In the spirit of being sisyphus I am under no illusions that the list won’t be rebuilt rather quicker than it gets ticked off but it is rather a good feeling to know that progress is being made.  It’s the small things that matter.  Like being able to open and close the gate without having to fiddle and jiggle because the wind has blown the latch all out of alignment.  Or having the courage to reshape my prototype obelisk initially built with a dear friend just after Christmas which was subject to much ridicule for it’s wobbly charm and lack of straight angles.

I’ve made hay, staked almost every crop growing in the kitchen garden, retied trees and mended fences.  All in themselves sound simple tasks but with over 50 young trees it’s a slow and often backbreaking task to weed, feed, mulch and tie.  The sad truth is that I’ll be doing the whole thing all over again such is the nature of life in the country.  This is why New Zealanders call a small holding in the country a  ”lifestyle block” for this is the sort of life you sign up to when you become custodian of your own country acres.  And, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

It’s hard to believe that we are heading towards our 6 year anniversary living in New Zealand and just over 4 years living at Kaitoke acres.  But over that time we’ve learned from both bitter and sweet experience what it takes to enjoy the “good life”.  Much is written about the delights of living off the land and a self sufficient life but hidden amongst all the inspiration and hyperbole is hours, days and weeks of hard work and seemingly limitless heart ache as nature plays cruel tricks and can wipe out all your efforts and dollars in the gust of a gale force wind or deluge of rain

Luckily memories of such horror and disappointment is quickly forgotten and put into perspective leaving the good memories, experiences and pleasurable experiences to linger longer and be the constant reminder of why the heck you do all of this in the first place.  I shan’t forget in a hurry the delicious taste of my home-made pesto made this week with the first ever successful crop of basil I grew from seed and nurtured in the greenhouse. It’s the simplest things that make the biggest difference and why I’m looking forward to creating a new to do list that will start the cycle of work all over again.  For this is the  good life!

A deliciously light but definitely show off gooseberry fool was pride of place as our Christmas Day dessert.  It was also the fruit I used to christen my new ice-cream maker creating a frozen yoghurt that was most definitely the fanfare of gooseberry taste experiences so far.  Turning some into jam will I hope bring back the bitter sweet taste long after summer has gone.

There are plenty more berry adventures to come this year with raspberries, blueberries, worcesterberries (that are apparently taste like a cross between a gooseberry and blackberry), tayberries (cross between blackberry and raspberry) and blackberries all starting to show their colours alongside the red and blackcurrants.  There is nothing more comforting to be reaping the rewards of your own growing efforts.

I spied a punnet of gooseberries tucked away on the top shelf in the supermarket and gasped at the price.  A small punnet was almost $6 dollars making me realise once again of the long term benefits of growing your own berries. We’ve recouped our initial investment in the plant already and I suspect treated our berries with more reverence than I ever would have with something I’d bought from the shop. That said it dawned on me that I might need to buy some strawberries to buy for this year’s jam supply after the recent rains have ruined the possibilities for a continued home harvest.

It’s was the strangest feeling recognising that I felt a disappointment to not be self sufficient in strawberries for jam.  If I were a a person truly committed to self sufficiency I’d be doing without strawberry jam this year but instead I’m wrestling with levels of self indulgence I’ve not recognised in myself before.  As a next best thing to growing my own strawberries I could buy locally sourced fruit or perhaps I should buy locally made jam.

If you were me what would you do?

A: do without home made strawberry jam this year

B: buy local strawberries and make my own jam

C: buy locally produced jam?

Over the last four years we have done battle with gorse harvests, thistles and hay length grass.  You know you still have a long grass problem when the wind blows a seed storm and you think it’s dust. After days of hard graft with the mower and strimmer/weed wacker the place looks much tidier and dare I say mostly looks like a garden rather than a hay field.  The Kitchen Garden is an oasis of calm fully stocked with goodies and only the final painting to be complete on the arbour making our shady retreat complete.

One of the biggest luxuries of life these days is long summer breaks off work – partly vacation and partly enforced unemployment as the rest of New Zealand kicks back and has no requirement for consultants to whip them into shape. Even after his Lordship returns to work I have a long list of projects to plod on with.

I wonder whether Sisyphus had quite as many late starts to his pushing day.  As many stops for morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea.  Or time out to read his Christmas books and contemplate the good life.  I suspect not.

As we end 2011 under a large black cloud and pelting rain I’m in no mood for positive reflection nor inspiring new year’s resolutions. I know I shouldn’t complain but the temperature drop of 15 degrees has been a  shock to my system.  I’d rather be facing my gargantuan harvest of strawberries with a large dollop of ice cream and a grin like a Cheshire cat.  Instead I’m wondering how wet I might get if I dashed out and brought in some rhubarb and make a crumble with them instead.

It can’t rain forever, can it? No, really?

Whatever the weather, I hope that the transition to 2012 will bring you high hopes for great things in the coming year.  My head is brimming with ideas and aspirations for the rest of the summer and indeed for 2012 but right now I feel I need all my energy to stay warm as a southerly brings us a polar chill.

