Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general
Rules:
FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom
Β
Banner image by Bernard Spragg
Got an idea for next month's banner?
I didn't know what the they where but somebody gave me some and I just peeled it, cut it up and steamed it, but you could totally throw this into all sorts of casseroles, soups, roasts or hangi it's really nice! Not too strong of a flavour kind of like a potato with a celery-like tinge, 10/10 will have more often π
Update: apparently they turn to mush if you roast them
Man for a bit I thought you were eating the seed pods from moth weed vines. Yikes.
You what? I don't know maybe I am lol tastes good though
Haha you'd know about it if it was them. I had to look it up to make sure. The sap in mothweed is a real nasty irritant.
We actually have it as low carb keto fries, cut them up, dry them with a paper towel then throw em in the air fryer and throw some chicken salt or MSG over them when it's done. Yes they're never crunchy but they taste good and it works nicely as a replacement for fries.
Up far north you would find them growing wild in the bush like a pest. Good to eat though yeah.
Grew up on these as a kid, and I hadn't had them in maybe 20+ years until I picked up some at the local sharing shed. SWMBO looked at them like they we alien spawn - having never seen them before
Nice! What does it taste like?
I don't think I've seen this in the supermarket before. I guess you might have to grow it yourself if you want some.
Yeah I think so, you see them being given away all over the place, I'm a bona fide fan I think it's delicious
I don't think I've seen them before. Are you up in the northern part of the country? Just wondering if the weather might be better for growing up north so maybe they don't have so many around here.
I live in the Wairarapa and we grow them from October-May/June. They even survived a few light frosts and over winter fine once pruned back. We would have got 100+ from our two plants this year. Recommended.
100! Oh man, is this one gonna smash my garden too?
When I grew courgette for the first time, I planted other things around it, no knowing it was gonna bulldoze it's way along the garden taking out everything in it's path.
As planted ours along an area we have for climbing plants. It did go over some trees behind them too, but given thatβs what the area is for I wonβt complain. They are tasty, store well and are good for trading with neighbours too. 10/10, will grow again. We use them as an alternative to celtuce but easier and faster to grow.
Oh! That sounds like something I need to try then, I had very little luck with Celtuce; planted a whole row of it and got maybe 3 thin stalks :)
We found celtuce did better in semi shady spots, or earlier in the season (like brassicas). Weβve got some growing slowly outdoors now.
Ah interesting, do you direct sow them? I should still have half a bag of seed from last year and i've got a good shadey spot I can plant in.
Weβve had pretty good luck starting them off in the greenhouse and transplanting. The birds seem to go for them as seedlings when we direct sow. Good luck.
Is it too late for planting now or is any time ok?
Any good recipes?
Weβve got a couple on the ground still (in a somewhat frost protected area) but Iβd probably wait till your last frost date if you are starting fresh. We use them in stir fries, soups, stews, hotpot etc.
You can basically substitute them for anything youβd use cauliflowers or even courgettes for. They are very easy to cook and hard to go wrong with. We keep experimenting and they always turn out good.
Ok thanks! Do you plant from seed or seedlings? And can you get them from your average garden store?
You can plant the vegetable directly and it will just grow from there. Iβd probably sprout it inside for a bit first (think a bit like potatoes getting eyes) and then just half bury it in the ground. We just used some we got from the local veggie market.
Hmm this says April to June, so I guess I will need to wait a while to get my chance.
We planted ours in October and still got tons so take that with a grain of salt. Probably somewhat dependent on the climate in your area too.
I may be able to plan it in October but that doesn't help if I have to wait until April to buy one π
There are plenty of people selling them on Trademe now for a few $ so maybe check that out
Thanks for the idea, I'll give it a go
A house round the corner from me grows them - they're sorta like beans I think, climb all over the place.
Asian supermarkets will have them, if you have any in your area. We use them a lot in soups and stuff in winter.
