New Year, Old Projects

The time off over Christmas has given me the odd opportunity to catch up on some things that I'd left undone. 

Staking this kowhai was a top priority. It had quite a lean and has started to yellow. It's a special tree as I planted it over one of my two placentas. I also love kowhai and the tui that they attract so I was keen to save it. Fingers crossed it works. 

Fixing the flapping and fraying wind barrier on the raised beds became more pressing once I planted my first crown of rhubarb and a cape gooseberry. 

I used my father's idea of threading through a bamboo cane and hooking on a bungee cord. Some of the original hooks had rusted through so I hammered in a baling hook saved from a cube of sawdust. The bungee won't last in the sun though so I'll need a more sustainable option for the long term. 

Inside the house, I conquered my fear of meringue and made a pavlova base. Sadly our hens have stopped laying (in the coop at any rate) so I had to buy eggs. I was able to buy them from a local producer who once took some of our chicks so they're almost our own eggs. 

I also squeezed in an hour of sewing to put together a shopkeeper's apron and a tool belt for the children. They need the straps adding in but they're much closer than before. Progress at last. 

Christmas dinner

Our raised beds are not quite as productive now as they have been. I'm not sure exactly why but maybe because I didn't water the latest plantings like I did the first ones last January. 

Corn and tomato seedlings didn't grow (thought they're still alive) and the rocket bolted before I cropped it. The irrigation system should be on stream again soon though. 

In the meantime, we have enjoyed some Tom thumb lettuce, a motley selection of carrots, purple beans, broad beans and sugar snap peas. The leeks looked edible if skinny but remained woody even when cooked. Shame. 

If anyone knows why the garlic didn't grow at all, beyond putting up shoots, please let me know. I wonder if it's the same reason behind the poor performance of the garlic and the leek. 

The fruits of our labour

I'm just about managing to maintain progress with our raised beds and the demise of Jemima was a good push to plant some fruit trees this winter. We planted feijoa, fig, a dual-grafted apple (Monty's Surprise and my favourite, Granny Smiths), cherry, orange and mandarin. I strapped them to give them a bit of support in the high winds that howl around our place and even managed to feed them all too. 

The raised beds aren't terribly productive at the moment. Most of the salad has come to an end though the silverbeet is going strong. I ripped out all but two of the kale plants because they were covered in white fly and their grubs. The radishes were a great success but we've eaten them all now and the broccoli and cauliflower, in contrast, were a dead loss, too spindly and fast to bolt. Only a few of my carrots sprouted and the leeks will have to go another year before they're fat enough to eat. 

The herbs are fit and healthy but the garlic looks pretty thin. The fruit bushes (loganberry, blueberry, guava and blackcurrant) are coming back nicely after winter and the strawberries are taking hold - I was amazed to discover that they were carnivores when I opened up the strawberry food and discovered that it was blood and bone! 

In the last month, I've put in tomatoes, dwarf purple beans, corn and sugar snap peas which I bought at the local Ag Day plant stall but they've been slow to take off and I think they're a bit thirsty. We're in the middle of re-configuring our irrigation with a header tank to limit the burden on the pump and so the seedlings are suffering. The broad bean plants that I grew from seed rustle when they get a breeze through them. There are a few pods developing though so all is not lost. 

The potato plants look promising - though they're in need of earthing up - and we should have a decent crop in the New Year. And next in the queue are some capsicum seedlings that I picked up at our local garage sale - fingers crossed the irrigation system does the trick...

Midwinter harvest

I managed to grab 20 minutes in the garden today to tend to my vegetables which seem to be thriving on neglect. 

The salad leaves are a little overgrown but they're the most wonderful colours. 

I filled my trug with ingredients for the next few nights - celery, spring onions, bok choy, oregano, marjoram, chillis, cos lettuce and beetroot. I've finally worked out that I can just break off what I need from the celery and spring onions rather than bringing a whole head or clump. The beetroots are a bit small and there's not many of them but they're growing moss so I picked half for a casserole. The leaves are still in good nick so I can use those as salad. Jasper got some of the cos leaves that were battered in the storms. 

