Struan Farm

Let's Not Forget the Strawberries

Just because the blueberries are peaking doesn't mean we've stopped eating Piopio Berry Orchard strawberries just yet here at Struan Farm!

My latest experiment involved strawberry sorbet. We had a friend visiting who is both vegan and gluten free due to a serious health issue. That meant no meat, fish, eggs, wheat flour or dairy at meals, rather lots of veggies, non-gluten grains, and fruit. I've found it very easy to contend with gluten free cooking without much thought, but the combination of gluten free along with no dairy or eggs is a bit more challenging.

So for dinner we had zoodles (zucchini noodles made with the spiralizer) jazzed up with lots of garlic, veggies and fresh herbs, quinoa tabbouleh, and a bean salad, along with eye fillet on the BBQ for the carnivores.

I decided to test out making a strawberry sorbet for dessert, since sorbets are made with no dairy. I'm very glad I did, it was AMAZING! Really intense strawberry flavour, much better than the ice cream....recipe once again from David Lebovitz' "The Perfect Scoop."

David recommends serving this with a Plum Compote, easily made with fresh plums simmered in a simple sugar syrup with fresh blueberries (or raspberries) mixed in after cooking. I made this for our guests (always good to have a use for our plums....), but the next night John and I finished the rest of the sorbet up with some fresh blueberries. I'm thinking I need to make a few batches of the sorbet for the freezer before the strawberry season is finished...

Peak Blueberries

You've heard of "peak oil" and "peak stuff" no doubt. But "peak blueberries?" Yep, it's happening right now in Piopio. Mike from Piopio Berry Orchard has told me so, and he would know! The blueberries are peaking for this season. 

The good news is that this means the price has come down a bit, and it's time to make blueberry jam here at Struan Farm. While strawberry seems to be the favourite of our farmstay guests, I prefer blueberry (or blackcurrant), since it's not as sweet. So this batch is really for us with the random jar for a farmstay guest or two.

I've realised I need to make a few more batches of strawberry jam for the pantry as well. While I could use frozen berries during the year to make up jam and restock my supply, I think the fresh berries make superior jam. And our guests seem to think so too.

Jamming at Struan Farm, yet again!

Reconstruction

John and nephew Mike have been working to reconstruct a pergola (or "arbor") here at Struan Farm. It was pulled down recently from our rental property in Auckland, we've actually got two to reuse in the gardens at the new(ish) house. They're made of beautiful hardwood so should last forever or thereabouts.

They've been reconditioned and painted to coordinate with the house. The first one is going up at the entrance to the orchard. Clifford isn't so sure about all this, he was nervous about walking through it to get up to his house, but he'll get used to it.

Once reassembly is complete and the concrete dry the next decision will be what to grow around it and on top. John has suggested kiwi fruit but I'm leaning toward grapes. The other option is "espaliered" fruit trees on each side, but let's face it, we're not the best at training plants. We've just killed a wisteria, and I can't even discipline tomatoes properly! Hops would be attractive, although John hasn't announced plans to start a microbrewery on the farm just yet. "Piopio Pilsner" does have a ring to it though, doesn't it? Hmmm, might have to get some hops for somewhere.

 

Another Harvest

It's somewhat a season of firsts for me in the veggie gardens here at Struan Farm. A few weeks ago we had the first successful garlic harvest, now it's shallots. We use quite a lot of these, I often roast them with steamed green beans or use them chopped in a white wine vinaigrette for salads. 

At this rate I'm going to need to take over more space for veggies in the backyard!

 

Wisteria Woes

Something terrible has happened here at Struan Farm. One of the wisterias over our rose garden "perfect pergola" suddenly took a turn. "Wisteria White Silk" had flowered beautifully this past season, was growing vigorously. In fact, it seems to have died, all of a sudden.

Most gardeners will know that you can't kill wisteria when you're fervently trying to do so, so how did this happen? I did weed the rose garden a few days before, and trimmed a few errant branches, but you're meant to do that at this time of the year. I also sprayed  aphids on some roses down below. It wasn't windy, and it wasn't anything major. Neither of these events should have had any impact. I don't use chemical spray that would have harmed the wisteria. The wisteria on the other side of the pergola is fine.

