A Week of Extreme Weather In October
Hello friends,
October is usually a tumultuous month for us here in Dunedin, with the weather swinging in extremes from hot north westerly gales, to cold southerly fronts, including the threat of possible snow and frost, and this October was definitely no different from previous years regarding this.
In the third week of October we were warned of a spring north westerly wind storm approaching, and the resulting weather watches and orange wind warnings from Metservice had me worried.
In preparing for the north westerly wind storm, it first meant picking up anything outside that could go airborne, including my frost protection buckets (I lost one in the wind, but I eventually found it days later), taking down our bird feeders, moving our patio furniture to a more protected spot, putting our wheelie bins into the woodshed, and tying the glasshouse doors shut as they face the North West.
I also took the precaution of moving my most precious plants out of the glasshouse and into the garage for extra protection. I just couldn't risk losing our tomato plants, and dahlias in pots due to something unforeseen happening, like our glasshouse blowing away.
The big north westerly wind storm itself was frightening, and our house shook and shuddered for hours, first with the North Westerly gales, and then the Southerly front behind it, which took out our grid power for 8 hours. Luckily, we have solar panels on our roof, and a solar battery in our garage, and this system kept our house powered during the blackout (our battery has a storm watch function, and as soon as Metservice sent out the orange wind warning, the system began charging the battery to 100%). We are now very glad we invested in a solar system a couple of years ago.
All around Dunedin mature trees were blown over, trampolines went flying, fences were blown over, and the roofs of houses were lifted off. Many people in the lower South Island lost power for hours, and some for days, and even weeks.
Unfortunately, there were two casualties in my garden from the north westerly wind storm. My Avalanche camellia in the backyard garden snapped off at its base, killing the plant. It was only a year old, and didn't have a thick trunk yet, and it looks like it bent over in the wind until it just snapped. The only good thing about this happening is that it has given me one extra spot to plant a dahlia in this summer, but I am sad that I lost a beloved plant...
And the second casualty, was that my quince tree lost two north west facing tree limbs. They snapped partially off, so I had to trim them back to the nearest healthy branch on the tree. My quince tree is only 3 years old, so it won't suffer from losing a couple of young tree limbs. Thankfully the quince fruit forming on the tree didn't fall off during the storm.
With the north westerly wind storm over, it was time to clean up the garden of plant debris, reinstate our garden furniture to the patio, return the bird feeders to their rightful places, and transfer my precious plants sheltering in our garage back to the glasshouse.
The weekend after the north westerly wind storm was Labour Weekend, the traditional time to plant everything out in the vegetable and main gardens, but I was wary of doing this because Metservice forecast a cold southerly system occurring, with the potential of snow to low levels, and a frost afterward. I refused to risk planting out all my plants into the garden that weekend, only to have to frost cloth them for nights afterward.
So instead of spending the entire Labour weekend out in the garden planting out everything, my plants stayed safely inside the glasshouse where it was definitely warmer than outside, and I watched as the cold weather arrived...
And thank goodness I listened to the Metservice forecast, because the predicted low level snow fell, and settled to about 200 m above sea level in the hills surrounding us, and our temperature dropped to 1.1˚C overnight.
The dahlias growing outside were protected by their frost protection buckets, and all the plants in the glasshouse was protected by a number of layers of frost cloth. After a couple of days the weather warmed up back to early November temperatures, and it was time to plant stuff out in the garden, but it adds to my growing evidence that late October/early November is a risk to my Labour weekend gardening plans.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Our First Quince Harvest
Hello friends,
We have finally have had our first quince harvest. We planted a quince Smyrna tree back in the winter of 2022, and we've been waiting impatiently for a harvest since then.
The first year after sitting there as a stick over winter, the leaves budded, and then it flowered. But nothing became of the fruit, and we weren't worried because the tree was too small to bear the big quince fruit anyway. Over the spring and summer it grew slowly, which was fine with us, as it needed to develop it's root system.
Winter came again, and once more it became a stick. And then the spring of 2023 the leaves unfurled, and the tree flowered again, but this time little quince fruit began to form. At the start there was about 10 fruit, but over the following weeks they started to drop off. Eventually 4 quince fruit remained.
Over the spring and summer the fruit began to grow bigger on the tree. I was realistic in the fact that strong winds could knock them off, so I left them all there. By the time this autumn came, the 4 fruit remained, and they began to ripen to a pretty lemon colour.
