Christmas BBQ — Sat 19 December — 5 pm
Dave & Jean will be our hosts for the end of year function. They have a great BBQ area around the dam. Venue is Gardner Valley Road (with Sun 20th as a wet weather backup day). More info in next newsletter.
Nelson Branch
Branch contact - nelson@treecrops.org.nz
Branch news and notices are below.
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Nelson Branch – Avocado Grafting – November 2015
Avocado Grafting — Sun 29 November — 10 am
Meet at Mt Heslington Rd (off River Terrace Rd, Brightwater) wet or fine. Take the right hand branch of the shared driveway.
Bring along those avocado seedlings and learn how to graft them! A small, sharp knife would be handy. Scionwood available! BYO lunch and something for the sales table.
This property has been owned by Hilary and Andrew since 1993.
Timetable: 10 am grafting followed by lunch and sales table/auction.
Then at 1pm property tour involving a meander around the olives (about 800 trees on 4 acres hillside). Check out some grafts done on a previous TCA visit in October 2007 and the six trial macadamias up the hill. Also stroll around the ponds and look at the natives and edibles planted around them, most of which were grown here from cuttings or seed.
Nelson Branch – Dove River Peonies
Dove River Peonies — Sunday 15 November — 2 pm
Venue is 722 Dovedale Rd on the north side of the road, across the Dove River. Heading SE from Dovedale it is 3.4 km past the Thorn Rd junction. Otherwise from Wakefield head NW on Pigeon Valley Rd for about 14 km, some of it winding and metal.
Refreshments will be available.
Dot says: “We have a river crossing in our driveway which at that time of year has very little water in it but it is stony so a 4×4 or SUV can cross it easily but a low bottomed car might have difficulty. Otherwise there is parking on the roadside and a swing bridge that people can use to access the property on foot if they prefer.”
Dove River Peonies is a family business run by Georgia and Dot and dedicated to producing quality Peony based products to enable customers to benefit from the amazing qualities found within the White Peony root. They say: “We’re an established Peony Nursery, although almost all our stems are grown for the export market. Our interest and product research and development with the incredible properties of the Peony Root has now grown into a business in its own right. We produce a range of Peony Root based cremes for sensitive, dry itchy skin, eczema and psoriasis, and soaps for sensitive skin. Our scented range of soaps will invigorate, awaken, pamper and nourish your skin.
We have developed special blends of teas and infusions of Peony Root, Chinese Green Teas, and other complementary ingredients – all natural of course. Each Tea is specially blended with a specific purpose in mind. From simple relaxation, or rejuvenation, to specific ailments and conditions.
White Peony Root is also known as: Paeonia lactiflora, Bai Shao Yao, Chinese Peony. Constituents: Paeoniflorin, paeonol, paeonin, albiflorin, triterpenoids, sitosterol. Parts used: Root, dried and shaved or grated or ground into a powder.
Typical preparations: Teas, tinctures, encapsulations, almost always used with other herbs.”
Nelson Branch – Gardens Festival — Mapua — 2015 September
Gardens Festival — Mapua — Sat 19 September
Tree Crops will have a promotion stand at the Mapua Coastal Gardens Festival from 10 am til 3pm at the Mapua Hall (setup Friday 18 Sept 3-5pm).
We can also sell plants, etc here (with a percentage to TCA). If anyone has potted trees or treecrop related items please leave with committee man Bob, Mapua Drive before Friday 18 Sept.
Nelson Branch – Cider Press and Ferment field day
Cider Press and Ferment — Sat 30 May — 1 pm
There will be a large press and some fermenting apple juice in a quiet sylvan setting. Venue: Graham Valley Road, off the Motueka River West Bank Road.
If you reach the Flora Saddle carpark you have gone about 9 km too far.
Any spare clean champagne bottles will be gratefully received!
Bring something for the sales table as usual.
