Pests get frisky before winter ... Autumn update '26

Let’s get frisky

Autumn is a big pest time for us. If we don’t watch it, bait it, trap it, we would be overrun. Field mice, the odd rat, hissing possums and pesky sparrows are standing by for the smallest opportunity to nibble, nest and reproduce before things get cold, living by a slogan “let's get frisky before winter”. Less food elsewhere in autumn encourages them to head to Salty River Farm to see what's on the menu and if they like what’s on offer set up their winter base. Our farm is a mine field of traps, bait stations and the cat. My first job out of the house in the morning is to check the possum traps. It’s such a thrill to find we’ve trapped another possum. I’ll call out to Daryn with glee that we’ve caught a big fat male overnight! I don’t even mind taking the dead possum out of the trap anymore, mind you I can’t bear to touch them, I’m all PPE’d up with gloves. 

This year for the first time we had mice eating mature lettuce. And not just little nibbles. We're talking big chunks into lettuce hearts. We have had problems other years with mice eating planted seed before germination, but never actually grown lettuce. So we’ve ramped up our rodent bait cafes in the market garden. And the bait has stopped being taken. Pesky mice taken care of.

We sped through summer

Last summer was the busiest we’ve ever had. We’re so proud of what our farm and tiny team of two can produce. By tweaking what we grow, being open to drop or introduce new crops, we’ve managed to survive the last 10 years. Last summer Salty River Farm thrived … but we worked so hard we almost burnt ourselves out. With the quieter season at our door and ahead of us we’re catching our breath.

Gear grinding

Our lettuces have now stalled into cool-weather-gear speed … which has created a gap in lettuces in the last week or so. It’s frustrating but it happens each year in the cooler months. While we wait for the lettuce to grow it gives us extra time to get other stuff done - stuff that gets neglected when we’re scrambling around madly in the summer. We’re talking maintenance jobs ... repairing birdnet, weeding, general tidy up, catching up on things like emailed newsletters … and also some down time for us - the Daryn and Louise us, rather than the Salty River Farm us. We’re talking long weekends away exploring other parts of the country. One day we’d love to travel further and for longer but we have learned that inspiration isn’t far away in this beautiful country of ours. 

Louise Penny Artist

I’ve also had a bit of time to do some of my other love, illustrating and writing. While Salty River Farm is our home and business, it is also the heartbeat of my inspiration—and I’ve decided to give the little stories and illustrations that grow here a dedicated home. Many of you have seen my illustrations pop up on the Salty River Farm social media pages, but over at @louisepennyartist, I’ll be offering a front-row seat to the antics that unfold around me. I hope to see you there!

Got questions? Fire away!

We often get messages from curious customers asking questions or giving us a shoutout - and we love hearing from you all. What would you like to know about Salty River Farm? Let me know if there is something you're curious about ... and I'll cover it in the next farm update. We consider it a perk of being a small business that our customers feel like they can be in touch with us, and it can make our day to hear from you all. Keep it coming!

Flick us an email or message us through social media.

Here's the inside scoop - where you, our customers can get curious:

Jodie asked: Hi Salty River Farm. What day do you deliver your salads to the stores? I want to time my shopping so I don't miss out on my fave salad!
Hi Jodie, thanks for taking the time to be in touch. We deliver to our stockists on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Through winter we may have gaps in produce and only deliver one day a week or not deliver at all. We don’t like having gaps, and for years we’ve worked on expanding so this doesn’t happen. The challenge is that we’re selling more and more every year so we always feel like it’s a never ending expansion!

Booming and blooming

We’ve grown Edible flowers for years now because they’re the bling ingredient in our most popular product, babyleaf with edible flowers. But since last summer we’ve been growing an increased amount of flowers to supply Farro and Fruitworld Silverdale with punnets of edible flowers. We once imagined what it would be like to fill our front paddock with flowers and we’re excited that our edible flower beds are triple what they used to be. Maybe one day soon half the front paddock will be flowers. The bright colours, the big fat bumble bees, the quirky shapes and personalities of the different varieties, even punneting the picked flowers ready for our stockists - makes it an inspirational crop to grow. We couldn’t believe how many punnets we delivered to our stockists through the festive season. We’ll be aiming to triple our edible flower harvest this coming summer. 

Dillicious

We’re growing mouthwatering, dillicious dill again. Selfishly, we’re pleased to be harvesting it again as we are so in love with using it in our own meals. You can find it at Sabato Mt Eden and Matakana Smokehouse (perfect with their smoked salmon). I love adding it to chopped slaw-type salads and it’s delicious. I’ve also been making a polish sausage stew one night every single week that the dill has been harvested! It’s a tasty, hearty, satisfying, warming autumn meal now it’s getting colder and darker earlier at night. And like all my fav recipes it’s easy. Click here for the recipe. 

What're we growing right now?

• Lettuce for babyleaf with edible flowers
• Lettuce for butterhead lettuce leaves
• Rocket
• Miner's lettuce for Miner's lettuce and rocket
• Dill
• Edible flowers
• Coriander
• A trial microgreen product that's still a secret (more to come about that next time

What cattle do we have on the farm right now?

We have 23 calves, all heifers (girls) a mix of ... black white face, friesian/angus cross, jersey/charolais cross, and a couple of Murray grey.

We got them when they were about 3 months old, just after they were weaned from milk. They will graze our grass pastures until they are about 18 months - 2 years old. At that time we'll sell them on to the next farmer. At that age they're a bit big and boisterous for us to handle, and we'll look to buying in the next lot of calves to raise.

Where to find us:

Sabato MtEden/Newmarket
FARRO Fresh stores Auckland wide
Fruitworld Silverdale
Bliss box online shop www.blissbox.co.nz online delivery Auckland-wide
Matakana Smokehouse Shopette
The Superette, Omaha Beach
Village Kitchen - Matakana