You can make ricotta.

No shops in Tuateawa, we don't miss them but it is nice during the Xmas break to pick up a newspaper from the Waikawau camp store. No restaurants either and friends have a habit of arriving when our supplies are low.

Riccotta is quick and easy to make. It's the basis for tasty and impressive entrees, lunch dishes, main courses(especially useful if your guests are vegetarians) and wicked desserts. Our favourite recipes in later posts.

To make 600gm ricotta you need:-

4l Whole milk (fresh, longlife or reconstituted powder all work)

2-4 Tbspn white vinegar

Salt

Large pan to hold 4l

Cheese cloth, sieve and wooden spoon

Slowly heat milk, stirring to avoid burning, until it is hot but not boiling.

Add vinegar 1Tbspn at a time and stir.

Curds will start to form on the top, that's enough vinegar.

Cover and leave to set and cool for 40-50mins.

Strain through cheese cloth placed over a sieve.

Squeeze to remove whey.

There is your ricotta.

In a bowl, break up with a fork and add salt and stir.

Now you can make it fancy with any of:-

chopped herbs, olives, chillis, sundried tomatoes or try chopped dried apricots, walnuts. Whatever is left in the cupboard works.

But for us it is usually ends up in erbazzone, an Italian pie with silverbeet, watercress, or whatever we can find in season.

Try, enjoy.

TUATEAWA PLANT SPOT: TUTU.

It is ironic that, in pre-contact Aotearoa, tutu was one of the few sources of sweetness. Honey bees and their honey were a much later arrival. Tutu is wind pollinated so it doesn't need to produce nectar or to have attractive flowers. Bees visit it in only the most unusual circumstances. The sweetness comes from the petals which swell up and form a fruit around the seed.

It is recorded that the petal juice was extracted, fermented or, with the aid of a little seaweed, made into a jelly. Obtaining that sugar fix or alcohol buzz did have some potentially very serious side effects. The petals are the only part of tutu that lack the neurotoxin tutin. To separate the seeds from the juice a funnel was woven from cabbage tree leaves. The funnel was then stuffed with toe toe seed heads so that the poisonous seeds could be removed from the sweet liquid.

The toxin has a range of effects, the most serious being convulsions, coma or even death. There is no antidote for tutin so treatment involves control of the symptoms. Today we have an extensive range of drugs for this purpose and patients recover as the tutin leaves their system. In the past a more physical treatment was attempted. It seems bizarre to bury someone up to the neck to control convulsions. Even stranger is the repeated immersion of someone to the point off drowning. Sadly we have seen this technique used in modern times when mental illness was interpreted as a case of maketu or possession.

Since colonial times tutin has caused stock problems due to ingestion of tutu and human poisoning from consumption of tutin in honey. The last recorded death was in 1917. In the summer months tutu can get infested with the vine leaf hopper. This insect takes the protein from tutu sap and leaves honey dew which contains tutin. This can then be a nectar source for honey bees, particularly in dry years.

It has to be said that commercial apiarists are well clued up on tutin. The industry has NZ$100,000,000 of exports each year. It has a reputation to protect with new products such as organic honey and also UMF honey becoming important earners. They have management and monitoring protocols in place that have proved effective.The last case of tutin poisoning from commercial honey was 35 years ago in 1974. It is an enviable reputation.

The 22 people poisoned by tutin in comb honey in 2008 over in Whangamata was a real hiccup for commercial apiarists. Anyone can have a hive and there are many hobbyists that produce honey surpluses that they give to friends or even sell. This honey was marketed, in comb form under the name Projen Apiaries. The first person to suffer tutin poisoning was the hobby apiarist himself. He spent three days in hospital after eating his own honey. It was subsequent to this that he then supplied the local market with his honey comb and the other people fell ill. The logic of this is hard to fathom.

Commercial apiarists have a national association which works alongside the The New Zealand Food Safety Authority. Despite their lack of responsibility over the Whangamata poisonings the association introduced even more stringent protocols for their industry in Jan. this year.

As for tutu in Tuateawa, it is a very common plant. It grows by the roadside and scrubby areas. There is an outside possibility that you could absorb tutin should you get any quantity of tutu juice on your skin. I guess that it is something to be aware of.

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE!

