Struan Farm

First of the Season: Quince

Quince, hooray! The Smyrna and Giant of Gascony trees we planted last winter from Mapua Country Trading aren't fruiting quite yet, but John's sister Anna delivered a basket of her first ripe fruit to Struan Farm. Trust there will be more to come.

That very night I made Nigel Slater's fabulous roast quince recipe served with softly whipped cream (yogurt also works). You can find the recipe here. It takes about 20-25 minutes to poach the fruit in a sugar syrup before roasting for 30 minutes. This is one of our favorite all time desserts-- if you can get your hands on a few quince I highly recommend it. I was glad that we had the maple syrup, star anise and whole cloves in the pantry to make it!

Awakening to Autumn

Summer's well and truly over but I've been in denial about that. We didn't really have a summer and I'm clearly not ready for winter.

This past weekend I was out in the Pet Paddock at Struan Farm on thistle patrol and picking up fallen tree branches. Wandering under the walnut tree I found walnuts on the ground. Wait a minute, wasn't it too early for walnuts? No, it wasn't, I've just been in denial. Now I can't escape the fact that I need to gather up nuts for the winter.

This is the first harvest drying, there are still nuts on the tree. It won't be quite last year's bumper crop, but there should be more than enough for our porridge/oatmeal and my baking.

 

Black (okay maybe Brown) Gold

An interesting situation in New Zealand currently: no Marmite to be found on supermarket shelves. The only manufacturing plant is in Christchurch, and it has been shut down temporarily for earthquake related repairs.

As an American, I grew up eating peanut butter, Marmite is not part of my equation. In fact I think it's pretty yucky. But apparently this is dire straits for Marmite afficionados, who slather it on their toasts in the morning. The Australian equivalent, Vegemite, just isn't the same. Nor is Marmite manufactured elsewhere the same, it is purported to be saltier, not as sweet as that manufactured in NZ.

John has been known to eat Marmite and lettuce sandwiches. At one point he complained that I never stocked Marmite for him (probably after I tossed a jar in the cupboard out), a situation I promptly remedied as the good wife I am. So upon reading about the shortage I took a look in the cupboard and came up with two jars.

Hmmm, I hear people are selling these for big money on Trade Me, what do you think? Wait until they get really, really desperate? 

Alerting the Easter Bunny

We've got the little girls, Ella and Livvy, coming to Struan Farm to hunt for Easter eggs in the garden this year. I've alerted the Easter Bunny.

The April issue of NZ House & Garden magazine has a cute idea for an Easter cake. I decided to test it out this past weekend to make sure I could execute it for our family celebration:

I baked the lemon yogurt cake recipe from The Tin Goose Cafe Cookbook in a tube pan, although any yellow cake recipe would do, even a mix in a pinch. The icing is made with butter, cream cheese, lemon juice, icing sugar and lemon curd. I managed to find the little speckled eggs in the foodstore; these searches sometimes turn into Quixotic quests here in NZ but fortunately this one didn't.

I know my icing technique could use a bit of work, but otherwise pretty good, eh? Now to make sure that Easter Bunny does his bit.

On the Cusp of a Saga

You will remember that I planted a winter veggie garden at Struan Farm two weeks ago, in the spot where our sunflowers bloomed this past summer.

Cabbages, winter lettuce, spinach, cavalo nero/kale, silverbeet/swiss chard, beetroot/beets, peas and broadbeans.

So I was excited to arrive at the farm on Friday afternoon and see that the first seeds were sprouting: rouge d'hiver lettuce, peas, silverbeet/swiss chard and spinach. We'd had quite a bit of rain over the past week.

On Saturday I noticed what looked to be evidence of a rabbit digging in three spots.

On Sunday I saw that my germinating broadbean seeds were sitting on top of the soil. At first I thought the rain might have caused this but then realized: rabbits! To quote Elmer Fudd: Wascally Wabbits!

John assures me that he and Clifford are on the case, but I'm thinking we're going to need some sort of fence around the garden during its stint as a winter veggie garden or the rabbits will win.  To be continued......

