Crumbles 101 The best sort of crumble has tender fruit and a tender crumble crust that’s not too buttery and definitely not oily, but not dry or powdery nor set hard like a cake, but with just the right toothsome soft crunch. The fruit is best with a slight tang or bite to it, to contrast with the sweeter crumble topping. The cooked crumble should be appetisingly golden on top with juices bubbling up around the edge of it, indicating the fruit is cooked. Get all that right, and you will hit crumble Nirvana. Well, this is how I like them! Here are a few tips to help achieve a memorable crumble ..read more

Here are some of our favourite dishes for Easter, or to serve up when having a crowd over at your place. Gratin of Eggplant, Green Pepper & Tomatoes with Crunchy Crumb Topping This is a great vegetarian dish. Hot-smoked Salmon Salad with Beets, Potato & Yoghurt Dill Sauce Friends coming for lunch? Looking for a casual platter to serve? Look no further! Slow-cooked Shoulder of Lamb with Thyme & Mint This is a show-stopper! Go through all the notes before starting the recipe. Chili con Carne with Extras! This is the perfect dish to serve for a crowd. Get it made ahead, then when r ..read more

Summer has delivered long days of hot sunshine, warm seas to swim in and beautiful evenings and sunsets. Phew. The country needed it after last summer’s no-show and ensuing weather devastation. It’s interesting how a wet winter, moderate spring, and hot, dry summer affect not just humans, but plant life. I’ve had a huge success with scarlet runner beans, and the plants are only just reaching their peak, minimal success with regular green beans, phenomenal success with baby eggplants but miserable output from two zucchini plants. Zucchini plants are usually the easiest things to grow. Who knows ..read more

Sue Wickison was born and brought up in Sierra Leone. After a life spent living in far-flung and exotic countries, she and her family moved to New Zealand in 1997, and to Waiheke Island in 2020. Sue Wickison at work on Waiheke. Sue’s a qualified Scientific Illustrator. A part of her career was spent at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London. While she was there, she was given an assignment to record and collect orchids. A Winston Churchill fellowship enabled her to travel to the Solomons for this work. Microscope dissection drawings of the orchids were collated into a publication with Kew and ..read more

Ruby came for a visit. I hadn’t invited her. And she stayed longer than she should have. We didn’t share tea and cake, though I thought about it. Bart came looking for her, stressed out, asking had I seen her. And, yes, I had, a vision in dirty white, she had teetered past at about 10.30. I saw her, moments later, meandering down the driveway. I called to her, but she ignored me. Later, much later, I heard her again, bleating about something or the other. She was on the driveway again, and paused in the shade for a while. Who did she think she was? Didn’t she have respect for private property ..read more

A sunny day, so many flowers to chose from. Why did the bumble bees ignore my scarlet runner bean plants for the first few weeks of flowering? Couldn’t they see the flowers? Read more about them here Jack was not involved And watch the video below ..read more

I kept a few seeds from last year’s beans but didn’t get around to planting them until late. I have paid the price … a lot of flowers didn’t set. That means, they fall off the plant, so no beans. I read that if it gets too hot, flowers won’t set on scarlet runner beans. That’s why you plant them in spring, not summer,  as I did.  I remembered from past years that it takes a while for things to crack along, so I remained optimistic. No bumble bees showing up was a problem. They seemed to be enjoying the mauvey-blue flowers on the huge sage plant close by, so I draped a few s ..read more

I’ve done it again. Using a very unscientific approach and ignoring all advice, I’ve let my tomato triffids turn into a tomato forest and it is laden with fruit. Three things help: good soil with compost; good mulch, and I use pea straw so any tomatoes touching the ground will have a comfy and dry place to grow; and I take out lower leaves on the plant to ensure airflow and prevent rotting. Underneath, dozens of tomato seeds from last year exploded through the soil. I let some of them come through, so I have a few plants of tiger-striped green-red tomatoes, which are my favourite, and egg-shap ..read more

I only planted two eggplant plants this season. Just as well. One small plant has produced dozens of small eggplants. I have never seen anything like it. How did it happen? Compost, maybe? Water at the right time? Sun at the right time? I wish I knew, because then I would repeat it next year. Gardening is like that, sometimes all the garden gods smile at once, and you get a bumper crop. I’m just thankful when it happens, and try not to beat myself up when it doesn’t. Watch the wee video below ..read more

I need help. I need to go to a tomato head-shrink. Seriously, every year, I grow triffids. Oh, I get plenty of tomatoes, I’m happy about that, it’s just that I grow these jungles of plants that intertwine, and it always ends up in a land grab. They fight for soil, for mulch, for sunlight, and just grow bigger and taller trying to outdo each other. They spread out way more than you ever see in brochures or in the gardens of those who really know how to grow tomatoes. They’re an embarrassment. Gardening is in my blood, it’s true. My father was an ace gardener, growing all our vegetables. My moth ..read more