Fine Spring Sipping - Elderflower Cordial

                                  Elderflower cordial (and elderflowers)

I saw an elderflower tree in full bloom beside the road in Governors Bay last Wednesday. I screeched to a halt and immediately harvested 40 elderflower heads, in order to make a double batch of elderflower cordial. This is the most delightful non-alcoholic drink of late spring and early summer.
(I will tell you about the most delightful alcoholic one that involves wild herbs next month, when the sweet woodruff is ready to pick.)

Elderflower cordial is very cheap and easy to make, and you will be able to enjoy at least forty or fifty 250ml drinks for the price of one bottle of commercial elderflower drink. The elderflower season starts now and goes to early December. It is possible to keep drinking the cordial into February if you freeze some, as it freezes very well.  If gathering elderflowers from beside the road, be sure to wash the flowers well. Also be sure to identify the tree correctly, as the flowerheads look rather like rowan flowerheads (which smell rather unpleasant, and I am sure would make a nasty cordial).

If you live pretty much anywhere in the South Island you have a good chance of finding wild elderflower trees, as they grow like weeds. If you live in the Waikato (or for all I know other parts of the North Island) you will probably have to buy your own fancy variegated tree from a garden centre, since there seem to be none in the wild. At least, considerable searching in and around Hamilton last November by myself and my friend Shiv (we were trying to impress a friend of his who had recently been to Denmark and come back raving about the elderflower cordial they serve there) turned up only a very few variegated trees which had clearly been planted in hedges and gardens (but were luckily flowering on the street side, from whence they could be harvested).

Elderflowers are also used to make elderflower 'champagne' - a lightly- fermented fizzy drink, which is quite delicious. However it is a one-two week process to make it, so if you want a fizzy elderflower drink fast, dilute the cordial with soda water rather than still water.

ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL
(makes around 350 ml of cordial)

Ingredients

20 elderflower heads, washed in cold running water
1 ½ C cold water (hot water makes the flowers/cordial go brown)
1 ½ C sugar
1 ½ t citric acid


Method

Lay the flower heads on a chopping board and strip the flowers from the heads using the tines of a fork.
Put the flowers in a jug with the cold water, and leave to stand 8-24 hours (covered).
Strain the elderflower-scented water into a clean jug.
Add the sugar and citric acid, and stir well, until dissolved.
Strain the cordial into screw or swing top glass bottles that have been sterilised by filling with boiling water.
Store the cordial in the fridge for 5-6 weeks; in the freezer for 5-6 months.
To serve, dilute to taste with water or soda water. Add ice and/or a slice of lemon or lime.

Native Clematis Encore

                        Clematis foetida, the fragrant native clematis 

I mentioned the fragrant native clematis, Clematis foetida, in my 'Cascade of Clematis' post. Shortly thereafter I took a closer look at the masses of yellow flowers hanging from scrambling vines at two points on the (steep, narrow and winding) Purau to Port Levy road, and found that they were both very healthy and happy specimens of C. foetida.

So here are some photos to help you identify this very garden-worthy plant.

 Clematis foetida growing through a native shrub above the Purau valley

The Orton Bradley Park Rhododendron Collection

                  Rhododendron Mi Amor flowering at Orton Bradley Park

Last Sunday I went to the annual spring fair at Orton Bradley Park in Charteris Bay, which is on the north side of Lyttelton Harbour. It is a beautiful spot with many assets, including historic buildings and machinery collections (the water-powered sawmill is wonderful to see in action), a collection of southern beech trees, idyllic picnic and camping sites beside the Te Wharau Stream, and walking tracks across open farm land and into forested gullies.

It also has an increasingly valuable and beautiful collection of national significance of species and hybridised rhododendrons, including most of the rhododendrons that have been hybridised in Canterbury. They are planted under tall evergreen trees and under-planted with sympathetic perennials. Or in some places  'over-planted' by the wonderful Himalayan lily (Cardiocrinum spp) which has dramatic flower spikes of scented white trumpet flowers up to three metres tall.

I took a guided tour of the rhododendron grove with its honorary curator,
Kathryn Millar, who showed us how even the same species of rhododendron can have significant variations, and also talked about the breeding of NZ raised hybrids in the grove. She encouraged us to rub the branches of  the taller rhododendrons which have peeling bark, to further expose and polish their gorgeous shades of nutmeg and cinnamon. She also pointed out the seven year progression of the Himalayan lilies from a grass-like seed leaf (first year) to a one tiny heart-shaped true leaf (second year) to more and bigger leaves (years three to six) until finally the plant (which has been forming a bulb as big as a hockey ball underground) is ready to flower.

Orton Bradley Park is open every day during daylight hours. It has a small
entry fee to help cover the costs of providing its many amenities. The
rhododendrons start flowering in October, and go through to December.
The Himalayan lilies are at their peak in late November/early December.
There are seats throughout the grove, and it is a lovely place to stay awhile.

 

Kathryn Millar points out Himalayan lily seedlings.

Note the huge seed stalk from last year's lily behind her.

All the lilies in the grove are descended from six seedlings 

which Kathryn acquired over forty years ago.

