Allowing others to follow their dreams is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone including your life partner, which is why Nadia Lim is currently flying solo while her hubby and wingman Carlos Bagrie is off on an educational adventure of a lifetime.
In March, Carlos left on a jet plane to South America leaving Nadia in charge of the couple’s 1200-acre Royalburn Station – best known to television viewers as Nadia’s Farm – near Arrowtown and she’s fully supportive.
Having been awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship Carlos is travelling the world for six months to investigate and learn as much as he can about regenerative farming practices and circular farming solutions to bring back home.
“When I won MasterChef he gave up his job to help me try and achieve my dream so my thought process is I owe him the same back,” she says. “It’s an incredible opportunity and they don’t come along like this very often so when one does, it’s good to take it.”
Though she acknowledges things will be more hectic on the home front, particularly with three boys under seven and a working farm to attend to, she is pragmatic about it and knows from recent experience that sometimes if you let something go, it will flourish.
That’s what happened in her formerly well-tended vegetable garden and greenhouse when a spinal injury from a freak skiing accident as well as a new baby forced her to up tools and rest.
The garden beds self-seeded, blooming into a beautiful tangle of edible plants and vegetables with enough produce to feed the family with lots to spare.
At the outset of what would turn out to be a gorgeous garden experiment, she was on doctor’s orders not to do any lifting or anything that would slow her healing.
“I’d just had a baby, then fractured my spine and I didn’t have
