There are so many of my former pet lambs having lambs in our paddocks here at Struan Farm now that I can walk pretty easily in their midst without causing major panic. Some ewes look at me a bit sideways at times, but they don't bolt. They might just quietly decide to give me a wider berth than my former pets.
It's fun to walk around when the lambs are here, I'm able to get reasonably close. Like the ewes that weren't pets, the new lambs aren't so sure about Karen!
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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!
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The big magnolia tree just inside our front entrance gate here at Struan Farm is in full flower and looking beautiful. It's right outside the Homestead, and the soft pink is in contrast to the brilliant red camellia "Bob Hope" and "Cornubia" rhododendron on either side.
September is "Bee Aware Month," so we'll mention that the bees love these flowers too. It's hard not to be carried away by them all; every year it seems I do!
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We've been keeping an eye on former pet lamb Rosie in the paddocks here at Struan Farm. She is set to have her third round of lamb/lambs any day now. And predictably, she is one of two ewes in the mob left to lamb. Yes, Rosie knows how to keep us in suspense!
I've been wondering if she avoided the young ram that broke through the border fence and held out for Farmer John's pure breds that came on the scene a few weeks later. That would be SOOO Rosie too.
Either way we'll let you know what happens, when it happens. At the moment she's happily munching away in the cottage paddock. I had to bribe her with an apple to get any cooperation for photos, and she asked that I feature her "good side." Divas!
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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.
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August is when things start to gear up on the spring/summer veggie front here at Struan Farm. I do a spring clean of the glasshouse, moving our wooden planters of winter lettuce, spinach, and kale outside to make room for seed trays. Those crops can now finish up outside.
This year I managed to grow tomatoes for the first time over winter in the glasshouse, very exciting! Those plants are having their last gasp before they get removed for the season. And I've managed to grow quite a few seedling damson trees from stones over winter, along with a few "Sanguine" peaches (NZ heirloom formerly called "Blackboy").
But the big news right now is that I've got seed trays started with Cherokee Purple, Black Oxheart, Black Cherry, Vintage Brandywine, and Big Red Heirloom tomatoes going. The latter is basically seeds I've saved from last year's crops. I'm also trying a mix of tomato varieties from Kings Seeds called "Chef's Choice," which sound somewhat like a grab bag chefs prefer. We'll see on those.
I've plants pots with "Black Coral" zucchini seed, "Jarradale," "Queenland Blue" and "Musquee de Provence" pumpkins, "Big Chieftain" butternut squash, Italian Parsley "Gigante," and "Wild Fire" chiles. On the flower front I've done trays with zinnias, marigolds, straw flowers and snap dragons. My troughs of edible flowers are already planted out with nasturtium, viola, dianthus, borage, calendula, dill and cornflower. A number of different European and Maori potato varieties are "chitting" on trays in the garage too.
Outside the other winter veggies are finishing up (carrots, silverbeet, broccoli and cabbage) with spring plantings of coriander, radishes, and spring onions. I'm encouraging the flowering peas and broadbeans to move along, making room for the tomatoes at the end of October. Labour Weekend is when it all cranks up, hooray!
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You will have noticed I've been pretty quiet about lambing this year of year's here at Struan Farm. 2020, an odd year on so many fronts; lambing is no exception.
This season a young ram from the farm next door breached the border fence. At one point I saw a suffolk ram wandering the paddocks with the ewes, but then Farmer John had told me he'd bought a new, younger ram. I did think it was a bit odd that he'd switched to a black headed suffolk with romney cross (white) sheep, but that was just a passing thought.
Three weeks later when Farmer John arrived with his rams that mystery was solved. The interloper was escorted back home off the property, and Farmer John's rams put out. But we all knew that the job had already been done.
And it had! Lambing happened three weeks earlier than planned, with lots of black and brown faced lambs cavorting around the paddocks. The good news is that most of the lambs born have been big and healthy. And the weather has been mostly perfect. Cold, wet weather is the worst for lambing. John's dad Maurie always lambed early for this reason, but many sheep farmers in the area now wait.
But it's been such a good lambing season here at Struan Farm that we haven't had to rescue anyone. It was looking like a year with no pet lambs for Karen, oh dear. And then the weather changed considerably this past week with some ewes still left to lamb.
At least once each day hubby John goes around the farm on a "lambing beat" to check to make sure everyone is okay. At the end of last week he found a dead ewe down at the river. He looked for lambs nearby but couldn't find any, figured perhaps this was a ewe that hadn't lambed. But the next day when nephew Mike went down to bury the ewe he saw two older lambs hanging around the paddock, seemingly free agents. They were about 2-3 weeks old, and trying to appear nonchalant nibbling grass. Mike wasn't able to catch them, but I sent John back down that afternoon. While lambs can probably survive without mum at this stage of life, they end up as runts without milk for a longer period. So it's better to catch them, which isn't easy to do, and bottle feed them. Even if converting them to bottles from humans this late isn't easy.
