Helen Lehndorf

Tag: plants

  • taking stock: late October

    Keep reading for more about my old church trestle table.

    I don’t feel like I have much cohesive to say so I’m going to use a template from Pip at Meet Me at Mikes called ‘taking stock’ which has a list of prompts to get you thinking about what you’ve been doing and coveting. I’ve been reading Pip’s blog since the OG early blogging times of the early oughts. I love that, unlike so many blogs from back then which are long gone, Pip has carried on. It means I get a soothing, familial feeling from reading her posts – even though I don’t know her IRL.

    But first, here’s a photo (thanks, Anthony!) of an event I did with Airini Beautrais at Unity Books Wellington last week. We talked about the use of humour in New Zealand poetry and chose poems from each other’s recent collections to read. I had a great day out in Wellington, did the event, had a walk along the waterfront, explored the revamped library, went to see the Cornelia Parker exhibition at the re-opened City Art Gallery.

    Here’s my responses of Pip’s Taking Stock list

    Making: ferments with the last of the winter vegetables in the garden. I made a chunky ferment with these vegetables (below) and it smelled truly TERRIBLE while it was fermenting but is tangy and tasty now. I don’t use recipes as such but here is a method for a similar one if you’d like to try it.


    Getting: osteopathy for a crunchy, sore back. Yeowch! I’ve been hobblin’.

    Cooking: lots of springy frittatas and quiches in which the last of the winter vegetables and exciting spring things like asparagus and broad beans commingle.


    Sipping: last week in Wellington, I stopped in at the restaurant attached to the City Art Gallery. I ordered the strawberry shrub and it came with a sprig of thyme as a swizzle stick. The pairing of thyme and strawberry was genius! So now I’m sipping strawberry cordial with a thyme swizzle at home. I want to have a go at making strawberry shrub but in the meantime I am drinking a reduced-sugar strawberry cordial from Barkers.


    Reading: Because I just did a mini-book-tour with Airini, I’ve read her new poetry book Salt Quilt lots of times and heartily recommend it. It’s by turn ‘salty’, sweet, funny, sad, and she has a breathtaking lyrical voice.

    & I’m re-reading Seed to Dust by Marc Hamer (for the third time!) I’d like to attempt some garden writing in a similar vein so I am re-reading with a writer’s eye this time…trying to work out why I find his nature writing so particularly compelling. It’s something to do with: a working-class voice (so much gardening writing is by posho’s), dry humour, excellent plant knowledge and descriptions, and an emphasis on the best ‘stuff of life’ being the simple things.


    Waiting: to hear back about the last of the arts application I did back in late winter. I applied for three things, missed out on two so far. Maybe third time lucky?

    Looking: a lot of dandelion art. I have a whole sketchbook dedicated to dandelions so I like to look at other people’s paintings and drawings to get inspired.


    Listening: to Stella Donnelly. I googled ‘music like Lucy Dacus and Courtney Barnett’ (because I’d run out of new music by those two) and she was the top result.

    I especially like this song because of her strong Aussie accent. She sings ‘tattoo’ just how I hear my friends saying the word. Plus there’s something very southern hemisphere about her music videos.


    Wishing: I was more courageous. I am brave in some ways (writing, public speaking) and a total mouse in ways that hinder me. I also take forever to make decisions. I drive myself mad.

    Enjoying: watching the blooming of these little daisies I dug out of the lawn and planted into a flower bed. They are flourishing and growing the most beautiful, surprising colours; check that bright pink in the middle pic.

    I hope these pictures inspire you to transplant some lawn daisies, spare them from the lawnmower and let them do their thing. Plus, easy FREE FLOWERS!

    Appreciating: the great op-shops here in Palmerston North. After visiting some op shops in other places (slim pickings! so much fast fashion crap and Anko landfill) I am, once again, grateful for our terrific op shops. I don’t think I could live somewhere with bad op shops.

    Eating: a lot of homemade muesli with rhubarb cooked with orange zest and a dollop of Greek yoghurt. I usually cook rhubarb with ginger but I saw an episode of River Cottage where Hugh cooked it with fine orange zest and a bit of juice. Its an inspired pairing and a new favourite. Here’s Hugh’s recipe however I don’t like to cook honey (because it diminishes the medicinal properties) so I use jaggery instead which is a dark unrefined sugar.

