Visit Bodo 18 October 2015

On Sunday 18 October the Food Garden Group visited Bodo and Claudia's garden at Otago:


On a beautiful mild spring day lots of people made their way to Otago to visit Bodo and Claudia on their 5-acre property that overlooks the Derwent.

Here Bodo welcomed us in the sunny and sheltered hacienda-style courtyard of the house he built himself in the late 1960s.

The walls of the courtyard used to be covered with ivy, but in recent years they have removed most of it and replaced it by ornamental and productive plants such a Banana Passion Fruit and Grape.

Here Bodo and Max K are having a discussion about their fruit trees. Bodo commented that some of the trees are now becoming too old. Max K made suggestions for their rejuvenation.

Silver beet, garlic and lettuces in Bodo's extensive veggie patch.

Cherries are already ripening on one of the younger trees.

Such a nice property and what a brilliant view over the Derwent!

A part of the property further down the hill is kept trimmed by Bodo's sheep (yes, they keep them for meat). Chooks considered themselves part of the herd.

Bodo first fed them silver beet plants that are now going to seed, and then gave the sheep a few handfuls of acorns. He commented that 'you can see the smile on their faces when they eat the acorns'.

Here is Bodo's raspberry patch. There is so much room on this property that every planting can be generous and plants can be planted with ample space and paths in between. What a luxury!

Here is another area, this one with parsley, garlic and two varieties of potato.

The courtyard was a wonderful area to have morning tea in.

The morning tea was great. Thanks everyone for your contributions! The coffee was good, and the produce table was also well supplied.

A rhubarb cake and a coriander and parsley pesto received top scores from the fussy jury (just joking). Some of us would love the recipes, so if you can help please email Pauline at foodgardengroup@gmail.com.

Many thanks to Bodo and Claudia for opening up their impressive property and giving us a great time. We all marvelled at the work you have done over the decades since you arrived here in the early seventies.

This text was previously published on the Food Garden Group blog. It was written by Max Bee.