The Oxford A&P Show

Well, this weekend I got to do the best thing ever. Nope, not bikes, jet boating, baby seals, or saving lives. I got to go to the local A&P show. That stands for Agriculture and Pastoral. Like as in sheep. And goats. And tractors. It was awesoooooome.

When we attended Cup Day last spring, that was the kick off to A&P week here in Christchurch. But that was all fancy and had a feeling of old money and young drunks. The Oxford A&P show is so much more my speed. Farm animals, farm equipment, food, beer, and so much more New Zealand "country" than I knew existed.

Upon driving in, we had to bounce my very yuppy feeling VW Golf through 3 pastures before finding a place to park. This was the place to be this Saturday. Just while parking we passed a sheep herding competition and lots of show ponies. Scott shuddered in fear for his next several hours while I plastered my face to the window like a little kid trapped in line at Disneyland waiting to get on Mr Toads Wild (Country) Ride.

Nearly the first exhibit we stumbled upon were the angora goats. They are, quite possibly, the best thing ever.

We chatted with a very helpful farmer who has 20 angora goats, and just the profit from the wool pays for the expenses of having them. And someone comes to shear them and everything. Hello future farm. (Not even kidding.)

Here's a 4 month old kid who has recently been shorn. She won first in her category (basically for cuteness).

There is no way Im not getting some of these in the future. How can you not love that face???

Or this one:

Don't worry. I got the pamphlet on how to raise angora goats. Im sure everything I need to know is in there.

After Scott tore me away we finished with the goats we watched a few cows and alpacas being judged. From what I can tell, anyone can enter their animal, and it is based purely on looks. A bovine popularity contest, if you will. I didn't snap any photos of the winners, but I did take some time to check out the alpaca competition…

I kind of feel like alpacas might be the nerds of the farm world. Like, they're adolescents now but mom still cuts their hair. They seem pretty curious, but not particularly friendly. Apparently they spit when they get irritated.

Look! Baby alpacas!

Besides farm animals, there were tons of booths with people selling crafts and food. We stopped and did some wine tasting (of course) and contemplated purchasing alpaca sweaters. There was also a tent with demonstrations, so we caught one on cooking meat (lamb, chicken, and steak) and another one on bee keeping.

But wait, there's more! A whole indoor exhibit was dedicated to what seemed to be the judging of everything. There was homemade wine, there was a 112kg pumpkin, there were multiple bread and cake categories, and the best single cut dahlia. Like, who grew the best flower. You can get judged for anything, it seems.

Who grew the best chard? And in the background, lots of dahlias.

Who grew the best potato? And the best black potato?

The best squash, corn, bean, lettuce? The options are endless, people.

There was a whole cookie section, which I may take on as my main goal for the coming year.

Before wandering over to see the sheep (!!!) we stopped and watched some really old guys split logs. In the 5 or so hours we were at the show, there was always a group of really old guys splitting really big logs.

The ambulance never came, so I'd say it was a success.

There was also a "fair" like section for the kids. A few games and circus like rides, and one giant inflatable boat, which appeared to be sinking into the ground and said TITANIC on it. Is it just me, or is having your child slide down the sinking ship that killed all those people just a little bit not PC? (Not that I care in the slightest, but I thought to myself, only in New Zealand.)

We got Scott a coffee so he could regain his will to live, and go look at all the sheep. Man, there are a lot of different kinds of sheep. We meandered over there just in time to catch the end of the sheep shearing competition. These were the best of the best. One guy sheared 6 sheep in just over 10 minutes. It was really quite impressive. Albeit, not the most dignified thing to ever happen to the sheep.

Each new sheep got lifted by the front legs and slid out on her back like an upside-down turtle. The shearer kept her head and a limb or two between his legs at all times to keep her supine and just kind of spun the sheep around (the floor was slick). Like I said, impressive and undignified.

At the end of the day as we wandered through the last of the sheep exhibition, we came across pet sheep.

Like, the other best thing ever. Of course I pet every single one, and found my favorite. A young, mangy little girl with part of her ear missing and lots of dirt in her wool. I don't think she won any awards.

Things I didn't manage to take pictures of include: dirt bike jumping, horse racing (because, who cares?), the chicken and rooster judging- also 2 ducks!, sheep herding, greyhound racing, and the bagpipers - random, I know. I was in hog heaven- no puns there because there were no pigs. Where were the pigs???

Anyways, I pretty much can't wait to drag Scott to this next year. Here he is, resigned to his fate with a beautiful old tractor:

Bike Rides and Baaaaa!

I'm a lucky lady. Last week, Scott came home with a new bike... and it wasn't for him. After a few months of (not so) subtle hinting on my part, he sussed out a great bike for me. See, I've always thought road riding was a) dangerous, b) boring, and thus c) pointless. After moving to New Zealand though, I admit I may have been mistaken. Or rather, all those points are absolutely true in the States and therefore I was not wrong. But here in New Zealand, the roads go such beautiful places! And outside of a few lot of earthquake damaged roads in Christchurch, they are amazingly well maintained. Which I've heard has something to do with our astronomical petrol prices. Anyways...

