Councillor Comment

Hinekura Road just after the last landslide and prior to the latest remedial work being carried out.

Happy New Year to everyone, by the time this has gone to print we will be into February, children will have gone back to school and most people will be back into their usual weekly routines.  Council is no different with a raft of meetings scheduled for this month, and the ones below are the committee’s that I am on. 

2^nd Feb Planning & Regulatory Committee

Assets & Services Committee

16^th Feb Finance, Audit & Risk

Wairarapa Library Service

23^rd Feb Council

24^th Feb Martinborough Community Board

25^th Feb Wellington Regional Waste Forum … Continue Reading

Cooking Corner – Corn and lentil fritters

Ingredients

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

400gr can of lentils – drained

420 gr can whole kernel corn – drained 

420gr can cream corn

4eggs

1/3 cup parsley

1 tbsp oil

Method

1. Gently mix together flour, baking powder, lentils, creamed corn, whole corn kernels, eggs and parsley until just combined
2. Heat a well seasoned skillet or non-stick frying pan
3. Oil the pan with the oil
4. Fry fritters in pan until golden brown on each side

Community Garden News

Happy New Year …this for the Community Garden has commenced as the Year of the Cucumber!  

Over the last few weeks, we have harvested many cucumbers, from just two plants, and they continue to produce. Each week we seem to fill an entire shelf in the Larder. This trend is not uncommon…cucumbers have surpassed the usual glut of courgettes that flood our plates at this time of the year. All gardeners at the Community Garden report similar excesses of cucumbers, and we have attributed this to the long and excessive rain through the spring.

This excess prompted a bit of a look at the humble cucumber, which is, in fact a fruit , not a vegetable.

• It is high in potassium, which helps to lower blood pressure.
• High in nutrients and low in calories.
• Contains antioxidants- flavonoids and tann.
• Promotes hydration- 96% water, so helps to meet daily fluid needs.
• Aids weight loss- low in calories: high in water.

… Continue Reading

Book review – One summer

Bill Bryson’s One Summer is set in America in 1927 a year of, as he puts it, reckless optimism and delirious energy. A year which saw the birth of talking movies, the peak of Al Capone’s reign, Banker’s ill conceived decisions which led to the great depression and the launch of the Model A Ford. 

This book is treasure chest of information as Bryson records this ‘anything goes in USA’ year in his easy to read style.  A year ruled over by a ‘do nothing’ President Calvin Coolidge who seldom worked more than four hours a day and spent three month long holidays in his Black Hills Dakota ranch. 

The national hero was Charles Lindbergh who had become the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from America.  His single engine plane was devoid of navigation instruments and had no forward vision. To see where he was going Lindbergh  had to fly it sideways crab like and look out of the side window. 

Al Capone was at his height of power creating mayhem seemingly untouchable by law officers. Little could he suspect that, Mabel Walker, a little known Federal prosecutor, was hatching a clever plan which was to prove his downfall. Likewise four banking executives could not have dreamed that the secret meeting to plan to make even more money would be the catalyst for the great depression.  … Continue Reading