Just one sleep to go until my new TV series hits our screens at 7pm on Saturday night on TV One!
I'm going to be blogging each Friday during the 13-week series to let you know what I'm up to that weekend and give you all the links you need to access recipes, videos and behind-the-scenes blogs and photos from each episode.
This first episode was shot in the middle of winter. The snow was deep on the hills around Wanaka, so we took a couple of dog-sledding teams and headed up to a hut out the back of the Snow Farm at Cardrona for a winter picnic.
It was such a blast! There’s a magical quietness of mountains in snow that makes for an incredibly relaxing experience – though it didn’t take me long to work out that the sled works like a trailer on the back of the car, so if the dogs take a corner wide then your sled will go wider and over the cliff into the creek, unless you make some very speedy weight adjustments!
As well as cooking up a warming Chicken Noodle Soup out on location up in the snow, I also took along my famous Ultimate Banana Cake and a thermos of my spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate. Both are perfect portable picnic fare, no matter what the weather, and you can see how easy both are to prepare on my YouTube channel.
Back at the cabin in the depths of winter, it was still way too cold to start growing anything outside, so for my Tui Garden Project I thought it would be good to show how easy it is to grow microgreens indoors. You can plant all sorts of salad greens and leaves in seed trays somewhere warm and light right through the year, and in just a matter of weeks you have tiny leaves ready to harvest. Not only is there a real thrill in growing some of your own food, but microgreens are exceptionally nutritious. If you miss the show on Saturday night you can catch up OnDemand. One of my favourite recipes from this episode is Kale and Cranberry Toss. Kale is easy to grow and quick to cook. Here are some tips.
Next week I’m off up to the high country to see the winter shearing. I look forward to seeing you back here for some more of my adventures behind the scenes.
find out more
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Want to find out more about this episode? Check out the TV pages of my website for videos, bonus recipes and behind-the-scenes photos.
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My new book containing all the recipes from this episode and the rest of the series is available now at all good book sellers nationwide or via my website shop. Buy it at Paper Plus to receive a free biscuit tin – while stocks last!
- Want to meet me in person? I'll be taking my trusty yellow truck and hitting the road between now and the end of December, demonstrating Tui Garden Projects from the show, signing books and cooking up a storm throughout New Zealand and also in Tasmania, Sydney and Melbourne – see my full schedule
- Find out more about Season One of The Free Range Cook
- Find out more about Season Two of The Free Range Cook: Simple Pleasures
special thanks to
- Mary Lee and Emma of Snow Farm NZ – your cross-country skiing destination
- Barabara of OverSnow Tours – for snowmobile adventures
- Curt and Fleur of UnderDog NZ – for dogsledding tours
