by Wally Richards

POTATOES

This is a perfect time to plant a few potatoes to enjoy the real home grown flavor in a few months from now.

If you have ample land you can plant lots of potatoes to harvest later when mature, store and likely have all the spuds you need till you plant again next season.

For those who have limited garden area for planting potatoes then there are other vegetables better suited to plant for your dinning that take less room and mature quicker for use.

If you do not have areas to grow potatoes in the ground then not all is lost, as you can use grow bags.

I found on Temu’s website a whole range of what they call ‘potato grow bags’ that have a flap on one side that you can open to harvest your crop at maturity without having to dig or pull the plants out.

These bags or similar on the website are also ideal for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and many other vegetable varieties.

All you need is an area that receives a reasonable amount of sunlight for a few hours every day.

Even in a situation where the plants do not receive any direct sunlight you can then spray the foliage with what I have called ‘Liquid Sunshine’ — a tablespoon of molasses dissolved into a litre of hot water and then 10 ml of Magic Botanic Liquid added.

Put into a trigger sprayer and spray the foliage every day. Leave the sprayer where handy to the crop to use till all the spray is used up, then make another fresh lot.

Why grow some potatoes? I can tell you in two words: ‘Great Taste’.

Most commercially-grown potatoes are bland in taste because they have been grown with man-made fertilisers and forced growth from using urea or other nitrogen growth boosters.

So how do you grow the best tasting potatoes you will ever eat? It’s simple and this can be applied to growing in open ground or in the potato bags.

You need to select the variety of potatoes you prefer and with that, the maturity time you prefer.

Below is a list of the most common potatoes to help with your choice.

Once you have what are called ‘seed potatoes’ (any potato is a seed potato if you use it for planting, no longer a seed potato if you eat it, fairly obvious!) We place our ‘seed’ potatoes in a suitable place outside such as under trees or shrubs in a wooden box or under a car port to ‘green them up’ which means to harden off the shoots at the potatoes eyes.

They should not be in direct sun light as you are likely to cook them.

You do not need to plant the whole seed potato; as long as it has eyes on each part you plant, it will grow as people often find when they put their potato peelings into the compost then have a potato plant growing.

In Britain during the war when food was scarce they would peel the potatoes, plant the peelings and eat the spud.

Now if you would like to try my way of growing and fertilising your seed potatoes then do this.

In a potato bag place about 10cm of good purchased compost, then over that sprinkle some BioPhos, gypsum and a few sheep manure pellets or chicken manure (if you have that).

Nowadays you have Wallys Real Blood & Bone to add to the mix. Lightly cover with a little more compost and sit your seed potato on that with as many eyes as possible sitting up.

Then add more compost to just cover the potato and the sprouted eyes. Have a bag or two of compost handy and as soon as the sprouts break out of the compost cover them again as soon as possible. Keep doing so every time the foliage pokes through till you reach near the top of the bag. If you miss doing so and the foliage gets to a bit of a height, say about 5 cm or more, then you have lost the plot.

This continual coverage forces the the plant to grow a long stem and that is where the new potatoes form; the longer the stem the bigger the crop off one plant.

In open ground a deep trench is dug out and then you proceed as above, but now cover with the soil you have removed.

Once up to ground level then you keep covering to make a mound. At some point you stop and let the foliage enjoy the freedom of sun light.

By planting early and growing fast maturing varieties you can overcome the potato psyllids problem if that is a problem in your area.

Placing Neem Granules on the soil by the foliage before you start mounding will help with control of insect pests that eat the potatoes in the soil.

Now here are the varieties and maturity times of common potatoes.

1st Early

Cliff Kidney Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Kidney Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Waxy potato good for boiling, salads, casseroles & soups with

excellent flavour.

Jersey Bennes Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Oval Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Waxy potato good for boiling, salads, casseroles, soups and mashing.

Liseta Maturity: Approx 70-80 days Tuber Shape: Long oval Skin: White

Flesh: Creamy yellow General: Firm cooking waxy potato ideal for boiling,

salads, casseroles, soups & roasting. High yielder.

Maris Anchor Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber Shape: Oval Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Excellent as an early boiling potato, also suitable for roasting.

Rocket Maturity: Approx 60-70 days Tuber Shape: Oval Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Great boiling and roasting potato.

Swift Maturity: Approx 60-70 days Tuber Shape: Round Skin: White Flesh: Cream

General: Waxy potato ideal for boiling, salads, casseroles & soups.

High yielder.

2nd Early

Allura Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Round oval shape, shallow eyes

Skin: White bright skin Flesh: White. General: Lovely tasting potato. Great boiled, roasted and as wedges or chips. Very versatile and suits all cooking requirements. Holds firm on cooking. Very high yielder.

