A legend of a man turned 80 this past weekend and celebrated with a restaurant filled with friends and family. My dad, Bruce, is a sheep and beef farmer who has collected an amazing group of people around him over the years. To see them all in a room with him as he turned 80 was something incredibly special. To hear their stories was both heartening and heart-warming.
I already knew that my dad was a bit of a legend. He's one of those people that sees the good in everyone and brings the best out of most. He is a solid character – a hard act to follow for the rest of us. He lives, mostly alone, on the farm these days, but grew 840kg of potatoes last year and gave most of them away to his neighbours and family.
He grows tamarillos, too, and sends us a box down each winter. Broccoli, he grows in waves, lemons, tangelos, peas, leeks, tomatoes, pumpkins ... you name it, he grows it.
My sisters and my brother were charged with MC duties for his party. That meant we had to filter a bunch of funny stories from his life. Many of them couldn't be repeated, but in finding the party-friendly ones we had a bit of a bonding moment that we hadn't all had since dad took us skiing in a snowstorm, climbing Mt Ruapehu, shooting rabbits and possums around the farm, crashing the ute in the back paddock, lighting bonfires, docking lambs, putting the hay away ... all the usual farm kid stuff.
When I asked dad if he enjoyed his weekend and party, he said one of the highlights was listening to us all laughing our heads off while we tried to come up with the stories for the evening. That's the character of the man – focused on those around him, fueled by the energy of his children and grand children. I love that man.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS Last week our latest book, New Zealand's Best Gourmet Pies, arrived in our little studio in the centre of Dunedin. We are literally in a sea of coffee-table books right now. You can help us clear these out by ordering one right here. These are the perfect gift for any pie lover in your world ...
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