#kumera

Last night we had chicken and kumera.

It’s another edible gift of South American farmers of times long gone. Another local food that went global. A food that nourishes us and spreads its way through our gardens as we eagerly await its maturation.

In the loam beneath our feet its orange heart thickens in silence, storing the energy of sunlight and the memory of its origin… the whisper of ancient fields in unknown mountains, of what once fed the hands and minds of the forgotten and now finds its way to distant tables.

Does the vine curling across the soil remember where it came from? Or does it feed the minds of its eaters son that they do that for it?

A plant that wandered across oceans and cultures nourishes us as it once nourished those unknown farmers who, year after year, planted it in the highland soils of distant fields.

Scapegrace Distillery is based in Canterbury in New Zealand and produces the country’s top-selling premium gin, which I came across and reviewed some four years ago. The country’s national colour, at least in sporting terms, is black and the temptation to produce a gin that reflects the fact proved too irresistible for the distillers. Scapegrace Premium Black Gin is the result and I was pleased…