Struan Farm

Phoenix Rising

Amazing to see the hydrangea blooming at Struan Farm again after all of the rain we've had! Guess this is a final burst of blooms before winter? I'm not complaining!

Road Trip

Clifford and I are homebodies, we really don't like leaving Struan Farm. But this past weekend John attended ANZAC commemoration services up north, and given these logistics it made the most sense for us to go meet him rather than vice versa. We had a birthday to celebrate (mine), also our wedding anniversary.

And on Sunday we met Daniel, Ella and Livy at the Clevedon Farmers Market. I restocked my (now award winning) River Estate Olive Oil, bought herb plants, avocados, quince, figs, and smoked fish. We sampled authentic french crepes, venison hot dogs, and artisanal pretzels:

We met a gentle alpaca promoting National Alpaca Day next weekend:

And of course Ella and Livy went for pony rides:

Clifford and I agreed that if we had to leave the farm, this was a pretty fun outing after all.

It's Good Grass, Man

Piopio finally started to get real rain about a week ago after two months of drought, hooray.

This means two things: grass growth for stock before winter sets in, also that we can now plant in the gardens, landscape, etc. My immediate priority at Struan Farm has been to head out and spread grass seed at the new house site (pre-landscaping), along the corridor where Aaron has trenched for our new phone line, and down along the river track. This last area has been a dust bowl after we re-graded the existing track, especially around Jim's Hut and its new water tank, and weed infested on the banks as a result. New grass will remedy that.

 

The amazing thing is how quickly it germinates. You can see growth in less than a week if there is rain. Yep, very exciting here in the country watching the grass grow! I'm onto my fourth 25 kg bag of rye clover mix from Piopio RD1.

p.s. Am I sounding like a farmer yet?

Native Nursery News

Love it when I make this sort of discovery during stints of "extreme weeding" at Struan Farm. As previously reported, I am working my way around the gardens in a progressive clean up campaign, some of which is seasonal. 

At the moment I'm working in the back, where hostas and ferns grow in a wooded area beneath camellias, rhodos and a large kowhai tree. And what do I find in the undergrowth?

Beautiful little kowhai seedlings! These are native trees with yellow flowers, much loved by the tuis.

 

Unbeknowst to us, we have our own tree nursery happening beneath the mother kowhai, with about 13 young trees in various stages. I've potted up three to see what happens, but we will transplant the others around the property over winter.

Won't the tuis be happy?!

Starting to Hedge

Since it's been raining and we can now start to plant and landscape again, we made a few runs to our friends at Smart Plants this past week to pick up some shrubs and trees. Including 200 hedge plants, Griselinia littoralis, for the entrance and up the drive at the new house.

While we've popped in about 40 at the entrance, we'll need to wait for fencing to be done to keep the stock out of the area along the driveway before I can plant the rest. 

Early Signs of a Late Autumn

Over the past week we've started to see signs of autumn at Struan Farm, finally. They're much later than usual, and the temperatures are still quite warm, even in the early a.m. While I do like crisp autumn mornings, now that we're getting some rain the warmth does allow for grass growth for the stock before winter after summer drought, so the warm temperatures are actually a good thing. 

The oaks in the Pet Paddock are starting to drop their leaves:

The vibrant red viburnum berries are on droopy show:

The hydrangeas are mottled and fading, after a long season:

And last but not least, the rams are now out in the paddocks doing their thing with the ewes. But we won't show you that!

Rain, Rain

Don't go away! Not exactly what you want for a long holiday weekend and the school holidays, but we need rain so much that no one is complaining. Plus we've had some sunshine between solid downpours.

This is a great for the gardens and the paddock grass, especially since it's still warm enough to get growth for the animals before winter.

Progress on the Tree Hut

Progress was made on the Tree Hut at Struan Farm over the long holiday weekend with the construction crew on site. The corrugated metal roof got painted and put on, along with the sign:

Next time the crew needs to close off some gaps in the front and sides, and the Hut will pretty much be done!

Easter Happenings at Struan Farm

Ella, Livy and Daniel came to visit Struan Farm for the long Easter holiday weekend. So in preparation I hopped to it (pun intended), dyeing eggs to help the Easter Bunny, and making an Easter Cake decorated with special marshmallow "peeps" from the USA and jellybeans. 

