Time for gardening

A visit to Larnach’s castle is always an essential outing each year this time for me and I love to catch the first of my favourite plantings by Margaret Barker. The drifts of Galanthus and deep red Helllebores are stunning. Margaret is such a clever gardener and the castle grounds are immaculate and inspiring. We have been so lucky to have had visits from Hannah and James in July and Richard, Holly and little Asher in early August. Asher found the giants red chair pretty fun at the end of the native walk at Larnach’s Castle. We rely on facetime or Zoom to keep in touch with Matthew, Kara and little Mia in Melbourne. Like so many others who are isolated from family and grandchildren Covid has made it very tough.

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My time recently has been predominantly in Central Otago and the Winter including the ghastly fog inversion days were testing but, some beautiful hoar frost days provided magical scenery. We have now moved onto wicked frosts in the mornings followed by clear blue sky days and perfect for my endless tree planting.

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The steep banks behind our house have been transformed by the skills of a very experienced digger driver called ‘Scooter”. It’s been an eye opener working with the boys from Duncan Earth Moving and ‘what they can’t do’. Providing scones for morning tea and soup for lunch became pretty popular though. The dreaded rabbits are just the worst pests and so demoralising when they eat your new plants to ground level over night. They have just had had a smorgasbord of poisoned fresh carrots for the last 3 weeks and indeed I am on the war path.

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Its always a joy having our children to stay, we always cook together and life is very social. We are still becoming familiar with our new Tarras property. Of course at the moment there are never ending jobs to do involved with setting up our new garden and for Richard, he arrived at the right time to spend two days on the end of a wood splitter with Philip, dealing with the 14 or so pine trees we had felled. It is a wonderful feeling to have a mountain of firewood .

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I did drive through to Christchurch for 3 days and researched a Lower South Island tour which will begin on 27th October. In over 10 days we will drive through lots of colourful Russell Lupins, Peony Roses and flowering Thyme – included is a range of fun excursions…. including lunch by Helicopter in the Southern Alps, two nights at the exclusive Glenorchy Headwaters unique camping ground and great food, wine and gardens. We will end in Christchurch on the 6th November.

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I recently returned to my all time favourite Terrine recipe which provided several lunches in the warm midday sun. It is my interpretation of a ploughman lunch – Fresh bread, cheddar cheese and a jar of chutney made during lockdown earlier in the year. So easy and yet can’t get much tastier.

Pork and Chicken Terrine

500 pork mince , 500g beef mince, 2 chicken thigh fillets, 2 onions, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves garlic – crushed, ½ c chopped parsley, 3 eggs, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 or 2 fresh sage leaves or sprigs fresh thyme, ¼ teaspoons ground cloves and nutmeg, freshly cracked pepper, ½ cup red wine, 6 rashers bacon, 2 bay leaves

• Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil very gently for about 10 minutes so that they develop a lovely sweets flavour. Combine with the minced meat in a large bowl.
• Add parsley, eggs, red wine salt, chopped fresh herbs and seasonings. 
• Place a layer of bacon rashers in the bottom and up the sides of a loaf pan and or ovenproof dish, leaving some to cover the top. Spoon in½ the mince mixture into the loaf tin, place chicken thigh fillets along the middle followed by the remainder of the mince.
• Fold the bacon over the top. Tuck in the bay leaves and cover with foil. 
• Bake in a bain marie (in a dish of water – to come ¾ way up the sides of the terrine dish) for 1 ½ hrs at 180 C
• Remove terrine from the water.  Place heavy weights on top and refrigerate overnight.
• Sit the oaf tin in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes or so to soften a little . Tip out the terrine.
• Wipe down with a paper towel before slicing.

As we have further restrictions Zealanders have to ‘carry on’ at the expense of, the extensive cost to our jobs, missing family and making huge lifestyle choices. Gardening has become my saviour and I am lucky to have an endless job at the moment. We are heading up to Central Otago tonight to plant 60 Olive trees and I am about to plant a selection of Dahlias here in Dunedin when it stops raining!!! Every year I am always inspired by the Dahlia collection at Villa Taranto in Italy which this years group would have visited two days ago.

So bring on Spring

Best Wishes Everyone. I would love to hear from you if you would like to join the Lower South Island tour in October / November and I am planning a research trip to the North of the South Island format summer 2021

XXX Judith