April 5th 2008

We’ve had our first rain in months really, but for all that we were supposed to be getting a dumping here in the eastern bay we have only had enough to moisten the surface, perhaps more is to come!

I was supposed to be in the office all day today but any rain is a reason to celebrate here, and I just had to get out and transplant some seedlings, the last ones for the Permaculture Design Course we’re holding at the marae here this July.

I have once again been extolling the virtues of the wheel hoes; they are the most amazing tool if you are on sandy or light soils. I can prepare 100’s of metres of beds for planting in a very short space of time and have it look beautiful. The U bar is of course a tool that I use every spring and autumn and would never be without, and I also look forward to the double digging each spring and autumn as well. We’ve just finished planting all our green manure and compost crops and all our winter vege and doing it with tools that are lovely to work with and suit my strength and body makes it a real pleasure.

 I spent years trying to work with rotational planting systems in organic books but when I wrote The Koanga Garden Guide last year  I decided that I was not happy with any of the existing systems I had seen, and I created one to work for me. If you’re wanting t get some system going so you can know in advance which beds to be manuring and composting and which beds to be planting what in, and which beds to follow with what, or even just how to make the most of the effort that goes into double digging I think you’ll find my system a good one. It means I double dig 11/4 of my garden area each spring and ¼ each autumn if the area needs it. It will take two years to double dig the entire garden area. With four of us eating from the garden we all did the double digging and I have to say we all really enjoy that job.

I discovered a good way to keep the white butterflies off the cabbages this autumn, I got sick of the hassle of putting cloche cover over all the brassica beds and got out an empty window cleaner spray bottle and mixed up a neem solution, to spraying instructions, and sprayed underneath all the leaves whilst they were in the seed trays and again they were planted out. I only had to do it twice and it worked really well. I may have had to do it more often if it had rained more, not sure, because the neem is oily and sticks to the leaves and it also acts as a deterrent to the butterflies as well as a pesticide which stops the eggs hatching etc

This is the time of the year we are finishing the drying of our seasons seeds and getting them ready and organized to write the July catalogue, so they can come to you… keep your eyes peeled for all the new lines.

 When you buy seeds from us know that you are truly supporting small local initiatives that are the basis for future sustainable communities. We have no connection with multinational seed growers and I think we are the only seed company in NZ that can say that. All of our seed is heritage seeds that has come down through generations of pre industrial farmers and gardeners who saved it to nourish us. When you look around you or in  the paper and on the TV, and you feel so sick of the values of the society we live in, desperate even,  and you want to do something about it, know that supporting us has made a real difference in New Zealand. We have saved the threads many of our ancestors wove for us and we trust we have saved enough of them to weave a new shape, one that honours us all, as well as the land we stand on. ‘Organic’ and ‘heritage’ or ‘heirloom’ are being taken over by the large corporate multinational companies now (there’s money in those words!) so once the seed has been in the agribusiness system for a few years it will be changed, buying from small time gardeners and farmers is the only way too be sure you keep the chain unbroken, and to keep the wairua strong.

When you look in our July catalogue, know that all of those seeds, everyone has come from a long line of gardeners or pre industrial farmers and that whole connection and whakapapa is there for you to connect with again, so you can enter that process of co evolution as our ancestors did for their survival; it may be for our survival as well.

I have just finished rewriting up dating and adding chapters to my book Design Your own Orchard, and that is now at the printers…. watch out for it, I’m very proud of it, and I Think you will find it far more useful and interesting than the last edition.  The new chapters are Pruning, Growing Berry Fruit and one on The Histories and Stories of many of the old people and fruit trees we have in our collection

Honey Baked Figs

For all of you with a huge crop of figs sitting on your late crop fig trees here is my recipe for preserving them…

Place figs on a baking tray whole with stems still attached, drizzle honey over them and bake in the oven until they are well cooked, then place in preserving jars that have been heated in the oven, pour fig honey liquid over them until the jar is full and screw on the seal and bands. Honey Baked Figs are a treat with winter puddings or even whipped cream ice cream etc.

Herb Pesto

For those of you with loads of basil or parsley sitting in the garden waiting for you to deal with, try making pesto which you can freeze and use for an instant meal later in the winter

You can use any green herbs for pesto, basil is only 1 option, you can use a wide range of cheese, we use our own tasty gouda if we have it, or any other organic tasty cheese in preference to something that is not organic. 

We use alternatives to pine nuts because I haven’t yet figured out how to get the nuts out of the kernels. We mostly use macadamias which are delicious but also roast pumpkin seeds, which are easy to grow and dry and store for all kinds of snacks. We always use one of our strong garlics, either Takahue or Kakanui in pesto to give it a pungent flavour!

The basic recipe is as follows just multiply it by however many times you want.

1Tbsp chopped nuts

30gms grated parmesan or alternative

30-60 gms of fresh basil or parsley etc

3-5 cloves garlic

6Tbsp quality olive oil

Put enough for meal in a zip top plastic bag and unfreeze as needed

Kay