Struan Farm

Blogging Break: California

I love the Joni Mitchell song, "California" from her album "Blue."

 

I'll be on holiday in California visiting friends the Olinski family and Kris and Bob yet again. I'm not sure what is worse than a house guest who keeps coming back, but that would be me.

Hasta la vista, blogging break until 2 July or thereabouts.

Roses, Still

Hard to believe that we still have the last of the roses flowering, in winter, at Struan Farm. But we do. I won't be doing any pruning until they're done. These are "Crepuscle."

 

They really need to go to bed!

 

 

Garden Rehab

Bit of a major, this one.

This past summer I made the decision, in consultation with John's sister Anna, that we really had to redo one of the raised beds in the gardens at Struan Farm. We have this insidious grass called "twitch" or "kooch" that gets embedded in plant roots, bulbs, whatever, and literally takes over. To the point where it's virtually impossible to weed.

So the decision was made that I'd take out the plants in this bed over winter, save the dahlia tubers and bulbs for replanting provided we could get the twitch out of them, to be followed by replacing the soil in the bed with clean, fresh topsoil. We'll most likely need to move some of the rocks and weed around them (this part of the project will involve John, these are heavy limestone slabs).

This past weekend friend Rowena and I dug everything out, including quite the mother load of dahlia tubers:

The dahlias are off to the garden shed for storage until replanting. Next comes replacing the soil.....

I must admit that this was backbreaking work, I'm tired just looking at the photos! But I'm also glad we were able to salvage so many dahlias.

Hydrangea Hill Haircut

No rest for the gardener at Struan Farm over the winter, no way! Into June it's time to cut back the hydrangea, and later in the month it will be time to prune the roses.

Since we have so many hydrangea I need to tackle them in stages. This past weekend I gave Hydrangea Hill its seasonal haircut. It was one of those work projects where you can really see what you've done:

Just a reminder of what it looks like in flower:

 

Justifies the hard work, doesn't it? Now to do the other 20 odd we've got around the rest of the property....

Shiraz/Syrah Slippers, Almost Fini

I am almost finished making the "Shiraz Slippers" from Mel Clark's "Knitting Everyday Finery." They are a quick easy project with a few tricks like short rows and using Kitchener Stitch to graft the soles that keep the brain engaged.

Once they are completely dry I will stitch the suede patches on the soles with the linen thread. I purchased these from Mel c/o her South Seas Knitting website, but there are also templates in the book so you can buy suede or another material and cut them yourself.

Can't wait to wear them knitting by the fire!

Please Fence Us In

Not sure if you remember the Cole Porter song, "Don't Fence Me In," but I found Roy Rogers singing it in the 1944 movie "Hollywood Canteen" on You Tube to remind you:

 

At Struan Farm, however, we want to be fenced in, and fenced in fast!

John, with help from friends Michael and his son Kent, took down the roadside fence along the Pet Paddock this past weekend, and started constructing the wooden fence. No sheep in the Pet Paddock until this project is finished, clearly. Once the wooden fence is up we'll run wires along the bottom to keep the stock in.

We're unsure at this point whether we'll leave the wood to weather naturally or stain it, that's a decision to be made down the road after we've lived with it awhile.

 

Baked Winter Nellies

I (finally) got around to using the lovely Winter Nellie pears I brought back from my recent trip to Nelson, purchased from Richards Orchards on the main highway near Mapua. Part of the problem was that I couldn't decide what to use them for, there were so many wonderful options.

Ultimately I decided to test out a recipe for baked pears. They were simple but elegant; in fact, the recipe is called "Baked Pears Elegante" and can be found here. 

Pears are halved, peeled, cored and put into a baking dish. Red wine, sugar, sliced lemon, cinnamon stick, cloves and a wee bit of salt are combined in a saucepan, heated, and then poured over the pears. Bake covered for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 10, basting twice with the sauce. Serve warm or cold, we ate them warm with softly whipped cream. John asked me to save the recipe!

Misty Winter Mornings in Piopio

This time of the year we tend to have foggy/misty mornings at Struan Farm. So we don't know either way until mid-late morning whether the weather will clear or if it means cloudly, showery days.

Fortunately this weekend the sun shone through, eventually!

 

Belatedly: Happy Queen's Birthday

Sorry about the late post today, but it was a long holiday weekend here due to Queen's Birthday weekend and we're just back from Struan Farm.

This year it coincides nicely with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations happening.

Happy Queen's Birthday!

 

Discovering New New Zealand Yarns

I was thrilled to discover some new yarns on my recent trip to Nelson, at least they were new to me. Cruellas Natural Fibre Boutique is always a pitstop, I enjoy catching up with Ruth and Vicky, the owners. Recently met Jessica, their store manager, a transplant from North America like me and now a friend on Ravelry.

This store is part of the Rare Yarns empire, essentially their flagship retail store, with the full range of beautiful yarns in all available colors as well as their creative designs, some of which are sold as finished garments. They also stock some interesting artisanal yarns. I couldn't resist the vibrant colors of this 100% merino by Knitsch, wow:

 

It was so hard to choose between them that I didn't, came home with the complete sampling. Colorways are: "Zissou," "Easy as Stone," "The William," Mulligan Drive," "Acre Dream," and "Sweetheart." Suffice it to say some of the names are more intuitive than others, undoubtedly of significance to Knitsch!

Also this lovely delicate silk merino lace by Spinning A Yarn, colors are "Lichen" and "Blaze."

And last but not least, some of Cruellas hand dyed alpaca in a beautiful soft colorway, so you can see that I can be subtle too:

Good to support NZ yarns, especially the artisanal players working to build their businesses.

The Secret Recipe: Still Secret

Experimentation was the order of the day this past Sunday. John loved the lime marmalade made by our friend Malcolm this past season. We also had a special guest at Struan Farm over the past year who raided our pantry during his stay and it seems he liked it too.

Thus I decided to try my hand at making lime marmalade. I've made strawberry, blueberry, plum and apricot jams for several years now, as well as lemon and passionfruit curds.

But when I contacted Malcolm with a plea for his "secret recipe" ahead of my session in the kitchen he confessed that he'd winged it. He'd started with an Edmonds recipe and then looked at another and made changes. Changes he doesn't exactly remember. The internet might have been involved. Oh. Oh. I know this is the mark of a good chef, but Malcolm's secret recipe could be lost forever.

Deep breath before plunging in.

 
I decided to stick to the Edmonds marmalade recipe, which calls for grapefruit and lemons in a 2:1 ratio, since I found another recipe for lime marmalade in another book that used this same ratio. Good thing I read the recipe the night before-- it turns out that the chopped fruit needs to soak overnight, covered in water.

This then cooks for 45 minutes, at which point you measure the pulp and put everything back in the pot with a quantity of sugar in relation to the quantity of pulp. Once the sugar is dissolved, everything boils until set.

As most readers of this blog will know, I don't sugar coat it when disasters happen, and this would be one of those times.

While everything set, it tasted bitter. Way too bitter. The bits of fruit were hard and chewy, not soft.  The recipe said the fruit could be sliced or chopped, didn't specify it had to be finely minced, so something else went awry. Perhaps I should have cooked it longer, until softened more.

So it looks like I need to head over to Malcolm's kitchen when he makes his next batch to pick up some tips. In the meantime, his secret recipe is still a big secret, at least to me!