Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

From tickling your toes in the golden powdery sands of Kateriteri to soaking up sublime art at Suter Gallery, abundance is a byword for the Nelson-Tasman region. The Pigeon Valley fire of recent weeks, New Zealand’s worst forest fire in six decades, has the thrust the region front and centre on the news agenda. I happened to be in the region at the height of the fire and despite the pervasive sense of fear rippling through the community, the outpouring of generosity and goodwill was as golden as the blazing sun. A year ago, it was ex-Cyclone Gita that barrelled into town. In a sure-fire sign of how adept Nelsonians are at bouncing back, it was particularly heartening to see the magnificent Boatshed Café back in business and bustling, after being smashed apart by the storm.
For history buffs, there’s a smorgasbord of choice in these parts. After all, Nelson is the South Island’s oldest city – and second oldest in New Zealand. Climb the steps at the top of Trafalgar Street to marvel over Christchurch Church Cathedral, a towering showcase of Takaka marble. As the self-described craft brewing capital of New Zealand, a surfeit of choice awaits, however, the Moutere Inn is just the spot to raise your glass, it’s the country’s oldest pub, as old as the Treaty of Waitangi. The booming hops industry can be traced back to those early German settlers who brought hops plants with them, to the well-suited climate of Nelson, 170 years ago.
The region abounds with speciality food producers fiercely competing for the attention of your taste buds. Moutere Fruits does a very fine line of jams and chutneys, from chilli jam to cherry and cinnamon conserve. Over the long summer months, their hydroponically grown strawberries are fawned over – in a region that is certainly no stranger to hydroponics! A Tahunanui powerhouse since the 1980s, Sujon is the superfruit company of Sue and John. They produce all manner of fruity concoctions from smoothie mixes and snap frozen berries to berry powder supplements. In a similar vein, another savvy family business is Little Beauties. They make dried feijoa, kiwifruit and boysenberries, which also come paired with white or dark chocolate. Tasty goodness.
Macadamias may well be my favourite nut, and Karapuke’s spray-free macadamia trees thrive in the Nelson climate. Insatiably moreish, Karapuke Macadamias can be bought in bulk or in snack-packs.  But the nut that packs the biggest punch in the region is undoubtedly Pic’s Peanut Butter, a runaway export success story. Their all new Pics World of Peanut Butter tour opens this month, and kids go gaga over their factory tour which includes the chance to make your own peanut butter. Pic’s also does a very fine job with almond butter and cashew butter, but nothing excites my nostrils quite like the whiff of freshly roasted peanuts. 
One of my most indelible childhood memories is walking into Farmers Department Store, and the aroma of freshly roasted peanuts swept you up. It was intoxicating and probably a shrewd ploy to try and impel shoppers to linger longer. In a region famed for its bucketload of sunshine, it stands to reason that the artisanal prowess of the food producers have turned their hands to icecream. Best in Show? Appleby Farms, for the complete paddock to cone experience. They own the paddocks, grow the grass, nurture their herd of A2 cows and churn their milk into face-melting icecream. Routinely decorated with awards, you’ll find their products in supermarkets or at Hamish’s on Mapua Wharf.
Home to one of the nation’s burgeoning creative art communities, the spectacular natural environment clearly helps crank up the expressive energy. Short on time to do justice to all of them,  I made a point of popping in to the Hoglund Glassblowing Gallery. Situated in Appleby, glass artists Ola and Marie Hoglund have been welcoming the world to their studio and gallery since 1982.  Swedish heritage meets Pacific flair in the...

Facebook has finally come out with a life-saving feature where you can delete messages in a conversation on Messenger after you've sent them.
This means if you accidentally (or drunkenly) send a regrettable message to someone, you can delete without them seeing it.
Rumours have been circulating about this amazing feature for months, but the unsend feature is finally available in an update released today.

Facebook has finally rolled out the unsend feature. Photo / Facebook
The feature works by tapping on the message you want to delete and you get the options to delete it for everyone, or yourself.
But you will have to be quick as there is only a 10-minute window to delete the unwanted message.
Facebook has told The Verge that the new feature will be available today on the latest versions of Messenger for iOS and Android.
The company says the new ability is based on the Mark Zuckerberg power, but it underwent "some improvements to provide broader functionality to people using Messenger."
Zuckerberg infamously had the power to delete messages he sent after multiple sources noted that messages they received from the CEO had mysteriously disappeared.
When asked about it, Facebook confirmed Zuckerberg's messages expired over time, mainly for increased security measures after the 2014 Sony Pictures email hacks.

