An old barn door from the tip, now a table on a metal frame, is the perfect spot on an outdoor deck for gathering at Wendy McMurdo's home. It faces a vegetable garden filled with waist-high Tuscan kale, broccoli, snow peas, dwarf peas, radicchio, mizuna, dill, French radishes, parsley and self-seeded lettuces.

In 2002 Wendy joined her partner Chris Milner in the house in Mawson, but they have lived away from Canberra, renting it out, and only returned there four years ago. It is not Wendy's ideal home so she is only investing in plants which yield a quick harvest.

In her Instagram account and new blog called 'Contented life', Wendy aims to share her ethos for slow living, slow cooking, home-grown or foraged food, resourceful living at its best and its connection to our wellbeing. She sees her way of life as a legacy, which her mother's family has passed down through generations as dairy farmers from mid-NSW's Manning Valley.

Wendy was born and raised in Canberra in a house which backed onto parkland and a pine forest in Giralang. As children, Wendy and her brother were the only kids on the block who had to work in the garden on weekends so they envied the other children who played and watched TV.

However, they ate seasonal produce from a huge vegetable garden and fig and peach trees that were originally seedlings from the family farm, heritage apple trees, loquats, apricots, French pear and nashi trees, persimmon and mulberry, Meyer lemons, a cherry tree and old-fashioned black grapes and loganberries. There were also chickens, ducks, a dog and a cat. Their mother died two years ago and their father still lives in the house so Wendy's brother will now care for the 30-year-old fruit trees.

Chris and Wendy's children are aged 2, 8, and 11 and Wendy hopes she is sharing her mother's legacy with them. The two oldest attend Farrer Primary School, which has been recognised for its environmental centre with its vegetable gardens, chickens and kitchen garden program.

Chris is a handyman and has made raised sleeper garden bed and built the chicken coop out of recycled materials and craftiness. A year ago their three new Isa Brown backyard chickens were allowed to be free range but they destroyed much of the garden so now the vegetable patch is fenced off. The new 14-week-old hen, Chook, is tame enough to enjoy a shoulder ride from Chris. Thrifted items in the garden include terracotta pots, watering cans, garden tools, outdoor stools and deckchairs.

Periodically Wendy adds cow, horse, sheep and chicken manure to improve the soil. She turns and digs their open compost which is added to the garden beds each time a new crop is planted and Seasol is used to establish new roots when planting seedlings, techniques that reflect her mother's teachings.

Their peach and fig trees came as seedlings from her mother's trees and last summer Wendy made burnt fig jam with coconut sugar, cloves and cardamom to Maggie Beer's recipe. Plum jam was made from two sugar plums which were gifts from a neighbour. Her freezer is full of sliced fruits and berries and also foraged saffron milk cap mushrooms, tomatoes that have been baked with garlic, olive oil and basil, then frozen for quick pasta meals.

Wendy lived in Japan for five years so she cooks a lot of traditional Japanese home style dishes and also Jamaican fare as it is Chris' heritage. Their kitchen is 80 per cent thrifted with vintage items including serving plates, baking trays and glass ware. Chris built the kitchen from low emission form ply and they used building supplies from a second-hand building supply shop in Fyshwick.

As Wendy says, that is resourceful living.

Wendy is a cancer survivor and values what she sees as contented living as her main priority in life and that includes a garden and home cooking with the ideal of a warm, open friendly kitchen table for friends and family to gather around. She baked a rich caramelised Tuscan apple flat for our  visit using frozen, sliced heritage apples from her mother's garden.

Tuscan apple flan

4 large apples
½ cup unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder (aluminium free)
pinch of salt
2 free range eggs
1 cup coconut sugar (or castor sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup milk
7 tbsp melted and cooled butter

Thinly slice the apples and set aside. Combine eggs, coconut sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat with electric beater until sugar is incorporated. Sift and fold in the flour and baking powder then add the milk and the butter. Add the sliced apples to the mixing bowl then pour into a greased baking pan (spring-release style), placed on a baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes on the bottom of the oven then transfer to the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 50 minutes. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.