Chippewa Maturity: Approx 80–90 days Tuber Shape: Round Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Excellent cooking potato good for boiling and roasting.

Heather Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Long oval Skin: Purple blue

Flesh: White General: Waxy potato ideal for boiling, salads, casseroles, mashing and roasting. Excellent flavour.

Ilam Hardy Maturity: Approx 70-80 days Tuber Shape: Oval round Skin: White

Flesh: White General: Floury potato ideal for mashing, baking, roasting, chips and wedges.

Karaka Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Oval Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Great all round cooking potato with excellent flavour. High yielder.

Merlin Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Round to oval

Skin: Yellow, red eyes Flesh: Cream General: Great boiling potato.

High yielder.

Nadine Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Round Skin: White Flesh: White

General: Waxy potato good for boiling, salads, casseroles, soups.

Osprey Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber-Shape: Oval Skin: White with red eyes.

Flesh: Cream General: Good for all purpose cooking. Stays firm, great to microwave & roast. High yielder.

Pentland Dell Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Long oval Skin: White

Flesh: White General: Good cooking.

Purple Heart Maturity: Approx 80-90 days Tuber Shape: Oval and shallow eyes

Skin: Deep purple and smooth Flesh: Purple toned. General: Great for salads, boiling and microwaving Health: Strong in antioxidant benefits.

Purple Passion Maturity: Approx 70-80 days Tuber Shape: Oval long shape, shallow eyes

Skin: Purple Flesh: Cream to very pale yellow General: Excellent cooking

qualities great for boiling and chipping. Holds firm on cooking.

Main Crop

Agria Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber Shape: Long oval Skin: Cream

Flesh: Yellow General: Floury potato suitable for boiling, mashing, baking, wedges and great for chips. High yielder.

Desiree Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber Shape: Round Skin: Pink Flesh: Cream

General: Good for all general cooking, great to microwave.

Moonlight Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber Shape: Round oval Skin: White

Flesh: White General: Good all purpose, cooks well as a boiling and chipping potato. High yielder.

Red King Maturity: Approx 100-120 days Tuber Shape: Oval Skin: Red Flesh: White

General: Good all round cooking potato with excellent flavour.

Red Rascal Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber Shape: Oval Skin: Very red

Flesh: White General: Floury potato that is a good all purpose cooking.

Suitable to be grown organically.

Rua Maturity: Approx 100 days Tuber Shape: Round to oval Skin: Fine white

Flesh: White General: Good all rounder for roasting and boiling.

Van Rosa Maturity: Approx 90-100 days Tuber Shape: Round Skin: Very red

Flesh: White General: Good all purpose potato, great for boiling and roasting

You can tell your potatoes are ready when the green leafy vines above ground turn yellow, brown, and completely die back. Wait about two weeks after the foliage dies so the potato skins thicken up. Then, rub a test potato’s skin; if it does not flake off, they are ready to dig and better storable.

Try a few in bags — you will enjoy the experience and taste.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at  www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

By Roger Childs

The Bulls have consistently been South Africa’s best franchise side, making the United Rugby Championship finals in four of the last five years. Loftus Versfeld is of the most formidable rugby grounds in the world, so we are aware of the challenge in front of us and excited at what lies ahead. –Dave Rennie, All Blacks head coach, Friday 14 August.

Three scalps in South Africa

A trio of matches against franchise teams in the republic were designed to give the All Blacks a taste of South African rugby before the first test. The results have surprised some of the pundits. The opener in Capetown against the Stormers was expected with the visitors winning 38-21. The coaches were not happy with the sometimes poor discipline and numerous penalties, but were pleased with the quick passing, running rugby and strong finish. It got better in Durban with a 54-0 win and eight tries scored. 

The brand of rugby was clearly different from Scott Robertson’s sometimes helter–skelter but often conservative approach, and the new players in the squad were clearly enjoying Rennie’s style. 

How would things go in Pretoria?

As in the first two matches the coaching team tried a number of interesting combinations and gave all the reserves a run in the second half. This inevitably meant that the game lost some of its shape after half-time.

Four tries were scored in the first forty, two each to winger Josh Moorby and captain hooker Codie Taylor. From the start the team was enthusiastic, enterprising and dynamic. The Rennie-style emphasizes dominating the opposition forwards, quick passing from the half back, rapid backing up and speedy running to see the ball pass through many hands to set up tries.

The pack pushed back the Bulls scrum and didn’t miss a lineout. The passing was fast and furious, and players knew that they had to rapidly back-up as the ball might arrive at any time. 