The King of Carrot Cakes

                    The Master of Good Hope cuts the first slice of Wilby's 
'                                    'Welcome Home' carrot cake

There are the ordinary loaf-shaped carrot cakes that you get in cafes, which tend to be a bit dry, contain an unsubtle amount of ground cloves, have no walnuts, and are topped with thin, flaky white water icing. Then there is Digby Law's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, which is an entirely superior carrot cake - moist with three cups of carrot and two cups of oil, gently spiced with cinnamon and vanilla, generously stuffed with walnuts, and covered in a thick cholesterol catastrophe and flavour triumph of creamy cheesey icing.

I have been baking this carrot cake and no other ever since I found the recipe in Digby Law's seminal A New Zealand Vegetable Cookbook. First published in 1978, reprinted every year for a decade, and still being printed in the twenty-first century, Law's book - the first substantial book-length treatment of vegetable cookery in New Zealand history - filled a huge gap in NZ cookery resources. It is still making a big contribution to better vegetable cooking, both here and overseas, as it contains so many excellent recipes. They are conveniently arranged alphabetically by vegetable, from Asparagus to Watercress, with nine or ten recipes per vegetable.

It is a wonderful book for ringing the changes on garden surpluses (even silverbeet) and also useful for finding ways of making the least popular vegetables palatable. (I could almost like broad beans served in Avgolemono Sauce, or Braised Brussels Sprouts.)

But enough on cookbooks - let's cut to the cake.


      DIGBY LAW'S CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 C peanut oil
[or other light-flavoured oil - I use Lupi extra light olive oil]
2 C raw sugar
4 eggs
1 t vanilla essence
2 C wholemeal flour
1 and 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 scant t salt
3 C grated carrot
1 C chopped walnuts
2 t baking soda

Method

Grease and flour a cake tin (22 cm diameter or more).
Heat the oven to 160 degrees C.
Whisk together the oil and sugar.
Beat the eggs lightly, and beat in the vanilla essence.
Add the eggs and vanilla to the oil and sugar and whisk together.
Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt together into a large bowl.
Add the grated carrot and walnuts.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together.
At the last minute mix in the baking soda.
Pour the mixture into the tin, and bake at 55 minutes or until cooked.
(It is a very moist cake, so it will be soft, but a skewer should come out clean.)
When the cake is cool ice it with Cream Cheese Icing.

Cream Cheese Icing

Beat together
1 large (250g) container of regular cream cheese,
3/4 C sifted icing sugar,
1 t vanilla essence,
and
1/4 C melted butter
until smooth.

                                 Wilby tucks into his slice of carrot cake

Adventures of Wilby, Part the Fifteenth

                                         Wilby! Oh! Wilby!


In Which Wilby's Exile Comes To An End,
And He Is Returned To The Bosom Of His Joyful Family

My exile has ended! It concluded as it began, with no warning that my circumstances were about to change. My first inkling that something was afoot was when my bedding and food bowl disappeared from their usual place. Shortly thereafter I was invited to enter the car, and found that my bedding was on the back seat. Furthermore, the Eco-Gardener was clutching a large round basket, covered with a cloth, from which a delicious smell was emanating. She put it well out of my reach.

The E-G then took me on such a long car ride that I fell asleep on the back seat. When we stopped she ushered me up some rather shattered-looking steps to a front door which looked vaguely familiar. She knocked, and we both waited expectantly. The door was opened by the Master of Good Hope!

I gave him a quick few wags of the tail by way of greeting and then rushed down the hallway to check whether the house was in order. Actually, it looked like it had been struck by an earthquake, with things higgledy-piggledy all over the floor. The M of GH told the E-G apologetically that they hadn't finished unpacking properly yet. They certainly had not started putting anything away, that was certain. It was then I remembered that the Master's children are not renowned for their tidiness, but rather their creativity and affection. (I have tried modelling to them that all three are possible together, but so far without noticeable effect.)

While I went outside to check the grounds the E-G and the M of GH went off somewhere, returning an hour or so later with the Eco-Forester. At this point the contents of the interesting-smelling basket were unpacked and placed on the coffee table. They proved to be a very fine carrot cake, decorated with my initial. A 'Welcome Home Wilby!' cake. How thoughtful of the E-G. (Although the M of GH was under the impression that it was his initial – M for Michael – and that this was a belated birthday cake for him. Well, let him think that. I don't mind sharing the joy.)

The M of GH cut several far too big pieces for the humans, and one far too small piece for me. My smidgeon was long gone when the girl children began arriving home from school, and started feasting on the cake. But I was so pleased to see them again, I didn't mind at all.

So now my exile is at an end, and my country adventures are over. Will I see the Eco-Gardener and the Eco-Forester again? Will I visit my favourite haunts in Port Levy again? Will there be any more adventures like the ones I have had in the past two months??? If there are, you may be sure I will relate them to you as faithfully as I have always done. Watch this space...

                             I rest contentedly with my family again, 
          and admire the chameleon gifts they brought back from South Africa.
                                           (Also the carrot cake.)

