Of strawberries, goats and fruit trees

TUESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2011

I’m not sure why one of the neighbours is having a bonfire this morning – I would have thought that pruning was over for the year, but the fire did smell rather nice.  We pruned very early this year.  When I say we, I mean the goats and I.  These particular English type goats are known as the Rawhiti goat (pronounced  RAH-fee-tee) in honour of David Tuart, the man responsible for their rescue from the Pongakawa Valley area in the North Island of New Zealand.  About 1999 or thereabouts, Mr. Tuart and the group helping him were able to capture a small number of these goats before the rest were removed by the Department of Conservation, due to the goats’ destructiveness in the native bush.  

The Rawhiti goats were purportedly used as dairy and meat animals by the Kauri gum miners in the middle of the 19th Century.  When the mining was abandoned in approximately 1865, many of the goats were left behind as well.  Over the last 140 years, and many generations, the Rawhiti goats became a compact, hardy breed, retaining some of its dairyness.  They are very fine-boned, so I don’t believe they would have been a very productive source of meat, but they may have become more fine-boned over the years as part of their adaptation (perhaps due to nutrition - natural selection may have favoured smaller bones due to the quality of their food sources or available calcium.  They retain some of the dairyness of the milch goat, as some of the does exhibit well-attached udders, larger teats (for ease of hand-milking), the wedge-shaped body of the good dairy goat, and a large volume of milk production for such a small animal.

The Rawhiti goat is half the size of the standard sized dairy goat, and at birth, the kids stand at about 18 - 23 cms (7-9 inches) at the wither, and are just as vigourous, if not more so, than their standard dairy breed counterpart.

Mr. Tuart has been instrumental in the preservation of a large number of feral breeds which are unique to New Zealand, due to the fact that they have been left to themselves, many for more than 150 years, to survive on their own and become the hardy breeds they are now.  Many of the breeds lived in complete isolation, not interbreeding with others of the same species, and have developed characteristics suitable to hard living.

We have five of these very special goats, choosing this breed, because along with the general public, we thought that goats would be as tough as old boots to raise when compared with sheep.  We also wanted to help to preserve another species, for reasons of biosecurtiy,  Because they are small, they do not jump a standard fence, but, and this is a very big but, they have an amazing vertical reach.  Basil, our buck is about the size of a small thin Labrador.  He is knee height, but when he stands on his hind legs, his height is impressive.  Basil and I can go face to face if he puts his feet up on me.  When we first got them, we didn’t know this!!!!!!!  Our learning curve on goats has been almost vertical, as it has been with most other things on our property.

We decided to put the goats in the orchard when we first got them as it was well fenced, had water and had a dear little goat house, recently vacated by the pigs.  Despite having great goat length grass (they are like cows and prefer longer grass) and grains delivered daily they preferred the trees.  The eating of the leaves we had decided was not going to be a problem.  It was coming into autumn and the leaves would fall anyway.  That is not the damage they cause.  It is the standing up, feet on branches, climbing on branches that does the damage.  Not content with wreaking havoc that way, they also ring barked several of the trees.  This is most definitely not good for the trees.  The goats were moved into The Hill Paddock, so named because it contains a small hill made of the best top-soil on our property, scraped off when our drive was formed.  There they were able to eat thistles (they only like dead ones) climb the wooden tree protectors to eat the trees specially planted to provide shade for stock and generally jump around and play goats.  It did leave us with a bit of a problem.  The orchard looked as if a tornado had passed through.  As we frequently run farm tours through our place it was not a particularly good look, so I decided to prune early, so early in fact that the prunings were dry enough to use as kindling by the middle of winter.  I felt quite like a Mediaeval peasant collecting branches, tying them into bundles and then carrying them home from the fields.  I did think that the dreadful winds we had on Boxing Day as well as this very early pruning would mean that we would have little fruit this year.  Not so!!!  Most of the trees look to have very heavy crops – the apricots and almonds are doing particularly well.  The mulberry tree is again covered in fruit, just right for weasel chasing.  We have already harvested the entire crop from one of our cherry trees.  The fruit was tiny this year, but very sweet.  Last year the birds got the lot, so this is a great improvement.  I have not done anything with them but just enjoyed them fresh.

Several of the ducks were playing “catch me if you can” in the strawberry garden last night.  Ducks love strawberries and make far bigger holes in the fruit than ordinary birds do.  I recall from my teenage years working in a market garden, how the ducks would live in the irrigation ditches and peck massive craters in the fruit.  We’ll put the netting over the strawberries this weekend so our yield will no doubt improve greatly.  It is still early in the season for us, but the fruit is remarkably sweet.  We planted 7 dozen new plants this year, as strawberry plants do not last for ever, but rather are better in their second year, declining in production thereafter.  Our four year old plants will come out after this season.  Two years ago we underplanted the currant bushes with strawberries, but Bill forgot that we had done this, and mowed them in a brutal sort  of pruning way (with the lawn tractor).  They didn’t ever recover, so I don’t think it can be a pruning method to be recommended.

Guests this weekend will be treated to a strawberry sponge for afternoon teat, and if the weather improves (it is currently still raining) we’ll be able to serve it with flowers and a white table cloth on the verandah.

Strawberry Sponge

You can easily use a bought sponge to create this but the ability to create a light as a feather sponge will improve your chances of getting into Masterchef.  You can have this ready in 45 minutes, plus a little cooling time.

3 eggs, separated, lightly beat the yolks

¾ cups caster sugar

¾ cup cornflour

1 T plain flour

1 t baking powder

1 t melted butter

2 t golden syrup, dissolved in 1 T boiling water

You will also need

strawberries – from the garden (about 250g) or a punnet

200 mls cream

1 T icing sugar

extra icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180^◦ C, and grease and line with baking paper, 2 x 20cm round cake times.  I use a spray for this.  Grease the paper lining and dust with a little flour – this gives the cake a lovely crust.

Beat the egg whites until they are firm, but not dry.  If you beat them too long, you will find it hard to mix in the other ingredients.  Gradually add the sugar, whilst the beater is still on.

With a large metal spoon, gently fold in the egg yolks, then fold through the cornflour, flour and baking powder.  Fold in the melted butter and the golden syrup and water mix, but only until the ingredients are just incorporated.

Divide between the two tins and bake for 20 – 25 minutes.  When the cake is cooked, it will spring back when you touch it.  Cool the sponges in their tins for a few minutes.  Use a metal spatula to run round the edges of the tins and gently place the sponges on a wire rack, that you have covered with a clean tea towel.  Peel the baking paper off the cakes, turn them over and cool completely.

Whip the cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form, and spread over one cake.  Place sliced strawberries on the cream, and then carefully position the other cake on top.  Arrange the rest of the whole strawberries on the top of the sponge, sieve a little icing sugar over the top and serve.