Pittosporum tenuifolium.
Hangehange.
Scent has a powerful effect on human beings. Visit any food court and you are met by a vast array of competing aromas. Food that smells good is great for business. It is another form of advertising. It stimulates your appetite and you are more likely to spend a few bucks to satisfy your newly generated hunger!

In Tuateawa there are very different, naturally occurring, perfumes. Most people enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass and, in Tuateawa you can usually add the scent of peppermint to this as well. They are both refreshing. Dominating everything at the moment is the heavy scent of the Hangehange or Native Privet. Added to this, in the evening and morning is the sweeter perfume of the Pittosporums, which are widely planted.

As with the food court a transaction is going on, but we are not involved. The scent advertises the availability of food in the form of pollen or nectar. In return the plant has it's flowers pollinated. A form of chemical communication between plant and insects that has positive consequences for them both.

PS. Regarding the earlier post on Godwits. The first birds arrived in Xchurch on 15th Sept at 11am. They have the custom of ringing the Cathedral bells in Xchurch which is a great way of letting people know of their arrival. No sign in Colville when we were their on the 18th Sept. No sign of coffee either!!! Cafe closed.

Tuateawa Bird Spot: Shining Cuckoo.

As, with a number of Tuateawans, we spend a fair bit of our lives in another location. A bit like the godwits we have two homes. We owe allegiance to both and they sustain different aspects of our lives.

In our Hamilton suburb we currently have four tui which is a first. In Tuateawa they will, of course be omnipresent! At the moment both places have one more thing in common. The pipiwharauroa or shining cuckoo was heard here on the 5th of Sept. We were thrilled when a friend in Tuateawa rang to say it was there as well. That is really very early as they usually arrive the last week of Sept.

Back in the UK this would have the clergy from North Wallop to Much Haddam in the Marsh uncapping their fountain pens. Each competing to get the first notification in to "THE TIMES OF LONDON" !

Most birds make the 3000km. direct flight to NZ from the Solomon Is. Others come via the coast of Australia and then across the Tasman. A much lesser journey than the godwit, but these birds are coming to breed. Without our riroriro or grey warbler they might not exist. The warbler provides a nest for the cuckoo to lay an egg. It fosters the young cuckoo when it hatches. During this period the cuckoo jettisons unhatched eggs and its foster siblings.

Cuckoo eggs aren't laid until November which lets one nestful of warblers be reared. The warbler is a very small bird and its nest is quite remarkable. It has a small entrance, complete with a porch roof and is domed and suspended. No one has seen just how a female cuckoo manages to insert an egg into such a structure.

Both of these birds can be identified by their song. The grey warbler supposedly sings to announce Spring and also coming rain. It is a rather plaintive and quite enchanting sound. Certainly it does sing a little less in the summer. Perhaps just too busy, or trying to avoid the attention of cuckoos! Warblers are most often seen doing an excellent humming bird impersonation. They hover in the air taking insects from the ends of branches so flimsy that they wouldn't support even their slight weight.

Our cuckoo doesn't go "cuckoo" but it's call is just as distinctive. First there is a short rising call, often repeated many times. Usually, but not always, this is followed by a longer falling call repeated fewer times. If you can imitate this part of the call you are equipped to enter a singing duel with the bird concerned!

Radio New Zealand has a website where the calls of both these birds and many others can be heard. Not on this site is the call that a young cuckoo makes to it's foster parents to ensure that it is fed. It is a single note, almost a tick, repeated constantly, all day. It is the best way of locating a cuckoo as they usually stay in the same spot for quite a while.

Should you hear a riot of cuckoo sounds it means that a cuckoo Parliament is underway. Numbers of birds can congregate together for a few minutes and the purpose is unclear. It is a very noisy meeting though. A bit like question time in the House, with everyone talking and no one listening. This activity is explained in one maori story. The story goes that the cuckoo parents carry out one single parental responsibility. That of telling their offspring just how to make the journey to the Solomons. They must go, on their own, some time after the parents departure in February!

RIDERS OF THE STORM! COMING SOON!! TO A PLACE NEAR YOU!!!