I grilled John, who is known to go a bit wild on spraying, and he hasn't been in the area. I've now cut the dead leaves and branches back in the hope it will regrow in time. But this is a complete mystery! 

Stars in My Eyes

You will know that this summer I'm loving the scabiosas in the gardens here at Struan Farm. It's one of my favourite flowers for arrangements at the moment. I use the immature buds, flowers, and seed pods.

But what you don't know is that I'm unable to buy any more seeds of the white ones that are my favourites. They're just not available any more. These things happen in New Zealand, rather often (my bread mix comes to mind). I'd like to say I'm used to it, but I'm not. It's frustrating!

However, life and flowers move on so Karen must as well. I'm trying to save seeds from the plants to grow more, we'll see how that goes. Thankfully they are perennials. I have been able to buy seeds for "Scabiosa Starball," which is a pale lavender flower smaller but somewhat similar to the white one. The interesting thing about these is that they flower for a very short time, after which this happens:

 

Yet another scabiosa to like, for an entirely different reason.

 

 

No Rhubarbs Over Rhubarb

A few days ago I was down at the Homestead gardens here at Struan Farm and realised it was time to pick the rhubarb. Rhubarb is one of those foods that I am somewhat ambivalent about. I want to like it, I really do. It's "old fashioned." And so I've grown it. 

Although typically served with and as a fruit, rhubarb is actually a vegetable. It's related both to sorrel and dock, and has been grown in China since 2700 B.C., where it was used for medical purposes as a laxative, to reduce fever and to cleanse the body. The leaves contain oxalic acid and are poisonous.

I recalled the word rhubarb also meaning a fight. When I did a bit more research I discovered it was coined by Brooklyn Dodger baseball broadcaster Red Barber in 1943 when referring to a fight or altercation in baseball. So just a few factoids on rhubarb.

I've done some harvesting. Some went off to Piopio's Fat Pigeon Cafe, the rest went into one of Karen't little cooking experiments: "Roasted Rhubarb and Strawberries" by Ladystiles on Food52.

Rhubarb is tart on its own, so is normally mixed with sweeter fruit like strawberries or raspberries. It also needs to be cooked down.

For this recipe the strawberries and roughly chopped rhubarb are tossed with a mixture of maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt and sweet vermouth. This latter ingredient ended up being quite the quest in area liquor stores. I finally found some in a shop where the proprietor had never heard of it and hadn't realised he stocked it. The bottle also didn't have "vermouth" on the front label, rather that minor detail was buried on the back. Go figure! I went looking for "Noilly Prat," a French brand I was familiar with, but found "Martini" by Martini & Rossi. Turns out "Cinzano" is also vermouth. To explain this all a bit further, vermouth is an aromatic, fortified wine made with various botanicals (herbs and spices). It is drunk as an aperitif but is also used to make martinis and manhattans. Perhaps this is more than you want to know about vermouth, so now back to the roasted rhubarb and strawberries.....

This roasted for about 40 minutes at 180C, during which time the kitchen was filled with a wonderful fragrance. It's meant to be served warm over ice cream, which was what we did. It could probably also be served over pound cake or even mixed into yogurt.

This was absolutely delicious, I'm converted!

 

Let Sleeping Lambs Lie

Things are pretty quiet at Struan Farm on summer evenings. Once John and I are in from working outside, we shower and I then prep dinner before we relax over dinner. (John gets to do the dishes.) And of course the animals all wind down after feeding.

It's been funny to watch pet lambs Mickey and Minnie in a post-bottle evening doze out in the front paddock. You can almost see their eyes start to close. I've been tempted to sing a lullaby or two, but know that would probably disturb them!

And of course we let the sleeping dog lie too!

It's a Jungle Out There

A tomato jungle, that is. I know, I know, I promised to do better this year on my heirloom tomatoes here at Struan Farm, at least in terms of controlling them according to conventional "tomato rules." And I have. I've kept track of which variety is planted where with my maps, and I've staked. What I haven't done is tied them up again and again, or cut off shooters/branches. I've left them to do their thing. Maybe I'm just not as rules based as I thought I was.

