The last couple of days have been savage. We have a really nasty weather system sweeping across Southern New Zealand. Yesterday was steady rain from a very low cloud base, and gale westerly. This morning after a night of heavy rain and occasional thunder I was startled around 0830 by a really bright flash followed a second later by a huge clap of thunder. The power  went off,and Anne’s little dog Eddie promptly leaped into my arms in bed   …. OK on a Sunday morning as bad as this I can have a lie in….  Eddie is a bit of a wuss, as our two didn’t even stir. I went out side to check the circuit breakers, but the problem was elsewhere and a few moment later the power came back on. There must have been some quite heavy hail squalls as well. The present outside temperature is 3.4 deg C, which is really cold for Stewart Island.

Communications Down

As far as I can tell only one minor piece of our electronic kit was fried, but the Island did lose its microwave link to the mainland. So no phone other than local, and no internet until 1330 when service was restored. Cell phones did not appear affected. But a down side of the system is that the local cop’s phone has an Invercargill number, which in my mind is stupid. This means that while the village can still call each other, in the case of an emergency we can’t contact the local police. I have no idea what happens to 111 calls… wasn’t going to test that one.

Service Cancelled

The forecast bad weather saw the monthly Anglican Sunday service cancelled. Most of the local congregation was away, and as the transport across the straits was probably going to be interrupted the Priest ( who lives in Invercargill) decided discretion was the better part of valour.

Down Side

That was of course the correct decision, but it did mean that the venison I had thawed for a dinner for 4 on Saturday night was all of a sudden an awful lot for me on my own.

Venison Pie

I had decided on cooking a venison pie. Years ago I was addicted to the Arrowtown Bakeries Venison and Apricot Pie, and had decided to try my hand at one. And so even though on my own I thought I would anyway … far too much for one person of course, but that’s what freezers are for.

I enjoy cooking, and while I do occasionally use a recipe it tends to be on the “Oh that might work ” basis rather than to be slavishly followed.

I cut the venison into medallions about 40mm across and 8 mm thick then rolled the meat in flour and dried beef stock and heavily braised in good cooking oil. Into the crock pot, together with braised onion rings, some chicken stock and a couple of dessert spoons of honey….. commercial stocks can be a little bitter to my taste and a little water.  3 hours in the stock pot, thickened with a little flour, then into a pastry lined dish. Add a layer of apricots … my own preserved… a layer of cooked sliced potato , grated cheese and bread crumbs and bake in a 175 deg oven until well browned. To go with it I stuffed some baked potato and had my first meal of swede turnips.  I’m a good Southlander and love my swede turnips. Dessert was a fruit medley pie , frozen gooseberries, apple, apricot and rhubarb all in pastry, served with ice-cream.

I guess it all sounds a bit sad, a dinner party for one. But Iris is halfway through her France trip, and so I can look forward to her return. And what else to do in bad weather.

I remember a guest once saying He hated “haute cuisine”. He was never sure when presented with some exquisitely prepared microscopic portion whether he was supposed to eat it or frame it. Never a problem with my cooking. I lean heavily toward “Hearty” with bold flavours, but never the main ingredient disguised. Venison should taste like venison.

PS… My rule for deciding a good pie is how it tastes cold. And this one was superb. The sweet tang of the apricot a perfect counterpoint to the gamey flavour of the venison.

Staying at Sails Ashore on Stewart Island includes a guided discovery tour of Ulva Island with Peter … your host. The changing seasons and attendant flowers, ferns and birds is the focus of many of my posts.

Orchid Season draws to a close

Yesterday I found a clump of Autumn (Easter) Orchids just opened. These delicate and highly scented blooms are the last of our seasons display and one of very few species to have any detectable scent. Although its cousins E aestivalis & E. mucronata do have a very faint scent. Actually the Easter orchid is a little earlier than I would have expected.

