Struan Farm

Evoking Cirque du Soleil and the Wizard of Oz, Peut-être

This afternoon the heirloom tomatoes got planted, staked and tied and the associated bird netting put up here at Struan Farm. I had to arrange for special delivery of more weed mat staples to pin the netting down properly; the birds otherwise get pretty sneaky finding any gaps, such is the temptation of my tomatoes.

It seems my previous supply of weed mat staples had been otherwise deployed to John's ever expanding native tree nurseries. These things happen in my world, requiring a flexible approach.

I'm thinking the netting looks a bit like the tents of Cirque du Soleil, if you remember those? Minus the blue and yellow stripes, of course. Henry our scarecrow agrees. Inspired, he asked me to consider a trapeze with which he could entertain himself. This got the thumbs down from me--our scarecrow needs to stay on the job. Even if the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz did go for a wander down the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy, Toto, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man. 

One Zealous Zucchini

I was pleasantly surprised to look out on Veggie World this morning here at Struan Farm and see that one of the Black Coral zucchini plants I'd planted out decided to flower, hooray!

 

I have not tempted fate planting tomatoes outside until it is officially Labour Weekend. While I am raring to go, I've learnt not to cross Mother Nature or she'll whip out a frost to put me squarely in my place. However it was sufficiently warm yesterday that I decided to plant zucchini and pumpkins that have been growing in pots in the glasshouse, as well as butternut squash, green bean, and parsley seeds. The Asian wild fire chiles also asked to be planted and I acquiesced. 

I'm waiting a wee bit on the corn and seed potatoes too. The former needs heat to germinate. On the latter I haven't ventured down to check on the state of the main potato bed at the back gate just yet; suspect it will need a major weed before any planting can happen. Loins need to be girded for that and the moon cycle checked.

But that zealous zucchini makes me smile. We're can't be too far away from grilled zucchini and zoodles!

Countdown to Tomatoes

I am so ready to plant out my heirloom tomato seedlings here at Struan Farm, really I am! But we had a light frost this week and I know better than to challenge Mother Nature. So I must wait somewhat patiently until next weekend, our Labour Weekend, to plant them. Along with zucchini and pumpkin plants and other veggie seeds. Plus quite a few chitted seed potatoes, Purple Heart, Kowiniwini and Agria. 

I've tried to content myself with the associated prep work, setting up stakes, weeding, raking and feeding beds. I've thrown caution to the wind and sown some hardier lettuce seeds, edible flower seeds, and "seeds for bees." This will have to do for now. The tomato seedlings are bursting out of the glasshouse at this point, begging me to be planted. This year we've got Oxheart, Black Oxheart, Black Cherry, Purple Cherokee, Vintage Brandywine, Chef's Choice Black, Big Red Heirloom, Big Black Heirloom and Big Red and Big Black Heirloom. Latter three are seeds I've saved from last year's good fruit. 

I know I can always go and spend hours and hours weeding and cleaning up in the flower gardens to expend my surplus energy. But while I love my flowers, it's not the same as growing tomatoes. Or veggies. It's just not. 

Everything's Coming Up Radishes

Yes, I know the old song is about roses rather than radishes. But here at Struan Farm the spring radish crop is starting to pop up in Veggie World. I've had leaves for awhile, but now there are red, purple, white and yellow radishes bursting through the soil.

Here's hoping we move into Alert Level 2 on Friday so I can share this bounty at the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand!

Peachy Keen

I've been amused to find wee seedling peach trees poking up from compost dumped on our veggie gardens here at Struan Farm the past month or so. Predictably this happens after I tried to sprout some from stones in a handful of compost in the fridge unsuccessfully this past season! I'd done so previously, and managed to convince the heritage Grandpa Anselmi and Mapiu Settler damson stones to cooperate this year, but not the peaches.

Obviously this was Mother Nature showing me she knows best, once again. She puts me in my place whenever I get too cocky about growing things in her world.

