Category Archives: family

Art and Craft-musings on the banks of the Thames

Posted on by Jane
Reply

Lois Waghorn

This morning Simon and I woke ridiculously early as we struggle to adjust to Northern Hemisphere time. We went walking along the Thames. It was breathtakingly beautiful looking down the river as we crossed the Vauxhall Bridge. We marvelled at everything from the lamplights to Westminster. Walking back through St James Park Simon won the spot the squirrel competition.
As we wondered down the river pathway we thought about Simon’s Great-Great Grandfather Arthur Waghorn who worked as a lighterman on the Thames. He left England with his wife Louisa and young family to settle on Banks Peninsula. I always think it is interesting to consider the influence of these ancestors on who we are. These people we assume left in the hope of making a better life and taking an opportunity. They were brave and bold and I hope we reflect a little of that strength of character.
One of the traits that undoubtedly runs through the Waghorn family is creativity. As I listen to Simon discuss his wines I think it is clear how important his skill as a winemaker is balanced with his creativity in crafting the wines. Art or craft – maybe both?
Creativity is openly expressed by the women of the extended Waghorn family. Simon’s mother was a potter and a painter. His sister Sarah carries on this and is indeed a wonderful potter. “Sarah’s pots are hand built sculptural pieces. Using the coil method she uses a few simple tools and concentrates on form and natural shapes. The majority of her work is in sculptural and earthenware clay.”
www.sarahford.co.nz
Our niece Julia Waghorn is a talented graphic designer.

Julia Waghorn

She is stylish, creative and also very funny. Stealing from her website she describes the influence of a creative family. “Julia’s grandmother was the person who began her interest in Graphic Design. As a child they would spend hours in Lois’s games room drawing and painting. “
www.juliapenelope.com
Arabella, our youngest daughter is also bitten by this creative bug.

Arabella screen printing Meg's wedding invitation

She is in her 3rd year at art school at Auckland University. She is currently involved in an interactive installation in Myer’s Park as part of the Fan Trail project which is part of the Rugby World Cup activities.
“Inspired by Myers Park’s history as a colonial shanty town, Elam students combine what little is remembered from the past with the contemporary. Abstracted dwellings of geometric forms, clustering and lacing through the grassy hills, suggest community and a collective culture.“

“The living sculpture explores the displacement of those who once lived on this site as well as travellers who’ve come from near and far to attend the Rugby World Cup 2011 games. “

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/events/amped-in-the-park

Check out their blog.

http://elamfantrailproject.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy a glimpse at the artistic work of our crafty lot.

-Jane.

O’Tannenbaum – Arabella’s Christmas trees, recipe and competition

Posted on by Jane
7

It’s less than one month until Christmas which means that it is time to start erecting and decorating your Christmas trees! At the farm we have already put ours up, we tend to get a bit overexcited by decorations and already have three trees fully decorated. We have a big tree with all of our old decorations on it, a smaller red and white tree with lots of ribbons and gingerbread men and our latest addition is a radical white tree with colourful Dr Suess-esque decorations.

Another festive thing we get a bit excited about is the food. Although we love traditional Christmas cuisine, being in Marlborough we also have lots of summer produce ready for eating at the farm. There are always plenty of berries, new potatoes and peas from Jane’s vegetable garden. One of my favourite Christmas dinner dishes is peas and pancetta. This salad looks lovely and green on the table and is a delicious interval to rich ham and turkey.

 

Peas and Pancetta

Olive oil

Pancetta (100 grams or so)

1 cup white wine

1 small onion

5 cups fresh picked peas

1 clove garlic

Cook chopped onion and pancetta in olive oil until brown. Add garlic and keep cooking until it smells nice! Add wine peas and black pepper and simmer until peas are tender and wine is absorbed.

We already have some delicious entries into this week’s draw: Danielle’s mushroom and bacon pate, Kathie’s Ham with Spicy Plum and Mustard Glaze, Erin’s Meat Sauce, Lucy’s Sultana Cake, Cynthia’s Christmas mince and Claire’s Parsley Butter. Check them out on last week’s blog. To enter your recipe see the info below.

