# Left my home town of Huntly, # headin' out in the cold. From the sunny north to the wild south, NZ is overflowing with breathtaking backdrops, heavenly harvests and a whole lot of fabulous foodies. So jump on board with us as we hang out with the locals, wrangle some wildlife and feast our way around this magnificent country. Come on, Toppy. We got people to meet and food to eat. Yee-hah! # Nga iwi e. # I'm just a local farmhand... # This week, we gorge ourselves silly on giant blueberries and learn how to turn cream into fuel. Then we venture into the faraway lands of Lothlorien, where the wine flows freely, and we meet royalty ` the queen and the king of feijoas. But right now, we're getting fruity with Andrew and Heather Cole on their incredible lifestyle block just outside Nelson. Heather's been in love with fruit since she was a kid, so it's not surprising they've got 140 different fruit trees growing here on their property. This is about as far away as you can get from their once-hectic corporate lives in London. Talk about a genius move home. Well, I know you grow fruit trees and you're trying to be self-sufficient here, but how do you make a living? About eight years ago, I started Country Trading. Born out of frustration ` not being able to get the things I wanted. So I set up a mail-order company,... Wow. ...and I sell things all over the country to people just like us, who are trying to be a bit more self-reliant and,... Yup. ...yeah, live off the land. Yeah, our biggest sellers would be tree and cheese. All across the country, actually. We've got about 10,000 customers now. You know, do you think there's, like, a real paradigm shift in this country? We're really changing our habits about how we live our lifestyles. Is it happening? Yeah, yeah. No, I do. I see that, um, and I wouldn't believe how popular Country Trading's been, but we've hit a nerve, and there's a whole group of people out there, and` who just wanna live a more simple life, and want to grow fruit ` take it from the tree to the table and eat it. And I love that about fruit trees. You know, if you plant a lettuce, it's gone in six weeks. But if you plant a plum tree, it'll be there in 60 years, feeding people. It's wonderful. < LAMB BLEATS Come on, girls! Come on. < LAMBS BLEAT This is a pretty gorgeous spot out here, innit? Yeah, it, uh, used to be all orchard out here. It used to have 2000 apple trees. 2000? 2000. The bottom fell out of the industry and so had to make the decision to pull the lot out and burn them. Did it feel a bit sad burning that many trees? Sad and quite hot for awhile too. (LAUGHS) They made a big bonfire. Are you a bit of a fruit nut, are ya? Yeah, I am, actually. I always have been. Yeah. This is one of the more unusual fruit trees in our collection. Oh yes. You know what this is? No, I haven't got a clue what it is. It's not fruiting at the moment, obviously? Oh, it is! It is? Yeah, it is. Can you see where to pick it? Uh, well, do you, uh` do you eat the stem, like a sugar cane, do ya? Uh, no. No, you don't. There? No, no. Mm. No. Nah. There's no fruit on that. She's gone bonkers. (LAUGHS) There's no fruit on this tree. You've gotta dig a bit deep with this one. I gotta dig for my fruit, do I? You do. You do. Righty-oh. (LAUGHS) I'm digging for some fruit. Here we go. You haven't put a dog shit in here, have ya? Just to tease me? (LAUGHS) Hey! I found a magic thing in the soil. (CHUCKLES) I've never seen it before. Look at that! That is the weirdest fruit I've ever seen in my life. It looks sort of a cross between a kumara and a potato. (LAUGHS) But it's not, eh? It's a yacon. A yacon? Yeah, yacon. You ever heard of a yacon before? I've never heard of a yacon before. That's amazing. It's a bit like a nashi. And where does it come from? It's from Peru. Very good for you. It's got a sugar in it that your body doesn't metabolise. Wow. Very low-cal. It's very crisp. Very juicy. You see in there? Oh yeah. Absolutely beautiful. Really edible. Not scary at all. There are hundreds of different varieties of apple tree that you can get. You've got your apples for cooking. You've got your apples for eating, for pressing, for cider. Oh my God! Look at that! That's just laden! What is that? That's a damson plum. We're gonna cook with those this afternoon. We're gonna cook them. What are we gonna make? We're gonna make some damson paste. OK, don't hang around. Pick as many as you can. (LAUGHS) What are you chucking 'em away for, Heather? Oh, well, those chooks deserve one or two. They've been watching them get ripe on this tree. And are you a good country girl and kill 