newsletterapril08

NEWSLETTERS

NEWS FROM THE KOANGA INSTITUTE

APRIL 08

I’ve really had to think outside the square to get the autumn garden in here, it still feels like summer and it’s still too hot to transplant autumn veges without giving them lots of shade and water, which is still in short supply (no significant rain yet!!) it’s still full on harvest season here as well; potatoes still coming in, still bringing in the corn and haven’t begun the pumpkins yet, still heavy crops on the tomatoes, still bottling and drying them, and harvesting peppers and eggplants and beans. Kumara not ready yet.

We had huge crops on our karoro this season - up to 130 potatoes on 1 plant!!! One of the very best riwai out

You will see lots of our seed in the Institute catalogue in July , we’re drying that and packing and storing.

This is the first time ever I’ve had good eggplant crops, we’ve been picking them since January and it looks as though they will continue cropping for a while yet.

The biggest

excitement for me this week has been the kumara. They went in really late, most of them mid December. The kaumatua next door, Koro Spadey says not to dig them until the moon is right late this month early May because they went in so late. We visited another local, Bill Tawhai today to check out the traditional Ruakumara he has at his place for storing his kumara and it was just beautiful, very simple, with the kumara piled up on each other with Silver fern lining the entire Rua kumara. It is built into the ground with punga across the top then a tarpaulin, and then earth. Traditionally raupo would have been there instead of the tarp.

The special kumara, or the

seed kumara, are in kite. The Silver fern, which kind of falls in amongst them all, acts as an antifungal agent. It was so exciting checking out his kumara going into the storehouse that I came home and had a dig around under mine to see what was happening. The garden where they are growing is an old kumara garden, but the soil has been depleted by commercial corn production. The tops have not looked good and healthy at all during the season and we’ve had no rain since they went in. I was not very hopeful, but as usual I couldn’t wait. I dug one plant each of three different kinds and all of them had huge kumara underneath. The Huti huti was very long, far longer than I’ve seen before, 35cm, and the local red one Waina was like a big Buddha…weighing more than a kilo!

Rekamaroa

We’re building a ruakumara here to store them during a weekend workshop on the 19th 20th of this month, I’ll show you the photos next month, and in the meantime I've included some pics of Bill’s Ruakumara.

Within our kaupapa of research and education associated with sustainable living, we have recently entered into a joint venture with Te Whanau a Apanui to explore how we might support them, in their support for sustainable community development within their rohe.

This year our involvement includes a series of workshops covering gardening, food processing and storage, light earth building and appropriate technologies for the Iwi. We are also co hosting a Permaculture Design Course with Te Whanau a Apanui which has 20 places for people outside the Iwi. This course has an emphasis on Maori perspectives and understanding how we can respect and work with old ways within a modern setting

The Permaculture Design Course will be here in July (5th – 19th) on the Marae: Whitianga, which we’re very excited about for several reasons…… Geoff Lawton is coming over to teach it along with Rikirangi Gage the CEO of Te Whanau a Apanui, whose job will be to keep the content applicable to traditional Maori manaakitanga, and the aim of the Design Course is to work towards finding ways

I’m working with locals who know local food sources to come up with a menu for the PDC that uses local fresh, organic food as much as possible ( it’s looking like 90% at this stage) to cook meals in line with the Dietary Guidelines of the Weston A. price Foundation .(check them out www.westonaprice.org). These principles are based on the amazing work of Dr Weston A. Price early last century when he spent many years traveling around the world visiting isolated traditional peoples who were still eating traditional diets. He studied them as they came into contact with modern processed food and noted the physical degeneration that occurred. Out of his research he found that all traditional peoples had the following things in common in their diets and he believes it is critical that we return to the dietary principles of pre-industrial societies to avoid the “plague” of degenerative diseases that has beset our modern societies.

These principles are

1. Eat whole natural foods

2. Eat only foods that will spoil but eat them before they do

3. Eat naturally raised meat including fish, seafood, poultry, beef, lamb, game organ meats and eggs

4. Eat whole naturally produced milk products from pasture fed cows, preferable raw and or fermented, such as yoghurt, kefir, cultured butter, whole cheeses and fresh and sour cream

5. Use only traditional fats and oils including butter and other animal fats, extra virgin olive oil, expeller pressed sesame and flaxseed oils and the tropical oils, coconut and palm

7. Use whole grains and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, sprouting or sour levening to neutralize phytic acid and other nutrients

8. Include enzyme enhanced lacto fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis

9. Prepare home made meat stocks from the bones of chicken beef lamb or fish and use liberally in soups and sauces

10. Use herb teas and coffee substitutes in moderation

11. Use filtered water for drinking cooking12.Use solar dried, unrefined sea salt and a variety of spices for food interest and appetite stimulation

13. Make your own salad dressing using raw vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and expeller pressed flaxseed oil

14. Use natural sweeteners in moderation such as honey, maple syrup, shakkar and stevia

15. Use only unpasteurised wine and be in moderation

16. Cook only in stainless steel, glass, cast iron or good quality enamel

17. Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light

His book Nutrition and Human Degeneration is a profoundly interesting but disturbing book that is a must read if we’re serious about our health and the future of the human race. Sally Fallon is the director of the Weston A. Price Foundation and her cookbooks Nourishing Traditions and Eat fat Lose Fat are wonderful books too.

So the PDC will be an experience in many ways… not to mention being on a marae and steeped in local history and culture.

Arohanui Kay

To read our old newsletters please click on the edition below:

January 2007