Struan Farm

Eating Flowers

My edible flower garden experiment here in the backyard at Struan Farm has met with its challenges this season, largely from the rabbits. The cornflowers and nasturtium were nibbled, but they have fought back with a little protection from chicken wire. 

Happy to see the nasturtium and borage, both edible, in flower. Cornflowers and calendula are coming along as well. The violas unfortunately succumbed to the rabbits.

Aren't they lovely? I've tossed them in with lettuce from the garden for our dinner salad....

When A Pet Goes Bad

We're having a little drama here at Struan Farm. Pepper, one of last year's pet lambs, has gone rogue. She was always anti-social and my problem child, but as a hogget she has decided recently to wage a campaign against John's young trees all over the property.

She's taken down a Luisa plum tree (snapped off), a liquid amber, and plane tree. Also chewed off a beautiful Compassion rose blooming near the house fence, I watched her do it.  John isn't happy. He's told me that in his dad's day a problem sheep or cattle doing this sort of thing would have been sent off to the works. That isn't an option in this case. My response is: "the sheep aren't the problem, the fencing is the problem." John doesn't want to hear this, it's much easier to blame Pepper. But that's my mantra and I'm sticking to it. (Plus, there's an element of truth to this and he knows it.)

So with a grumble or two (or three) John has had to build far more sturdy fencing around the young trees than he had previously. I will tell you that we've had other problems, Pepper just seems to be a lightening rod right now because she's doing quite a bit of damage and has been caught in the act, almost showing off.

It's hard when you're in the middle between spouse and pet.

Boxing Day Leftovers

Yes, there's turkey, ham, potato salad and lots of cookies leftover from our Boxing Day celebration at Struan Farm. We're working our way through it this week.

But I like the flowers best!

Loving Lemon Verbena

For one of our Christmas dinners I decided to make lemon verbena ice cream for the first time. We have a huge bush in the backyard here at Struan Farm, right now it's flowering too.

And so I googled to search out recipes, and was very happy once I found a recipe by David Lebovitz, author of "The Perfect Scoop," the book I've been using for my other ice cream experiments.

Fresh, fragrant lemon verbena leaves are infused in warm milk, sugar and cream, with a pinch of salt. Otherwise the recipe is quite similar to the others I've made.

Once the ice cream was done I decided to try another experiment: lemon verbena shortbread to serve with the ice cream. Friend Laura gave me her rosemary shortbread recipe awhile ago, which I've made and really like. So I substituted fresh lemon verbena for the fresh rosemary. And--yum.

Subtle, but delicious!

 

Boxing Day at Struan Farm 2016

Our annual Boxing Day celebration with family and friends was a fun day here at Struan Farm. Everyone arrives around 11 a.m. to get a round of croquet in before our buffet lunch on the Homestead deck. We had 27 in attendance, a number that I know I can cater for easily. This year I changed the menu from our traditional eye fillet and salmon, serving roast turkey and ham instead. This reduced the amount of last minute cooking for me. I was almost relaxed!

After lunch (far too much dessert, as always) the archery competition was held out in the Pet Paddock. Mike and Carrick officiated with clipboard in hand. This year we had both "junior" and "senior" trophies. The junior contest came down to a one shot shoot out between cousins Marlo and Milly, with Marlo capturing the prize. Milly then teamed up with Dad Dave and was able to win the "senior" category. This allowed her to retire a trophy having won three years running (still not sure how she was able to compete in two categories, but we'll look the other way on that one...). Nick and Evie won the croquet. After the awards ceremony everyone headed down to the river in 4WD to relax and/or swim. Daniel brought along an inflatable boat that was a big hit with the kids.

Merry Christmas 2016

And the winner was: COOKIE!

Best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas from the gang at Struan Farm: John, Karen, Clifford, Cookie, Buster, Curly, Tootsie, Mickey & Minnie. (While Buster and Curly have moved on, they are still very much with us in spirit.) Hope you have a great holiday surrounded by your loved ones, human or otherwise. I'll blog over the holiday period when schedule permits.

Christmas Clean Ups

Pet lambs Cookie and Tootsie were taken down to the Wool Shed "salon" here at Struan Farm ahead of Christmas to be shorn by Farmer John. Their first time, actually. I walked them down, luring them along the farm track with a bottle. We managed to get there. Plan B was to enlist Mike and his truck. A few hours later I went to get them, post haircuts, and found these two wailing scrawny creatures on the farm track:

Unrecognisable, really! Except for the crying when I called out for them.  Plus the fact that Cookie was wearing the bright blue collar I'd given her as an early Christmas present. Here she is before shearing so you can see how much her appearance has changed:

The collar is now way too big for her, so I've removed it rather than risk her getting caught on something until she grows back into it.

Rosie has also received a new red collar since her old one was pretty tatty. The hoggets got crutched this same day, basically a tidy up trim of the wool around their "back ends." Here's Rosie showing off her new collar and clean self:

Yes, we do have standards to uphold here at Struan Farm.

