Reality and Earthquakes – Rescue from Forsyth Barr House

Posted on 2 April, 2011 by Kris

Once we had shifted to the 17th floor, people broke up into a few different groups in different places. Some people preferred to sit in one of the rooms in the centre of the floor. Some people focussed on cleaning up the mess of glass and broken crockery that was on the kitchen floor. At first, I went into the 17th floor boardroom. This room opened up onto the balcony – looking north-west over Victoria Square.

The room had big glass doors and partitions that wobbled alarmingly everytime another aftershock struck, so we tried to shift the chairs to the other side of room in case a glass panel shattered. We also unpacked our food and water, and settled in for a long wait. One of the people we were with had a laptop computer and a Blackberry phone. She was able to tether the computer to the phone to get on to the internet. She checked Geonet, and we discovered that the Richter scale magnitude for the quake was 6.3. We were amazed that a relatively modest earthquake had caused so much damage. She also emailed civil defence to give them more precise details of how many of us were trapped on our floors, and what condition we were in.

At some point during the afternoon, some civil defence personnel attracted our attention from the intersection below our building. We went out onto the balcony. They yelled up to us to confirm that no-one was hurt and to confirm how many of us were trapped in the building.

On the 17th floor balcony of Forsyth Barr House talking to civil defence

There was the group of us trapped between the 15th and 17th floors, and also other groups of people trapped on other floors further down the building.

(Photo by Martin Hunter/Getty Images)

The civil defence people told us that they were working on getting us out of the building, and that they might have to get us out by helicopter.

We settled in for a long wait to be rescued, still thinking we were likely to be trapped overnight. After sitting for a while, I got up to walk around. Out the windows on the east side of the building I could see that a large fire was still burning by Latimer Square. Crowds of people were by now leaving the city – mostly on foot. There were rescue workers on the roof of the Press building trying to free trapped people. We could see that shop frontages had collapsed onto the footpath and road on both sides of Colombo Street. We could see how cars had been moved around in the Farmer’s Carpark during the earthquake.

On the north side of the building we now had more time to watch and see how bad the damage was at the PGC building. A large number of rescue workers were there and a number of them were on the roof of the collapsed building, trying to break through to free people underneath. It looked as though they had set up a triage area on the grass frontage on the other side of Cambridge Terrace. People were taken there for treatment as they were freed from the building.

Sirens still sounded all over the city. Helicopters flew back and forth over the city. Some appeared to be taking water to try to put out the fire. At one point a helicopter hovered close to our building. We thought perhaps they were coming to get us out, but as it came closer we realised that it was carrying a TV camera crew.

I went back to sitting in the boardroom. We had time to chat about the damage, and about what it would mean for our business. By this stage I also had text messages coming from friends and family around the world. I told them that I and the family were ok, but that I was trapped with my workmates on the 17th floor of the Forsyth Barr building because the stairwells had collapsed. People texted back to say that they were thinking and praying for us.

By about 4pm, a large crane had pulled up on Armagh Street. We saw the crane lifting a basket onto the eastern side of the building, but we didn’t know at the time what it was doing. We later learned that it had been rescuing people from broken windows on some of the lower floors.

The crane shifted around to the Colombo Street side of the building. It was a big crane, but it didn’t look big enough to stretch to the top of the building, Howver, as the driver began extending the crane arm to its maximum height, we realised that it was high enough to reach to the top of the building.

Two or three rescue workers climbed into the basket and it was lifted up to free people from the building. It first stopped at the large balcony on the 9th floor. Over a couple of trips they freed the people trapped on the 9th and 10th floors.

It was then lifted up to our 17th floor. The plan was for us to climb over the balcony into the basket. Looking over the edge of the balcony, we had some trepidation about climbing over and into the basket, but when it arrived we climbed in.  The crane operator positioned the crane arm so that gravity pulled the basket in against the balcony. Two rescue workers positioned themselves in each corner of the basket next to the balcony, and began pulling people in.