- Arabella

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday3rd Decmeber for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

Sophie’s Update and a New competition

Posted on by Durvillea
9

It is just over six weeks till Christmas  and you can definitely tell. Christmas carols are already being played in stores, lots more orders are starting to come in and finally the weather is warming up- today is forecast for 27degrees in Blenheim!

Tasting new releases at Chesters, Brisbane

Last week Jason, Jeremy our viticulturist and I were in Brisbane for a meeting with our Australian distributors. This meeting went really well, we tasted all of our new release wines with them and all four states seemed to be in line in terms of pricing, the branding, and their views going forward. Interestingly the Kekerengu Sauvignon Blanc from our Astrolabe range seemed to be very popular over there.

Currently we only have Durvillea in two of the four states, QLD and VIC, but in both states the brand is being well received, the Durvillea Pinot Grigio seems to be a real winner at the moment.

Coming back to Christmas however, this year we are having Christmas at Astrolabe Farm, and it will be my family (the McLernons) and the Waghorns. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, and the food on Christmas Day is definitely a highlight. We normally have a hot ham and a turkey and many other delicious treats that various family members bring along. This year Meg and I have decided that we should probably contribute a bit more, so we are being a little bit cheeky using this competition to get recipes and ideas from you!

Family Christmas '09

But we will also be giving you a chance to win!

To enter this competition we want you to give us your favourite Christmas recipe, it can be an entree, a dip, a stuffing, a glaze, a whole meal, a dessert, whatever Christmas food/meal is most dear to you.

At the end of each week the prize will be 2 bottles of Durvillea Wine (for the first five weeks) and then the last week (being drawn 17th December) everyone who has entered the competition will go into the draw again to win a Magnum of Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc.

Each week each of us Durvillea girls will also be posting one of our favourite recipes, so to start of this week I am going to give you two little ones that are almost always used in our family!

One is a fantastic Hot Ham glaze, and the other a Turkey Stuffing that my mum Nicki always uses.

Hot Ham Glaze
½ c runny honey
1 ½ c brown sugar
2 tbsp mustard (any)
½ c juice (pineapple or orange)
Whole cloves

Heat honey in microwave until warm,
Stir in the brown sugar
Add the mustard and then juice

Remove skin from ham, cut diamonds into the fat, stud with cloves and brush glaze over. Bake for a couple of hours at 160degrees. Check regularly to ensure it isn’t burning.

Turkey Stuffing
1 C fresh brown bread crumbs
4-6 shallots cooked in olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic sliced and cooked in olive oil
1 c black olives
200gm bacon or prosciutto-chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

So post up your favourite recipe or meal on this blog and we will do the first draw this coming Friday 19th November for the first two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this compeition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

Hope springs eternal

Posted on by Jane
Reply

Spring is such a wonderful time here on the farm. As we wake in the mornings the birds are going crazy. We are enjoying hearing and sighting tui. An added excitement has been a young wood pigeon visiting. A report in the paper said that a wood pigeon sighting at Spring Creek is the first in 27 years. Part of the farm is our large pond which is surrounded by native plantings. We also have several kowhai trees. It is wonderful to see the native birds returning. The white heron has been wintering over on the pond.

It has been a sad winter in the chicken coop. My dear old Wyandotte Winnie died and a couple of months later my little red hen Hettie dropped dead too. These hens were quite elderly and, while I love River Cottage, I ain’t no Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I have to bring in hired assassins if a hen needs killing. However, hope does spring eternal and I now have four young hens housed in the dog run until they get a little bigger and can be introduced to the older girls. They are brown shavers. My aim is to have continuous egg production throughout the year. The others all went off the lay over winter. I want egg production units! These plain but oh so charming girls are, I hope, the answer. As if in fright the others are all producing again!

The old girls

It is also asparagus time. Alas the crop is poor. The crowns in the bed are over 20 years old and it is time for new ones. The potatoes are sprouting and the weeds are flourishing. I am so keen to get out there. I had my foot reconstructed 5 weeks ago and my gardening has been curtailed. I have my King’s seed catalogue at my side and oh so many plans.

The ground is finally drying out after a very wet winter. The Chardonnay is budding out. We gave Simon Cider Apple trees for Father’s Day with the glorious names of Sidero, Broxwood Foxwelp, and Kingston Black Semi-dwarf. Apple blossom, pear blossom, cherry blossom, quince blossom…….. Hope springs eternal.

