Maori Green Vegetables book launch...

Just back from meeting with fellow committee members and supporters of Tahuri Whenua at Parewahawaha, Bulls. As well as catching up on admin chores, we launched Nick Roskruge's latest book, Korare: Maori Green Vegetables: Their history and tips on their use

Really interesting collection of crops - some might call them weeds but hey, as we know in Christchurch, ya never know when ya gonna have to dig a hole in your backyard and fend for yourself. best you know what puha looks like and how to prepare it...



Some of Nick's postgrads came along, representing Chile and Malawi. We have quite a collection of research projects compelted alongside our community of growers, and with our crops of taewa and kamokamo.

That's Uncle Hemi blessing the book - Nick is on the left there. The book can be ordered from Tahuri Whenua PO Box 1458, Palmerston North.

A number of displays showed the variety of work coalescing around our mara. Moko of Otaki brought along some Te Waka Kai Ora publications, including one on bee keeping their first apiarist has just achieved Hua Parekore certification).

Took a shot of this snack from Peru, made from purple spuds like our (ha, our...it's theirs!) tutaekuri. Plenty of options out there for Maori growers.

Pumpkins, Broccoflower, Red Brussel Sprout and Dalmation

First frost hit Leeston on Tuesday, just minus 2 but it'll be the first of many. So the pumpkins were pulled - leave a bit stalk on, evidently stops them from rotting (another tip from one of my koro).

Nice shot of Lila (Our daughter is Willa, our dog, Lila, and the cat, Milly. I get confused daily on who I'm growling...often it's Lila who digs up selected spots of my vege patch).









Two new crops for me. Broccoflower - a cross between cauliflower and broccoli (obviously :). The other is a red brussel sprout.

Autumn beds in

 Shorter days, early evenings, a fire to take off the chill.


And crops....





Karaka potatoes

Last of the spring onions, and plenty of tomatoes

Pepper Tree, pretty spicy wee things too.

First sweet corn harvested for the season

Love autumn...

Firewood and guttering

Major seasonal chore here in Leeston is the gathering of firewood in preparation for the cold damp winter. We were lucky in knowing a dairy whanau in Doyleston who had trimmed pine shelter belts and invited us to help ourselves. Along with my father-in-law and a brother-in-law, we hauled back probably three cords of pine, some of it still needing blocking up and splitting.

The picture below shows how much we've got. Might need to augment this with some good blue gum or macrocarpa...

Another chore is the cleaning of the gutters, clogged with leaves and, a one-off, mortar and pieces of brick from when we took our chimney down after the February 'quake.

The flowering of the San Pedro...

And 9 days later, like a bird from a Bill Hammond painting.

Tahuri Whenua hui, Haraki Marae, Te Puke

Another great Hui-a-Rohe for Tahuri Whenua, this time in the Bay of Plenty, Te Puke, Kiwi Fruit country (I'm old enough to remember these little tarts as Chinese Gooseberries, a more accurate term...). I stopped off at Maketu for some quiet time. Never been there before but definitely want to go back.

The famous Catholic church ... and a wee kina

 Manaia detail...














I was one of the first to arrive, the other members dribbling in from around the motu. Then we were called on...

In the midst of a growing district. Detail from the whare nui... and of course, the ukelele appeared!

Epic broccoli

Willa holding one and a half heads of broccoli which I was just about to par boil for freezing, cut them up and throw the bits in boiling water for a minute, then drain, dry (I did this in a lettuce spinner), and pop into freezer bags.

I've been told you boil greens to destroy natural toxins present in many plants. This helps them keep better while frozen.

Maori vegetables: taewa and kamo kamo

The most popular post on my 'Maori Economy' blog is on the 'Physico-chemical and morphological characteristics of New Zealand Taewa (Maori potato) starches', which links through to a research paper investigating Maori potatoes for their starch properties.

The most popular search term has been 'kamo kamo', something I'm not growing this season (and regretting that decision...next year!). So, here's some pictures from when I last grew this ever popular, somehow defining Maori vege...

Alby Marsh, Plant and Food, is working on some research with Tahuri Whenua on Kamo kamo to prepare a kamo kamo worksheet which will involve interviews with growers across the country over the next 6 months.

Preparing winter crops...

Pulled my last row of tutaekuri and the few huakaroro that I had planted out. I need the space for leeks and onions, with brocolli, brussell sprouts taking up the last remianing gaps I had.

The tutaekuri crops well - about 4-5 pounds a plant (although when I first planted this variety in Washbournes Rd, it cropped twice a heavily). Huakaroro a bit disappointing but I didn't have good seed this year.

Here's a pic of a 'Pepper Tree' bought from a hippy shop in Mapua. Evidently crops a very hot pepper for about ten years.

Tutaekuri

Now digging up some Tutaekuri to take to Mapau next week. Not my favourite tasting taewa but a crowd pleaser because of its intense purple colouring, and always funny to give the literal translation: Dog shit (not to be confused with the Tutaekuri River in Hawkes Bay where I spent my teen years, trout fishing and camping, and just hanging out).