Cider in a Ferment
Patrick Cudennec has been making cider from real cider apples for some years now. His grandmother in Brittany made cider (as most families did then) and he has childhood memories of family picking up apples off the grass under the trees. At least one of the varieties he uses (the highly astringent Fuero Rous) probably came from Brittany.
Generally the first apple pressing has been done by mid May, once the ambient temperature is cool enough so that fermentation of the juice takes place slowly. By this stage some apple varieties are well past their best. Patrick’s intention is to cool the pressed juice in his new cider house, so that the apples can be gathered and pressed at optimum ripeness, rather than having to wait for appropriate cold weather. Fermentation uses naturalised yeasts associated with the apples.
By the time of the field day, the first pressing will have been done (Bisquet, Kingston Black) and possibly the second (Bittenfelder, Fuero Rous, etc). There will be juice fermenting and the keeving process may still be underway in the later batch. One interesting aspect is to taste the raw materials – apples with varying amounts of sweetness, bitterness and acid – and compare with the finished cider, whose character depends very much on the blend of apple varieties and a long slow fermentation.
Bottling happens during cool high-pressure weather in late September or early October, followed by further slow fermentation in the champagne bottles to give the sparkle. By Christmas we can think about tasting the new cider.
Patrick has been a fisherman, mountain climber and diving instructor. He has travelled the world to both remote islands and international resort locations as skipper of very large yachts and motor launches, playthings of the super rich. And now the more peaceful lifestyle among the Nelson hills.
Nelson Branch – Apple Press — Big Squeeze
Apple Press — Big Squeeze — Sun 19 April — 1 pm
Come and see the home-made apple press at Thirkettles. Bring your own apples to squeeze and take away a share of the juice in your own containers! One pressing does up to 70 kg of apples (about 50 litres of juice) and takes an hour including clean-up. If you are bringing more than about 5 kg of apples, let one of the committee know in case we have to do two pressings. Venue: park off-road at the nursery carpark in Paton Rd, Hope (Thirkettle Nursery sign at the gate).
There will be hot water for drinks and a sales table (auction). The day will go ahead wet or fine.
John says: “We have access to orchard apples at the end of the season as well as our own apples and our son is also into cider making. In earlier years we had taken fruit to Robinson’s who processed the juice for us, but at about $2.60 a litre (back then) – the cost was high. So the search began for a cheap and efficient press. Our son bought a drum type small press for John’s 60th birthday present, but we found it was too small and inefficient – or perhaps we are just too impatient! Hence the reason for looking for something better. The design of our press and scratter (with some modifications) have come from a former Tree Cropper – Brian S. One of the bottlenecks with juicing is preparing the fruit so maximum juice can be extracted. The scratter made from an old industrial sewing machine means we can munch up the fruit in record breaking time. In one pressing we can extract up to 50 litres of juice (depending on varieties – on average we manage to extract 65-70%) – again we are impatient and could probably squeeze a bit more out. The efficiency is helped by having layers of slats so the juice moves horizontally.
“The material costs were cheap using recycled materials, with the jacks at $30 each being the most expensive component. We are fortunate to have a friend who donated rimu offcuts which were cut into slats. The slats can be made with non-treated timber that is reasonably strong and non-tainting. All the wooden parts that come in contact with the juice have been coated with a food safe material. The jacks sit underneath the framework rather than on top, eliminating any problems with contamination from oil leaks and also keeps the pressing structure more stable.”
Jackie says: “If people don’t want the juice to oxidise too much, we can add ascorbic acid (we are using this ourselves this season). The sweeter the fruit, the sweeter the juice! As the fruit will be mixed, it might be quite interesting! We have some feijoa juice in the freezer which we could add if anyone wanted apple & feijoa.”
NZTCA National Conference 2015 Northland Branch
NZTCA annual national event, March 20~22, 2015
‘Conference 2015’ hosted by Northland Branch
Biological Growing
– Expert Speakers and Workshops include organic agriculture, bio fuel, seaweed-sourced fertilisers – soil food, moth pheromones and apples, herbs and plants to attract beneficial insects.