What I don't know is whether these are Sanguine (formerly called Blackboy) or Golden Queen. Either way they will be delicious heritage peach trees with time. I'll put these wee fruit trees out at our Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand to share once we're back in Alert Level 2. They'll need to be grown on in larger pots for at least the next year before planted out and protected from stock and feral rabbits. The latter love to dig around their roots.

Heritage Fruit Trees

You may recall that I've been discovering and trying to propagate heritage/heirloom trees from around the wider Piopio area here at Struan Farm over a number of years now. I've been learning and finding my way, and it's a long game.  I should note upfront that some of these will be conventional varieties that people will recognise. To make life easier I have named them for the names of owners or properties.

We've had the "Huia fig" growing for many years. Figs are really easy to grow from cuttings. This is tree #2 growing on the point out past the tawa groves, #1 is down in the Pet Paddock by the Homestead. What's interesting is that this one tends to fruit earlier than the other, so we manage to have an extended season.

This past winter we decided to turn this point past the tawas behind our house into a heritage fruit tree orchard, protecting it from stock. The Huia fig is already established and fruiting. I was able to plant out "Grandpa Anselmi" and "Mapiu Settler" damsons after sprouting them from stones and growing them in pots for two seasons. I've protected "Mapiu" from rabbits since it's still quite small.

For plums we've got "May White" and "Waitouru" growing away in this area. These trees were also sprouted from stones. The former is a red skinned, gold flesh fruit, very sweet and good for eating. The latter is red and red. 

I've got some surplus damson trees to share with the community, as well as some seedling peach trees and red currants.

In our other orchard areas we've got "Karen J's peach," "Hester's peach," "Henare's peach," and the "Northland nectarine," while in Chook World I've planted two grafted "Peter the Hermit's Golden Delicious apples." The latter were my first and only attempt to graft, and I managed to have beginner's luck. I still have some apple and pear rootstock growing down at the back gate, and hope to get out next July to take scion wood from a few other special apple and pear trees around the district. The scion wood is taken in July, after which it sits in the fridge in plastic bags until September, when it gets grafted.  So you can understand how this all takes  just a wee bit of time?

Spring Clean

The past few days I've cracked into the backyard, aka "Veggie World" at Struan Farm. We're getting close to prime time for planting at the end of October. I've been feeding the garden troughs with compost, blood & bone and manure to refresh them for the upcoming season. Now it's time to turn over the soil in the beds in the ground at the back. Of course weeding is always required, it comes with the territory.

At the moment we've got rocket, radishes, coriander and spring onions growing away in the troughs, with broad beans, garlic and shallots at the back. Per usual I need to encourage the broad beans to hurry it up. I plant them for nitrogen, flowers for the bees, and beans if we manage to get them in the short window of time. They'll be pulled up for tomatoes shortly. I rotate tomatoes and corn between these two back beds with the supporting wood and wire frames each year.

Now comes the back breaking work of cleaning out the cracks in those paving stones, ugh! Once I've done some reasonable digging the job gets finished with a light water blast to blow away whatever I've missed.

 

Glasshouse Gala

It's all happening in the glasshouse here at Struan Farm. Basically we're out of space to pot up any more seedings until the end of October, when the risk of frost is meant to be past and veggies can be planted outside in the garden.

This year I've got 500+ tomato seedlings potted up, with surplus of some varieties still in seed trays. Varieties include Oxheart, Black Oxheart, Vintage Brandywine, Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Chef's Choice Black (King's Seeds mix of different good black varieties), and then my saved seeds from the best tomatoes last year: Big Red Heirloom, Big Black Heirloom, and Big Red and Black Heirloom (I got a bit lazy at the end of the season and mixed them). This year I decided to try colour coding varieties with their pots to avoid having to use quite so many craft sticks and labels. It should work as long as I don't mix them up in the glasshouse by moving them around!

Seedling "Musquee de Provence" and "Blue Prince" pumpkins, "Black Coral" Zucchini and chiles are also growing away. For some reason the butternut squash doesn't want to germinate, I may need a new packet of seed. I plant lettuce seed, corn, beans and potatoes/kumara out directly, those aren't started inside since they don't especially like being moved.