My only problem now is that Clifford will be expecting equal treatment--he won't want a hair cut, may agree to a bath, but will definitely push for a new collar since his old one is looking pretty "farm dog." He's very competitive with those pet lambs!

 

We're Caught in a Trap

No, no references to Elvis' song "Suspicious Minds" here at Struan Farm, and probably not the most Christmas-y of blog posts either!

This season we have been inundated with magpies around the property. These are not native birds, in fact they were introduced from Australia (space here for some sort of kiwi joke that all bad things come from Australia....). They attack and scare off the native birds, kill their young, and have turf wars that rival the LA gangs. In Australia they have been known to dive bomb little blonde school children.

Ten or so years ago the bird wars on the farm got so bad that John went out and bought a trap, which "we" used to catch over 30 birds. At a certain point they got the message and moved on. We haven't had many problems since then, until now. So the trap has been dusted off and deployed. We've been moving it around to spots on the front lawn, in the backyard and in the Pet Paddock.

 

It's basically a double sided wire cage trap with mirrors. Bits of mince are left in the open doors, the birds walk in and the doors close. John and/or Mike then take them off, I won't go into the gory details on that but everything is done humanely. 

So far this season we have caught thirteen, and they're still coming. I saw seven in the Pet Paddock this week, and there are still at least three around up at our house. They're meant to be reasonably intelligent birds, so they now need to figure out that they're better elsewhere so we can finish this business. Life on the farm, eh?

Hydrangea Hill is Happening

Hydrangea Hill down at the Homestead at Struan Farm is starting to happen, hooray! While I moan about the annual cutback when I'm doing it, the plants flower for a long time and are easy care. Plus they look beautiful, don't they?

Flax in Flower

Interesting to see the native flax plants at the pond here at Struan Farm in various stages of flower. The tuis love them. I've been saving the seeds from the dried pods to grow more plants in the glasshouse too.

They're quite sculptural, aren't they?

 

Relishing Relishes

It was a productive day here at Struan Farm, rainy though it was. I was able to cook up the relishes for our annual Boxing Day celebration, both from Donna Hay magazine's Christmas issue: "cranberry ginger pan relish" and "beetroot, balsamic & red currant relish."

The cranberry relish is meant to accompany roast turkey and the beetroot, etc. ham. Think the cranberry would also go well with venison, not that that's on the menu. Both keep for up to two weeks in the fridge, so are perfect to make well ahead of the big event. 26 people and counting.....

"The Cabana at the Rapids" Takes Shape

We've been renovating a rental property up north in Auckland, and at the end of the week a shed from that property travelled down to Struan Farm, along with a pergola or two.  We'll redeploy the pergolas around the gardens, but the real question for now was what to do with the shed. Firewood storage is always an option, but it seemed that John wanted to do something more interesting.

And so the shed was taken by tractor and trailer down the steep farm track to the Mangaotaki River. Apparently the neighbours watched John from across the river. He reported that it was a slightly harrowing journey so they must have been amused by the whole episode, wondering what the heck we are up to. Unfortunately I was busy potting basil and missed recording the trip for posterity.

The shed has been deposited down by the rapids and our sandy, swimming beach. We've wanted to make a picnic area and camping site there for some time, it's a great place for drinks on a hot summer evening (John wants yet another cabin, on stilts!). The sound of the rapids is quite soothing-- it's beautiful, one of my favourite areas of the farm.

 

Stay tuned, yet another project-in-process. It will be painted and sited, maybe even have a bunk or two, definitely fold up chairs and table and picnic supplies. I'm thinking about calling it "The Cabana at the Rapids." A "cabana" is a hut, cabin or shelter at a beach or swimming pool. Movie stars hang out at "cabanas" poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Our Cabana will be rustic, but this could be quite the draw card for our end of the Mangaotaki, don't you think?...

 

Easy Summer Meal

This time of the year John and I typically work outside around the property and gardens here at Struan Farm until quite late. Often we don't come in for dinner before 7-7:30 p.m., and that's before taking time to shower and (for me) dinner prep. So I like to have a repertoire of easy, reasonably healthy dinners I can whip up quickly with minimal fuss, especially on weekends. 

This would be one: Nadia Lim's Asparagus, Pumpkin and Feta Pizza with Rocket Pesto.

I purchase the pizza bases, and use whatever pesto I've got in the freezer from the stash friends Kris and Bob made up during their visit last year from our surplus basil and parsley. Cutting, peeling, boiling and mashing the pumpkin takes the most time, but I can usually fit in a quick shower during the pumpkin cooking time, with John keeping an eye on the stove.

This one's worth a try--easy and quick for a casual summer (or winter) night.

Getting the Show on the Road

I've started baking for our annual family Boxing Day celebration at Struan Farm, it's definitely time to get cracking! Frequent readers will know that we have family, extended family and friends come to the farm each year on the Boxing Day holiday for lunch and games. I go over the top with the lunch, and the games get competitive, with trophies. This year it will be archery, croquet and a new addition: badminton, with about 30 coming along. (Note to self: organise a trophy for the badminton.)