The Next Big Thing

The next big project at Struan Farm (ignoring for just a moment the huge tree that fell into the pond during the recent "weather bomb"), is new fencing along the Pet Paddock and front roadside entrance.

John and Rene moved topsoil from our track grading last week to the side of the Pet Paddock, since over time the road has become considerably higher than the adjourning land. Hard to believe that at one point it was level seeing it today.

The wood was delivered last week and is sitting under the chestnut tree ready to go.

John spent the weekend compacting the soil with the tractor and then sowing grass seed, so it's all starting to happen.

We did spend a fair amount of time in advance of this deciding on the type of fence, balancing cost with both appearance and functionality (it does need to contain the sheep after all). We found ourselves staring at fences while driving around, and discovered this two board, stained wooden fence with wire at the bottom that we both like:

I suspect the people living at this place wondered what these crazies were doing outside their gate, taking pictures of and measuring their fencing, but we want to get it right. Yep, go ahead and laugh, this is the kind of things John and I do in our "spare" time...!

 

 

This Weekend's Flowers

I'm a bit stuck for the moment on the pink dahlias and apricot/peach "Crepuscle" roses:

Hope you don't mind, but this is what we had on the table over the weekend at Struan Farm.

Shhhh: Great Pumpkins

I'm a bit hesitant to post on this subject since I don't want to tempt fate, but right now I've got three reasonably large pumpkins growing away on the weed mat on Hydrangea Hill at Struan Farm.

If they start turning orange soon I'll know they're Musquee de Provence, the elusive, sculptural french variety that has thumbed its nose at me the past two years. There's a tinge of orange on one, so I think the eagle has landed. 

So this year's experiment seems to have worked: I started by planting seeds in my glass/green house in August with the tomatoes, then planted out the seedlings in late October/early November.

Now just to get them over the line and ripened, fingers and toes crossed!

Discovery: Advantage Robertson

Yet another archeological find this past weekend at Struan Farm. John and I have gone back and forth over whether or not to rehab the old tennis court. First it was yes, then it was no, we thought about a cutting garden and berry patch on the spot instead.

Right now we're heading back to yes, toward a grass court that can also be used for events in the garden and possibly croquet/archery too. And since we've had the digger working away at the farm on tracks, it was a good time to get the area cleaned up.

When the seal of the old tennis court was scraped off, we were surprised to see a clay surface appear below, marked out with what looks to be the outline of a tennis court in creosote.

(Yes, that's John running out of the photograph above as fast as he possibly can.)

Family discussion ensued to find out who remembers what about the history of the court and its incarnations. Everyone remembers the pumice court followed by a sealed surface (circa 1960) that a number were involved in making. Louise has some history on this directly from Maurie that indicates that the pumice came from Uncle Jack's farm down the road (seven truckloads) rolled with the Landrover. The markings were lead inch tape pinned into the pumice, while the fencing/netting came from the old Piopio Dairy Factory (yes, repurposing/recycling even then!). Also confirmation of family legend that Maurie bought drums of tar, but convinced a roading crew working outside the gate to lend him their handpump (after 5 p.m.) to seal the court. Fine gravel/metal was then spread on top with a shovel. Initially he "borrowed" the heavy road roller, which proved was too heavy for the fill, so used the Landrover pulling a water filled roller to finish the job.

But no mention of an earlier clay court before that, so the lines are still a bit of a mystery.

I hope this helps explain why we sometimes get detoured on projects and need to go off on a tangent or two or three.

 

 

Metamorphosis

I just checked the definition of metamorphosis, which is "a change in physical form, structure of substance, especially by supernatural means; a striking alteration in appearance, character or circumstances."

So I think I've chosen the right title for this blog post, since that's what happened to the sunflower patch at Struan Farm over the weekend. My clean out and weeding efforts certainly could be characterized as "supernatural," and there was a rather striking alteration in appearance as well!

You may recall what the sunflowers looked like in bloom:

With that over and done with for the season we had to decide what to plant in this spot over winter since we'll plant sunflowers again next year.