The Most Beautiful Hebe in the World

                    Hebe hulkeana in full bloom, Diamond Harbour garden

Aotearoa New Zealand is the world capital of the Hebe genus, with over 95% of all Hebe species being endemic to NZ. Further, as it contains some 80 endemic species, the Hebe genus is NZ's largest genus of vascular plants. Therefore it stands to reason that the most beautiful Hebe in the world is a New Zealand species - but which one is it?

While I am very partial to the koromiko, H.salicifolia, (especially when it is covered with its long, lightly-scented flowerheads, which are conveniently placed at nose-level on this very tall shrub), the most beautiful hebe for me has to be the one from Marlborough, H.hulkeana. This is sometimes called the NZ lilac, because it has lilac-coloured flowers which come out at the same time as the regular lilac.

There the resemblance ends, because H.hulkeana is just a small shrub, which smothers itself with long stalks of flowers, so that the leaves can hardly be seen. It is also very tolerant of dry, sunny and stony places, and for this reason is one of the best shrubs I know for planting in a bed sited under north-facing eaves. When it is not flowering it is a neat shrub with shiny dark green leaves (or will be if you trim off the dead flower stalks and cut back the shrub just a little after flowering).

In the flower garden H.hulkeana (before it flowers) makes a good backdrop for spring-flowering bulbs. After flowering short perennials or annuals are good companions. It does not like being crowded or shaded by other shrubs, or even its own kind, and will grow leggy and misshapen if this happens. So give it lots of space to spread, and it will reward you with displays like the ones in the photos, which are growing in a seaside garden beside Lyttelton harbour.

A Dilly of a Mayonnaise

                                   Dill mayonnaise made this morning

The dill plants I let go to seed in the garden last year are now rewarding me with dozens of dill plants which are ready to snip and put into my favourite mayonnaise for mixing into coleslaw or potato salad.

This mayonnaise uses a whole egg and is made in a food processor, so it is easy to make and hard to get wrong. You can use other herbs (parsley, chives and coriander are all good) if you don't care for dill, and for a real blast you can also use half a bulb (yes, half a bulb) of garlic cloves along with the herb of your choice. (Warning - the garlic version can lower blood pressure, which is not good if it is already low. Otherwise it is fantastic.)

DILL MAYONNAISE
(enough for two or three big salads)

Ingredients

1 C of fresh dill, chopped
1 egg
1/2 t salt
1/2 t Dijon mustard
2 T cider vinegar OR lemon juice
c. 1 C light oil

Method

Put the chopped dill, egg, salt, mustard and vinegar in a food processor and whizz to combine. With the motor running, drip and then drizzle in the oil until the mayonnaise is thick and creamy. (If it gets too thick for dressing a cabbage sald, it can be thinned with a little water just before use.)

Adventures of Wilby, Part the Fourteenth

In Which Wilby Considers Taking Up A Security Position,
And Demonstrates A 'Dyoga For Boys' Pose

The other day, for the first time ever, I managed to get the Eco-Gardener and the Eco-Forester to take their exercise together. Such was the novelty of this, that I did not (initially) mind letting them choose the route, which was the same old boring road up the hill. I have now done this so many times during my exile that it is starting to feel like my penance. After about ten minutes the tedium of it all really got to me, and I began losing the will to go on. Then it occurred to me that I could capitalise on the situation by getting the Eco-Forester to carry me. Extra exercise for him, and a change of view for me. A perfect win-win.

                                   I give the Eco-Forester double exercise

Luckily for him we were not going all the way up the hill, but only to the garden of the Actress and the Whale Man. While the E-G and the E-F busied themselves with weeding the vegetable beds, I quartered the property to see if anything had changed since my last visit - an inspection service which you may recall I have already provided for the owners, immediately after the Big Shaking.

I found that there had been a death, but the E-G would not let me investigate it further, due to some ridiculous notion she seems to have about there being something to be feared from half-decayed possums. Where does she get such ideas?!  However, I had to humour her - especially as the death was clearly accidental, given the position of the corpse.

I was nonetheless a little annoyed that I was denied this opportunity to demonstrate my prowess at property protection, particularly as the Actress and the Whale Man seem to be in need of such. They have a magnificent sign which says Beware of the Dog, yet this security position is currently vacant.
I believe I would do it very well, if given half a chance.

                  I may look mild-mannered - but when I get off the leash...

Although I am still undecided about whether I would want to live in such an isolated spot permanently. Before I was sent into exile I had been planning to set up a Dyoga school in Lyttelton, which has plenty of potential students. Whereas the dogs around here are a muscle-bound, macho lot (even the girls) who would not be interested. I must consult with the Master of Good Hope on this, should he ever return.

Here I demonstrate the quintessential
masculine dyoga pose - 'Stand on Three Legs' -  from two different angles.  A difficult pose, which dogs must practice constantly.

Vegetable Seed Sources

                      My seed storage box and some of its contents

Among the many, many things about growing your own food that is better than buying it is that you get to choose your own personal favourite varieties of vegetable. When the supermarket has nothing but soccerball-sized iceberg
lettuces, tough on the outside and pale and watery in the centre, you can
have a choice of the unctuous yellow-green leaves and hearts of buttercrunch, the super-crisp green leaves of cos, and the tasty frills of Red Oakleaf and all the other looseleaf lettuces that don't suit the supermarket philosophy of 'buy 'em cheap and pile 'em high'.

