Cooking Corner

Kumera and Mushroom soup 

Ingredients 

I kg kumara 

1 ltr vege stock

250 gr large mushrooms 

50 gr butter

1tsp thyme leaves

Method  … Continue Reading

Did you know

AUCKLAND’S televised Sunday afternoon rugby matches go slightly past official sundown triggering the requirement of a Resource Consent. The cost to the Rugby Union for this: $10,000 

THE FORERUNNER to the modern storage battery was built by Alessandro Volt in 1799. The key to his invention was a pile of zinc and silver discs alternating with each other and separated by cardboard discs  soaked in brine. This produced a steady flow of electricity when a wire was connected to the top and bottom of the pile.

THERE ARE thirteen deaths a day due to smoking related diseases. And yet there are still half a million regular smokers in New Zealand.

IRONY:  On the same day that NZ’s Covid-19 border controls were proven to be very far from perfect the International Research Unit  ranked NZ to be first among twenty one OECD countries  for it’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis … Continue Reading

Community Garden News

Cold and damp has set in and the growth is slow, however, we have set our mind to maintenance and preparation.Still harvesting kale, spinach, rhubarb and leeks. They will appear at the Larder on a Wednesday.

Winter tasks (which are timely for all gardeners):

• Pruning our small collection of berries, and taking cuttings for the future- blueberries grow well from cuttings.
• Tidying and feeding strawberries, and planting out runners that have formed new roots.
• Splitting rhubarb and giving it all a good winter feed of horse pooh.
• Lifting “spent’ plants that have done their service, and giving them a good burial in the compost heaps. It a good idea to chop these plants into small bits into the compost, as it takes less time to break down and the compost is ready for use in a shorter time. We remove all the hard and horny roots and place them in our “earth pile”, which is given much more time to mature into compost.
• Compost has had a good dusting of lime and a dose of horse pooh and coffee grinds to get all the lovely bacteria and worms working.
• Good time to plant broad beans, and for the first time we have planted a crop of peas.
• Our kumara were an improvement on last year, but we still need a bigger heap of soil. So have added compressed sheep dags, the contents of our tomato pots, and grass clippings , with the intention of building it further before next year’s crop goes in.

… Continue Reading

FIRE BRIGADE REPORT 

Level 1 is here and we hope you are enjoying the new freedoms associated with that, it’s great to see and hear the children in the playground opposite the station along with our community out and about, all smiling. The Brigade has responded to community requests for Medical assistance and had to get Dr Phillip and his PRIME responders out to assist lately, and also responded to motor vehicle accidents (remember to drive to the conditions).

COVID 19 has meant a number of changes about how Fire and Emergency (FENZ) do business but with the change in levels of alert you will see us restarting our training, especially for those recruits that had their courses cancelled and now rescheduled, and we work to refresh both their skills and ours too, now we can mingle as normal. Among the other cancellations we had to put in place during COVID, was the postponement of Chief Jake Hawkins 25 year Gold Star celebration, but don’t worry we will definitely fit this very important and special milestone in later this year. … Continue Reading