« November 2011 | Main | January 2012 »
I will be taking a working holiday at Struan Farm (and break from blogging) from today, returning January 9. The annual Piopio Santa Parade is tonight, the official start of the Christmas holiday for us.
With thanks and attribution to Piopio local Ellie Voyce, who designed this card, have a happy and healthy Christmas. I'll be back in the New Year with lots of news and stories from the farm I'm sure!
| | | |
|
Unlike Don Quixote, I find myself giving up certain battles as I age. Recently I've found myself letting go of my crusade against the incorrect use of apostrophes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lynne Truss' book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation." A book about punctuation and hilariously so. I used to gift it to young colleagues in need of help with writing since it's such a great read.
At least I did until I learned that this gesture had become a bit of an inhouse joke. One about and on me. Ouch. A junior colleague candidly explained that he was waiting to see how much time would pass before he received a copy. So he hasn't, that's the end of that.
I've come to notice glazed expressions when explaining that "it's" is a contraction, not a possessive. While I can't quite hear the muttering under the breath of "what does it matter?" I am now reading those thoughts.
So with apologies to Lynne (and Don Quixote), I've decided to relinquish this particular battle and leave the spell check generation to find its way. Or perhaps in this instance: it's way!
| | | |
|
The Struan Farm veggie garden that we planted according to the moon cycle is thriving, so I'm tending towards believing all this now. P.S. Wasn't "I'm a Believer" a song by the Monkees?
I picked up these interesting Everlasting Moon Calendars at Mapua Country Trading during my visit to Nelson. Thought I would keep one for myself, give one to Anna and one to friend Karen who started me on this path originally.
Early each month you're meant to match the date of the new moon with the new moon on the inner wheel, reading around the wheel with respect to what to do when. Cool, eh?
| | | |
|
I stumbled upon these santa hat brownies via a post on Facebook by The Mucky Macbook. The particulars can be found on Daisy's World's blog here, but have been adapted from a recipe by Erica's Sweet Tooth. Phew, quite a chain of attribution but think it's worth it.
This was my initial attempt and not up to Master Chef standards, clearly. I would be on my way to an elimination challenge. Frequent readers will know I'm a normal woman who tries things out, hopes for the best, and learns from her mistakes. And when mistakes happen, which they sometimes do, I don't sugarcoat them.
I learned that it's probably better to use cake-y vs. chewy brownies since they will have more height. Medium sized strawberries look better. One's piping technique should be perfected (mine is shaky). I used a plastic squeeze bottle with icing tip that worked reasonably well absent a spasm or two. The mascarpone icing recipe could use more icing/confectionary sugar to make it stiffer, but this might be a function of our NZ butter and mascarpone so do what you need to do. I couldn't find a cutting ring small enough to use in our local shops, so in true Kiwi DIY tradition improvised using a plastic bottle top and knife. I'll look online or in the higher end kitchenware stores in Auckland to try to find a better option for this, but for today's experiment this was fine.
These were promptly delivered to the little girls in the back, at least those who are good girls on Santa's list. While they might look a bit rough, they taste great!
| | | |
|
Another tale from my trip to Nelson this past weekend. My friend Glen had me sample a West Coast honey called "Happy Sheep Honey" mixed with blackcurrant over the breakfast table at Doone Cottage. It was seriously delicious. So of course I hit the road to visit Nelson Honey on nearby SH6 to take some home.
I'm glad to made the journey, since I was also able to sample and buy the same manuka honey mixed with lemon. It will be great for making hot lemon honey to soothe those winter ills next year.
And on top of that, this is the place that makes the bee venom skin products that Kate Middleton used before her wedding to Prince William and that Camilla allegedly swears by! The line is called "Royal Nectar," more info is available here. There is the "Original Face Mask" and a "Moisturizing Face Lift," I opted for the mask.
Upon returning to Doone Cottage I tested it out. It tingled a little (I did try it on a patch of my skin before slathering it all over, as recommended). My skin does feel softer, just not sure as yet if it's due to the product, the placebo effect, or the restorative magic of Doone Cottage!
| | | |
|
Another tale from Nelson. But as an aside, do you remember this song by Peter, Paul and Mary? It tells us that "the answer my friend is blowing in the wind."
Not sure why, but I've had wind chimes on my mental shopping list for awhile. I'm beginning to think that the more time I spend at Struan Farm the more I channel my mother-in-law Rosemary. She had a number of homemade wind chimes in the trees, one of which remains in the dogwood tree. I wasn't so keen on these at first but it seems I'm softening my stance, they seem to be finding a place in my scheme of things.
This past Sunday I stopped in a little shopping arcade in Motueka that had an alternative shop with crystals, etc. (I'm assuming you know the type of shop I'm talking about here.) The shop had small wind chimes for sale that wouldn't have survived the first windy blow in Piopio, not exactly what I had in mind.
I struck up a conversation with the shop owner, mentioning that one type that might work were those made of old vintage spoons and forks. I'd hoped to find one at the Nelson or Mot markets, which have lots of crafty people selling their wares, but had come up dry. She laughed, went into the back and returned with a box of exactly that. They had been made by a local artist and were all tangled up. We spent the next ten minutes or so unraveling the mess, chatting away. She said I'd obviously been meant to cross her doorstep to get her around to this task! I left to find the silver polish, with a string of old spoons that sounds lovely in the wind:
After that I went next door to an organic market to buy a coffee. Hanging down over the till were large windchimes made of painted metal pipes and wood. I asked the owner where he'd found them, and he sent me up the street to buy the best wind chimes I've heard:
These are made locally by Magnolia Wind Chimes in Ngatimoti and come in different tones and colors. They sound beautiful. So I'm now more than sorted on the wind chime front, somewhat magically thanks to these twists of fate.
| | | |
|
Rather bone-headed on my part, really. When I packed for a business trip to Wellington and Nelson at the end of last week I packed my camera, memory card and battery recharger. What I didn't realize is that I'd forgotten to pack my camera battery. So I ended up camera-less in Nelson for the weekend, not an ideal situation....I could have used my phone, but what's the point with that, really?
