Friday 15th January - plum chutney

I made a batch of plum chutney today with a bagful of the plums. It is all bottled in preserving jars this evening.

I slow-cooked a batch of plums yesterday and put them in the freezer.

There is over two bags of plums left... more stewing tomorrow, I think.

Thanks to those of you who read my blog and sent me recipes for plums and tomatoes.

Thursday 14th January - what do politicians eat?

A politicians role in life is to appear to be in control and to attack those with opposing views. This gives them the impression of having power. Power corrupts.

They usually eat their opponents for breakfast.

When they are cornered, politicians ( and civil-servants) eat their own. They are cannibals.

That is what is happening now.

Wednesday 13th January - marketday

We sent the three steers to market today. Our grass is getting low despite the rain. We would not have made it until March/April when the rains proper should start again

It was the first cattle market of 2010 and J got a fair price for them. He is talking about buying 4 calves again after Easter.

After 3 years of drought, Hawke's Bay has been de-stocked. With our wet spring, most of the farms have surplus grass. There were hundreds of cattle sold, coming from as far away as the Chatham Islands, Taupo and Taihape. Usually stock is shipped to Taupo at this time of year rather than the other way round!

Tuesday 12th January - quail update

The quail couple now have a collection of eight chicks. They appear occasionally but when they notice human observers they disappear very quickly.

I will try to get a photograph.

Tuesday 12th January - rabbit colony

The rabbits are becoming more brave, now appearing in pairs. I have laid poison all over the hillside but it appears to be having no effect. They are eating the poison but the numbers are not reducing.

I think it is time to invite my rabbit hunter friends from Wellington around for a weekend!

Tuesday 12th January - garden update

I have not mentioned the vegetable or fruit garden for a while.

I have about 50 tomato plants growing this summer. All of them have been planted outdoors since late November. The earliest 20 are starting to produce fruit now. The later ones are all ones I have grown from seed and will be producing fruit from late February. So we should have a supply until late May. Unfortunately R and J are not tomato fans so I will be searching for tomato recipes soon to try and preserve the excess over next winter. I covered all the tomatoes with a long net last week to protect them from the birds. Yesterday we had a waxeye caught in the net so there must be a gap somewhere.

I am growing a wider range of vegetables this summer:

shallots, chives, spring onions, white onions, red onions, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, beetroot, cucumbers, peppers/capsicums(red and yellow), chillies and leeks. I have also planted water melons, parsley, celery, garlic, ginger, mint and mustard. The garlic is a bit disappointing for a first attempts. I will have to apply the lessons learned this year to make a better go at garlic next winter/spring! The lettuce are covered with nets to protect them from the rabbit colony which is developing on our section.

The bay tree has exploded in every direction this springtime. I had to prune it last week and throw out loads of bay leaves. My stews and curries cannot keep up with all the bay leaves! We also have a good rosemary bush.

J and I picked most of our riper plums over the past weekend. We had to harvest them a bit early as the thrushes, blackbirds and mynah birds were feasting on them. We filled 4 shopping bags with our harvest. Again, I am working out how to preserve them for later in the year. Any recipes out there? Our 3 steers have a liking for the plums too. They were eating the plums which the birds had knocked to the ground.

The strawberry crop was good this summer and I won the battle with the birds. I caught several birds in the net covering them and after that the birds gave up and moved on the the pear tree.

Our nashi pear tree is nearing its end. After blossoming well in the springtime, it has died slowly with pears left on only one or two branches. The birds are eating the fruit before it is ripe. I think I will have to cut it down in the autumn. It is the only tree to die this summer so far.

The peaches (black boy) are doing well. They will have a good crop in a few weeks. I bet few northern irelanders have seen black peaches!

The nectarine tree is producing fruit this year. Last year there was nothing. Not sure what the difference was other than we had a wetter springtime. The fruit should ripen by the end of January.

We have almonds ripening; oranges, lemons and limes growing which will ripen over the winter months; olives developing which will be ready to harvest in the autumn.

I have three walnut trees which I have grown from seed. They will be planted out somewhere on the property over the winter months, in July or August.

The feijoa has had a brilliant blossom over the last month and there should be a good crop by May. I have another feijoa to plant in the autumn.

My grape vine is about 18 months old now and I think it is just about to produce its first fruit. I am inspecting it daily to check what is happening. You cannot live in Hawke's Bay and not grow grapes!

There are mini kiwifruit plants which usually lose their blossom in the October winds but somehow some stayed this spring/summer and we have a few fruit developing. I tested one but it was very bitter. It probably needed to develop for several more months.

Our apricot tree produced a good volume of fruit in early December. We managed to win the battle with the birds and rescue about a bucketful.

The apple tree is producing poor fruit this summer. We are living in the midst of apple and peach orchards and probably have the worst looking apple tree around. I need to find out what I need to do to improve the quality of the crop. A job for the autumn!

J and I harvested the cones from the pinenut trees about a week before Christmas and I worked out over Christmas how to extract the nuts from the cones. I have, so far, worked through about a quarter of the cones and extracted about 700 nuts. The slow extraction process explains why pinenuts are so expensive in the supermarket!

I will try to provide an update later in the summer.

Tuesday 12th January - nature notes

Swan Plant

My Christmas present from J was a Swan Plant. It is a plant which attracts the Monarch Butterfly.

Now just over 2 weeks after Christmas, Monarch caterpillars are devouring the leaves. If the caterpillars survive our menagerie of bird-life, we will be seeing more Monarchs fluttering around.

The Monarch butterfly can be seen in Napier any month of the year, summer or winter.

I might post photos here or on Facebook.