"Who has seen the nest of the kuaka?" asks a Maori proverb. Well, never in NZ. The Alaskan tundra is the place to look, but not just now. Today, in Anchorage the temp. is 17.8 degrees C. The days are fourteen hours long, but getting shorter. At the equinox, on the 21st Sept. the day will be twelve hours long. By the solstice, 21st. Dec, our longest day, there will be just a few hours of pink dawn style light but the sun will not appear above the horizon. Between mid-Nov. and mid- Feb. the maximum temperatures never rise into positive territory and the minimums reach negative thirty. The ground is permanently frozen a few feet down which saves Alaskans a fair amount on refrigeration.

No place for a bird. The kuaka or eastern bar tailed godwits are preparing to leave. In a couple of weeks they will, in incredible numbers, take off behind a huge low pressure system and start their epic non stop journey of 11,000 km. across the sea to NZ. By that stage 55% of their body weight will be high energy fat. Some of this will come from the re-absorption of much of their digestive system, liver and kidneys. Extra luggage not needed on their journey. They will travel at speeds around 60km/hr. and make their journey in just six to eight days. When they arrive they will be running on empty, having lost half their body weight, and will be in sore need of some new flight feathers.

Godwits are one of the less endangered species. Over 100,000 visit NZ each southern summer. There are some causes for concern. In their breeding territory they are susceptible to habitat change brought on by global warming. Average annual temp. in the Arctic is up by 3.5 degrees C. in the past fifty years compared to a global average rise of around one degree C.

Risks occur as they return to their breeding grounds in a more leisurely way, via the East Asian Australian Flyway. This is also used by many other wader species. They pass through many countries along the way. There is an international convention to protect the wetlands they visit to feed to put on condition for breeding. These places are often adjacent to areas of dense human population and heavy industrialisation which can degrade these important habitats.

The first image is of godwits busy feeding on the shores of Waikawau in late Sept. 08. They didn't stay for long. In the summer they are always to be found on the Colville mudflats. If you need another really good excuse to sample some of the best coffee on the Peninsula this could be it. The birds are easiest seen at high tide. If you need another excuse, check out the neat pottery orang utan. It's also at the cafe!

Tuateawa Plant Spot: Kowhai.

The year is moving along. Townies can tell, by what appears in the shops! Xmas decorations are now available! In shopless Tuateawa spring is on the way because the kowhais are in bloom. It is always worth taking some time to sit in a kowhai grove and watch all the activity. Tuis alternate between feeding and aerial combat. If you are lucky you may also see some kaka and kereru.

As with the pohutakawa, our kowhai has relatives in other parts of the world, like Chile and Hawaii. Even so, many people consider it to be our national flower. NZ has eight kowhai species of it's own. The species in Tuateawa is known as Kowhai tetraptera after the four wings on the seed capsule although this is also found on other species.

Kowhai seeds have an undeserved reputation. They do contain a poisonous alkaloid but there is not a single record of stock or human death from eating the seeds. Two people have become rather poorly though as a result of eating a meal made using a spoon of kowhai wood.

Kowhai trees are mostly found along streams and other waterways. They do prefer well drained situations but their seeds and seed pods are well adapted for distribution by water. The seed capsules float, and so do most of the seeds when pods rot and release them. Viable seed from NZ has been found washed up on the shores of the Kermadec and Chatham Islands.

Dr. Eric Godley, a kowhai specialist, has expressed concern about the decline of kowhai in some locations in NZ, particularly in areas of intensive management. The status of kowhai in Tuateawa seems to be an open question . There are plenty of mature trees. There are also quite a lot of small seedlings to be found. I do wonder how many of these will become saplings and then young trees. Rabbits are more prevalent since predator controls have been introduced.

We have planted kowhai on our section that have been ring barked by rabbits. In one kowhai grove we visit there are no saplings present to replace the old trees that are falling prey to borer beetles and the wind. An heavy infestation of kikuyu could be stopping the kowhais replacing themselves in this location.

Of course, we can always grow our own replacement plants. There is no shortage of kowhai seed in Tuateawa. The seed coat does need to be damaged before germination can occur. Once it is though, germination is rapid. Some use nail files and others sharp knives to abrade the coat. Another alternative involves using coarse grade sandpaper. If you place seed inside a piece of sandpaper folded on itself, a rubbing motion, on a flat surface, roughens up the surface. If the seed is then placed on some soggy paper towel in an old saucer you can see if the treatment has worked. A germinating seed swells up as it takes in water. It also looses a yellow dye. If you see these things happening it's time to plant the seed!