Minnie catches a bee swarm

Kia ora Guys,



Minnie gave me permission to blog the photos she posted on Facebook about

catching a bee swarm.  The speech bubbles indicate her words, I've just cut and

pasted her story .  I think its very very cool.  

"Kia ora Donna,

you are welcome to put a write up on there. I can email you the photos or you can get them off facebook. I am not a bee keeper as such. I have only gathered 2 swarms before, but we have hives on Kapiti Island and I have been involved with them a little bit. We have had a couple of hives before, but I didnt do any of the mahi then. I have a friend that is showing me the ropes. If you have any questions just flick me an email or fb message.  Cheers....Minnie"

"Just collected another swarm......thanks again to Janine Gardiner for being photographer A1+. :-)"

"Just collected another swarm......thanks again to Janine Gardiner for being the photographer

"Standing on the roof of Amo's car.....reaching up, sawing a couple of small branches off so I could get to the swarm. Then broke the branch so swarm could fall into the cardboard box sitting on car roof."

"And here they are before going into their new whare"

"And I only got 1 bee sting! Oh ouchie too! I was too lazy to put the whole bee suit on. Won't be so lazy next time. :-) And thanks to Tumanako Clark-mackie for helping me take the bees to their new whare and being photographer number 2"








I just wanted to say a big mihi

 to Minnie and her

 photographers, for sharing

 this on FB and allowing me to

 make a blog post out of it.

  I've been wanting to get

 bees for a while now, for

 pollination and honey.  Its

 inspirational.  Didn't you feel 

a even a little bit scared?  and

 yet you'd have to be calm so

 the bees stayed calm.  Very

 cool.  Thanks 

The last photo is a video link- I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it to work.

Gardening is political

Gardening is political.  

Freedom for me is providing food for my family.

Empowerment for me showing people how to provide for themselves.

Passion for me is that I utterly believe that home grown food is better for the human body than mass produced monoculture. 

Amazing to me is that other people catch it.  They have faith in it and give it a go.

Me getting carried away explaining something,
with dirty hands, at home in the garden

They heal themselves in the garden.

They spend time with themselves in the garden.  People spend time with their family in the garden.  

They are proud to reconnect with the land.  Its a spiritual thing.

They feel hesitant about the rules and expectations and what things “should” look like. They are ever hopeful and optimistic.

Tino Rangatiratanga for me is deciding to feed the mauri of the soil that feeds my children.  My whakapapa, my genes will be strong in their healthy bodies.  

It’s my choice to not support mass agriculture wrecking the planet and producing a few rich, while keeping most people under nourished. 

(opps...blinking radical side, gotta watch that popping up from time to time.)

Check out this amazing whanau in Pasadena.  

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/

Oh and I've invited a few people to guest post, so hopefully they say yes and we build a pool of interesting, skilled, experts, in all areas.  As I know many of you have many and varied talents, if you're keen to be involved, have a notice, a panui, or something to say, please make use of the comments below each post and or flick me an email; horowhenua.kaikai@gmail.com.  I'd love to hear form you.

The story of a quince tree

 The quince is an old fashioned fruit.  I love it.  Some say it's an acquired taste.  We bottle it and have in on cereal over the winter.  Its tart and turns pink when its stewed.  I particularly love Quince jelly a floral smelling, pink jam- especially on toasted rewana or a bread like Vogels, and also the paste on a cheese board.  In Palmerston North and I suspect all over New Zealand, the Quince tree does really well.  Its also a root stock for other fruit trees like pears.  Here's a little mihi to our Quince trees.

Early Oct

Its still cold in October, but there's a shift going on,  Things are just starting to get moving in the garden.  Inside the Quince tree the sap rises and the buds pop and out come the leaves and very shortly there are blossoms ready to bloom.  They start off tucked in a spiral in October in Palmerston North.

late Oct

Ahhh, the blossoms open, this is the joyful time of tulips and daffodils.  The insects wake up and get active.  The flowers are visited by many insects including butterflies and bumble bees.