There was little kicking and less barging in mid field. Rennie wants to see the team retain possession and focus on making ground and scoring tries. It was great to see the quick backing up and the constant attack on the Bulls defence with the occasional judicious kick over the top. The 24-0 lead after 40 minutes was a fair indication of how the contest was going.

More even after the break

After playing a rather defensive game in the first half, the Bulls coaching team had obviously given their team a dressing-down in the changing room, and their style of play was very different in the second forty mnutes. The home side had more ball and were far more positive and enterprising. They were dominant in the third quarter and score two very good tries after speedy running and passing between backs and forwards.

They added a third try later, but the All Blacks score another four tries with winger Leroy Carter getting a brace. The second showed wonderful interaction involving Carter, full back Beauden Barrett and first-five Josh Jacomb.

The fourth quarter saw another strong finish with the visitors demonstrating their superior fitness. There were some mistakes and the combinations took time to settle as all the reserves came on for a run. At half back Kyle Preston was not as slick as Cortez Ratima had been in the first half.  

Who played well for the All Blacks?

There wasn’t a weak link but a number of players stood out.

• Flanker Peter Lakai was everywhere – vigorous in the tight play, running hard in the open and tackling strongly. 
• Josh Moorby on the left wing was enterprising in scoring the first two tries and made some dangerous breaks in the second half. 
• Reiko Ioane back in black after time overseas impressed with his powerful running brushing off tackles and his ability to set other players up.
• Fabian Holland toiled hard in the tight and took plenty of lineout ball.
• New All Black Josh Jacomb had an enterprising game at first five and impressed with his quick passing, excellent backing up and judicious kicking.

It was not a flawless performance but a number of players showed that they are strongly competing for place in next weekend’s test team. The Springboks had a narrow win over the Pumas a week ago and will be aware that the All Blacks will be very competitive at Ellis Park Johannesburg on 23 August.

by New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science via expose-news.com

Public Health Officials Behaving Badly

The recent explosive non-testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci before the US Senate, combined with the release of his private-not-private diaries, has torn another mask off the global pandemic narrative. The Midwestern Doctor on Substack reflects on the meaning of some of what was put to Fauci, who refused all questions. 

What we see is a pattern of expert-driven fear that had devastating consequences. For New Zealand, this is not just a distant story. The parallels are striking and should command our attention. 

The Fauci Diaries: A Blueprint for Deference

We thank Dr. Jeffrey Tucker for fighting back the bile and plunging headlong into Fauci World.  Fauci’s private notes on a government computer reveal a narcissistic sociopath intoxicated with his own mana and authority, certainly basking in the limelight and adulation of celebs, but there are serious realities admitted here too. During the height of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci privately acknowledged the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis was plausible and that the actual covid-19 mortality rate was far lower than the scare story he told the public. He privately admitted doubts about the effectiveness of lockdowns while publicly enforcing them. Most shockingly, he knew animal vaccine data showed serious pregnancy concerns whilst lying in his teeth to the public that everything was fine. 

Yet, the media and political class placed him on a pedestal. He was dubbed “the one guy you can trust” and treated as a rock star. As one analysis noted, the public was conditioned to follow the crowd and believe the most confident party, even if what was being promoted was insane.

The Local Parallel: Our Own Unlikely Heartthrob

Around the world, similar officials were sent to calm back down the ramped-up fears and did exactly that. The public was told simply to “Trust the Science” and trust the people delivering it. 

We saw the exact same script play out here in New Zealand (“NZ”). Dr. Ashley Bloomfield was elevated to the status of a “mild-mannered health care hero” and an “unlikely heartthrob.” The media warned of “two desolate days without updates from Ashley Bloomfield,” creating a cult of personality around a civil servant. He was certainly lionised for being the face of the response, but his practical influence extended into many areas of pandemic management. His was more than a shop window role; he was driving, and coralling, the flow of information needed to get as many injections in as many arms as quickly as possible. There are disturbing suggestions as to how far he was prepared to go to achieve this aim.

In one revealing moment, he denigrates people who question his pandemic management as “cookers,” showing the distance he clearly feels from rules governing working doctors at the patient coalface, who are trained not to discriminate, be judgemental or insult people. 

So just as Fauci was caught in contradictions, the same questions are now being asked here.

The Peters Question: What Did They Know?