The cawliflowers are still tiny but I should be able to use some broccoli next week - fried with butter, garlic and some of the chillis from the garden. The chilli plant seems to be re-growing from the main stem and coping with the frost but unfortunately my tarragon has all gone. 

My cultivated garlic cloves have sprouted and the broad beans look strong. I thinned the radishes and kept the thinnings to give away on our local trade and swap page or else eat as micro greens tonight. The carrots have been slow to germinate so need a few more weeks to establish themselves before I thin those too. 

Over in the compost heap, a new choko vine has taken off - the pukekos will be delighted! And I think there's a pumpkin vine next to it with tiny fruit already appearing. I need to work out how to protect them as they seem to be rotting in the damp and cold. Fingers crossed that some survive at least... 

Impulse purchases

I bought some seedlings at the supermarket. Leek, beetroot, cauliflower, broccoli, parsley, pak choy and two types of salad.  

There were rather more plants per bundle than I expected so it's all quite tightly packed now. But I can always thin out some of the baby vegetables to eat when they're young and tender.

Hot stuff

I transplanted this chilli plant into the raised beds before going overseas. It's done so well that we can be sure that the irrigation system is working.

There are new flowers and lots of new fruit. I was worried by the fruit turning black but they're green underneath and apparently it's a stage in them turning red. Fingers crossed! 

Well-watered

We came home from our holidays to a bountiful harvest so we're fairly sure the newly installed irrigation system worked effectively in our absence. 

The celery and spring onions were so large that I needed a bucket to bring them upstairs. 

And I've got so much curly kale and silver beet that I'm going to swap with a neighbour for eggs (our chickens are laying elsewhere again). 

There's a basket of limes too, ready for juicing and to add flavour to a fish curry - our new Good Friday tradition? 

Kumeu Show 3

The indoor exhibits are always my favourite part of the show. I think I'll enter next year - maybe some eggs, greens, preserves and a craft. The photography section is tempting too. And I know we'll have lots of fun with the children's classes in years to come...

Kumeu Show 1

Looking forward to the day when I have more time and can extend our flock... 

A busy day in the field

We took a wander around the paddock today and found lots of interesting things including this huge fungus. 

And dozens of shed cicada skins which resulted in a bug hunt - more on that later.   

We picked a few dozen blackberries for a crumble. 

And then mowed the paddock - good bye gorse and brambles and reeds. 

Kitchen creations

I've been busy cooking over the last few months. I made my own mincemeat for the first time with cranberries and orange peel. I learnt how to sterilise the jars in the oven and it has kept well.

Chocolate bark was another festive success though Lark's teachers didn't thank me for this gift at the start of term when it compromised their New Year's resolutions...

I've been experimenting with cake decorating too - using a crocheted doily to make a pattern with icing sugar on a Somerset cider cake. (If you try this, do it just before you're ready to serve the cake otherwise the icing sugar is absorbed and you can't see the pattern - it took me three attempts!)

I attempted a buttermilk glaze for this plantation prune cake but it didn't really work - tasty but lumpy - so I covered it up with more icing sugar! The cake itself was popular at one of our gardening group gatherings.

I've been doing some more preserving with grapefruit cordial, using the remaining fruit from our tree...

... and pickled cucumbers (though I didn't serve them together).

Next, I think I'll try some more adventurous bread-baking - maybe rolls or hot cross buns in time for Easter...

Complications in the compost heap

I've been diligently contributing to my compost heap for the last 4.5 years but not taking any of the compost out. And now that I have a vegetable garden ready and waiting for compost, I've found that it's not really fit for purpose. The heap is being invaded by kikuyu grass and convolvulus and I've never turned it as it's been too tricky to take it to pieces and get stuck in. Worse still, the wood is rotting after being eaten - devoured - by wood lice. 

So I've dismantled one of  the heaps and salvaged a few of the planks to make a temporary three-sided heap which I'll be able to turn more easily. So far the chickens haven't scattered the waste too far. 

I've been looking around for ideas for a more permanent construction and think that something like this might work - five pallets upcycled to create two bays. The front panel is made from a board which can be easily removed for turning the compost and then using it. 

