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Grandson Charlie was at Struan Farm this year for the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays. We were pleased to be able to deliver his needlepoint Christmas stocking to him in person.
I think he is really pleased with it, what do you think? It's hanging on the mantle temporarily with ours, will return home with him to Knutsford. I was also able to show sister Freya the design and canvas for hers, which is still very much a work in process, one-two years away. No pressure, Karen!
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They came, they played, they ate at Struan Farm. The extended family went home tired but happy from our annual Boxing Day celebration. We had a record turnout of 41. Some stayed overnight in the Cottage, Jim's Hut or camped out down at the river. It poured rain that morning so John and I were a bit anxious that the weather gods weren't going to cooperate with our big day, but when show time came the clouds cleared.
The kid's archery challenge was a huge success with thanks to Mike S. Everyone went home with a medal plus Lilly J. won her age category and will (hopefully) return next year to defend her title. Her parents Jill and Hamish won the adult croquet competition, keeping it all in the family!
The luncheon menu included roast turkey, roast ham, ciabatta rolls, fresh asparagus, potato salad, and spiced kumara salad with hummus. As advertised, I went a bit overboard with the dessert table. The kids swarmed as soon as I started to put things out so we called time out until everything was set up and parents were able to supervise the situation.
The chef is still recovering, but here are a few photos from the day. We were thrilled that John's sister Julie came from wintery Canada and daughter Sarah, husband Matt, and children Charlie, Freya and Violet were here too. Julie organised the contingent camping at the river, cooking sausages over tea tree wood and roasting marshmallows on willow sticks.
We're contending with the leftovers, floral and otherwise!
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A few days ago I pulled up the garlic and shallots grown here in the veggie gardens at Struan Farm. It was definitely time to do so. Both are members of the alliaceous family, commonly called alliums, which also includes leeks, other types of onions, and chives.
It was quite the yield, I'm very happy with this year's crop. Now the harvest is spread out and/or hanging in the garage to dry before trimming and storage. Last year's lasted almost the entire year stored out of light in the pantry, and I go through heaps of garlic and shallots, so it's definitely worth the effort.
I pulled up some surprisingly huge heads of garlic. One cluster is so large that I still need to dig it out with a shovel, couldn't pull it up or dig it out with my trowel. This season I fertilised the bed well with sheep pellets and didn't water, let whatever rain happened happen. Obviously it was a winning strategy for this particular season, but I'm not cocky enough to think that anything is consistent when it comes to growing things. I just do the best I can and try to learn as I go. Thinking about what I've just written, that may not be a bad strategy for just about anything in life!
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For the past three years now I've rounded up the current year's mob of pet lambs at the back gate and subjected them to photo shoots with reindeer antlers. All in the interest of wishing our farmstay guests, friends and family Merry Christmas with a Struan Farm twist. The exercise is an adventure, I love doing it and can never anticipate the final outcome. The lambs are generally good natured about it and tend to humour me. Occasionally someone loves wearing the antlers so much that he/she doesn't want to them give up and I end up having to chase them around the paddock.
You saw this year's card with Alfie yesterday, but thought I would recap the years. The two ewe lambs have stayed here on the farm to have their own lambs this year. Alfie recently left us to go down to Farmer John's, with Karen shedding a wee tear.
I hope continue this Christmas tradition continues for many, many more years!
Here's Ruby, 2015:
Here's Cookie, 2016:
And here's Alfie, 2017
Merry Christmas, with a Struan Farm twist.
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Wishing you and your family all the best for a Merry Christmas from Karen, John, Clifford, the pet lambs (current & former) and the gnomes! Blog posts will be random for a bit.
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This week we had a bit of much needed rain here at Struan Farm, so I was able to defer my weeding onslaught of the Homestead gardens for a day and continue baking for our Boxing Day celebration.
I made a batch each of lemon verbena shortbread and rosemary shortbread, mostly for the adults in attendance, based on The Corner Kitchen's Rosemary Shortbread recipe. It hasn't failed me yet. I see there's also a walnut shortbread recipe on the blog that might be interesting to try. Clearly something for the New Year, after the flour and sugar settle from Boxing Day!
Next came David Lebovitz' "Pain d'amande cookies," which I've also made previously. Several grandchildren christened them "crunchy almond biscuits," and indeed they are. The dough can be made ahead and frozen, quite helpful when planning for a big event. The trick with these is cutting the dough as thinly as possible so that the cookies are indeed crunchy and not chewy. They are meant to be cut as thin as a US dime, which is similar to a NZ ten cent piece and quite a challenge to achieve. At least for me. They also have to be turned over when baking, which can get a bit fiddly, but these are worth the effort. The dough is in the freezer, I'll bake the cookies on Sunday since they keep for three days. Photo is from my initial effort.
