Trays of greens are starting to fly out of the shed door at Jess Murchie-Brown and Don Murchie's vertical farming set-up on their rural lifestyle block south of Christchurch. It's proving to be a welcome income stream for the couple after an injury meant Don could no longer work as a builder.

The inaugural Gullies Art Residency will be taken up by Auckland artist Andrew McLeod early next year. He'll spend eight weeks at The Gullies, a sheep and beef farm in Rangitkei.

Three students from Mackenzie College / Aro o Te Tika in South Canterbury have developed a solution to stop water troughs from freezing over in winter.

Some farms are tight on feed on the East Coast and Southland farmers are having a great run of weather - great timing for lambing and calving.

Anthony and Angela Tringham's gorgeous heirloom tomatoes are ready to pick. They were destined for Auckland restaurants and the Clevedon Farmer's market - which are closed.

Country Life hears about a microgreens start-up in Canterbury and spends a day at remote Makuri School which uses the Virtual Learning Network to extend horizons and foster friendships between country kids around New Zealand.

North Otago vege grower Jim O'Gorman has spent the past 20 years studying the soil at his market garden at Kakanui. His research focuses on restoring to health and high productivity damaged land depleted by common agricultural practices.

Vet Samara Johstone has returned home to Islay after working in New Zealand. She's busy running the family farming and tending the island's animals.

Tests of a selection of plastics marketed as bio-based has found half of them are not all they claim. GNS and Scion have developed new tests that will verify if they are.

WorkSafe NZ's Al McCone says two simple things could save many deaths a year in rural NZ.