Pet Food

Intro There are people who come into your life for short periods but whose impact and memory stays with you forever. Dorothy Picken is one such person. (And Travis my beautiful boy is another ...)

She was the Levin Librarian before my time and led the building project for the existing Levin Library which opened in 1965. Upon leaving Levin she went down to Wellington and was for many years the Library School librarian at Teachers College in Karori, where I did my librarian training. This involved a series of 3 six week residential block courses over 2 years with extramural assignments in between. One of the lovely things Dorothy did was make her home available for Levin girls boarding in Wellington for the residential courses.

She had a great collection of NZ painting and pottery and I was so impressed with her huge weaving loom which dominated the dining room. She made the most beautiful striped rag rugs from recycled fabrics including bed spreads and sheets - and so fast. She just got stuck in and worked at the task for hours every day until it was done.

Dorothy was a great cook, had a home with splendid views over Wellington and was one of the most interesting people I had ever met meaning that I inevitably had late evenings rushing to get the homework and next days prep done because the evening meal conversation and food and view had been so interesting.

While I was staying with Dorothy my hubby and I had just bought our first dog, a golden labrador puppy called Jess, which Dorothy very kindly allowed to stay overnight in the house once. She gave me 2 recipes which I will share here: homemade pet food (for Jess) and Marmalade (which I loathe eating but love making).

Recipe

• 1 kg tripe
• 250g ox liver
• teaspoon or 2 of salt
• grated carrot and root veges
• 500g beef
• 250g kidney
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 450g tinned oily fish (mackeral etc) optional
• 1 tablespoon vegemite

Chop meats and boil with salt for 1 hour, add vegetables and rice and simmer for half hour. Add oats and vegemite and simmer for half hour stirring often as it thickens (it catches easily).

Put into containers. Keeps in fridge for a week but freezes well until needed.

Image: Dorothy Picken led the new Levin Library building project in the 1960s. This photo was taken shortly after it open.