Mother's violets in my garden

In memory of my mother Ruth Forrest who died on 26 August, the Durvillea girls’ Nana.

Mother’s Sweet and Sour Pork (a trip back to 1970′s)

1 1/2 lb lean pork cut in strips

2 tablespoons fat

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup green pepper strips

1 med. can pineapple chunks

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

Brown pork in the hot fat, add water, cover & simmer until tender – about 1 hour. Drain pineapple, reserving syrup, combine sugar, cornflour & pineapple syrup (3/4 to 1 cup), vinegar, soy sauce and salt. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Pour over hot cooked pork and leave to stand 10 minutes or longer, add pineapple, green pepper & onion. Cook 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles.

Winter Harvest down on the Farm

Posted on by Jane
Reply

Nets up, after the Riesling was picked

Gosh, it is June and we are still harvesting. Today it is fantastic that the Riesling has been picked. During vintage Simon decided it would be the year we made a Noble Riesling so the nets went back on.

We last did this in 2007. So then we waited and waited. The weather was fine and the infection slowly developed and then it rained and rained. So we were pleased that the sun reappeared this week and Jeremy and Simon decided to pick today.

Nick with the mechanical harvester

However I had also booked a spot at the olive press for our first pick of olives. It has been a crazy day. Luckily Arabella was home on study leave and helped prepare morning tea and lunch for pickers of all varieties and crops.
This year we experimented with a mechanical olive harvester. It was an interesting day. Hand harvesting relies on lots of people to reach the required 300kg weight of olives to ensure to ensure a single grove batch press. It is also very pleasant gathered about the trees gently running your hands done the fruiting branches milking off the olives. However it is also a lot to ask of people. As we don’t sell the oil all we can offer is lunch, and a supply of delicious oil. So this year I borrowed a mechanical hand held machine from a friend and fellow grape/olive grower Jan Johns. The upshot was we managed to pick half the grove with 4 people. We also picked trees with a patchy crop that we would have left if we were hand picking. An interesting conundrum to consider is how I balance the argument in my head of mechanization versus hand picking. Tomorrow being Saturday we will pick traditionally by hand. The jury is out.

Winemakers helping out

Now with a number of people coming for lunch and the need for tasty winter fare I made a pot of Vegetable Soup last night. We have been going through a soup phase of late brought on by our harvesting of mushrooms. Alas the weather is too cold now for mushrooms but a good crop of pumpkins are stored in the shed in anticipation of my personal favourite Pumpkin Soup. However we did make pots and pots of Mushroom Soup, and using field mushrooms makes such a difference. Tomorrow Arabella will whip some savoury pinwheel scones to accompany the soup. Below is our Mushroom Soup recipe from the good old Edmonds cookbook.
Mushroom Soup
225g (8 ozs.) Mushrooms
½ cup Water
1 tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 cup Milk
Seasonings
Little Lemon Juice

Peel mushrooms, break into small pieces, and cook in the water until tender. Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour, and gradually stir in the milk. Cook until the mixture thickens, and cook a few minutes longer; mushrooms and liquor and seasonings. Just before serving,add lemon juice. A little cream improves the flavor.

Off to buy some shade cloth to make some new nets for the olive pick. Meg is home this afternoon and can help sew and bake treats for morning tea.

Two wheels good

Posted on by Meg
Reply

I mentioned in my last post that I had bought a bike. Here’s the picture of it again:

I purchased it from Mamachari bicycles, based in Island Bay. You can read all about them on their website and I recommend doing just that. If you don’t have time to click through the gist of it is that they are importing and fixing up second hand commuter bicycles from Japan. Their aim is to increase the number of people cycling in Wellington, here’s a direct quote from their site: “It is our long term goal to see more New Zealanders using a good comfortable, practical bicycle for their daily commutes, which ever city, town or countryside they may reside in.”. A pretty noble goal right?

I had been a ‘fan’ of their facebook page Beautiful Bikes for Wellington for a while. I live in Newtown and wanted a bike for running little errands in the neighborhood. It seemed like the mamacharis fit the bill so I ended up picking this pink champagne coloured one. I haven’t seriously ridden a bike for years, not really since I used to bike to intermediate school. I’m still pretty nervous about riding in Wellington but I think experience is the only thing that will fix that!

