Struan Farm

On Teachings from the Cauliflower Gods

I've learnt something new today here at Struan Farm, with thanks once again to the veggie garden.

I went out to harvest some of our first cauliflowers, and discovered slugs on the plants. And not your garden variety disgusting sluggy slug type slugs either. These are sneaky. Many are quite small, and hide out deep in the bottom crevice of the leaves of each plant. They must wait until you've gone away to crawl out and munch on the plant. Cunning slugs.

Of course I jumped into action, not wanting to be outwitted by slugs. (Yes, you know me.) I examined each of the plants and either picked out slugs by hand or used a knife to remove and dispense of them. The cauliflower I picked to mash for dinner with our slow roasting lamb shanks will get a good soak in salted water to draw out any slugs lurking therein. And yes, some came floating to the surface of the bowl, so this is a useful technique.

I'll be on slug patrol daily now to keep the cauliflower safe, rest assured.

On Getting Oneself Cracking

There are certain tasks that can be viewed as tedious if one lets them. Three such tasks immediately come to mind here at Struan Farm: ironing, cleaning out fridges, and--last but not least-- shelling walnuts.

I've been scrupulously avoiding the two bulging hessian sacks sittings out in the garage that are stuffed with the remains of our walnut harvest. Some of this season's bumper crop has gone off to good causes, but what's left patiently waits to be shelled and put into ziplock bags for the freezer. We go through quite a lot of nuts in our homemade muesli for the farmstay, also use walnuts in baking and on winter breakfast porridge. And stale walnuts from the supermarket simply don't compare to fresh from the farm, the taste is markedly different.

Today I've decided to approach the walnuts and the worst of the fridges with a positive attitude rather than dread. This must be best for all of us. It's a rainy day, and I hate blobbing around. First I tackled the garage fridge, which we use for farmstay breakfast provisions in season, and in autumn/winter to store, hatch ziplock bags of heritage seedling fruit stones in compost and sometimes scion wood for grafting fruit trees. The stones have now pretty much hatched and been planted out into pots in the glasshouse, so it's well past time to clean the fridge. And surprise, it didn't take that long to do.

With that job done it's onto the walnuts. Bag #1 has been relocated onto the kitchen island, bowls and tools have been assembled and the cracking has commenced. This job will take many days, but at least the train has now left the station for nutville. There is even a quantity of beautiful shelled walnuts in the bowl.

But here's the good news--the sun is coming out, a reprieve from the universe. I've made a start and apparently that's good enough for the powers that be. I can go outside and play!

On Debate around the Dinner Table

A few days ago during a drive I started to think about coming to terms with certain things as one ages. About how we are as people, both the good things and the bad; about what we do and have done well, and what we don't do or haven't done so well. About how and why we've become the people we are. It seems that one comes to accept, or be resigned to, oneself.

As the Black Lives Matter protests recently raged around the globe I remembered a speech that I gave at my graduation ceremony in June 1969 from Harding Twp. School in New Vernon, New Jersey, USA. It was entitled "Equal but Not Equal" and was about civil rights and the landmark Supreme Court decision ruling in the Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (1954) case that segregated educational facilities were in violation of the US Constitution. It had been previously argued that if separate, segregated school facilities were comparable they were in fact acceptable and constitutional. This doctrine was called "Separate but Equal" and was deemed by the Supreme Court to be illegal. I've lost my copy of that speech, unfortunately, but I still have the programme, somewhat moth eaten, from that graduation ceremony. I also found the Citizenship Award/medal I received that night.

In 1968, in the aftermath of riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that April, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act 1968, outlawing discrimination in housing. That June, Bobby Kennedy, a candidate for US President, was assassinated in Los Angeles. If you haven't seen the Oliver Stone movie "Bobby" or read "Kennedy and King: The President, The Pastor and the Battle over Civil Rights" by Steven Levingston to learn and understand more about those turbulent times, I can recommend both to you.  I am now of the view that Bobby Kennedy would have been one of the great US presidents had he lived, far greater than his brother JFK. 

