Stuff Magazines

FRUIT

A fruit tree is a long-term investment that’s worth making. The right tree in the right place will save you a packet on fresh fruit to add to school lunches, plus you can freeze or preserve the excess to use all year for baking, pudding and breakfast.

Apples

Fresh apples are wonderful for snacks or a sweet treat and a mature tree will produce hundreds so you have plenty to preserve. I rate Nicola Galloway’s apple sauce recipe (shared in the May issue last year). I made it last season with my excess fruit and ate it with porridge for breakfast for months.

Bananas

Ellen Schindler says bananas can save you a bunch… in warmer regions at least. “It takes 18-24 months to get a first trunk of 50-100 finger bananas, but because they establish their own wh¯anau you have bananas without doing much more than throwing compost at them after that.” You can even grow in pots, she says.

Feijoas

Feijoas are not quite as troublefree as they used to be because of the troublesome guava moth but in warmer regions they are easy and productive. Bottle fruit, or just take the skin off to freeze to use year round.

Peaches

Again a super productive tree, great fresh in season, plus versatile to have preserved in the pantry. Just make sure you get a variety that will do well in your region: ‘Orion’ does brilliantly for me in Auckland; Sol Morgan says ‘Freestone Queen’ is great in Golden Bay.

Lemons

Lemons can be “crazy expensive” to purchase from the supermarket yet are an essential for ramping up meals, Nicola Galloway says, “and one tree in the backyard will provide all the lemon for a household.”

Rhubarb

OK you don’t really snack on it raw (at least I don’t), but stewed rhubarb is the work of a moment and great to have on hand to serve with cereal in the morning or mix with other fruit in puddings or baking.

Strawberries

NZ Gardener deputy editor Mei Leng Wong plants strawberries not just for juicy summer berries, but also as a cover crop between blueberries in her North Shore garden. She started with half a dozen strawberry plants which she has bulked up with runners. “Last summer, there were mornings I’d harvest more than a kilo of strawberries.” And they are so easy to freeze for smoothies or to mix with yoghurt once the berry season is over.

Persimmons

Carl Freeman also recommends persimmons. “We planted a tree three years ago and already it is providing more than we can eat. They store really well and we can pick them hard so the birds don’t get them. My son loves them, normally one a day in the lunchbox!”

EDIBLES

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2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmagazines.pressreader.com/article/281895891988789

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