In terms of flowers seed trays of marigolds, snapdragons and straw flowers are growing away. If I had space I would pot up some of those, but they'll have to hold on a bit longer in the seed trays. Flowers are pretty understanding like that.

At the moment garlic, shallots, broad beans, radishes, rocket, spring onions and coriander are taking off outside. I'm also feeding beds and troughs with manure, blood & bone and lime to gear the soil up for the main event. Compost was dumped everywhere a few months ago too.

So now I'm girding my loin for Labour Weekend. I will start sharing tomato plants at our Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand, Maniapoto Maara Kai Roopu community garden, and a few local schools in late October as well. I've been told that the kids love Black Cherry tomatoes to snack on and I'm happy to encourage that.

Countdown to Veggies

I've been busy in the gardens here at Struan Farm the past few days with some decent weather. In addition to some seriously overdue extreme weeding, on which I made a respectable dent, I potted up a few hundred heirloom tomato seedlings ("Big Red Heirloom," "Super Steakhouse," and "Vintage Brandywine" from seeds saved from last season plus "Black Cherry," "Black Oxheart" and a mix called "Chef's Choice," all from King's Seeds). The glasshouse is operating currently at capacity. In fact, I had to move some seedling damson trees outside to make room for tomatoes.

I have four seed trays of Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes still to pot once they're big enough. For some reason the other varieties have taken off this year but not my favourite. It will come in its own time, I'm sure. I've shifted it onto a different rack closer to better, warmer sunlight.

Most of the "Black Coral" zucchini, several "Big Chieftain" butternut, "Wild Fire" chiles, and several of three different types of pumpkins have germinated (Musquee de Provence, Jarradale, Queensland Blue). I've had to repot several zucchini since it's too early to plant them out just yet. My seed tray of Italian parsley has germinated but the plants are holding off for more heat to grow further. Still too early to start any basil, you'll be wondering about that I'm sure.

I always try to grow more plants than we require since you never really know what will germinate and what won't. Plus it's good to have surplus plants to contribute to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand and the new Maara Kai Roopu Maniapoto "MKR" Community Garden that grows fruit and veggies for the local food banks.

Labour Weekend. Patience Grasshopper, patience..... But those broad beans and peas had better get a move on. The peas have read the memo, pods are ripening away, the broad beans are just flowering.

A Rescue Mission

Word seems to have gotten out about me. I got a phone call over the weekend here at Struan Farm from a local lady I didn't know, alerting me that a section in town behind her house was being redeveloped, and quite a few lovely red currant bushes were being pulled out and tossed. Would I like to come and take them to get them to new homes?

Of course you will know what I said. I hate to see fruit go to waste, and that would include fruit trees, heirloom/heritage or not. And so I went over to meet this lovely lady on Sunday after after she returned from church to dig up some up. John's parents grew them and had quite a few bushes with the raspberries, his mum Rosemary made red currant jam. These were planted by her family at the turn of the century, so I've called them "Gaynor's Piopio Heritage Red Currants." 

They are very healthy if tart, with heaps of Vitamin C, and are coming back into vogue currently. Upon returning home I potted up rooted cuttings into pots with good soil that I'll offer out to the community via the Piopio Community stand and the Piopio Heritage Fruit Tree project.

Fruitful Blooms

The plum, nectarine and peach trees have pretty much finished flowering in our orchard areas here at Struan Farm. Now it's time for the quince, pears and nashi to take their turns. The pear trees especially are covered in blossoms. We harvested our first few fruits from those last year and really enjoyed them.

These will be followed shortly thereafter by the apples. I've had a talk with Monty (Monty's Surprise, that is) to encourage him, since we gave him an especially hard prune this year. 

The good news is that the bees are very busy doing their pollination work, hooray! Hopefully this means lots of good fruit down the track.