Thinking back through the lens of over forty years I'm struck by a few things. I went to a very small suburban primary school in what was at the time a very affluent white community. New Vernon was smaller than Piopio. In fact, there were no families of other races then that I recall. So my graduation speech, however passionate and sincere, must have seemed ironic or naive to some of the adults in the room, if entirely reflective of the time. I remember that it was well received, much to my relief, since I've never been a public speaker.  Following graduation I went on to attend a large regional high school that was quite diverse, and then a private women's college in New England, Smith, via scholarship and loans.

For whatever reason it seems I've always been and will always be a proponent of equal opportunity, justice and fairness for all.  A believer that anyone can do anything with a good education and a decent chance. Some of this stems from my own modest family background, which didn't include silver spoons, rather education, hard work and luck. Also equal opportunity laws that required employers to hire minorities, including women, at the time I graduated from college/university.  I doubt I would have ever had the 40 year career in banking I had without those laws (and quotas) coming into effect. They forced doors to open. Without them there was no incentive for employers to hire anyone but white men.

But that was then, this is now. It is obvious there are battles still to be waged for equality and fairness, with now several generations taking up this cause, both experienced, old campaigners and the young, hand in hand. We shall overcome.

What I'm still mulling over is how I came to be this way early on in life. There weren't many discussions about race at our house, although there were heated debates about politics over the dinner table. My mother was a Democrat and supporter of labour unions, while my father purported to be Republican. Let's just say he was aspirational and leave it at that, but I do remember some rather rowdy discussions. This was also during the Vietnam War.

Perhaps I am the product of robust debate around the dinner table in the 1960s and 1970s. Do you think this same kind of debate happens around dinner tables today? I hope it does, even if the meals are takeaways. 

 

 

Damson Jamming @StruanFarm

Now I'm onto the damsons, having worked my way through the stash of blackcurrants from this past summer's harvest here at Struan Farm. I've become a huge fan of damsons, having discovered them quite inadvertently when a local person dropped a box of them off at Piopio's Community Fruit & Veg Stand two years ago.

I'd heard of them but had never seen or cooked with them before. About that same time Lynda Hallinan of NZ Gardener magazine fame published her definitive book: "Damson: From hedgerow to harvest." The book provides a good amount of background on the history of the fruit, along with growing and using it.

This year I've decided it's pretty much blackcurrant and spiced damson jam for our farmstay guests. The blackcurrant is now made and stored in sealed jars in the pantry, so I'm onto the damson.

The damsons are put into a pot, covered with water and simmered until soft, anywhere from 30-45 minutes. Once they're cool they're drained and put through a food mill, which removes the stones and skins. The puree is then measured and put into the jam pan and gently reheated. At this time I add some fresh lemon juice and Syrian 7 Spice mix (or whichever spice mix you prefer). Once the puree is warm sugar is added and dissolved. Basically if the puree measures four cups I add the same amount of sugar, since damsons are tart. This is then cooked to set point, which I determine by putting a plate in the freezer and dribbling a stream of warm jam across it. If I am able to run my finger through the jam without it running, it's pretty much done. This is not an exact science, you need to figure out what works for you. 

This is batch #3:

Syrian 7 Spice damson jam is my absolute favourite. It can be used warmed as a sauce on ice cream, in baking, or on toast, scones, etc. Find room at your place for a damson tree! And I need to go find some more jars to keep the jam making exercise on track these rainy winter days.

Blackcurrant Jamming @StruanFarm

Rainy winter days are great for spending time in the kitchen making jam, at least they are for me here at Struan Farm. While I like to make strawberry jam for farmstay guests out of fresh berries in season, I've found that jams made from frozen blueberries, blackcurrants and/or damsons are perfectly fine. In fact, they're indistinguishable from those made from fresh fruit. And since things are pretty hectic here during the summer, using frozen fruit buys me time to rebuild our stockpile of jams for the next farmstay season.