The Fat Pigeon's "Snicker Slice" was next. It was voted the favourite of all of the recipes I made (13!) for the Avalon crew when they stayed in the Cottage last year for thirteen weeks while working up the road. It's very rich, and bit intense from my perspective, so I'll cut it into small pieces. Most slices will keep in airtight containers in the fridge for at least a week, which is why I've left this and the next one for (almost) last.
The other slice I made was Ripe's "ANZAC Caramel Slice," the recipe for which is in "Ripe: A Fresh Batch" cookbook but also available on their blog. I've made this before and it's really good. Crunchy oats and caramel, what's not to like?
For my final baking/dessert act over the weekend I will ice and decorate the mini-cupcakes, most likely on Sunday. John will pick up berries, ciabatta rolls and ice on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day I'll be roasting turkeys and hams and organising the scene down at the Homestead, with time out for some sort of festive Christmas meal, the menu for which has yet to be determined. Tuesday morning I'll be making the salads and doing flowers and table set up before everyone arrives. On time. I'm sure. I will remember to take everything frozen out of the freezer to thaw, yes I will. Cupcakes, cream cheese Christmas cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, pain d'amande cookies, shortbreads, and yep, even my homemade mince tarts.
At the end of the day I predict I will collapse with a cold glass of wine and smile, knowing that I did everything I could to make sure everyone had enough to eat and a fun time at Boxing Day 2017. Pancakes and berries for breakfast anyone?
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Here in New Zealand our Christmas desserts tend toward pavlovas, trifles, and peak summer fruit. And here at Struan Farm we are very lucky to have Piopio Berry Orchard on our doorstep, lavishing us with a "berry trifecta" of amazing strawberries, blueberries and raspberries at this time of the year.
This weekend John and I have a special visitor from the UK staying with us, grandson Charlie. We're going to the Piopio Santa Parade tonight, but for tomorrow night I've decided to make a special festive dessert, Mindfood's "Christmas Berry Tiramisu."
Trifles tend to taste better made ahead and macerating in the fridge, which works really well at this busy time of the year. But do you think he'll like it? I know John and I will!
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John and I went out to walk around the gardens after watering one evening this week here at Struan Farm. He is amazed by my veggie gardens, and told me I needed to do a blog post to show you how well everything is doing this season! So without further ado:
The zucchini are loving the hot, dry weather and are coming fast and furious at the moment. I've discovered I do have one "kamo kamo" plant (acorn squash), which is rather exciting. It's definitely time to think about pulling up and drying off the garlic and shallots. The lettuce and mesclun are doing well now after a weak start to the season. I'm making sure I'm keeping them watered and moist. The chiles have started to flower, although the plants aren't that big as yet. Of my edible flowers, the calendulas, nasturtium and borage are doing well. The violas haven't germinated, in fact I've never been able to grow them directly from seed. The cornflowers, which did so well last year in the backyard, just didn't like growing directly from seed this year, although I have them growing all over the flower gardens. My italian parsley is thriving, and the tomatoes are also happy. I continue to re-tie them and pinch off laterals, but it's that time of the season when they're fruiting and I start to ease off. I've been reading that there are different views on the merits of pruning tomatoes--apparently you get bigger but fewer fruit if you prune more rather than less. I've decided to take the middle ground and see what that yields us. My corn, which I haven't shown you, is growing well planted in the back with the broad beans near our water tank. I've already picked some black currants, which continue to ripen. It's very early for those too.
So that's the latest from the backyard here at Struan Farm, aka "Veggie World."
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We're so "on trend" here at Struan Farm, with NZ Gardener magazine reporting that hydrangeas are "back in." At least for the moment. Practically, hydrangeas have never been "off trend" with us, with 80 or so plants around the gardens at the Homestead and our house. They were one of John's mum's favourite flowers, and I have continued what she started.
Everything is blooming very early this year, hydrangeas included. They don't normally bloom by Christmas but this season they are all out. Not sure what this means for late summer in the gardens, if this is a message from the universe that winter plans to arrive early.
In the meantime we can just stop and smell the flowers. They were happy to have had a bit of rain this week to perk them up.
They're standing by to assist with the Boxing Day flower arrangements.
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The elves have been working overtime in the workshop today here at Struan Farm. (Actually, it was nephew Mike, with contributions and artistic vision from John and me, respectively.)
