sunny days to finally finish docking and creative juices have been let loose on the humble gumboot on the West Coast.

Country Life chats to a mushroom grower who's been in the business for more than half a century, pops in on the pioneering couple behind New Zealand's manuka honey industry and shows off all the fun of the fair at the Selwyn Spring Show, up and runnig again after a two year break due to Covid.

Flour is being ground the old fashioned way, powered by wind in Foxton's 17th century style Dutch windmill. Country Life takes a tour.

The Timperlea Angus bull sale is one of the biggest days of the year for stud breeder Marie Fitzpatrick. It's also a time when her family get together to celebrate their love for farming and that makes mum Linda shed tears of pride.

Throughout our quarter century we've relied on good hearted and informed people from around the country to share with us what's happening in their region. Their comments are compiled into the rural wrap and one person who has been contributing voluntarily for just about the whole time is Stan Clark from Pukekohe.

Bay of Plenty kiwifruit growers are counting their losses this week after a frost last Friday caused irreparable damage. Central Otago sheep farmers are nearing the end of shearing and lambing is in full swing.

Country Life is at a bull sale in North Canterbury, hears from long-time Pukekohe correspondent Stan Clark and learns how flour is ground the old fashioned way, by wind, in Foxton.