We were at our friends place for dinner the other week to celebrate Anthony's birthday... Roast pork belly with a ton of crackle, sitting on the dish amongst roast fennel and pears... and OMG I had just recently spied that same recipe in one of the "Dish" magazines, I even had the ingredients written down on a shopping list to give it a go and lo and behold, there its was sitting there cooked, ready and looking just divine. Joy had it cooked to perfection, melting tasty pork, crunchy crackle  and stunning roast veges to complete the banquet.

So of course I had to give this recipe a go myself so I tried it out the other night. I found it to be really quite easy to do and thought what a great way to use any home grown pears or shallots or that it would be good for those keen on a different veg like Fennel.

  

1.5kg boned pork belly 

2 onions sliced, I used our home grown shallots

750 ginger beer 

3 ripe pears halved 

1-2 fennel bulbs cut into thick wedges

3 cloves garlic crushed or finely chopped

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger 

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground all spice

sea salt and ground pepper 

Combine the paste ingredients together and season. Spread over the flesh side of the pork.

put the onions in a roasting pan and place the pork on top skin side up. Rub the skin with a little olive oil and then sprinkle with some sea salt

Add enough ginger beer to come half way up the side of the pork but don't let it touch the skin

Roast for 30 minutes at 210C on fan bake

Remove from the oven and then add the pears and fennel around the pork spooning some of the pan juices over the veges but not over the meat.   

Reduce the oven heat to 160C on fan bake and continue to roast for about 40 minutes or until the pork is tender and the pears and fennel are cooked. 

If the skin isn't crisp and you need more colour then place dish under a hot grill for a few moments taking care that the pork doesn't burn.

Lets start with pears! We have a wonderful range of new season pear trees at present.  If you have ever wanted an easy to grow fruit you cant pass up a pear tree.  Gorgeous white blooms in spring followed by the most mouthwatering juicy sweet soft or crunchy fruit depending on your preference. Check them out, so many to choose from.  These are also available in dwarf varieties and double or triple grafted trees also. Most fruit have a pollination requirement so have a look at the pollination charts found in the How To section under the info menu. Just click the fruit type you are needing the info for under Pollination.

          

If pears aren't to your liking you can see all our fruit trees in our fruit section.

Sometimes its nice to add a touch of colour into the garden and the Judas tree, AKA red bud or Cercis canadensis Forest Pansy has become quite a popular choice over the past few years. I guess because that in reality they are a smaller tree well suited to the much tinier town gardens of the new housing areas of today. Forest Pansy trees are not only smaller growing but they also have attractive dark burgundy foliage and in spring have gorgeous bright pink pea like flowers attached to the branches in quite an unusual way for a flowering tree.  

While on the subject of these pretty trees we have been lucky enough to get hold of some different cultivars one being the Cercis Ruby Falls. Now I have never seen a weeping Cercis before and apparently this one is a hybrid between a Cercis canadensis Lavender Twist and the forest Pansy that we all know so well. Can you imagine it ..... a beautifully cascading Forest Pansy so to speak.

Somebody has been busy with the birds and the bees with these Redbuds as there is also another clone created out there being another newbie called Cercis Merlot and I m guessing that the foliage will be the colour of that tipple that we all enjoy in the evenings. The parents of Merlot are again Forest Pansy and Texas white.

Now there is only limited numbers of these brand new plants so if you are keen to get your hands on one then be in quick, I imagine online would be the fastest way to secure one, because when they are gone they will be gone.

          

Now there are probably more weeping red or burgundy plants around than meets the eye and I am going to say that the weeping purple beech tree is pretty stunning and collectable for those plant buffs.   Reasonably slow growing and will form this beautiful black glossy mushroom like dome in the garden. I have planted a trio of three that will cascade nicely towards our pond. Fagus sylvatica Riversii Pendula is a stunning weeper with very deep purple black leaves.

Weeping maples of the reddish kind abound as well, the classic one that has been around for years is Crimson Queen but there are plenty of others as well, Crimson Princess, Inabe shidare and Tamukeyama are all stunning red leafed weeping maples. Maples can usually take a bit of shade but the higher the light the deeper colour red that they will be. Now with these dissectum type maples they do like a bit of protection from the wind as this can burn their more delicate leaves but they do make for pretty cool statement or feature plants.

As with all weepers, their growth is downwards so that they are capable of growing to the ground. The only way a weeping tree will increment in size  is to grow up and then over so growing taller is a long process Personally I always like to see some truck  and not have the growth on the ground and so I tend to skirt the maple by reducing the length of the cascading branch.

          

Nandina Gulfstream looking pretty and Bright with vibrant red leaf tones. I really like the leaf shape and the form of the bush, The fact that these are so tough and hardy as well makes them for a great low maintenance filler in the garden. They will hardly even need trimming back  

Chimonanthus Praecox or Winter Sweet. You just can't go past the fragrance of this beautiful shrub. Waxy lemon, almost translucent, flowers abound on this shrub in the coldest of winters.

Daphne Rubra ... The old original Daphne with a cascading shrub like habit and gorgeous typical Daphne flowers that we all know are so sweetly scented.

Helleborus I do really love these as well and more so after I learnt about the hybrids of Eric Smith's love of plants and the breeding that he did some fifty years ago.
          

Many of you who are familiar with our website will know that your history of plant purchases is kept on file for you to see, but to do this you have to login on the website.  If you make a purchase online without logging in then our system will make a new you in our records.  This means that your history gets split across multiple records and you will have trouble viewing all your history in one place.  If you find this has happened to your information you can email enquiries@wairere.co.nz and let us know that you think you may be in our system more than once.  We can then merge your files so they are all together for you in one place. You can see your purchase history in My account, then click Items Purchased A-Z. If you aren't sure about your password to login with just type your email address into the login field and press enter, we will then send a new password to that email.  Of course this will only work with the email address we have on record for you, if you are not sure what email we have for you then you can let us know using the email address above.  Once logged in you can update any details needed in your account page.  

The key to easy online shopping with us is to login first.  This will save you repeatedly having to enter your details as they will be there automatically once you have logged in.  

Hopefully Its going to be a fine weekend  but its still too early to prune your roses. If you are going to be pruning fruit trees then make sure the weather is fine... pruning in wet weather can transmit disease like silver leaf and all members of the Rose family are susceptible.

There is a lot of work being done in our nursery gardens at present to ensure they are ready for the spring.  The compost pile is being well replenished with all the prunings.

Have a great weekend!