Whatever you are doing this New Year’s Eve it’s full of good things and cheer.

The greenhouse is proving to be a superb hot house giving me hope for a bumper tomato crop this year.  The tomato plants have romped away and already showing off their fruits that I am tormenting myself over the whether we should eat them all whilst they are fresh or preserve some for enjoying later in the year. The sense of anticipation is growing as the plants produce their vine frameworks that will be the scaffold from which these luscious fruits will blossom.

Although I find the notion of Christmas in summer still somewhat confusing, I am excited about the prospect of a few morsels at our Christmas dinner table from our own garden.  I’d hoped for some early potatoes but alas we will made do with just a few brassicas and snow peas.  We also have no shortage of gooseberries which look to peak at the right time for a luscious christmas dessert.  At least fretting about summer vegetables for Christmas beats having to decide if we should have brussel spouts or not!

At first sight everything looked marvellous but closer inspection showed that in some cases there had been rather too much blooming.  The emerging broccoli spears of two days ago had a growth spurt and were now looking like a bouquet of flowers playing host to visiting bees.  The garden has never been so well stocked at this time of year as I managed to get my planting ahead of schedule and the greenhouse has been a godsend allowing germination of seeds and a forest of tomato plants to be growing indoors.

Still dressed for work I resisted the temptation to snatch out a few stray weeds although admit I did graze a while on broccoli, peas and strawberries.  I know if they’d been left for another day their moment of vegetable glory would have passed.

It’s been a strange few weeks.  Days have been packed with work, gardening and losing the battle of time in my Christmas preparations.  I’ve been slightly disconnected from blogging and tweeting which makes me feel even more distant from family and friends.  It’s just a few days until the big holiday and I’m looking forward to kicking back and getting focused on domesticity for a few weeks.  But until then there is the home run on the work front to be endured.

I say endured but in reality we’re heading into Christmas catch ups, parties and soirees.  It’s going to be tough but I think I’ll manage it.  I’m hosting an English Afternoon Tea for some of my clients mid week so there’ll be plenty of baking to be done.  It’s a shame that the weather forecast is pretty dire this week, great for the gardening but disastrous for outdoor entertaining.

For the first time we have a crop of gooseberries and worcesterberries.  Last year the birds feasted on them before I could get them netted for protection.  I love gooseberries and have grand plans for splitting this harvest between desserts for now and preserving them to enjoy over the coming months.  The Globe Artichokes are growing brilliantly too.  I am actually glad I took out two of the five I planted otherwise we would be over-run with them although we eat a lot of artichoke hearts so preserving them would not have been such a problem.

As I trudged back up the garden the other evening my feet aching from standing in high heels all day were starting to be soothed by my gum boots.  Nothing quite like swishing through the long grass to bring life into perspective.  Although their hopes dashed for a last feed the chickens were by now happily sitting on their roost.  I couldn’t help but smile and say thank you as I scooped up half a dozen eggs for the pantry.

Summer officially started on 1 December and all around us nature is blooming.  The kitchen garden is well stocked and although it’s thin pickings right now the potential food bounties are tantalising. The warm and occasionally damp weather is perfect growing weather and I like nothing better than wandering amongst the beds to check progress.  I swear the tomato plants in the green house are growing before my eyes!

Away from the garden the traditional pre-Christmas rush has started at work with people wanting to tie up loose ends before the summer break.  Given the state of the overall economy, opportunities for work are a precious commodity that must be cherished through extra efforts. A twist of fate with a colleague of mine has also resulted in extra work for me next week including a rare trip to Auckland.  Hope the weather doesn’t turn wild like it has done recently forcing flights from Auckland to abandon landing in Wellington and return back north.

I really admire other expats who seem to have the whole Christmas thing organised.  Especially those people who meet the earliest (and cheapest) last posting dates to send cards and presents back to the homeland.  Once again I am behind the pace and running to catch up.  Perhaps next year I’ll be better prepared although a bit of me thinks there would be no fun in that!

We normally buy marmalade made by David and Gary who run the local neighborhood restaurant Taste in Khandallah but they don’t last very long as they are so delicious and since we no longer live across the road it is not that convenient to keep restocked. After expanding my jam making efforts from earlier in the year to include apricot and plum, I thought it was time to spread my preserving wings and make marmalade but it was only after researching the possible recipes I came to realise the variety of ways you can make marmalade.

Some people cook the oranges whole and others chop them up.  With the bedazzling array of options to choose from I opted for a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs The British Larder who as always have a nice twist on the standard recipes.  In this case Madalene and Ross have surpassed themselves with an edgy Marmalade with Vanilla Bean which produced a light marmalade with the perfect balance of bitter sweet.  I do however have enough oranges left to try something a little more traditional.

I’m thinking perhaps I’ll try the recommended Marmalade recipe by Pam Corbin of River Cottage Fame and also head judge in the World’s Original Marmalade Awards which clearly are a must for all marmalade making aficionados. And who said Marmalade was dying?