'em? Or does Andrew do it? No, Andrew's a good rooster catcher. Brings them over to me, one by one, and then, while I'm getting on with the business, he puts his hand over its eyes and gives it a good talking to, and says, 'Now, don't you look over there'. BOTH LAUGH We have got our damsons, which you helped me pick. Yes. We've cooked them up with a cup of cider and five cloves, just for a bit of spice. Yup. And so we just cook that for 10 minutes, and then we've just put it through a colander so we get a nice fine puree. And then you weigh that, and then you add half the weight of that in sugar. And now we cook it. We cook it again, do we? > Yeah, just boil it up. And` And the good thing about damsons, they're really high in pectin, so they set quick. I picked it. Now I licked it. BOTH LAUGH There's a plethora of apples on that tree. Yeah, certainly is laden down, isn't it? We'd better get some off so we can do some, eh? Yeah, I reckon. Now, you haven't always been picking apples, have ya? No. I started off my working life as a weatherman. A weatherman? Yeah. And how did you hook up with Heather? Well, I hooked up with her 27 years ago now. And it just kind of went on from there, really. Went on from there. And did you win Andrew's heart over with your cooking? No, I don't think` No, you didn't? No, I don't think I did. No. We were tramping. It's pretty hard to be a la carte when you're tramping. She got her socks wet crossing the river, and I lent her my socks. (LAUGHS) And then he kept coming back for them. Did he, now? He did. And did he pick 'em up? Or did he leave 'em behind? No, he kept leaving them behind. (LAUGHS) I couldn't work it out. I was a bit slow. 'Oh, he's left his socks again.' BOTH LAUGH You had a plan, eh? Yeah. Yup, pretty much. (LAUGHS) Has she still got those pair of socks? (CHUCKLES) No, I don't think so. He's got a pretty thick skin,... Yes. ...with a fluffy centre. You know, we've got a, sort of` a bit of a hard exterior, us Kiwis, but, you know, our blokes are pretty soft, aren't they? They wouldn't admit it,... No. ...but they are. Going in with my apples. Here we go. MACHINE WHIRRS Oh! (BLOWS RASPBERRY) (CHUCKLES) You gotta close the lid. Somebody's inside there chewing it all up and spitting it out. Just keep on feeding 'em in. You feed 'em in. BANJO MUSIC She's a doozy of a machine you got here, mate. Does Heather know you've got her pillowcase? Uh, she does. Wow, that smells amazing, that apple. BANJO MUSIC CONTINUES We're pressing apple juice. Well, that's pretty easy. Just with one hand, look. Wow, the juice is just pouring out the bottom. Amazing. Oh, that smells so beautiful and sweet and fresh. I'm gonna have a go. Are ya? I'm goin' in. (EXHALES) Beautiful. (CHUCKLES) So, yeah, see, we're getting really good here now. And when you turn it off, we're pretty quickly gonna put it into those little tins there. You see how it's setting? Yeah, it's already setting. Unbelievable. This` This has gotta go with cheese, right? Oh, well, I'm always looking for stuff to go with cheese, cos I make a lot of cheese. Is there anything on this platter that you didn't make? I didn't make the platter. What's wrong with ya? Eh? (LAUGHS) Uh, we've got some pear slices. OK. These are dried. And looky here. That's what this story's about. That's our beautiful little paste there made of damson plums. Now, you know what I think we should do? I think we should do it justice by testing it. And it's very very exciting looking. Looks pretty good, doesn't it? It's like building something. Mmm. MUMBLES: That is a really big-time taste explosion. It's huge, eh? Cheers. Here's to the damson plum. That's good. Yeah. Wash it down. Let's save that for us. We'll take a bit of apple juice out for the others. Ta-da! (HUMS) Isn't it sensational, Lynda? Unbelievable. Oh my goodness. What a platter. Absolutely inspiring, you are. When the nation sees that platter, they're gonna change the way they eat in this country. You still gotta do a little bit of bloody hard work to get there, though, haven't you, eh? Yeah, you do. That's right. Make it like you mean it. Cheers to that! Cheers. Yoo-hoo! Righty-oh, tuck in. 1 Welcome back to Topp Country, with Lorna and Mavis in the kitchen. Today, we're making two dishes, because our treat is so abundant. I'm making a gorgeous, exotic fruit salad. Far too much time is wasted in this country bottling, when the next great dessert is just around the corner in a can! I'm using my favourites ` guavas and lychees. Or simply you can take your favourite fruit, pour out the juice and fill it full of jelly. Easy as. Here's my lime ring. Quick