Struan Farm

On Sunflowers

This year we've been able to grow sunflowers again here at Struan Farm. It's been awhile since we've had success on this score. Many years ago now we had them in the garden down at the Homestead by the Pet Paddock and Heidi's green gate. I've been trying ever since to recreate that sunflower success, somewhere around the property, with no luck.

This year I started some in pots for the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand's float in the Christmas parade. Those didn't bloom in time, plus there wasn't room with three bunnies, Zack the scarecrow and the planters of lettuce in the trailer. But months later both pots have burst into bloom back in Veggie World. The bumblebees in particular are loving them.

I also popped seeds into the veggie garden near the peas and corn. Those have flourished as well, are getting ready to bloom all in a row.

The lesson here is that sunflowers thrive, but only when you least expect them.

An Attack on Zack!

I was out watering the tomatoes in the raised bed here at Struan Farm a few days ago when I came across this on the ground:

The bunch of grapes from our scarecrow "Zack's" hat. Zack wears a straw hat decorated with various fruits and vegetables on the job, the same one he wore in the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand's float in the Christmas parade.

I looked up and saw this:

Poor Zack, he'd been attacked by birds, wanting to steal his grapes! That or they were retaliating for the nets on the tomatoes and the plum trees.  I guess we fooled them with a bunch of plastic. Ha.Ha.  The skirmishes continue. May the best woman win.

Vintage Tomato Find

This past weekend John and I went up to visit friends in Auckland who have an annual garden party over Auckland Anniversary Weekend. I hadn't been able to attend the past two years due to farmstay commitments, but fortunately this year our guests organised themselves, making bookings before and after the weekend. That was very kind of them to do.

Sunday morning John and I were able to head out to the Clevedon Farmers Market  before coming back home to Piopio. This was something I used to enjoy regularly when we lived in the area given the amazing produce and artisanal foods available.

We returned home with orange beetroot, acorn squash, cherries, Clevedon Buffalo mozzarella, and what else but two beautiful interesting tomatoes! "Vintage Brandywine" to be precise.

 

I whipped up some homemade pesto with basil from the glasshouse, and served the beautiful, meaty sliced tomatoes with dollops of pesto and slices of the mozzarella. It was delicious!

p.s. and of course I've save the tomato seeds to try to grow "Vintage Brandywine" next year here at Struan Farm!

Tidying Up the Harvest

I spent some quiet time in the garage here at Struan Farm a few days ago, scissors in hand, trimming our harvest of shallots and garlic. Both had been drying out on tables spread with newspaper since Christmas. Most were dry enough to trim and store now, except for a few shallots with a bit of green remaining.

I decided to plait/braid bunches of the garlic into "ristras" and hang them in the garage. At least until John complains that the vegetables are taking over his hooks. I've gotten better at ristras, at least I think so!

 

Triage

John conducted major surgery on our little (Omega or Santa Rosa) plum tree here at Struan Farm a few days ago, cutting off the fallen branch and binding up the wound as best he could. As previously reported, one of the main branches, laden with fruit, split and cracked.  I've tried to rescue most of the fruit, which is now spread out on trays in the garage, ripening, hopefully. We'll see how that goes.

Once the rest of the fruit is harvested from what remains of this tree we'll prune her.  Sending you healing thoughts little tree!

A Kumara Experiment

I found this sprouted kumara leftover from Boxing Day in my potato drawer in the pantry here at Struan Farm this past week. You know how that goes, sometimes things get overlooked? The sprouts looked viable and interesting, so I've planted it out in the Veggie World bed from which we've recently harvested potatoes.. John wasn't particularly encouraging, he doesn't always humour my little tangents. And this would be one of those. Stay tuned!

Paste Cannot Be Made in Haste

I decided to use some of the Satsuma plum harvest to make a fruit paste this past week here at Struan Farm, something a bit different. I'd made quince paste many years ago now, and remembered that it was quite the commitment. Plum paste is no different. Paste cannot be made in haste.

I found two recipes, one NZ recipe and one from BBC GoodFood for "Plumbrillo."The latter called for 2 kgs. of plums and "jam" sugar, which has pectin added. The photograph of the former looked relatively less attractive, but used 1 kg. of fruit plus lemon juice to provide the pectin required to set the paste. The plumbrillo was poured into jars to set, while the NZ recipe called for a plastic wrap lined loaf pan.  I found myself favouring the British recipe, it seemed (and looked) more refined.