Another name for these Maori potatoes, from TE Tairawhiti, is Urenika, a transliteration 'Nigger's' ure or penis. [This reminds me of a bizarre argument with a Professor at Otago who was most aggrieved at my (admittedly provocative) use of the word Nigger, rapping the Public Enemy song 'I don't wanna be called Yo Nigga' which has the inimitable Flavour Flav with the lyrical line N.I.G.G.E.R., Nigga Nigga Nigga Nigga Nigga!...My challenge to him was how to write the whakapapa of this Maori potato without referring to the racist term which our tipuna had obviously picked up from the whalers and sailors 200 years ago.]

It does look a lot more like dog crap than an African/African-American penis.

Anyways, the garden is now starting to produce at a level I can see saving me money down the local supermarket. Also gifting stuff to friends and whanau, always important. French beans, brocolli, cauliflower, spinach. Tomatoes are ripening, and the scarlet runner beans - one of my favourites because of their beautiful bright red flowers and heavy cropping - and corn well on the way. I've planted some dwarf cornflowers too, wanting the pale blue flowers amongst the greenery and peas straw mulch.

scrolling garden...

I know it's kinda naff but I'm diurnally (or as often as I can remember) and digitally recording our garden here in Leeston, and will post a slideshow in the top right, scrolling through our seasons.

Huakaroro

BBQ, with Nana and Koko coming up from Rakaia. Pulled these huakaroro from the sandpit...

My favourite potato, washed, put in cold water, brought to the boil, left a bit, then drained, pat of pata, tote, he reka!

(Yes, those are some stray Tutaekuri I bandicooted from the neighbouring row...'bandicooted'? Term i picked up from Ngai Tahu kaukatua Trevor Howse, pages 8-9 of this newsletter)

It's in the soil...

Planting it out, in Leeston

Kia ora mai!

Well after a hiatus of many months, in part through the trauma of leaving my old vege garden in Washbournes Rd., Sockburn, we are now ensconced in Leeston, a small country town 25 minutes south of the broken city of Christchurch. I won't dwell on that, other than to say it is a game-changer.

Back to veges...

Our new whare had a big sandpit which i filled with four cubic metres of mushroom/soil mix (the soil out here is very clayey) and planted out with perpetual spinach, broccoli, leeks, spring onions and lettuces. A friend gifted a tomato plant but it's struggled. The section already has a lemon tree, two plum trees, and purple grapes clambering over from the neighbours.


I'm now in the process of extending the vegetable garden, using bricks from our old chimney (chimney's are fingered as death and insurance traps in this country now!). This will give us about 32 square metres in total, a goodly amount.

Spring 2010

Seems another early spring here in Otautahi. I've found a source of cheap horse manure compostm- well rotted and only $2 a bag off Shands Rd (on the way to Lincoln university from Hornby town).




The boys helped me dig it in, under the careful scrutiny of Willa.


First plants this season are some lettuces from my father-in-law Des. Might put some tomatoes in this week.

Bibliography: Maori Sustainable Development, Horticulture and Cultural Resilience

Adger, W. N. (2000). Sociological and ecological resilience: Are they related? Progress in Human Geography, 24: 347-364.

Amin, A., Cameron, A. and Hudson R. (2002). Placing the Social Economy. London and New York: Routledge.

Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (Eds.). (2004). The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader. Malden, Oxford and Carlton: Blackwell.

Anderson, A. (2002). A Fragile Plenty: Pre-European Māori and the New Zealand Environment. In E. Pawson and T. Brooking (Eds.), Environmental Histories of New Zealand (pp. 19-34). Auckland: Oxford University Press.

Hue (Gourd) underway...

I've planted several hue plants, the scrambling Lagenaria siceraria, having last grown them three seasons ago. This plant seems to be another South American import.

The Diffusion of Sustainable Technologies to Maori Land: A Case Study of Participation by Maori in Agri-Food Networks

Abstract: Within innovation diffusion literature, indigenous peoples have historically been described as ‘laggards’: slow to adopt new technologies. While accepted as the originators of (acceptably ‘quaint’) traditions, Maori, like other indigenous peoples, are targeted as passive adopters of new and theoretically beneficial innovations. However within sustainability discourse, indigenous peoples are considered to possess innovations conducive to sustainability. For Maori, this assumption has converged with niche marketing strategies in agri-food networks and Maori initiatives to participate in research programmes. This paper details the diffusion of innovative objects in the form of taewa or ‘Maori potatoes’ within sustainability research programmes. Knowledge sourced from Maori in their role as kai tiaki of taewa have seen attempts by research institutions to accommodate Maori growers within collaborative programmes. However, the intended diffusion of collaborative research with Maori outwards from ‘core’ research institutions is paradoxically reliant on a counter-diffusion of ‘Matauranga Maori’ from Maori growers. This counter-diffusion is subject to validation from Maori collectives: if cooperation is withdrawn by these collectives, progress is not possible. Rather than the non-adoption of sustainable technologies by Maori, such withdrawal is interpreted as non-participation in unsustainable networks.

Keywords: Maori horticulture, agri-food networks, potatoes, innovation diffusion.

the new tunnel house...

After two years in the planning, it was only a 3 day job, like the Resurrection. Have missed out on picking up many of the seedlings I would've like to have planted (do have a Thai Basil that might go on). I'm going to transplant my underperforming Lemon tree inside...quietly cutting the roots through.



The frame was built around two existing plants, a Jerusalem artichoke and a rhubarb. The lemon tree will go where that compost is lying.