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kats-garden.nz
Kat 👩‍🌾
@kats-garden.nz
1.2K followers 830 following 5.5K posts
Tiny farmer in Te Hiku (Far North), Aotearoa/New Zealand. I grow stuff, I write about it. She/her. Pākeha. Toitū Te Tiriti.

Your cat's favourite catnip purrveyor 😻

https://www.kats-garden.nz | https://www.katsnip.nz
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kats-garden.nz
This offer will be open until 8pm Dec 4. I will do a special mail drop on Dec 5 for tardy Santas (though the discount ends 30 Nov, that's a different thing).

Keep it in your back pocket for if things get hard. My packages typically arrive next-day. Give me a reason to use these. #SecretSantaAoNZ
A row of stickers that feature a line drawing Santa (I have coloured in his hat using a red felt tip marker), and the words "This package is from your #SecretSantaAoNZ keep safe until opening day!"
November 23, 2025 at 9:59 AM
kats-garden.nz
Oh my goodness gracious, it's taken months to make this baby Christmas tree, but I have made the baby Christmas tree!! Now that's off my plate, I can start working on the handmade portion of my Secret Santa gift.
A felted Christmas tree with a pink star.
November 22, 2025 at 3:19 AM
kats-garden.nz
With so many of us discussing chocolate, coffee, and gifts, I just want to shout-out to this treat.

They are like what you want chocolate-dipped coffee beans to taste like. Strong crunch, good flavours, no grainy bits. Available at New World. #SecretSantaAoNZ
A 300g bag of Graze good-snacks Skinny Dipped Almonds in Espresso Dusted Dark Chocolate flavour.
November 21, 2025 at 9:45 PM
kats-garden.nz
It's too hot, and too bright, and I need the shade of a tree.

Good thing I planted this one in 2019 then.
Two crossed feet in black jandals and some bare legs under the shade of a tree on green grass.
November 20, 2025 at 1:21 AM
kats-garden.nz
I have distributed 3 strings of white lights on the pine nut tree and will have absolutely no idea how well I did until the sun goes down. I got pretty high, but not right to the top.

It took 90 minutes and I think there's around 90-100m of lights on it. Still a coloured string to throw on later.
A ladder stands in front of a pine nut tree which is much taller than the ladder.
November 17, 2025 at 4:13 AM
kats-garden.nz
The baby pheasants are eating worms! This bodes well!!

(We feed them in the sink so they can't run off and any mess is contained. Syringe feeding is messier than worms 😅)
November 16, 2025 at 5:39 AM
kats-garden.nz
The chicks are out, and Hine came to say 'hey'.
An airedale terrier meets a baby pheasant who is being protected in a human hand.
November 15, 2025 at 10:12 PM
kats-garden.nz
When they were rescued, one of these birds sat still and chirped loudly. The other one ran from the orchard to the cabin (big journey for a little bebe) and was picked up outside the fence.

One is loud, except when it is snuggling. This one likes to run. That is what we know about them so far.
A baby pheasant looks at the camera with a hand behind it.
November 15, 2025 at 3:18 AM
kats-garden.nz
Breakfast time.
A baby pheasant in a man's hand as it feeds from a syringe.
November 14, 2025 at 6:58 PM
kats-garden.nz
They both survived the night!! That hot water bottle worked a treat.
Two sleeping pheasant chicks snuggled together in a hand.
November 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
kats-garden.nz
Baby Christmas tree has been a bloody marathon. Two failed attempts, and this one is taking forever, but it's finally starting to look like a Christmas tree. Each one of those leaves takes about 20 minutes.
A felted cone with green leaves. The tip is still uncovered.
November 10, 2025 at 6:22 AM
kats-garden.nz
And all done. Good luck little kūmara. I hope you grow lots more kūmara for us.
The mounds and ditches are now covered in a thick layer of grass mulch, with the kūmara tipu planted into the sides of the mounds. The frame has been completed making a cube-like structure over the bed, and over the frame, I have spread green bird net.
November 10, 2025 at 2:42 AM
kats-garden.nz
Our tipu look super promising. Well-rooted and strong baby kūmara plants.
A row of kūmara shoots with thick wads of roots in black soil.
November 10, 2025 at 2:39 AM
kats-garden.nz
Setting up the mara kūmara today. Making a custom frame for the garden bed out of invasive Taiwan cherry to keep the chooks off.
A garden bed with two long mounds of soil and three dug ditches, surrounded by four vertical sticks. One stick is propped up starting to show the shape of the frame.
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 AM
kats-garden.nz
Also this morning, a book called 'Cats With Jobs' is getting released into stores, and our cat Patu features on page 190 as a 'Purrveyor of Feline Euphorics'.