To add to your salad, instead of nameless tomatoes, uniformly round, red and
tasteless, you can sample the delights of Yellow Pear, Black Krim, Tigerella,
Brandywine Pink and dozens and dozens of other more interesting and tasty
varieties. Then there are herbs that are seldom, if ever, available -
chervil, Greek oregano, and pizza thyme are three I like to use a lot, but
have never seen for sale.

It may or may not help to go to your local garden centre seeking interesting
herb and vegetable plants. In my experience, if they are there at all, they
sell out pretty fast. Curiously, the garden centre owners never take this as
a message to grow or order in more. After years of being able to
buy buttercrunch lettuce plants in spring, but being offered only iceberg
plants thereafter, I have concluded that the only way to get delicious
diversity into one's diet is to grow what one likes for oneself.

This means knowing where to source the seeds. If you want to buy them over the counter, the best place to go is usually an organic food shop, rather than a regular garden centre. Organic food shops often stock organically-grown seeds as well, and these seeds tend to be varieties selected for good home garden results rather than chemically-assisted commercial production. Organically-grown seeds can also be obtained from specialist retailers such as Kaiwaka Organics Heritage Garden Centre (which has an on-line seed catalogue) and Eco-Seeds, which also sells on-line.

So does New Zealand's biggest specialist seed retailer, Kings Seeds. The selection from Kings gets bigger and better every year, and now
includes organic seeds, and seeds for sprouting,  microgreens, medicinal
and culinary herbs, and gourmet and ornamental vegetables.

You will find Kings Seeds at good garden centres, and you may also find the
Niche range of seeds, which are imported from the USA. This is a great range
of seeds, with very tempting packaging - but be aware that even the cheaper
packets cost almost twice as much as a standard NZ seed packet, and may not contain as much seed.

Foreign seed firms, such as Chiltern Seeds in the UK (which is having an autumn sale right now, most conveniently for southern hemisphere growers), are also a great source of interesting seeds. However, before you cheerily type in your credit card number and confirm your order, it is a really good idea to check with the nearest Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry office to see if any of your choices are banned imports. This will either be because they have been declared noxious weeds in New Zealand, or because there is a danger that they could carry a disease which would harm New Zealand crops. If you order a packet of no-no seeds it will be confiscated on arrival, and you will lose your money and your seed, so it is worth calling the MAF office first.

I haven't bought foreign seed directly for over ten years now, but when I did it was quite fun running my choices past bemused MAF officials. Especially Dolichos lablab (the beautiful hyacinth bean) and Dracocephalum moldavicum (the Moldavian dragon's head - a pretty little blue annual).

Buying seed from overseas is the expensive way to get unusual vegetable seeds; the cheap way is to join a Seed Savers group and swap seeds with other keen growers. As well as being cheaper this method has the advantage of ensuring that you will get seed from plants that are well-adapted to local conditions. As we learn more about epigenetic influences on plants (i.e. the manner in which the environment 'writes back' to the organism by altering the ways in which genes express themselves), so the value of such landrace breeding as a scientific as well as a vernacular endeavour becomes more and more apparent.

This is well understood by Stella Christofferson, proprietor of Running Brook Seeds, a small (but perfectly formed) seed business run from Stella's farm on the Awhitu Peninsula just south of Auckland. Stella sells her seeds at the Clevedon market every week, and by catalogue - send $5 for the catalogue to 34 Cooper Rd, R.D. 4, Waiuku 2684.  Stella is a very wise woman when it comes to how seeds change as they adapt to their local environment, and the seeds she sells are guaranteed to please.

Have lettuce, lemons, garlic? Make Caesar Salad!

               Caesar Salad ingredients assembled on our table tonight

Caesar Salad is a favourite salad at our place. We have our own lettuce, lemons and garlic most of the year, and our own olive oil is just a matter of waiting for the trees to get bigger and give more fruit. (Oh - and building an olive press.)

I could make bread for the croutons as well, but for tonight's salad I used three day old organic ciabatta bread from Vic's Bakehouse, which makes excellent croutons. The recipe I use for Caesar Salad is the one given by Anna Thomas in The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two (Alfred A Knopf, 1979) which she says is, ''according to reliable sources'', very close to the original recipe invented by the eponymous Caesar Cardini.

Julia Child must be the reliable source she is referring to, since she actually ate Caesar Salad prepared by Caesar Cardini in the 1920s, and her recipe is much the same as the one Anna Thomas gives. Her description of eating Caesar Salad as tossed by Caesar is also worth reading.

The original Caesar Salad has no anchovies, and certainly no bacon, chicken, salmon, olives, herbs or other 'pollutants'. Nor does it have a pre-prepared dressing, but rather it is dressed at the table from the basic ingredients.
Since this means that it gets quite a tossing, it is important that the lettuce used is robust. The best kind to use is what is known as cos lettuce in NZ (Americans call it romaine). Here is how we made it tonight.