as a wink. BOTH CLICK TONGUE 20 years ago, Carolann Murray was a nightclubbin' city slicker who traded in her high heels for gumboots. She headed for the hills just outside of Wellington, and now she's putting the 'self' back into self-sufficiency. She's a superwoman. From honey collecting to alternative energy, Carolann's life is jam-packed. OK, so this is taking cooking to a whole new level. What's the recipe? CHUCKLING Ghee. So, what's ghee? So ghee's clarified butter. Yup. So I milk the house cow,... BOTH: Yup. ...take the cream off, make the butter, turn the butter into the clarified butter,... Yup. ...put it in the tractor and away we go. So we're gonna run the tractor on butter? Yes. So if you wanna go for a ride in the tractor, you gotta start two days before you wanna go anywhere. ALL LAUGH Exactly. And here we go. We're actually feeding the tractor clarified butter. It's loving it. This tank's taking the whole lot in. And if we get hungry, we'll take some peanut butter with us and have a sandwich when we` when we've finished our work. It's a beautiful thing, because if you do have a bit of a spillage, it's just butter. Clarified butter. Yeah. And so the dogs come in and clean it up. Real classic self-sufficiency, isn't it? Use every part of that` from the cow. Yes. OK, some for the chooks and some for the tractor. Yes. Not only that ` every dairy farmer in NZ could be doing it. Yeah. Where we going in this tractor? Blueberry picking. Oh, OK. That's a special self-sufficient bucket. (CHUCKLES) You've gotta get your own lunch around here. (CHUCKLES) Hey, hang on, look. There's a little note in here. READS: 'How to pick blueberries. Any red on a berry is sour. Blue are the sweetest. 'Roll between your fingers ` don't pull.' Righty-oh, let's see how she goes. (LAUGHS) TRACTOR MOTOR RUMBLES ALL LAUGH COUNTRY MUSIC Unbelievable. Ghee whiz, it's a great idea! (CHUCKLES) Just in case you're inspired to give this a crack at home, Carolann has had her tractor customised to run on ghee, so we don't recommend you go pouring butter into your tank until you've had it tinkered with. Wow! It's a blueberry jungle. Amazing! There's a lot of fruit on them, in't there? And they're really big as well too. How old are these plants? 35 years old. 35? OK, we gotta stop here. Oh yep. This is the biggest blueberry bush I've ever seen in my entire life. (LAUGHS) We could camp here for days on end. ALL LAUGH Look at that! That is a big, fat, round, juicy blueberry there. This one's bigger. This one's bigger. Check that out. Whoo! OK, I believe that we have found the biggest blueberry` ...in the world. ...in the patch. Maybe in the world. That could be a record-breaking` < (LAUGHS) Shall we put that in our bucket for our`? That's our first one. I'm gonna keep that one. We can judge other ones. No, you're not having it, Jools. I know that's going straight to ya mouth. LAUGHTER COUNTRY MUSIC CONTINUES So, did you plant all these yourself? I had a lot of help. There was a, um, blueberry farm down the road. So they were going to take all the blueberries to the tip. I sort of thought to myself, 'Eek! Uh, I never really planned on being a blueberry farmer, but what the hell?' So... (CHUCKLES) So you rescued them like a battery hen? Yes, exactly. Is the whole place self-sufficient? Relatively. Um, so, we produce our own electricity. We've got our own spring water. Uh, food, so, both meat and vegetables and fruit. I haven't been to a supermarket for 10 years. So you had a dream, did you, to be self-sufficient? It was just inside me. Yup. It was just something inside that I had to do. You think we've got enough there, Carolann? Yep. We can pop those in with the plums for preserving. One more for good measure. Yep. Lovely. Hang on. Wait for me, team. There's three things I like to do before winter ` one is make sure they hay's in for the cows; the firewood's in; and preserving. Cos then I know I'm gonna be warm and dry, and everyone's gonna be fed. I see. I noticed all those when I came in. They're just beautiful. They're like works of art. I know. They're great, aren't they? And what are the other things you do on the farm besides preserving? The sheep. We've got merino sheep. They're not meat-eating sheep. So I spin their wool and, uh, knit their wool and sort of design special farmy jerseys for` Sort of like a domestic superwoman? (LAUGHS) What do you mean you've designed a jersey? Isn't a jersey a jersey? No. Uh... (CHUCKLES) ALL LAUGH Why aren't we surprised by that answer, Carolann? If you're a farming female and you're working with tractors and PTOs, the last thing you wanna wear in