Party leader, Foreign Minister and recent Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has joined other political statesmen internationally, expressing disgust at the cover-ups. He has disparaged the second Royal Commission, saying no decent candidates for commissioner would have accepted the narrow terms of reference. We have certainly had our say about the links between Chair Grant Illingworth and the global power brokers. Peters highlighted that the Royal Commission confirmed the Ministry of Health knew that for 12 to 17-year-olds, the two-dose covid-19 vaccine schedule presented an “unnecessary risk” of myocarditis. This advice was given in November 2021, but was never passed on to ministers or the public by Dr. Bloomfield. However, some ministers did know but worked to keep it from public view, as the Freedom Party and journalist Derek Cheng at the NZ Herald have been reporting. 

Mr. Peters is now demanding a select committee inquiry into vaccine injuries, arguing that the inquiry response was a “disgrace to a modern-day democracy” and that hundreds of thousands of young people may have been impacted, or are yet to be. He was explicit about possible future health harms, the first time a senior figure has acknowledged this reality in New Zealand. Mr. Peters even flirted with the c-word in this interview with Chris Lynch, where he wonders about criminal culpability.

Chris Lynch Media: Covid Inquiry “They should be charged” – Winston Peters, 30 July 2026 (18 mins). @2.08 I want to move on to… …terms of reference weren’t adequate. @7.22

Challenged later on another independent platform, Mr. Peters doubled down on his concerns, echoing our own grave fears for our nation’s future health. They are the most important and truthful words spoken by any covid-era sitting politician, and we thank him. 

I don’t think you understand that thousands and thousands of people are going to have limited, truncated and awful lives because of what’s given to them. And the system’s not responsible … I was talking about thousands of people having their health affected by getting this treatment they should never have got. And you know there will come a time as it rolls on year after year, and people who find themselves in hospital with all these conditions, then they’re going to start looking back. And what’s the answer? Well, the rest of parliament just shut the whole thing down. Well, that’s rotten … the outrage should be on that … I’m talking about the cover-up, about the covid inquiry. The shutdown of the facts, and the proper inquiry into what happened. The fact that 100 000 12 to 17-year-olds got the second vaccine when (then Covid Minister and later PM) Hipkins and (then Health Minister) Ayesha Verrall were told not to do that. And when they were challenged by me in parliament, they lied about it, and I called them out within 24 hours … We’re going to have a proper inquiry to ensure that people who were wrongly treated medically get a fair go in the future.

From Bloomfield to Baker: Who Were the Advisors?

While Dr. Bloomfield was the public face, the brain trust often pointed to figures like Professor Michael Baker, who has now scuttled off to Harvard. This is the same pattern seen globally: experts who advocated for drastic measures are now entrenched in prestigious institutions, shielded from accountability, just as Dr. Scott Atlas observed of Fauci: that he lacked a basic ability to critically interpret scientific studies and was “stunningly” unscientific.

Similarly, quickly minted experts such as Siouxsie Wiles and Helen Petousis-Harris were all over Labour-aligned media spouting anti-intellectual scientism, in our view, whilst being given presumably similar deference in the private rooms where policy affecting millions was hammered out. NZDSOS looks back sadly on the many lies and deceptions they wrote for the NZ public, and we have never heard any of them cite a single reference in support of their bland generalisations. This is in contrast to our many posts, official letters, presentations to select committees, Royal Commissions and the briefs delivered during the tribunals of our courageous and persecuted doctors.  

The NZDSOS Perspective: Time to Break the Spell

The narrative that promoted deference to these “god-like figures” has been broken. The US hearings have exposed Fauci’s vanity and deception, over and over. The public’s trust in doctors, hospitals and health authorities is at an historic low.

As one commentator noted, the loudest “follow the science” voices are often the most illiterate grifters. It is time to stop trusting the “rock stars” and start trusting the data, encouraging discussion and debate and reinstating medical ethics. We believe it is an absolute crime to have taken them off the table. 

To New Zealand officials, we must apply the same scrutiny. But we must ask far more than just the rhetorical questions – to which the answers are becoming clear

Why was the risk to our youth hidden from us? Why were dissenting voices silenced? Why is there such resistance to a full inquiry into the vaccine rollout?

We know the answers – because the vaccination imperative was an order. Get it done, and nothing and no one must get in the way. Justice Watch NZ is investigating the consequences and the culpability. They offer a pathway for those who want to do something beyond just reading and nodding. ​​​​​​​Please support them.

What the country needs to ask now: why are so many people dying? What will happen in the future to the vaccinated? Yes, who is to blame? What are the white clots, and why is there silence from everyone? Why should we trust the government’s bland assurances on any health matter where there is risk and absent safety data, not to mention already established evidence of harm – fluoridation, other vaccines, 5 and 6G radiation, gene tech products?

