The Great Pumpkin
Pumpkins are a great asset in the winter kitchen. I love transforming pumpkins into soups, salads and much more. They keep well in a cool dry place, and if you don’t grow your own, they’re not expensive. And they’re beautiful, both inside and out. Pumpkin seems to...
Raglan Fish: The local catch
Raglan Fish is great news for local fans of seafood. And you don’t even have to drive to Raglan. We can find Raglan Fish in three places: at Raglan Wharf, and at Cambridge and Hamilton Farmers’ Markets. In my household we’re very fond of their excellent smoked fish...
Orange is for winter
Midwinter is a wonderful time for oranges and other citrus in the Waikato. There are trees laden with beautiful oranges, mandarins, tangelos and clementines in home gardens all over the place. We’ve been collecting clementines from a couple of neighbours who mostly...
Gardening with garlic
This time of year, many of my friends are planting garlic. I’d love to be planting garlic myself, but right now I’m stuck with a fractured foot and can’t garden. So, I’m writing about it instead. Growing garlic is incredibly satisfying. You (usually) get a great...
Persimmons: for people or birds?
There are bare-branched persimmon trees with clusters of beautiful orange tomato-shaped fruit, dotted around my neighbourhood. Persimmons aren't just beautiful, they're delicious too (I like them, anyway). There are two main kinds of edible persimmons, astringent and...
Fresh winter greens at Hamilton Farmers’ Market
We came home from yesterday’s Hamilton Farmers’ Market with the most wonderful haul of fresh winter greens. There’s a new stall selling some terrific green vegetables. This weekend they were selling a couple of Asian style greens, my favourite daikon radish and some...