                                  CAESAR SALAD
                                               (for two)

Ingredients

croutons (made from half a loaf of ciabatta bread, or half a baguette)
2-3 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 free-range egg
juice of 1 large lemon
1/4 - 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil
1/3 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 heads of cos lettuce (or equivalent)
dash of Worcestershire sauce
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Cut the bread into bite-sized croutons, place them on an oven tray and dry them in a medium heat oven for about 20 minutes.
Heat the tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, add the crushed garlic, and toss the croutons in the garlic oil over a low heat for about 5 minutes. (Until they are nice and garlicky.) Put the croutons in a bowl.
Bring a small pot of water to the boil, add the egg and boil it for exactly 1 minute. Drain the pot, run cold water over the egg briefly, then set it aside in a small bowl.
Squeeze the lemon, and put the juice in a small jug.
Measure the extra virgin olive oil into another small jug.
Wash and dry the lettuce leaves thoroughly, tear them into bite-sized pieces, and put them in the salad bowl.
Grate the Parmesan cheese and put it in a bowl.
Mix the salad in the following order:
1. Pour half the oil over the lettuce leaves, and toss gently.
2. Break the egg over the lettuce and toss again.
3. Add more oil, and toss.
4. Add the lemon juice and toss.
5. Add a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce, and toss.
6. Add salt and pepper, to taste. (To my taste, neither are necessary.)
7. Add the Parmesan cheese, and toss.
8. Add the croutons, toss, taste, and add more oil and seasonings if desired.

Serve at once, or, if you would like to provide guests with a safer at-table entertainment than flambeeing pancakes, put all the ingredients in attractive bowls and jugs, and make the salad at the table before their astonished eyes.

A Cascade of Clematis

New Zealand has some eight or ten native clematis species, almost all of which deserve to be better known and grown in home gardens.

        Puawhananga or Clematis paniculata - stars fallen into the treetops

The most spectacular and best known species is Clematis paniculata or puawhananga. It cloaks the tops of trees in October. One Maori legend identifies the 'stars' of this clematis with the constellation the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades, fallen from heaven into the treetops. C. paniculata has a smaller white-flowered cousin, C. forsteri, which creates the same effect of stars fallen into a tree.

Clematis afoliata, the leafless clematis, is not so starry, and most of the year it resembles a wiry tangle. It is a much less fussy grower than C. paniculata (which must have its roots in moist soil in the shade to thrive) and will live in tough conditions, such as the seaside cliff top shown in the photograph below. Its flowers are smaller and creamier than C. paniculata, and cup-shaped. They have a delicate sweet scent.

          Clematis afoliatia flowering on Stoddart's Point, Lyttelton Harbour

Even more scented is C. foetida, which has small yellow-green flowers with a strong sweet fragrance. Climbing through a tree, it makes a wonderful source of 'secret scent' in the garden. New Zealand clematis are subtle rather than showy, which makes their return into flower every spring like finding hidden treasure.

Adventures of Wilby, Part the Thirteenth

In Which Wilby Considers Launching a Wilby Brand Product Range,
And Relays A Warning Tale About A Carrot-Addicted Yorkie

I take a close look at the Wilby brand biscuits and soap jelly,
and discuss demand and supply with the Eco-Gardener.


As readers of this journal will by now be aware, the Eco-Gardener is doing
such a good job of looking after my every need that I am not missing any of
the amenities of my port-side home at all. What she has not been able to buy
for me, she has made herself - incredible!

Furthermore, the quality of what she has made is exceptional. I got her to
package up samples of the Peanut Butter and Vanilla Dog Treat biscuits, and
the Eco Soap Jelly (for clean and fragrant dogs) to show the Master of Good
Hope. When he returns we will all have a high level conference about
whether to go into production. Although I suppose that will depend on who will do the work. Me - I'm just the ideas man. Or possibly the Muse.
[He certainly is very amusing. The E-G]

Since the Eco-Gardener is not afraid of hard work, perhaps it will happen.
Indeed, she spent three hours yesterday digging over the small patch you see
behind me in the photo below, and extracting all those buckets of rocks.
Surely making biscuits is easier work than this? I was exhausted after a mere
ten minutes of watching her at it, and had to take about 40,000 winks on the
nice warm pile of twitch roots which the Eco-Forester had already grubbed off  the new garden bed.

 I am not sure that hard work improves her temper, though. I got growled at again for taking the easy route across the garden (this time along the smooth, soft row of just-appearing carrots). But at least I would not dream of eating the things, or anything like them. I have it on good authority that there is at least one Yorkshire terrier in Christchurch with a penchant for digging up and eating carrots. The silly silky little nitwit! But it gets worse... as if this were not enough trouble for this terrible terrier's pet human, one day it mistook the head of a Barbie doll which a child had left lying around for a carrot top (an understandable mistake, you must allow, since the whole doll is shaped and coloured more like a carrot than a human female) - and swallowed it! The husband of the Yorkie's pet human was of the view that the dog's time to go to the great dog park in the sky had arrived, but the pet human prevailed upon him to contribute to the enormous veterinarian's bill involved for the operation to remove Barbie.

A happy ending to a sad tale. But seriously, what can you expect from dogs bred for their looks, rather than for their brains, like those of us from the Borders? I am not making this up - according to the World Wide Woof wiki, Border terriers have won more Earthdog titles in the USA than any other type of terrier - AND you should see the list of famous Border terrier film actors. Seventeen! We have many, many virtues, including modesty, so I will say no more on this subject.

