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By Anna-Marie Barnes This article was originally published on lifestyleblock.co.nz. New Zealand horticulture has a reputation for turning obscure fruits into success stories. From Chinese gooseberries (now recognised far and wide as kiwifruit) to feijoas, it seems we can take a species little-known outside of its native range, cultivate it successfully in our amenable climate, make it a domestic favourite, and then more often than not, turn it into star on the international stage. The tamarillo, Cyphomandra betacea (syn. Solanum betaceum), formerly known as the tree tomato, or ‘arbol de tomate’ in Spanish, fits neatly into [...]

By Anna-Marie Barnes This article was originally published on lifestyleblock.co.nz. You’ve probably heard gardeners and self-sufficiency enthusiasts talk wistfully about the ‘hungry gap’ as winter turns to spring. In terms of fruit and vegetable production, the late winter and early spring months can be deceptively sparse, as the cold-weather crops finish or bolt to seed and the new-season crops are in their infancy. This is particularly applicable to the fruit crops – citrus has its heyday and then declines, rhubarb fills a gap, then the early strawberries pop in, but the hefty summer crops of stonefruit [...]

Rhubarb and patience can work wonders – German proverb By Anna-Marie Barnes This article was originally published on lifestyleblock.co.nz. When is a fruit not a fruit? When it’s a vegetable, of course! A vegetable, you say? In botanical terms, rhubarb is indeed a vegetable, as it is the herbaceous stem portion that we cook and eat, as opposed to its actual fruit, which by strict definition is the ‘mature, ripened ovary of a plant, including the contents of the ovary’. Conversely, this means that many things we term vegetables are actually fruits – think the squash-pumpkin [...]

By Anna-Marie Barnes This article was originally published on lifestyleblock.co.nz. This month, it’s time for something completely different as we step away from the ordinary and take a look at the much-maligned but eager-to-please choko. You may or may not have heard of this strange pear-shaped “is it a fruit, is it a vegetable?” Those in New Zealand’s northern climes are perhaps more likely to be familiar with this outlandish member of the Cucurbitaceae or gourd family. Maturing in late autumn to early winter, and with good storage potential, it is a handy substitute for cucumbers [...]

10 year old espaliered Fuyu persimmon at harvest, Nelson region. Photo: A & B Phillips. By Anna-Marie Barnes This article was originally published on lifestyleblock.co.nz. May is the peak season for fresh persimmons in New Zealand, with supermarket shelves and market stalls now laden with this increasingly-popular fruit, which looks somewhat like a squat miniature pumpkin-tomato hybrid.  As a home garden specimen tree, the persimmon offers not only a plentiful source of fruit heading in to the winter months, but also a brilliant display of colour as its foliage turns in the autumn. [...]