Sunday, March 27, 2011

The urban hunter gatherer

A friend told me about this fig tree in Gisborne that has fruit rotting on the ground because no one picks them. I felt the obligation to remedy to this (plus I looove fig jam, even more when it's close to free and homemade)so a friend and I spent half an hour picking them, came home with over 3kg of them and made some yummy jam! The recipe I used is here. There was still lots of fruit left (forgot to take the ladder), so if I have time I'm going to go for seconds.

Another friend pointed me to an apricot tree in the same situation, so it is on my list for this week too.
Feijoas are just coming into season too, more trees to visit! They are one of my favorite fruit, can't wait to bite into my first one of the year!
For the past two years we've also been picking olives on trees around town and pickling them, so hopefully  we'll get to do it this year too (we're running out!), and I would also love to pick some for turing into oil.
Who said everything has to come from the supermarket? It's an interesting way to get to know our town, and I love knowing that I am living off fruit that would otherwise go to waste and is free.

Josh has also been hunting a couple times with some friends, and brought back a wild hare (pictured is the dinner we got out of it!) and a deer! luckily we bought a chest freezer a few months ago. On his other hunting trip him and his friend brought back a wild pig and a goat. we decided to try and cure the pig leg, and our tiny little fridge has got even tinier with the leg taking up half the space!

1 comment:

  1. Feijoas... Gisborne... now there's a good thought :) :)

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