– Field trips include a Kiwifruit orchard, Avocado orchard, and a sub tropical nursery & gardens.
Bookings closed – sorry.
Conference 2016 details coming soon…
Details on page Conference 2015 and in December 2014 TreeCropper.
Nelson Branch – Beyond Organic – Permaculture Film at Jester House
Permaculture Film at Jester House — Sat 21 Feb — 7 pm
Petra Stephenson has organised the following:
Stefan Sobkowiak will be in NZ for the month-long Beyond Organic NZ tour and we have managed to bring him to Motueka/ the Top of the South.
We have a tree croppers only viewing of his Permaculture Orchard Film (see The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic).
Jester House (320 Aporo Road in Tasman) will have drinks available but the kitchen will be closed.
Nelson Branch – Richards Orchard
Richards Orchard — Sat 28 March — 1 pm
Katrina says:
“I hope to have 20-25 apple varieties on hand for a tasting session, maybe more.
These might include Adam’s Pearmain, Akane, Belle de Boskoop, Bramley’s Seedling, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Criterion, Dayton, Dunn’s Seedling, Fiesta, Gala, Geheimrat Oldenburg, Gewürtzluiken, Golden Delicious, Idared, Jonagold, Jonathan, Liberty, Lobo, Monty’s Surprise, Royal Gala, Sir Prize, Spartan, Takapuna Russett and Telstar.”
“We are a small family owned orchard with a commercial export crop of apples (leased out) and a roadside stall. Eric (Grandfather) bought the orchard in 1944, having picked fruit here in 1938. My parents John and Brigitte took over in 1969. They are foundation members of Tree Crops and over the years have planted fruit, nuts and timber trees of many kinds, some in the orchard and some in our “lifestyle” farm. I have been involved in running the stall since 2004. Our webpage at www.fruitstall.co.nz has photos of our fruit and descriptions.
“From January to August/September, we progressively sell about 60 kinds of apples, about 20 pears, 30 or more varieties of plums, plus greengages, quinces, damsons, zwetschen (prune) plums, and some stone fruit. Many of our apple varieties were collected by John and Brigitte from DSIR Research Orchards in the 1970s, some are more recently acquired, and some are seedlings.” [Abridged for privacy]
Venue: 668 The Coastal Highway, between Bronte and Trafalgar roads.
Look for blue signs.
Parking at the apple stall. The visit will include the adjacent orchard.
Contact: Katrina. We can provide cups of tea/coffee but people should bring folding chairs as we are short on seating. If it rains we can move inside one of the sheds.
Sales table/auction!
Nelson Branch – AGM in Moutere Hills — February 2015
AGM in Moutere Hills — Saturday 28 Feb — 6 pm
The AGM will be held at Jennie and Tony’s property.
Wet or fine. Potluck supper, BYO finger food. Tea and coffee provided.
Bring plates and something for the sales table too!
Venue Moutere Highway. Chairman Bob promises a brief meeting.
You might like to bring a deck chair and sun hat.
Tony says:
“Our property is a 40 acre Moutere Hills block, on the Moutere Highway in Harakeke. Property was bought as a bare grazing block with scrub growing on the steep hill sites bordering the Highway. We have owned the property almost three years.
Although the majority remains in grazing (Perendale sheep and some cattle), we are gradually increasing the tree coverage, being it gullies set off for native revegetation, home orchard, slip control plantings or oaks of various description. It is certainly still very much in its early years and further plantings are still planned for.
Currently though we are very much focussed on getting our second adobe block (mud brick) house up, which has been a project and a half by itself (but that is a different story). Hopefully by the time of the AGM we should be all enclosed and at a finishing stage, but likely still living in the shed on-site.”
Event cannot be listed in national All-Events calendar until date and time are advised please