The good news is that my friend Glen at Doone Cottage had a great picture of her new Arapawa sheep:
Two ewes and two ewe lambs. I've posted on this rather special breed of NZ sheep previously, they were found on an island and are thought to be decendants of the sheep Captain Cook brought over on his ship. What I hadn't realized is that they don't need to be shorn or drenched, which makes them quite easy care for lifestylers and people who don't want all of the maintenance that comes with regular sheep. Thanks for helping with this blogpost, Glen!
| | | |
|
You know we love all things sheep at Struan Farm in Piopio, so check this out. If only we could train our pet lambs to sing like this!
| | | |
|
I thought I'd been reading too many British magazines, where I'd seen this word from time to time but had not been able to glean its meaning in context. Country Living (British Edition) is rather a fave of mine, where this word is used quite a bit.
But recently I came across this word in the Winter 2011 issue of Interweave Knits, at which point my intellectual curiousity got the better of me. It's clearly becoming trendy, a "word du jour" if it's crossed the pond to the USA. So one must use it properly, mustn't one?
Bespoke--a term used in the U.K. and elsewhere for an individually or custom made product or service. Usually created without use of a pre-existing patterns, made-to-order.
Seems we consumers want "bespoke" products, or the marketing people are trying to create such demand. At Struan Farm we live the dream with our home made, home grown, home baked, recycled/repurposed/upcycled stuff, so we're already in the groove.
As you will know I like to stay ahead of these trends.
| | | |
|
I don't usually post on Tuesdays, but my weekend flowers at Struan Farm were so pretty that I couldn't resist showing you:
I had these on the dining table for John's birthday dinner at the Homestead, and a similar arrangement on the breakfast table in the Sun Porch. I want our beautiful flower arrangements to be one of the special touches our farmstay guests remember about Struan Farm, so am perfecting my technique!
| | | |
|
John's birthday is December 6th, and this year marks a rather important milestone. As you might suspect he's not into fuss. I decided that the most I could get away with was a family dinner at Struan Farm over the weekend with kids and grandkids, maybe a present and a cake. I decided I would multi-task and trial some recipes for our big Boxing Day buffet luncheon as well.
So that is what happened.
The cake:
(Trust you recognize John, the tractor, and Clifford.)
The mains:
(Eye fillet with wasabi and lime dressing, topped with rocket/arugula, and sake and ginger roasted salmon served with pickled cucumber; presentation on the latter not as artful as I would have liked, it was time to eat!)
The present:
("The Hills of Home," by local Piopio artist Jo Gallagher.)
The grandkids:
(Ella, Olivia and Charlie.) And in case you missed Charlie's socks:
We all love red tractors and most of all you, JoJo!
| | | |
|
Okay, I accept I am a reasonably organized person:
This past weekend I started making and freezing Christmas cookies for our family Boxing Day luncheon at Struan Farm, also for Christmas tins of home baked goodies for neighbors/friends. I made a few batches of Toll House chocolate chip cookies, and then our traditional Barrett family Christmas cream cheese cookies. Great news: I've FINALLY found a cookie press that works well: Kuhn Rikon's Clear Cookie Press. Thank you Switzerland! The other makes/brands I've tried pop open and result in tears and curses all around. This one works perfectly, both ends screw in firmly and stay in place.
It will all be upon us before we know it.
| | | |
|
We've been (re)landscaping at Struan Farm over the past four months, with lots more to do. Part of this has entailed planting trees, fruit and nut trees in our orchard and Pet Paddock, but also a few new trees around the Homestead itself and our roadside entrance.
While I am consulted as a courtesy, John takes a proprietary interest in this and views it as "his turf." I suspect it is in his genes. His father Maurie continued to plant trees over his lifetime, well into his late 80's, while his sisters are always planting too. The property has quite a number of special, feature trees in addition to our stands of QEII protected native bush.
Which brings me to yews. In the garden we have a huge yew tree that has grown from a cutting John started as a child:
The trees are poisonous to stock, so we need to be careful about where these are planted and make sure any prunings are burnt straight away. But we decided to get another new yew for the roadside:
Our local nurseryman, Charlie Smart, tells us that evergreens and conifers aren't in fashion right now, but that doesn't faze us at all. We're not trendy, we think in multi-generational terms given the legacy we inherited from John's parents. We're giving thought to a cutting garden to start some trees from cuttings ourselves for landscaping around the new house site.
Coincidentally, I picked up the December issue of Country Living magazine from Britain, which has an article about the ancient yew trees that are across the country in churchyards, concentrated in southeast and central England, Wales, and the Lake District. The article indicates while yews were used to make longbows, they were also once planted over graves to protect and purify the dead. Their evergreen foliage is considered a symbol of immortality and resurrection. Research on these yew trees has also uncovered that they often pre-date the churches themselves, and were perhaps sacred trees associated with Druidic and Celtic religions.
There's a movement afoot in the U.K. to register and protect these trees as a result of the connection between the trees and sacred places. See the website for the Ancient Yew Group (AYG) here. I won't go so far as to extend this theory to Struan Farm (much as I'm tempted...), but think it's interesting to understand the symbolism and history of these trees. It makes ours that much more special.
| | | |
|
Recent Comments