Still out are Onion Orchids…..our smallest orchid….and also the very last of the Ladies Slipper Orchids. The Onion Orchids have had an especially long season this year, as I noticed the first blooms in late October, and by the look of the ones on the Ulva tracks are good for another couple of weeks at least

MorePork

While showing my guests a rata vine I inadvertently bumped a large tree fern and out flew a morepork which had been sleeping behind it. It landed in a nearby tree and looked at us somewhat “owlishly” for several minutes. Understandable I guess. Within a couple of minutes it had been discovered by a Bellbird who promptly set up a terrific din, scolding it….. morepork are of course the enemy….. This drew in several of its mates who added to the cacophony, at which point the morepork flew back to its hidy hole to escape from all the attention.

Galley Slave

Summer time is fruit time, and although Stewart Islands climate does not lend itself to fruit trees, Central Otago is not far away, and produces wonderful stone fruit. So when I see a day off coming up on my diary I order fruit for bottling or jam. I quite enjoy making preserves, chutneys and jams and of course they are a welcome addition to our guests breakfast table at Sails Ashore.

The down side of all this is that occasionally I am faced with fruit to do on a fine sunny day. As it was today, so after I returned from Ulva and had carted up from the wharf the pea straw Iris had ordered for winterising her garden I set to and bottled 12kg of lovely apricots, with a further 8 kg pulped and frozen. I must say a cupboard full of preserves makes me feel quite virtuous, although some of our male guests seem to think I’m somehow letting the side down.

The Hop, Car Enthusiasts and Rock & Roll

So much activity…..

The Hop

Our region starts off with the Kaikoura Hop usually around the 24^th September. This is great for car enthusiasts and the event attract approximately 700 car entries. The town just buzzes. Entries are from all over New Zealand and already I understand next year is partially booked. The dance is fab – “Rock ‘n’ Roll “ all night !!

Seafest

Mussels, Yum, Seafest

Then it is Seafest time and this event attracts a good crowd of about 5000 party goers with the big Bash (with great bands) on the Friday night followed by the food & wine the following day.

The Bash, Party Goers,

Culverden Xmas Fete

A day in the sun at the Fete

Just a couple of weeks later everyone goes to the Culverden Xmas Fete which I never miss. Usually I make a B-Line for the peonies to add to my collection which graces the

Just one of the many stalls at The Fete (photo.. The Fete.co.nz)

gardens surrounding the lodge and obviously I go home with a huge bunch of cut stems. They are always an excellent talking point with the guests.

and just a few days later we all find ourselves at

The Kaikoura Races

Harness Racing on the Beach (Photo Stuff.co.nz)

taking a punt on our favourite horse.  The temperature was 24o Sun blazing with lots of bright hats and summery cloths and a few burnt bodies was the order of the day. The sea was a beautiful turquoise back drop to the course.  You would have though every car in New Zealand was there..it was so so busy and record crowds I am told. The town just came to a stand still !!

And our own Fyffe Country Lodge Gardens

Fyffe Country Lodge Gardens

Now that we have all enjoyed such a busy start to the spring calendar it is time to put in some hard labour into the gardens. The buxus is a show piece and is always commented on.

Our orchid collection demands spring attention with dividing and re-potting.

The Hobby

(This is a relatively new hobby – perhaps age related – but most enjoyable)

Holidaying in Kaikoura between late September to Late October will always provide you with some great festive events to attend.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

…. Chris & Colin ,
Fyffe Country Lodge
458 State Highway One
Kaikoura

Ph 64 3 319 6869

www.fyffecountrylodge.com
Email [email protected]

On the 10th August 2013 Ray and I held a ‘Wild Food Competition’ for the Southern Regional Early Ford V8 club of America. We created our own gourmet sausages from Wild Duck, Rabbit, Hare and Venison which Ray had personally shot and prepared. We served up Rabbit & Smoked Cheese sausages,  Hare & Herb sausages and Wild Duck & Berry sausages. Most people had eaten our gourmet delights without realising the unusual ingredients.

Trish & Ray, Chefs Extraordinaire

The competition involved a verbal presentation on how the wild animal was hunted with many of the stories prone to exaggeration. We had  a good variety of entries ranging from Mutton Birds to Venison but there were some very suspicious looking ordinary dishes as well. The evening  was a great success with a promise of maybe running the event again sometime in the future.

Great Venue

The Team

Ray’ s 8 car garage lends itself well for these type of events we were able to run the BBQ for the Kentucky Fried styled Rabbit wings and legs (they were a bit chewy! )

The Guests of Honour

The Car

Ray has just finished rebuilding his motor for our 1949 Ford V8 and look forward to it being on the road early in the new year.  