After reading up on winter vegetable gardening, I stocked up on seeds and this past weekend planted out "Rouge d'Hiver" lettuce, "Petit Provencal" peas, "Winter Giant" leeks, "Cavalo Nero" kale, "Vertus Savoy" and "Scarlet O'Hara" cabbages, "Chioggia Red/White" beets, "Rainbow Lights" silverbeet/swiss chard, "Dwarf Early Green" broadbeans, and "Winter Giant" spinach. Seeds were sourced from the Kings Seeds website. It's a bit of an experiment really, since we've only grown silverbeet during the winter in Piopio before.

The next metamorphosis will occur once everything starts growing, and I will report back. I've planted the red and green cabbages alternating around the edge of the bed, which should look interesting. Broadbeans and peas are against the fence in the back.

 

Improvised Swing

We had guests calling in on Sunday this past weekend at Struan Farm. After I finished baking the chocolate chip cookies for afternoon tea I went out to the garden to sort out the flower arrangements around the Homestead. These friends haven't visited us in Piopio before and I wanted them to see the Homestead at its beautiful best.

After popping some pink dahlias and a mottled purple/blue hydrangea in one of my vintage glass jars I headed across the lawn to the trellis with the apricot/peach Crepuscle roses. This same trellis is home to the swing John improvised for the kids on Boxing Day. While it's lopsided and detracts slightly from the otherwise idlyllic view of the garden, I haven't had the heart to take it down; mostly because every child that arrives at Struan Farm makes a beeline straight for it!

So I suspect John's improvised swing will hang from the trellis longer than originally intended and either of us anticipated as a result. But I have found that it does make a good staging platform for flower arrangements..

Signs of Change

Starting to feel a change in the air and see the initial signs of autumn at Struan Farm. The hydrangea are almost always first to change, they become mottled or burgundy. I think they're lovely but in a fading, ephemeral way.

 

We can see tinges of red beginning to appear in the dogwood and nyssa leaves, but so subtle that they're not visible in photographs, as yet. Maybe next week? 

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden?

 

Not sure if you remember this song by Lynn Anderson, but I've embedded the video to refresh your memory.

In this case there's good news, because I have indeed promised you a rose garden, and it's on the way at Struan Farm:

You may recall that this is being created from the skeleton of our old swimming pool, that we decided to "repurpose." We've used recycled bricks for the bottom walls and topsoil from farm track gradings underway currently. We're not sure if we're the only ones to wax lyrical about the beautiful color of our lush topsoil, but aren't you jealous?

Next John will build the pergola overhead. During winter I will transplant roses I've grown from cuttings into the beds. These are roses that have been in the gardens at Struan Farm for years, several of which grew beside the swimming pool! We're undecided at this point whether it will be wisteria, grapes or roses on the pergola overhead, those are all options at this point.

 

 

Projects Underway

Despite trees falling down around us we've been making positive progress on various projects at Struan Farm. Most recently we've regraded some existing farm tracks to make them safer for a wider range of vehicles, and started grading our new house site. We're reusing the topsoil in the gardens and for new fencing along the roadside.

And just so you know that I don't lose sight of the trees, ever, here's a beautiful miro tree trunk beside the track down by the pond:

 

 

Things Happen

As reported, last weekend's weather bomb that landed in New Zealand hit us at Struan Farm in Piopio. Something resembling a funnel cloud looks to have tracked through part of the property, damaging trees and resulting in a huge tree falling into the pond:

You can get some idea of the scale of the disaster in the picture above with Clifford walking alongside the pond. John and I guestimate that the circumference of the tree is at least 14 feet having clambered over it to survey the damage.

Fortunately Buddha remains unscathed and serene sitting on his little dock despite the mess.

Wish I could say the same for us! A few cleansing breaths doesn't begin to cover it. We'll get stuck into cleaning all this up eventually. Good thing it isn't visible from The Homestead...