And I'll be borrowing the pest-proofing technique from this design... 

Elders and Berries

This was my haul from the garden last weekend. Hydrangea heads for an arrangement for a party, three eggs, a dozen apples from our young tree and a few teaspoons full of elderberries - just enough to flavour an apple crumble. 

I was interested to find that the berries in the shade were ripening faster than the berries high up in the sunshine. I can't begin to explain that.

The tree was covered in sap-sucking passion vine hoppers which I'm sure are the reason for the meagre harvest.

We should have more success in future now that this young elder tree has been planted by the chicken coop. I hope the chickens will eat the bugs and not the berries and we'll have sufficient blooms for elderflower champagne.

Huntsman's Stew

From this...

...to this...

...to this! Mmm...

Fowl Play

We went to Butterfly Creek the other week and I was very tempted to tuck one of their tame guinea fowls under my arm and head home with it. Apparently they're no more difficult to keep than chickens. I'll add them to my Ag Day list...

Plum blossom

Keeping my fingers crossed for a bumper crop of plums this year...

Byproducts 2

And this is the other byproduct from the felled tree - a mini-adventure playground. The arborist took it as a personal challenge to create something for our little ones to climb on and scramble over. It has bridges and steps and hand-holds and lots of platforms for jumping off. And best of all, there's an armchair for me to sit in whilst all the action takes place.

Byproducts 1

This is the bountiful haul from the dead pine that was felled a few weeks back - sacks of pine cones, a mountain of logs and a large mound of mulch. Should keep us going for a few years...

Timber!!!

Sadly one of our pine trees was finished off by last summer's drought and we needed to remove it to prevent falling branches damaging power lines or passing motorists.

Luckily, we've managed to turn it into a positive exercise - we now have about five years' supply of firewood, a massive amount of mulch for our borders and a natural playground for our little ones. I'll post some more pictures of this bountiful harvest soon...

Chicken soup for the soul

Warning: this post contains a graphic (but respectful) description of the slaughter of  our three roosters. Feel free to click away now if you don't fancy reading that. 

We were lucky enough to have only three roosters from our last clutch of chicks. We tolerated the crowing and kept our fingers crossed that there'd be no more chicks. But when the three of them started fighting, we knew that it was time for them to go.

One of the other mothers at Playcentre was prepared to take them in - for soup. So I dropped them off with her father-in-law last weekend. When I arrived, I spotted a slaughter kit laid out in the shady courtyard in front of their house - a coil of rope, a single glove and a stanley knife. I popped the roosters in the shade, in their boxes, intending to make a quick exit. But I ended up bearing witness to the demise of our surplus boys and I was very glad that I did.

My friend's father-in-law sat on a stool at the base of  a camellia bush. He plucked the first bird out of its box, gripping it firmly but gently at the nape of its neck. He stretched out the bird's wings and coiled the rope slowly around the base. When the wings were secured, he turned the bird upside down and did the same with its feet. He then silently hung the bird from the lower branches of the bush.

Next he delicately plucked a few feathers from the bird's throat and took up his stanley knife. He flicked the knife slowly at the bird's throat, searching for the jugular vein. After a short time, rich red blood began to drip on the fallen leaves at the base of the tree. The bird remained quiet and still, totally immobilised but calm. My friend's father-in-law massaged the bird's throat to make the blood run more quickly before taking up the next bird.

As he took each bird out of the box, he declared it to be beautiful and treated it with great respect. The second bird died before the first and he untied it from the bush and laid it carefully on the ground. He tapped its open eye with his finger tip and the eye shut. The first bird followed and the third bird was taken from its box.

The third and final rooster, who'd fought his way to the top of the pecking order, was a little less docile. His squawking and flapping as he was handled brought the man's wife from inside the house. She told me that, at six months old, the roosters would be tender. Their carcasses would be dipped into boiling water to loosen the feathers and the wings would be the greatest challenge for plucking. Luckily they have a machine that makes it easy.

I've been promised two of the roosters in return so that I can make a hearty soup in anticipation of the birth of our second baby. I just hope that I can do them justice.