Trish & Ray
Safari Lodge
51 Herbert Street, Invercargill.

[email protected]

64 3 214 6329
0800 885 557

Winter can be a depressing time of year, short days, colder, and often extended grey bleak periods. But we do also get those wonderful clear calm sunny days that make such a difference. And one of the really neat things winter gives us is marvellous sunrises. Well we get great sunrises throughout the year, but in winter the sun rises directly in front of Sails Ashore and just as we are getting up. Which often isn’t all that early. It being winter and   all !!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXwCCkE950E&w=560&h=315]

Stewart Island / Rakiura… the name

Rakiura or more properly “Te raki o te uraka o Te Rakitamau”  is the Maori name for Stewart Island, the short translation being “Land of Glowing Skies” and our sunrises & sets, rainbows and Aurora can be spectacular. But as always there is a story attached.  Many years ago Te Rakitamau , an old Maori Chief who apparently lived on the mainland, lost his wife. Widower hood did not sit well… winters can be cold… and he’d heard there were two Wahine (young women) on Stewart Island who would make good wives. Two were apparently better than one… keep warm both sides …. and so he came down to claim these two girls. The story tells us that one was already promised, and the other turned him down flat. And now we see his deep blushes of rage and humiliation in our skies.

more Stewart Island place names……..

Hearty Winter Venison

I like eating and having been raised on a Southland farm, enjoy my meat.
A friend gave us a leg of white-tail venison they had shot in Paterson Inlet. Now Iris & I both love venison and buy venison steaks from a Te Anau supplier. But a leg can be a bit of a problem, as I find it hard to roast without becoming very dry. So had a bit of a think about that and the following recipe is the result.

Cut the leg into sections across the bone that will fit into a slow cooker and retain one portion, the rest going into the freezer. nb. Whitetail is a small animal. A very large leg may be too big to fit a slow cooker even after cutting down.

Peel and slice sufficient onions to put a reasonable layer in the bottom of a slow cooker, and turn cooker onto high.

Roll the venison in flour and heavily braise in a pan, using a good cooking oil. Don’t skimp the oil, as venison has very little fat. Transfer venison into slow cooker and add 50/50 cider vinegar and a good beef stock to about 80% of the top of the meat. Add a good tablespoon of honey and a cup or so of chopped carrots heavily browned in the braising pan. If the pan isn’t burned some of the cider/beef stock can be simmered briefly in the pan and returned to the stock pot. Once the slow cooker is actively simmering turn to low and leave for at least 5 or 6 hours… longer is better. Ladle liquid over meat every hour or so.

About 90 minutes before due to serve peel as many potatoes as will easily fit into the stock pot well into the liquid and continue cooking with the meat.
Carefully lift out the meat and potatoes and keep warm before serving.

Using a “stick” whiz the liquid, onions and carrots. This should result in a good gravy. (the cooked onions and carrots become the thickening) If a bit thin, whizz in some flour to suit and transfer to a suitable pot and bring briefly to the boil.

This works very well with mutton as well, though as mutton is usually well endowed with fat, less oil should be used when braising, and ladling out excess fat off the top before whizzing into gravy is a good idea.

You can find more of our recipes at www.sailsashore.co.nz

Enjoy…

…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
[email protected]
www.sailsashore.co.nz

64 3 219 1151
0800 783 9278

The Grapes

Our grape harvest at the winery with Peter (our winemaker) and Josie (one of our helpers).

Autumn has been a busy time at Clearview Lodge this season. In April, after a marvellous sunny warm summer, we harvested our Pinot Noir. We are currently drinking our 2011 and 2012 Pinot Noirs and for something a little special, our  2010 Pinot Noir Port which has proven very popular and is available for you to try in the guest lounge by the fire. This

years harvest is at our Winemakers (20 minutes away in West Melton) We have 2 1/2 Barrels of Pinot Noir (about 65 dozen bottles) and a half barrel of Port

Our harvest, in the vat and beginning to ferment. It’s a shame you can’t smell the lovely fruity fragrance!

