Moulded fruit

Awww – cute!

Is anyone out there versed in the art of mould making? Imagine the possibilities for fruit and vegetable manipulation…

via My Modern Met

O is for Oranges, Oil and Organic Chemistry

Fascinated as I am with the industrial uses of plants and how they can be used to do almost everything, I don’t write a lot about these things simply because my scientific knowledge isn’t really… And I’d hate to get it wrong. But in moments like this, I can point you to people who are way cleverer than me.

Heather is way cleverer than me. She’s an industrial chemist and blogger at Oil is for… The blog is a really informative look at what oil can actually be used for and how we can put it to better use than simply burning it.

Recently, Heather took a look at bubblewrap and how poly lactic acid (PLA) bubblewrap can be made from starchy crops such as silverbeet and corn. There’s also a bit of disturbing news for pineapple lump lovers such as myself.

What really grabbed me was Oranges are for oil. It quickly looks at some of the industrial uses of orange waste from juice production:
— vitamin A,
— paint ingredients,
— gelling agents,
— cellulose for cellophane and fuel,
— synthetic rubber,
— food oil,
— activated charcoal.

Another one for the feedreader, folks! Oil is for…
(via StarCooked)

Pickled olives

I’ve just tasted some beautiful olives a friend’s mum grew in her back yard and then pickled. Most generously, I was given a recipe to post here. I’ll have to wait to find a tree I can raid. I’ve spotted a few olive trees growing on properties around Kapiti. We’ve certainly have that salt-laden wind of the Mediterranean. Olive trees have incredibly long tap roots so they can survive in very dry coastal situations. There are some commercial growers a bit further north.

Jill, the aforementioned pickler, has two Mission olive trees. Mission is a cultivar that’s been popular in NZ for quite some time, with a reputation as a reliable cropper. Her husband crops the trees every year keeping the fruit within reach. Harvest time is carefully chosen – just before the olives turn black, the birds will swoop in pretty quickly then.

Facts for the homesteaders, a tree producing 30-40 kilos of olives at year nine, with an oil content of 20% yields 8 litres of oil.  Recipe after the jump

An Apple’s Family Tree

This family tree shows how the various popular varieties of New Zealand apples have been bred. They originated with the Cox’s Orange Pippin from the United Kingdom, and the Delicious variety from the United States. Royal gala and braeburn are both hugely popular varieties. My personal favourite though is the crisp and tangy golden delicious.

It’s just one of hundreds of beautiful images, graphs, video and audio resources that form Te Ara – the online encyclopedia of New Zealand. Te Ara has launched their new section of the site The Settled Landscape, which looks at the agriculture, horticulture and the general taming of New Zealand.  Their section on  The Bush is a luscious look at the unique flora and fauna here – more about that some other time. The encyclopedia is an incredible resource and hours of fun.

Come for the pictures stay for the fascinating info. There’s sooooo much for a horticulturally-minded wee thing to enjoy…..