This past week I decided to dive into the stash of blackcurrants grown here last summer. I use the Edmonds recipe, which calls for 1 kg. of fruit, 2 cups of water, and 6 cups of sugar. The fruit is boiled gently until soft in the water, after which the sugar is added, stirred until dissolved, and boiled to set point.  Before I start I put jars washed in hot soapy water in the oven at a low temperature, and my jar tops/seals/rings in a pot on the stove to simmer away until required. I also set out a ladle, funnel and tongs. Have you figured out that organisation is one of the keys to good jamming?

When I make batches of jam I tend to make some for farmstay use and some for the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand. The farmstay jars are sealed and stored away in the pantry, while those for the stand are topped with paper, beewax wraps, or fabric and put out in the stand for immediate consumption.

It's good to share the bounty!

On Finding Green Shoots

I'm trying to get back into my groove on the blogging front here at Struan Farm, one step at a time. Lockdown threw me completely off balance (and everyone else in the world) more than I'd realised until very recently.

During lockdown John took over my office, working from home. He also took over his office, the dining room table, and often the kitchen bench. The changes to day-to-day routines rattled me and I haven't quite recovered from all that along with absorbing the news of the chaos on various fronts overseas. John has also had his own local political challenges that preoccupied and worried us both.

I've come to realise that I need to be in a positive place to share stories about life here at Struan Farm. And my head just hasn't been in that story telling space. Normally stories bubble up to the surface unannounced, and they just haven't been coming. I usually see and share the joy we feel about life at Struan Farm. Joy has been in short supply!

It's been the same on the photography front, I haven't been seeing the beauty I usually see around me. I've been wanting good news and positivity and there just hasn't been all that much to grasp onto. It's unsettling. And the fact that this isn't just me going through this doesn't make it any better.

But there are some things, some good things, starting to happen. Let's call them "green shoots." It seems when life gets challenging I'm the sort of person who returns to the earth and to growing things to get grounded, literally.

As previously reported, I've got seedling damsons growing in the glasshouse and now stones from several area heritage plum trees have also sprouted. I take these as positive signs.

For the past month most of my time has been taken up with helping a local community garden going. It's called "Maara Kai Roopu," or "MKR Garden," and will grow food for two nearby food banks. Basically an enterprising local woman who recently lost her tourism related job stepped up with several others to move this initiative forward. A portion of a section has been used for years by the Maniapoto Marae Pact Trust for training and working with intellectually disabled people and those recovering from health and addiction issues. The rest of the section, which had been a community garden many years ago now, had become seriously overgrown with blackberry and all sorts of rubbish and weeds. A few photos say it all.

Once the Trust agreed that the garden might co-exist with its other activities on this site, major clean up work began. There were a number of neglected fruit (apple, peach, feijoa) trees already growing. An orchard area at the back has been created and other donated trees planted, with chickens and a henhouse under discussion.

It's amazing what a digger and weeks of work can accomplish, with the generosity of local businesses and private individuals. Rubbish has been carted away. Fencing has been improved, the neighbours are ecstatic. Compost bins have been constructed out of pallets for garden waste and community composting.

My role has been behind the scenes as a worker, where I like to be, and as chief fruit and vegetable advisor. My niwashi has been working overtime. A chalkboard sign for the garden has been erected along with smaller signs for various veggies, many in Te Reo. There are dedicated beds for flowers for bees & butterflies, beneficial insects, and healing. Garlic and shallots have been planted, along with silverbeet, peas, broadbeans, rocket, spinach, beetroot, brussels sprouts, cavalo nero, curly kale, cauliflower, red and green cabbage, broccoli, and pak choi. Large areas have been set aside for potatoes, Maori potatoes (taewa), kumara, corn, pumpkins and kamo kamo. Herbs and rhubarb have been planted.

It's been important to get the site cleaned up and winter veggies in and growing asap given the demand for food at the food banks. Once the garden is blessed and officially opened an army of volunteers will be recruited and organised by the Garden trustees to weed and plant on an ongoing basis.

I am grateful for these green shoots, which have helped bring me back to positivity. I will find my way back to joy and our stories in due course. And my hope is that Maara Kai Roopu will flourish and help others in many different ways. It is a healing place.