Wild Hope Homestead

Christmas has disappeared in a whirlwind of family time. I awoke early on Christmas morning to discover a beautiful rainbow curving right across the sky over our backyard. I sang to myself, “For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!” It really was something. It was so big and close I couldn’t fit it into one photo. There’s a reason everyone in the household woke up early on Christmas morning, and it might have something to do with an excited Twiglet dragging them out of bed to come and look at the rainbow at 6:30am. They didn’t seem to be quite as excited as I was, as they stood on the deck blinking and wondering what levels of insanity to expect for the day. If that wasn’t enough, another rainbow appeared a little later!

This year we hosted a Christmas brunch at Twiglet Homestead with The Mother and The Father. Christmas dinner (night dinner) was at The Parents-in-law’s and numerous other gatherings followed as other family members appeared. I am officially a fan of Christmas brunch. It is infinitely easier to prepare and more chilled-out than a lunch dinner. And we had a long afternoon to relax.

Christmas brunch was a great idea. I made a heap of our favourite buns and The Husband cooked bacon, eggs and mushrooms. Chocolate tea bread came out of the freezer and strawberries and grapes topped it off.

The knitted stocking family is altogether now.

Strawberries are a usual part of a kiwi Christmas and our staple lemon and ginger kombucha was joined by a strawberry friend.

So warm was December that the Billington plums ripened early, two days before Christmas. This meant that in the days after Christmas I had to make some plum chutney, as ripe plums don’t last for too long. Harvesting over the busy patch has been tricky and many plums have simply been washed and frozen whole. Or given away. My current endeavour is making plum butter, which is done in the slow cooker. We are also harvesting blackcurrants, boysenberries and a few blueberries and various veges are demanding to be harvested all over the place. We have dug up one row of Agria potatoes and need to do more.

It seems like there’s an endless stream of plums.

Making plum chutney.

Blackcurrants are washed and frozen. Most will end up in our morning porridge.

While many celebrated the new year by posting inspirational or cheesy messages on social media, we had a spontaneous screen-free day. New Year’s day was marked by doing outdoor chores, spending time together and butchering a chicken.

I have been thinking about which hens to sell since there are a bunch of youngies coming on and Juliette was at the top of my hit list. She has not been a good layer and there’s no use wasting food on a poor layer when I have much better chickens to choose from. I can only keep a reasonably small flock here, so tough decisions are going to become more frequent as I focus on breeding well and more intently now that I can hatch eggs whenever it suits. When I thought about it, I could not even sell Juliette to someone, knowing that she was such a poor layer. So, I started the year afresh by butchering her. Now there’s a chicken in the freezer that will make some good soup or curry. Goodbye, Juliette. Thanks for giving me Darrington and Pickle.

Pickle, Juliette’s daughter, is actually laying surprisingly well and I just hope her laying ability holds. She’s laid 54 eggs in her first 59 days. I am aiming for hens who are good layers, as they not only need to provide eggs for our family but also for people who we sell chickens to. They’re not just pretty faces.

The happiest New Year probably belongs to Rory, who hatched chicks on Friday. More about that later. But you can’t leave without one photo. I am currently reviewing the homestead goals of last year and setting the new ones for this year, so that’s coming up in the near future too.

Happy New Year!