Tuateawa Christmas.

Despite a few recent setbacks the magic of Tuateawa continues. If you haven't visited for a while you will notice signs of our most recent major weather event. New slips and debris at what seem to be impossible heights on some fence lines.

The roading people deserve real praise. In some places, like the Tuateawa hill, the gutters were eroded down to the level of the fibre optic and electric cable. As of last weekend the roads and gutters were largely restored back to their normal condition. Some of the minor roads were still requiring some attention and one part, on the way to Waikawau, could need more than a quick fix up.

The silver lining to this event is the large quantity of roading metal that is to be found deposited hither and thither. Quite useful for establishing a few paths about your property. Some is fairly close to building mix standard! The pools on the Waiherere Stream have also been cleaned out, maybe even enlarged. They could be very tempting over an hot Tuateawa Xmas.

In the bird world the storm could have passed unnoticed. Seeing thirteen kaka in the air at the same time exceeds our earlier record of nine. They must be enjoying a good breeding season. At Waikawau breeding success for the NZ Dotterel is, perhaps, yet to come.

HAPPY TUATEAWA CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Hot Smoked Manuka Chicken.

If you cannot catch fish but like smoked food there are at least two alternatives. If it is fish you like you just cannot avoid a visit to the Coromandel Smoke House. Great taste and terrific variety. If you like smoked chicken, or even sausage you can make your own, and, you don't need to buy an expensive smoker. Why would you if you can't catch fish?

All you need are a few bits of redundant kitchen equipment. Start with an old wok or a wok frypan without it's handle, (they often unscrew, if not a more drastic approach is needed!). Add to this an old sandwich cake baking tin, a circular cake cooler, some manuka chips or sawdust, wide aluminium foil and you are in business.

The supermarket has a big variety of marinated fresh chicken you can smoke or you can marinate your own. Whichever approach you choose it helps to split the chicken. Rest a chicken, back down, on a chopping board and insert an heavy knife through the neck opening and out the other end. A downward rocking pressure from both hands will split the chicken and it can be opened out flat and marinaded.

This simple marinade works well. Just mix

2 tspn brown sugar

2tspn crushed garlic

2 Tblspn light soy sauuce

Rub all over both sides of split chicken(or you can use breasts bone in or out but you need skin on to prevent drying out)

To smoke the bird 1) put an handful of manuka chips on the bottom of the wok

2) put the cake tin, to catch the cooking juices, on

3) put the cake rack on the tin and put the flat chicken, skin side down, on it

4)Seal the bird in the wok with silver foil.

5)Pre heat your oven to 200 C.

6)Place the wok on a hot element and move it around until a little smoke starts to escape the foil. Reduce the heat and continue to smoke for ten minutes.

7)Put the wok into the preheated oven and continue the cooking for 25 minutes. Stand for 20 minutes, don't remove foil.When the wok has cooled remove the chicken and organise your partner to clean up the mess! The result is really worth the effort!

TUATEAWA PLANT SPOT: MANUKA AND KANUKA 2.

In 1773 Captain Cook and his sailors had their first taste of Spruce Beer, NZ style! Made by fermenting a mix of molasses, hops and water, it brewed in under a week. The only variable was the anti scurvy ingredient. In the northern hemisphere spruce was used but in NZ manuka and rimu vegetation was added as the vitamin C. source. It must have been a decent drop because, in 2003, a micro brewery, The Wigram Brewing Company, revived the recipe and have had good success with their product in national competitions.

Both plants are pioneer species and before the arrival of man would have been fairly scarce occupying open ground like slips and eroded river banks. First the Polynesians and later the Europeans, by their agricultural practices, created lots of open habitats for these plants. Controlling regrowth in pastures became a major problem and both species came to be regarded as weeds. Help seemed to be at hand in the mid 1930's. Areas of Manuka in Geraldine were found to be dying at an increasing rate.The dying Manuka were heavily infested with sap sucking insects that had, somehow, arrived from Australia. Lacking any of their native predators, and, with a lot of help from commercial and farming interests the scale insect was established country wide by the mid 1950's. It all looked good for the farming community until a fungal parasite of the scale insect also arrived. Now little trace of that original scale insect can be found and the populations of both Manuka and Kanuka are as vigorous as ever they were.

Another Australian scale insect is now found on our plants, but it is relatively harmless. On a sunny day you can glimpse the translucent threads of the insect's honey dew shining in the canopy. Tuis and bellbirds are often seen feeding on these in the newer growth of both plants. What is not consumed becomes food for the fire damp fungus which covers the branches of so many of the Manuka trees with a grimy black deposit.

In Tuateawa many of us live amongst the Manuka and Kanuka.They have taken over much of the old farm land. Fire risk, rather than fireblight, occupies our thoughts. Both of these species contain quantities of dead and finely divided combustible material in their crowns. The timber has less moisture than most native species and the leaves contain an highly volatile and combustible oil. On a fire risk scale running from 1 to 10 both species have values of 9 to 10. This is equivalent to eucalypts. To add further perspective, pine plantations have a risk factor of 6. Best of all, at 1 is the native fuchsia. At any time in the dry period a bush fire is a possibility. It has almost become accepted practice for car thieves to burn their ride when they are finished and fireworks pose their own problems. It doesn't pay to be complacent but, in our time, there have been no serious fires. This says a lot for the awareness of Tuateawans.

In their own way Manuka/Kanuka are as pivotal in the regeneration of our bush as the kereru. By their presence they improve the environment. Wind and temperatures are moderated, the soil is contributed to and it's moisture content held for longer in the dry times. In their shelter the fore runners of the bush; pepper tree, native privet and whitey wood, to mention a few, can become established. Eventually the sheltering Kanuka/Manuka will be overtopped by the larger trees of the bush. The timescale for complete regeneration is hard to imagine. But, in some well soiled road cuttings, thirty years has seen these pioneer species much reduced in significance. Wind and wetas have contributed to their decline and they are not being replaced by younger plants from ground level. The pioneers have served their time.

TUATEAWA PLANT SPOT: MANUKA AND KANUKA 1

If you need a source of fuel, enjoy smoked food or love honey then these plants are for you. As an householder your views would be moderated by the fire risk they pose. As an environmentalist with a longer term view you could consider them as nurse plants with the important role of delivering native bush from the farm land of the past.

Manuka Kanuka

Superficially the two species are quite similar. They both belong to the Myrtle family as does our pohutakawa. Their differences are sufficient to put them into different genera.

MANUKA is Leptospermum scoparium and KANUKA is Kunzea ericoides.

Kanuka Manuka

They are both flowering at the moment which helps to tell them apart. Manuka has bigger flowers but short stamens. In Kanuka the stamens extend out beyond the petals. Manuka also retains the last years seed pods. They are quite large and woody, though in Kanuka they are small, softish and less persistent.

There is also a size differential. Anything over 5m. is probably a Kanuka. In the absence of flowers the touch test works well. If you grasp a branch and it is a bit prickly it will be a Manuka as Kanuka is quite soft to the touch.