Here's the new steed:

I took her for the inaugural spin last weekend in Akaroa. It was a great time, with rolling hills and beautiful views.

So yesterday I decided to venture out on my own. Unfortunately for me, however, a neighborhood ride either means going straight down my mega steep hill, or going up my mega steep hill. I opted for up. The mountain we live on is called Mount Pleasant, which is amusing considering how pleasant it is(nt) to ride up!

One of my favorite things about riding in NZ (on road or on dirt) is coming across my neighbors. They're usually quiet, although sometimes I think they're mocking me as I chug up the hill. And it seems like they are always eating. But they're friendly. And I love seeing them.

Please excuse the quality... it's what a $150 phone will get you in New Zealand....

I would love to plop a house right in the middle of the picture above. That would be perfect.

So I don't know if I'll be racing my road bike anytime soon... but I think I will really enjoy riding it around the hills. Maybe bringing a picnic or riding out to a vineyard for some wine tasting with Scott. (Hint, hint husband.)

Future Occupation: Beekeeper

Let me let you in on a little secret...

Some part of me (obviously the irrational and delusional part) wants a farm. Like pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, the whole thing. Clearly delusional, I know. But that part of me lives on, regardless of the fact that I have absolutely zero farming knowledge or skills. So anyways, this last weekend we got to partake in something that I feel I could actually put to use on my hypothetical farm. We made honey.

Our friends are beekeepers and have often mentioned to me that I can don the bee-suit if I like and check out the bees hard at work. Unfortunately this always seems to come up after dusk, so I still haven't gotten to do it. In the meantime though, we got the invite to the annual honey work party.

So here's honey-making, as I understand it:

Once a year beekeepers extract honey. Honey is produced by the bees within honeycomb. (Side note: each bee has it's own job, usually related to the age/gender of the bee. Young bees make wax to create the honeycomb. Female worker bees make honey. Some attend to or guard the Queen, male "drones" mate with the Queen, and on and on...) The honey-comb is made on "frames", and there are about 10 frames in a box. If you've ever seen bee-boxes on the side of the road, you'll recall theres usually 5 or so boxes in a stack. So 50 frames. Get it?

Busy Bees

There is only one Queen Bee per hive (and one hive per stack of bee boxes). The hive is usually in the bottom box, and this box is for reproduction purposes. Bow chicka wow-wow. Actually the Queen Bee is such a reproductive machine, that she pumps out about 1 egg every 30 seconds, and is so busy that her attendants (Queen's Court?) do her grooming, feed her, and clean her excrement. Not that sexy.

Moving on.

Fast forward to getting all the honey filled boxes (except the Queen's Castle Hive in the bottom box) into your friend's garage. Your friend has all the necessary honey making equipment. And you have been invited to help slave away make some honey!

Frames covered in honeycomb

First step is to remove an individual frame from the bee box. You will see the honey-comb on the frame, but it is "capped", meaning the bees sealed the honeycomb shut. A hot-iron wand is used to "slice" the caps off of the comb. This makes the honey visible, but it is still well within the maze of the honeycomb.

The next step is to set two frames into the honey extractor. This is a barrel-shaped container with a spout at the bottom. Two honeycomb frames are placed on a rack inside the barrel, and spun. The centrifugal force (it doesn't have to be much) spins the honey out of the comb and into the barrel- and then it will pour out the spout! It's that easy.

Honey Extractor

As honey pours out the spout, it is strained clean of rogue honeycomb and wings and stingers. After this, bottling! The "empty" frames are replaced in the bee boxes. There's still plenty of honey remains within the honeycomb, and the bees will use this for energy. And don't worry, we didn't steal all of their food. Bees actually produce 2-3 times more honey than they'll ever use.

Empty Honeycomb

Lastly, the cuttings from the honeycomb caps (way back at step #1) can be collected and pressed. Our friends hung them up in cheesecloth, which allowed the honey within to drip out and be preserved. Pretty sweet.

Getting every last delicious drop

In the end we bottled over 300 jars of honey. (This was my job, incidentally.) We had 2 stacks of bee boxes to begin with. I never realized that just one of those stacks on the side of the road would produce somewhere around 150 jars of honey! Mind blown.

Our share of the rewards

Garage honey-making seems so New Zealand to me. It's the type of experience I am hoping to have many times while we're here. Of course I realize that people make their own honey all over the world- but did I know anyone back in California who did it? Nope. We were lucky enough to be able to get it at the local farmer's market, and it was made by the same bees stinging us on our bike rides... but this was just so much cooler.

So needless to say, I need to save up for a beehive ($300NZ) and a bee suit, and obviously the honey making equipment so that my farm can produce it's own honey. Anyone want to invest?