He's crafted out of chicken wire with other bits and pieces. We've staked him down for now just so Clifford doesn't knock him over. Grandchildren will determine where he ends up down at the Homestead, most likely the Pet Paddock. I suspect he'll end up in a shed in the off-season!
I might bling him up a bit more--what do you think?
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Our bees and their hives have returned to Struan Farm after a working holiday in the kiwifruit orchards of Te Puke. Their absence gave us time to take the huge redwood tree down on the knob above their spot, as well as the associated cleanup. Everyone is settling back in, they are parked in the "Bull Paddock," along the Old Road. I'm seeing a substantial uptick in bees in the gardens (and we've always had a good number of both honey and bumble bees).
Looking forward to tasting some of that honey, just not sure when that will bee be!
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Sigh. It's a hard time of the year on the sheep front here at Struan Farm. Farmer John "drafted" lambs a few days ago, picking those fat, early lambs to go off. He also has taken all of the lambs, including my pets, to his farm down the road.
He and hubby John had had a conversation about the pets, and John was designated to speak to me about it all to make sure I was okay with them going off. I was given the option of keeping one or two around, but the ones I would have wanted to keep because of their personalities (Alfie and Trixie) just didn't make sense, even to me. You see everyone tiptoes around Karen when it comes to her lambs, they know I'm emotionally attached. The approach being taken gives me some distance, since this way I don't know who goes off when, and who might be staying to lamb the next season. This way John also won't have Karen sobbing at the dinner table. I'm just quietly sad, missing them. I do know dear Alfie and Romeo will be first in the queue (the rams/wethers always go first) with Trixie and her lame leg not too far behind. John also raised the issue of "ethic cleansing" with Farmer John, telling him it would be okay to get rid of my brown faced ewe lambs to help purify his breeding line once again. I'm not sure why he felt he had to go there, and am feeling somewhat betrayed on that score--those brown faces tend to be my favourites.
So we have been left with the ewes baaing away for their missing lambs most of the day and night. Fortunately no farmstay guests that first night!
I'd warned mums Rosie, Ruby, Pip, Pepper and Cookie that something bad was about to happen that day. I had a chance to say goodbye to Alfie, Trixie and TimTam, and watched the dogs round up the other seven from the house paddock after they made a last minute run for it. They stayed as a tight mob, which made me smile.
This afternoon I went out and found Rosie, gave her an apple. Cookie also came up for a pat.
We all agreed we'd try to feel a bit better, miss those lambs a bit less, tomorrow.
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It's just about crunch time on the baking front for Struan Farm's annual family Boxing Day celebration. I'm making my lists and checking them twice, also trialling a new recipe or two to see if they might make the cut.
I've never made Christmas mince tarts before, so decided to give those a try. In my search I came across a recipe that Alison & Simon Holst use, and reckoned if it's good enough for them it should be good enough for me. For the pastry I used this recipe but made it in the food processor. Life is too short to have flour all over the kitchen.
This was a winner. The mincemeat recipe makes heaps, and keeps in the fridge in an airtight container for several weeks. My only dilemma was that the pastry recipe only makes six tarts, and I need substantially more than that for Boxing Day with 40+ coming. While I don't like using store bought pastry, that may be the solution here so the rest of the mincemeat doesn't go to waste. Need to add that to my shopping list.
The next experiment was "cranberry heart shortbread cookies" from the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine. While edible, they weren't buttery as one would be wanting with shortbread, nor were they particularly sweet. (Note to Donna: sometimes one can lose the plot trying to go low fat and low sugar, particularly with holiday baking.) The hearts are meant to have a hole poked in the dough before baking to allow ribbons to be threaded through afterward. While this looks quite festive, it is fiddly to do in quantity and what's the point, really? The ribbon has to be removed to eat the cookie. I guess you could hang them on a Christmas tree if you wanted to do that. I distributed them to Mike, the electricians working away here on a job, and John for morning tea. They were happy about that and so was I.
The bottom line: the hearts aren't happening, the mince tarts are in contention with store bought pastry.
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This week I picked up the new, second archery trophy along with medals for the young archery competitors at this year's Struan Farm Boxing Day Challenge. Yes, now we're set to rival The Olympics, or perhaps The Commonwealth Games! (Just a slight exaggeration on my part.)
So plenty of Boxing Day "bling" ready for our 14-16 young enthusiasts! The adults will stick to croquet, which I expect will be competitive but much lower key.
