Struan Farm

Autumn Arrives at Struan Farm

I can announce that autumn has now definitely arrived at Struan Farm. We're not at peak just yet, but the colours and changes are happening, along with the early camellias. The bees and monarch butterflies seem especially grateful to and for the camellias.

I've got just a bit of time to finish up the garden clean out before I'll need to grab the rake and start raking up leaves for the mulch bins. And remind me, I need to plant about 100 daffodil bulbs and 60 tulips between now and then too!

A Modest Celebration of Cake & Flowers

I had the opportunity to bake a cake this week here at Struan Farm for a birthday celebration: mine. And a fifteenth wedding anniversary: mine and John's. Once again I made the Barefoot Contessa's carrot cake recipe, with Ottolenghi's maple icing. Iced naked, of course. I'm not sure I could handle a fully iced cake these days!

I topped it with finely chopped walnuts, some drizzles of salted caramel, and crystallised pansies/violas (edible flowers). I hadn't tried making crystallised flowers before. It was fiddly but fun. The flowers are brushed front and back with beaten egg white, then dusted with caster sugar before being left to dry on baking paper in the hot water cupboard for at least 24 hours. I'd read one recipe that hadn't explained that you need to brush both front AND back, so my first batch wilted. The second was successful. They're pretty and a nice idea for something a wee bit different. Read how to crystallise flowers like the Victorians here. After deciding to make these I learned that the 15th wedding anniversary is the "crystal" anniversary, rather a nice coincidence.

Interesting also to read that in Victorian flower language the pansy/viola says "think of me." The French name for the flower, "pensee," means 'thought' and reflects this flower's modest request. Perhaps also mine.

Juicy Developments

I've been wanting to make apple juice and cider from our apples here at Struan Farm for awhile now, especially after attending the Wakefield Heritage Apple Fair outside of Nelson last year. Each year in autumn members of the local community bring their apple harvests to a gathering where they can have them juiced. Juice is also available for purchase, along with trees and fruit. It's a celebration of all things apple, a fantastic idea really.

You know me, I've since been trying to figure out how we might do something like that at home. I'd found some apple presses for sale but they were quite expensive. Too expensive for something that could end up being a passing fancy on Karen's part. But recently I found a small 6L press on www.fishpond.co.nz for a reasonable price. (I'd provide you with a link, but the one that I bought from the UK is now unavailable. Similar ones are listed for sale by different companies.)

And so the juicing experiments began. I recruited John as my able assistant. Our first experiment was just that. 

We didn't get much juice, but what we did press tasted quite good. The instructions said to cut the apples into 2 cm. pieces, but I've since been advised that it's better to pop them into the food processor to pulp them, resulting in much more juice. The Apple Fair had motorised crushers that mulched the fruit, which is how this is done in real volume. 

Our second attempt involved Jack Humm crabapples. I'd planted the trees to help with pollinating our apple trees, not for the fruit, but it seems silly to have the fruit go to waste. Our friends at Country Trading had suggested that they make good juice, so I thought we'd test that out.

This time we deployed the food processor to mulch the fruit before pressing, to great success.

We ended up with two big pitchers of crabapple juice. While the juice on its own is good, it's slightly astringent as you might expect. I added a bit of Struan Farm honey to it and MAGIC! This was a winner. Next we'll go back to the apples, processing them in the food processor first to see if that improves the quantity of juice. I'm sure it will.

These juicing experiments triggered memories of my award winning sixth grade school science fair project: "How Does Fermentation Occur?" In the interest of scientific research, I put apple juice in bottles in the cellar, blowing the lids off several, as I analysed and documented what happens to apple juice as it ferments. It was probably a bit unusual for a grade school student to consider this question, but then that would be me.

Almost fifty years later my earlier experimentation with apple juice might come in handy. Maybe we'll give cider a try next?

Rated "R"

I thought I was done telling you about the Monarch Butterflies around at Struan Farm for this season, but surprise, surprise.

