Struan Farm

Chateau des Chooks

The phrase above makes me smile. I know, technically it should be "Chateau des Poules." The idea came to mind this past week when John and I were trying to decide how to redeploy some recyled copper panels. We were going to have a gazebo made with a copper roof for Struan Farm to overlook the tennis court, but have decided to regroup on that.

Instead we're going to use the copper panels hammered out from the Farm's huge old water storage tanks for other projects, including possibly the roof of a very chic chicken coop!

Picked up the recent reprint of New Zealand Lifestyle Block Magazine's special issue on all matters poultry:

 

I have chickens on the brain right now, also bees for some reason. Along with my chooks, I want to have some hives put on Struan Farm near the orchard, but that's down the road.

Ode to Joy Apple Pie: Take Two

It was a rare confluence of events midweek: I had both apples and time. Our dinners during the week have been pretty much on the fly lately given work schedules, something I don't feel particularly good about.

Clearly a situation calling for another "Ode to Joy" apple pie. I'd purchased larger "J," "O" and "Y" cookie cutters on my recent trip to California than I'd used for my first attempt. For this version I made a more conventional pastry crust, not as sweet nor as soft. "Pate Brisee" from my well used copy of "Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts." As a result, JOY did not collapse but rather sang out loudly, don't you think?

 
While I would have used more apples if I'd had them, our verdict: nothing beats warm apple pie from the oven on a cold winter's evening.

The Knitter's Curse & The Marriage Contract

This past week John cleaned out his closet. Not something he does all that often, but every once in a while the mood strikes and he decides it's time to retire certain items of clothing to the farm.

He announced to me that he thought it might be time for this sweater to become a "farm sweater," but what did I think? This was a sufficiently diplomatic stance on his part.

Because this is a sweater with some history: it sealed our marriage contract.

 

When John and I started dating he wanted me to make him a handknit sweater. The only problem with this was "The Knitter's Curse." It seems women who knit for boyfriends don't make it down the aisle with those particular boyfriends. So the rule is that you wait until the ring is on the finger to pick up the needles. Karen at my LYS L'Atelier confirmed to John that this was, indeed, the case.  She'd help me measure him, but I wasn't to start knitting for him until we'd married.

And so I waited. I eventually made John a possum merino sweater with cables. It was very warm and cozy and knitted with love. But it did make him appear a wee bit chubby, wasn't the most flattering style on him. I've since made others that are  better fitting.

So no issues from me about relegating this sweater to the farm. It served its time and purpose, and when I think of it, Struan Farm is where it belongs.

John's Hut: Home Stretch

The weather was such this weekend at Struan Farm that an inside project was in order, at least for me. John works outside in all conditions, I'm a little inconsistent on that score.

We managed to get all of the tool racks up, and the potting table in along with other gardening equipment and supplies:

 
 
 
 
We found the old Salter scale during the big clean out this summer. While I'm not keen on clutter, or on turning things into a museum with too many rustic items in evidence, we decided it was an "objet" to be kept since it looked interesting hanging from the ceiling in the corner.

 
 
Last but not least, the beautiful seed storage tin John brought back for me from his recent trip to the U.K., on top of an improvised twine storage box made by drilling holes on either side of an old wooden box and inserting a copper pipe:

 

Random Hellebores

I love these delicate flowers, often called "winter roses." They crop up in the woodsie part of the garden along with the early camelias, just when winter gloom begins to bite. They sustain me until the bluebells and daffodils emerge closer to spring.

 
 
This past weekend the white ones started to come out at Struan Farm, so we should have a good show next weekend.

Winter Garden Abundance

For some reason just about anything we plant in our little raised veggie garden near the Homestead at Struan Farm flourishes. This past summer it was green beans and tomatoes (with the pumpkins and rhubarb nearby). John claims it's the soil he took from some secret hiding place when he made the raised bed, along with some of Maurie's old farm fertilizer. While I did supplement the soil with some compost, manure, and blood & bone, he's probably right.

This winter it's the swiss chard (called "silverbeet" in New Zealand). I popped in some plants so that we'd have a stash of veggies for weekends without needing to go to the market, but didn't anticipate how well they'd do.

 
 
 

 
Nutritious but beautiful too, eh?

Pet of the Month, But Mature?

 
Clifford's just won the "Pet of the Month" contest at our local Franklin Vets, and thus a bag of Eukanuba dog food. I'd seen a flyer for this during our last visit, with pictures of previous entrants (mostly cats) on the board, and decided why not enter our special dog?

 
But I had to laugh to see that they've decided he should now be eating "Mature & Senior" Eukanuba vs. "Adult." Okay, at age seven he's starting to get on in dog terms, but mature? Clifford?

