Struan Farm

Status Report: Shed Rehab

We're making progress with the cleanout and renovation of the remaining sheds at Struan Farm. The painting is almost done.

Just to remind you, the pictures above are of the shed to the left in the picture below:

So it's looking pretty good. We do good work, really, although I use the term "we" loosely, since we've recruited helpers to speed things up.

The only disaster so far was the discovery of a massive bee nest in the roof cavity of Maurie's Workshop, which stalled the finishing touches on the Workshop while the troops worked to remove it. John will be coming up with a plan to repair the huge hole in the ceiling, as he says "this is men's work," so I'll leave the clean up to him and stay out of all that!

Fabulous Fibre Find: Riverdale Alpacas

This past weekend on my trip from Piopio back to Papakura I stopped at the monthly market in Otorohonga.

I thought I'd try to connect with knitters who might be selling there to let them know about the upcoming book signing we're hosting at Struan Farm. More about that in a future post, but we'll be holding a morning tea and book signing at the farm on May 12th to celebrate the launch of Kiwi knitwear designer Mel Clark's newest knitting book.  I'll be doing media releases, etc. closer to the event along with a blog post, but in the meantime I'm trying to tell as many knitters as I can about it so  they're spreading the word.

Today in Otorohonga I happened to meet a lovely lady named Dorothy. She was manning a stall for her daughter selling alpaca yarns, fleece, and knitted garments. The handpainted alpaca yarn above in particular caught my eye and came home with me. The colorways on offer are beautiful.

Julie and her husband run a business nearby called Riverdale Alpacas that breeds and sells animals, but also operate a mill and farm shop. Products are available over the internet at Inca Secrets.

Coincidentally, on my "To Do List" is devising a fibre trail/map showing places to visit in the area of interest to knitters and other fibre artists coming to Struan Farm for workshops and knitting/crafting retreats. This sounds like a good one! While I missed meeting Julie, Dorothy and I agreed that I should arrange to call in, which I'll do.

Maurie's Dahlias

My late father-in-law Maurie loved his dahlias, as a result they are planted throughout the gardens at Struan Farm. I haven't been a lover of these flowers really, think of them somewhat like pampered french poodles that require all sorts of grooming: staking, cutting back, dead heading, etc. They also tend to swoon over at the hint of a breeze, are a bit too sensitive from my vantage point.

So in an effort to manage the gardens in the limited time we have available we don't stake them, and dead head only when time permits or if a plant has keeled over in dramatic fashion.

However I find myself starting to like them, and I suspect Maurie will be smiling down  when he hears me confess to this! They provide color in the garden when the peak summer flowers start to wane, I now appreciate their contribution to the seasonal cycle of a garden.

p.s. sorry Maurie, I know that frilly yellow one was your favorite, but that one in particular does remind me of a pampered french poodle, it sprays yellow petals all over the lawn!

 

 

 

Tropical Getaway

Kia Orana!

Big surprise, I know. John decided to spirit me away on a short trip to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands this past week. Neither of us had been to "Raro" before--it's a very relaxed, beautiful place. The island is approximately 32k in circumference, encircled by a coral reef.

Upon arrival everyone is welcomed with a lei made from white gardenias, so exceedingly fragant that I was nervous about having a sneezing attack, something I managed to avoid, thankfully!:

The view from our room at The Sanctuary Rarotonga-On the Beach below was hard to take, as was the fact this was our semi-private beach. While (as you might expect) we aren't particularly good at blobbing out, we both tested out that hammock at different times:

One evening we rented a little convertible to go into town for a memorable dinner at The Tamarind House, one of the island's original colonial houses. Yet another view that was hard to take, looking out on a beach strewn with white coral while the sun set, sipping our virgin Pina Coladas (didn't know these are called "mocktails"), savoring an incredible seafood platter:

The next day we drove around the island ring road, exploring. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand to pick up fresh coconut, pawpaw (papaya), star fruit and mango. Turns out the vendor has lived in Auckland and Wellington. He chopped off the top of the coconut with his machete so that we might drink the water/juice.

