Jeannie’s Kitchen is back! It’s been a long wait between posts – 8 years in fact. Since 2017 we have made changes to the property inspiring me to once again post on food, garden and tree stories from Fat Weka Farm. This Christmas we will have been living here for 10 years and over that time we have developed and restored the land as a natural reserve, with wild gardens and orchards.
All these elements make up Fat Weka Farm and in 2024 Augustines of Portobello farmstore was launched. Our son Gus with his partner Jana have created a food business that also allows Fat Weka Farm to be a place that many people get to enjoy.
Augustines of Portobello is a busy cafe Friday to Sunday. Jana and Gus both busy working here. Photo: Isabella Harrex
At Augustines ‘Trust the Chef’ dinners are every second Friday. His menu items for the cafe utilise the preserves he produces onsite or fresh produce from the farm and local producers.
It’s a wet weekend here at Portobello and luckily before the rain I gathered a basket of wild watercress requested by Gus for his Friday dinner menu.
Watercress is plentiful at this time of the year.
Watercress needs water as the name suggests and it flourishes on the valley floor of both valleys where it’s nearly always damp.
After the big rain a stream now runs where the watercress grows.
Come winter it’s often difficult to find enough salad greens but watercress is great fallback. When watercress flowers, it looses its peppery flavour and becomes bitter.
As a member of the mustard (Brassicaceae) family its relatives are rocket, wasabi, mustard and radish. To capitalise on the sharp peppery flavour just pick the small stems to avoid the bitterness that develops in the older thicker stems. Use watercress in salads, sandwiches, soups or as a lush green garnish.
Watercress Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
Winter watercress salad with a sweet honey mustard dressing and mandarin as a contrast to the sharp peppery cress.
INGREDIIENTS;
Watercress
Optional: add other winter salad greens. (I did a mix of cress with cos lettuce and NZ spinach because wild watercress is stronger flavoured than commercial bags grown hydroponically.)
1-2 mandarins or an orange
toasted hazelnuts or nuts of your choice
THE DRESSING – add all the ingredients in a pot and heat to melt the honey and whisk to combine
2 tsp of honey
2 Tbsp of white wine vinegar
4 Tbsp of cold pressed rapeseed oil (or any oil of your choice)
1 garlic clove crushed with salt
1 tsp of grainy or dijon mustard
pepper to taste.
I like to use in dresssings thyme honey from Central Otago
To prepare the salad I add all the greens into a serving bowl, then the mandarin and chopped nuts. Dress and toss just before serving taking care not to drown the salad with dressing.
I enjoy gathering something from Fat Weka Farm that will contribute to Augustines menu and this week it was watercress.
The majority of the watercress gathered was used by Gus to accompany the dinner main of beef sirloin, cauliflower puree with Augustines Black Doris ketchup adding a touch of sweetness to balance the peppery watercress.
Growing Watercress
Watercress will easily grow from a piece of wild gathered cress planted in earth with the rootlets anchored in the wet soil
I am lucky to have wild watercress to harvest. But I have successfully planted and harvested it in a particularly damp corner of the garden – the sort of place that mint loves. I have encouraged watercress and mint as garden companions in this damp corner, where it’s often too wet for other plants to grow. The only problem is watercress’s messy scrambling habit means it easy to accidentally pull it out. So it will remain a pretty wild section of the garden.
Looking back at my posts, I have already covered watercress in; Potato & Watercress Salad and Eggs and Watercress . I have listed many of the health benefits of eating watercress in these posts. Basically it’s full of goodness, will improve your skin making a younger looking you. Worthwhile foraging for then!
(Note: when foraging make sure it is not growing where stock are grazing or chemicals are used.)
Lexie came with Fat Weka Farm and we just wouldn’t be without her. We are not sure what breed her parents were but she has a superb nose and is a great garden companion. She especially likes it when I work up the valley where we have planted an orchard and when I dig and…
Watercress and eggs are natural partners on the plate and with spring comes lots of fresh watercress and the first eggs from our hens. Vitamins make watercress a super food. A watercress omelette makes a super quick and easy meal. Our hen advisor, my sister Kerry, told me to grab free pullets on offer in…
Jeannie’s Kitchen is back! It’s been a long wait between posts – 8 years in fact. Since 2017 we have made changes to the property inspiring me to once again post on food, garden and tree stories from Fat Weka Farm. This Christmas we will have been living here for 10 years and over that time we have developed and restored the land as a natural reserve, with wild gardens and orchards.
All these elements make up Fat Weka Farm and in 2024 Augustines of Portobello farmstore was launched. Our son Gus with his partner Jana have created a food business that also allows Fat Weka Farm to be a place that many people get to enjoy.
Augustines of Portobello is a busy cafe Friday to Sunday. Jana and Gus both busy working here. Photo: Isabella Harrex
At Augustines ‘Trust the Chef’ dinners are every second Friday. His menu items for the cafe utilise the preserves he produces onsite or fresh produce from the farm and local producers.
It’s a wet weekend here at Portobello and luckily before the rain I gathered a basket of wild watercress requested by Gus for his Friday dinner menu.
Watercress is plentiful at this time of the year.
Watercress needs water as the name suggests and it flourishes on the valley floor of both valleys where it’s nearly always damp.
After the big rain a stream now runs where the watercress grows.
Come winter it’s often difficult to find enough salad greens but watercress is great fallback. When watercress flowers, it looses its peppery flavour and becomes bitter.
As a member of the mustard (Brassicaceae) family its relatives are rocket, wasabi, mustard and radish. To capitalise on the sharp peppery flavour just pick the small stems to avoid the bitterness that develops in the older thicker stems. Use watercress in salads, sandwiches, soups or as a lush green garnish.