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Reality and Earthquakes – Waiting for Rescue

Posted on 14 March, 2011 by Kris

Writing my last post, I had forgotten about the building sirens that had helpfully been blaring in our own building since the earthquake struck.  At the time, they were loud and annoying. We already knew we needed to evacuate, so the automated siren wasn’t particularly helpful. An intact set of stairs would have been better. Eventually, one of my bosses had the bright idea of attacking the siren on the 15th floor with a hammer.  That quickly brought the noise to an end. It also brought a small (and vaguely pathetic) sense of satisfaction that at least we still had some control over our environment.

There was another big aftershock at 1.04pm (5.7M), but it didn’t cause any more obvious damage in our offices. After sitting and talking to others for a while (in the now more quiet office), I went back to my own office.

I had to climb over my collapsed filing cabinet to get to my desk.  I had my phone with me, so took a couple of photos.

I had my backpack with me, so if I’d been thinking clearly now would have been the chance to take some  items from my room.  I might have taken some of the files I was most likely to need access to (like the one in the picture above). I might have taken small things like my phone charger and the photos on my desk.  I might have taken bigger things like my degrees and picture that were hanging on my wall, or my music books that were in my cupboard.  I might have taken the new suit that I bought just before Christmas for Matthew’s wedding.  I think I knew that once we were rescued we were unlikely to get back into the building again for some time (if at all), but I did not think to put anything in my bag.

I left my office and went into our boardroom, which looked out over the east side of Christchurch.  It was quieter in this room. One of my colleagues, Joseph, pointed out to me a large fire that was burning near Latimer Square.  We could not see the CTV building itself from our offices, but we could see that it was a serious fire. We could also see many more collapsed walls and buildings out that window.  It looked as though the roof had collapsed on the Press building. I don’t remember whether it was at this point or sometime later that we saw people on the roof of that building trying to break through (presumably to free people from underneath).

I tried calling Louise again several times on my phone, but was not able to get through. I did not know whether the quake had been bad in Bishopdale (where my house is). I did not know where Louise would have been when the quake struck. I could see below our building that many people out on the streets would have been injured or killed. As more time went by, I became more and more worried that Louise might have been hurt. Most of my workmates had made contact with their families, so knew that (in most cases at least) nobody was hurt. Joseph could see that I was worried, and took me aside to pray for Louise and the children. Then we turned back to staring out the window at the damage.

Some time later (after an hour or so had passed), another colleague (Tim) managed to get through to Louise on his phone. I was able to speak to her and confirm that she and the children were ok. She had been at our Pastor’s place for lunch with his wife when the quake struck. After the quake, she had collected the younger children from their school, and someone was collecting Cora from her school. I told Louise that I was ok, but that we were trapped in our building because the stairwells had collapsed.

Before speaking to Louise and I hadn’t realised how worried about her I had been, but after I hung up I sat down, buried my head in my hands and cried.

By this time, a few people had climbed the stairs to the 16th and 17th floor and had made their way out onto the roof.  There was a group of 23 or 24 of us trapped between the 15th and 17th floors.  Collectively, we decided to gather up all the food, water and cushions from each of the floors and move up to the 17th floor.  That way, if any more stairs collapsed (if any bigger aftershocks came) we would be closer to the roof of the building.  We thought that perhaps someone might be able to rescue us by helicopter.

On the other hand, we could see that there were other buildings that had been much worse hit than ours was. We assumed that the civil defence personnel would focus on rescuing people from collapsed buildings before turning their attention to us.  For that reason, we collected up the food and water supplies we had before heading upstairs.  We thought there was a good chance we would have to stay in the building overnight at least before anyone came to get us.

I wasn’t that keen on climbing the stairs to the 17th floor, but it seemed to be the best choice, so up we went. The emergency lighting on the 17th floor in the toilets (in the same area as the stairwells) was working.  I assume this means that the shaking had been less violent at the top of the building, so that there was less damage to stairs and fittings at that height.

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High School

Posted on 11 March, 2011 by Louise

Wow, I still cannot quite believe that Cora is at high school now!  Where did the years go?

Here’s how she looks in her uniform about to head off to the bus stop.