I happened upon two mating in the bushes while cleaning out the gardens. Dallying in the daisies! I thought we were done with all that for the year, so not sure what happens next. More caterpillars? 

Let the Autumn Clean Up Begin

It's well past time for the autumn clean up of the gardens here at Struan Farm, but I can now report it's officially underway. I'd deferred things for the Monarch butterflies and the bees, wanting the butterflies to emerge before I went around pulling out and cutting off the flowers, and keeping lots of food around for the honey bees for as long as possible.

Right now I'm on trailer #4. I've had to move around since there still look to be a monarch or two hatching.

Once I finish cutting back and pulling out I'll weed. This is going to take me at least a week of solid work, but it's satisfying since the clean up is major, and obvious!

Homecoming at the Cottage

It's always quite special for us when people who lived on Struan Farm, or their whanau, return to visit. At the end of last week Beryl Huia and her daughter Glenys came to stay. Beryl lives in Piopio, but wanted to come and overnight once again in the Cottage, where she lived with husband Tom and several children, including Glenys, when her husband worked on the farm for John's dad Maurie. Her husband was called "Young Tom" to avoid being confused with his father, "Old Tom." 

Beryl was able to describe to us how the Cottage was laid out in her day. She remembers having to learn to cook on the coal range, something she hadn't been familiar with coming down to the King Country from Auckland. She also remembers Jim Ngarama bringing her "puha," or watercress to eat, a food with which she hadn't been familiar. It was interesting to see several photos of the Cottage and the family.

We learned that Young Tom had been born in the Huia Homestead across the river, where we'd taken cuttings of what we now call the "Huia Fig Tree." And that Old Tom had also lived in the Cottage before the Robertsons bought the property, working for the Hunt family. Glenys went home with a few cuttings from the fig tree--we glad the Huia whanau has their fig back.

Welcome home Beryl and Glenys!

Crumbling Down

In my quest to use our surplus apples AND feijoas here at Struan Farm I've recently tested out an "Apple and Feijoa Crumble" recipe. I'm happy to report this one is really, really good. So much so that I think I like it better than straight apple crumble, which is saying a bit coming from me.  I've been an apple crumble fan for years and years, it's one of my favourite desserts.

Let me say upfront that I've stuck with Annabel Langbein's crumble topping from the first "Free Range Cook." It's good, easy to make, and surplus can be frozen in a ziplock bag for later use.

For this recipe four apples are peeled and thickly sliced, put into a saucepan with water, lemon juice and a few tablespoons of raw sugar. This is then brought to the boil and simmered for a few minutes, after which two cups of feijoa pulp is added, stirred in, and cooked a further two minutes. This mixture is then put into a colander to drain while the topping and tin are prepared. When I made the first batch of this I used a potato masher to pulp the feijoas, but found it easier the second time to pop peeled feijoas into the food processor and give them a whizz. Prepared this way the feijoa gives a subtle flavour, isn't slimey or overpowering. I had enough extra fruit and topping to make two ramekins for us for dessert, the main crumble got labelled and put into the freezer.

This one's worth a try! 

Drying Out

What to do on a rainy day here at Struan Farm, other than ironing and laundry perhaps? Faced with yet another healthy harvest of chiles I decided to try drying them. They went into the oven at 100 C on a lined baking tray. The recipe indicated that cut chiles should bake for at least three hours. I left mine whole and kept an eye on them, taking them out 7 1/2 hours later! 

From what I've read these now can be ground finely in a dedicated coffee mill (or in my case the food processor) to make chile powder. Instead I may put them in a jar in olive oil, a la sun dried tomatoes. If nothing else they will make a mean chile flavoured oil.  To test which dehydration method works best, I'll thread the next batch into a ristra and hang it in the hot water cupboard to dry.  I'll be interested to see how long that takes. I've got so many chiles that there's no harm in playing around with them!

