Tag Archives: food

Te Radar’s vegetable with charisma

22 June 2012 – 9.13am

Which vegetables do you think have charisma? 

In Tuesday night’s television programme Radar Across The Pacific, comedian Te Radar was given “fiddle fern” to eat.  He seemed to be impressed by it, describing it as having charisma.

TV One’s Radar Across The Pacific.

Te Radar was eating the young, unfurling fronds of a fern.  These still-coiled fronds are variously called croziers or fiddleheads or, in New Zealand, koru.  Fern fiddleheads are a common vegetable in some parts of the world.

Ota dina, Diplazium dietrichianum (or D. esculentum), Fiji. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

I couldn’t tell for sure but there’s a good chance that the fern Te Radar was eating was Diplazium dietrichianum, ota dina (or Diplazium esculentum).  The similar Diplazium ecsculentum is commonly eaten in Asia.  The second part of its scientific name, “esculentum“, means edible.  The related Diplazium proliferum, ota lalabe, is also eaten in Fiji and elsewhere.

During our 2011 field work in Fiji, we saw Diplazium fiddleheads being harvested for sale at the Suva market.

Blog post about our 2011 fern collecting in Fiji.

Ota lalabe, Diplazium proliferum, Fiji. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A New Zealand equivalent comes from the hen & chickens fern (manamana or mouku, Asplenium bulbiferum).  Its fiddleheads are known as pikopiko.  The popularity of pikopiko as a vegetable seems to be reviving, and it is commercially available.

Pikopiko, or the young, uncurling frond (koru) of hen & chickens fern (Asplenium bulbiferum, manamana, mouku), Wellington, New Zealand. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

More on hen and chickens ferns from Te Papa’s Collections Online.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

Plants cultivated by Māori

8 July 2011 – 4.03pm

Alongside the plants brought from the tropical Pacific, it is thought that Māori cultivated at least a handful of New Zealand plant species.

Massey University’s Lara Shepherd is investigating several such plants: karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus), rengarenga (Arthropodium cirratum), and whau (Entelea arborescens). 

Ripening fruit of karaka. Karaka is a medium-sized tree, and its fruit was an important food source. However, the kernel inside the fleshy fruit is deadly poisonous, and substantial, careful treatment was required to detoxify it. © Leon Perrie.

Karaka in Te Papa’s Bush City.

Karaka, rengarenga, and whau are all only found in New Zealand, and all are thought to have pre-human distributions confined to the northern North Island.

Lara is using genetic analyses to reveal where the populations in the southern North Island and northern South Island have been sourced from.

I recently accompanied Lara on a trip to a coastal site in the southern Wairarapa where all three species occur.   We were particularly pleased to find that the rengarenga population is large and thriving.  A few, localised populations of rengarenga are scattered around the southern tip of the North Island, but there is a big gap on the eastern coast where the nearest population to the north is near Hastings!

Southern Wairarapa rengarenga. © Leon Perrie.

Rengarenga is thought to have been cultivated for its edible rootstock.  Today, it remains popular in gardens, albeit as an ornamental rather than a vegetable.  However, the more robust Arthropodium bifurcatum, with erect and broader leaves, is probably more common in contemporary cultivation than Arthropodium cirratum.  Arthropodium bifurcatum is much rarer in the wild than Arthropodium cirratum, with natural populations only in northern New Zealand and mostly on offshore islands.  A third, much smaller species, Arthropodium candidum, is widespread through New Zealand’s forests, but easily overlooked.

Arthropodium bifurcatum in a garden at Victoria University. © Leon Perrie.

A few of Te Papa’s collections of Arthropodium.

Whau is a very distinctive small tree, with large, heart-shaped, and thin leaves.  It also has spiky fruit.  These features make it look out of place amongst New Zealand’s flora!  Whau is thought to have been cultivated for its wood.  Being lighter than balsa, it makes good fishing floats.

Southern Wairarapa whau. © Leon Perrie.

The site we visited was low forest on a steep, coastal hillside.  The toe of the slope is dominated by large karaka, almost to the exclusion of anything else in the canopy.  Although I don’t have an archaeological eye, it very much seemed that this was an extensive planting, rather than natural forest (or regeneration).  This grove has borne witness to massive cultural and biological change in the past two hundred years ago, from when it was likely an important food source for tangata whenua.  Fortunately, the site is protected by a QEII covenant, with fencing and possum control.

Southern Wairarapa karaka grove. © Leon Perrie.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Māori, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Bush City’s residents

14 April 2011 – 6.06pm

Mamaku, Cyathea medullaris, in Te Papa's Bush City. Photo Leon Perrie, (c) Te Papa.

Want to know more about the plants in Bush City?

Bush City is Te Papa’s only living, outdoor exhibition.

Information about some of the plants in Bush City is now available from Te Papa’s Collections Online.

Let me know if you are interested in a plant in Bush City that is not included in the initial set of twelve. This will help me prioritise additional species to write about.

You can find more details on the uses of the featured plants in the cited references.  In particular, the book by Andrew Crowe, A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand, should be available from public libraries (and bookstores).

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Exhibitions, Plants | Also tagged , , , | Comments (5)

October 1943: This month last century

21 October 2010 – 4.48pm

This is the first in an ongoing series of blogs about New Zealand history. These blogs are going to focus on 20th century events and objects as well as topics in Te Papa’s history exhibition Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa.

Following from the recent blog about the diarama in the exhibtion showing a New Zealand family during at World War Two I’ve chosen to start with an event that affected Kiwis during the war.

67 years ago: butter rationing begins (on 28 October 1943)

A weekly butter ration of 8 ounces per person (225 grams or 16 tabelspoons) was introduced by the New Zealand government in October 1943. This almost halved the average weekly consumption of butter, which was around 415 grams. It followed the rationing of other basic food items such as sugar and tea. Meat rationing followed 6 months later in March 1944. People had to use coupons like these to purchase these items.

Sugar coupons from ration book, 1943, GH12052 Te Papa

At the time, butter was used daily and often very liberally in practically every kitchen around the country. Suet and dripping were the alternatives, not olive oil or margarine.

Butter rationing meant that many favourite foods and baked goods were affected, even the humble sandwich. One frustrated mother wrote to a newspaper, declaring that: ‘It is bad enough to be without or very short of sultanas, bananas, raisins, baked beans, dates, honey and eggs for school lunches, but without butter too, it is a bit too much.‘

Food rationing was introduced so ensure that New Zealand’s agricultural products were sent overseas to feed Britons, whose diets were suffering because of the war.

This poster, which dates from the 1940s, highlights the importance of New Zealand’s contributions to the British Empire’s war effort.

Poster 'The Empire's Strength' 1940s GH15353 Te Papa

In fact food production was just as important as New Zealand’s military efforts overseas. This was summed up by the slogan ‘Farm or fight! Let us organise victory on both fronts.’ New Zealand also supported Britain’s post-war recovery so butter, like many other commodities, continued to be rationed long after the war ended in 1945. In the case of butter, it was not until June 1950 that restrictions were lifted.

Read more about WWII in Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa

See more WWII posters in Collections Online

By Kirstie Ross | Posted in Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)
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