(about 12 dozen bottles) which will be bottled  later in the year. We harvest our grapes in April or early May depending on ripeness and weather.

We have about 20 friends and

relatives to help, and have morning and afternoon tea and a lunch accompanied by some of the previous seasons wines. It is a wonderful day as we can only pick in nice weather, as rain would dilute the juice and we can’t have that!

Grape Pruning

 These pruners are really quick, but very heavy, the plan is to keep 5 fingers on each hand so care is being taken. Our winter, while wet this year, has been very mild and it is still July and there is sap rising, which means the buds will be swelling in no time. This also means the vines could be vulnerable to frost, so I hope we can have a few good frosts to slow them down again, so I can finish pruning before bud burst. During your tour of the vineyard, I can explain all the different tasks which have to be done throughout the season. There is always something to be done in the vineyard, whether it is selecting shoots or removing laterals or leaves, to get sun on the bunches. Once the nets are put on, to keep the birds out (at the end of January or beginning of February), there is less to do. Samples are taken to the winemaker in April and we keep an eye on the weather and prepare for the harvest. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to enjoy a glass of Pinot Noir or Pinot Port with us. It’s a tough job, but someone has to to it!

And so it begins again. Sue pruning with her new toy, an electric pair of pruners.

The Olive Harvest

Robin with our Olive harvester which knocks the olives off the trees.

Our Olive harvest is a somewhat more drawn out affair and takes place over about 3 weeks. We have a mechanical harvester which helps and, just like in Italy, we spread our nets under the trees and collect up all the olives, which Robin knocks off with the (electric back-pack) harvester which has a long pole and long carbon fibre rod fingers. Some are picked by hand but mostly only if the tree has frosted fruit, from the previous season, which we don’t want in our extra virgin olive oil.

We have friends and family, and occasionally guests, who help with moving the nets and sorting the olives. At the end of each day the fruit is all taken out to the press in Ohoka and the oil is collected from the previous day. Now we have all our oil, we will send away samples to be certified Extra Virgin and enter some of the olive oil competitions. We won a Silver medal  in the New Zealand Gourmet Oil competition in 2011 and a bronze medal in the New Zealand Olive Association awards in 2011.

Sue on one of our nets which we use to catch the olives, which Robin has knocked off

This year we picked 2300 kgs of fruit and have 137 litres of oil. Some of our 500 olive trees had 30-40 kgs of fruit. You might like to try our oil with some nice fresh bread and

some of our dukkah, which Robin makes from

some of our walnuts and hazel nuts, which are also available a bowl, up in the lounge, if you would like to have a nibble.  Due to our cool-climate situation we don’t get a very high yield of oil but it is very good quality oil.

Once the olives are picked they are taken to our shed to be de-leafed.

We pay for the pressing by weigh so don’t want to pay for leaves in our oil. Bryan  (Sue’s clever Dad) has made us a de-leafer.  Together with Sue’s Mum, they work tirelessly sorting. 

We pay for the pressing by weigh so don’t want to pay for leaves in our oil. Bryan (Sue’s clever Dad) has made us a deleafer. Together with Sue’s Mum, they work tirelessly sorting.

At the press. Liquid gold. Our extra virgin olive oil now it has been separated from the juice.

Other Crops

These are our main crops but we had a great cherry season in late December and January and you can pick cherries to have with breakfast or on your tour of the gardens and vineyard when you come to stay. We also enjoyed raspberries, boysenberries, strawberries, red and black currants, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, plums, greengages, feijoas and lemons are always fruiting.  

I will be having words with the birds about the apricots. I am happy to share with our bellbirds but not some of their friends, but I would like a few apricots this year. I am still making muffins with our raspberries and have Pinot jelly, raspberry jam, quince jelly and quince paste, apricot jam all available for your breakfast. Our nuts are ready in Autumn and many visitors enjoyed picking their own chestnuts. I pick up and dry the walnuts and hazelnuts before I can use or sell them.

Whatever the season, you will always receive a warm welcome and something tasty to eat or drink, which you can see growing here and pick if it’s in season.

