Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Slumpy Cashflow

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  • andrew llewellyn,

    but saving $5 by knicking rosemary out of the public gardens in central wellington really adds up over a year.

    Indeed! It is the only place to find fresh growing tarragon in the city.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • Jeremy Eade,

    "but saving $5 by knicking rosemary out of the public gardens in central wellington really adds up over a year.

    Indeed! It is the only place to find fresh growing tarragon in the city."


    Wellingtonians are getting free food , so the rumours are true.

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report

  • Che Tibby,

    Wellingtonians are getting free food , so the rumours are true

    last year they planted the central divider on lambton quay with silverbeet!!

    i was this >< close to taking a heap and making spanakopita.

    goes to show how affluent new zealanders really are.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report

  • BenWilson,

    but saving $5 by knicking rosemary out of the public gardens in central wellington really adds up over a year.

    Or growing a plant, u naughty thief. It's extremely hardy, basically plant and forget.

    I'm most amused by people who'll pay $20 for a bottle of St John's Wort pills. I planted one little $3 plant and it took over my whole garden in 2 years. Chuck a handful in your tea.

    The only 2 plants that have been a total dead loss are tea (you need an acre to make a cup) and coffee (frost kills it). Still gotta buy those, but they seem to have actually got cheaper recently.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report

  • Gabor Toth,

    "but saving $5 by knicking rosemary out of the public gardens in central wellington really adds up over a year.

    Indeed! It is the only place to find fresh growing tarragon in the city."


    Wellingtonians are getting free food , so the rumours are true

    There is also the broadleaf parsley that grows like crazy in the Wellington Town Belt. Once when picking a dainty bunch from a favourite patch of mine in Mt Victoria, I came across the (slightly embarrassed) Lebanese owner of my favourite kebab shop carrying huge fistfuls of the stuff.
    Some wit in the WCC Parks & Garden's department has taken to planting the boarders of traffic island flower beds with fancy lettuces (and very attractive they are too...)

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 137 posts Report

  • Eleanor,

    I had a Russian friend stay with me once in Queenstown: never have I seen such resourcefulness in the face of having no cash. She caught the free Millbrook shuttle to Arrowtown, and actually foraged for herbs and berries along the riverbank, which she ate for lunch.

    She had an uncanny and well honed instinct for knowing what was edible and what was toxic tutu.

    wellington • Since May 2007 • 81 posts Report

  • Don Christie,

    Che

    anyone have a figure handy on how much the "tax offsets" in the form of LAQCs are costing the taxpayer? i know there are tens of thousands of the things, but an actual figure on what this subsidisation is costing me would be interesting.

    Maybe we will get to talk about this one day. But if you ever get round to thinking of starting a business I thoroughly recommend starting out as an LACQ. From personal experience, it will probably make the difference between you lasting one year and ten years.

    Frankly, if a business happens to own a property I don't see why it cannot attribute losses just like any other business...at worst all it does is help keep rents low so that those renting can save up to, you know, buy a house.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report

  • BenWilson,

    Invest in rooting hormone and you never even need to buy plants...just take cuttings. Then you only need to plunder the city's gardens the once.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report

  • Emma Hart,

    I'm most amused by people who'll pay $20 for a bottle of St John's Wort pills. I planted one little $3 plant and it took over my whole garden in 2 years. Chuck a handful in your tea.

    Okay, half my garden is herbs, for eating, bathing and teas, but I'd srsly recommend NOT doing that. SJW is an MAO inhibitor. If you're just grabbing a handful of leaves and making tea, there's no way you can control the dose you're getting. My favourite herbal says:

    While using SJW, do not take amphetamines, narcotics, trytophan, tyrosine, diet pills, asthma inhalants, nasal decongestants, cold or hay fever medication. Don't drink beer, wine or coffee, or eat salami, yoghurt, chocolate, fava beans, or smoked or picked items.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • andrew llewellyn,

    What's an MAO inhibitor when iots at home Emma?

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Do the herbal "medicine" manufacturers standardise the hyperforin/hypericin in the product?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Kerry Weston,

    I gave up on the vege garden over summer - paying for water made it uneconomic. If I get it together and install a small rainwater tank t'would be ok. I do well out of quinces, got an enormous, abundant tree that s ready to fruit and I swap them for farm meat & other produce. Also got masses of garlic which I keep thinking I should do something with, mash them into paste or something & sell at market.

    I agree it's appalling that in a mass food producing country we pay thru the nose for meat & dairy.

    As a single income mortgage payer, I'm not too worried - I paid alot of mine off faster the last decade (property's cheap here) and I reckon interest rates will start dropping later this year. Food, power & petrol are the killers.

    Dunno about nutmeg - the old San Pedro was the botanical hit in my day...

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    paying for water made it uneconomic

    Use grey water. Or black (yuck, but it works for the Chinese. Don't blaim me if you get cholera).

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Emma Hart,

    Do the herbal "medicine" manufacturers standardise the hyperforin/hypericin in the product?

    They bloody well should, but I don't know if they all do. Look on the label for some kind of indication of dosage.

    What's an MAO inhibitor when iots at home Emma?

