The Country teams up with Will to Live for charity cookbook

Elle Perrium and her Hunterway Jess. Photo / Supplied

The Country Cookbook is out in time for Christmas and it's all for a good cause.

The team at The Country has partnered with Elle Perriam's "Will to Live" charity to produce a cookbook to help raise funds for rural mental health.

Will to Live was launched following the death of Perriam's boyfriend, Will, in December 2017. Since then she has been on the road with the Speak Up tour, encouraging young rural people to talk about mental health.

Perriam told The Country's Jamie Mackay and Rowena Duncum that so far the experience had been "pretty full on" but also "rewarding", and she had new plans for 2020.

The Country team - Sam "Lashes" Casey, Rowena Duncum and Jamie Mackay. Photo / Angela Jane Photography

"We're taking a bit of a different style next year. It's going to be around more workshops compared to how we hosted big events where [there were] 200 [people] at each event, it'll be more limited to 25, 30 people".

To find out more about The Country Cookbook and to order a copy click here.

The aim of this new style was not only to work on mental health issues, but also to help out the rural community with labour shortages, leadership skills, staff wellbeing and how to manage people, said Perriam.

Listen below:

"I think it's seen in Lincoln University. You go to a sit farm management and you learn about your plants and animals and soil science but no one ever teaches you about people science".

Will to Live was now focused on raising funds to pay for the workshops and The Country Cookbook was one way people could chip in.

The cookbook includes recipes from The Country team, Jamie Mackay, Rowena Duncum and Sam "Lashes" Casey, along with a host of well-known New Zealanders, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has contributed a recipe for fish pie.