Hmm I wonder if now I know what they look like I might see them at the weekend markets. I'm sure I've seen things I didn't recognise labeled as "squash", I'll have to check next time I get a chance.
In Christchurch we find it around this time of the year in supermarkets sometimes, or at Healthy Harvest in Prebbleton.
Interesting! I spent some time in my younger days working in the produce section of supermarkets, and never saw it.
I'm keen to get back to a weekend market and see if I can find one.
There's a massive amount of vegetables our supermarkets just do not stock. Its really sad - the same 20 or so product lines all year and so many other things (particularly seasonal) that never get a look in.
Occasionally my local New World will have Kamo Kamo when they're in season but compared to the variety of veg you can pick up at the farmer's market (usually for less) its just not worth shopping at Supermarkets for veg if you're privileged enough to be able to avoid it.
Same goes for the meat sections too - so many cuts they just don't bother with.
I'm lucky enough to get choices in farmers markets, depending on how long I want to drive. It's funny seeing different varieties you never knew existed. I bought "beetroot" one day, got it home, cut it open, and it had white and red striped flesh! After some research, it turns out it was (probably) the Chioggia variety. Never heard of it!
I also see things listed as "squash" that can be one of many, I often see "turnip" that is not what I expect a turnip to look like, there are really quite a range of things you don't get at the supermarket.
Yeah its very silly really.
One of my favourite things to grow is radishes, there's dozens of different varieties, all sorts of different internal and external colours and combinations, and some are firey peppery in flavour while others are mild and sweet.
What's dumb is that say come apple season you can see the evidence for the Supermarket's supply chain stupidity. There's probably 6 different varieties of apples proudly on sale all different colours, shapes & flavours.
Well why isn't the same true for carrots - there's a myriad of different kinds, why are there only 2 kinds of Onion in NZ supermarkets?!
For a real eye-opener I highly recommend checking out Kings Seeds catalog (https://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/) it blew my mind. Eg the Cocozelle I found way more enjoyable than the average zuchini you find at New World (https://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/results.html?q=courgette)
That's a cool site, thanks for linking! Though it's quite a risk growing courgette from seed, you could plant one seed and end up having it not germinate, or you could plant two and risk them both germinating, ending up with more courgette than you can give away π
I suspect that there isn't the same market for different kinds of carrots or onions as there is for different kinds of apples. You really start to see a variety of apples at the time of year when all the stone fruit is gone (i.e. now). People want fruit and so will buy from the small selection available, which means supermarkets sell a lot of apples, which lets them support a wider variety.
I think farmers markets can better support the different varieties as people come knowing that what they find will be different each time, and if they see an unusual variety of something they know it might not be there next week so they buy it and give it a go. Mainstream supermarkets are running on the premise of people have expectations about what they should have and they try to meet those expectations.
I started 6 pots for the courgettes, 2 seeds per pot; and pulled the weakest out. Then I gave away 3 of the seedlings and planted the other 3, trying to balance the level of growth so they would hopefully stagger harvest.
In the end the strongest seedling produced the most courgettes by a long way, the middle seedling produced very little - possibly because I planted them in order so it was crowded out by the others maybe; but the smallest one did live up to the plan of having a longer running harvest rather than just a huge glut of them.
We did end up with more courgettes than we could eat, but that partly comes down to not picking them early & small enough when they tasted a lot better. I made many chocolate-zucchini cakes which was one way to get rid of the excess, and gave away what I could.
There's a local app for gardening & sharing called Magic Beans - that's an option for trading excess produce, and having a different kind of courgette/zucchini to share would probably be a help i'd guess (not actually tried it!). It was in beta for ages so hasn't got a huge population, but I think just launched - pity its not Fedi :) https://www.magicbeansapp.com/
I grew courgette for the first time last year, one plant and it gave us more than we needed. Just managed to stay on top of them with I getting sick of them.
Thanks for the link to that app. I'll check it out, though my garden is empty at the moment.
It's called Chayote. Really tasty. We use it to make clear soup with chicken or pork slices.