To make my paste I used 1 kg. of plums, stoned and quartered. Herewith the first tedious step. Stoning plums. My fingernails still haven't recovered. Once this is accomplished the fruit is put into a preserving pan with 250 mls. of water, brought to a boil and then covered and simmered until soft. The BBC recipe called for the pot to be covered, and simmered the fruit 15 minutes longer. I used their approach. Both recipes then tell you to sieve the fruit to remove the skins. Tedious and messy. This takes quite awhile, since you need to get as much juice and pulp through to use in the paste as possible.  I then weighed the pulp to determine the equivalent amount of sugar to be added with it back into the pot. This then boils away with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice until it sets; you are stirring the pot frantically with your wooden spoon all the while. About 30 minutes. The mixture sticks and catches and can easily burn if attention is not paid. Stay focused.

Once the paste is set it can be poured into jars (using a jam funnel) or the lined loaf tin. I did both to see which I liked better. I can now say it's the jars. It's easy to pop the paste out to put on a cheese board, and the round shape looks better than slices. At least in my view.

Here's the problem now: John really likes it, wants me to make more with the rest of the Satsuma plums, since the paste keeps in the fridge for six months or so. (Groan.) But if we get a rainy day I might accept the challenge, who knows?

Blackcurrant Jamming at Struan Farm

We had a showery day this week here at Struan Farm so I decided the time had come. The time had come to make this year's blackcurrant jam. The harvest has been sitting in the freezer waiting for the green light.

Blackcurrant jam is my favourite, with blueberry a close second. Neither is terribly sweet. I can't eat the strawberry jam I make for farmstay guests and grandkids, despite the fact everyone raves about it--it's too sweet for me.

And here the good news: 100% of my first batch "popped!" I should have enough currants for three batches, although I might save some for baking during the year. Next year our new bushes should be coming on so I'll have more to play with, or to put that properly "more with which to play."

I deployed some of the leftover jam not sealed into jars to make a blackcurrant shortcake for dessert. I used the shortcake recipe that I normally make with apple/feijoa or apple/rhubarb that you can find here. I spread the jam around before putting the crumbled topping on, didn't go overboard in case it ran. Seriously yum!

Plum Assignment #2

Next on the plum parade here at Struan Farm is: plum clafoutis. Basically a baked custard or pudding, it's quite easy to make and good. Excuse the fact I got a bit overzealous with the icing sugar, please!

It uses ten plums. You can find the recipe here. Be sure to bake it until the centre is set. In my oven this took considerably longer than the recipes indicates.

Apple Fiends, Still

This is the sort of situation that makes me smile here at Struan Farm. Former pet lambs Rosie, Ruby and Cookie, now pet ewes, coming up to the wall outside our house for apple treats. It's a scrum and I try to treat everyone fairly, since Ruby is so big she pushes everyone else out of the way!

Cookie thinks jumping up is a good way to get an advantage.

Rosie eats hers then calmly goes off to munch the grass.

And then there's Pepper. Never one to eat apples, she prefers my flowers. For reasons only Pepper knows. She makes sure I'm watching before she starts nibbling. I'm thinking I must have scarred her at some point in her lambhood, and this is the thanks I get.

Pip is also around the paddocks but isn't an apple ewe either. She does come up for a pat in the yards or at the gates sometimes, so is still socialised and remembers her mum.

A Plum Assignment

Yes, we have plums in abundance here at Struan Farm! So I'm working to put them to use. Fortunately there are heaps of good recipes out there to try, including this "Plum and Almond Galette" courtesy of the NZ Herald's "Bite" supplement.

Quick and easy to make. I thought it was delicious while John, who doesn't like anything at all tart, thought it was sour. He can eat plums fresh but finds them sour in baked things if I don't amp up the sugar, which I'm trying hard not to do these days. But with plums it seems I must. 