A Grove of Essential Native Plant Books (and where they grow)

                      Flowering now - and a must for every New Zealand garden - 
                                                the gorgeous kaka beak

All Eco-Gardeners, wherever they may be, need a good set of reference books to help them identify and grow the indigenous flora of their land. Ecosystem gardening obviously starts with the respecting and maintaining the original ecosystem where the garden is located, if it is still in existence, or restoring as much as possible if it is not.

In New Zealand we are fortunate in having a great diversity of evergreen broadleaf trees and  shrubs in our indigenous flora, many of them with attractive flowers as well, so it is easy to design a beautiful and easy-care garden which is green all year, and floriferous most of the year, using only native plants. Native trees and shrubs also make great hedges, or more informal protective boundaries to a property, which can double as wildlife refuges. Or native plants can mix and mingle very well with exotic plants in a pleasure garden, attracting more birds and butterflies than exotics alone, and anchoring the garden securely and confidently in its native land.

The only thing that holds the gardener back from making such gardens is a good knowledge of the native plants and how to grow them, and this is where the need for reference books comes in. In New Zealand there are some classics which no home should be without. Some of them are no longer in print, so you will need to look for them second-hand. If I didn't already own the books I am about to mention, I would be giving the hunt-and-peck method that is Trade Me a miss and going straight to the on-line catalogue of an excellent second-hand book shop, such as Jason Books.

Jason Books' stock currently includes the two essential books for those who want to know how to grow native plants, L.J. Metcalf's The Cultivation of New Zealand Trees and Shrubs and The Propagation of New Zealand Trees and Shrubs. A former curator of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, and before that of the Invercargill Botanic Gardens, Lawrie Metcalf is a great native plantsman who has written the definitive books on how to grow the full range of garden-worthy trees and shrubs successfully. For beginners these books get one off to a good start; more advanced gardeners who want to increase their native plants inexpensively will make good use of the propagation book.

For those who are looking for garden design ideas as well as cultivation information the must-have classic is Gardening with New Zealand Plants, Shrubs and Trees by Muriel Fisher, E. Satchell and Janet Watkins. This book has gone through several editions since it was first published in 1970, each one expanding slightly on the first one, and all of them illustrated with photographs taken in Fernglen, Muriel Fisher's extensive all-native garden on Auckland's North Shore. If Metcalf is New Zealand's pre-eminent public gardener with native plants, Fisher is the private native gardener par excellence. Her book shows what is possible when native plants are treated as gardenworthy subjects  in their own right, suitable for creating every desirable garden feature, from shady groves through flowering borders to rock or water gardens.

New Zealand's native plants have a 'deep history' which they share with the other flora of the ancient super-continent Gondwana, which began to break up some 167 million years ago. New Zealand broke off from what is now Antarctica thirty to fifty million years after that, and Australia some few million years after New Zealand. At a rock fall in central Otago I have seen fossils of leaves which look like casuarinas, which are common in Australia today but are no longer growing in New Zealand. In the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, running along the native garden side of the avenue of lime (linden) trees is a collection of well-grown Nothofagus trees from Australia, Chile and New Caledonia. The Nothofagus is our native 'beech' tree, species of which are also native to other former Gondwana countries. All this plant history and more can be found in the The Looking Glass Garden Plants and Gardens of the Southern Hemisphere by Peter Thompson, along with excellent illustrative photographs taken in public and private gardens and the wild in New Zealand, Australia, and southern Africa. There are also photographs of 'Gondwana' plants growing well in gardens in the UK and USA, for as the title of the book suggests, Thompson is not native to anywhere in the southern hemisphere. He has had to learn how to grow southern plants in the more challenging conditions of Britain. Sometimes it takes a foreigner to point out what treasures we have on our doorstep, often neglected or taken for granted. Thompson has done gardeners and plant lovers in both hemispheres a great service by writing this book, which is equal parts information and inspiration.

                                  My cottage garden of native plants

The space between our Diamond Harbour cottage and the ugly side of the neighbour's house is only 5 metres. We have beautified it with a range of native plants, seen here through my study window on a rainy December day. The plants include rengarenga lilies, red-flowering manuka, white-flowering putaputaweta/marbleleaf, cabage trees, makomako/wineberry, mahoe, purple-flowered hebes, and titoki.

A Foraged Dinner - Green Rice Cake

       
                         Free food! Wild silverbeet growing on Purau beach.


While one would not want to forage for dinner every night of the week, it is always good to get some really fresh food for free when it presents itself in the course of doing something else healthy - like taking a beach walk.

Silverbeet grows wild on quite a few of the beaches around Banks Peninsula, producing big healthy leaves from seemingly pure sand. It tastes as good, if not better, than the garden kind, although the leaves tend to be a bit tougher.

Rather than eat them whole and plain, it is good to incorporate them in a recipe with other ingredients, like the one for Green Rice Cake, below. I got this recipe from one of Lois Daish's food columns in the NZ Listener some years ago, and have made it regularly ever since.


