Kitchen Gardener Profile: Rachel Knight
NAME:
Rachel Knight
PROFESSION:
Kitchen Gardener
HOME:
Wellington, New Zealand
WEBSITE:
www.thekitchengarden.co.nz
OTHER HOBBIES:
public speaking, cooking, re-planting
an area of wetland, reading.
Why do you keep a kitchen garden?
I love gardening. Growing things to eat gives me the most satisfaction. Having our own kitchen garden means we eat more vegetables and a wider variety of crops, and they are fresher than if we’d bought them. Nothing tastes better than things you’ve grown yourself – even the ones that aren’t as perfect as the ones in the supermarket. Some things you don’t see here very often either such as kale, unusual potatoes or purple beans.
How and when did you get started?
I started growing salad and herbs in a small raised bed just outside our back door in our house in the city so that we could have fresh ingredients for dinner. Reading Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening
Who or what has had an influence on you and your gardening?
I moved to New Zealand from the UK in 1996. I grew up in Chester in the North West of England. My Dad had a huge and prolific vegetable garden that fed our family and most of the neighbours. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t helping in the garden or helping my Mum bottle tomatoes or make jam.
The book I refer to most on vegetable gardening is Joy Larkcom’s Grow Your Own Vegetables
Tell us about your garden or gardens. How large are they? For whom do you grow food?
We live on a property about 25 minutes drive from Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It’s 30 acres but the majority is steep, hill country leased to sheep grazing. The gardens cover about an acre but are mainly ornamental. The original kitchen garden was about 500 square feet of cultivated area in raised beds with grass paths. We’ve extended this over the last two years into an existing orchard area. This gives us an additional 1000 square feet of raised beds including a 26’ long polytunnel. We’ve added cordoned fruit trees around the garden and replaced some climbing roses over a pergola with vines so we can maximize the amount of edible crops. We have plenty of space to expand further, depending on whether we decide to take on some help.
We grow for ourselves (my husband and me) and last year set up a ‘box’ scheme during the summer season. We mainly sell to friends and neighbours but word of mouth has meant we’re getting enquiries without any advertising. The local farmers’ market is keen for me to sell there too but I won’t have enough produce to do that this year. This year I’ve sold tomato seedlings and free-range eggs. We keep chickens, bees and have established a wild pheasant population.
Box scheme farms, or CSA farms as they're called in the US, are really taking off in North America. How are they doing in New Zealand?
There are a number of schemes throughout the country but I suspect they sell a tiny proportion of the vegetables consumed in New Zealand. Farmers’ markets are a growing trend here as they are in the US, UK and Australia.
What are some of challenges you face with your garden, climate and soils?
Compared to many States in the US, New Zealand has a mild and temperate climate all year. Wellington in particular is never very hot or very cold, usually neither very wet nor dry. We typically get less than six frosts a year. However it is extremely windy – enough to blow the leaves off runner bean plants and although our garden is relatively sheltered, everything benefits from as much additional shelter as you can give it, particularly in the early stages. The soil is acid (pH 5.2) clay so the addition of lime and organic matter make a big difference.
Even the pests are relatively benign – bats are the only indigenous mammals in New Zealand. Unfortunately rats, mice, brush-tailed possums, hares and rabbits have been introduced so we trap and shoot as many as we can. The humble slugs and snails can be a challenge too – we play host a large population of blackbirds and thrushes as a result.
Tell us a bit about the state of home gardening and cooking in New Zealand. What do you think is needed to encourage more people to produce and/or buy more locally grown foods?
New Zealanders are following the worldwide trend of eating out more often and relying increasingly on pre-prepared fresh or frozen foods at home. Many kids leave home without adequate cooking skills to prepare a meal from raw ingredients, not having enjoyed regular home-prepared meals.
Having good local markets where people can enjoy the experience and buy excellent, competitively priced, seasonal produce attracts a wide range of people – everyone loves a shopping bargain. Vegetable growing is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It does seem to be hereditary – most people pick it up again at some time in their lives if they were exposed to it as a child. Some schools are introducing a kitchen garden as part of their curriculum, which can only be good. I’ve even had a number of requests from adults wanting me to ‘teach’ them about it so clearly there’s a demand out there.
Do you preserve any food through canning, pickling, freezing, root cellaring, etc?
I made some delicious chutney and tomato ketchup this year. We have relatively mild winters so we can grow a reasonable number of crops for much of the year, which makes preserving less of an issue. We tend to eat leeks, carrots, kale, rocket (arugula) and silverbeet (swiss chard) in the winter and store garlic, onions and pumpkins.
If you could choose another place to visit and garden in, where would it be and why? What would you grow?
New Zealand is my ideal place to garden. I’d love to be able to grow really good capsicums, chilli peppers and eggplants, but it’s just not hot and sunny enough here. My friend in Sydney can, but she has to worry about drought and water restrictions. The grass isn’t always that much greener.
Rachel's Chutney
Chutney is an easy way to preserve not so perfect summer crops in pretty much any combination available. It makes a welcome gift in decorative jars and is a tasty addition to casseroles – particularly strong game meats such as pheasant and hare.
Ingredients
2lb marrows (squash) or pumpkin
2lb tomatoes (red or green) or 2lb plums
2lb apples or pears or tomatillos (or a mixture)
1lb onions
1lb sultanas (a type of white raisin, brown raisins may be substituted)
1lb raw sugar
1.25 pints cider vinegar
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tsp ground mace
Procedure:
Chop the marrows into 1/2” cubes, skin and de-seed the pumpkin and chop into 1/2” cubes.
Scald the tomatoes in boiling water, peel and chop roughly. Stone and chop the plums.
Remove the cores from the apples and dice, skin and chop the onions.
Put everything into a really big, heavy-bottomed pan. Make a spice bag by tying one inch of grated ginger root, 10 whole cloves, 10 black peppercorns, one teaspoon coriander seeds in a 4” square of muslin. Push it into the middle of the mixture. Bring to the boil stirring and simmer for 2-3 hours uncovered. Stir regularly to prevent it sticking. Seal into sterilised jars while still warm.