 
Maybe they're trying to impress upon him that it's time to start behaving.

John's Hut: The Work Continues

Further to previous posts about our renovation of "John's Hut" into a functional garden shed, aka "a place for everything and everything in its place," we've been off on other tangents of late but are almost finished. Most of the tool racks/hooks are up:

  
  
 

 

John has made a concrete/tile entrance, new posts for the doorway, and reconditioned and repainted the door. Once it stops raining we'll hang the door and get my "rustic" potting table inside, at which point I can finish organizing the other items to be stored inside in old wooden crates and on a shelf or two (twine, gloves, etc.). I'll take more pics then.  When the weather calms down John will paint the roof green, but neither of us is expecting that to happen during our wet winter weather, it's a sufficiently hazardous job when it's dry.

I can already see that it's going to pain me to let John's Hut get dirty, it's so fresh and clean right now. But it is a garden shed, after all, so I'll need to get over that.

p.s. John brought me back a lovely tin box from England made for holding garden seeds. It has little dividers by month to keep planting on track, and can only help!

Laura's Famous Kale Chips

Last year when I visited my friends the Olinskis, Grace, Laura and I got into a discussion about making kale chips. Friends of Grace's make them all the time, and they said they were really good.

So we picked up some different kales at Whole Foods Market, and I tried to make them after looking up some recipes on the internet, as it turned out with way too much salt.

In the intervening year, Laura perfected the recipe and made them during my recent visit to Pasadena. This weekend I saw some organic kale at our local whole foods (lower case) market, so thought I'd try them. I rang Laura to confirm the oven temp (250 degrees F, about 140 degrees C), time (45-60 minutes), and ingredients (kale, approx. 2 tbsp. olive oil, and approx. 1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar). Don't overdo the oil. You can substitute salt for the vinegar, but the rice vinegar gives it a fresh taste and cuts the oil (white wine vinegar would also work).

Bake until crisp on a cookie sheet, tossing every so often. You can actually see the kale change and shrink when it starts to crisp up.

 
Kale chips satisfy that occasional need for crunch, but at the same time are earthy and seriously nutritious.  They were a great winter afternoon snack!

An Incident of Simple Joy

There are many days when John and I are joyously happy at Struan Farm. Dare I say it, blissful? It's usually over simple things like feeling good after working hard, beautiful light on the hills, a silly dog, or the trees.

This past weekend John was out plotting his pathways and the pool re-landscaping project, while I tackled the back half of the bank on one side of the garden that requires a massive clean out. At the top of this bank there are huge trees that provide the Homestead with protection from the winds, while on the bank itself there are camelias and pongas (large native tree ferns), along with a rather large magnolia. But also a fair amount of mess as well.  Enter Karen.

It was one of those days when the wind was howling and the rain was going sideways when the sun wasn't shining. 

In the afternoon during my cleanout I came across these delicate leaf skeletons in the bush. I just couldn't believe their fragile, lace-like structure, and how I'd literally stumbled upon them in the rubble.

 
 
 
 

For me it was one of those "Struan Farm moments." Yet another sign that we're surrounded by beauty if we just stop to notice.

A Rash of Babies

Daugher Sarah is due 13 July (today!), our niece Angela had her second child Jamie a few weeks ago, and niece Megan is due any day.

What's a knitter to do but get cracking? While I have never really been a "baby knitter," per se, I did learn to knock off beanies thanks to two "Baby Beanies for Otara" charity knitting initiatives the past two winters. I could now knit one from memory. But as a result I find myself inclined toward blankets as baby gifts when the need arises, I've "beanied" myself out.

I'm on a roll with Orange Flower Pattern's Garter Rib Baby Blanket, so have made one for Sarah in Blue Sky Alpaca's cream organic worsted cotton, and have started one for Angela in Blue Sky's "Multi-Cotton" in a lovely variegated blue/green/cream (colorway 6805). Megan's gender unknown variegated pale green/butter yellow/cream (colorway 6804) is last in this particular queue. One thing I've learned is that the "Multi-Cotton" has 50 yds less per skein than the solid version, so it does take more skeins.

 

 
 
 
I suspect I'll be done with this pattern for awhile after this burst of activity, but it's quick and easy to make and results in a lovely soft blanket in the organic cotton. p.s. be sure to block it, and include the yarn tag in the package so the mother knows the blanket is hand washable only.

Mucky Winter Renovation Work

Well, the concrete terraces have been ripped out and the pool de-construction  commenced at Struan Farm. Not pretty pictures, but at least now we know where we're heading and what we need to do to get there.

 
 
 
John came back from a recent trip to the UK inspired by National Trust gardens, determined that we could use part of the old pool structure in a creative way with gardens on the sides, a path through the middle, and steps leading up one end.