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Combination Pie

Posted on 11 March, 2011 by Louise

Recipe: Combination Pie

Summary: A delicious pie that combines rice and beans in a savoury egg custard.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice (approx)
  • 1 can of large red kidney beans
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • 2 cups of diced onions
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1 cup of grated cheese
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
  2. Saute the onions in the butter over a low heat until very soft (15 mins or so)
  3. Beat milk into cheese and eggs.
  4. Stir in salt, oregano and worcestershire sauce.
  5. Fold in the onions, cooked rice and beans.
  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until custard is set and edges are brown.
  7. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

This recipe was given to us quite a few years ago by a friend who is really into healthy eating (and living).
I have modified the recipe slightly. Use whatever herbs you’d like to flavour this dish and play around with the amount of rice, beans and eggs to get the consistency you prefer. The original recipe called for Taragon as the herb and only 3/4 cup cooked brown rice which meant it was much more quiche-like.

Guess what I added when we ate Combination Pie on the weekend?  Zucchini!  About 3 cups of grated zucchini and it was very yummy.  I added the zucchini to the onion towards the end of the onion cooking time just to soften it up a bit.

We served coleslaw with the Combination Pie.  All the coleslaw ingredients were from our own garden!  Green and purple cabbage, carrots and spring onions.  The dressing was from “The Best of Annabel Langbein”. Pinch of each sugar and salt, work through the cabbage with your fingers to release the juices (this is quite amazing actually!), add your other ingredients then stir through 1/2 cup mayonnaise and the juice of a lemon or lime (white vinegar also works).

Two beauties from our garden!

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Reality and Earthquakes – Trapped in the Forsyth Barr building

Posted on 10 March, 2011 by Kris

In my last post, I described how we discovered we could not evacuate the Forsyth Barr building.

When we realised we were trapped, we went back out into one of the larger rooms.  By this time, people from the 16th and 17th floors had got as far as our floor before discovering that they too were trapped.

The phones in our offices were dead, but someone mentioned that a phone line in one of the other offices was still working.  Someone suggested we ring someone and let them know we were trapped.  I dialed 111, and was put through to an operator who said, “111 emergency – Fire, Ambulance, or Police?”  Who do you ask to help when you’re trapped in a tall building?  I wasn’t really sure, but asked to be put through to the Fire Service.

I was put through to a fire service operator.  As I stared out over the collapsed Cathedral spire, he asked where I was. I explained that there was a group of us stuck on the 15th floor of the Forsyth Barr building in Christchurch.  I said that we had tried to go down the stairs, but were unable to do so because the stairwells had collapsed. He said to me, “Obviously there has been a big earthquake in Christchurch.”  They were being flooded with calls, but he took our details and my cell phone number, and said that our situation would be logged for action.  We counted the number of people who had gathered by then, and told him that there were at least 20 of us trapped on the 15th floor.

After I hung up the phone, someone else took the phone and rung a family member to confirm they were ok.  When they finished, I took the phone again and started to dial our home phone number to check whether Louise was ok.  At that same time, however, another aftershock hit.  I think this was the 4.9M aftershock that hit at 12.56pm.  Five minutes had passed since the initial earthquake.  The aftershock was big enough that it took out the last phone line, so I couldn’t ring Louise.

We moved out into one of the other offices, which had a balcony that opened out in the direction of Victoria Square.  The air inside our building was filled with dust (which I assume came from the collapsed stairwells). We opened the balcony doors, and were hit by the smell of more dust from outside, and by the sound of car alarms and building alarms sounding all over the city.  People were gathering in the square below.  There was liquefied silt everywhere, but most people didn’t bother to walk around it, they walked straight through it and out into the middle of Victoria Square.  Armagh Street to the West looked badly warped in places, and I could see that some of the Court buildings had collapsed.

We weren’t keen on staying on the balcony for too long, in case another big aftershock came, so we went back inside and sat down.  I tried to call Louise, but was not able to get through.  At 1.05pm, I sent Louise a txt, asking, “Are you ok?”  I forgot to say anything about how I was doing.  Some of my workmates had managed to make contact with family members.  We took turns with different phones on different cell networks, but I couldn’t get through to Louise on phone or by txt.

