Looks and tastes like an apple but has the skin and texture of a pear. A NZ bred hybrid of European and Asian pears with stunning almost fluorescent pinkish-red skin. Sweeter and more complex flavours than traditional nashi with the same juiciness. This plant was released in small numbers last year and was a hit … Read More
Flower Garden As summer flowers pass their best remove them and prepare the ground for planting for Winter/Spring flowers like pansy, wall flowers, polyanthus and violas. Now is bulb planting time. Choose good firm unblemished bulbs and plant as soon as possible so they get a good start. Sow sweet peas now in good deep … Read More
Fruit & Vegetable Garden Time to plant winter veggies like cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli. Any ground that is going to be vacant you can think about putting a green crop in – lupins, barley and mustard all help to improve the soil structure. Keep picking tomatoes and removing lower leaves to encourage fruit to ripen. … Read More
Ingredients 250 grm chopped strawberries 250 grm chopped rhubarb 3/4 C sugar 3 Tbsp cornflour Short crust pastry Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a flan dish with 3/4 of the pastry. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. No pre cooking is required. Place in pastry shell and make a lattice top using … Read More
Mother of Herbs (Plectranthus amboinicus) Common Names: Indian borage, Spanish thyme or Cuban oregano. This is an exciting new herb to add to our already extensive range and is used in traditional Indian medicine for its soporific qualities among other things. If you have trouble sleeping try adding one leaf to a cup of boiling … Read More
From Michael Coulter This summer has been something of a challenge with below average rainfall and wind making for a difficult growing season. Watering is needed more often as plants have dried out quicker, plants need to be supported more, and plants that have been wind damaged need to be pruned to repair any broken branches. So … Read More
Ingredients 1 packet of pie pastry 1 punnet of strawberries 250gm mascarpone 100ml very cold cream 1 tsp vanilla essence 80 gm brown sugar 2 tablespoons of icing sugar Preheat the oven to 170C. Cut the pastry to fit one large pie dish or 4 individual dishes and line the dishes having at least 1 … Read More
Blueberry ‘Swirl’ Exclusive for CHS Members Blueberries are considered a wonder food and are a fantastic addition to the garden, whether grown as a specimen plant in a container, or as a low hedge. New for 2014 and exclusive to Oderings is Blueberry ‘Swirl’. This delicious treat is a busy ‘rabbit eye’ type and is … Read More
Great weather. Been looking on the computer.Rainfall been below normal and well below normal across most of the South Island. Temperatures were above average throughout most of New Zealand. Had a few winds. Of the main centres, Auckland was the warmest, Dunedin the coolest, Wellington the wettest and Tauranga was the sunniest. Christchurch was the … Read More
Ingredients 1 kg mixed fruit 2 . cups orange juice . cup whisky 1 tsp vanilla essence 2 cups self raising flour Soak fruit in juice and whisky overnight Pre-heat oven to 160C fan bake (180C conventional). Add flour and vanilla to fruit mixture. Pour into tin and bake for 1 . – 2 hrs