Dear reader,

A big hello to you all!  We're finally enjoying some lovely spring sunshine this Labour Weekend and the mud is pretty much dried up.  We had weeks of rain but now all the new growth is positively exploding all around and I am so enjoying foraging and munching on all sorts of leaves for example new barberry leaves and flowers, gingko leaves and lime tree leaves which were only today big enough to eat.  The weeds are all growing and lush and this month I've feature puha which is flowering now.  I've included a recipe using the flowers. Read the blog here  I've also written a blog of my adventure to Great Barrier Island all about the property and people I stayed with, quite an experience as there is only boat access. Read the story here.

Not only are the weeds exploding with growth but so are the invitations to do workshops.  It's really wonderful. Here's what's coming up:
Saturday November 26th Swanson Auckland
Sunday Novembr 27th, Matakana, North of Auckland
Saturday December 3rd, Rotorua
Sunday December 4th, Hamilton
Sunday December 11th, Whakatane
All the details and more information about the host properties, times, cost, and bookings
can be found here.

If you've been waiting for a location nearer you, hopefully one of these locations will work. 

Since I last wrote I've upgraded my computer and if anyone wants to buy the old one  I'm open to offers.  It is a 13inch Macbook Pro 2009 and still goes very well.

These plants were turned into a delicious scrambled egg dish the other morning.  On the left is gingko Gingko biloba, middle barberry leaves Berberis glaucocarpa and flowers and buds, parsley Petroselinum crispum at the top and onion weed Allium triquetum on the right.  Barberry leaves taste very lemony - I love the taste.

This is one of the barberry shrubs Berberis glaucocarpa I harvest leaves from.  It is golden yellow with flowers. I wish I could convey the humming of the bees with this photo. It sounded like a beehive it was so alive with their busyness.

This is the facecream I make with infused oils of Kumarahou, Plantain and Calendula. I add essential oils of patchouli, rosehip and lavender in a base of emulsifying wax and beeswax.  The preservative is colloidal silver. I wanted to make a cream for myself that wasn't greasy and which absorbed into my skin.

This was my Yacón crop I harvested in September!  I left the plant for two years and couldn't believe how many tubers I dug up.  The soil was incredibly friable and loose where they grew. I think it is a soil builder.  I have divided the mother tubers into 5 new plants!

Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifoliusInulin are quite sweet containing inulin.  Humans have no enzyme for dealing with inulin. Instead, it passes through our digestive tract without being metabolized, so it is good for people who are diabetic.  And, as a consequence, yacon provides few calories and may have some potential as a low-calorie sweet diet food.

Yacón’s texture and flavor have been described as a cross between a fresh apple and watermelon and is sometimes referred to as the apple of the earth. The actual vegetable is called a “tuber,” which is a thick stem or root that grows underground, as does a potato. Yacon is very high in fiber and low in calories, making it a good healthy snack.

These are the young tender leaves of the Linden tree, species name Tilia. 
This is the tree that has the blossoms that are made into lime blossom tea which is an anti-inflammatory.  I like to eat the young leaves, they are quite mucilaginous which is soothing for the intestinal tract.

We recently had the Pyes Pa growers group visit our gardens and the orchard.  Here they are in the orchard where the trees are just coming into leaf. Apple far left, two peach trees towards the front of the photo and the figs behind.  A seedling macademia tree on the right.  I can't wait for all the leaves to emerge and the trees to grow!!

I took this photo earlier this year of the Christchurch cathedral damaged by the earthquake. It is a sad photo, but I took it because of the weeds which are flourishing even up on the broken wall.  It truly shows their opportunistic qualities and one wonders where the seeds came from to establish so quickly.  In the foreground are tall Mullein Verbascum thapsus  which is widely used in herbal medicine.  I've gathered the flowers steeped them in olive oil and then used drops in my ears to clear the wax. I think the weeds are bringing new life to this area and are softening the scene.

This final image is of a plant with a most unusual name Fothergilla major  I had to include it didn't I.  Mum and Dad have a huge diversity of plants in the garden and this one is rather special with these frothy flowers that the bees love. I don't think it is edible but haven't researched it yet.

Until next time,

Julia