I’ve included a couple of pictures of Libby and Arabella trying out the electric bicycles that my uncle and aunt have for hire from their business Akaroa Dolphins in Akaroa, Banks Peninsula. The motors were pretty helpful on some of the steeper Akaroa streets. My new bike doesn’t even have gears so I will be staying on the flat for now!

You may have seen Jane’s beautiful pink ‘Cosmopolitan’ bike in our vintage photos. It is a very handy way to get around the vineyard. Here’s a pretty picture of it:

I need to get a basket for mine and something more substantial for the back carrier so I can pick up my groceries. I like this picnic basket idea. My cousin Claire is a bit of a role model for us in living in a consistent and conscious environmental life. She wrote a good entry about cycling on her blog a while back.

Anyway, hopefully as I become more confident I can leave my car at home more and more. Any tips and comments from cyclists new or experienced are welcome!

-Meg

Sophies Wrap Up- Leslie Sbrocco and Wine and Food Festival preparation

Posted on by Durvillea
Reply

Two days to go until  the 2010 Marlborough Wine and Food festival and things are very busy around here. The wine has been ordered, and will (fingers crossed) be delivered to the event tomorrow afternoon. Jane is at home sewing pinnys- a wee preview of one below, she is also organising the table cloths,the material for the sides of the tents, and drying durvillea seaweed for the tent. Jane and Simon went down to Kaikoura last weekend and collected it. Meg arrived home today, and I have a feeling her and Bella are baking and cooking tomorrow to prepare snacks for the Durvillea and Astrolabe workers.

The Durvillea banner turned up yesterday as it is our first Wine and Food festival for Durvillea we had to get one printed as a banner is one of the requirements for attending the festival. Like everything new we were a bit worried about how it would look, however it looks great and we are very pleased. We also got another Astrolabe one printed as we thought we had lost the old one last year, but as expected, as soon as it turned up we found the old one! Luckily, we got a different background this year, so we haven’t really doubled up too much!

On top of it being the week coming up to Wine and Food, it has been a catch up week, as I took two days off last week to head down to Rippon in Wanaka- incidentally it was a fabulously hot weekend, great to catch up with friends and a brilliant concert. Though while it was great for me to have to time off, it did add to the work Jane had to do in a particularly busy week, perhaps not the best planning on my part.

I do seem to be back tracking on this blog, and I apologise, but nonetheless, on Monday we had winewriter Leslie Sbrocco for lunch at Astrolabe Farm

.

She was great fun, and very insightful into the American market, she also loved that we are using face book, twitter and blogging with Durvillea.

In amongst the last two weeks, I have not forgotten my half marathon training. I have still been managing to run, actually, correction, I only got two runs in last week, but thats ok.  The most surprising, and motivating thing, was that this week on Monday when I went for my first run, after the last 4 days off I went for my long run (normally 7.7km that I have to run/walk) I managed to run the whole way, even making it a little bit longer! It took me just under an hour, so I was very pleased.

I am back to my training now of 3-4 runs a week, and another cardio activity, and am hoping to try a long run on Sunday, even if I have to run/ walk some of it. (Some of the girls I am hoping to run the marathon with are already up to a casual 10- 15km, so I do have a long way to go!!!)

Will try tweet and put photos up from the Wine and Food festival, and if any of you are going, we are just across the bridge, so come and say hi! PS. Sorry the blog had very little pictures, will make up for it after this weekend!

Akaroa

Posted on by Meg
Reply

It seems like such a long time ago that all the Forrest-Waghorn family were in Akaroa getting ready for Christmas. Even though it was a while ago we took some lovely photos down there so I thought I would share some with you all. There will also be some recipes to follow in the next few weeks.

We Waghorns have had a  very close link with Akaroa and Banks Peninsula since 1850 when our ancestors arrived on the Randolph from England. At the moment my Waghorn grandparents live in Akaroa, along with my dad Simon’s brother Hugh and his sister Sarah. Uncle Hugh along with his wife (our aunt!) Pip owns a few businesses in Akaroa.

The main one is Akaroa Dolphins , who provide nature cruises around Akaroa Harbour. Of course we would highly reccommend them if you are in the area! Who knows, you might get to enjoy a glass of one of our Astrolabe or Durvillea wines on board!