We were all in a state of nervous shock, which expressed itself in lots of ways – people laughing at various comments that weren’t actually very funny, people commenting that it couldn’t be a very good sign that the stairwells had collapsed.  One of my colleagues told us how she had tried to get out of her office during the quake, but couldn’t because the door kept swinging and pushing her back into her office.  She only made it out when another workmate from the office next door grabbed her and pulled her to safety. As we sat and talked, someone from one of the offices came in and stormed out onto the balcony.  He waved his arms frantically and screamed, “Help! Help! We’re trapped! Somebody help us!” or words to that effect.

Others turned their energy into find possible escape routes.  A plan was hatched to break through the doors, and get onto the roof.  Someone suggested that perhaps we could lower ourselves down to the ground on the platform the window washers used when washing the outside windows.  I was not too keen on that plan, though, which generated quite a bit of nervous laughter. We all became a bit more quiet for a time as we began to contemplate and wonder how exactly we would get down from the building.

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Reality and Earthquakes

Posted on 9 March, 2011 by Kris

Tuesday, 22 February 2011 was a stressful day.

I woke up feeling stressed about the work I needed to get done that day. Two weeks later, most of that work still hasn’t been touched.

Louise has already written of her experience of the earthquake that struck at 12.51pm on that day.  When the earthquake struck, I was busy writing submissions to Immigration New Zealand on an residency matter.  The earthquake struck out of nowhere and with intensity.

I jumped from my chair and tried to make my way away from the window and towards to my doorway.  This was probably not the wisest move. My doorway was part of a glass wall, and I had to avoid a collapsing filing cabinet to get to the doorway, but I managed to get there safely enough.

One of my colleagues was standing in my doorway at the time. As I made it to the door, I turned back to look out my window. My office was on the 15th floor of the Forsyth Barr building. I look out to the north, over the PGG building, which had collapsed.

What I saw from my window was a huge cloud of dust coming up over the city. Even though we had already experienced the September earthquake (and the Gisborne earthquake in 2007), it was a struggle to accept that the earthquake was really happening.

A group of people from my office banded together. We helped one colleague search for her cellphone, which she had lost in the panic of diving to get under her desk. Then we made our way to one of the stairwells and set off for the ground. The emergency lighting had failed in the stairwell, so we could barely see the steps in front of us. As we slowly went down the stairs between our 15th floor and the 14th floor, one of my colleagues remembered he had a torch in his pocket. (I guess he grabbed this from his office, and then forgot about it) He flicked the torch on, and at the same time Paul, who was leading us down the stairs, turned around and told us that we needed to go back up and try to find another way down. The stairwell had collapsed immediately below the landing at the 14th floor. We did not realise at the time how badly the stairwells had failed, but it was obvious that we could not get down.

We climbed back up to the 15th floor and made our way to the stairwell on the other side of the building. The windows on that side of the building looked south to the Cathedral, which was a couple of blocks south. I was shocked to see that the Cathedral spire had collapsed, and that there was a massive pile of rubble in front of the cathedral.
Photo: AP/Mark Mitchell

I could also see that building frontages had collapsed on both sides of Colombo Street beneath our building. This stretch of road was always packed with pedestrians at lunch time, so it was almost certain that people had died in the quake.

Victoria Square was fast filling with people from other buildings, and with liquified silt coming up from beneath the ground.  The Avon River was already very silty, and the water level had risen quickly so that it looked close to the top of its bank by the Town Hall.

Gathering together more people from our floor, we climbed over collapsed bookshelves to get to the second stairwell.  Very quickly, however, the person at the front of the group told us all that the stairwell had collapsed immediately below our floor.  At that point we became aware that we were trapped in the building.

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Tea Party

Posted on 8 March, 2011 by Louise

Miriam loves to play tea party.

She sets up her plastic tea set and all her wooden play-food on her little table along with a varying combination of small toys.

This time she was able to serve fresh blueberries! What a treat.

It is best if you use real bowls and cutlery – use as many as you can sneak out of the cupboard, spread them around the house filled with small wooden morsels and other random miniature choking hazards for a small crawling baby to discover and nibble on.

Busy in her play-kitchen which was her 3rd birthday present. I got a great deal on this as it was damaged stock. It is supposed to have an oven door below the sink (the ‘sink’ is the silver bowl on the table in the next photo).

Baby can’t come to the tea party? The tea party will come to baby.

Helping to make afghans.