We (the tomatoes and I) have decided we're okay with that. John isn't so sure. We'll see how we go when the fruit starts to ripen. I've had one cherry from near the water tank so far, but nothing else looks to be ripening, we're weeks away from the tsunami.

Quick Seasonal Fruit Crumble

We're eating lighter at the moment here at Struan Farm. It's summer, it's (meant to be) hot, we're eating later after working outside until late, and we're trying to move ourselves beyond all the holiday excesses. But that doesn't mean we don't have dessert after dinner, especially on the weekend.

I decided to use our bounty of ripe plums to make a plum crumble, tossing in some fresh cherries and blueberries to add sweetness, variety, and colour. Crumbles are super easy to make, can be adjusted for the number of people you need to feed, and work well with pretty much any type of fruit you might have on hand, canned/tinned or fresh. (Okay, I'm not sure bananas or citrus work, but all types of stone fruit, berries, apples, pears.) Obviously we're at the peak of summer right now so I've used fresh fruit.

The fruit is tossed with some sugar and put into a baking dish. A purist might grease the dish with a bit of butter, and also add some flour or cornstarch to the fruit to cut the juice. Up to you on both of those things, play around and see what works for you. For the topping I make up my knocked off version of Annabel Langbein's crumble topping from the Free Range Cook. It includes whole grain oats, brown sugar, ground almonds, sliced almonds and flour (pretty much in equal quantities), a bit of mixed spice, and melted butter to bind it all together. If you go overboard and make up too much crumble topping you can freeze the extra in a ziplock bag to use later. As you can see, I haven't made a huge dish here, basically enough for two generous portions.

 

Bake in a preheated 180C oven until the top is browned and the fruit is bubbling. This can be served warm with yogurt, or softly whipped cream or ice cream if you're in a more decadent mode. At the moment we've sworn off decadent. Briefly.

The Yanks are Coming

We've got friends from the USA coming to visit us at Struan Farm in a few weeks. They are travelling to NZ on a cruise ship, landing in Auckland and some other major ports around the country. Due to time constraints and logistics, they've decided to charter a helicopter to bring them down to visit the farm and see us for lunch.

All very exciting--yet another chopper landing at Struan Farm! Of course the Mad Mower is already at work:

He's mown the landing area along with a path for our guests to walk down through the Old Orchard Paddock to the Homestead area, where their chariot will await. While we tried to refer the business to our local helicopter firm, and the pilot who has landed at Struan Farm previously, the travel agent and cruise organiser had other ideas. We've communicated with the charter company to provide information on the farm, where to land, etc.

Fingers crossed they're used to the rural scene....we may have to got out and put a large "X" to denote the landing area, but I'll leave that one to John!

Jack & the Bean Stalk?

We've found this odd tree growing in the back of the Homestead gardens here at Struan Farm. It looks like something we need to cut out, but we want to identify it before doing so. I think it looks rather like the bean stalk from "Jack and the Bean Stalk," and seems to be growing at that same rate.

Perhaps we can let it go and climb up to find that pot of gold, provided we escape the giant! But realistically speaking, after an attempt to find out what it is and why it might have grown here, we'll chop it down.

A Quiet Day

Every once in a while you need a quiet day. At least I do. I'm an introvert. I find myself getting frazzled if I'm surrounded by people all the time without a break. Even if that break is to weed, iron, or do something equally tedious but important to the flow of life here at Struan Farm. (Note: if you haven't read Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, do so soon. If you're not one of us it will help you understand.)  

Today was one of those days. John headed off to meetings in Auckland while the dog, pet lambs and I all hung out and had our respective quiet days. We're allowed. Clifford laid on the front doorstep zonked out, Minnie and Mickey lounged in the shade under their lean-to watching Cookie and Tootsie munching grass, and I cleaned out the fridge, freezers and pantry. You know how you start to lose track of what you've got and what you need after that mad season called The Holidays? Plus how many old, half empty/full jars of jam does one really need? 

It's time to regroup and get grounded again before those tomatoes start to ripen. I might even take that dozing dog for a leisurely walk down to the river if he's up for it. We'll leave the lambs home to guard the house.

