Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Paul T]

Our lovely little Elfinraer (see my avatar picture) when she was younger would go out and dig something up when she got into trouble.  It happened many times, but she rarely if ever dug at other times.  We also at one point had a geranium in a pot that was looking unwell.... we discovered 4 bones buried under it.  Sounds normal, I hear you say, except that to get to that pot she had to jump a small fence, walk across 4 or more rows of pots, and then dig down into this particular pot.  She never touched any of the other ones.  I wasn't exactly pleased when I found the evidence.    Surprising at times that she has lived to her current 14 years of age. 

[johnw]

Your story John, in turn reminds me of one in which my elderly aunt, must have been 85 at the time, returned home from a holiday with my cousin, to find that her fridge was well stocked. She thanked the neighbour kindly and said how much she'd enjoyed the luncheon sausage. Also thanked the neighbour for looking after her little dog. You guessed it, the sausage was actually a chunk of dog roll which the neighbour had bought. I don't think he told her about that.

And the lady who came into the garden centre one day for replacement Hippeastrums - the over-sized jumbos at $25 each. She had phoned home and asked her husband to put on the potatoes and rhutabagas before she got home. Only to find out he had cooked a pot of her jumbos from the fridge.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

Oh dear, men will do anything to avoid the cooking shift. I'll bet she hasn't asked him again.

Teddy did try to attack the rubbish collection truck this morning. He was brought to the door by the truck driver who asked did we want him collected too. I told him to help himself but he declined. With Cain here as well, a larger, much older dog who never wanders, Teddy too has always stayed within the boundries but he has become very independant this last month. His little operation will, I hope, fix any inclination to explore outside our 2 acres. I hope he gets over the car sickness as it means he can't go so many places. But he is a great digger and I'm having to put pieces of chicken netting over new plantings of bearded irises and some tulips bulbs this week. My mother used to put the possums she shot under a new grape or passion vine and we always had superb fruit.

I know the word, rhutabaga, but what actually IS it? I mean what kind of a vegetable. I've always imagined something like Jerusalem artichokes.

[Lesley Cox]

Talking of possums (the Australians we DON'T love), while many schools raise funds with sponsored runs, cake stalls and a hundred other ways, (does ANY government fully fund its education system to the proper degree?) last weekend, one North Island school had a possum shoot in the native bush around their small town. The kids are all farming or country brought up and are well aquained with firearms and even 8 and 10 year olds shot a lot, all properly supervised by teachers and parents of course. The fur from the possums was collected (you really don't want to see the possums in the de-furring machine) and at $5 per possum for its fur, the school raised over $5000. That's a lot of possums who will no longer feed on the rata and pohutakawa trees. (Metrosideros species.) The school had a fun day in conjunction, with, among other things, a possum-tossing competition. Needless-to-say, city folks were deeply offended at this and proclaimed it "politically incorrect." God help us!

[Lesley Cox]

Remaining with a somewhat gory subject, in Central Otago which in parts looks very like the wilder parts of Afghanistan, there is an annual Great Easter Bunny Shoot. I think around 25,000 rabbits were shot this year. While at the beginning it was a local event, with the farmers and run-holders whose land was infested doing the dirty deed (they work in teams of 4 or 5), the event has become famous and is now a world-wide thing, with teams coming from Poland one year, from the Australian and US armies and many other places. There are now so many teams registering to shoot, that they have to hold a ballot in order to keep the numbers reasonable, and for safety to be maintained. They shoot through both day and night. The men (and some women) all get to do their macho thing and the harvest makes it possible for farming in the area to remain viable.

[Giles]

It's a swede, Lesley.

[Lesley Cox]

Oh, a swede. Thanks. I like them very much, mashed with salt, pepper and butter and very nice roasted too.

[johnw]

Oh, a swede. Thanks. I like them very much, mashed with salt, pepper and butter and very nice roasted too.

Lesley

Roasted? I have never heard of that, tell me more. By the way I called it rhutabaga when in fact we call it turnip; many elsewhere call the white purple-topped type turnips. We would never dream of boiling a Swede let alone a Hippeastrum.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

Well I wouldn't boil a Swede John but I'm happy to boil a swede. (Simmer until tender, drain well add a knob of butter and salt and pepper, and enjoy.) Here they are swedes or sometimes swede turnips but usually turnips are the smaller, very juicy white ones which I like raw or cooked. And we feed swedes to sheep as a winter crop, with predictable results. To roast, I simply peel off the outer skin, cut into pieces about the size of a roast potato and.....roast them, with the potatoes, carrots or whatever, preferably around the lamb or other meat for a lovely flavour.

[Ragged Robin]

My mouth is watering with your description of turnips and butter + seasoning, Lesley.... Celeriac also makes a great addition to roasted vegetables or sliced in layers in a vegetable bake with tomato and cheese topping....
My other half has been on a diet of no potatoes or carbs and I miss them so sneak in a 'feeling' of potatoes with celeriac 

[Maggi Young]

Celeriac is a thing which has never tempted me..... but now I get the idea from Robin of this layered cheesy bake.... I'm enthused. Thanks!

[Paul T]

OK, I can live with all these strange vegetable discussions.    Just so long as no-one starts spouting the virtues of Brussel Sprouts.  They're even worse than Avocado!  (shudder)

[ashley]

OK, I can live with all these strange vegetable discussions.    Just so long as no-one starts spouting the virtues of Brussel Sprouts. 

Have you ever tried them stir-fried with ginger and a bit of garlic Paul?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

OK, I can live with all these strange vegetable discussions.    Just so long as no-one starts spouting the virtues of Brussel Sprouts.  They're even worse than Avocado!  (shudder)

Watch your tongue dude.. 

[Maggi Young]

I was reading only last week of the botanists who had come up with a fantastic innovation
of a vegetable that is healthy to eat and you never have to brush your teeth again....
...BRISTLE SPROUTS!