Hugh & Pip also have another business called Captain Hector’s that hires out kayaks and paddle-boats. We really like their logowhich features their cute dog Hector. Hugh has a good little vege garden going on out the back of the Akaroa Dolphins premises.

Jane and her dad Barry in the vege garden

We sent out a few raiding parties to augment our summer meals.

Hugh has bought several electric bikes for visitors to Akaroa to enjoy. Libby and Arabella, along with our cousin Rose, took them for a test drive.

Libby on one of the electric bikes

They took them for a reasonably long run and found them really enjoyable. You don’t need to use the motor all the time, just when you need a little boost. They worked well even on some of the quite steep hills that surround the harbour. Libby & Bella even rode them up to the bach where Mum and I were preparing some food for Christmas and I had a go.

I really liked them and thought they would be great for commuting, especially somewhere hilly like Wellington. However, I’m too much of a scaredy-cat for cycling in Wellington yet so I’ll stick with the bus for now.

One place in Akaroa that we hadn’t been before was The Giant’s House. It is a lovely old house and garden filled with amazing sculpture and mosaic. Here are a few photos of us there:

Arabella at The Giant's House

Libby and Bella

The garden at The Giant's House, Akaroa

There are more photos of The Giant’s House and our Akaroa holiday on our Flickr page if you are interested!

-Meg

My Mum’s Salsa Verde Recipe

Posted on by Durvillea
Reply

This is my mum’s Salsa Verde recipe, but it actually originates from an Annabel Langbein recipe, all of us have many of her recipe books and she is a bit of a favourite in our family.

This is a summer staple for your fridge and is great with beef on the barbeque, baked salmon, bean salad or just a loaf of half baked bread.

Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde
1 packed cup parsley
½ packed cup mint leave
1 bunch chopped chives
¾ cup olive oil
¼ cup capers
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
¼ medium onion chopped
1 small can of anchovies

Blend together until smooth. Store in the fridge and keeps for several weeks.  Makes about 1½ cups.

Back on board

Posted on by Durvillea
Reply

After 10 days away from the office, it has been rather hard to get back into the swing of things. Christmas was spent in Christchurch with my family, the Forrest Waghorns and my other cousins on my Dad’s side the McLernons. It was a beautiful day so Christmas lunch was spent outside on the lawn (photos to come once my Mum loads them onto the computer!) we had a beautiful starter of smoked salmon with wasabi mayonaise that our Great Aunt brought, followed by a fantastic Roast Turkey and lots of wine.

Boxing day my family and I packed up to head up North to Gisborne, a car trip I haven’t done with my parents since I was 13 (It is about 4 hours from Christchurch to Blenheim, a 3.5 hour ferry ride, and another 8 hours from Wellington to Gizzy!) I was heading to Gisborne to meet up with a group of friends to head to the Rhythm and Vines Festival, I have been to this festival twice before, but this is the first time that it was held over 3 days.

Rhythm and Vines, Vines Stage

Acts from all over the world came and played, including some great local acts, one really good band that played on the 31st was some of my friends, six60. One of the best ones that played, that I had no expectations for was Moby! Gisborne is first to see the sun and it is definitely one of the most beautiful places to see in the New Year.The other Durvillea girls have been scattered around the place, Libby was en route to Guatemala where she will spend the next 2 months, to follow what she is up to check out her blog http://henny-eesa.blogspot.com/ Meg was up in Ohope Beach, near Whakatane and Jane was holding the fort back at Astrolabe Farm in Blenheim. However, after a fabulous holiday, and despite it being a little hard to settle down into being in the office it is lovely to be back in sunny Marlborough. Jane has done a great job covering while I was away, putting through all the orders that streamed through between Christmas and New Year, so there has not been too much to come back to.Photos were just sent through yesterday of Durvillea Wines in Antarctica, (see past blogs to read about how they got there), the team over there have taken some fantastic photos that I have pasted below.

Durvillea in front of Mawson's Hut

 

Durvillea and Astrolabe in front of Mawson's Hut, Antarctica

 

The Team in Antarctica getting Creative!

I am just about to make a coffee and sit down with Jane now to organise the next few Durvillea events we have coming up, Sounday and Wine and Food Festival (and just for fun I am heading to Rippon first weekend of Feb!)