                                  GREEN RICE CAKE
                                            (serves 2-3)


Ingredients

3/4 C arborio rice
200g spinach or silverbeet
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 T olive oil
50g butter
1 egg
1/2 C grated cheese (Parmesan OR vintage cheddar)
1/3 C creamy milk
salt, black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
a handful of torn basil leaves (optional but desirable)


Method

Preheat the over to 180 degrees C.
Lightly oil a medium-sized glass or china baking dish.
Bring a pot of water to the boil, salt it well, add the rice and boil it for 8-minutes.
Drain the rice in a sieve.
Blanch the silverbeet or spinach leaves in a pot of boiling water, drain them well and let them cool.
When cool, squeeze them dry, and chop them roughly.
Fry the onion gently in the oil for a few minutes.
Add the butter and melt it.
Toss the green leaves in the melted butter and oil.
Break an egg into a large bowl and whisk it lightly.
Add the milk, cheese, rice and green leaves.
Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and mix in the torn basil leaves.
Pout the mixture into a baking dish, and bake for around 20 minutes - until it is firm in the middle.

The endemic and pongy saltmarsh ribbonwood

I took Wilby for a wander around the head of the harbour this afternoon, and spent some time puzzling over where the rather unpleasant floral scent that pervaded the air was coming from. On our way back I tracked it down to the saltmarsh ribbonwood bushes (Plagianthus divaricatus, maakaka) which were in full flower at the water's edge.

I think I prefer these plants in winter, when their purply-reddish twiggy forms
cheer up the edges of salt flats. Their flowers smell rather stale and 'off', to my nose. I looked them up and found that although they are common in NZ, being found throughout the country, there are only two Plagianthus species in the whole world, and both are endemic to NZ. P. divaricatus was named such as long ago as the 1770s, by Johann and Georg Forster. They were the father and son naturalist team who sailed with Captain Cook on his second exploration of the southern ocean and its islands.

Some reference sources think that the maakaka smells sweet. I think they are mistaken. Possibly as mistaken as Te Ara The Encyclopaedia of NZ on line is about the correct Maori name for the plant.  It gives makamaka, whereas more reliable botanical sources give maakaka, and so does the Maori Dictionary on line. So now all us train-spotting tree-spotters know...

Even though P. divaricatus is not as strikingly attractive as its big brother ribbonwood, P. regius, (which makes a terrific narrow specimen tree) it is arguably more important ecologically, for the role it plays in providing much-needed shelter, food and shore stabilisation for the creatures who inhabit those exciting edges between land and sea. So it is worth getting to know, and appreciating.

 

A Kiwi Gardens in Yorkshire

                                   Louise is dwarfed by her giant sunflowers

Sometimes towards the end of last century Louise Gibbs and I lived and gardened in Mt Victoria, Wellington. Then Louise went off to the UK to further her singing career (listen while you read) and I took my circuitous route of research, writing and teaching in other places to my current home-of-the-heart on Banks Peninsula.

Thanks to a mutual friend passing on news of my blog to Louise we reconnected recently, and she sent photos of her allotment garden in Leeds.
As she says: ''Just to show you that there is sun in the north of England - even to the extent that sunglasses are necessary''.

There must be enough to grow this great crop of lettuces - and broccoli which has been netted to keep the pigeons off.

  Also to give a wonderful harvest to cover the kitchen table.

 (Although I am sure Louise did a bit of the work involved as well.)

If any other Kiwis reading this have a garden far from home - please send me a photo and tell me about it.

Adventures of Wilby, Part the Twelfth

In Which Wilby Has A Transport Epiphany,
And Encounters The Black Shadow

Life in exile has recently settled into a steady routine of sleeping,
sleeping, begging for biscuits, sleeping, and sleeping. I am now satisfied
that the Eco-Gardener and Eco-Forester can be trusted to get on with their
tasks without minute supervision, and indeed I can do without their
criticisms of my ability at same. The other day, for example, when I was
playing my part in warming the soil on a recently-created garden bed by lying
on it at full length, the Eco-Gardener, instead of appreciating my
contribution, was so rude as to yell at me to get off her just-germinating bean seedlings. As if it were my fault (my fault!), rather than thanks to my
soil-warming and firming efforts, that the beans chose that day to emerge
from the ground.

Be that as it may, there is of course one other part of my routine that is
always adhered to, and that is taking the humans for their daily exercise.
I have not yet been able to get both of them to exercise at the same time, but
I do take one or the other out for a trot every day, for up to an hour. Our regular route is up the hill road. I generally walk the Eco-Gardener up this route, (with frequent stops for horizontal hind leg stretching, of course), as she is not as fit as the Eco-Forester. I can usually get him to keep up a steady jog, even uphill, although he can be difficult about making sufficient leg stretching stops.

I was walking the Eco-Gardener this afternoon when I saw the most amazing
dog-transportation vehicle I have ever seen. I stood in the middle of the road gazing after it long after it disappeared around the corner, and the yapping of its occupant had faded. I longed to be in his place, much as the Honorable Mr Toad of Toad Hall seemingly longed to drive a car when he first encountered one. This fabulous dog-conveyance was a sort of open chariot, which was attached to the side of a motorbike. The chauffeur drives the bike, while the passenger reclines on a well-upholstered seat, enjoying a breezy ride with great views.

