Struan Farm

Bulbs: The Next Installment

Considered titling this post "Bulb-athon" or "Bulb-apalooza." The final box of tulip and daffodil bulbs for this season arrived at Struan Farm from NZ Bulbs this week. Unfortunately my helpers weren't able to get down to assist with getting them planted right now, so I had to get seriously stuck in, planting 300 daffodils and 235 tulips (to be exact).

Most of the daffodils went in around the new rock garden surrounding the huge copper beech tree in the Homestead's roadside wooded garden, although it's hard to tell the bulbs laid out in clusters for planting from the fallen leaves, sorry!

 

The bulk of the tulips, 200, were popped into the new section Aaron dug out with this digger, next to last year's planting, at the front entrance. I also did a few clusters of special "parrot" tulips inside the front gate (these were the "35"). It worked well last year covering the area with fallen leaves from the Pet Paddock, so we'll do that again when the helpers arrive on the scene the weekend after next.

Suffice it to say I missed my helpers!

A is for Apples from Anna

Sister-in-law Anna has harvested a bumper crop of organic Granny Smith apples, and we were happy to share some of the surplus. It will be awhile before there are home grown Granny Smith apples at Struan Farm, we've just planted a replacement for the tree that got trashed by misbehaving lambs...

It was a good excuse to test out a recipe for "Toffee Apple Self-Saucing Pudding" from Sophie Gray's new cookbook "Fill the Tins."

Easy and delicious served warm from the oven with softly whipped cream. Definitely recommend this book!

And we still have apples left over for something else, this recipe uses only two.

The Mad Mower, with Headlights

John's ride-on lawn mower conked out a few weeks ago, and was shipped into the shop in Piopio for another round of repairs. However word came back that it was time for a new mower for Struan Farm. The one we've been using for years, inherited from Maurie, had done its dash.

So the new four wheel drive version is making the rounds of the lawns and the Pet Paddock. The big news is that John now has headlights, so he can mow past sunset! 

Isn't that great? Actually, he was doing this to tease me. It's well past time for a beer and nibbles.....

Straddling the Seasons, Still

This weekend's flowers for the table at Struan Farm are clearly still straddling the seasons. I combined the last (?) of the pink roses from under the Perfect Pergola, several small hydrangea from Hydrangea Hill, and the first early camellias.  

Love the combination of the pinks with the greenish hydrangeas. 

Fungi Time

Now that we've had rain at Struan Farm the fungi are starting to appear. I haven't had time to trek all the way down to the river to look for the magic red toadstools under the pine trees as yet, but I have seen quite a few different ones around.

The last ones above look to be "proper paddock mushrooms" (yes a technical term), meant to be edible. But I'm not going to test that, John is the one who will know for sure.

 

Late Afternoon Down the Old Road

Yesterday afternoon Clifford, my camera and I decided to take a break and walk down the Old Road at Struan Farm. I'd spent four hours that morning pulling out willow weed from the Bull Paddock, so thought I deserved a break. I actually couldn't remember the last time I'd walked down the Old Road, or when I'd last taken a walk for relaxation, so it was good to reconnect with that part of myself that notices extraordinary light, the geometry of ferns, and mossy rocks. Think I may need to do a wee bit more of this.

Note to self: need to find out about how to clean watercress properly, since we've got it all over and should be using it. I think the process involves soaking it for awhile in water with a few drops of bleach, but I'll find out.

And last but not least, here's some of the evidence on the willow weed work, I had three separate piles. It's terrible stuff. I pulled it up and spread grass seed.

 

A Pair of Pears

With autumn fruit in abundance, I recently decided to test out two different recipes and methods for cooking pears: roasting and poaching. I wanted to see if we'd prefer one cooking method over the other.

First I made Honey Roasted Pears from the latest Dish Magazine, these are served with blue cheese:

Then I poached pears in caramelised verjus from A Slice of Orange Regional Providore (there's that word....). I popped in some star anise and cloves, improvising.

The verdict: both dishes looked great. The honey roasted pears were bland by themselves, without the blue cheese, while the verjus poached pears really needed more sugar in the poaching liquid to be sweet enough.

So the outcome depends entirely on the recipe rather than the method. Roasting is probably quicker all up if you're crunched for time.