Thanks to all who responded to my query and know so much more about cow fodder than I ever will. Chou moellier is obviously the crop that my friend remembered so I appreciate having that clarified and to get the story straight. Regards Judith Harper

Last evening I sent a query to the list about a farm crop grown in Southland and got several helpful answers on opening up this morning's email. Thanks to all for those. But I also thought I would tell listers why the query arose. A year or two back this friend decided she would like to write about her life for her children and grandchildren. So she did - she didn't plan and procrastinate and think about how it should be - she just wrote in a topical way, under headings and with a few photographs, as time and thoughts came to her. Perhaps she planned to sort and edit later on. But she can't - she died, quickly and unexpectedly, and that bright light has gone. But what a lovely treasure she has left those children and grandchildren, because she got on and did it when she could, as best she could. It's an easy enough matter for somebody like me to take what she wrote and shape it up a bit, tidy up stray apostrophes and form it into paragraphs and get it ready for the husband to print. But other people can never replace memories of happy days. So my urging here is simply to write those memories, good and bad, down now - don't presume that one day a brightly turned out, multi generation family tree will happen and will fill the need. Write what you can while you can, just in case . . . Regards Judith