 

 

 

 

Tomatoes, Finally

It's been a rainy somewhat chilly summer here in NZ. Normally we have tomatoes from the garden in January after the Christmas holiday. This year we've had lots of green fruit but have been lucky to have any ripen at all since it hasn't been consistently hot enough. It's March and they've finally started to come on:

Heirloom black cherries. They have nice solid flesh and good flavor. Really good in a stir fry with olive oil, garlic, silver beet/swiss chard, chick peas and a touch of red pepper flakes. You can add prawns and feta to this for a complete meal:

 

 

Book Signing in May at Struan Farm

Big news! John and I are hosting a book signing and morning tea at Struan Farm on Saturday, May 12 to celebrate the launch of our friend Mel Clark's latest knitting book: "Knitting Everyday Finery: Practical Designs for Dressing up in Little Ways."

Mel's previous book was "Knit 2 Together," co-authored with Tracy Ullman. Her designs have been published in Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, and The Knitter amongst other publications. She has designed knitwear under her own label and appeared on The Martha Stewart Show.

Mel will be at the farm to meet everyone and sign books. Original designs from the book will be on display and some yarns available too.

Reservations and book pre-orders are required to attend. Contact me if you're interesting in coming along to reserve a spot and pre-order your book for NZ$35. We'll put on a good morning tea at 11 a.m., everyone will also get a free Struan Farm tote/knitting bag and a chance in the prize draw to win yarns for one of the projects in the book.

Piopio is about three hours from Auckland, 1 1/2 hours from Hamilton, and two hours from New Plymouth. Convenient for a day trip, but it might also be fun to spend the night somewhere and make more of an adventure out of the journey. I'm working on information on other fibre related attractions in the area for those interested. Information on accommodations nearby can be found on the Piopio website here.

We already have quite a number of bookings due to word of mouth, haven't done any media releases as yet in our local papers but will do so in April closer to the actual event. We think we can cope with quite a crowd (I'm recruiting our friends at The Fat Pigeon Cafe), so the more the merrier.  You've heard it here first!

The Language of Flowers at Struan Farm

I've always been interested in learning more about the symbolism of flowers, and recently discovered A Victorian Flower Dictionary by Mandy Kirby. Flower symbolism was especially prominent during the Victorian era. The book indicates that this was thought to have been inspired by the Turkish practice of selam, communicating by using flowers and other objects. There were a number of flower dictionaries published during this time and special flowers were used for special occasions as a result.

So here are some of our flowers from the Struan Farm gardens with their corresponding meanings:

Daffodil: new beginnings

Purple rose: enchantment and red rose: love

Pink rose: grace and Alstroemeria: devotion

Pale peach rose: modesty

Ferns: sincerity

Dogwood: love undiminished by adversity

Dandelion: rustic oracle

Lilac: first emotions of love

Hydrangea: dispassion (oh.oh. we have alot of these...)

Magnolia: dignity

Dahlia: dignity 

Calla lily: modesty

Orange rose: facination, Azalea: fragile and ephemeral passion, and Rhododendron: beware! Note: rhodos are poisonous...

And last but not least, Camelia: my destiny is in your hands

I recommend this book, it's facinating reading, and available on fishpond.

 

Weekend Flowers & Weather Bomb

This past weekend there was a serious Civil Defense weather alert that predicted a "weather bomb" moving across the Tasman Sea with heavy rain and gale force winds. As a result, we stayed in Papakura since non-essential travel wasn't recommended. So this weekend's flowers were courtesy of the Clevedon Farmer's Market:

And while the weather bomb was a bit of a bust in the Auckland area, we had a huge poplar come down at the pond at Struan Farm (one of the largest trees on the property). Sounds like a serious mess: Anna went out to check on everything and reported that it landed in the pond. The good news is that it fell between Buddha and her sculpture, so both managed to avoid damage. The bad news is that we're not sure how we're going to get the fallen tree out of the pond without causing more damage.

Update in due course when I can give you a firsthand report.

 

 

 

Next Year's Flowers: Saving Seeds at Struan Farm

The sunflower patch at Struan Farm is starting to finish its season, with the earlier flowers dipping their heads downward and turning brown. I'm trying to save the seeds to plant next year, so have decapitated a number and put the heads in the garden shed to dry out:

They join the poppy seed heads that have been drying out for at least a month now:

Still deciding about what to plant in the sunflower patch during the winter. Right now we're thinking it may be winter vegetables.