I hadn't dyed brown eggs before, but they color quite differently from white, which don't seem to be available in the markets any longer. I mixed up 1 1/2 cups hot water, 1 tsp. white vinegar and food coloring. Not the normal primary colored Easter eggs but oh well!

Easter Day it was bucketing down rain. The Easter Bunny had left clues as to where he'd hidden the eggs, and the girls went off between showers to find them.

Despite the soggy weather, and the fact that the dye ran on most of the eggs thanks to the rain, a good time was had by all!

Word du Jour: Providore

Perhaps I've been watching too much Food TV or reading too many cooking magazines of late, but I've been noticing references to the word "providore." Is it only me?

Quick homework uncovers that it means "one who makes provision, a purveyor." Current usage seems to imply that a "providore" is somehow higher end, niche, artisanal, etc. etc. vs. the average corner dairy. This may not necessarily be the case, so don't let yourself be fooled!

 

Name the Wagon

Anna recently gave me a little red wagon that can be towed by the lawn mower. I've been filling up the trailers that John leaves for me each week at Struan Farm within a day or so. And since I'm not (as yet) driving the tractor, I'm unable to empty them until John returns. This is limits my capacity to clean up/weed around the place each week. (You and I might say that this isn't such a bad thing?) The one thing it does do is force me to vary my work projects, shift to painting, rocks or dirt once the trailers are full, e.g.

So the idea is that the little red wagon might help. It's slightly bigger than a wheel barrow and I'm meant to be able to drive the lawn mower now.

Our only problem is that there's a place at the back for a name:

Any ideas?
 

The Not-So-Secret Bird Clubhouse

John and I have discovered a somewhat funny occurrence down at the pond at Struan Farm, near our spring/water source. Every evening a huge number of birds congregate in the big bamboo bush. The chattering that goes on is quite loud, with the birds numbering into the hundreds. And this happens quite regularly.

Initially we were calling this the "bird hotel," but now we think it's more likely their not-so-secret clubhouse! 

Summer Wanes, Autumn Beckons

It's still quite warm at Struan Farm in Piopio, especially for this time of the year. Usually by April we're into crisp mornings, possibly a frost. Not this year! So I shouldn't be complaining, except for the fact that we're seeing the last of this year's roses in the gardens. Sigh......

Meeting the Home Guard

Awhile ago I posted about the fact that there are two "home guard" stations that date back to WW2 at Struan Farm. One is easier to access than the other, but there are obvious trenches that were constructed. (John's brother Carrick made little copper signs years ago as well.)

We recently learned that our friend Aaron's grandfather was one of the people who built them. Mr. Bevege, who is now in his mid-eighties, was in school in Piopio, and local boys were enlisted for this purpose.  

Aaron will bring him out to Struan Farm for a visit at some point soon, but I wanted to learn more about the history of these firsthand. So I baked an Orange Lightening Cake from Annabel Langbein's The Free Range Cook: Simple Pleasures and went calling in Piopio village to introduce myself. (In the country this is what you do.)

Turns out there is one other person still around the area, Stan Neal, who was involved in digging the trenches, so I'll also track him down to talk about what he remembers. While there weren't patrols, they did drill with rifles and a mortar. The concern was that the enemy would land to the south, take out the power station, and continue up the main road. And at the time, this was a very real concern in both New Zealand and Australia.

Fortunately this never happened, but the trenches and this history remain. It's quite special for us to connect with someone who was involved directly with the home guard trenches on the farm. And this was well before John's dad Maurie owned the farm, he purchased it as a returning serviceman after WW2. 

The Dark Side of Violets

We all love violets, right? Subtle clusters of purple, lavender, pink or white hiding in the woods. In Victorian times they symbolised modesty and humility, the ideal woman, and were extremely popular cut flowers.

When I arrived on the scene at Struan Farm, I remember asking my mother-in-law Rosemary if there were any violets around, that they might be a nice addition to the gardens. She indicated that they were about somewhere, although she couldn't remember exactly where.

After spending an entire day on my hands and knees digging out violets this past week, I think of this and laugh! I admire Rosemary's gentle diplomacy, her restraint in not letting on to an inexperienced flower gardener that violets are basically (yet another) rampant weed. She let me learn about that as I've come to know the gardens at Struan Farm.