Flowers Between the Storms

Nothing like a good sprint in the gardens between major downpours here at Struan Farm. I needed to put together some flowers for arriving farmstay guests, plus decided that my English pottery jug would look pretty on the table with some mottled, end of season "vintage" hydrangea. It's amazing what one finds tidying up the closets, I'd forgotten completely about that jug. 

Predictably I took the photo I liked the best of the hydrangeas just as the rain started to pelt down.

I was a bit anxious about the guest flowers, since it's that time of the year when things are "catch as catch can" in the gardens. I managed to find a few of the last "Compassion" and "Crepuscule" roses blooming down at the Homestead, and was pretty happy with my mix of raw materials on the bench:

I'm also pretty happy with the end result, hope the guests in the Cottage are too.

This is the Way the Apples Crumble

We're now contending with the harvest of "Monty's Surprise" apples here at Struan Farm. There are still quite a few apples left on the tree, but here is what I'm working down at the moment:

John just sees this and laughs. An apple press is on the way from the U.K. that will allow us to juice apples, crab apples, etc. It's in customs at the moment, the courier has rung for more information (guess they don't see too many of these), so fingers crossed it gets here in the next week for experiments to begin. In the meantime, it's apple crumbles for the freezer. 

I've made eight so far. The apples are so large that I can make one batch of crumble from four or so. I don't want to get carried away with this or we'll become sick of apple crumble, but I also don't want good fruit to go to waste. I may try a few batches of applesauce next if the press doesn't arrive this week.

A Taste of Honey

Yes, the title of an old song by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.  A taste sweeter than wine. My father had several of their albums, all vinyl of course. We must have played them endlessly since I can still rattle off the names of quite a number of their songs along with the lyrics and melodies. But this post today is about honey, Struan Farm honey.

The friend who installed bee hives in one of our paddocks here at Struan Farm came by after the recent storms to check on them. I'd rung him since one of the lids had blown off in the high winds. He also delivered two large pots of honey, our very first! While he mixes the honey from our farm with other areas for whatever it is he does, I asked him to reserve some of ours unadulterated so we could taste what the bees produced from our gardens and trees.  

A few weeks ago one of the beekeepers told us that our bees continue to have heaps of food, which surprised him. I'd like to think it's because of my flower gardens. And although most of the summer flowers are now over and done with, the camellias are coming into bloom. Hopefully we'll have food for them all year.

"Struan Farm Multiflora Honey." Isn't it beautiful with the light shining through? I decided to pot some up for farmstay guests and pulled some small jars out of the cupboard. I also remembered a little embossing stamp and adhesive labels given to me by friend Laura, "From the Garden at Struan Farm." Coincidentally the stamp has a bee in the middle.  Clearly this was meant to bee be (groan).

I stamped up some labels for the lids. The label size isn't perfect but it will do. It explains that it's honey from Struan Farm.

 

Houston, We Have Butterflies!

The monarch butterflies decided to launch themselves out in the world this past Saturday and Sunday here at Struan Farm. I discovered eight or so on Saturday, while on Sunday afternoon I counted eighteen newly emerged butterflies drying and testing their wings on plants in the gardens. All I can say is they continue to surprise me with where they hide in their chrysalises. The penstemmon and lamb's ear were quite popular locations, along with a few other random plants. Good thing I deferred my weeding and autumn clean out!

Perhaps the blast of cold weather followed by somewhat warmer temperatures convinced them it was now or never. We're trying to do our part for monarch butterflies here at Struan Farm!

Taking Feijoa Shortcake by Storm

A friend recommended that I try to make feijoa shortcake with some of our surplus fruit here at Struan Farm, and with heavy rain, high winds and thunder earlier this week I decided the time had come to do that. Of course the power went out once or twice just to make things exciting!

