How blessed were we to escape the flooding at Aunty’s Garden.
There was no surface water to speak of, so everything that had been planted was either harvested or still growing. Apart from some yellowing of the lettuces, the remaining vegetables are in good condition.
My favourite kumara looked fantastic on top with foliage everywhere but underneath the vines after so much rain, the ground beneath the kumara is so wet, and with the lack of sun not drying the vines, the kumara rot.
This is what’s happened in Dargaville, the kumara Capital of New Zealand. It was very sad to see on TV, the many acres of kumara in the north, covered in the floods. I have experienced that here in the Bay, crops that have rotted due to the wet weather.
About 95 per cent of the kumara you find in your supermarket comes from Dargaville. They are harvested but with the heavy rain and floods, instead of 20 bins per row, they only got two. I fear that our yields will be smaller as well. This means kumara will be in short supply and very expensive.
