Despite the phenomenally good growing season (grass coming out our ears etc) our garden is going to be late. The early potatoes will have rotted in the ground because they have been flooded so many times. The Maori potatoes will be fine as this year, they are planted in two tyre gardens. I think it will be Farmers Market spuds for Christmas this year. Even our tomatoes aren’t in yet. The growing season is quite long in Martinborough, so even though the rest of the country plants tomatoes at Labour weekend, we do have a little leeway.
Toast Martinborough is celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend so I’ll be exchanging my kitchen clothes and my gardening clothes for my barista apron, as we’re spending the day making coffee for Escarpment Wines at the gorgeous Parehua Estate. We’ve been a bit spoilt as we were there last weekend as part of the Town and Country home and garden tour. Next weekend the garden must be put in or it is going to be lean pickings for us later. There are cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers, kale. Red cabbages, spinach and beans, all trying to keep their head above the weeds, but there needs to be much much more. I found a pocket of self seeded zucchini seedlings, so I can plant them out, and all the pumpkin seedlings are ready for transplanting. The broad beans are yummy this year. We only have a few plants (thank you pigs) but those that have survived are prolific beaners, if that is the right word.
It seems Paihiatua is becoming our destination of choice in the weekend. Last weekend we went there to collect our two new bunny hoppers, Benjamin and Flopsy, our two really cute black and white Flemish Giant rabbits. They will be pets, but their progeny won’t be. They are quite long haired and very soft. I tried to have a cuddle with one of them last night, but gave up in the end. The goat kids were determined to get into the rabbit hutch as we tried to get the rabbits out, and the ducks got into the bucket of rabbit food and the bottle fed lambs generally got in the road,
The big excitement of the coming week (and the next trip to Paihiatua) will be to collect our new Saanen milking goat. She is in milk and without remating should remain so for another 18 months or so. Emmy, our other Saanen looks to be in kid, but I’m not sure. If she is, it will be to the buck that she was running with before she came to us. Watch this space, as we start to experiment with goats’ milk cheeses and yoghurts. We have made cows’ milk cheese for several years, but goats’ milk will be new to us. She should produce about 3.5% butter fat, so I don’t think we will be able to make butter until Little Miss Gentle calves nearer Autumn, but at least we’ll have some of our dairy products covered.
One of the first things I want to make is soft goats’ milk cheese so that I can make a strawberry cheesecake, but that will have to be next weekend. In the meantime, dessert tonight will have to be made with store bought cream and crème fraiche, but with home grown strawberries.
Another very popular fool is a strawberry fool.
Strawberry Fool
2 punnets strawberries (500 or 600g)
2T caster sugar
½ cup crème fraiche
1 ½ cups cream
¼ cup liquid honey.
Hull and chop the strawberries, saving a few for serving. Put them and the sugar into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Sieve this puree to get rid of the seeds. Whip the cream, crème fraiche and honey together until you can form stiff peaks. Pour the strawberry puree over the cream mix, and without stirring, serve into glass (for preference) dishes. Place a few slices of strawberry over the top.
This is a wonderfully lazy summer dessert as it can be prepared well ahead of time. Make the strawberry puree and put it into a bowl, or plastic container. Mix the cream and the honey and have them in another bowl. When you need to serve, just beat the creams and pour over the strawberry puree.
This dessert is just as lovely with any other berry fruits that are ready slightly later in the season.
It doesn’t take many strawberries (or again other berries) to make a delightful Christmas drink and dessert. You have to make it no to allow it to “mature”.
Take a litre jar (that you have a lid for) and fill it with hulled strawberries. Chop any larger ones so that everything is about the same size. Pour caster sugar into the jar up to about a third full. Fill to the top of the jar with vodka or gin. Screw on the lid tightly and leave in a dark place until Christmas. Every week or so, give the jar a gentle shake or invert it a few times. The strawberries can be used (in very small quantities) as a garnish for a fool, a pavlova or a trifle for dessert, while the liqueur can be drunk, served in very small glasses. If you don’t drink it all on opening, pour the liqueur into a clean bottle.
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