Autumn around the streets

 

 The colours of Autumn are out in force in Rotorua.  Yellows, oranges, reds.  I went for a wander down to the school and across to the Tree Trust. 

 

Feijoa Jelly - reduced sugar / reduced taste?

We have been fortunate this month, to get lots and lots and lots of feijoas from a friend.  6 supermarket bags full.  We have had feijoa crumble, feijoa cheesecake, feijoa mousse and I have bottled 10 jars with cinnamon, vanilla, and star anise.

All this meant lots of feijoa shells (or skins).  I would stack the shells together, and freeze them.  Once I had a bread bag full, I could make feijoa jelly.

 I have been reducing the amount of sugar in our lives.  I know that sugar is important to work with the pectin in the fruit.  Feijoa is high in pectin, so in theory, I shouldn't need as much sugar.   After chatting with the guys at work, and getting some advice off Foodlovers.co.nz I decided to go with the 3/4 cup method instead of the 1 cup method of jelly making.

Normally jelly is 1 cup fruit juice to 1 cup sugar, but I made my jelly with 1 cup fruit juice to 3/4 cup sugar.  10 cups of strained feijoa juice to 7 1/2 cups sugar.  I rounded it up to 8 just to be safe. I also added the juice of one lemon, and the rind (which I cut up finely).

I added a cinnamon stick to the mix just for flavour, and a few drops of red food gel colouring, as it was a delightful grey/green mixture.

I don't know how long I cooked it for.  I was doing other stuff, and would just come back and stir it.  Once it coated the back of the wooden spoon I bottled it.  The urchins declared it "yum" and ate one bottle in the afternoon.  The jelly set well, and isn't hard, but isn't runny either.  The jelly is not supersweet, and has a nice feijoa flavour.  Success!

Water Polo and Tighe

 

Tighe decided to try Water Polo this year.  It was so much fun, and I loved seeing him smile so much.

Great team, and they got into the Finals!  Awesome effort guys.

Tighe, Tyler and Nathan

 The team worked really well together, and swapped positions throughout the game.

Tighe wasn't afraid to tackle the other players, and all the games were exciting.

 Tighe also stopped lots of goals when he was goalie.  I hope he gives it a go next year.

Always great to see the smiles

Tighe's Big Canopy Tour

 Tighe has been asking for over a year to do this, so today we did.  Ziplining in the Mamakus.

In the Dansey Road Reserve, several North Island Robins kept us company.  I have only seen these on Mokoia Island, a bird Sanctury.  Seeing them in the bush was awesome.

 There were about 7 different ziplines throughout the tour, and each was wonderful.

Tighe's first zipline.

The bush was amazing.  So many shades of green.

 There were several bridges between the tree tops, and were fun to walk.

The "bird" tree was interesting, and I was proud that Tighe knew most of the native birds in the forest.

I just like the colours in the bark.

 The ponga ferns looks like huge umbrellas.

Tighe decided to cannon ball on this zipline.

The bright sky-blue colour of Entoloma hochstetteri resembles the blue wattle of the kōkako bird; hence the Māori name for this fungus, werewere-kōkako.  I just call them "smurf houses".

Canopy tours are doing fantastic conservation work, and trapping possums and rats.   Lots of undergrowth, and birdlife as a result.

High up in the rainforest canopy.

There is a Robin in the tree