Edible Flowers on the Rocks

I'm starting to play around with the edible flowers from the veggie gardens here at Struan Farm. I know people put them in salads and ice cubes, but decided to see how they look in a drink, specifically something bubbly:

Much nicer than those little paper umbrellas, and they don't sink!

No Vampires Here

I've managed to harvest my first decent crop of garlic here at Struan Farm, hooray!

Last year I planted cloves in one of our veggie troughs. I suspect I watered them too much and also didn't fertilise sufficiently. Shoots grew but nothing that resembled heads of garlic when I lifted them out.

You will know that I am not one to shirk from a challenge. And so I tried again this year, planting cloves in the ground on the shortest day of the year in June. The bed was fertilised with compost, sheep manure and blood & bone. I didn't water the shoots, left them to the rain.

On the longest day of the year in December (okay, maybe a few days later, after the holidays...), I pulled the first batch up, followed by a second a week later. My crop is now drying on the potting table in the garage. I've tried braid the tops together in the "ristra" spirit of Santa Fe.

It's not nearly the amount of garlic that we use annually by a long way, but it's a start. I'm encouraged to plant more next year. I might need a dedicated bed, but at least I know the rabbits will steer clear of it. John and I are in discussion already....

Making Cottage Gardens at Struan Farm

The gardens at the new(ish) house here at Struan Farm are coming along. Remember that this was all paddock to start, so we've come a long way in three years. I've learned that it takes about this amount of time to get things established from scratch, then the tweaking starts. Plus we're still making new gardens, paths and thinking about structures like pergolas, we aren't done. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if one is ever "done" with a garden!

What I do think we've achieved thus far is a "cottage garden" look. Two different sets of friends commented recently that not many people plant flower gardens these days, mostly because of the work involved. It's all easy care: natives, grasses or shrubs. And yes, flower gardens can be a lot of work, certainly at the start. In our case some of that I blame on the lack of preparation of the beds before we planted. (I'm still grubbing and poisoning California thistles in considerable numbers in the big main bed. This shouldn't be happening.) I also need to keep growing seedling flowers in the glasshouse to pop into gaps. The rabbits haven't helped, creating gaps as quickly as I've filled them this summer. But I've planted quite a number of flowering shrubs that should make the garden easier to look after over time, similar to the established gardens in the Homestead.

Over his holiday "break" John has been down on his hands and knees digging in recycled bricks around the edges of the existing beds. This is meant to save Karen from being down on her hands and knees trimming those edges by hand for the rest of her life, which is what I've been doing to date. It's also a more finished look. With the gardens we've planted starting to mature, we're now thinking about all that. Probably more beds and maybe even a little pond/pool.

John has begun to interfere in what had previously been my "turf," but I've decided that if it results in progress, and I have input, at the end of the day I'm not complaining!

With age comes wisdom.

 

Around the Orchard

Good to see fruit on most of the trees in our new orchard area at Struan Farm this season. Lots of apples on Monty and Peasgood, plums (finally!), peaches, some quinces (finally!) and nashi. No pears just yet but the trees flowered for the first time this spring.

The scare tape seems to be working on the birds. Suffice it to say that hope springs eternal in our orchard at Struan Farm!

 

Around the Veggies

All of a sudden the veggie gardens here at Struan Farm have had major growth spurts. Here's a brief tour around. Tomatoes, carrots, beans, herbs, edible flowers, zucchini, etc. etc. I've just replanted mesclun and lettuce since we've pretty much used what I planted, so none of that on show at the moment. It's all pretty green, I know!

Around the Gardens

There is so much happening in the gardens at Struan Farm right now! I won't show you the weeds, but here are some of the flowers:

Pepper Proofed

After the recent attacks on John's young trees around Struan Farm by Pepper the hoggets, John went around and constructed proper fences for the trees with help from nephew Mike. In addition to posts, recycled timber from fencing taken down at a rental property in Auckland was redeployed.

I'm hoping Pepper the hoggets don't now view this as another challenge to be met, and the trees are protected. The good news is that the Luisa plum tree she snapped off is re-sprouting. It looks like that may grow back, assuming it gets properly fenced too.