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Devastation in our beautiful garden city

Posted on 26 February, 2011 by Louise

It is hard to imagine life ever being normal again.

On Tuesday at 12.51pm another huge earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the richter scale, struck Christchurch – this time bringing devastation and destruction far worse than we could have imagined.

I was sitting having lunch at a friend’s house while Miriam and her little girl played together in a bedroom and Isabella slept in the car on the driveway.
As the earthquake started we thought it was just another aftershock – there had been so many since the earthquake in September – but the force got stronger and we realised it was a very strong earthquake.  It did not last as long as the September 4 quake which measured 7.1 on the richter scale and did not feel quite as strong but it was big enough to give us a huge fright and sent me dashing through the house, trying to keep on my feet, to get to the little girls who I found sitting on the bed.  I told them to stay where they were and said it was a big earthquake and then I ran towards the car and Isabella who was still asleep!

The first aftershock hit and my friend and I were in shock.  There was minimal damage at her house but two big bookshelves had come crashing down in the lounge.

I immediately said I would go to school and get the children (one of hers and three of mine) and jumped in the car and drove the 5 minutes to school.  There were not many cars on the road at this stage and I could see people beginning to emerge from their homes to gather on the sidewalk or rushing to their cars.  There was liquifaction bubbling up on the roads where the road had buckled or cracked.

Some parents were already at school and one directed me around the field rather than through the main walkway which was flooding with water and silt.  The field was all wet and silty too.
I went in to Faith’s classroom where all the children were sitting on the mat with the teacher talking.  At that moment the second aftershock struck and it was pretty strong.  Children began to scream and cry all over the school and Faith’s teacher knelt down on the mat and gathered all the children close to her like a mother hen sheltering her chicks.

With Faith by my side we went next door to Nathan’s class where the children were at their desks and quite animated wanting to tell me about the earthquakes.  We rushed out of the classroom and Nathan insisted he had to go back for his homework – Faith had done the same actually!  From there we rushed to another block to my friend’s son who was looking a little worried and once we’d got him we all walked together around the field and collected Amy.
By this point children and teachers began to go out onto the field and sat down and began to sing songs as they huddled together.
Nathan told me that he had hung on to a rail in the bag-bay and two of his friends who were not close enough had “turned into turtles”.

At some point during all this Kris had sent me a text saying “are you ok?” and I had tried to text back but discovered I had no credit!  So I knew he was ok and assumed he would be getting in to his car and coming home, possibly picking up Cora on his way.

Arriving back at my friends I was able to top up my phone credit as they still had internet and power.  I managed to contact Cora (who has a cellphone – thank goodness for that – didn’t think I would be saying that!) and said that someone would be coming for her as soon as we could.  I had no idea the CBD was damaged to the extent it was and that Kris may not be on his way home.
The kids were bouncing off the walls and we sent them outside with popcorn and cupcakes!

The next couple of hours were spent trying to get in touch with Kris and my parents as we watched the TV and realised the extent of the damage the earthquake had brought.  The phone lines were extremely busy and it was nearly impossible to get through when calling by cellphone or landline and texts turned up hours after they were sent.  Finally Kris and I managed to make contact through text and I found out he was trapped on the 15th floor of his building.  Later he was able to call and said they had been able to go up the stairs to the 17th floor (highest floor in their building) but the stairs had collapsed from the 15th floor down.  There was no way they could get out and there were still big aftershocks hitting.  It is a pretty horrible moment telling your husband you love him and saying goodbye wondering if it might be the last time.  I was able to jump on to Facebook and posted in my status that Kris was trapped and asking people to pray.  It is amazing how the news of the earthquake had travelled around the world and how quickly news on Facebook travels.  I know that friends were praying all over the world for us all.

A friend called and said they would go to pick up Cora and their daughter and I met them back at our house at 4pm where I had gone to assess the damage.  The damage to our place was very minimal, just a few books and photo frames fallen of shelves, a few ornaments broken.  I picked up around home, got out some bottled water and sorted out some food, grabbed other essentials (thinking we might not come home if Kris had to stay the night in his building) and hung out a load of washing.  I didn’t want to come home to a big mess and washing in the machine whenever it was that we returned.
We went back to our friends place just before 5pm and as I pulled in the driveway Kris text to say they were being rescued by crane.  Amy came dashing out and everyone was extremely excited as we arrived as they were watching the rescue on TV!  We rushed inside and were able to watch Kris and his colleagues being rescued by a crane with a big metal basket.
Nathan who had asked me if Kris would be on TV, and I had answered no, said, “I KNEW Daddy would be on the news!”