Some of these photos had a geolocation tag, and so this photos is thanks to that information used in conjunction with Google Earth. The yellow tag is Sue with her pruner… Peter the Blog-Meister

Sue & Robin,
Clearview Lodge

8 Clearwater Avenue, Harewood
Christchurch, New Zealand
Tel +64 3 359 5797
Mobile 021 727 883
www.clearviewlodge.com 

We get bunted everywhere hoping his milk will just appear !!
Spring is not so far away…the tulips are up..and we all hope to start picking up a few guests.

Kaikoura’s Whale run kicks off on the 15 September then we all look forward to the annual “Seafest” which attract about 8,000 visitors to the region for the festival. A superb variety of wines and seafood is to be had not to mention a good selection of live entertainment.  A reprieve from the empty accommodations of the winter months.
The men’s open Golf Day followed by the Kaikoura Trotting Cup all are great fun days
which are growing annually with guests coming from all over the South Island…and usually Kaikoura can turn on the weather…and crayfish…

www.fyffecountrylodge.com

Chris Rye and Colin Ashworth
Fyffe Country lodge
458 State Highway One
Kaikoura.

After almost seventeen years here, these last couple of weeks have been the wettest wintry fortnight I can remember….. even the local golf club is closed!

Fortunately the feminine side of the family – my wife Margherita and our daughter Fiamma – are presently in Italy complaining about the 39-40 degrees of heat……….. nobody is ever happy!

The bad weather has also been affecting and postponing all those yearly winter tasks that maintaining our premises implies, without even giving me a chance to have some fun golfing or fishing.

Our 60 Kgs Great Dane puppy Romeo and the two new kittens make up for that and supply me with plenty of company and entertainment due to their lovely nature.

A major event will take place here in Whitianga on the weekend of the 15th-16th of September: the Scallop Festival, a nationwide well-known cuisine and music fiesta that every year attracts thousands of people from all over New Zealand. www.scallopfestival.co.nz

Villa Toscana – Giorgio & Margherita

Every July in Dunedin is sweetened by the CADBURY’S CHOCOLATE CARNIVAL.

Dunedinites have been celebrating their love of chocolate for over 10 years, dedicating an annual carnival to the sweet treat.

But organisers have added a few surprises to this year’s programme, including a house that’s definitely good enough to eat. The chocolate house was one of the features of Dunedin’s Chocolate Carnival .  A team from Otago Polytech had the challenge of building a life-size house and painting it with 90 litres of melted chocolate. “Quite difficult to keep it warm enough to be able to make it spread easily,” says chocolate carpenter Graham Burgess.

“But yeah, we had a lot of fun. Students kept an eye on things as well and were quite keen to taste bits and pieces as we went along. ”

The team’s also been designing a new machine to release the 25,000 giant Jaffas for their annual race down the world’s steepest street.

But the icing on the cake was the chocolate creations of English food sculptor Prudence Staite. Bored of working with stone while doing an art degree at university, she turned to chocolate.

“I’ve always been obsessed with food, and always obsessed with art, so pretty much I fused that together at the age of two,” says Staite.

She’s worked in the Cadbury factory for more than a week making chocolate sculptures and decorations to go in and around the chocolate house – everything from an edible fireplace to chocolate cushions.

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/217123/video-baldwin-st-jaffa-race

Here short history of chocolate – Food of the Gods:

The origins of chocolate can be traced back to the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilisations in Central America.  ‘Theobroma cacao’, meaning ‘food of the gods’, was prized for centuries by the Central American Mayan Indians, who first enjoyed a much-prized spicy drink called ‘chocolatl’, made from roasted cocoa beans.

The Aztecs introduced cocoa to the Spaniards, who took it back to Europe in the 16th century. However it was very expensive, so only the rich could afford it. Chocolate was exclusively for drinking until the early Victorian times when a technique for making solid ‘eating’ chocolate was devised.

August is going to be pretty hectic in Fletcher Lodge, we plan to paint the front of the house, carry on working on the second bedroom in the Sobieski Suite and carry on with landscaping our gardens. Hopefully, as most of my activities are outdoors, (painting and gardening) the weather will change for the worst, so I will not feel guilty by attending New Zealand International Film Festival.

Kia Ora from Dunedin

Ewa & Keith  Rozecki-Pollard

Fletcher Lodge, Dunedin