Foraging In NZ, or Growing Pear (Shaped)

It's a bright sunny day in Mapua, and I'm sitting here at the computer trying to rub enough feeling into my fingers so I can use the keyboard. During the balmier months, it's easy to forget that there's nothing between NZ and Antarctica except a couple thousand kilometers of open ocean. But now, at the start of the winter season with the Southerlies blowing in, it's hard to forget it.





Didn't Think to Bring a Window Scraper




Despite the freezing weather that regularly visits these islands, the Kiwis have been curiously lackadaisical when it comes to winterizing their homes. Most houses are built on top of concrete pillars which are highly efficient at transferring cold up through the uninsulated floors. The cold likewise finds easy access through the equally uninsulated walls and roofs and the single pane glass windows. Leaving your flannel sheets and duvet in the morning can be an effort of will when there's frost covering the ground – and sometimes the inside of your windows.

Still, Jim has valiantly gone forth - dressed in cycling clothes better suited to balmy Southern California - to tackle the rolling hills, grit covered shoulders, and stares from locals who (despite there being a small serious cycling group here) still find it a source of wonder when men appear in black Lycra shorts and jerseys that call to mind a flock of mad parrots.

But enough of all that. This post was supposed to be about foraging in New Zealand and – despite the chilly weather – the foraging is still very, very good.

Food is almost inescapable in New Zealand. There are the stands along the roadsides offering everything from pumpkins to kiwi fruit to whitebait. There are also farmer's markets in every town worthy of the name, plus supermarkets, corner shops, bakeries, and sadly, an influx of McDonalds, KFCs, Dominos, and Burger Kings that has increased the average weight of the average Kiwi by 11 pounds in the past few years.





A Day's Foraging





This post is not about the food that's available to buy, however, it's about the food you can get for free! Every home here seems to have lemons, oranges, grapefruit, feijoa, persimmons, crabapples, and/or figs growing in its garden. And the trees are quite prolific – even as we enter winter most branches are still covered with ripening fruit. The trees are so furiously producing fruit, in fact, that their owners are royally sick of it. After eating them in every conceivable form they want nothing more than to get rid of them – and are delighted if a stranger knocks at their door promising to take some of the overflow away (I recently cleared almost 100 deliciously ripe feijoa from a grateful neighbor's driveway where they had fallen overnight)!





Jim Takes It To The Top









If you don't want to bother picking your own, giant bags of apples, golden kiwi, and anything else that's in season can be found along every roadway for about $1.30 (just drop your coins into the honor box) – a dozen fresh free-range organic eggs will set you back less than $3.00 (any mention of money on this site is converted into US$ amounts since Kiwis also have dollars).

Another great way to score a delicious meal and get some exercise out in the fresh air is to volunteer to pick olives or grapes at a friend's “lifestyle block” (code for: “We know we can't make a living off this small amount of land, but it's fun to own a “farm” that requires very little work AND gives you a great landscape to look at from your living room windows.”). These occasions involve much interesting conversation and laughter with the other pickers, a generally fantastic lunch - with alcohol and music - and some of the fruits of your labor to take home (cases of last season's wine and fresh olive oil after the press).

So, needless to say, neither of us has lost any weight....


Next Post: “Two countries separated by a common language......”


URGENT QUERY: Is there anyone out there who knows someone who works for New Line Cinema? My goal for the coming year is to be an extra in “The Hobbit” !