    When it's out, it's an all-singing, all-dancing caberet girl. At home, however, it's a monoamine oxidase inhibator.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • samuel walker,

    sure the tomatoes are 99c a kilo when you're harvesting them, and the only advantage is taste,

    we are talking capitalised TASTE here though., even the best, ripest, peak of season supermarket toms never come close to the taste explosion of any tomato hand grown in sunny suburban beachhaven.

    even the vine ripened ones, what do they do, pick em green and dye em red or something?

    Since Nov 2006 • 203 posts Report

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Here's something from my hippy roots.

    Food Not Lawns: How To Turn Your Yard Into A Garden

    http://katipo.net.nz/index.php/cPath/37?osCsid=9c9dfd8266ca278c2ebdb0feadae32f9

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Use grey water. Or black

    I quite like what Kapiti Coast DC are proposing for new housing developments - that is along the lines of every new house will have to install a 25,000 litre rain collecting tank OR a 10,000 l tank & a grey water system.

    We've got a 30,000 litre tank which is fed from half of the roof of (what once was) 7 stables. The water from the other half of the roof just runs away.

    The rainwater is purely used for irrigating the garden, the house has its own bore (very nice water too)

    We're seriously considering investing in another big tank & diverting water from the house to it. It is surprising how fast the water can go.

    Of course... another tank would mean another pump to get it out there. It's never ending.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • Pauline Dawson,

    Being the aforemention single income, no hope of buying renter with small kids, we do the vegie garden thing. I find it relaxing, fresh, organic(ish) vege is great and I have discovered that my kids will eat anything that they have grown - even broccoli. Its not THAT economic but i get cuttings off friends, buy seedlings at the markets etc. Also we have had to cut back hugely on diary - who would ever have thought that home-made mac cheese would be a luxury? I do make my own yoghurt whihc is easily made into some fesh cheese by adding a bit of rennet, I barter occasionally for meat from a friend with a lifestyle block by helping with computer stuff. We live a modest, sustainable life (some might say austere) to save money and so I can stay home with the kids. we've just worked out that me going back to work full-time would hardly get us ahead further because of childcare for 3, transport costs and reduction (or loss) of working for families payments.

    Mosgiel • Since Feb 2008 • 26 posts Report

  • samuel walker,

    Nutmeg..one experience, a friend, she actually turned green. and wernt too happy for a few hours, coulnt leave the hallway for some reason.

    Never try to smoke a chilli. ever. apparently it feels as if your blood is on fire, and skull. didnt last long though.

    Absinthe didnt do much for me, was a smooth drunk feeling though, perhaps due to all the melted sugar.

    As for the san Pedro, there are several I have noticed on my travels around ak, they seem to get shorter all the time......

    Since Nov 2006 • 203 posts Report

  • andrew llewellyn,

    When it's out, it's an all-singing, all-dancing caberet girl. At home, however, it's a monoamine oxidase inhibator.

    Thanks Emma, I must ask what it is my sister has been taking this week - supposedly an anti-anxiety drug - but it seems to be causing her to hallucinate quite badly.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • Eleanor,

    supposedly an anti-anxiety drug - but it seems to be causing her to hallucinate quite badly.

    that doesn't sound good... find out. Hypericin is not known for being a hallucinogenic but another contraindication is sun exposure. St Johns Wort can change the way your skin synthesizes sunlight.

    As a bored adolescent stuck in a lodge up a mountain one winter we grated enormous mounds of nutmeg into glasses of milk (which was cheaper then!).

    The solid half hour giggling fit and vivid dreams that night of flying over dunes of snow hardly compensated for two subsequent days of mental numbness.

    wellington • Since May 2007 • 81 posts Report

  • andrew llewellyn,

    that doesn't sound good... find out.

    Oh we will - but the whole thing is a long story....

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • Lyndon Hood,

    we are talking capitalised TASTE here though

    and you get to grow whatever kind of tomatoes you like. Not that I've tried it, I'm just frustrated that the ugly, lumpen, butter-ily yummy variety that was at the LHutt market last year seems to be missing. Just the 'normal' small medium and large ones.

    Re cheese, it does get fiddly and specialist very quickly. In my minimal experience the only thing worth trying to make at home would be the fresh white curd sort of thing like cottage chees or the equivalent of indian paneer (I failed with an authentic version). And I didn't find it very satisfying in the end.

    Plus you do need lots of milk, and powder doesn't really work.

    For domestic quantities of milk you can use a yoghurt maker to make cultured buttermilk too. Which tastes like cheese.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report

  • andrew llewellyn,

    On the subject of Auckland's pessimistically perceived accommodation problems, house boats?</quotes>

    I'm considering running a sweepstake for when trailerparks get recommended & by whom.

    <quote>Re cheese, it does get fiddly and specialist very quickly

    Yeehaa! Titration!! I recall expressing skepticism to my 6th form chemistry teacher that titration would ever cross my path again (after the only practical application she could think of for what was months & months of titration experiments, was if any of us became cheesmakers).

    But there now, you've proven me wronmg.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • B Jones,

    My local fruit shop sells NZ-grown grapes. They're small and variable in size, with big fat seeds, but have the tangiest grapeyist taste and the skin slips chewily off the fruit underneath. Just like the ones you get off the fence in sunny gardens, sans miniature snails. Nothing at all like the big watery california ones.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report

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