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What I haven't confessed to you is that when I was up in Auckland a few weeks ago for appointments I found a Christmas store. I ended up buying a Christmas tree that made its way back to Struan Farm and Piopio after consultation with our local rural courier about the best way to get it down country.
It's artificial, I'm not particularly proud of that, but we were so unhappy with droopy radiata pine trees that we'd stopped having Christmas trees entirely. And I wasn't going to accept that for the rest of my Christmases. So my search began for a sturdy, good looking artificial tree, and I found one entirely by chance.
This is the first time since I moved to NZ in 2001 that all of my Christmas ornaments, which have been in storage, have been deployed on a tree. And we're happy with it:
I found the lovely natural angel for the top at Trade Aid in Te Awamutu, which has a great selection of Christmas decorations and ornaments.
But aside from the tree, angel, and a new string of LED low watt lights, everything else is same old, same old, or rather I should say "traditional." We like that.
So the halls here at Struan Farm are pretty much decked!
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I've been busy writing and mailing out Christmas cards to Struan Farm farmstay guests, friends and family, and realised that I have yet to reveal which of our pet lambs won the Christmas card contest for this year:
ALFIE!
I couldn't get past that look of complete trust and innocence, and he's still pretty much that way. Of this year's pet lambs, he and Trixie are really the only ones who still come up to me for pats. He is also quite chivalrous, seems to be the only one concerned about Trixie, who hops around the paddocks on three legs. He won't leave her side and is concerned if we try to separate them.
I'll post the actual card closer to Christmas, but wanted you to know who Piopio's Next Top Model 2017 is: it's that little darling Alfie.
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A few of the gnomes here at Struan Farm have taken it upon themselves to keep me on track with my preparations for Christmas and Boxing Day. Ringo (Charlie's gnome), Doc (Freya's gnome) and Little Tinker (Violet's gnome), aka "The Cornes Gnomes," are doing an official countdown. (Okay, Little Tinker is still learning to count.) The other gnomes haven't gotten into the Christmas spirit just yet.
Ringo in particular might need a good scrub up before the holidays, he's had quite a bit of wood to chop up with the trees coming down!
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From one heirloom tomato aficionado to another, I thought I had this. I thought I was on my game this year. But the heirloom tomatoes here at Struan Farm had other ideas, and have raised the stakes (pun intended). Those laterals are growing daily, sprouting like no one's business. The toms must have read my blog last week and decided to toy with me.
Despite what you may think, I don't have the time to go out and pinch laterals off tomatoes every day. There's just too much to do around the property, especially the gardens and farmstay at this time of the year. Those tomatoes know that. I'm feeding and watering them, and this is the thanks I get (it seems they are rather like kids and pet lambs).
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The local arborist came out to Struan Farm a few days ago to do some tree jobs that are a bit beyond the scope of John and/or nephew Mike. These included taking down two huge trees, "limbing up" a few others higher up than our guys are comfortable going, and cleaning up one poplar at the pond with some cracked and fallen branches high up on the tree. (This latter tree has been bugging me for a few years now. It's needed help.)
One big liquid amber had to go to allow for proper line of sight for the wifi signal related to our new high tech security camera system, the other had more to do with John's continuing efforts to open up the views from our house. We needed to get this latter tree, a huge redwood, down before the bees and their hives return from their recent working holiday in the kiwifruit orchards in Te Puke. They're coming back this next weekend.
The redwood is on the knob not far from our new sculpture, near the cluster of fir trees we rather like. I was out in the gardens pulling out the rest of the starball scabiosa, and managed to capture several photos as the tree went crashing down.
John had done a bit of "limbing up" of the firs, but decided to have the arborist take that a bit further.
Even the wee gnomes, who were watching from the front lawn (we're also busy re-staining the decks), approve of the enhanced view!
The only problem with this is once you start you want to do more. Our main constraint is limited space in which to store the firewood.
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I'm learning once again from the gardens here at Struan Farm, this time about transitions from the "Scabiosa Starballs." Once the poppies were spent they took over the show, blooming in profusion from self-seeding and seeds I tossed out onto the beds. Now their gig is done. They are going into their "Starball" seed head state and starting to swoon over. They need to make room for other summer flowers.
Enter Karen. My job is to pull them out and cut off the seed heads to grow them again next year. I will toss some seed heads onto the beds, who knows, we may get a second round!
A good amount of the "starballs" have been cut off and stashed in pails in the garage for tossing out in the gardens in autumn, along with the poppy seeds. As the balls dry the seeds pop off from the head, looking rather like tiny badminton birdies. I think I'll have a few hundred spare!
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