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Features

Alone in the world

After years in Aotearoa NZ's wilderness, Miriam Lancewood sets off to Bulgaria, the Himalayas, India, Turkey, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. She lives off the land and her wits, and includes practical advice for preparing for the unexpected.
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Loving soil, but also learning soil

Jenny Lux, market gardener and former Soil & Health chair, tells her story of growing vegetables and continuing a path of lifelong learning.
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2026 Calendars For Sale!

Our Calendars are back by popular demand. We have the sought-after ‘N*de Gardening’ calendar, and the ‘Beautiful Gardens’ calendar (for those who prefer to hang a calendar that doesn’t get so much attention!). Both calendars include the moon phases.
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Gardening

Monique Macfarlane - planting by the moon in NZ.

Moon Calendar March-April 2026

Successful food and flower growing starts well before seedlings or seeds are planted in the ground. Planning, preparation, soil care, and nutrition are all endeavours undertaken in the seasons before.
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Soil & Health Auckland – Meeting Announcement

Come and hear Savannah Carter-Green talk to the Auckland branch of Soil & Health
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Peace lilies

The peace lily is a favourite among indoor plant enthusiasts. In this excerpt from The Plant Book, author Tammy Huynh offers tips for care of your peace lilies: watering, light, fertilising, dividing them and more.
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Health and Food

Feijoas top view cut and uncut

Fantastic feijoas

With its unmistakable perfume and tangy-sweet flavour, the feijoa is more than just a garden staple, writes Paula Sharp; it’s nutrition packed in a fibrous skin, and it has a firm place in childhood memories and Kiwi culture.
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Passionfruit: Small fruit, big benefits

Wrinkled on the outside, vibrant and jewel-like inside, passionfruit is one of New Zealand’s most distinctive summer fruits. Beyond its distinctive aroma and tangy sweetness, passionfruit offers impressive nutritional benefits, as Paula Sharp elaborates. 
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Summer’s juiciest hydrator

Few foods say ‘New Zealand summer’ quite like watermelon. Crisp, refreshing and naturally sweet, the watermelon is more than a picnic staple: it’s a nutritional ally for hydration, heart health and skin vitality. Eat it by the slice or in these recipes Paula Sharp shares: in a salad with and feta, or in a slushie.
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Health and Food

Small, sweet, and mighty 

Nutritional therapist Paula Sharp enthuses about the nutrition and flavour of the humble potato when in its seasonal ‘new’ incarnation, and shares a delicious potato salad recipe.
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Sopa de Tortilla – Tortilla Soup

This tortilla soup is from the book Provecho: Real Mexican Food and Home. The recipe is simple but delicious, combining the different textures of crispy tortilla strips, soft avocado, chewy cheese and a dollop of cream, with a rich and flavourful tomato base.
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Basket of cherries

Cherries on top

Cherries – a small but mighty gift from the orchard, and one of the most nutrient-dense fruits of the season! Nutritional therapist Paula Sharp shares her nutritional knowledge and two delicious recipes: fresh cherry, rocket and almond salad; and warm spiced cherry compote.
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Farming and Horticulture

Azadirachta indica - the neem tree

Neem: Nature’s healing gift to humanity

The neem tree has many benefits, including as a natural pesticide, fertiliser and it's a plant with various healing qualities. Katherine Smith reviews this book by Klaus Ferlow of Neem Research.
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Sheryl Stivens: Organic Pioneer

Sheryl Stivens is a Soil & Health member who embodies the motto of ‘healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people’. Mercedes Walkham traces her life and finds out what makes her an organic pioneer and champion.
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Cultivating Change

Sarah Smuts-Kennedy shares her journey as an artist and advocate for regenerative farming practices, and her role in founding For the Love of Bees, OMG market garden, and the Earthworkers 101 course.
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Building and Technology

Living Better, Together

In an increasingly disconnected world, many people are seeking ways to live more closely with both the environment and one another. For Simone Woodland, a dream to create a different way of life led to the Tākaka Cohousing project in Golden Bay. 
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Mushrooming with next-gen homesteaders

Lenny Prinz and Jodi Collins lead a busy and inspiring life that includes growing mushrooms and cultivating spawn, developing compostable mushroom packaging, creating art, raising children, gardening and community projects. Read their story here.
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Shelf life – or human life?

There is a new system of industrial food manufacturing that produces edible substances that are not food, but rather food products containing novel, synthetic molecules never found in nature. These ever-increasing laboratory-engineered chemistry experiments are designed to simulate food. 
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