We have fabulous beaches within 20 traffic free minutes of our house. We try to make good use of every lovely day. A fresh baked foccaccia and some coffee for lunch and went to the beach. Usually we have the whole thing to ourselves – clear blue water, clear pollution free skies, clean sand, champagne quality air to breathe – another day in paradise! ( I have to rave now before winter sets in 😉 )
Our first autumn in Dunedin. Charming old buildings and houses, streets lined with golden trees and the spectacular Botanic Gardens. Dunedin has very eye catching trees, none of the names known to us. We will ask and find out about them when we can. I felt a compelling need to share these pictures, taken in the Botanic Gardens!
I also had a look at what was still producing in the Herb Garden. I could identify the sage, poppies and verbena the rest were sniffed ans nibbled at.
I wish I had taken a “before ” photograph to prove that my (still green) tomatoes were looking great, and my zucchini were producing bountifully and ……We had massive winds and heavy rain this week and unfortunately our lovely sunny aspect also means that there is very little wind protection for my garden. Dunedin weather strikes the uninitiated gardener again! I have uprooted all the broken and drowned plants and will start anew next week. The things that did survive were the artichokes and the cardoons, even though the cardoon in the picture looks very sorry for itself, along with some lettuce, rhubarb and cavalo nero.
No damage to the chicken houses fortunately.
Yesterday we set off with the grand kids to buy raw goat milk for cheese making. We were not in time to see any milking, or to get close to the goats, but, as usual the scenery on the way to the farm was spectacular. We had a lovely misty view down North East Valley, affectionately known as The Valley to us, its inhabitants, with the rest of Dunedin’s hills in the background. To compensate for missing the goats we had a bit of a walk, a bit of a climb, some hiding behind the trees and collecting many different types of fungi that all seemed inedible to me.
I have propagated new cultures for the cheeses and will start making the real cheese tonight. Half will be Montasio, the other half a Cheddar. The goat cheese ricotta has been done and tastes delicious, very rich and creamy and with a much firmer texture that the cow milk ricotta I normally make. Romano, Caccio Cavallo and Parmigiano are on the list for May.
I don’t know much about the beautiful rooster but the magnificent bull is a photograph of a wonderful painting by the South African artist Leigh Voigt from a book about the Zulu Nguni cattle, called The Abundant Herds . The book is the result of the collaboration of scholars, researchers and writers over an extended period of time. The many paintings reproduced in the book are accurate depictions of the colour patterns of the cattle. I once saw a similar bull in a herd of cattle in the green hills of Zululand. Would love to go back for another look!
Back Yard Farmer 