"Tiger," a big little ram lamb, is now up in the Pet Pen drinking bottles. He's wary but will now come up and drink when I bring a bottle out to him. It took a few days of me chasing him around the pen, grabbing him and sitting down with him on my lap, followed by a very quiet and cautious day where I held the bottle out without moving to encourage him to come and drink. Hopefully we'll catch his brother or sister in due course so they can be in a paddock together near our house, even if it will be impossible to convert that second lamb to drinking from bottles at this stage.
You will know from previous years that rescuing abandoned lambs is a mission that has both joys and sorrows. Unfortunately here's a sad tale.
We woke up after a very stormy night over the weekend to find a ewe outside our bedroom window with one dead lamb and one very weak lamb. John tends to want to leave these situations to see if they'll right themselves, while I am far more interventionist if it looks like a lamb is going to die. In this case we left her for awhile to see if she'd start standing to feed, which she didn't. Since it was still raining, we airlifted her out to a box by the warm fire, where she was fed a bottle and given time to warm up and recover from all that trauma. After she started standing and seemed somewhat better John decided to try to put her back with mum. It was touching to watch their reunion, I actually got teary watching how the mum knew it was her lamb, and the lamb knew it was mum. But while the lamb was somewhat better she wasn't right, wasn't feeding well. The next day we decided we had to take her off mum again, putting her in the Pet Pen for bottle feeds with Tiger. Knowing she still wasn't right. She curled up in the Pet Palace to sleep, wouldn't stand up, wouldn't baa. The next morning I found her dead.
Rest in peace little one.
The only other news to tell you on the lambing front is that Rosie, former pet lamb and diva of the paddocks here at Struan Farm, looks to be one of the last ewes to lamb this season. This will be her third year of lambing, she's had two sets of twins previously. I suspect she held out for the "proper" rams from Farmer John vs. consorting with the young "riffraff" next door, but we should know either way on that shortly!
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John and I aren't exactly spring chickens, but we have decided to get chickens this spring here at Struan Farm.
John has been pressing the issue for some time. His family always had "hens," and he has a romanticised recollection about them wandering around clucking. It took the COVID lockdown here in NZ to convince me that this might be a good idea, since even though John insists they pretty much look after themselves, we all know who's going to be looking after them, don't we?
It will be good to have fresh fresh range eggs for ourselves, farmstay guests (when we're back in Level 1), and surplus for the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand. I suspect nephew Mike will also be happy to have some.
So we've fenced off a small area for the chooks to be able to free range, lined the fencing with chicken wire, and set nephew Mike to building a chicken coop, aka "Cluckingham Palace." (Yes, there will be a sign in due course.) I've ordered "chicken green" seeds from King's, have started some in several planters we'll put in the paddock and we'll also fence off a small garden area where I'll plant more for them to munch on. They'll also get leftover green scraps from the veggie gardens to supplement their feed. Of course if we're having hens we want them to be happy and well nourished!
Hopefully the coop will be finished this next week. Six "Hy Line" ready-to-lay hens have been ordered from a commercial breeder in New Plymouth, with thanks to Mike's mum. I've got an automatic feeder and waterer for them from Appleton's. Also wood shavings for the nesting boxes.
Stay tuned for the next chapter of this story. I've been reading up to improve my chicken husbandry, and names have already been decided upon.
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We've had some encouraging signs here at Struan Farm that spring is on the way. And given 2020 so far, signs of new life are a thing to be embraced with open arms!
Yesterday I went out for a walk around the paddocks. New lambs are running around, early fruit trees and flowers are starting to blossom. So let's be hopeful, and thankful for what we have. As for me, I'm going to try to get blogging again. I have been better about posting short updates and pics on our FB page and Instagram. I'm wondering if it's because I haven't wanted to start thinking too much, which I'm wont to do when I start to write. Anyway, I will do my best!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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I was very excited this past week when I went to check on the bags of damson stones in compost I'd stashed in the garage fridge this past autumn here at Struan Farm. They'd begun to sprout, hooray!
Now I have several trays of damson seedling trees growing in our glasshouse being nurtured along. The two different types are from heritage trees still fruiting in the wider Piopio area, one from a settler orchard in nearby Mapiu, the other from Grandpa Anselmi's damson tree here in Piopio.