Mid Nov

Within less than a month we have small fruit developing.  They grow and bulge over the growing season.  Some may fall off due to weather conditions.

Late Nov

Mid Dec

The fruit has a furry bloom, and its hard, harder than a pear.

Early March

 When they start to get fragrant, and I notice the birds going for them, I pick all the ones I can reach and have a big bottling session to fill the cupboards with jelly and stewed quince.

(I really should remember to take photos of the buds when the sap rises in early spring, and also the twiggy tree dormant in the winter.  They're sorta the ugly stages- not exactly a photographers magnet)

Why would we want a local seed library?

I had a wonderful visit with a treasure of a gardener in Foxton today Linda Lake, and she has a gift with seed raising.  She has a set up with glass house and benches where she pots up and gives out seedlings to many people.  She's infected them with the gardening bug and they are terminal...haha.  She does it all for nothing, or a koha of plant pots, seed or potting mix.  Seeds are special things, they take a caring hand.  I'm always keen to connect with gardeners who grow from seed.

Pollination of an Allium (onion family) by a bumble bee

Its a complete cycle of living, growing, protecting, eating in sync with the food crops.  The philosophy of growing food from your own seeds is spiritual for me.  I am forced to care for all the important parts in the cycle, the worms, the bees, the companion plants...because they are what's feeding myself and my family.  I want quality soil and quality plants etc because I want strong children and someday grandchildren.


I've always been interested in ecology, but I'm now feeling the responsibility for seed saving. We don't want extinction for any lines of crops, we are all worse off.

Kay Baxter and my son Wipere gardening at Whitianga, Te Whanau a Apanui

A few years ago, I went up to Koanga Institute- when it was in Kaiwaka, met Kay Baxter and this led to them & their whanau moving to Te Whanau a Apanui for a few seasons where we re-established hapu gardens, at our marae, Whitianga Marae.  In terms of getting abetter understanding about the responsibility to save seed- it was there, with Kay for me.  I still have a lot of seed from this time.  I try and grow out what I can, but as a suburban gardener, you get to a point where you can't grow everything out to seed.  Some will cross if its grown to seed (e.g. brassicas and corn) And there just isn't the space.

Red stalked Silverbeet / chard going to seed

So we have to be more strategic.  Some people can grow this some people grow that, share the crops for the current season but make sure the seed lines are strong.

Pink fir Seed potatoes

 I also know its a big job, but with anything we've got to start somewhere. The local climate is a bit different here to any other place- so the crops we grow and the seeds we select to save will be different.   I don't have a huge amount of faith in governments and food legislation or even supermarkets in insuring, and ensuring biodiversity of food crops.   We've got to do it.  There are others already saving seed where they are. I just feel the crops that are important to us here, we need to look after.  I've saved mine for years, but now I think Im going to start opening it up, making them available and sharing the responsibility.

Thats sorta what I'm trying to do, one of the things Kay said was; "To look after the seeds, you need to look after the gardeners"  You need to grow more gardeners who are infected with the gardening bug, who will also dance with the seeds.

In terms of a seed library, its not my idea, I read it somewhere, but it implies a returning of seed that you take out.

I'll get my own stash of seeds catalogued and in order, so its more user friendly to share with others, this side of Christmas. I'm always happy to receive donations of seeds to add to our library and look after.   Mihi nui, Donna

Aquaponics- fish and vegetable system

Backyard Aquaponics Garden gurus 1

Looking at Aquaponics

Im having a nose around the net for aquqponics systems with the idea of having a growing and fish/ possibly eel system.  I have no idea if its legal,  where to get the fry etc, so at this stage I'm having a look.  At the PRI Australia there is an aquaponics system in the urban garden.  I don't know the fish that would work in NZ.  I don't know if anyone is already doing it here, so if any of you guys know

🍷Red Wine Vinegar

Crock with left over wine 

On the odd occasion, a few glasses of red wine may be consumed! Sometimes theres leftovers in the glass or in the bottle. They get poured into a crock with a cork lid.

I make wine on top of the fridge.