In all these cases, we have official bodies making determinations about public risk with minimal transparency, minimal tolerance for dissent, and maximal confidence in their own judgment. The public health establishment has lost credibility across multiple domains, and it hasn’t earned it back.​​​​​​​

The Big Question: Why Would Our Leaders Do This to Us?

Whilst the atmosphere of manufactured fear and panic in 2020 was obvious to many of us, various officials suddenly called upon clearly lost the plot, and perhaps this was understandable at the time. But there is a separate time-honoured truth about power, corruption and large edifices taking on a life of their own outside of the reasonable efforts of their minions to do the right things. 

21st century government is not just not your friend, it is the opposite of your friend; a self-serving, cold, malevolent slave to much higher interests than our measly votes, even though some quite decent people seem to exist inside governmental beltways. But strange things happen to conscience when power, influence, ambition, fear and free money from the taxpayer all combine. Good people can contribute to terrible things and make up reasons why they are still good people:

“But we thought we might die of covid. We had to do something – the people expected it. There are studies saying the vaccine saved millions. The greater good demands sacrifices. Our heroes wouldn’t lie to us. I’m too smart to be tricked. Who needs God when we have Drs. Fauci and Bloomfield, our daddies who took our pain away?”

Never underestimate the power of psychological defence mechanisms. Human psychology got us into this mess, and those of us who are more aware of our own minds, and morals, have to work like crazy to get us out of it. 

We all must put our shoulder to the wheel and persist, so people like Drs. Fauci and Bloomfield don’t get to author the chapter we are all living through – minus those that stop living suddenly. That’s a conservative five thousand Kiwis by some epidemiology modelling we have seen. At least five thousand reasons to deal with the tyranny of public health experts – but with more suffering to come, sadly, as acknowledged by Winston Peters.

Source

Comment by Pam Vernon of Envirowatch NZ

Great timing of these ‘discoveries’ isn’t it? Fauci and Bloomfield are IMHO the fall guys in this horrific and unprecedented event. Everybody knows somebody who is suffering or died it is now becoming so evident. Funerals everywhere. That industry is surely booming. And it costs around $600 to publish a death notice now! Who can afford that? So how much of this death count is going under the radar? Still, they can’t hide the proverbial elephant much longer. Next step, make like you’ve found the villains and humiliate them before the public. And hopefully the public will get over it, thinking justice is done and move on. They know it’s nearing pitchfork time when the peasants rise up and overthrow the corrupt and self appointed ‘aristocracy’. Anybody who is aware of the real string pulling knows that these two here mentioned are simply the front men. They’ll get by unscathed of course, the (not) elite look after their own. As NZDSOS write, Prof Michael Baker’s ‘scuttled off to Harvard”.

The EU boss famously claimed Russia was taking parts out of washing machines for its missiles(!)

Ursula Von Der Liar has finally revealed how Russias coming "Attack on NATO" will be carried out. pic.twitter.com/jeURu1R0Kg

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) August 16, 2026

from Concerned Ratepayers Kapiti (CRK)

CRK has been closely following the Government’s proposals for possible local government amalgamation.

It is time to outline our position: we are open to amalgamation — but not amalgamation for amalgamation’s sake.

Any new arrangement must:

Deliver a net financial benefit to Kapiti ratepayers  Keep rates and spending under control  Provide effective local representation and decision-making  Be based on sensible boundaries, we suggest that they be based on natural water catchments  Keep transition costs reasonable — not tens or hundreds of millions of dollars  Be decided by Kapiti residents through a referendum

We do NOT support Kapiti being forced into a Wellington/Wairarapa amalgamation.

Kapiti residents should not be expected to help pay for Wellington’s expensive investment mistakes or years of underinvestment in essential infrastructure — nor should decisions affecting Kapiti be dominated by Wellington-based interests.

We believe Kapiti should be progressing with options to join with Horowhenua and potentially other councils to the north, provided that meets our tests.

If an amalgamation north cannot meet our tests, we support Kapiti going it alone as a standalone unitary authority.

The process matters too.

We do not support the Government’s current amalgamation process – it is too rushed and has not provided the information needed for residents to make an informed decision.

CRK will be writing to Local Government Minister Simon Watts, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and our local MP Tim Costley, calling for a proper, fully informed process and requesting they reject a forced amalgamation with Wellington.  Kapiti residents, not other councils, should decide our future and have the final say.

We’ll keep you informed of their responses.

Our full position statement can be found Here

How does this compare with what we have now?

You can’t help feeling sorry for the service personnel when you hear the stories about the bad conditions they have to cope with.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1069272172113254

Baconators–