Grandpa was an Italian immigrant to New Zealand who made grappa from the fruit of his tree, a rather special historic tidbit in my view. While his descendants don't use them to make grappa, they do dabble making damson gin and vodka with the fruit, along with vinegar, glaze, jams (my absolute favourite jam on the planet), and paste. There was some thought that this tree might be on its last legs, it's leaning over in a paddock, so last year I grew a new one for the family from a stone. However the tree must have sensed it was being threatened, and this season burst into major growth and fruit. It's funny how trees can read the minds of those around them and react to that, isn't it?
Damsons are a type of prune plum, so can also be dehydrated to make prunes. If you'd like to learn more about them, order and read Lynda Hallinan's definitive book. It has heaps of recipes and is a great gift for anyone who either has a tree or might be interested in learning more.
I am excited to be able to grow these trees and pass them along to the next generation. Of course I'll plant one of each here at Struan Farm, somewhere.
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It's been raining here at Struan Farm over the past week. You'll hear no complaints from me about that given our recent drought. I'm not sure if it's considered officially over at this point, but the situation has improved considerably. Grass is growing before winter, something that prompts farmers to heave sighs of relief.
Out in the backyard at Struan Farm I've been captivated by the glistening, crystalline beauty of raindrops on the brassicas. In certain light they sparkle, incredibly so. In the Sound of Music Julie Andrews waxes lyrical about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Let me tell you raindrops on veggies are magical too. You just have to stop and notice them.
I suspect we're all appreciating the small things at the moment.
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I haven't been the best at blogging during lockdown, my apologies. With John working from home my office and computer have been commandeered, as has the dining room table. And yes, he does have an entire spare room designated as his home office as well, although we've now learned it doesn't get our wonderful rural wifi internet signal terribly well. Zoom video conferences have restricted my movements around the house.
So I've been preoccupied managing around "All Things John" as a result rather than all of my normal pre-COVID activities. Like most people, there's been a new normal.
But I'm wanting to get back on track with Level 2 starting to happen shortly. And there's good news to report from here at Struan Farm!
The tomato plants grown from seed to experiment with a winter crop in the glasshouse have been thriving. I've got seven big plants flowering and starting to fruit, with four more seedlings off to the side. I managed to give some of my surplus seedlings to others in the community with glasshouses, but still have four remaining. They're vigorous and flowering. I can't bear to toss them into the compost bin, so I may end up putting them into big pots and staking them, turning the glasshouse into even more of a tomato jungle than it already is.
I've also got planters going with rocket/arugula, mesclun lettuce, Italian parsley, spring onions, silverbeet/chard, spinach, Cavalo Nero and another type of kale in the glasshouse as well. All started from seed. Outside in the troughs and beds are silverbeet, beets/beetroot, curly kale, spinach, winter lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, peas and coriander. Snails and slugs decimated the first rows of carrots I planted, but I have resown seed and returned the favour so it doesn't happen again.
What we don't eat will go to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand, due to re-open in Level 2, or the local foodbank. We're all in this together.
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We all contend with lockdown differently, even the sheep here at Struan Farm. I had to laugh when I looked out and saw pet lamb Spice taking over the pet lean-to once again, and other ewes, including Bubbles, blobbing out beside the fence that runs from the backyard along the tawa grove, with others dispersed around the paddock. They look utterly bored!
Some should be gestating lambs, so perhaps hormones are at work as well.
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Yesterday I took a deep breath and dove deep. Into the big freezer in our garage here at Struan Farm, that is.
John purchased it a year or so ago so we'd have space to freeze and store roasted tomatoes, homemade soups and ice creams, surplus fruits like blackcurrants, blueberries and damsons, along with other bounty from the garden and orchard. There's quite a stockpile of the different nuts used to make our "world famous in Piopio" farmstay muesli, which is purchased in quantity wholesale or harvested from our own trees. And I tend to buy meat when it's on special. Yes I know "stockpile" has become a dirty work and point of criticism during COVID-19 after fights over toilet paper, but there are those of us who've always been inclined to be prepared, virus or not. I am of that ilk.
Due to recent sessions of lockdown baking the freezer looked to be reaching capacity. It was time for a bit of reorg, also to see what might be lurking at the bottom. John has been agitating for me to cook a huge pork roast that was in hiding down there somewhere, below the containers of berries and damsons and bags of nuts. There's also surplus powdered lamb's milk and colostrum waiting for next year's pets. Many treasures.
The good news is that I brought the pork roast up to the surface, along with two lamb forequarters and some beef cheeks. Enough to get us through the rest of Level 3 with other stuff in hand, hopefully. And I re-stacked everything, creating heaps more room for apple feijoa crumbles and shortcakes. Off to pre-heat the oven right now!
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