Watercress Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
Winter watercress salad with a sweet honey mustard dressing and mandarin as a contrast to the sharp peppery cress.
INGREDIIENTS;
Watercress
Optional: add other winter salad greens. (I did a mix of cress with cos lettuce and NZ spinach because wild watercress is stronger flavoured than commercial bags grown hydroponically.)
1-2 mandarins or an orange
toasted hazelnuts or nuts of your choice
THE DRESSING – add all the ingredients in a pot and heat to melt the honey and whisk to combine
2 tsp of honey
2 Tbsp of white wine vinegar
4 Tbsp of cold pressed rapeseed oil (or any oil of your choice)
1 garlic clove crushed with salt
1 tsp of grainy or dijon mustard
pepper to taste.
I like to use in dresssings thyme honey from Central Otago
To prepare the salad I add all the greens into a serving bowl, then the mandarin and chopped nuts. Dress and toss just before serving taking care not to drown the salad with dressing.
I enjoy gathering something from Fat Weka Farm that will contribute to Augustines menu and this week it was watercress.
The majority of the watercress gathered was used by Gus to accompany the dinner main of beef sirloin, cauliflower puree with Augustines Black Doris ketchup adding a touch of sweetness to balance the peppery watercress.
Growing Watercress
Watercress will easily grow from a piece of wild gathered cress planted in earth with the rootlets anchored in the wet soil
I am lucky to have wild watercress to harvest. But I have successfully planted and harvested it in a particularly damp corner of the garden – the sort of place that mint loves. I have encouraged watercress and mint as garden companions in this damp corner, where it’s often too wet for other plants to grow. The only problem is watercress’s messy scrambling habit means it easy to accidentally pull it out. So it will remain a pretty wild section of the garden.
Looking back at my posts, I have already covered watercress in; Potato & Watercress Salad and Eggs and Watercress . I have listed many of the health benefits of eating watercress in these posts. Basically it’s full of goodness, will improve your skin making a younger looking you. Worthwhile foraging for then!
(Note: when foraging make sure it is not growing where stock are grazing or chemicals are used.)
Jeannie’s Kitchen is back! It’s been a long wait between posts – 8 years in fact. Since 2017 we have made changes to the property inspiring me to once again post on food, garden and tree stories from Fat Weka Farm. This Christmas we will have been living here for 10 years and over that time we have developed and restored the land as a natural reserve, with wild gardens and orchards.
All these elements make up Fat Weka Farm and in 2024 Augustines of Portobello farmstore was launched. Our son Gus with his partner Jana have created a food business that also allows Fat Weka Farm to be a place that many people get to enjoy.
Augustines of Portobello is a busy cafe Friday to Sunday. Jana and Gus both busy working here. Photo: Isabella Harrex
At Augustines ‘Trust the Chef’ dinners are every second Friday. His menu items for the cafe utilise the preserves he produces onsite or fresh produce from the farm and local producers.
It’s a wet weekend here at Portobello and luckily before the rain I gathered a basket of wild watercress requested by Gus for his Friday dinner menu.
Watercress is plentiful at this time of the year.
Watercress needs water as the name suggests and it flourishes on the valley floor of both valleys where it’s nearly always damp.
After the big rain a stream now runs where the watercress grows.
Come winter it’s often difficult to find enough salad greens but watercress is great fallback. When watercress flowers, it looses its peppery flavour and becomes bitter.
As a member of the mustard (Brassicaceae) family its relatives are rocket, wasabi, mustard and radish. To capitalise on the sharp peppery flavour just pick the small stems to avoid the bitterness that develops in the older thicker stems. Use watercress in salads, sandwiches, soups or as a lush green garnish.
Watercress Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
Winter watercress salad with a sweet honey mustard dressing and mandarin as a contrast to the sharp peppery cress.
INGREDIIENTS;
Watercress
Optional: add other winter salad greens. (I did a mix of cress with cos lettuce and NZ spinach because wild watercress is stronger flavoured than commercial bags grown hydroponically.)
1-2 mandarins or an orange
toasted hazelnuts or nuts of your choice
THE DRESSING – add all the ingredients in a pot and heat to melt the honey and whisk to combine
2 tsp of honey
2 Tbsp of white wine vinegar
4 Tbsp of cold pressed rapeseed oil (or any oil of your choice)
1 garlic clove crushed with salt
1 tsp of grainy or dijon mustard
pepper to taste.
I like to use in dresssings thyme honey from Central Otago
To prepare the salad I add all the greens into a serving bowl, then the mandarin and chopped nuts. Dress and toss just before serving taking care not to drown the salad with dressing.
I enjoy gathering something from Fat Weka Farm that will contribute to Augustines menu and this week it was watercress.
The majority of the watercress gathered was used by Gus to accompany the dinner main of beef sirloin, cauliflower puree with Augustines Black Doris ketchup adding a touch of sweetness to balance the peppery watercress.
Growing Watercress
Watercress will easily grow from a piece of wild gathered cress planted in earth with the rootlets anchored in the wet soil
I am lucky to have wild watercress to harvest. But I have successfully planted and harvested it in a particularly damp corner of the garden – the sort of place that mint loves. I have encouraged watercress and mint as garden companions in this damp corner, where it’s often too wet for other plants to grow. The only problem is watercress’s messy scrambling habit means it easy to accidentally pull it out. So it will remain a pretty wild section of the garden.
Looking back at my posts, I have already covered watercress in; Potato & Watercress Salad and Eggs and Watercress . I have listed many of the health benefits of eating watercress in these posts. Basically it’s full of goodness, will improve your skin making a younger looking you. Worthwhile foraging for then!
(Note: when foraging make sure it is not growing where stock are grazing or chemicals are used.)
Jeannie's Kitchen 