Ever since then we've been impatiently waiting for them to be ready to pick. I tested the fruit regularly to see if they were ready to harvest, by gently holding them and tipping them sideways. At first all four did not budge, so they were not ready. But then one day the two smallest fruit dropped into my hand when tested.
We had a couple of weeks more wait for the two biggest fruit to be ready to harvest. Luckily quince store well in the fridge, so when the last two quince were finally ready, it was time to poach the quince. We used our poached quince recipe, which you can find in a blog post here. This year we chose the vanilla and cinnamon combination for flavoring.
And the long wait for our own quince fruit was totally worth it, the poached fruit was aromatic and very tasty. And as a bonus we have lots in the freezer to enjoy over the year. And our quince tree is only a small tree, as it gets bigger much more fruit will ripen. My plan is to share them with family and friends and neighbours, and hopefully swapping them for other fruit we can't grow in the garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Our Poached Quince Recipe
Hello friends,
Today I thought I'd share our poached quince recipe with you.
It's the perfect autumnal dessert to eat with vanilla ice cream on a
cool night. And if you have any poached quince left over, just freeze it
away to eat at a later date. Quinces are an acquired taste, just like
feijoas, but once you've tried them, their wonderful aromatic taste will
stay with you all year, as you impatiently wait for their autumn
harvest once again.
The
hardest part of the recipe, is probably finding quinces. When we lived
in Wellington our local New World stocked them for a few weeks each
autumn, so we bought them when we could, and made up a big batch to last
us over the year. Now we live back home in Dunedin, it's a bit harder
to find quinces, as local shops don't stock them. Luckily this year,
I had an excess of pumpkins, and I swapped a big crown gray pumpkin for
a box of quinces with an online friend, but this excess pumpkin harvest
swapping adventure is a whole other story.
For this recipe you'll need:
3 - 4 ripe quinces
750 mL of water
1.5 cups of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla pod (or 1 - 2 star anise if you can't get a vanilla pod)
The recipe:
1. Peel and core the quinces, chopping off any damaged sections. The fruit are quite brittle and hard, so it's a bit of a job to do. The fruit are unpleasant to eat raw, so I wouldn't advise trying it.
2. Chop the quinces into slices or cubes depending on how you'll want to eat them. The fruit will start to oxidise quickly (turn brownish), but don't worry about that, it'll all turn out okay in the end.
3. To a pot add the water and sugar, mix, and begin to heat to a simmer.
4. Add
the quinces to the pot, and add the cinnamon stick and vanilla pod. You
can swap out the vanilla pod for star anise if you want, but personally
I prefer the vanilla pod.
5. The next thing to do is to make a paper cartouche for the quince mixture. A cartouche is a parchment paper lid, and it covers the surface of the poaching mixture. It traps the steam, and keeps the components submerged in liquid. We just cut off a section of grease proof paper, and folded it so it fitted on top of the quince mixture. It is important to mold it to the mixture so it keeps everything wet.
6. With the lid of the pot off, heat the mixture up, and then let it simmer for an hour. Over time the quinces will slowly change colour, changing from a creamy yellow, to a dark rose pink. This is the colour at the 30 minute mark, it hasn't changed to a pink shade yet.
7. This is the colour at the 60 minute mark. The quinces now are a rose pink, but not quite dark enough. If you do a taste test you'll find them still slightly bitter, but the quinces will be soft like cooked apples.
8. What you are looking for is a slightly darker shade of rose pink, and the quinces will taste highly aromatic. When you're happy with the flavor and taste, remove the cinnamon stick and vanilla pod (or star anise) from the mixture. Remove the pot from the heat.
9. The
only thing left to do is eat it, storing any left overs in the fridge
or freezer. I recommend having it while still warm (or re-heating in the
microwave), with some good quality vanilla ice cream. The vanilla ice
cream really brings out the aromatic quince flavor.
I hope you get a chance making our poached quince recipe yourself over the autumn season, they really are a wonderful fruit. We currently have a fresh batch stored in the fridge to eat this week, and also a couple of frozen batches stored away for later on in autumn and winter.
Please let me know if you give this recipe a go, and tell me what you think of it.
Have a wonderful day.
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon.
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