A Big Week at Chook World

It's been a big week at "Chook World" here at Struan Farm, the paddock where "Cluckingham Palace" and our six new Hy Line hens are located. They spent the first week after arrival cooped up in their house to acclimate to home not-so-sweet home. On Monday afternoon I opened their little door hatch with ramp, encouraging them to venture out for a short time.

There was quite a bit of oohing and aahing over all that, they weren't so sure. I saw four-five of them peek out. One brave soul did come out and walk around, a second walked onto the ramp.

The intrepid hen, whom I've taken to calling "Braveheart," has decided she rather likes sitting underneath the coop. However I've decided that we don't want her nesting down there, so I go out and move her along after awhile.

Initially there was some discussion about naming the six hens after our grandchildren. But we've decided not to do that after learning of this breed's the relatively short (two year) peak laying cycle, since that would make replacing them a bit awkward in the family context. And unlike pet lambs, they pretty much all look the same; I didn't want us calling Violet Freya by mistake, that just wouldn't be right.

This week I also started to drop the top of the self-feeder in their coop as instructed. For the first week the top is propped open with a board so it doesn't move and scare them, after which the top is progressively lowered using clothes pins/pegs as the hens become familiar get with stepping on the ramp to pop the top open.

Clearly we're taking all things chook one step at a time.

I must say that at the moment my life is consumed by looking after chooks, pet lamb Tiger, and Clifford. Sometimes even John. The gardens (and myself) are way down the list. Hopefully things will settle down into more of a routine shortly so I can get my real work done around here.

Heritage Damsons Plus a Plum

I've managed to have good luck this season here at Struan Farm growing seedling heritage damson trees from stones. So far. I won't tempt fate by being too cocky! Both the "Mapiu" and "Grandpa Anselmi" damsons, hooray. The Mapiu damsons have been grown from fruit from an original settler tree/homestead site, while Grandpa Anselmi, an immigrant from Italy, used to make grappa with the fruit from his!

As I use ripe fruit in autumn I pop the stones into ziplock bags with handfuls of compost, and pop those into the garage fridge. (Note: You can't do this with fruit that has been cooked or frozen, it must be fresh.) Once the stones open and start to sprout in the fridge (this takes anywhere from 6-10 weeks) I put them in soil in small pots in the glasshouse to nurture along. 

This past week I repotted everyone to give them more room to grow. I also managed to get one heritage seedling plum tree growing with fruit I picked at Mrs. White's house along the main road, from a huge old tree. It's been christened "May's Plum," and I hope it hangs in. It's a dark skinned plum with golden fruit that John especially enjoyed, so it would be good to have it in our ever expanding orchard.

These will come out of the glasshouse once it's a bit warmer, and looked after carefully over summer especially. Next winter when these are larger I'll plant a few of each in an orchard area (somewhere!) here at Struan Farm. The others will be given away via the Piopio Heritage Fruit Tree Project. We need to make sure older varieties of fruit trees in our area continue to be propagated, grow and thrive. And if some of the history is known and can be passed along that's special too. 

Houston We Have Germination

This time of the year the glasshouse at Struan Farm kicks things up a notch, although I will say it's had a busier winter than normal in 2020. I was concerned about the prospect of food shortages due to COVID, along with most everyone else, and went a bit crazy growing winter veggies.

I'm glad I did. We enjoyed eating all those fresh veggies, and so I will do it all over again next year after having learnt how to deal with the dreaded white butterfly. 

But right now the tomato seeds have germinated (Cherokee Purple, Big Red Heirloom, Black Cherry, Black Oxheart, Super Steakhouse, Vintage Brandywine, and "Chef's Choice"), along with Italian Parsley Gigante, Black Coral Zucchini, and Pumpkin Musquee de Provence. The Queensland Blue and Jarrahdale pumpkins haven't broken ground just yet, nor have the Big Chieftain Butternut or Wild Fire Chiles. 

In terms of flowers the zinnias, snapdragons, marigolds, coreopsis and some of the straw flowers have broken ground.  It's still too early and cold to think about starting basil. 