I got this from a second hand shop, but try  trademe. I find these are fabulous for all kinds of long term ferments.

In my red wine vinegar crock (cos I kept it growing for 6 or so years,) a mother of vinegar has grown. Its a colony of bacteria. Google it. Its what turns the sugars into acetic acid. This then preserves itself & food.

Mother of Vinegar: Red Wine Vinegar

Most store bought vinegars kill this living fermentation process & people buy the taste but not the benefits. I think its heat treated pasteurised. However I do know there is one for cider vinegar which you can buy with the mother still alive in it. See pic.

homemade wine 

relish

Only a piece of Mother is needed in some cases not even that, in cider vinegar it can be just stringy threads in the vinegar- the vinegars natural fermentation process is to form like a seal- to stop oxygen I think, so if I take off the mother, another will grow. If you send me a small courier bag- I can send you a piece of Mother to make your own- message me.

I need vinegar later in the season when the garden gets pumping &amp & I'm making relishes.  My household and extended whanau love this relish.

Cider Vinegar you can buy

Cider vinegar is just topped up with apple juice. I would highly recommend the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz. Also "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon has research into all traditional peoples having fermented foods in their diets.

Mother of Vinegar creating its own seal.

Small Scale and Urban Food Production

French cuisine anyone?

Snail hunting

If you haven’t gone out with a torch on a damp, spring evening- do it.  Honestly, this is the best way I know to get heaps of snails.  I could be all touchy feely and ask WHY are the snails there? Or be very Permaculture and say I don’t have a snail problem, I have a lack of ducks.   I'm not quite ready for ducks yet here in suburbia!

Basically snails hibernate over winter, they find a snuggly spot, then they wake up hungry in the spring and like much of nature they get frisky and want to procreate. It has occurred to me that there is actually quite a bit of protein in the 2 litres or more of ice-cream containers chock full of snails! We either need a French restaurant which I could supply(lol) or...well I'm open to suggestions.  A food source for something?? Aquaponics?  

 I've noticed that slugs and snails come out at night, and they eat damaged and dying leaves.  They don't actually seem to go for healthy leaves- as a first option.  Because its spring and Im just really aware of the tenderness of the little seedlings I'm planting out...it gets me thinking about snails and how they could be used.  Currently I feed them to Paua the bantam, the other chooks don't seem to be bothered with them.  Another cheap protein for Paua anyway.

I've got these Kamokamo seedlings ready to plant out around my garden, they will take up quite a bit of space once they get going for it, so I'll plant quick things around them like lettuce and radish- then by the time they start sending out their kawai, those will be done.  This will be too many for my household- but when we're sick of them, we'll give them out to friends and whanau.  The other thing is they are hungry and thirsty (but not water on the flowers & leaves- which would be good conditions for powdery mildew).  These seeds come from the MacDonald whanau in Shannon, THANK YOU.   Last growing season out of the hundreds of gardens I went to visit- Shannon people consistently had the best kamokamo, not to say there weren't plenty in other places, but yeah Shannon's got some good seed, good gardeners and good conditions.

Here are a few snaps of the seedlings that have recently been planted out.  I plant them in the soil, with compost (from my bins) scattered around then a good layer of wood chips.  I got the wood chips really cheap, $10 for 2 trailer loads! And since I'm conscious of trying to get carbon back into the soil, this is my main mulch this spring.  Of course mulch does the other stuff all mulch does, like slow down weeds so way less weeding and holds in the water, so less watering and water wastage.  I heard last night from a weather guy on the radio that the rest of Nov and Dec will be hot and dry- not many rain days.  This is good for people and Christmas parties but I want to lay down some protection for the soil before the water restrictions possibly come.

I've put in various tomatoes, and here's a cute little one- note the companion plantings of marigold Ive got in there too.  

Here's a shot of one of my mini wheelie bins.  Its in easy reach so I can weed from a couple of raised beds and reach it.  It does get hot even tho its small.  It's got a lid- that doesn't get lost! and its on wheels, so easy as to get around.