The Last Sunday of the Month

On the last Sunday of the month the tiny hamlet of Puhoi holds its Farmers' Market. Now don't be misled by the 'tiny hamlet' description,  this upper class enclave has a museum, a one-room library, a pub, a hotel and a general store. It also has substantial monies. It is located a good 20 minutes closer to Auckland than my more middle class town of Warkworth and caters to a more upper class resident.

I figured it would be both fun and educational to attend their monthly farmers' market. So Dan and I loaded up the girls and off we went. No, we didn't forget Yael and Jesse. Yael is nursing a whopper of a cold and Jesse always hangs around his food source.

It was a drizzly kind of day and since it is still winter here, there were only a few market stalls open but the variety was there. We had a great olive oil stand with all kinds of olive oil and lime, or nuts or peppers, or whatever. We bought a bottle for Yael which she loved and took back with her to Auckland (probably so I couldn't sneak some).

There was a display of outdoor wood furniture with the carpenter there. He appeared to be doing a roaring business. Dan talked for a long time with a bee keeper who will bring you hives and supply the bees. In return you sign a contract and get part of his proceeds when he harvests the honey. Since bees are always welcome, particularly as we are increasing the plants here on the farm, I think we may sign up.

There were handcrafted quilts and stuffy toys, plants of all sizes, silver jewelry with upscale prices and a soap maker. I couldn't resist this one; I bought a cinnamon soap. It smells great. I'll let you know if it actually cleanses as it seasons me. Perhaps it'll put a little spice in my life. Sorry, I never could resist a pun!

Puhoi wisely places this market next to a playground and various kids of all sizes gravitated there. So did ours. I spent a lot of time pushing swings and watching all the activity. Lots and lots of people brought their dogs. But these were different breeds than those I see up in Warkworth. Here in Warkworth I see lots of working dogs - by which I mean herder dogs. In Puhoi I saw what I can only assume are pure bred animals of breathtaking beauty but bearing little resemblance to working dogs.

Before we left, we visited the library and two lovely ladies oohed and aahed over the girls. One lady showed us a refurbished rocker - child size - and asked Alessia and Naavah to be the first children to sit in it. They were quite honored and I think it was the high point of their visit. No, the high point was definitely their fresh-squeezed orange juice. Squeezed right in front of them. Can't beat that for value.

We had so much fun and learned so much from talking to the stall owners that I hope we can make it a regular part of our monthly schedule. When we got back, we all talked about ways to enlarge our farm operation and we voted unanimously to finally  take the plunge and get some chickens. I'll let you know how that works out in the next blog. Til then!

The Market Garden

 I have spoken before about our massive garden, aka The Market Garden. It has so taken over our lives that we have very little time for anything else. It is a gigantic project and the whole family (except for 6 month old Jesse) is put to work.

 

I have bought a ton of seeds and propagating trays and Dan salvaged a perfect square window which I am using as a cold frame. The first seedlings are in. They are mostly cool weather crops such as spinach, radishes, pumpkins, and peas. While we are awaiting their arrival on the farm, the garden progresses.

 

Dan pictured a large (He sure achieved that!) garden with zones and walkways. He hired someone to put in the poles that will hold up the netting and serve as guides for the planking. The beds will be raised and we already have had 2 deliveries of top soil, mulch, gravel, and compost. All of these are wheel barrowed into place by Dan and now by Yael since Dan’s back went out. Are any of us surprised? Dan works all the time and something had to give.

 

I pretty much smooth out paper and babysit. What paper? Glad you asked. When my household goods were shipped here from the States, everything, and I mean everything including paper clips, was wrapped in white paper. Needless to say, we have a lot of it.

So Dan decided to use it. We smooth out the sheets of paper, cut up the cardboard boxes and spread the boxes and the sheets over the weeds inside the garden. Then we spread hay, then compost and top soil and finish off with the mulch. By the way, I use the royal “we”. I smooth papers; that is my total contribution. But a vital one, I’m sure.

 

The Jumper

Dan has been very busy working on our massive garden plot. One of our neighbors refers to it as The Market Garden. But he took time out to move the steers from paddock #1 aka Mt. Everest and asked my help. I put away all that vital stuff I was doing - cutting quilting squares, eating toast and honey, listening to Rod Stewart - and put my shoulder to the wheel.

Literally. My job was to park my car above the route to the quarantine paddock, rest my shoulder against the car, and wait. The plan was that when Dan rounded up the steers and sent them my way, they would have to turn down toward the correct paddock. And the plan worked. Well, 3/4th of it worked. Three steers moved out smartly and trotted down the hill. The fourth ran straight at the fence into #2 and clambered over it and sprinted away.

I took out after the 3 steers while Dan chased down the jumper. He gave up pretty quickly and joined me in putting the docile bovines into the correct paddock. Then, leaving me to guard the gate so the 3 wouldn't leave while the gate remained open to embrace Mr. Jumper, Dan headed back to paddock #1.

I waited. And I waited. And then I waited some more. Finally Dan arrived. Alone! It appears that the jumper decided he liked the thrill of the chase and jumped another fence. This one into an adjoining farm. We didn't know these people but they have a huge farm and Mr. Jumper could be anywhere.

Dan drove the quad over to the farm to see if he could find our steer but no luck. We got hold of the estate manager who does not live on site and arranged that we would drive the docile three to the neighboring farm, hopefully linking them up with the jumper and then herd all 4 back to the quarantine paddock.

This involved using the main road and was quite a hairy undertaking. Or so I was told. I remained at the house babysitting. Yael said they never could have done it without the aid of the estate manager and his fabulously trained dog. I've got to get me one of those. All I need is about $4,000! Perhaps later.

The end of this story is that the next day, the jumper was picked up and sent to auction. He had always had a wayward spirit as you can see from the above picture, and now he would be going to a larger farm with more stock where, hopefully, he would settle in. Our remaining 3 steers seem quite relieved to have him gone. And so are we.