    I eat this for breakfast, yes, but lately also sometimes for lunch. I go through phases of muesli-fixation. Here’s my go to muesli recipe off another long-time blogger and friend, Melissa Wastney.

    Liking: the way my young friends are getting offline and into ‘analogue’ life. Especially physical media (DVDs, CDs, etc) and journaling. I dig it and am enjoying the contact-high of their newfound delight.


    Loving: my subscription to On The Land magazine. Speaking of analogue, there’s just something so great about getting a tangible magazine in the mail. This magazine used to be called ‘Lifestyle Block’ and I read it then, too, but always felt a little fraudulent because I don’t have a lifestyle block. I have a small urban garden. With the new name and new focus, I feel much more included in its new kaupapa of permaculture, kai sovereignty and regenerative food systems. Great storytelling and inspiring photographs within.

    Buying: Princess Highway tops and shirts off TradeMe. (Yay for saved searches!) They fit me well, are good quality and I like the muted colour palette and vintage-y vibes.


    Managing: to stay kind of sane in election-year madness. I can’t wait until it is over. Feels like the whole country is holding its breath.


    Watching: way too much gardening YouTube. Here’s one favourite. I should be gardening more and watching less! Can’t wait for my back to come right.


    Hoping: to go overseas for the first time since 1998 (!) next year. (See above comment re: scaredy-mouse and decision-making.)

    Wearing: I have a t-shirt from Black Lodge press with this design on it. I wear it everywhere. It’s my favourite t-shirt.


    Following: ‘Weedy’ (David Trood, from another favourite gardening YouTube account, ‘The Weedy Garden’, has just moved fulltime to live in his garden, living in a lotus belle tent… and he’s made a garden kitchen. I’m following along with great curiosity. I’d love to do the same but I fear the mercurial Manawatū weather is not quite as ideal as where Weedy lives in Australia:


    Noticing: how now that I’m 54 (much) younger people (in their teens, early twenties) often look straight through me as though I am invisible. 54 is not even that old! I imagine this just gets worse as time goes on. And no doubt I did the same to anyone over thirty when I was young.

    Getting: excited to go and see Wicker. Looks like daft good fun and I could use a bit of that. Plus I would watch Olivia Coleman read the dictionary such is my love for her work.


    Bookmarking:     I have this free online class about making ‘wild herbal sodas’ bookmarked. Looking forward to watching it and making some. I don’t drink alcohol so I get excited about shrubs and sodas in summer.


    Coveting: some handmade summer sandals from Soul Raglan but they only sell their shoes in-store so I guess I will have to head up to Raglan sometime this summer. Oh no! 😉

    Feeling: a bit lost…but/and still finding beauty in everyday things.

    Hearing: right this minute? a LOT of tui in our backyard. Over the last couple of years we have put much more effort into encouraging birds (bird baths, feeders, keeping cats outta the yard) and the ‘reward’ is a tui chorus that makes me so happy.


    Anticipating: eating outside when the weather settles a little. I have an old wooden trestle table that used to belong to a church. In the warm seasons, it gets dusted off and used in the garden for meals.

    Is there any greater pleasure than having friends over to eat under the sky? Here it is…a few summers back:

    So there you go, there’s a snapshot of my consciousness. I’d love to hear what you’re reading, watching, dreaming of, thinking about if you feel like saying hello.

    x

  • Matariki: the public holiday we all needed

    (Above: our Matariki mandala this year.)

    I think Matariki is my new favourite holiday. Long before it was made a public holiday, I used to grizzle that New Zealand needed another public holiday in winter as it was a long stretch from (then) Queen’s Birthday in June until Labour Day in October.

    & because, as a pākeha, it is a new holiday, I’m really enjoying that we (my family) are creating our own celebrations for it: inviting friends to share kai and reflections, and focusing on rest.

    I was hoping for a cold, wet weekend so I could be lazy and give some attention to my teetering pile of delicious library books…alas, (hello, climate change?) our winter here in the Manawatū seems to come later every year. Spring is the season I brace for…here our springs are mizzling, windy (we have a phenomena known as ‘the November gales’) and cold. So the weekend, while chilly, was also sunny…which meant I had to get out into the garden.

    I did some satisfying chores that I only get to when the urgent business of harvest season is over: I tidied my junky heap of garden pots and paraphernalia into virgo-level neatness again. I cleared out the greenhouse, pruned and fed the fruit trees, planted more comfrey around their bases, dug up the dahlia bulbs. It was satisfying work that called for an afternoon tea of cinnamon pinwheels and a big pot of homemade masala chai (none of that syrupy nonsense.)