I have a hard time making decisions about this sort of project until I can actually SEE things; I guess I'm a visual rather than a conceptual learner. So now that I can see what the area looks like de-constructed, we're able to decide where the pathways will go, what areas will stay lawn and/or get grassed, and what will become garden.

I now think John's idea for the pool will work, with alot of work. While you might not be able to see what's in my mind's eye, I'm envisioning a grape arbor (perhaps also with purple and white wisteria) over a path with roses on either side. John will build steps coming up from the end of the pool that remains up to a path leading to the Homestead and Maurie's workshop (which one day might end up of a rustic sleepout when we have the time). 

This past weekend we had high wind and rain storms (of course), but John and I were out working (of course). It was invigorating!

Oh My Gosh: Madelinetosh

Had to share some of the yarn spoils from my recent trip to California:

 

I'm in serious love with Madelinetosh yarns. These were purchased at Abuelita's in South Pasadena. The colors ("tart," "candlewick," and "lapis") are amazing!

Homemade Dog Biscuits for Clifford: Experience Required

Regular readers of this blog will appreciate that I'm not "Martha Stewart junior," rather a woman who gets enthusiastic about things and whose experiments don't always come off as planned, at least on my first attempts.

Homemade dog biscuits for Clifford would be one of those things. Please avert your eyes if you're looking for stylized perfection, since this wasn't it.

During my recent visit to California I watched my friend Grace make homemade dog biscuits as part of her ongoing community work for the National Charity League. She shared the recipe with me, which is courtesy of the Pasadena Humane Society:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup dry powdered milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 cup ice water

3/4 cup margarine, shortening, or meat drippings

2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, 180 degrees C. Combine flour, milk, salt, garlic and sugar. Cut in shortening until mix is like a coarse meal, then mix in egg. Add enough water until it forms a ball. Pat out dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Place on lightly oiled tray and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove and cool on rack. Biscuits must be frozen if not used within three days.

In anticipation of making these for Clifford I picked up a dog bone shaped cookie cutter, and decided to bake up a batch for his homecoming from the farm this past week.

 

Only problem was that I was too smart for my own good: in reading the recipe, I noted that the instructions were quite similar to those used for making pastry or pasta dough, which can be made in a food processor. So to save time I whipped up the dough in my food processor rather than by hand. 

Grace had warned me that the dough could be quite "gooky," and my dough would have won the Gooky Award hands down. So much so that it was difficult to cut with cute little my dog bone cookie cutter. I ended up doing the best I could:

 
Slightly deformed, yes I know. But they were a big hit with Clifford even if they didn't look like quite like the gourmet canine treats I'd intended. Next time I'll mix them by hand and see if the situation improves with insight and experience, as is the case with most things for me!

Pumpkin Soup a la Musquee de Provence

It was time for my Musquee de Provence pumpkin to end its gig as autumnal sculpture in the mudroom at The Homestead at Struan Farm and get cracked into and used. John sharpened his machete and Clifford watched on from a safe distance:

 
My friend Glen Davenport has an easy pumpkin soup recipe that I used for this first time:

2 lbs. pumpkin, peeled and cut into pieces

2-3 sliced onions

4 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon sugar

peeled garlic cloves (I used 4-5)

Cook until soft (this took me about 35 minutes) then process in a food processor or blender. Serves 4-6.

 
It was excellent, tasting quite fresh and healthy. I served it with a bit of fresh parmesan and cracked black pepper, but toasted croutons or a dollop of creme fraiche would be good as well.

 

We had lots of pumpkin leftover for roasting. The single pumpkin would have made 5-6 batches of soup for freezing, good for future reference. 

 

Frosty Mornings in Piopio

It was great to be back at Struan Farm this past weekend after our respective overseas trips. Major landscaping work is commencing with redevelopment of the terrace and pool areas around The Homestead (we've officially decided the pool is becoming garden; a new pool, if it happens, will be up at our new house site). 

Saturday and Sunday mornings we awoke to frosts, and the fresh, crisp air that accompanies them, BRRR. We had beautiful, sunny days, perfect for working outside. While John dug into the pool area, I jumped back into the gardens, cutting back roses and hydrangea along with more general weeding and seasonal clean up.

Here are a few random shots from the weekend below, it was good to see the hellebores starting to bloom.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(I can get lost for hours on those frosted ferns and leaves, at least until my hands get numb.)

BTW, need to tell you that I'm going to cut back on blogging from every day to several times a week. I want to keep the quality of my tales about knitting and our life at Struan Farm high, and posting every day was starting to turn into hard work rather than easy inspiration. I'd prefer to keep things fun and inspired, both for you and for me, so hope this is okay.