Hurry up and wait, that's what we gardeners do. And hum or whistle Mozart and Beethoven to keep everyone happy.

I always grow spares in case seeds decide not to germinate, or plants decide not to grow. Those things happen. Surplus plants will go to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand and Maara Kai Roopu- Maniapoto, "MKR" Garden in Te Kuiti, which has opened this year to grow food for local food banks.

 

Time for a Change

This past week "Veggie World" in the backyard here at Struan Farm experienced a major clean up. I needed to get the troughs and beds prepped for spring and summer planting, and pull out winter veggies that have done their dash. Quite a bit of weeding happened.

Right now the peas are flowering profusely, and the broad beans flowering and growing visibly each day. They know they're on notice to be replaced in late October by seedling tomato plants and corn seed. The peas seem to have read that memo a bit more thoroughly than the broad beans. Garlic and shallots are growing away, have settled in for harvest in December.

There are carrots and silverbeet back by the water tank that we'll be using over the next few weeks, along with wooden planters of kale, rocket and lettuce leftover from winter in the glasshouse on their last gasp. I've already planted coriander, dill, radish, spring onion and edible flower seeds, since they're able to cope with colder temps, along with large plastic planters with "chicken greens" to carry out to Chook World for the hens. We've got a corner of that paddock fenced off to plant them a proper field of "chicken greens;" we'll see if this works or if they'll crash the party and jump the fence in anticipation.

I'm also prepping part of a bed for kumara, after reading that Maori used ash and sand to help them grow. You will think I'm being a bit optimistic on the kumara front, since my mothers have yet to send any sprouts out from their warm, damp, sandy haven in the glasshouse. Yes, hope springs eternal with Karen, at least when it comes to vegetables!

 

The Chooks have Landed

It's been an exciting week here at Struan Farm. On Tuesday I travelled south to Inglewood and picked up our six new laying "Hy Line" hens, transporting them back to Piopio and the new chicken coop.

The breeder had them packed in boxes, along with a sack of mash, which he popped into the back of my car:

Surprisingly, it was a very quiet trip home. I'd expected more clucks than happened. Perhaps they were happy with my driving? Upon returning home to Struan Farm John helped me carry the boxes into the chicken coop, where we let them out. Food and water were ready, nesting boxes have fresh wood shavings.

The next morning we found one egg on the floor, then another. One has been popped into a nesting box to encourage them to use the boxes, we'll see how that goes.

They are meant to stay in the coop for the first week to learn that this is "home." On the seventh day (rather biblical, eh?) they are let out briefly in the late afternoon to have a wee stroll around their paddock before being put back inside for the evening. At the same time we are working to teach them how to use the "self-feeding" feeder, step by step.

We're all learning as we go.

A Lesson Being Learnt

This year I am learning how to grow kumara, a NZ type of sweet potato, here at Struan Farm. With considerable thanks to Kath Irvine at Edible Backyard, who has a well written tutorial for those of us who need help. 

The "mother" kumara or kumaras are put on a damp bed of river sand, covered with sand, and then put in a warm place like a glasshouse for the "tipu" or shoots to sprout. And that's where I am in the process right now. I think this takes awhile but will report back. The "tipu" are then cut from the mother and put into water to grow roots before planting.

Obviously like watching grass grow, I know! The sand is meant to be kept damp, and I'm onto it. Don't hold your breath, okay? I will report back once something more exciting happens.

A New Garden

Yes, a new garden here at Struan Farm, but it's not what you think. I've been reading about and seeing pictures of some wonderful focaccia gardens during COVID lockdowns around the world. It's amazing how creative people can get when they are cooped up!

This weekend I finally had a chance to try my hand at it. It took me awhile to track down unbleached flour here in NZ, but I found a fantastic source online: The Source Bulk Foods. This company is a franchise that was started in Byron Bay, Australia, but has franchisees here in New Zealand. The company's focus is on zero waste, so everything is minimally packaged. I suspect you are meant to take your own containers to their brick and mortar locations. In any event, this is the only place I could find to buy unbleached flour. 