Now the Master of Good Hope has a motorbike... He says it is for reasons of economy and ecology, and who am I to doubt him? (Although just between you and me it has crossed my mind that it could also be seen as a vain attempt to prolong his puppyhood.)  Whatever the true reasons, at least he has a bike to which a chariot for me could be attached. Now, how to convince him of the desirability - not to say the necessity - of doing so? 

 I conduct a careful combing of Purau beach.


The E-G tells me I have just ten days to work this one out, for the Master of Good Hope will be returning to what passes for civilisation in these parts on Tuesday next. I have mixed feelings about this. I have started a number of projects in his absence, including beachcombing, and I am doubtful that he will let me continue with this pursuit, despite its obvious interest and utility.

 

                                     Aha! Found something interesting!

Also despite its opportunities for encounters with extraordinary creatures, such as the one pictured below, who was more polished than the shoes of his mistress, and as dark as my shadow. A classy exterior, I will allow - but always look to the tail position for the sign of true inner confidence is the motto I pass on to pups.

                                                                      I prefer the woman to the dog.

Spring Delicacy - Asparagus Risotto

Some very early organic asparagus was for sale at Piko Wholefoods when I was in there stocking up on more prosaic foods like oats and rice the other day. It was a scary price, but the spears were big and fat and I was in the mood for a dinner treat. I bought 8 spears, and made them go a long way by making asparagus risotto.

Here's how I did it.

ASPARAGUS RISOTTO
(for two)

Ingredients

8 fat asparagus spears
250g Italian risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli, or vialone nano)
1 T olive oil
knob of butter
1 wineglass dry white wine
a quick vegetable stock made with asparagus trimmings, 1 onion, celery and/or carrot and/or leek, fresh herbs, garlic
half t salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Trim any woody ends from the asparagus, and put them in a stock pot with 1 litre of water, 1 chopped onion, 2 stalks of sliced celery and/or 1 sliced carrot and/or 1 small sliced leek, a big sprig of fresh parsley and small sprig of fresh thyme, a bay leaf, and one or two cloves of chopped garlic. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, and keep hot.

Wash the trimmed asparagus well, and steam or boil it till just tender. (Add the cooking water to the vege stock.) Cut it into bite-sized pieces.
In a heavy frying pan or casserole dish melt the butter and warm the oil.
Add the rice and fry gently, stirring all the time, for a minute or two.
Add the wine and cook, stirring, until it has almost evaporated. Add some stock (2-3 ladles full), the salt, and cook until the stock has almost evaporated.

Keep adding stock (and stirring) in this way until the rice is cooked to your liking. Grind in some black pepper, to taste, and stir in as much Parmesan cheese as you fancy. Add the sliced asparagus to the pan and toss it through the rice. Cover the pan with a lid and leave it to heat through for 3-5 minutes.

Serve at once, in hot bowls,  OR
take the cooking pan to the table, and serve the risotto garnished with the tips of the asparagus, which have been reserved.
In both cases, serve extra Parmesan cheese on the side

The Lemon(wood) Scent of Spring

                                Tarata/lemonwood (Pittosporum eugenoides)


In late September the tarata (Pittosporum eugenoides) or lemonwood tree
begins to flower. The flowers are not dramatic, but they are very fragrant, and worth picking for the scent they can give to an arrangement of scentless flowers. The shiny green leaves of the tarata also make a great frame for other flowers.

I don't know how to describe the scent - tarata flowers do not resemble any other scented flowers I know. Its leaves are supposed to smell of lemon when crushed, giving it the name lemonwood, but to my nose this is pushing it. The Pittosporum genus, according to J.T. Salmon in The Native Trees of New Zealand (p. 131) has 150 species, 26 of them endemic to New Zealand.  (Other sources say there are around 200 species in the genus.) Salmon and the other sources agree that the genus contains several notably fragrant trees.

These include the kohuhu (P. tenuifolium), which has tiny deep purple flowers which hide among the leaves, and give off a delicious 'dark' scent in late spring, as dusk falls. Kohuhu makes a doubly attractive hedge plant for this reason.  The karo (P. crassifolium) has slightly larger deep red flowers, also fragrant at dusk. However, South Island eco-gardeners will not plant this tree, as it is native to the North Island only, and has become a weed in some parts of the South Island where it is displacing local pittosporum species.

Across the ditch in eastern Australia is the very fragrant P. undulatum. It has much larger flowers than any of the NZ pittosporums, and they are white. It produces large orange fruits which are also attractive. Unfortunately those fruits mean that it spreads easily and has become a weed in parts of Australia, and in other countries. Also with white and very fragrant flowers is P. tobira, from Japan and China. This is the most common and popular garden pittosporum planted in the Northern Hemisphere.

The tarata can grow as tall as 12 metres, but most garden specimens I have seen are more like 7 or 8 metres. If you need a large evergreen tree barrier that grows quickly, with the bonus of spring scent, they are perfect. They also make fine evergreen specimen trees, with their pale bark contrasting beautifully with the shiny green leaves. Every Kiwi garden should have one!