Megan Palmer

I have only ever eaten farmed rabbit in restaurants when we holidayed in France annd Malta, almost 30 years ago. Had I not ordered it especially, I would have found it indistinguishable from free range chicken thighs or drumsticks, not a hint of gameyness.

Since moving to Otago, I am often given wild rabbit that friends shoot that I skin and butcher myself. I always soak them overnight in brine to draw out any blood and that also helps to tenderise the meat.

I have never found the meat to taste gamey, the rabbit is usually cooked on a low and slow heat, having been marinated in wine or vinegar before cooking. The simplest dish that I prepare is simply slow cooked rabbit in white wine, bay leaf, lots of garlic, black pepper with a dash of oyster sauce.  

The meat is stripped off the bones and served with pasta.

Another favourite recipe is similar to the Silver Palate chicken Marbella but simpler - white wine, vinegar, prunes, thyme, brown sugar, bay leaves and long slow braise.

Even wild rabbits have a very mild flavour, unlike hare which tastes like liver to me.

I urge you to try cooking rabbit - any chicken recipe works well with rabbit, just be prepared to extend the cooking time.

Last week hubby remarked that we hadn’t cooked roast beef with Yorkshire puddings for ages (we usually do roast chicken, lamb or goat).

So last night it was a slow cooked rolled chuck roast marinated in red wine, garlic, ground pepper, thyme and bay leaves done in the romertopf, roast potatoes, purple and orange sweet potatoes (kūmara), cauliflower cheese and of course, individual Yorkshire puddings in muffin tins - made the batter in the morning.

Mum had seconds and still three portions left over to freeze for my weekday work lunches.

Tonight is just a simple quiche and salad with our own eggs and greens.

Feijoas are grown as a hedge in NZ although the fruit is an acquired taste. I personally adore them.

Globe artichokes ought to do well in the heat too.

We have a spice drawer for everyday use and refill from jars of whole spices in largers jars that we dry roast and grind as needed.

Timothy Norton wrote:The dream is to switch to a gas cooktop, but I need to install some ventilation in my kitchen which will require a bunch of work. I so want to be able to cook with a wok the way that it is 'meant' to be utilized.

One day!

As a temporary measure, perhaps you could use a portable gas cooktop

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/kiwi-camping-country-cooker-singer-burner-11-500-btu-black/p/362188

If you have a gas bbq, are your burners interchangeable that you can swap one for a ring so you can use a wok on it?

Our pressure cooker is a stainless steel Tefal that would be over 30 years old, it was purchased when we were living in the UK expressly for making marmalade.

I posted my marmalade recipe here https://permies.com/t/208836/Recipe-Making-Marmalade#1864682

The other main uses for the pressure cooker would be to cook chick peas and kidney beans that I prepare in bulk then freeze.

I’m a fan of slow cooked meals so seldom use the pressure cooker for stews etc, am more likely to use the slow cooker, casserole pot or romertopft for meat that needs to be tenderised.

It’s a type of puff ball, I don’t know the correct name nut if you upload your photos to inaturalist, someone will advise you

Our community garden has one water tank that is fed via a natural stream and in very dry years, we may run out of water for a week or more two or three times over summer.

Most of the gardeners have water butts on their plots to collect rainwater, we mulch our plants with arborists’ ramial woodchips, pea straw, wilted comfrey leaves and/or the tops of the cover crops that have been grown onsite.

We leave a few plants to self seed so that we can replant seeds from crops that are adapted to our climate and growing conditions.

There are many crops that are expensive to buy but relatively easy to grow ourselves - here in NZ, garlic costs up to $60/kg; saffron; asparagus and fresh herbs are all easy to grow, don’t need a lot of water and are tastier and more nutritious than what is sold in shops.

Here photos of one of several Atlantic cedar trees in the local park.

If you zoom into the 3rd photo, you can see a "wood rose" about to drop offthe mature cone.

Thanks Hugo, I have found that peaches are really easy to grow from stones and set fruit really young, often within 3 years however grafting peach on peach has been challenging.

I have posted in other threads photos of a black boy peach, white fleshed peach and a golden queen, that I’ve grown from stones.

There are at least seven plum trees in the community garden that I’ve grown from stones, however they seem to be more difficult to germinate and take longer to fruit, up to 5 years.

However on the plus side, I’ve found the trees to be really robust and am grafting different varieties onto them. I’m not very skilled at grafting yet but since the trees were grown from stones I don’t feel bad about practicing on them!