Kacey Musgrave, the 30-year-old country singer from a town called Golden in Texas is in a golden period right now. 
Fittingly, it's with her fourth album called Golden hour. She has just swept the Grammy Awards with the album winning Best Country Album and two of her singles winning the Gramaphones as well. What was really impressive is that she also won the Grammy for overall Album of the Year.
However, New Zealand's strange aversion to country music continues. This album has been the biggest thing for a year now and yet not here. I went down to the music stations here and no one is playing her.
But that's a pity! Atmospheric, light, poppy and distinctly dance-y in places, it's country music but not as you know it, and slow burn is possibly my favourite song of this summer. Even though it was almost released last summer. A delightful fresh album.  8/10

Out Of The Dark - Gregg Hurwitz - PenguinRandom
When darkness closes in―he's your last, best hope. Evan Smoak returns in Gregg Hurwitz’s #1 international bestselling Orphan X series.Taken from a group home at age twelve, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as part of the Orphan Program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets―i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the Program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man, a man who helps the truly desperate when no one else can. But now Evan's past in the Orphan Program is reaching out to him.Someone at the very highest level of government has been trying to eliminate every trace of the Orphan Program by killing all the remaining Orphans and their trainers. After Evan's mentor and the only father he ever knew was killed, he decided to strike back. His target is the man who started the program and who is now the most heavily guarded person in the world: the President of the United States.But President Bennett knows that Orphan X is after him and, using weapons of his own, he's decided to counter-attack. Bennett activates the one man who has the skills and experience to track down and take out Orphan X―the first recruit of the program, Orphan A.With Evan devoting all his skills, resources, and intelligence to find a way through the layers of security that surround the President, suddenly he also has to protect himself against the deadliest of opponents. It's Orphan vs. Orphan with the future of the country―even the world―on the line
Louis and Louise - Julie Cohen - Hachette 
If you could look at one life in two different ways, what would you see?Louis and Louise are separated by a single moment in time, a strike of chance that decided their future. The day they were born is when their story began.In one, Louis David Alder is born a male.In the other, Louise Dawn Alder is born a female.Louis and Louise are the same in many ways - they have the same best friends, the same parents, the same dream of being a writer and leaving their hometown in Maine as soon as they can. But because of their gender, everything looks different. Certain things will happen in their lives to shape them, hurt them, build them back up again. But what will bring them back home?

Joanna McLeod is a woman who really put her money where her mouth is.
She’s a self-described fat woman who always bemoaned the lack of ethically made, colourful, plus-sized clothes.
She’s got no fashion experience, but decided if no-one else was going to make the clothes she wants to wear, then she would.
She’s borrowed some money, thrown caution into the wind, and launched her own label, House of Boom, at the end of last year.
McLeod told Jack Tame that she was not a fan of the synthetic materials and 'couch-like' patterns of the plus-sized clothing that was available in New Zealand.
"I'm pretty young but I don't want to look like the mother of the bride."
She says that the move towards ethical clothing and the lack of options in New Zealand pushed her towards launching her own label. 
McLeod says that the first thing she wanted was a skirt that she always wanted, and she worked with a fabric maker to put together the clothing. She says she wanted to keep her items simple, and doesn't even think of them as fashion as they are 
"It wasn't reinventing the wheel in terms of the basic design, but changing them so they would accommodate fat bodies and so they would be what I wanted to wear."
She says that there is a huge demand for plus-sized clothing in New Zealand, but the push is for smaller sizes.
"There are designers in New Zealand who can't even fit their own clothing."
While it is a big risk, McLeod has the benefit of already owning her own home, and runs House of Boom alongside her full time job. However, all signs suggest the company is going strong.