winter is a scarf. Oh OK. Because that's really dangerous. And also they're longer than normal jerseys as well too, so when you bend over, you don't get that cold gap. Oh yes. What do you mean you don't get that cold gap? You gotta wear trousers with your jersey. ALL LAUGH I've got one here. Do you wanna have a look? Yeah, I'd love to. > And then you don't need a beanie, cos it's got a hood. And then you don't need gloves, cos it's got a pouch. Absolutely brilliant. You don't` You know how most jerseys have a rib at the bottom? BOTH: Yes. And they make you look really fat? ALL LAUGH This one doesn't have a rib at the bottom. It's the perfect woman's jersey. It's not even dyed. This is the colour of the sheep. And it's all natural from your merinos. That's the last one. Come on up, team. Bit of anise there. Now we put in some sugar syrup. Now, you don't fill it all the way to the top with sugar syrup. You just give it about a centimetre from the top. Looking good! Ha ha! Put the metal lid on. Yup. And your screw band. That's our first one, all made, ready to go ` blueberries and plums. Put it in the hot bath, Jools. Righty-oh, I'll give that to you. Yeah, shame we have to wait six months to eat it. Here's to the hardest-working and the happiest woman in NZ. ALL: Cheers! And I made the vodka myself as well too. Putting the 'self' back into self-sufficiency, eh? Absolutely. Righty-oh. That's the hardest bit of the job, ya know? ALL CHUCKLE Hey, Toppy! What? You think she'll miss that one? (LAUGHS) Good on ya, buddy. Oh. Beautiful preserves in a beautiful country. Yup. Lovin' it. 1 Lothlorien is a magical land filled with elves and hobbits and bearded men. But this is no fairy tale. With eight children and 16 grandchildren between them, Dale Demeulemeester and Jo Bradshaw have created their very own paradise at their Lothlorien feijoa winery, near Warkworth. 100 acres of magic, where children and adults run free and the organic feijoa wine runs even freer. Welcome to the world of Lothlorien. What a magnificent place you've got. What got you into feijoas? We got ourselves into feijoas. We just came here and tasted 'em at an orchard down in Huapai. When I first tasted it, I thought, 'Wow. I've never tasted this before. This is a great fruit. I'm gonna plant these.' We planted 350 trees, and I didn't realise everyone had one in their backyard. ALL LAUGH So you're sort of the king of feijoas now, aren't ya? Well, we grow a lot of feijoas. And that must make you the queen of the feijoa. (CHUCKLES) Does that mean we have to curtsy? Please do. We have to bow. ALL LAUGH That's very Lothlorien, isn't it? Very medieval. We're getting good at that. > OK, Jools, this is Eli, my eldest son. Hi, Jools. Leah, my daughter. She's helping with the pressing. Hi. Logan, our winemaker. Hey, Jools. Yeah, and you're making wine already, eh? What's the process we're gonna be seeing? We're extracting the juice from the feijoa pulp here, using a rack and cloth press. So, he lays out a cloth there, fills that with feijoa pulp, another rack on top of that, another cloth. Make a stack of those, and then we squeeze that stack. Have you got a big season coming up? We do, yeah. Yeah. And at the start, we call it pressing. By the end, we call it depressing. (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) At the mercy of the fruit, yep. We've gotta juice it at optimum ripeness ` before it rots but when it's nice and ripe. How come you ended up here in this beautiful valley? Originally, I'm from Detroit. Yup. The motor city. It was kind of disheartening to see what all that manufacturing did to the Great Lakes. It was beautiful, clean water when we were kids, and later on, you couldn't eat the fish out of it. So it was time to move on. It was the great exodus from Detroit. Absolutely. Yeah. (LAUGHS) We wanted to try` find something new, a place to raise kids and grow good food, organic food, so we started to build our dream. And we didn't have kids at that time. We were in our early 20s` Was it a commune? It was a commune. Yeah. What year was that? '71. '71. Yup. You reckon you're a Kiwi now, buddy? Well, I hope so. I been here 44 years. You're almost a local. I know I sound like I just got off the boat. And was Jo a part of this little dream of the commune here? Not the original. She was attracted to the place because it was a commune, and she came to live here as a helper. Yep. And then, well, she was the best worker on the farm, so` She was a good worker, eh? Yeah, it was only natural we'd get together. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. OK, what are we doing? Well, we're gonna plant some feijoa seeds. So, here we are. We've got a feijoa. We'll break it open. Yup. All you need is a little stick. Pull out one of those seeds, and the whole idea is that you don't get more than one seed in one place, cos they don't like being moved. You're brilliant. You haven't even got glasses! They're tiny. Look at that. I don't know if I can hardly even see it. (LAUGHS) And each one goes on the little grid that we've made here. How many seeds in a feijoa? About 75. So you could actually get a lot of plants out of one piece of fruit. Oh absolutely. No problem. If you grew enough seed from one fruit, you'd have an orchard. That one's escaping. Oh. (CHUCKLES) It's like the little goobly bit taking off. Grab some of that soil and throw it on top. Just water them and keep them moist,... Yup. ...and they should come up in about six weeks or something like that. And have you got any kids? I had three children when me and Dale got together, and he had four. Oh yup. And so when we got together, we had seven children altogether. Sounds like The Brady Bunch. It was a big houseful, and in fact, we didn't have a bed for us. All the children took up all the beds, so we slept in the lounge on a foam mattress. (LAUGHS) I've only been here for about five minutes with you, potting up, and I already feel completely and utterly chilled out... (LAUGHS) ...and ready to take me shirt off and get a tan. Look, it's sort of` It's a little bit like your beard, isn't it? Oh yeah, very similar. Look at that, eh? Beautiful. See, we look like twins, eh? This is ZZ Topp. (LAUGHS) Oh, where's Gandalf when you need him, buddy? Oh, he's picking feijoas. Oh, that's good. He's helping out the hobbits and the elves. Oh yeah. Look at that. We're putting macadamia shells in the coal range. She tells me it's like putting petrol on it, without the explosion. (CHUCKLES) Is that the only thing you've ever cooked on? No, I have cooked on an electric stove when I was about 20. Just the once? BOTH LAUGH It's just all by feel,... This is by feel, yes. (CHUCKLES) ...the measurements. Quite a lot of butter gone in there. Yep. And a couple of big spoons of sugar. That butter's nice and soft. Yeah, well, that's home-made butter, you know? Are they from your chooks? These are from my chooks. Beautiful. Look at the colour of that yolk. Whoo-hoo! So we got a little bit of flour in there. Yeah. Did you make that? I ground it in my grinder, OK? BOTH LAUGH But I didn't grow the wheat. Did you blow the glass bowl? (LAUGHS) And that's from the cow, the milk? That's from the cow. And just about everything in there was either made by Jo or come out of Jo's chook's bum. The only thing that really was probably hard to make and put in there would've been the sugar. But that doesn't matter because she's the sweetest little chef in NZ. BOTH LAUGH OK, well, must be time for the feijoas... Righty-oh. ...to go on there. Uh, peel the feijoas and stew them up and add a bit of sugar too. Now, the fruit, um` you put the fruit on top, but what actually happens when you cook the cake is the cake rises to the top and the fruit slides underneath. Unbelievable. Sort of like a pioneering self-saucing pudding. Yeah, exactly. There we are. 30 minutes away from magic. This is our` our number eight,... Number eight. ...Sorella. Hi. How are ya? Are you the baby of the family? I am. And how many of the family still live on the farm here? Well, we've got four kids living on the farm with their families. Oh, OK. So you got grandchildren? Oh yeah, we got a lot of grandchildren. We've got, uh` Well, there's 16 that call me Grandpa. Everybody does some work for the winery. You know, that's either picking fruit, helping with the pressing, labelling, boxing, bit of marketing. So everybody's involved. So living the dream, buddy? Well, we were dreaming then, and we're still dreaming today. Yeah! I'm moving in next week with you fullas. (CHUCKLES) You'll be welcome. # You gotta get on up. # Get on back. OK, Jools. Here you go. Fresh cream on your feijoa cobbler. Here's to fun, family and feijoas. ALL CHEER # Get on back. Get on back. # Get on back to that down home sound. # Get on back. Get on back. # Get on back and turn your life around. # Ya gotta get on back and turn your life around. # APPLAUSE, CHEERING Absolutely magic. The granny smith at its best is crisp. It makes a scrumptious pie. And when you love someone dearly, they're the apple of your eye. Banana, peach and melons ` a luscious fruit affair. But my favourite, Ken, is a lovely, juicy pear. There are many different kinds of fruits. Some grow on trees, and some wear suits. (HUMS) Oh.