Struan Farm

Sillouettes of Cicadas

Was wondering last week when we'd begin to hear the deep summer humming of the cicadas start at Struan Farm. And we didn't have to wait too long, they rose up from underground this past weekend to start their annual mating concert.

John and I did a wander around the trees in the Homestead gardens and Pet Paddock to find their abandoned casings on the tree trunks. They seem to prefer dogwoods, maples and oaks, we're not sure why.

Cicadas remain for us on of those amazing seasonal curiousities we see around Struan Farm.

 

This Week's Project

At long last we had weather conditions this week that allowed me to start staining/oiling the front decks at the new house at Struan Farm. (Not sure when we're going to stop calling it the "new house," since at this point it's the "newish house.")

It can't be too hot, and there can't be much if any direct sunlight shining on the boards. As they say, timing is everything. While there are special mops you can use to do this sort of thing, I brushed it on with a large paint brush.

 

So one coat down. I'll wait for a few days for this to soak in and dry and then tackle the second coat. Also gives me time to recover!

Luscious Summer Dessert

Decided to make these free form fruit tarts from the holiday issue of Dish magazine. They're super easy to make, using frozen puff pastry, which is baked and cooled. Cream cheese is mixed with a bit of icing/confectionary sugar, then combined with sour cream and lemon curd (we use "lite" dairy products). This is then chilled before spreading on the pastry. Top with beautiful seasonal fresh fruit (berries from Piopio Berry Orchard highly recommended!), chopped pistachios and a sprinkle of icing sugar. Voila!

As previously reported, the hedgehog couldn't stay on for dessert, which meant more for John and me. We weren't too fussed about that!

Late, Thirsty Dinner Guest

It's been very hot and very dry these past few weeks in Piopio. This past weekend John and I were having a late dinner at Struan Farm, looking out from our dining table to the front lawn and the Bowl. And what did we see, but a wee hedgehog motoring along in search of water.

 

Karen to the rescue, with instruction from John, who remembers putting out saucers of water and milk for thirsty hedgehogs as a child. 

He drank up for quite some time, then decided not to stay for dessert, toddled off on his way.

Random Summer

Sharing this photo of watermelon rinds, they look so beautiful and shout "summer," don't you think?

The Mad Mower Takes on The Bowl

You will recall that John is rather intrepid with his ride on lawn mower at Struan Farm. He's taken to mowing the Pet Paddock along our roadside frontage. It now looks beautiful, "park like," given our significant, specimen trees, so this is something he will continue to do even though it takes him hours.

In the past week he decided to tackle "the bowl" in front of our new house. It's an amphitheater really, we joke about having concerts one day where people can sit out on blankets with picnics and enjoy music, looking out on the trees and the rolling green hills. "Concerts in the Paddock," the Piopio equivalent of Rhythm & Vines. There's a singer named Tami Neilson we both like, we've mused about tracking her down to see if she'd give the inaugural concert a go.

Only trouble now is that I'm not so sure John has been joking!

Firsts from the Garden: Spuds & Zucchini

More firsts from the veggie garden at Struan Farm, then I promise I'll get off this kick for awhile (although I can't resist telling you that we've also picked a handful of green beans, and my corn plants all are flowering, if that is the technical term for what corn does?).

We've dug our first potatoes, and have zucchini starting to come on. I've realized that the latter grow so much in one day that you really do need to pick them, or risk having a marrow.

Decided to use both in a tian with tomatoes, garlic, and fresh thyme, drizzled with a good olive oil and baked until tender.

Firsts from the Garden: Lettuces

FINALLY, lettuces for salad from the veggie garden at Struan Farm!

I popped in some chives from our herb garden, avocado, cherry toms, prawns, slivered almonds and a few edible nasturtium flowers, and voila! A quick salad for lunch on a hot day.

Life is pretty civilized in Piopio!

 

Firsts from the Garden: Kale

The veggies are starting to rock and roll in the gardens at Struan Farm. This past weekend I made a delicious Festive Kale, Cranberry and Goat's Cheese Salad from the Dish magazine website (it also has sliced almonds). The vinaigrette is made of fresh lemon juice, olive oil and honey, and is used to massage the kale to soften it. I learned that just picked kale from the garden doesn't take nearly as much massaging as older kale from the grocery store, yet another reason to grow your own, as if you needed one!

Happy 21st, Piopio Berry Orchard!

Piopio Berry Orchard is celebrating its 21st year. Thought a cake would be appropriate to commemorate this major milestone, so we commissioned one from John's colleague Barbara Ware in Dargaville, cake decorator extraordinaire and Piopio berry afficionado. We delivered it to our friends at the Orchard yesterday, and think it was a hit. 

 

Happy Birthday Piopio Berry Orchard, enjoy! And Barbara, a beautiful job....

Being Weaned

Sometimes the shoe is on the other foot, and this would be one of those times.

With various farmstay visitors and kids around at Struan Farm, we really didn't get our pet lamb Spud weaned as originally intended. He was still getting a bottle or two a day until the end of last week. But something surprising happened the day we stopped feeding him--nothing. No wailing by the bedroom window, no histrionics. There were a few "baas" coming our way when John and I were sitting outside on the deck, but nothing major, and not on the scale we expected. Seems Spud was ready to move on and join the mob, leave his foster mum.