There are two different species of white tailed spiders in NZ, both ex-Australian that were probably introduced with household goods a long time ago (think 1800-s!)
Recent taxonomic investigations showed there are 61 species of white-tails in Australia, but just two of these have made it to New Zealand.
They are nocturnal hunters that love to live on the outside of our houses. Their favourite prey is grey house spider; yep, the one that makes those messy cobwebs on weather boards and in the corner of windows – and yes, also the one that lives in your car’s side mirrors!
Warm summers where people sleep with windows open make for an easy entry for the spiders.
When disturbed, they tend to run quickly and hide in all sorts of nooks and crannies. They may even find their way under the sheets as well
White tails can and will bite when trapped or provoked, but, the media reports of serious repercussions, including necrotising fasciatus or necrotising arachnidism (where the flesh starts to die as a result of an infection in the bite) are simply unsubstantiated.
So far, there is no white tail bite recorded where the biting spider was identified by an entomologist, and the patient was observed by medical experts, linking the whole cause and effect up in truly proper scientific manner.
The spider bites that have been followed up resulted in nothing more than a pair of red fang marks and a wee bit of short-lived pain.
Ironically, I often take a vagrant spider with me to show kids at schools, and those spiders are certainly capable of painful bites, followed by necrotising arachnidism!
If you handle them correctly, though, you’ll find they are not aggressive at all and will happily walk all over you. Keep them alive as they may clean the outside of your house of cobwebs… fFor free!

Flack: a new drama starring Anna Paquin as a publicist who is adept at keeping her client's lives appearing in perfect order, while her own falls to pieces (TVNZ OnDemand from Feb 22)
Bad Mothers: a new Australian drama from the creators of Outrageous Fortune that follows the fallout after one woman's husband cheats on her with another mother from the local school (TVNZ1 from Feb 20).
Delicious: Dawn French returns for a new season of Delicious, the drama about love, food and infidelity in Cornwall (UKTV from 20 Feb)

Colette:
This biopic stars Keira Knightley as Gabrielle Collette, who is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendour of Paris after marrying successful Parisian writer Henry Gauthier-Villars, known commonly as "Willy" (Dominic West). Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. Colette, in turn, pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After it's success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels. Colette's fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionising literature, fashion and sexual expression.
Velvet Buzzsaw:
Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical supernatural horror film written and directed by Dan Gilroy for Netflix. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a caustic art critic, reuniting with his Nightcrawler co-star Rene Russo, a ruthless gallery owner in Miami Beach. When her assistant, Josephina (Sawe Ashton) finds paintings in the apartment of her deceased neighbour, they become the centre of the local art world. However, the paintings have taken on a life of their own, and soon unnatural, horrific, occurrences begin to pick off those who come into contact.

Now is the time to be making chutneys and relishes with the abundance of summer produce that’s on offer. 
500g ripe tomatoes chopped
4 large red peppers, chopped and de-seeded
2 tbsps salt
2 cups white vinegar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ tsp each turmeric and paprika
Good pinch of chilli powder

Sprinkle vegetables with salt in a colander and leave for a few hours to reduce some of the moisture.
In a large saucepan place all the ingredients, including the salted vegetables, and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer until thick, usually about 1.5-2 hours.   Pour into sterilised jars while hot, then seal.
This chutney is delicious with cheese and crackers, or with your favourite meat loaf.

 
Tips:

Always grease the bottom of the saucepan to prevent sticking during the long cook down.
Add a dollop of relish or chutney to your favourite curry, stew or casserole for a wonderful flavour lift.

Shotguns, pools of blood, dark twists; you’re not in Shortland Street anymore, Waverley.
TVNZ’s new dark comedy Fresh Eggs premieres next week, showing a different side to actress Claire Chitham.
It focuses on a couple, Penny and Wade, who leave the Auckland rat race and start again the country, with unexpected results, including racism and murder.
Chitham says that the story is about what happens when two Aucklanders who find themselves in an entirely foreign environment. 
She told Jack Tame that the show is definitely quirky and offbeat, with the creator calling it "his dark twisted love-letter to New Zealand". 
She says there was a lot of buzz around the script when it first came out, and she knew she had to be involved. 

"It was very clear on the page that this was something quite unique." 
It was still a risk for TVNZ and NZ on Air to get behind the project, and Chitham says they are still pinching themselves that it has come to fruition. 
"There were times we were shooting we were asking each other 'do you think they've actually read the scripts?'"
Chitham says that the comedy features a whole range of laughs, from awkward pauses to dark humour, but it is an affectionate take on New Zealanders rather than being too cruel.  
The former Shorty St actress feels that Kiwis have become more open to the idea of laughing at themselves.