 

So now I know the dark side of violets-- they spread everywhere and takeover if left unrestrained. They are not modest at all, the shameless hussies!

Mystery Fruit

Any idea as to what this is? I found it on the ground in the gardens at Struan Farm. Looks almost like a nashi, but it's actually a camellia seed capsule.

I looked around and found more beneath a different camellia:

So as you might suspect I've popped them into pots with soil to see what happens next.

Discoveries like this make me appreciate just how much more there is to learn around the gardens at Struan Farm.

Fossils in our Midst

I've been up close and personal with quite a few limestone rocks of late at Struan Farm, de- and re-constructing a number of our rock gardens. And I've noticed lots of fossils, mostly shells, embedded in the rocks. Many are quite large. While we tend to take them for granted, they are interesting and pretty special:

During the 1960's SH3 was re-routed through part of the farm, with a resulting land swap. (This is how the "Old Road" became part of Struan Farm.) Most of these rocks came from that construction project. John remembers that his father sent samples off to Canterbury University, who advised they were at least 70 million years old. While this could be family legend, the volume of fossils in our midst do seem to indicate that this land was under the sea a long, long time ago!

As I'm reconstructing rock gardens I'm trying to keep the fossils on display, so curious visitors can enjoy them too. 

Bye Bye Wasps

Readers will recall that we've had a rather large wasp's nest in the tractor shed at Struan Farm for some time:

Our friend Aaron saw it, and suggested contact be made with Robert Atkinson, the local bee specialist. John and I had thought they'd go away in the winter, however Aaron advised that they simply hibernate and would continue to be a problem, and a growing one at that.

Robert came out this past week, twice. After assessing the situation he decided he'd need more gear and would come back the next day. The only problem was that it rained in the interim, and the nest, effectively paper mache, dropped onto the floor of the shed. So we had angry wasps on the shed ceiling as well as in the main body of the nest on the ground. 

Glad I'd called in the professionals!

After he did his thing, Robert advised that we should stay out of the tractor shed for at least a day, also that this could have turned into a really "serious situation" at any time. So it was good we'd gotten around to it. (Now I know better, and who to ring!)

The next day John and I looked at the remnants of the nest. Even if these wasps are terrible, dangerous pests, must say that their work is really quite beautiful, a natural work of art:

Don Quixote's Surprise Treat

A few weeks ago I received an early, early birthday package from friend Laura in Pasadena, with instructions to open the box upon arrival. There was something perishable therein. Of course I did as instructed!

A fantastic surprise, at least from my perspective: packs of chocolate chip and chocolate cookies from Carmela Ice Cream, to be used to make ice cream sandwiches. This has been a particular quest of mine since sampling their memorable salted caramel ice cream sandwiches in Pasadena. Turns out they now offer the cookies for sale, and Laura knew as soon as she saw them that they'd be the perfect birthday gift! 

My first attempt above for the little girls recently. A bit messy but they were impressed and I'll get the hang of it. I'm using Jo Seagar's Salted Caramel Ice Cream recipe from her latest cookbook, "A Bit of What You Fancy." As she would say, "easy peasy."

Also thanks to Laura we've tracked down cookie cutters the right shape, with similar small flutes, from Brown Cookie. Traditional biscuit cutters are close, but they're not the same. 

Now to perfect a chocolate cookie recipe, which it seems can't have eggs to freeze properly. Yes, I have seen hundreds of ice cream sandwich recipes using cookies on the internet, but they're simply not like Carmela's.

This is a quest to be continued. Perhaps just call me Don Quixote in the meantime?

Knitting Again, Finally

Reading, needlepoint, and at long last KNITTING again at Struan Farm. It felt really, really good to get something new on the needles, as if there had been a huge void in my life that was now being filled. 

This past week I made Purl Bee's Bandana Cowl, in Misti Alpaca's Hand Paint Chunky. Colorway is "Gemstone." I was able to whip this off in two nights, it's a really quick project assuming you can get your head around short rows, and I highly recommend their tutorial, it's well written and photographed, easy to follow.

Lovely soft drape and great colors. It's heading to a certain young lady in Pasadena named Grace this May.