Down on the Farm….A new year

January 12th, 2010 · No Comments · astrolabe farm, durvillea, jane, recipe

Happy New Year to you all. Monday morning and back at work in the office. Actually I covered the office between Christmas and New Year but everyone is back at their desks looking bright eyed or is that just the lovely strong coffees Simon made us all.

After spending most of November and December away it is great to be based at home over the next couple of months and boy does the garden need it! Weeds, wind and water. The first two in abundance the last is more of an effort. However it has been raining for the last 12 hours. Hooray. One of the things I love about the garden is how forgiving it can be. Seasons come and go and you have a chance to try again.

You will be pleased to hear that the chickens are all well and reasonably productive. They have eaten all the lettuces in the garden. This is the downside of letting them free range. The vegetable garden is I am afraid rather depleted. However I have begun the campaign and I think I am beginning to regain control. Lack of water and chicken attacks mean that the salad greens have been compromised but the courgettes are coming along. I harvested some potatoes, peas and broadbeans and made a great salad. Now broadbeans have been quite a revelation for me. I have always loathed those nasty grey offerings served up traditionally. However peeling them has changed my life! I am a born again broadbean eater. Below is the recipe I used.

Broad bean, pea, potato and green salad

1 small new potatoes, fresh broad beans podded, fresh peas podded, a few handfuls of green leaves (I used spinach), shaved parmesan cheese, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, 2tbsp red wine vinegar, olive oil.

Cook the potatoes and set aside. Nice if keep warm. Boil the broad beans about 2 mins until their skins start to pop but not too long. Refresh in cold water. Pop them out of their skins. I boiled the peas with beans. Wilt your chosen greens in a little olive oil over a high heat. Split open the potatoes and place a single layer on a serving dish. Add broad beans, peas, greens, parmesan and season with salt and pepper. dress with red wine vinegar and oil. (I adapted a recipe from”Fuel for your Family: The Waihi Cooks”. This is a lovely cookbook put together by the families of Waihi School in South Canterbury.

My attention is turning to our abundance of plums and Simon and I thought we might try using our favourite tomato kasundi recipe for plum sauce. We have enjoyed a moderate crop of apricots and we have a huge crop of pears coming on. The swans and ducks on the pond will be very pleased. The coppice is growing so well. Although we have never watered them they are thriving. Grovetown has a very high water table and they seem to be very happy. However Arabella made the observation that at the moment they are kindling size rather than firewood.

Simon and Jane inspecting the alders

We have noticed lots of hegehogs about. I love them, too much Beatrice Potter I suspect. However there have been a number of fatalities in the little pond and pool. Arabella and I have both managed to rescue a couple frantically swiimming with their wee noses poking just above the water.