Find it at your local bookstore: bookhub.co.nz/p/cats-with-...
Pink background with a dark pink outline of a cat. In front is a copt of the book cover for 'Cats With Jobs' by Leanne McGregor. Text below reads 'Out Now'. The first page of Patu's spread in Cats With Jobs. On the right side of the page are two photographs of a tabby cat playing with three fluffy ball cat toys on a black blanket. The left page reads: "Patu the Purrveyor of Feline Euphorics. Living the dream in the Far North is laidback Patu, whose job on the production line for the Kat's Nip range involves little more than getting high on catnip whenever he feels like it. Patu is one of three former wild cats employed in the business, located on 15 idyllic hectares at Kaeo, about 20 kilometres northwest of Kerikeri. Samurai and Sabre were on staff for about a year before Patu came on board. He dabbled first in the dairy industry (the milking shed of the neighbouring farm), but soon had an eye on a move next door—casually making his way from yard to garage to couch, and finally claiming a spot on the master bed and the payroll. Credit for Patu's job title goes to the brains behind the enterprise, Kat Jenkins, who started out selling loose catnip from her garden in 2018. She was always keen to develop the product into a cat toy, but it wasn't easy finding something that ticked all the boxes: sustainable, economical to make, and able to withstand a battering from Patu, Sam and Sabre."
November 3, 2025 at 6:39 PM
kats-garden.nz
Native plant nerds: do we think this is a bush lawyer? Any idea which one? R got spiked yesterday, so I went back for a wee sample.
A growing tip of what I think is Bush Lawyer. Shows 3 three-leaved stems reminiscent of a blackberry but much smaller. The mature and new leaves are face-up. The intermediary leaf is face down. It is on top of a piece of paper with a pink ruler showing the scale in cm.
November 2, 2025 at 12:05 AM
kats-garden.nz
Over 20,000 households without power in the Far North.
Screenshot of the Top Energy Outages map showing a big chunk of the Far North out of power. Detailed information about the outage. Reported at 3.39pm. Cause: under investigation on Sub-Transmission line. Customers affected: 23,170. Last updated 31 Oct at 3.39pm.
October 31, 2025 at 2:45 AM
kats-garden.nz
Holy bananas. My daily fixed electricity charge is about to go through the blimmin roof.
Your prices are shown below (including GST): Existing From 29th November 2025 Fixed cost per day: $2.17 $4.25 Usage cost per kWh: Peak: $0.9078 Off-peak: $0.4539 Peak: $0.6192 Off-peak: $0.4644 Buyback per kWh: $0.0920 $0.1500 Peak times are between 7am-9am and 5pm-9pm on weekdays. Off-peak is between 9am-5pm and 9pm-7am on weekdays, and 12.00am - 11.59pm Saturdays and Sundays.
October 29, 2025 at 8:06 PM
kats-garden.nz
I reckon there might be a way toward banana meatballs, but urgh, so much wrong with this recipe as presented. It's neither meatloaf, nor scotch egg. Plenty of bananas left to try again though.
Looking up at an arm of small ripening bananas. Many are yellow, some are still green. It is hanging out from amongst banana leaves.
October 24, 2025 at 7:51 AM
kats-garden.nz
Hoo boy 😂 We hated it. There might be some scope to use banana in other mince recipes, but we both hated the egg. And it's missing... flavour.

Do I have to try it cold for science, or can we biff this one to the chickens?
A terribly ugly meatloaf on a blue and white patterned plate. 4 slices displaying the hard boiled eggs have been sliced off.
October 24, 2025 at 5:40 AM
kats-garden.nz
The abomination is in the oven. Aside from a bit more onion than the original recipe, I stuck more or less to the original ratios, but divided the recipe by 3.
Three boiled eggs sitting on top of a layer of mince in a loaf tin. The loaf tin filled with mince.
October 24, 2025 at 4:29 AM
kats-garden.nz
Ooh. I appreciate that input, thanks. Here's the publishing info on my copy. It could have been distributed by any Banana Board/Importer really. It doesn't specify.
First edition 1970 Second printing 1974 Second, revised edition 1976 Obtainable from the Banana Board Copyright ©️ by the Banana Board, Private Bag X243, Pretoria Published for the Banana Board By Muller & Relief (Pty.) Ltd. 239 Pretorious Street, Pretoria ; 3-9 Rose Street, Cape Town Design by Valarie Phipps-Smith Photography by Louw Pretorius in the Picad Studio Kitchen, Cape Town Lithographic positives by Photo Process (Pty.) Ltd., Cape Town Printed and bound by Printpak (Cape) Ltd., Dacres Avenue, Epping, Cape.
October 24, 2025 at 1:35 AM
kats-garden.nz
As you wish, and including the uncropped full-page spread...

Actually one of the least offensive recipes in this book 😆
Banana meat loaf 1kg mince 12,5ml chopped onion 10 ml salt 3 ml pepper 2 thick slices bread, soaked in water 375 ml mashed banana (about 5 bananas) 10 ml prepared mustard 3-4 hard-boiled eggs Mix together all the ingredients except the eggs. Place half the meat mixture in a greased loaf-tin. Shell the hard-boiled eggs and arrange lengthwise, down the centre of the dish. Add the rest of the meat and press down firmly. Bake for 1 hour at 180°c. This loaf can be eaten hot or cold and should be sliced before serving. Yields 10-15 slices. Serves 5. The meatloaf from the recipe garnished with sliced green olives and sliced lemon, on a bed of lettuce.
October 21, 2025 at 3:32 AM
kats-garden.nz
Did I just reach THAT recipe?? Or is there a worse one than this?
A banana standing like a candle with a red cherry balanced on top and a drizzle of some kind of cream-coloured sauce standing in lettuce and pineapple, next to an actual candle.
October 20, 2025 at 11:44 PM
kats-garden.nz
Found this wee gem in the "free" box at the second-hand book store.

As someone who harvests multiple dozens of bananas at a time, I absolutely need to be bold with bananas.

Wonder how many of these recipes will sound remotely appetising...
A book called "Be Bold With Bananas". The cover has four photos: a muesli, pancakes, some kind of breadcrumbs and fried dish topped with slices of olives, and some kind of fruity drink.
October 20, 2025 at 11:37 PM