I went off on a tangent a few days ago, as is often the case with me here at Struan Farm. Several varieties of our native trees around the place are fruiting at the moment, including totara, rimu, matai, miro, and kahikatea.
Kahitkatea is one of the oldest and tallest of the native "chiefly trees," standing above the bush canopy. According to the new book "Treasures of Tane" by Rob Tipa, Kahitaktea was one of the five trees in which Mahuika, ancestor of Maui, hid the secret of fire. The berries, called "koroi," were a food source, harvested by either climbing up the trees with baskets or shaking the trees.
Upon discovering that koroi are edible, I thought it might be fun to experiment with them. Traditionally they were eaten raw. I went into research mode and managed to find a "Quince and Kahikatea Berry Tart" recipe that I'm rounding up the ingredients for. The aged grappa called for could not be purchased in our wider provincial area, so it had to be ordered online.
Quite frankly I was surprised that there aren't more recipes using these easily foraged indigenous berries given how trendy both foraging and native, indigenous foods are.
While the grappa finds its way to Piopio I decided to try making a kahikatea jam, and went out with bucket in hand to two of the older female trees currently laden with berries. I quickly developed a raking motion to pop the berries off the branches in quantity, but it still took some time. My plan had been to harvest a kilogram, but I stopped at about 500 grams. I did tell the grandmothers that the seeds would be planted, so their fruit was not going to waste needlessly on some nutty lady's jam experiment.
Once harvested the berries then had to be de-seeded and washed. It's exceedingly tedious pulling the seeds out one by one, "meditative" would be putting it nicely. For me it was a mind numbing rather than mindful experience. Once I got to 200 grams I'd had enough, also enough berries to make a pot of jam. The seeds we'll put into trays with soil to grow seedling trees in our expanding native tree nursery.
I put the berries into my jam pan with the juice of one lemon, cooking until they started to soften. After that I added an equivalent amount of sugar (pretty standard approach to making any jam) and let it boil until the set point was reached. I test setting with a cold plate left in the freezer, upon which I dribble some hot jam. If I can run my finger through it and it divides cleanly, the jam is pretty much set.
I must confess the jam looked a bit odd in the sealed jar with the berries floating up top. But when John and I tasted it we agreed it was reasonably good. He thought rather like strawberry jam. Since it hadn't set all that firmly (I'd been afraid about overcooking it), I decided to use it as a warm sauce over ice cream. It might also be nice as a filling for short cake, something I do quite a bit with rhubarb, apple and/or feijoa.
The Verdict: the jam was amazing warm over vanilla ice cream! I'll look forward to trying that quince tart with the berries next, since it uses only 1/2-1 cup of koroi. Just thinking they might also be interesting dotted in salads.
Amazing I’ve been studying podocarps since 1980 University and thought all fruits were inedible guess birds know better
Posted by: Sandra | 05/26/2021 at 08:07 AM