I headed off towards the city as soon as Kris called to say he was walking out of the city and drove until I found him.  It was a great moment seeing him standing there by the side of the road.  One of the best moments of my life.  I am so thankful he was able to get out ok and come home to us.  I am also thankful for the friends who we spent the afternoon with, it helped immensely to have support during those hours.

Since then we have been fortunate to have power and water, unlike most of the city.  We are having to boil all drinking water and conserve water so showers and baths are short.  For a while we were using a hole in the backyard as a toilet but are now allowed to flush which is a great relief.  I have been able to do some laundry and get the dishes done.
The first four evenings we spent with friends over shared meals which was wonderful.  I have felt the need to be near other people as we all come to terms with the magnitude of this tragedy.

Tomorrow we will go to church in the backyard of a friend’s home – just like we did the first Sunday after the September quake.  It was early spring then and an unusually warm sunny day and many of us felt we might get sunburned (and could not look directly at the minister because of the sun).  This time we are nearing the end of summer and have been told to bring jackets and seats.
Our church meets in a community centre which needs to be assessed by engineers before people are allowed to use the building again.

School has been out all week and I think will probably be out all next week as well.  Some people are optimistic school will open towards the end of the week.  Many people have gone away, choosing to get away from the city.  For us with power and water it has not been so bad and we did think about getting away for a few days or a week but in the end we decided we could cope here at home and the effort of packing up and going somewhere else was a bit too much for me.  The aftershocks have not been as frequent as they were after the September quake so it has been much easier to deal with in that regard, although I am in a constantly dizzy/nauseous state and had to stay in bed until 2pm today feeling as though I had vertigo.  Not nice.  I think I felt this way after the last quake and hope it will go away soon.

Thank you to all our friends who have e-mailed an texted us to check we are ok, for those who have been praying for us and for those who offered us a place to stay should we wish to get away.  We are so thankful for you all.

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Morrison’s Mac’n'cheese

Posted on 8 February, 2011 by Louise

The original recipe comes from The Ultimate Italian Cookbook by Carla Capalbo (given to me by Mum and Dad on my 15th birthday) which I have tweaked a little bit.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 bay leaf
Pinch of grated nutmeg
50g butter and 1 tsp of oil (which will help stop the butter from burning)
1 onion finely diced
bacon or ham, chopped (optional)
1/3 cup flour
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan or Chedder cheese or a combination of both (I use mainly Edam and a little Parmesan)
1/3 cup breadcrumbs (I leave this out if we don’t have any)
1 packet of macaroni pasta

Method:

Bring a large pot of water to the boil.  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.  Grease an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp breadcrumbs.
Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until it is barely al dente.  Do not overcook as the pasta will get a second cooking in the oven.

While pasta is cooking make a bechamel sauce by gently heating the milk with the bay leaf and nutmeg in a small saucepan.  Do not let it boil.
Melt the butter/oil in a frying pan and add the onion.  Cook until the onion has browned.  If adding ham or bacon you can throw it in towards the end of the onion cooking time.
Add the flour to the cooked onion mixture, stirring it in well with a wire whisk. .
Strain the hot milk into the flour mixture all at once and mix smoothly with the whisk.
Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Season with salt and pepper and a bit of extra nutmeg if you like.
Add most of the cheese reserving a small handful for the topping.

Drain the pasta and combine it with the sauce.  Pour into the prepared dish.  Sprinkle the top with the remaining breadcrumbs and cheese.
Place into the centre of the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve with a salad or steamed green vegetables.

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What to do with Zucchini (or the one that got away…..marrow)

Posted on 1 February, 2011 by Louise

We’ve only got two zucchini plants in our home garden this year and they are slowly producing some nice yellow and green zucchini. There are about 8 plants in the community garden and I got some big zucchinis when I went out there earlier this week.