We took to the inland road closer to the hills briefly and came across papaya, star fruit, bananas and jack fruit growing in profusion. Aside from bananas, I had never seen these fruit on the tree before:

We passed by the Residence of the Queen's Representative, as well as a number of  old churches with interesting, historic headstones in the front yards:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
After stopping briefly in Muri Beach, we returned there to have lunch overlooking the lagoon:

Not sure if you can see that dog in the foreground, but he stood in the water for at least the time we were there, actively looking for fish. We started to wonder if he'd gone a bit mad, perhaps he was simply as captivated as we were by the view.

Since we've been away from Struan Farm this will be my only blog post for this week. I'll be back in action from the farm on Monday, Feb. 27th.

 

To Market

I had time while at home in Papakura this past Sunday to pop over to the Clevedon Farmers Market, a rare event indeed!

My real reason for making the dash over was to restock my supply of River Estate Olive Oil, which is grown and produced in nearby Whitford. I've been a loyal customer of Barry and his wife for years, so it's great to see that their delicious oils are winning national awards and wider recognition now. Barry also mentioned that their cured olives are in the running for a food award at the moment, so I'll have to stay up on that.

 

And just my luck, there was a grower from Central Otago with a stall selling the last of the season's cherries and Moorpark apricots, neither of which I could resist. Here are the cherries looking beautiful in my vintage pink Lace Edge Depression Glass (destined shortly for pie), and the apricots nestled in an Estuary Arts pottery bowl (destined for jam):

We're off to Rarotonga for a short trip. My next blog posts will most likely be about our adventures there.  Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Heirloom Plums

We have an old plum tree out in the Pet Paddock at Struan Farm. Some years it fruits well, some years it doesn't, some years the birds win, and other years there's enough for everyone.

This is one of those latter years, hooray. We'll have plum crumble and I might try my hand at bottling, something I haven't tried to do as yet. I can make jam but bottling is a different thing entirely, and something I've got on my list of things to learn when time permits.

There are quite a few still on the tree that are out of my reach, so I'll need my helper to walk out with me to pick the rest. While we've planted some new plum trees and different varieties up at our orchard site (Black Doris, Elephant Heart and Santa Rosa), it's nice to have this heirloom plum tree that has been fruiting at Struan Farm for years still doing so.

 

Sunflower Update

The sunflowers at Struan Farm have finally decided to show their stuff in the past two weeks. There are stalks that have multiple blooms, and others still growing and yet to flower, it's pretty amazing.

So much so that we've decided not to convert this little patch into lawn but retain it as garden and plant sunflowers again next spring/summer since they've been a bit of a talking point with visitors. We'll probably plant winter vegetables here in the offseason, not sure what else we can do.

Shell Game

I found the idea for these cute little turtles made from walnut shells and colored beeswax on the Curly Birds blog. Since we're long on walnuts at Struan Farm after last year's bumper crop I thought it would be fun to try to make them.

I ordered the colored beeswax from Bella Luna Toys, a wonderful website for creative children's toys that specializes in Waldorf toys.  The business is based in Maine, but I had the shipment here in NZ within a week, what superb service!

These are simple to make and a craft project that toddlers can easily cope with on a rainy day. The colored beeswax can also be molded into all sorts of shapes, so a good discovery on its own as well. 

Help, I'm being held captive by an heirloom Chinese Gooseberry!

John and I looked out at the old concrete water tank in the garden at Struan Farm over the weekend to see that the silly ceramic pukeko that he'd put up there at Christmas to amuse the kids was being strangled by our heirloom Chinese Gooseberry. Today these are more commonly called "kiwi fruit."

After taking these pics I went out and rescued the poor bird, we need to keep an eye on that sneaky vine! 

 

Channeling Aunt Daisy

Awhile ago I made the mistake of baking scones for morning tea at Struan Farm, so probably created my own problem here. While I thought they were a pretty decent effort, I was informed that they "weren't as good as Mum's."

While I appreciate that there are a whole host of emotions and memories tied up in foods that Mum used to make, a factor that might possibly cloud one's taste, I accepted that assessment. I'm not one to compete with Mum.

But each weekend since then I've been baking scones. I tested two different recipes from two well known New Zealand cookbooks, both household names. I've since even managed to get a thumbs up, thanks to Aunt Daisy. I've memorized her recipe.

Aunt Daisy recipes were originally read over the radio in New Zealand from the 1930's to the 1960's. While I own some original Aunt Daisy cookbooks (she published ten plus a book of household hints), some of her recipes have recently been reissued in new books to benefit The Barbara Bashman Medical Charitable Trust funding medical research here.