Birds 1, Karen 0

I came bombing up the drive one day this week here at Struan Farm to discover this:

One of my laden little plum trees, split. It's either a Santa Rosa or an Omega, one of two later varieties we have, both of which are "chocka" with fruit this year. I'll never know if it just couldn't handle the weight of the fruit, whether the birds jumped on the branches to retaliate against me for netting it, or if Clifford got caught out trying to pull a low hanging plum off the tree. It could be any one of those things or a combination thereof. John is set to perform surgery and mend the split, but the branch will be cut back severely. Fortunately another main branch remains intact.

I picked a big bucket of the plums that are close to ripe off the branches to see if I can get them to ripen on trays in the garage. It may be that the fruit still remaining on the fallen branches will continue to ripen, we'll see. I'm thinking that I should have picked off some of the fruit to reduce the burden on this small tree, that it's my fault this happened. It will get a good prune and be looked after, I promise.

At the moment I'm feeling like the pests are getting the upper hand on me this season! Even though we have harvested a good amount of plums:

Keep focusing on the glass half full, right Karen?

This.Means.War.

Okay, we now know this isn't being done by the birds. The birds are after the plums but not the tomatoes. This beautiful ripe tomato was hidden under quite a bit of foliage at the bottom of a plant in the backyard, behind a net, and next to a rat trap. So much for the special chocolate mice and rat bait! It seems Karen's heirloom tomatoes trump both peanut butter and creme de la creme rat bait. I would, of course, agree.

We'll set more traps with different bait and if need be erect a perimeter around the tomato area in the backyard. This rodent doesn't know who he's dealing with just yet!

Tomato Thievery, Continued and Continuing

Can I just say that while Zack is certainly a good looking scarecrow, he simply isn't doing the job here at Struan Farm?

My ripening tomatoes have continued to fall prey to someone. We still can't decide whether it's birds or rats due to the locations of the five fruit hit so far, but this clearly cannot continue. I won't have it. 

There were no takers for Pic's Peanut Butter in rat trap #1, so we've set two others with Goodnature chocolate mouse and rat bait. I've heard this is the "creme de la creme," it should work if they're in the vicinity. We've set traps in the back tomato beds and also the front raised bed, where Zack is meant to be on the job dozing, since tomatoes have been eaten in both locations.

In case it's birds, I've deployed both bird netting and my chicken wire covers. It ain't pretty, but these are desperate times!

The Battle for the Plums

It seems to be the year for pests going after our gardens and orchards here at Struan Farm, at least birds and rats (or so we think).

The only exception is that there have been no rabbits in evidence around at all. Normally you would have me ranting and raving about wascally wabbits eating my seedling flowers, but not this year. Not one nibble. The neighbour's cat has been prowling around the property, and we've also seen a hawk circling frequently. Not sure who exactly has been on the job but I'll keep them on.

This season is also the year of the bumper crop for plums. The trees are absolutely groaning under the weight of fruit. And the birds mobilise up in the trees, poised to hit any fruit that approaches ripeness during the hot days. Now I don't mind sharing some fruit, we have more than enough, but when it comes to stripping the trees I just won't have it. I tried the silvery "scare" tape first as a deterrent, then added dangling CDs and a few other clanky bits of shiny metal and wind chimes. Those weren't really working, so I bought netting. It's unsightly and awkward to use, I'd prefer not to use it. Next year I think I'll invest in better quality nylon netting from the nursery that could probably be reused more easily, although I'm not sure how I'd put it up on the trees, and hubby doesn't exactly volunteer for these sort of assignments. As I was out there tying it all on I could heard the birds up in the trees gossiping about what I was up to. 

So the word has gone out that I've done my best to make their lives more difficult when it comes to eating my plums. I'm expecting retaliation of some sort, but then again I have left some fruit uncovered for them as a gesture. And can I also say that I see some major pruning in my future?

One Potato Two Potato

Spuds, finally! This spring we planted two potato patches here at Struan Farm.  A cluster of an early variety called "Rocket" in the backyard at Veggie World, and the later variety "Agria" down by the Homestead's back gate beside my heirloom fruit tree rootstock.

Predictably "Rocket" has been anything but. The plants have barely flowered and certainly aren't anywhere near ready.  But "Agria" is starting to deliver. So much so that a few days ago we contributed several paper bags of potatoes to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand.

