Back cover: PappleLook out for a ‘papple,’ an Asian pear with an intense red colourwhich is now being grown in small
commercial quantities, mostly around the Nelson area.
Marketed as “looks like an apple, tastes like a pear”, the papple is a Plant and Food bred ‘Kosui’
(Japanese pear) and ‘Huobali’ (Chinese pear) cross.
Apparently the Prevar-licensed variety is a precocious bearer but the fruit needs very careful
handling and cooling to stay in optimum condition. But with China’s pear (largelyAsian) consumption
increasing a staggering 64% overthe past decade to almost 10kg per person per annum, its future
may be as rosy as its skin.A rat trap that works
After a long seven years, I am expecting my nut trees to bear this autumn, and have no intention
of sharing my first crop with the resident rats who have built a metropolis around the neighbouring
pig trough.
l have tried just about every type of trap and bait (though not poison) and all have been to no avail.
Why go for human-tainted bait when you have more pig food than you can eat?So I copied the idea shown at Waikato Conference by Idan Shapira — using a live rat as a lure. I simply built a rat cage on one end of my DOC 200 predator trap. Sheryn
|
