Welcome!
Hi! I’m Elien. I’m the face behind this blog. I’m from Wellington where I live with my husband and two boys.
The Garden
We have a small suburban backyard, backed by a hill. This means it’s pretty shady especially in the winter months. However, over the past 5 years it has been transformed into a thriving edible garden.
It hasn’t always been easy. The lack of sun is a real issue and because of it I need to be extra organised with my timings of when I plant things. But being able to grow my own food makes it SO worth it. Edible gardening is such a passion that it doesn’t feel like work.
I document my garden journey over on Youtube.
The Kitchen
Whatever I grow makes its way into the kitchen where I can pursue my other passions: cooking and baking. This is where my creativity flourishes. I love to create recipes, write about food and photograph the finished products. I’m a rustic-style cook, using what ever I’m currently growing in the garden.
As my garden isn’t big, nor is it an ideal growing space, I can only grow just what we need. There’s never a huge abundance of produce. I like to cook under a ‘root to tip’ philosophy to help stretch out what we grow. This means using as much of the fruits and vegetables as possible. Less peeling and discarding ‘ugly’ pieces (and in an organic garden, there can be a lot ‘imperfect’ veggies!) I love finding creative ways to use up parts of fruits and vegetables that are so often discarded.
I think of myself as a glass half full kinda girl. In my mind there are no ‘failures’ in the garden or the kitchen, only opportunities of learning and growing!
I've also recently started a new blog called Baking With Butter, where I plan to share purely my love of baking! I hope to see you there.