OFF THE GRID // Writer Kirsten Matthew Goes Cash-Free in New Zealand

All images courtesy of Kirsten MatthewKirsten Matthew had a good thing going: She had an apartment she loved in Astoria, an adorable cat named Mariah Carey and a successful career as a freelance writer for the New York Post, New York Magazine, the Times and Page Six Magazine. But then (like all of us hopefully do) she got antsy. 

What did she come up with?

She'd move back to her native New Zealand for six months and grow all of her own food. Whatever she couldn't grow or make, she'd barter for with preserved goods or labor.

After months of making arrangements to store her New York furniture, finding a home for Mariah Carey, and lining up grants to fund her experiment, Matthew hopped on a plane for about 25 hours and began looking for a house to call homestead.

While it took almost a month for Matthew to find a cottage, she kept busy planting seedlings at her parents house and making country wine out of parsnips (Wine out of parsnips: news to us.)

The parsnip wine laboratory

Just in time for spring planting and armed with a collection of sprouts that will ideally grow into artichokes, radishes, tomatoes, peas, and eggplants, Matthew is officially moving into her home this week--as you can see from the photo way up above, it's not too bad a setup. Eventually--and to offset the temporary animal absence of Mariah Carey--she may end up with her very own chickens or goats as well.

Of course, when we say "off the grid," what we really mean is "still partly on the grid"--you can watch as Matthew updates her newfound cash-free existence on Kiwi. Apple. Kiwi. 

So no, you may not be able to hand your NY landlord a basket of veggies in place of that rent cash each month, but there are alternatives to the grind. Kirsten Matthew's just one (fine) example.

--Layla Schlack