KERIKERI

KERIKERI Rather old fruit…

One thing missionaries and early European settlers in New Zealand seemed to enjoy was a bit of fresh fruit. That, and transplanting trees that belonged in the Northern Hemisphere into New Zealand soil.

WORDS: John O’Hare

Medlar ripening on the tree.

When the Rev. John Butler began to establish the Kerikeri Mission Station in 1820 a top priority was to plant a garden and some fruit trees. It seems there was no stopping him, and today there are still remnant plantings that can be traced back to the sweat of Butler’s brow, including New Zealand’s oldest pear tree across the road from the Stone Store.

“A lot of the fruit here dating back to missionary times is mentioned in the Bible – figs, olives and grapes for wine, almonds, apples and pears,” says Kerikeri Mission Station Property Lead Liz Bigwood. “The missionaries came with a smorgasbord of everything, which even included apricots, though these didn’t do well because winters aren’t cold enough here. We also have a lemon tree grown from a cutting said to have been planted by the Hansen family at the first Christian mission at Hōhi.”

Appropriately enough, the Kerikeri Mission Station also has oranges – though not as we know them.

“Our oranges are not sweet – they are Seville oranges, an older variety – not great eating, but magnificent in a marmalade, viewed as that most English of breakfast condiments – even though it originated in Spain (hint: Seville) as a type of coulis to serve with meat.”

One unusual addition to the mission orchard, perhaps, is the medlar – otherwise known as the ‘Monkey’s Bum’ after its distinctive, slightly confronting appearance. The medlar is symbolic in literature of prostitution or premature destitution – about as un-Biblical as you can get. “Medlars are sweetest after bletting – which is basically leaving the fruit to get over-ripe to the point of almost rotting before being sweet enough to eat. The texture of bletted fruit – kind of squishy and almost custard or jelly-like – often doesn’t suit modern sensibilities, and certainly doesn’t look good on a supermarket shelf, so over the years it has fallen out of favour,” Liz says. Medlar fans, however, talk poetically about the results of the slow-rotting process of bletting producing an apple fragrance with notes of cinnamon. By contrast, author D.H. Lawrence described them as “wineskins of brown morbidity, autumnal excrementa.”

And you thought feijoas were polarising. Elsewhere at properties cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga many trees planted by Victorian-era settlers continue to cast something of a long shadow. Two unusual species at Alberton in Auckland, for example, fall into this category – it almost seems they were planted for the sake of being planted. “One of these is the Poor Man’s Orange, a kind of grapefruit which originated in East Asia and was later introduced into New Zealand and Australia by Sir George Grey in about 1855,” says Alberton Property Lead Rendell McIntosh.

“The fruit looks nice, but it’s hopeless for eating or cooking into marmalade.” Likewise, Alberton’s Strawberry Tree, which yields fruit that bears a resemblance to strawberries – though unfortunately that’s where the similarity ends. And though you would likely survive to tell the tale should you eat one, fruitwise you could do better. “One redeeming feature of the Strawberry Tree, perhaps, is that it is the national tree of Italy. Its white flowers, green leaves and red berries recalls the Italian flag,” he says. The trees are a representative sample of the incredibly diverse range of exotics planted around the country inspired, no doubt, by the need for food – but also perhaps as a connection to the home countries of the Northern Hemisphere. n