Add to the zucchinis above three HUGE marrows (these things weigh as much as a 3 month old baby and are about the same size) which were going for free at church on Sunday and we’ve got a lot of zucchinis to get through.
Here is just half of one – although you can’t really tell the size from this pic.

We like to slice fresh small courgettes in long thin strips (using a vegetable peeler) and add them to salads. Sliced in small circles is also nice.  The larger ones we add to stir-fries, curries, steamed vegetable mixes, roasted vege combos, on pizza,  in vegetarian lasagne and quiche……plus some more ideas below.

We were given a Mandolin type slicer from Kris’s Dad so I had a go with the shredder attachment and made a huge bowl of Marrow “spaghetti noodles”. They were long and thin and surprisingly good. I was most impressed and will definitely eat marrow or large zucchinis this way again.
I shredded the marrow on each side until I neared the centre/seeds and then turned to do the next side and so on, leaving the whole central seed area which I threw in the compost. I could tell when I was getting close to the centre as it started feeling a bit less firm/more mooshy.
I had a go shredding a big zucchini and it didn’t hold it’s shape as well as the marrow did, I think it had a bit too much water in it being younger.

Miriam enjoyed eating these “noodles” raw with just a bit of olive oil tossed through them.
I also experimented making a baked spaghetti dish with the marrow noodles.
I made a meat sauce. Layered all the marrow noodles in a baking dish. Topped with the bolognese sauce. Topped that with grated romano cheese and a bit of mozzarella.
I then grilled it until the cheese melted and browned (I didn’t want to bake this as I wanted the marrow noodles to be pretty much raw).
As it turned out I cooked the dish for too long and the noodles softened and released a LOT of moisture which I just drained away. If I did this again I would grill under a high heat very quickly to keep the noodles mostly raw.

Grating up zucchini or marrow and adding to meat patties or meat loaf is a great idea.
I grated up half a large marrow using my food processors coarse shredding attachment. In hindsight I should have used the fine shredding attachment for the marrow. Once again small zucchinis do great shredded or grated coarsely but these bigger ones need finer shredding.

I made burger patties and meat balls from the same mixture – ground beef (mince), bread crumbs, an egg, salt and pepper, and handful of zucchini.

The burger patties were grilled on the BBQ.

The meatballs were shaped into balls and dropped into a bubbling tomato soup mixture made by cooking a small finely chopped onion in 25g butter. Add 2 Tbsp of flour (I used rice flour) and stir to combine and then add a can of tomato soup (or similar – can be homemade or bought) and a can’s full of water (or however much liquid to produce your preferred consistency). Add s1/2 – 1 tsp mixed herbs.
Bring to a gentle simmer and drop meatballs into this mixture.

Stir very gently so you don’t break up the meatballs. Simmer gently for around 30 minutes.
If you have lots of grated zucchini you can throw a few handfuls of this into the sauce. I often serve vegetables on the side but this time decided to just throw some frozen peas right into the pot to save on dishes.

This delicious meatball dish was made for me by a lovely lady at church who has a gluten-free grandson so I can always trust that when she says food she’s prepared is gluten free, it actually is.
She made it for me when I was towards the end of my pregnancy with Isabella.  I immediately asked for the recipe and have made it regularly ever since.

After both those dishes were made I still had 3 cups of grated marrow so I made a Zucchini Chocolate Cake using Alison Holst’s recipe.  It is a recipe I have used many times and it always produces a lovely moist chocolate cake with tiny green flecks (if you use a green zucchini – it won’t be noticeable if you use a yellow one).  I ice it with a decadent butter cream icing (Sophie Gray’s icing from Dana’s Chocolate Cake).

It is absolutely delicious.  I often make it gluten-free by substituting the flour for Gluten free baking mix (Simple Baking Mix).  A fellow blogger just posted the recipe here

Here is a photo of the mixture.  I’m sorry to say I didn’t get a photo after I baked it.

If after all those ideas you still have more zucchini than you can use, you can grate and freeze it for use later in the year.  Add to soups, stews etc.  It will lose a lot of moisture as it thaws out so I tend to thaw it in a colander then squeeze out any excess moisture before using it in baking but if it is for a soup or a stew a bit of excess moisture won’t hurt so just throw it right in.

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