While we don't eat a huge amount of potatoes on a regular basis, I did pick out some of the smaller ones for our dinner the night of my initial harvest. I boiled them until tender, then sauteed in butter with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. They hit the spot for a late summer dinner with fresh John Dory (St. Pierre) fillets and steamed green beans from the garden.

 

Flat Out with Farmstays

My apologies, we've been flat out with farmstay guests for the past few days and over the weekend too. I've composed blog posts in my head but they haven't been written and no photographs taken. I'll be back next week on schedule with the stories to be told, including the latest tomato tale.

In the meantime, enjoy some just picked plums from Struan Farm! I'm doing my best to beat the birds to them each day. Now I'm off to water the veggie gardens... 

On Growth Spurts

People often talk about "watching the grass grow" as a sign of being bored. (They also can talk about watching paint dry, but that's another story.)

Here at Struan Farm I've been struck by our ability to see visible growth in the vegetable gardens and sometimes even the grass each day, and we're certainly not bored here. I can see it in the basil plants in the glasshouse, but most obviously with zucchini/courgettes. I check them each day after watering to figure out what we can eat and what will be trundled off to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand before they become what we call "marrows." They seem to grow in a major way overnight, something that has caught me out until now.  They need to be checked both morning and night, zucchinis are sneaky like that. We've taken to slicing larger zucchinis lengthwise on the mandolin, brushing them with olive oil and grilling them until charred and soft. Yum.

It's the same with the beans. I thought I'd pretty much cleaned them out when we had six farmstay guests from Berlin, Germany for dinner last week. (I don't usually make dinner for guests, but in this instance I'd told them our local restaurant was open for dinner that night when it wasn't, and they hadn't brought provisions to cook. Lucky we had that leftover ham and veggies from the garden, and I whipped up a quick pavlova for dessert. But I digress.) We now have beans coming out of our ears once again. I make a delicious salad with green beans, puffed quinoa and chopped tamari almonds that John, who isn't all that crazy about beans, enjoys.  You can find the recipe here.

Growing up my brother used to have "growth spurts" over summer as a child, when he became so much taller he needed new clothing. Parents sometimes say children can feel them, and often eat more when they're happening. The zucchini, basil and beans haven't confided in me about their experiences, so I'm not sure what happens with them either way. The zucchinis do tend to exhaust themselves after a certain point and ask to head to the compost for a nap.

Extreme Makeovers

It was time a few days ago for Bambi, Jam, Jelly, Fergie and Camilla to have their first shearing here at Struan Farm. John managed to get them into the yards at the woolshed ahead of the arrival of Farmer John, but they wouldn't follow him into the actual shed. And so Karen was recruited to assist. I ventured down with bottles of water and a cut apple or two. They followed me happily into the shed.

You can see how fat they look "before." Now here's "after."

They're good, calm lambs. Next we moved them into a narrow pen in the yard so they could get their B12 and selenium injection, a drench for worms, and a dose for fly. Yes, they got the full monty!

They were very happy when I opened the gate to let them back out into the paddock, and wandered off munching grass.

Given the hot days we've been having they'll be much cooler. The only problem is that I think I've put Jam's pink collar on Camilla. I couldn't tell them apart after they were shorn, I'm obviously a terrible mum! We'll get that sorted out in due course.

Post-Exuberance

The vegetable gardens in the backyard here at Struan Farm, aka "Veggie World," have gone through quite a dramatic growth phase. We've been enjoying edible flowers, zucchini, beans, mesclun lettuce, radishes, garlic, shallots, herbs and peas and sharing the surplus as well. Tasted our first ripe tomatoes too.

We're now into what I'm calling the "post-exuberant" phase of the season. Certain things that have done their dash have been pulled out, along with most of the marigolds. I've also planted a few new zucchini seedlings to replace the ones that have been delivering daily, along with fresh crops of mesclun lettuce.

The backyard doesn't look quite as lush and pretty, but we're into serious food production still. I'll miss the flowers but this gives the corn and tomatoes some breathing room and watering space for me. Now I just need to figure out what to plant in the area where the garlic and shallots were growing. Hmmmm.

We have yet to harvest any potatoes, neither the alleged early "Rocket" nor the later cropping "Agria." Not even the purple ones I planted out from the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand. I suspect when the potato crop lands we'll be sharing quite a bit of that.