Piggy Banks – Nixon Farm Favourites
From long-time favourites to new finds from our go-to brands, Mick Jagger The Pig counsel’s as we curate the best products we use here at Nixon Farm. You’ll find our recommendations for everything from kitchenware, baby items, cleaning supplies, farm & gardening tools home décor—and more.
In this inaugural edition, we are featuring a dog’s breakfast of items, with a strong emphasis on practical items and ideas that just make sense for us. We have a one year old, full-time jobs in the city, a farm, a market garden, cut flowers, a bunch of animals and of course, this website! There are little things we do to make life a tad easier without spending a manure-ton of money.
1. Baby Socks
We would rather eat a tractor tire than match baby socks. So we just buy multiple multi packs of the same colour socks. No more tracking down the matching pair. Our little one has been wearing the same Joe Fresh socks for the past year — we bought three of these multi-packs and are no longer at the mercy of The Sock Monster. Four pair for $6 is very reasonable. Joe Fresh socks can also be purchased at Shopper’s Drug Mart.
2. Chef’s Knife
Once-upon a time, I was a door to door knife sales-person. It was a part-time gig twenty years ago when I was a university student. “Knock-knock! I’ve got a bag of knives! Can I come in?” Surprisingly, people opened their doors, and let me in to their homes for a terribly gumicky knife demonstration. Maybe it has something to do with me being built like a standard issue 9-year old…? A good knife is a must-have for every kitchen. We make dinner from scratch every night, and so there is a lot of veggie chopping going on in our house, and a good chef’s knife makes all the difference. Good knives are an important investment for us, but it’s your pocketbook, my knife salesman days a behind me. If you are in the market for new knives, or other cookware, may I suggest checking out Zwilling. There are quality products available to suit every price point.
3. Camera
About two years ago, we decided to venture beyond iPhone photos and invest in something a little nicer to capture milestone moments of our baby, detailed photos of our flowers and appealing photos of our garden-to-table recipes. We keep our big DSLR camera (specifically, a Canon EOS Rebel T6 ) downstairs right on top of our piano, so we can always grab it to snap higher quality photos.
4. Toy Wagon
Ragdoll by Aerosmith
Get ready for the big time
Tap dancing on a landmine
At the time of this writing, Mr. Potato Head is not able show up as his whole, authentic self : An arm is in the peeking out from under the fridge, his pants are on the ottoman, one of his ears in on the dining room table and we haven’t seen his glasses since the day the box was opened. A ‘Picasso’d’ ampu-tater is just one of many toys that our one-year old insist belong on the floor. Tidying up toys is a never ending endeavour, and this wagon – toy box makes our thrice daily cleanup just a bit quicker. I just drag it around, tossing everything into it as I make my way from one end of our farmhouse to the other. The Kinderfeets Bamboo Toy Box 2-in-1 Toy Storage and Walker is available at Well.ca, Amazon and Indigo. This cute little wagon is a little pricey, but not, like, arm and a leg expensive.
5. Radio
One minute your young, hip and carefree and the next thing you know, you’re turning down the radio to see better. Aside from the car radio, do people still listen to the radio in their homes? It seems all the groovy kids use streaming services to listen to their favourite tunes and podcasts nowadays. In our house, we often turn on the radio when we are cooking or cleaning, it’s free, and doesn’t require a Spotify-Blue-Ears speaker thing. A good old fashioned radio shares free, new music, reminds us of long forgotten favourite songs, and also updates on the weather, breaking news, in dire situations, such as when the internet is down. We have a few radios kicking around (one battery operated for emergencies) but the one in our living room occupies an important spot atop the piano, we chose a classic, retro-looking
