Piopio Fruit & Vege Stand

Winter is always a challenging season to have enough surplus to share for the community stand. Fortunately, thanks to our community contributors there have been wedges of pumpkin, butternut, kiwifruit, eggs (with thanks to the chooks at Cluckingham Palace), winter greens, limes and mandarins as well as non-perishable foodstuffs.

Citrus is starting to roll, so please remember to pick a bag to share if you’ve got lemon or tangelo trees dropping fruit on the ground surplus to your household’s requirements. It drives me a bit nuts when I see trees dripping with fruit going to waste in our wider area.

I will work with last year’s generous grapefruit contributor to meet but not exceed demand this year. He would want you to know that even if the fruit doesn’t look perfect, it tastes delicious and is fantastic for juice.

If you have fruit frozen in the freezer honey/curd, and marmalade are always appreciated and sought after. I’ve recently come across a recipe for carrot jam in one of the “Cornersmith” cookbooks that I might try out if we get another week of rainy days.

Mid-August is time to start those tomato (and pumpkin, zucchini, butternut) seedlings in your glasshouse if you have one. Start to feed your veggie beds with compost, manure, lime, blood and bone. Also put the mother kumaras in planters with damp river sand to sprout your tipu. Just so you know what I’ll be doing!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions/issues. Updates are posted pretty much daily on our Facebook page.

Birdtalk Magazine Aug/Sept 2023