    (Above: just the Edmonds date scone mixture but rolled out, spread with fruit mince and sliced into pinwheels instead of dates.)

    Gardeners are always thinking a season (or more!) ahead. My winter food garden is all planted now…not too much to do. (Having said that I planted rockets seed and more broad beans on the weekend.) So now I’m dreaming ahead to summer flower/herb beds, by digging up clumps of perennial herbs and flowers and dividing them. I’ve been getting very inspired by urban rewilding books I’ve been reading (more on that in another post) so I’m eyeballing the little bits of lawn we still have and wondering if I might turn them into weedy spaces full of self-maintaining weeds and ‘wild’ flowers …for the pollinators and birds.

    It takes a leap deeper into wildness and unruliness which can have a mixed response in an urban setting…and yet is so important for urban biodiversity as central city housing gets denser and more and more gardens are lost.

    So, I ended up not being as lazy as I’d hoped for Matariki/Winter Solstice weekend…but it all felt good, a healthy-busy…not a pushing-hustle. Dreaming into summer is a kind of rest, I think.

    & I know we’ll get plenty of stormy, frigid days in spring.

    I get Koanga Garden’s newsletter and in the latest one, I like this, from founder Kay Baxter:

    ‘This is how regeneration works: a little effort now, in rhythm with nature, pays forward in resilience, nourishment and beauty.’

    Tell me what you’re up to in your gardens. x

  • witch sticks & autumn harvests

    (Above: Our kitchen table is a busy surface with often-changing bowls and baskets reflecting what is going on in the garden and the foraging season: things drying or waiting to be processed.)

    Autumn is my favourite season and, as a permaculture household, a busier season than summer with our labours to ‘capture and store’. There’s lots of picking and gathering and then kitchen work processing everything.

    (Above: Last sunday morning’s harvest chore was bottling a box of apples from our friend Bev’s orchard. These will turn into crumbles or top our porridge this winter.)

    Last week I gave my potted white sage plant a prune, ready to overwinter it in the greenhouse. White sage is a desert plant, native to the American southwest and Mexican northwest, so it doesn’t love the Manawatū winters.

    In the summer, I put it outside in full sun then prune it down to almost sticks at the end of summer and put it in the greenhouse where it sulks the winter away…but it (just) survives. Mine is about six years old now.

    (Above: white sage prunings, cotton thread. It’s on the sofa because I made the witch sticks while watching something in the evening. I do a lot of processing tasks (this, peeling fruit, cutting up herbs for tea, seed saving jobs) on the sofa…which might seem a bit odd…but I don’t see it as much different from knitting or hand-sewing in front of the TV. Does anyone else do this?)

    The prunings can be turned into what I call ‘witch sticks’ for burning by folding up the leaves on the stalk, weaving and rolling them longways and then tying with cotton thread. (Never use synthetic thread: it will melt and emit toxic smoke.) When the leaves have all burned down, you can burn the stalks, too.

    (White sage is a plant sacred to Indigenous people in USA and Mexico, so if you want some…have a go at growing it rather than buying imported sage. White sage is overharvested in the USA particularly. In ‘A Forager’s Life’, I write about alternative plants to white sage for making cleansing/burning sticks.)

    (Above: I got eight decent witch sticks, plus some smaller bits and pieces of stalk…all of which can be burned. Here they are drying on my fire top.)

    I see a lot of ‘how-to’ articles about making cleansing/burning sticks around…but they often forget a detail which I think is important. For them to burn well and safely, don’t wind the string around and around the bundle, securing only at top and bottom. This will mean your stick will fall apart as the thread burns and you could have a higher risk of embers dropping off it. Instead, tie it tightly with small pieces of string at regular intervals, like in this photograph:

    (Above: please forgive my ‘dirt manicure’ as garden writer Gayla Trail calls it. I scrub* my nails regularly but folks who ‘touch soil’ (which is ilke ‘touching grass’ only more grubby) every day struggle to have photogenic hands. ((I have to buy a new nail brush every couple of months…so intent is my endless scrubbing.))

    Do you have a favourite season or are you one of those calm, rational people who loves them all equally?

    I’d love to hear what kitchen or garden chores you’ve been doing lately. Let me know below.

    “As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas or colours enough to paint the beautiful things I see.”

    -Vincent Van Gogh