I tried two different recipes, one Feijoa Shortcake as well as a second one for Feijoa and Apple Shortcake since we have quite the surplus of both apples and feijoas right now. Both were similar in terms of the basic ingredients and technique. The former used more fruit while the latter had considerably more butter and flour. Butter is creamed with sugar, then egg and vanilla are mixed in, along with lemon zest in one case. Sifted flour and baking powder are added and everything mixed to form a dough. Most of this is then put into a lined tin before the fruit is layered on, with reserved dough dotted on top. There are some differences between the two recipes but these are the basics. 

The Feijoa Shortcake recipe, which has more fruit, looks far moister than the Feijoa Apple Shortcake. If I were to make it again I'd use only one lemon rather than two to reduce the amount of juice. I did bake the juicier cake longer to try to address that, fearing too much liquid.

Based on appearances alone, I'm tempted more by the Feijoa Apple, which looks simpler. Both are meant to be served warm with yogurt, cream or ice cream (basically the dairy product of your choice). I haven't sampled them just yet, the juicier Feijoa Shortcake is waiting for John's return in the fridge since I didn't want to risk pulling the bottom of the pan off, while the Feijoa Apple has gone into the freezer for grandkids and/or guests.

As you might imagine I'm wanting to sample them (purely in the interest of research of course); however New Zealand's well known social science study, "The Dunedin Project," has reported that learning to accept delayed gratification is meant to be a good thing, it evidences personal control that helps us later in life. I'll accept the science on that and patiently wait with fork poised.

A Mild Case of Monarch Madness

John has made me promise I won't turn into the Mad Monarch Butterfly Lady of Piopio here at Struan Farm. He's worried I might go over the edge after reading about people who bring the caterpillars inside at night to keep them warm, as well as the chrysalis. I have promised I won't do that. You see, I do believe that while we should try to help bellweather species like butterflies flourish as much as we can, if they can't survive and thrive outside given good circumstances in our environment they probably shouldn't be here. Especially introduced, non-native species.

I'm allowed to plant swan plants in out of way places in the gardens mostly, making sure there are plants to feed the second and third waves of caterpillars that come along. I have been known to relocate caterpillars off decimated swan plants over to others that are in leaf. I don't see that as crossing any lines.

This week it was good to see newly hatched monarchs out in the gardens, mingling with several older ones with tattered wings and faded colours. I'm holding off on doing the autumn garden clean up until the rest of the chrysalis hatch so I don't inadvertently pull any out before they've hatched, also to leave sources of nectar for the butterflies for as long as possible. The bees are happy about this decision too.

This is it on the butterfly front for the season. I will start some swan plants from seed in the glasshouse in springtime so I won't have to go running around trying to find them at garden centres. That's not too mad, is it? Sometimes these things can be slippery slopes.

Monster Monty

It's time for me to start picking the "Monty's Surprise" apples off our tree here at Struan Farm to make apple crumbles and maybe some apple sauce for the freezer. I made a delicious batch of apple crumble for the recent Asplundh Arbor Camp dinner (if I do say so myself). Now I need to make some for us to enjoy during winter.

I've filled two large pails with huge apples from the tree thus far, with heaps more to come. Thought I'd share with you the biggest so far:

The flowers are there for scale. While these apples are known for being huge, and having skin with anti-cancer properties, this one is big even for Monty. It weighs 852 grams, 1 lb. 14 oz., almost two pounds!

The Calm After the Latest Storm

Bonus blog post today, since it's been an interesting 24 hours here at Struan Farm with the major weather event that hit most of New Zealand.

Thankfully no tornadoes, unlike the National Park/Ruapehu and Opunake areas. But we did have heavy winds and rain. As a result, our power was out for most of the day today, along with our mobile signal. No communication whatsoever with the outside world. I can handle no power, but no mobile signal is another story. I ended up driving into Piopio, where they did have power, to grab some breakfast (coffee critically) and find out what was going on.

