Covid-19, Day 10 , Saturday, 4 April 2020

Autumn is a great time of the year for the Kereru as there’s plenty of food to snack on at Warblers Retreat.  One food we had no idea they would be attracted to, is the humble old kumara (sweet potato), plant.  For some reason the Kereru just love to eat the kumara leaves!

Digging up the kumara patch

This is something we both enjoy doing as you never know what you are going to find!  It’s incredible that we would get anything after the drought we have been through, as neither of us have watered the kumara patch.

We left some leaves growing especially for the Kereru to feast on.  It begs the question, can we eat kumara leaves?  According to an article on the Breeze Radio Station, you can.  Read here.

Planting kumara for the first time

Three years ago, I ordered some kumara seedlings online.  We had never grown kumara, so I planted each seedling and we watched them grow, and grow and grow!  The leaves went everywhere!  We were told you are meant to tie them up so they don’t sucker down into the ground, preventing the growth from going into the tubers.  We tried, but were rather unsuccessful.  We were unsure as to when to dig them up, so waited until the leaves were starting to yellow off. We had a great crop, but we unfortunately had to share our crop as the slugs had gotten in first!

Subsequent kumara crops

For the past couple of years, I have been going to grow new seedlings but have got busy and it hasn’t happened.  But, to our luck, the kumara have just grown back on their own accord!  Tiny tubers left in the ground, suckered up and grew.  We have indeed been in luck, having had some good kumara crops. And of course, that has helped attract the kereru, every year.

When to plant kumara

With our kumara growing on it’s own accord, I have not had to worry about this.  But if you get advice from the Auckland Zoo, they say Maori used to plant when the kowhai trees first began to flower.  We will have to watch out for that next year, if we decide to plant more.

It’s all in the soil

Kumara like to grow in a light soil, they do not like to be waterlogged.  We have piled lots of mulch on the kumara patch and this rots down to beautiful loose soil the kumara love.  With a dumping of used straw from the hen house this year, they did additionally well.

Storing kumara

We haven’t been very good at this to date.  Apparently, they need to cure for up to two weeks in a humid place, then be stored somewhere dry, and not touching each other.  Ours are currently curing in the potting shed, we are looking to store them in straw this year and keep them in an outside shed, that’s if they don’t all get used in a hurry!

Saturday wrap up

The only real issue we have here, is that Dave is almost out of beer!  Maybe he can use some of the kumara to make beer? There’s a Kereru Kumara Beer that’s brewed in New Zealand, so maybe if he gets desperate, he could start doing his own brewing, watch this space!

There were 82 new cases of covid-19 today taking the total number to 950.  The weather has been continuously fabulous and with it now being the second weekend of lock down, there’s been a few inconsiderate people escaping to their holiday homes at the beach.  This is so selfish as it is putting the locals in those areas at risk.

Another fantastic day in Pare-dise.  For more updates, follow our Warblers Retreat Facebook Page.