Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

Article includes references to potato growing in the Chatham Islands in the 1850s and 1860s, and later. Growing Māori potatoes - Urenika, Moemoe. Jack Lasenby told of camping in the Urewera near an old Māori occupation site. Lifted a hollow tōtara slab to find a storage space containing a few purple tubers. Māori had left the area 25 years previously. Potatoes still edible. Note also Graham Harris"s article in same issue. Also a letter by Margaret Berryman of Owhango describing a Māori potato they grow as being the same as "Purple Peruvian", a potato described in an American magazine, Shape Cooks, Spring 1997. "Lumpy, irregular-shaped with dark, almost black skin and flesh ranging from lavender to purple. Has a somewhat sweet flavour"