RURAL LIFE: Jenny McGowan wants to tell her story about growing up on a farm. PHOTO/BEN FRASER
Jenny McGowan has vivid memories of growing up on a farm.
Now the Rotorua mother wants to put her story on paper.
"I remember our grandmother milking the cow and our grandfather bringing the milk up to the house in cans," she says.
"We didn't have milk in bottles, in fact we never heard of milk being in bottles."
Rural Women New Zealand is inviting people to get creative by writing short stories and taking photos and videos to showcase New Zealand farming life today.
President Wendy McGowan, Jenny's mother, said the competition being jointly run with Primary Industries Ministry was to tell the stories behind the primary products grown on farms.
Jenny said she would like to write what it was like growing up on a farm in New Zealand.
"There are so many memories," she said.
"We never had a lot of money so all our fun centred around the farm with our cousins who lived next door.
"We'd ride horses, and motorbikes, and learn how to drive the car in the paddock.
"Our mother would hand sew our clothes and we always had plenty to eat from the vegetable garden, and from sheep dad would kill."
Jenny said she would take her pet lamb on holiday with her, to her grandparents in Hamurana.
Sheep hearts and other organs were often used by teachers to help explain anatomy in school science lessons, she said.
"We weren't allowed to watch dad kill a sheep but afterwards he would get us and explain to us the different organs and what they did."
Pocket money came from gathering up the dead lambs and selling them as "slinky" skins.
"It wasn't always the nicest job. "Often on the lambing beat, Dad would bring in the lambs and put them by the fire.
"They would bleat all night and in the morning the kitchen floor was covered in poo, and you would step over the lambs which didn't survive the night."
In the shearing season school lessons were put on hold.
"We were really very lucky and I hope my own children can have the same experiences."
The stories - told by photos, videos or words - will be used by the ministry to promote the country's primary industry brand and rural values.
"We encourage people to get their creative juices flowing to share the challenges and triumphs of farming and today's sustainable business practices," said Wendy, who lives on a farm at Kaharoa.
"We hope to see entries that reflect our care of the land and our animals, and the skills and ingenuity of the people that make New Zealand's primary industries so successful."
The competition will highlight the opportunities for great careers that are available in the sector as a celebration to help mark the 2014 International Year of Family Farming.
"Stories are powerful, and we have some great farming stories to tell," Wendy said.
The competition includes five categories: women and men at work on the farm, farm machinery and farm innovation, animals, children, and rural communities.
- Entries close November 1. Entry forms and further information can be found at: www.ruralwomen.org.nz/iyff.
The hīkoi is expected to arrive at Parliament around midday.