A recent rainy day gave me time to bake, pretty much all day. I knocked off a batch of chocolate chip cookies, cream cheese Christmas cookies (a Barrett family tradition), chewy fudge brownies, and mini-cupcakes (latter will be topped with icing the day before the event). Everything has gone into the freezer.

It's a start! We'll also have berry tiramisu, fresh strawberries & blueberries with whipped cream (Piopio Berry Orchard, of course!) and a few other baked items I'll get made between now and then--I like to have platters or tiered stands with lots of variety.

I'm changing our main dishes this year too. Most years we've had roast salmon and eye fillet/beef tenderloin. Delicious, but time consuming, with lots of last minute running around and stress on my part. This year I'm serving roast turkey and ham, both to be cooked the day before. We'll have ciabatta rolls, homemade relishes, cranberry sauce, mustards, mayo and butter so people can make sandwiches if they'd like. Side dishes will include steamed green beans with roasted shallots and potato salad. Sometimes change is a good thing, I'll report back in due course.

Bittersweet Byes

Raising pet lambs is a joy most of the time. Even when the baas for morning bottles wake you up way too early. But this is the part of the exercise that I don't like. In fact, it makes me teary. I wish I could say it gets easier, but it just doesn't.

Buster and Curly left Struan Farm a few days ago. They've gone down to Farmer John's farm to be weaned with his other ram lambs. They will stay there another month or so. It was my decision, I know, but. I know that if they stayed they'd get rough and push me and everyone else over in the paddocks. 

We wrangled them through the backyard with bottles and they were loaded onto Farmer John's truck, where we gave them their last bottles. Weaning then commenced.

Cookie and Tootsie were beside themselves that afternoon. In all honesty, me too. Minnie and Mickey are too little to know what was happening, which is probably just as well.

Bumper Crop of Basil

You will know that I don't do things by halves here at Struan Farm. (I just checked the meaning of this expression to make sure I was using it properly, and I am. It means to do things with lots of effort and enthusiasm, often more than is required!)

Melanie at Piopio's Fat Pigeon Cafe admired my basil plants last year, and encouraged me to grow some to supply her, since her commercial food supplier show up just once each week and things run out. I've learned growing herbs from seed that sometimes they grow, and sometimes they don't, so no promises were made either way. But about two weeks ago I potted up one seed tray (104 plants), and yesterday I potted and bagged 175 from a second. Yep, a bumper crop.

The first lot is almost ready for use. I've got two more seed trays growing, one is ready to be potted/bagged if I had enough pots/bags to do so, the other one is early days. I've just used up all of my PB3 plastic bags, and most of my recycled pots.  I'm trying to stagger planting seed trays so I can provide a reasonably constant supply over the summer. The basil I planted out in the garden isn't doing at all well, it hasn't been hot enough quite yet. But basil loves the heat of the glasshouse, and the glasshouse is now pretty much FULL of basil!

Piopio's Next Top Model

This year I got the reindeer antlers out early to shoot the pet lambs for the annual Struan Farm Christmas card. So early in fact that we only had Cookie and Buster at that point. So I didn't take any photos of Curly or Tootsie, let alone Mickey and Minnie, wearing the antlers as possible models for our card. My theory was right--it was much easier to photograph them when they were younger and innocent!

Here's Buster:

 

And here's Cookie:

 

Who do you think won this year's gig? I'll post the card right before Christmas so you can see, and no telling if you've already received your card!...

To complete this story I went out in the paddock to see if I could get Curly and Tootsie to pose. Minnie and Mickey are still too small for the antlers. Curly cooperated, Tootsie wouldn't come anywhere near me!

Lullabies in the Pet Pen

Mickey and Minnie, our new late season pet lambs, are starting to settle into life at Struan Farm. It took a few days before they got the hang of bottle feeding without being held, but we're where we need to be now.

A few evenings ago after bottle time I went out and sat with them while they started to go to sleep. You can see it in their eyes, can't you? At one point there was even a big yawn. 

Must confess that they are so close to identical that I haven't been able to tell them apart without peering below, until I realised that Minnie has a pink nose and Mickey a brown one! 

 

First Piopio Blueberries of the Season!

Called into Piopio Berry Orchard this morning to restock our supply of fresh strawberries. Good news--both the blueberries and raspberries have landed! Prices are a tad high on the blueberries and raspberries right now (don't tell John, puleese...). So I restrained myself on the raspberries (for now) and bought just strawberries and blueberries. 

Am devouring these by the handful....good for my brain and vision I think!

Assembly Required

We were gifted a Christmas cake a few weekends ago by visiting friends, so for our weekend dessert I decided to use it to try making "whipped mascarpone custard and almond christmas pudding trifle" from the "magical Christmas issue" of Donna Hay magazine. What was interesting about the recipe was that no baking or real effort was required! Store bought custard was whipped with store bought mascarpone and a bit of orange zest. This was then spooned into glasses and layered with some of the fruit cake that had been soaked in Pedro Ximenez (sweet) sherry, and topped with toasted almonds and more of the orange zest.

Very simple and very good! A cheater's dessert it was so easy....