Love the hats and the pearls, this was well before Julia Child. And thanks Rosemary, for setting the standards high!

Jamming at Struan Farm 2012

This year's jam making at Struan Farm has been less a marathon, more a series of sprints. I made batches of strawberry and blueberry jams over the Christmas/New Year's holidays, thinking that would be sufficient for this year.

But then I managed to score some beautiful Moorpark apricots from Coal Creek Gardens in Central Otago:

Suffice it to say that when the apricots arrive, the jam makers amongst us get going:

So now we have a beautiful trio of homemade jams to choose from:

And I'm thinking I might as well make another batch of strawberry jam while Piopio Orchard still has strawberries available, since I've been busy perfecting my scones....

In Honor of Waitangi Day

Today is Waitangi Day, NZ's national holiday that honors the Treaty of Waitangi. Recently John and I travelled up north to the Bay of Islands, and visited the historic grounds.

Some images from the marae on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds:

And our course then there are those of us who holiday in our own special ways (note: not on the Treaty Grounds nor on Waitangi Day):

 

 

 

 

 

Special Visitors to Struan Farm

It was a great summer weekend this past week at Struan Farm. We had Sarah, Matt, Charlie and friends with young children visit. John took the visitors off on a tractor ride in the Pet Paddock.

Plus, we had a native wood pigeon come down to sip from the bird bath and savor the strawberries fruiting on our dogwood tree while we were sitting outside on the deck over lunch. This is the first time we've seen a wood pigeon come in close to the house rather than simply fly by overhead, which had me running for the camera:

We love to see visitors enjoy Struan Farm!

 

 

 

Holiday up North

Rarely do John and I get away together for vacation from Struan Farm and Piopio, but recently we journeyed up to the top of the North Island for a long weekend holiday getaway. 

We stayed initially in Paihia in the Bay of Islands, where John vacationed as a child at his uncle's rustic "bach." We walked from our hotel there to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds (the birthplace of New Zealand), took a boat over to Russell to have lunch at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel ("serving rascals and reprobates since 1827"), then the next day drove up around Kaitaia and 90 Mile Beach along a beautiful scenic coastline to overnight with friends, stopping for a picnic lunch enroute. We didn't make it all the way up to Cape Reinga, the northern most point in the country where two seas converge and Maori believe their spirits depart the earth, but rather have saved that for a future trip.  The history of this area is facinating, the scenery amazing.

On Sunday we opted for the scenic, winding way home via car ferry over the Hokianga Harbour to Rawene and Oponui, with a pitstop to see "Tane Mahuta," the largest and oldest surviving Kauri tree in NZ. We hit major weekend traffic returning to Auckland in Warkworth, north of Auckland, which stalled us for an hour, unheard of here. The drive up from Auckland took us three hours, while the drive home over eight hours!

The traffic jam on the way home jarred us back to "civilization," reminding us that we are happy to head to Piopio on weekends rather than up north or to the Coromandel where weekend traffic bottlenecks are much the same. We don't follow the crowd!

Some images from the weekend:

 

 

 

 

 

Ginkgo Gold?

Wandering the Pet Paddock at Struan Farm I've discovered that one of our large ginkgo trees is female. I found what apparently are unripe fruit and little seeds beneath it, which have prompted some research.

Ginkgo biloba trees are thought to have originated in China and are so ancient they are referred to as "living fossils." The fruit, when ripe, has a foul odor (these are clearly not yet ripe) but it yields a nut that is quite nutritious. Ginkgo nuts contain potassium, phosphorus, folate and vitamin A, with traces of zinc and copper. The nuts (and supplements made from the leaves) can be used to treat a variety of ailments on an alternative medicinal basis, including circulatory complaints and memory loss. In traditional Chinese medicine they are used to relieve hangovers, coughs and asthma.

And, like our yew, this is another tree considered sacred in certain cultures. They are often planted near temples and sacred grounds.

The trees can be grown from seed and/or cuttings, so I'm going to try that. We'll also experiment with roasting the nuts once the fruit is ripe (provided I can handle the smell). Apparently after cooking the nut is bright green and similar to edamame, so we shall see...