As marmalade making virgin I was a little apprehensive of how things might turn out but Madalene’s recipe didn’t let me down.  I did however feel like I had done 10 rounds in the gym forcing the fruit through the sieve until I started to use my pestle instead of the back of a spoon making it easier to force the mix through.  I liked the one stage approach to making the marmalade although I will try the two stage approach and compare the results.

As always the key to preserving is finding the setting point and although the consistency of the resulting marmalade is fine, I would rather a slightly thicker set next time although I know you have to be careful that you don’t go too far as instead of going solid the marmalade won’t set at all!

The first batch has passed his Lordship’s taste test which is a relief since he is quite the connoisseur when it comes to marmalade.  I am curious to see how the next batch turns out so we can do a run our own mini marmalade awards.

Marmalade Recipes to try from my favorite chefs and bloggers

How to Make the Perfect Marmalade

Nigel Slater

The British Larder

Dan Lepard

Delia Smith

Fiona Neville – Cottage Smallholder

David Lebvoitz

Waitrose

Toast NZ

]]> http://www.domestic-executive.com/domesticity/sweet-and-golden-the-craze-for-seville-marmalade/feed/ 8 http://www.domestic-executive.com/garden-blogging/cherries-and-other-growing-battles/ http://www.domestic-executive.com/garden-blogging/cherries-and-other-growing-battles/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:21:11 +0000 Domestic Executive http://www.domestic-executive.com/?p=11758 I hesitate to talk too loudly about dealing with pests in the garden for fear that they may reek their revenge.  The chickens and I have already had a summit on what’s acceptable scratching and what the consequences will be if they persist in flying the coup and digging up my new beds.  The rabbits and I have a pact which allows them free range of the lush grass as long as they steer clear of the vegetable garden. Despite regular protestations, the hounds continue to ignore every request to not walk on the flower beds, mark their territory or other perform other unsavory habits.

The wild birds are the biggest threat to my cherry trees and indeed pretty much everything else in the Kitchen Garden.  They successfully pilfered my recent planting of red onions I suspect on the grounds that they looked very much like tasty worms waving in the wind.  With the cherries and gooseberries bearing fruit it’s a race against time to create the protective barriers to keep the birds from helping themselves when I’m not looking.  You’d think that they’d been happy enough pecking my cabbages to death.

Mice have become a pain too digging up garlic and having a ferret around the potatoes.  I was tempted to set a few mousetraps but that seems churlish since I’ve already cut off the source of rich pickings by locking up all the chicken and dog food into lockable bins.  Instead they are feasting on the compost heap which I’m OK with as long as it keeps the rats away.  Yes, rats!  Although they elicit a distinct yuck factor with me, we’re luckier than some of our neighbors who seem to be over-run with large rodents.

We tend not to get too many slugs and snails on account of the number of wild birds that parade the garden although I’m always vigilant since we have a proliferation of hostas which would be perfect fodder.  My nemesis is the cabbage white butterflies that love to flitter amongst the vegetables with potentially devastating effect.  I’ve planted heaps of companion flowers to distract them but will be netting my brassicas this year to avoid a repeat of the locust like devastation of last year.

For all the irritations of birds, mice and other inspects the biggest threat to our gardening endeavors is the Wellington wind which can strike at any time and beat the garden into submission.  I’m in despair at the moment with my broad beans which however hard I try to protect and tie them up well seem to entice punishment from the wind and turn them into bedraggled and battle weary specimens.

I’m all for biodiversity and embracing the principles of permaculture into growing just as long as I can reap the rewards of my growing efforts rather than losing them to other garden residents.  So this weekend it’s a rush to install the fruit cages and continue with the almost daily routine of tying in plants to canes.  And when the kitchen garden is battle ready I shall start on remedying the damage to our deciduous trees which as mere babes in tree life are still struggling to find their feet and battle the onslaught of gorse.   But that’s a whole other story for another day!

For the purposes of the training I decided that an achievement I was proud of was the life shift we’ve made in the last 6 years.  I’ve gone from a state of mostly exhausted existence in the UK to a life which no less exhausting at times but one that feels better and much more fun.  I’m often asked why didn’t I make the sort of life I wanted in the UK and the truthful answer to this question is that would simply have been too hard. It was much easier to just pack everything up and move to a completely different part of the world and start again.

Hard work and a lot of luck has helped us along our way but having a clear view about what we wanted our future to look like has been the thing that has sustained progress. Sometimes the details aren’t clear but that’s when the fun starts as you can shape and change things until you find a level of satisfaction.  Who’d have known that a notional dream about “living the good life” would have resulted in a growing obsession about where my food comes from and where on earth I can get my hands on a medlar tree or crocus bulbs so I can grow my own saffron.

These are luxurious thoughts but I’ve come to realise this week that my work as a coach helps heaps of other people to take small steps every day to making their life better or those that they work with and that’s an incredibly powerful thing.  Now all I need is a Jedi outfit and I’ll be good to go.

Medlar Bud in the Orchard.