I used the focaccia recipe in "Bread Toast Crumbs." I'm also keen to try the basic peasant bread recipe in this same cookbook, which also calls for unbleached flour. At this rate I will turn into The Source Bulk Food's best unbleached flour customer.....

The dough is made with the flour, kosher salt, instant yeast and lukewarm water. After being mix it's left to rise for 1- 1 1/2 hours before being put onto an oiled tray.

While this was happening I played around with my decorations, cutting up yellow and red bell peppers, red onions, herbs, and spring onions and chopping some olives. I looked at photos of what other garden focaccia artists had created for inspiration, and to gauge what might work.

Here's the finished version:

Next time I'll add cherry tomatoes and purple potatoes, those are also meant to work well. It's a start on my focaccia garden journey.

Working through Walnuts

Yes, I'll confess. We're still working through shelling all of this past season's walnut harvest here at Struan Farm. While some of the harvest has gone to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg stand to share, I've got 1 1/2 big hessian sacks sitting in the garage here that I continue to work my way through. Initially I'd cart a sack inside and plop it on the kitchen bench, but that proved messy and overwhelming. So I've adopted another strategy and am "decanting" them onto a seed tray. The "tray a day" mantra used in previous years seems to be a more manageable approach to the task at hand. It's realistic progress that can be measured.

We've just finished up using last year's stash in the freezer in our winter porridge/oatmeal, so it's all the more important I get onto these. Yes, yes I will. Rainy days are good for that. Plus walnuts might just be the ticket in procrastinating on the ironing!

Preserving Peter's Golden Apple

Last winter I had the opportunity to cut "scion" wood from an heirloom golden delicious apple tree in nearby Mahoenui, grafting it onto rootstock here at Struan Farm. A lady named Hester has several old fruit trees growing on her property on Gribbon Road along the Awakino River, and invited me to come have a look and try to propagate whatever I wanted. 

This particular Golden Delicious apple is crisp and yes, delicious. Not at all like modern Golden Delicious, which I find rather mushy. But what intrigued me more was this apple's heritage. The tree had been moved from its original home at the hut of a man named Peter Nilsen, a Norwegian immigrant who lived further down Gribbon Road near Leitch's Clearing. It's a place that is still quite remote today, and would have been considerably more so then. 

I'd never grafted a fruit tree before, so this was an experiment in more ways than one. I'm pleased to report that my two attempts were both successful, thankfully. I'd like to think this was because the scion wood came from a very special tree that needed to perpetuate its story.

In our home library we have a book called "Waitanguru," compiled by Stan Frederickson and published by the Waitanguru Jubilee Committee in 1990. The book purports to be a "collection of memories depicting optimism, disaster and progress of the Waitanguru, Mangaotaki, Ngapaenga and Mairoa districts," all located in the wider Piopio area. 

There's a chapter written by Cedric Verry, with his recollections on the story of Leitch's Clearing, that provides some information on Peter. Hester referred to him as "Peter the Hermit," and remembers her late husband Russell helping to remove Peter's body from his home after he died.

Peter and his two brothers emigrated to New Zealand from Norway before the war, taking up a bush section on the Awakino River. After starting to clear the land and building a bach it became too difficult and they walked off the land, a common occurrence at that time. Peter returned to the area circa 1940 working on the roads, and spent weekends opening up the track back to the old hut. The land, along with that of other abandoned farms, had become state forest. After Peter gave up his job in 1943 he went to live in the hut, clearing some land to graze sheep. While the Forestry Department were not happy and tried to move him off the land, he lived there until his death in 1962. Hester and Russell subsequently moved his apple trees to their place down the road.

Here's a photo of the hut:

This winter we moved and planted out the two trees, which I've christened "Peter's Golden Apples," in a newly fenced paddock with our chook house. Hopefully the trees will survive and thrive, with the chooks taking care of any codling moths if they dare come near these special trees.