Merry Christmas from Julia's Edible Weeds

Dear reader,

I want to wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND a FANTASTIC NEW YEAR!!

I also want to thank you all SO VERY, VERY much for your support of me and the Wild Edibles this year. It has been a wonderful ride all over the country and I'm so grateful for your interest, keen desire for good living and your incredible enthusiasm!!

This newsletter has lots of photos of life happening around me here on the farm and a bit about what I've been up to - like making chocolate for the first time ever. I've included the recipe.

If you're stuck for a gift for a plant loving friend or family member how about one of my printed books or the ebook Julia's Guide to Edible Weeds and Wild Green Smoothies

In case you didn't get a change to watch this excellent Ted Talk: Tomatoes talk, birch trees listen - do plants have dignity, by Florianne Koechlin, here is the link again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8YnvMpcrVI

In September I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Gary Cook a man passionate about trees, who has a fascinating machine that can pick up vibrations of a tree and turn them into music. We got to witness the moving sounds a kawakawa bush created. I know it might sound weird, but I invite you to listen to this interspecies duet.

Have a Great Summer and I'll see you in 2017!! Keep your eye out for new developments next year!

Isn't this baby blackbird cute. He or she is literally just out of the nest and so very vulnerable. I'm sure he or she's doing fine up in the branches now.

Beatrice the Rhode Island Red hen went clucky and despite being put in the sin bin twice was determined to be a mother. We caved in and got her seven day old chicks - all different coloured leghorns. This one is very adventurous standing on top of the feathers instead of being cosily under them.

A bowl full of wild Alpine Strawberries Potentilla vesca soft and sweet tasting. The plants can fruit all year round. A Whakatane workshop participant brought them along for the shared lunch.

This grassy looking plant is actually lots of young Buckshorn plantains Plantago coronopus that I sowed thickly resulting in microgreens. I cut them and they grew back really fast, being excellent in salad. King's Seed sell it as Minutina. It is a great plant to have as the seed heads are very long and you get loads of seeds to sow.

Raspberry Spice Chocolate
I've never made chocolate but when I saw this recipe I thought it looked so easy I'd give it a go. It had to have a weedy twist didn't it, so I decided to add 1T powdered kawakawa and nasturtium which gave it a mildly spicy flavour. The chocolate is delicious with the raspberries inside. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
100 gms cacao butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/2 cup fresh (or dried or defrosted) and drained raspberries
1 T powdered kawakawa and nasturtium leaves (optional)

Method:
Melt the cacao butter gently and allow to cool. Add honey to cooled cacao butter then stir in sifted cacao powder, powdered greens and mix well. Pour mixture into ice cubes and plop raspberries on top. I also added a little grated orange rind on top, that looked pretty and that gave an added citrus flavour. Freeze until set them pop them out. Store the chocolate in the fridge in air tight containers.

Recipe inspired by Simone Kleyn www.fitnessnutritious.nz in Issue 2 Focus magazine

Have you noticed lace like chewed damage on your raspberries or roses or feijoas? It is the work of bronze beetles, which are native to NZ. You can see the size of one in relation to the leaf in the photo.

This is typical damage on our raspberries of these little bronze beetles. I know these critters very well now. When you're picking the fruit you can hear them dropping onto lower leaves. So what I do to catch them is hold one hand under the leaf or fruit bud, or other places where they hide and with the other hand come from above and they drop into your hand and can be squashed. But you have to be quick because they hop off or jump away if they can.

On Sunday I went along to the Harvest Share gathering at the Welcome Bay Community Gardens. It was a beautiful day and we got to do some cane, and other fibre weaving as well as learn how to make garlands to wear on your head. Pictured above is the plant support I made with bamboo, cane and something like seagrass. We also learnt to weave weeping willow into interlocking rings and garlands. The next day at home I pulled some stems of

Ivy Hedera helix wound them around each other and then added Hawksbeard Crepis capillaris and long Nasturtium stems - the result was a bit top heavy but cool to wear. Kids could have fun creating garlands and chains. Any willow while green and fresh is pliable to manipulate into a garland.

Welcome Bay Community Garden with raised wicking beds that are self watering. A very impressive place to visit.

Here is a Lotus weed mandala doing a great job covering up a barren driveway. I put the young shoots of Lotus Lotus pedunculatus in my smoothies as I do clover Trifolium pratense (Red Clover) and Trifolium repens (White Clover) leaves and flowers. They all belong to the pea family Fabaceae

I'll sign off for 2016 with this stunning Hippeastrum amaryllis that brings me huge joy every year when it flowers.
Happy days and good health to you all!

Love and wise green blessings,
Julia