Farmed Potatoes, Wild Mussels

---

---

Greetings! We just sent our long update out yesterday, but we had such a great day today, we wanted to briefly share it with all of you.

My day began with a cup of tea in the kitchen and Kate suddenly bursting into the house shouting, "Baby turkeys! Baby turkeys just hatched!" I ran outside to help them gather the tiniest, fuzziest, cutest little birds I've ever seen (will get photos for you next time) and move them into the safety of the hen house. Then we were informed that they'd just picked up half a tonne (1,100 POUNDS) of potatoes, which were sitting in the bed of their truck, waiting to be sorted. So our morning was spent sifting the potatoes into large bags and disposing of the few rotten ones. We set the largest ones aside (some the size of a football) for Kate to fry up into "chips" (French fries - but the really big thick kind). "Lunch" was a backyard picnic of plate after plate of fried chips and Kate's homemade ketchup, washed down with homemade blackcurrant juice. Yum!!

Our next task was to drive to a beach about twenty minutes from here, at the mouth of the Tokomariro River, and gather seaweed for the garden (apparently it makes excellent fertilizer). Of course we were expecting Florida-style little scraggly seaweed washed up on the shore, so we were in for quite the surprise! Their seaweed, or kelp, resembles a giant octopus or squid and stretches to lengths of over 30 feet! It feels like smooth, super-stretchy rubber and looks precisely like the giant foamy arms that hang down in a car wash and whip the dirt off your vehicle. So cool!! Their water is clear as glass, even clearer than water you see in the Keys or the Caribbean (but alas, not nearly as warm!). We spent the afternoon rock-hopping, hauling seaweed back to the truck, then stumbled upon the idea to gather wild mussels and make them for dinner! So out we climbed to the farthest rocks and pried some truly enormous mussels from the half-submerged boulders, filling half a grocery bag.

Cleaning and preparing the mussels was interesting, as neither Kate nor I had ever actually cooked shellfish (let alone stuff covered with barnacles and seaweed). We pulled up some info online and we got to work, scrubbing, cleaning, pulling the beards out, and finally steaming the little guys to perfection. Top it all off with some garlic lemon butter and wah-lah! Fresh mussels, pulled from the sea only hours earlier. Between the potatoes, the mussels, and the seaweed, we did an awful lot of hauling, sorting, and cooking...but it was fabulous! One of our best days yet.

---

Comments

[Paul Kaufman]

Your Travelogue
Amy - your writing and your photos are excellent! Thanks for sharing and allowing me to live vicariously through your amazing experiences! Regards, Paul

[Denise]

YUM!
That sounds like fun! Yummy too! God willing, maybe we can visit too.