Berries thrive in Aunty’s Garden

Hanui Lawrence in her garden with some Cape gooseberries. Photo / Supplied

This year I grew a whole bunch of Cape gooseberries that are very bushy now and ready to be eaten.

There are thousands of little lantern shapes with a yellow berry inside. These berries are very tangy and melt in your mouth when eaten.

The gourds I’ve planted have also grown productively except the shapes of these gourds are long and look like a green shoe horn.

Asian and Indian people from our community have come to the māra/garden, and cook these gourds in their stir-fry dishes, adding their different spices to enhance the flavour.

They’ve tried to teach me how to cook them, but I have them very bland. You really need to know how to add the right spices to boost the flavour.

This season marks our 20th anniversary of growing vegetables and fruit at Aunty’s Garden at Waipatu. It has been of service to many people with cheap and tasty vegetables an adventure in a way as the pathways meander around the māra kai.

Now well into autumn, we’re readying for winter planting of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. Our kumara harvest has been a disappointment with not enough sun but we’re grateful to have some for next season’s plants.

This year is going to be tough cost-wise as vegetables are just so expensive but we will all get through it together.

This month’s recipe is Cape Gooseberry Crumble

2 cups of cape gooseberries

1 cup of sliced mango (1 can)

1 cup of sliced peaches (1 can)

4 Tbsp sugar

2 cups flour

100g butter

Method

Put the goosberrries into a pot with 2 Tbsp of sugar and bring to a simmer until soft.

Turn off the heat, add the peaches and mango and mix then put into an oven dish.

In a bowl put in flour, butter, sugar and rub in the butter with your fingers until nice and crumbly.

Cover the fruit mixture with the crumble and bake at 180 for 30-35 minutes.