Last night I had discovered the first damage from the storm when I went out to the glasshouse to cut some fresh spinach for dinner:

Our glasshouse has four windows in the roof that open and close depending on the temperature. Two of the glass panes had popped out in the wind, one shattered glass inside (fortunately it was safety glass). I found the second pane, intact, lying in the tomato bed. Apparently it flew over the top of the glasshouse and landed in the soft dirt, rather hard to believe!

So my first jobs today were to visit the local glass repair shop to order another pane, order "glazing clips" from the glasshouse company to put the new glass back in the windows (the clips holding the glass in all blew out and away), and sweeping up all that broken glass.

Another job was picking up branches in the Pet Paddock. It was a mess, and there's a wedding in the Homestead garden on Saturday. Nephew Mike chainsawed a liquid amber branch that had landed on the front fence, along with another rather large poplar branch that had come down. But I think we were lucky our friends from Arbor Camp pruned off heaps of dead wood when they did, or we would have had a much bigger mess with which to contend.

The only good news to report was that a large, dangling branch on one of the remaining big gum trees in the Old Orchard area was blown down by the high winds. This had been an accident waiting to happen, so I'm glad this is now down on the ground. More firewood, whoopee.

The saddest news is that my beautiful little burgundy-leafed cercis at the house split in the high winds.

After assessing if I could bandage things up, I ended up amputating the branch and applied pruning paste to seal the wound. Hopefully she'll recover.

So that's the latest here at Struan Farm. Suffice it to say I didn't get the ironing done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a Mission

John and I recently took a detour on our way home to Struan Farm from one of my local heritage fruit tree adventures. We wanted to see a swing bridge constructed by locals to allow for easier access to an historic Wesleyan Maori mission site at "Whakatumutumu." A very visible cross marks the site on the hilltop, but apparently there is also a cairn commemorating the chapel established by the Rev. Frederick Miller. Miller was sent out from London to New Zealand in 1840. He died eight years later of tuberculosis at age 32, but he and his wife lived on the remote location, ministered to local Maori, and raised three children.

We didn't have time to hike up to the top, which we'll do when some grandchildren next visit. I suspect the views will be amazing. We did see the swing bridge and an old apple tree right near the entrance to the track.

I seem to be finding old fruit trees wherever I look at the moment. This one needs some TLC, a bit of a prune. Although we've been advised it is most likely a "wild" apple grown from a seed, I can't help but wonder if it was somehow associated with the mission. Historical records note that there were apples and fig trees planted at the site.


 

Give Us This Day

For some reason the phrase "give us this day our daily bread" from the Lord's Prayer came to mind as I walked out to pick up the daily harvest here at Struan Farm. Earlier in the morning I'd been having a chat with a friend about people being religious, or not. Perhaps that's why this wee reminder came bubbling up, that we all have things to be thankful for, every day.

Here at Struan Farm at the moment it's our daily figs and feijoas.

Arbor Camp 2018

At the end of last week arborists-in-training made their way to Struan Farm for the fourth annual Asplundh Arbor Camp. It's a fun and interesting time, both for them and us. The participants are different each year and are nominated by their particular regions around New Zealand. They camp out or stay in Jim's Hut at the river if they forget to bring camping gear. During the day they learn and progress their professional certifications. Several of our big, feature trees in the Pet Paddock get assessed, climbed and pruned as well.

The trees relish the attention, they seem much happier afterward!

Snapshot of the Harvest

Sorry I'm late today, we've been caught up with Arbor Camp here at Struan Farm, something I'll blog about next week.

Yesterday after I gathered another good sized basket of walnuts, I thought it would be interesting to assemble this season's harvest in one spot for a photograph. We seem to be getting to the home stretch.

It's amazing to see the quantity of nuts gifted to us from one tree. These have about four more weeks of drying to go, then the shelling effort begins. (Groan, moan inserted here.) The walnut tree did get a wee tidy up from one of the Arbor Campers, something it would have appreciated after delivering all these nuts.