Once Upon a Farm Newsletter -October 2025

🌱 The Backyard Farm Update

Welcome back to another month at Once Upon a Farm! October has arrived here in New Zealand with that unmistakable spring energy—everything is growing, blooming, and buzzing with life.

The seedlings are absolutely everywhere at the moment. Every available surface in the mini greenhouse and in the indoor seed starting area is covered with trays of tomatoes, peppers, squash, and all manner of heat-loving plants getting ready for their big move outdoors. I’m (mostly) following the old Kiwi tradition of planting out summer crops on or after Labour Day weekend at the end of October, which gives these frost-tender beauties their best chance at a long, productive season. There's something deeply satisfying about timing your work with these cultural markers that connect us to generations of gardeners who've worked this same soil, in this same climate.

The strawberry bed is looking particularly happy this spring, and the bees certainly agree. After their winter slowdown, the hive is absolutely humming with activity as they build up their honey stores. It's fascinating to watch how quickly they shift gears when the nectar flow begins. This year I've had the pleasure of watching the tagasaste trees flower for the first time—I planted them a couple of years ago specifically as early-season forage for both the bees and our native kereru, the beautiful New Zealand wood pigeon. Seeing that investment finally paying off with clusters of flowers feels like a small triumph, a reminder that farming asks us to think in years rather than weeks.

As for the chicken flock, well, they're living their best lives right now. All the young pullets have finally started laying—though some took their sweet time figuring out the whole egg-laying business. There’s been quite a parade of double-yolk eggs while they get their systems sorted out, which is perfectly normal for young hens. The most amusing development is that they've collectively decided their afternoon ration of bagged feed is far less interesting than the smorgasbord of forage available in the orchard and around the backyard. They're absolutely right, of course! The spring growth means there's an abundance of fresh greens, bugs, and interesting things to scratch up, and I'm not going to argue with them about it. Better eggs, lower feed bill, happier chickens—I'll take that win.

🌍 What's in Season?

🔬 Science Spotlight

The Difference Between Food and "Food"

In my recent video about ultra-processed products and seed oils, I found myself drawing on my nutrition science background to help make sense of what we're really eating when we pick up a package at the grocery store. Let me share some of that science with you.

What Makes Something Food?

From a nutritional science perspective, food should provide nutrients our bodies need—vitamins, minerals, protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. Real food is nutrient-dense, meaning it packs a lot of nutritional value relative to its calorie content. Think spinach, eggs from pasture-raised hens, whole grains with the germ and bran intact, nuts, legumes, and fruit.

But much of what fills grocery store shelves falls into what we might call the "ultra-processed" category—products that are calorie-dense but nutrient-poor. These items are typically made from refined and isolated ingredients (white flour, refined sugar, extracted oils) combined with additives, preservatives, and flavor enhancers to create something shelf-stable and aggressively palatable.

The Science of Industrial Processing

Here's where it gets interesting from a chemistry standpoint. Many industrial seed oils undergo processes that would never happen in a home kitchen. They're extracted using high heat and chemical solvents, then refined, bleached, and deodorized to create a bland, stable product. This processing can damage the polyunsaturated fats in these oils, creating oxidized lipids that our bodies struggle to process efficiently.

Compare that to cold-pressed oils—whether olive oil, sunflower oil, or avocado oil—that are simply squeezed from their source with minimal heat and no chemical processing. These remain actual foods, with their nutrient structures largely intact.

Why Does This Matter?

Our bodies evolved eating whole foods with complex nutrient profiles. When we eat ultra-processed products instead, several things happen:

1. Nutrient displacement: These products fill our stomachs with calories but don't meet our nutritional needs, so our bodies keep signaling hunger even when we've consumed plenty of energy.

2. Satiety disruption: The combination of refined sugars, fats, and salt is engineered to override our natural fullness signals, making it easy to overconsume.

3. Metabolic confusion: Our bodies expect nutrients to arrive in certain combinations—fiber with carbohydrates, vitamins with fats—and struggle when they don't.

The Practical Takeaway

You don't need to memorize nutrient ratios or worry about every ingredient. Instead, ask yourself: could I make this in my kitchen with whole ingredients? If your bread has 20 ingredients and can sit on a shelf for a week without molding, it's not really bread anymore. If your peanut butter has ingredients beyond peanuts and salt, it's been altered beyond food.

When you build your diet primarily on foods that still look and act like food—that spoil at reasonable rates, that contain ingredients you recognize, that connect to the earth in obvious ways—the details tend to sort themselves out. Your body knows what to do with real food. It's been practicing for a long time.

Did You Know?

When chickens eat a diverse diet rich in fresh greens, bugs, and seeds, the nutrient profile of their eggs changes dramatically. Studies have shown that eggs from pasture-raised hens can contain up to 7 times more beta-carotene, 3 times more vitamin E, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, and significantly more vitamin D compared to eggs from hens fed only commercial feed. The vibrant orange color of the yolk is actually a visual indicator of these increased nutrients—you can literally see the difference that real food makes. This is why growing your own food or sourcing it from farmers who prioritize nutrient density over convenience makes such a tangible difference in nutrition.

Thanks for being part of the Once Upon a Farm community. If you have questions about any of this month's topics or want to share what's happening in your own garden, I'd love to hear from you.

Until next month,

Sam