It is over 40 years since I left the chalky soil of the South of England and planted my roots firmly in the land of the Long White Cloud. However, the novelty of being able to pick a lemon from my own tree in NZ never seems to diminish.
I inherited a mature lemon tree along with many other fruit trees when I moved into my ramshackle old cottage in Northland, 13 years ago.
Should my lemon tree be able to sing, I am sure its favourite song would be:
“Pick yourself up dust yourself off and start all over again”
This tree’s will to live and to keep its branches laden with the sour but such sought after and versatile fruit, never fails to amaze and inspire me.
It’s a Northland tree so it is well-used to long droughts in the summer and enough rain in the winter that it is in danger of floating away into the paddocks along with much other uprooted greenery. But it manages these opposing seasons with gritty determination. As does it seem oblivious to my Highland bull’s numerous attempts to gain a bovine degree in topiary! The much loved but defiant horned beast uses his horns with the adeptness and the enthusiasm of Edward Scissorhands, determined to “prune” this tenacious tree down to a mere stump. I usually manage to coax the bull back into the paddock before he has achieved “a number one” branch cut.
The Kune Kune pigs use the trunk of this stoic citrus tree as a scratching post. Their voluptuous posteriors shake the tree to its very core and the frail blossom falls to the grass long before the bees can work their magic.
Early this year a neighbouring tree (ironically a very tall, native lemonwood tree) came crashing down during a storm. It fell on the lemon tree and virtually split it in half. The lemon tree lost many of its branches and the effect of the storm made the bull’s recent manicure look almost pathetic in comparison.
But now in June, it has picked itself up, dusted off the dead branches and somehow despite its rather split and spread out new shape, is laden with ripening lemons!
So as I cut thick slices of a lemon, hand-picked from very own tree, not to adorn a gin and tonic but for a glass of lemon water to stave of dehydration due too many coffees and to trick my brain into thinking it is indeed a G and T as is clear and has lemon in it, I am not only getting goodness with vitamin C but I get my daily dose of home grown inspiration! – written by Nikki Wylder AKA Fake Farmer