You will of course guess who's having the hard time being weaned. I just stopped in the paddock to give him a pat. He still comes when I call him, but eventually that will stop too. Sigh. Hopefully next year's pet or pets will be as special as Spud.

My So Called Green Thumb

The veggie gardens at Struan Farm are thriving, the concrete troughs we installed as raised beds in the backyard of the new house work really well. I've always had a bit of a knack (or "green thumb") with veggies, not sure why. We've had rocket/arugula and radishes early on, but now the zucchini, tomatoes, kale, broccoli, lettuces, beans, fennel, carrots, swiss chard/silver beet are all coming on. Perhaps the companion plantings I did have helped too.

  

And p.s. we almost have a lawn back there!

Summertime, and the Cooking is Easy....

It's been quite hot and humid these past few weeks at Struan Farm. Brilliant sunny weather, interspersed with some rain, really perfect. This time of year we don't typically get inside to get cleaned up for dinner until after 7 p.m., and the last thing I want to do is spend hours in the kitchen if I don't have to. We're wanting quick, healthy, refreshing food.

This past weekend I tested out two new recipes, a "Watermelon and Prawn Salad" from the current issue of Dish Magazine, and a "Strawberry and Chocolate Frangipane Tart" from their website.

The salad was absolutely delicious, the flavours are inspired! In addition to watermelon and prawns it has sliced fennel bulb, red onion and feta, with a handful or two of salad greens tossed in. Everything is dressed with a vinaigrette made with olive oil, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, garlic, dijon mustard and chile flakes, with fennel fronds sprinkled on top. Easy and quick to assemble, this will be part of our summer repetoire moving forward, we loved it. The crunch of the fennel, saltiness of the feta and bite of the onion offset the sweetness of the watermelon, so it's not too fruity.

And the dessert? Wow. It happens to be gluten free, if that's of interest. My little borage flowers wilted a wee bit, and the tart base didn't rise quite as high as advertised, but no one was complaining about that. Strawberries and chocolate with mascarpone cream thrown in wouldn't get complaints at Struan Farm!

And The Winner is......

It's been a very tight race between "Thor" and "Red" on the "Name the Newest Gnome" contest at Struan Farm. But the votes have now been tallied, and the judges have decided upon "Red." This also won the popular vote.

Welcome to the gnome sanctuary in the tawa grove, Red!

Prizes to be awarded in due course.

A Workshop of One's Own

Yes, I'm paraphrasing Virgina Woolf, but John finally does have a workshop of his own at Struan Farm up at the new house. And while we both loved Maurie's Workshop down near the Homestead, which had any tool anyone might ever need, it is being converted into an additional bedroom cottage for the farmstay. (Yes, another project!!)

So I thought it only fitting that John have a sign for his new workshop. Maurie's had a plate, designed and made years ago by family friend Christine Nelson.

 

So before Christmas, I got in touch with Mike at South Street Gallery in Nelson, and commissioned a reasonable facsimile, with John's name. And here's the result, which looks fantastic on the new workshop:

 

And so he finally has a workshop of his own, with a plate of his own.

Details, Details

I wandered down to the Homestead gardens at Struan Farm yesterday thinking I was going to photograph the dahlias, which have just started to bloom. And yes, I did a bit of that, but I also got into some detail shots of the hydrangeas and poppies. 

Makes me realize I've been doing a bit too much farmstay laundry lately, haven't stopped to smell the flowers nearly enough....

Boxing Day at Struan Farm 2014

The annual family Boxing Day gathering at Struan Farm was quite relaxed this year from my vantage point. <Only> 22 people in attendance, it all seemed a piece o'cake to me vs. 36 last year, which did test the system, particularly after moving house and ending a 36 year career in banking. We didn't have as many little kiddies running around this year due to some absences overseas and/or family scheduling conflicts. We also managed to round up enough chairs so that everyone could sit down properly, which allowed for considerably more "chitty chatty," although we did finally get everyone up and into the croquet and archery competitions.

The luncheon menu included eye fillet with lime wasabi dressing, Vietnamese Salmon (from the new Annabel Langbein cookbook, this was a big hit), green beans with almonds, dried cranberries and lemon honey vinaigrette, asparagus, and potato salad.

And (of course) this was followed by the dessert table, laden with a beautifully decorated fruit cake given to John by colleague Barbara up in Kaipara, fresh Piopio berries, and a tiered platter with chocolate chip cookies, brownies, white chocolate rocky road, cream cheese Christmas cookies and caramel ANZAC slice (latter is seriously yummy, a total experiment from RIPE-A Fresh Batch by Angela Redfern). I try to make sure there's something for everyone AND leftovers!

Below are some photos from the day. The croquet trophy was won by Daniel and Clare, while the archery trophy was swept away by little Milly and Mike. The word is we have an emerging archery champion in our midst, inspired no doubt by "Brave" and "The Hunger Games."

 

Even Spud made it to the festivities, escorted down from his home paddock by Anna, Olivia Kate, Karen, and a bevy of little girls. He did get a bit distracted by the phoetinia hedge and my roses in the Homestead gardens, but was persuaded to move along.

 

The only problem ended up being that he was so overexcited (and overfed) that by the end of the afternoon he went and curled up by a fence in the Old Orchard Paddock, and wouldn't come back up home until the next day. But I suspect he wasn't the only one who felt this way!