Author: futurelab

Our high energy Dingle biscuits are made daily in giant batches – a nod to tradition they are still as wildly popular as ever. We’re happy to share our recipe for free but if you think it’s worth more than a giveaway, then perhaps consider donating a Sir Ed ($5 note) here…thank you, we’d really appreciate it!

The Dingle Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients:

                250gm Margarine

                8 tablespoons Golden Syrup

                ¾ cup Sugar

                1 ¼ cups Plain Flour

                1 ¼ cups Wholemeal Flour

                1 cup Rolled Oats

                ½ cup Coconut

                1 tablespoon Baking Powder

Method:

Place the margarine, golden syrup, and sugar in pot on stove and heat until all margarine has melted. Place all other ingredients in large bowl and mix thoroughly.

Combine wet and dry ingredients in large bowl, mixing well, and press into a large greased baking tray. If mix is too dry, add a touch of warm water.  Bake in oven @ 190C for 15mins – 20mins.

Cut while warm and let cool before packing.

Optional extras:   

Chocolate –  add ¼ cup cocoa powder

Raspberry –  add ½ cup of Raspberry jam to wet mix and whisk thoroughly just before adding to dry mix

Dried fruit –  add 1 cup of chopped dates, sultanas, raisins, and/or apricots to wet mix just before combining                               

Sunflower seeds can be added to any of the above, and any two flavours can be combined – enjoy!

While you’re waiting for the biscuits to bake, have you heard about ‘The Great Biscuit Disaster of 1974’?

The following extract is taken from Sir Graeme Dingle’s book ‘The Seven Year Adventure’…

“(…) The kitchen with its roaring oil stove seemed so friendly as the rain drummed on the windows at 9 o’clock one Monday morning.

The groups were all gone, leaving behind a scene of devastation and muddy footprints and I settled into making enough Tararua biscuits for a week. I fetched the ingredients from the pantry, weighed them out and poured it all into a ten-gallon pot. Then I came to a curious item. It read, “16lb golden syrup!” I thought, “Christ, sixteen pounds is a lot of golden syrup, but I suppose it must be right.” And seeing that I had decided to make a double batch I poured thirty-two pounds of the gooey stuff into the pot. It took a hell of a lot of stirring but eventually all was ready.

(…) Carefully I spooned the mixture into small heaps on a tray and put it into the oven. Ten minutes later I had a little peep.

“God what an unholy mess.” My little heaps had all married into one another and created one big sticky pool. Something had clearly gone wrong. I decided to wait for advice and went on preparing the evening meal.

(…) When Roie came in from the bush at 5pm I confronted her with the problem.

“How much golden syrup did you use?” she asked.

“Thirty-two pounds,” I said defensively. I knew as soon as I had said it how stupid it sounded. It should have been 32 tablespoons! The mixture was set aside to stand for the night. Tuesday morning after breakfast saw me back with the problem. Add more oatmeal and flour, I had decided. Well, easier said than done. I bolstered the other ingredients to double so that by Tuesday lunchtime I was surrounded by twenty gallons of Tararua biscuit mix. Still it didn’t work properly. By late afternoon I had added all the oatmeal and flour in the pantry and every bench was covered with pots full of the stuff. Still it didn’t work and I had to admit defeat with the kitchen in chaos, my mind and body shattered and the base resources for any further attempts exhausted. The local pigs ate well for a few days.

We all know that spending time in the outdoors, especially in nature is good for us. A growing body of research links spending time in natural environments with numerous cognitive benefits, better physical health, and improvements in mental health and emotional well-being.

It’s important for rangatahi too. Now more than ever.

“Right now students need opportunities to build resilience, challenge themselves, stretch their boundaries and conquer fears in safe outdoor environments away from lives which are overshadowed by distractions and disruptions caused by current events.”

Rāroa Normal Intermediate School Principal Stephen Eames

Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC), particularly when it’s nature-based, provides the opportunity for learning and wellbeing in the outdoors. At Hillary Outdoors we deliver outdoor education and activity group-based programmes that enable students to grow as people, enhance their wellbeing, provide a platform for them to become more self-confident and resilient, encourage them to work together in a team and have the opportunity to develop leadership within a group and confidence for themselves. The students learn life skills and gain new experiences, work together, learn about their environment and become sustainability aware.

But there are financial barriers to outdoor education and many schools require funding assistance to access outdoor education programmes. But thanks to the generous support of Share My Super donors these schools and students don’t miss out.

By removing funding barriers to outdoor education you help level the playing field so that all young people are empowered to live a life they value and take their learning experience back to their everyday lives, families and communities.

Learning outdoors is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a have-to-have for our health and wellbeing. Thank you Share My Super donors for helping make this happen for young New Zealanders.

To learn more about Share My Super visit their website sharemysuper.org.nz                     

We are delighted to announce that Hillary Outdoors has been awarded the inaugural Youth Sports Fund thanks to Round the Bays! The fund worth $10,000 will enable two Auckland schools attend an adventure racing training camp and compete at the North Island Regionals of the Hillary Challenge in 2022.

The Hillary Challenge offered by Hillary Outdoors sees up to 240 students from Year 11–13 competing as teams in running/trekking, mountain biking and rogaining​, as well as teamwork and problem-solving tasks. It is one of the few remaining adventure racing events open to school students and has been the launching pad for many New Zealand athletes including Olympian Hayden Wilde.

Read more in Stuff.co.nz…

Access to nature might seem free, but in reality poverty can be a significant hindrance to outdoor education and the benefits that come with it. Hillary Outdoors and our partner organisations like Share My Super help rangatahi experience our natural environment, without the stress of financial barriers.

Read more of this article by India Hendrikse as published in The Spinoff…

https://thespinoff.co.nz/partner/share-my-super/20-10-2021/the-power-of-outdoor-education-to-break-the-cycle-of-poverty