When I was a kid in Papua New Guinea, I yearned for peaches. In the tropics, fresh peaches were magical and unattainable. There were all sorts of amazing tropical fruits, including a wonderful palette of different kinds of bananas. But only canned peaches. I was...
The loquat tree on our driveway has been laden with fruit this year. I’ve been loving the golden egg-shaped fruit. Loquats have a sour-sweet, aromatic and slightly astringent flavour that I especially enjoy. Loquats are distantly related to quinces and apples....
As regular readers will know, the Waikato Foodbasket loves strange and unusual fruit. This week I’m in love with casimiroas. I first encountered this fruit a few years ago. Some friends had a huge tree that was absolutely laden with casimiroas. We were lucky to get...
It’s a great time of year for avocados. Some of my friends are feasting on boxes of avocados from the Bay of Plenty. Others have trees laden with big green fruit. Avocados thrive in many parts of the Waikato, even though our climate is generally too cold for...
I’ve been making superb plum jellies and gummies with my seasonal abundance of backyard plums. There are plums galore at the farmers’ markets at this time of year. On Sunday I saw several different varieties: Black Doris, Fortune, Luisa and more. There are five plum...
