We had a visitor pop into our workroom the other day, and she told us a possum story that we just had to share. Any would-be fruit growers out there will share her frustration I’m sure!

We were living in the Bay of Plenty, and the pride of our backyard was a magnificent Lemon tree. It had at least 100 on it and we were eagerly waiting for them to ripen. I was imagining beautiful desserts and my husband was dreaming of lemon Hot Toddies on cold winter nights.

We would pay regular visits to the tree to check out the ripening process. Finally we decided they were ready to be picked, and we set aside a Saturday morning for our horticultural endeavours.

What a sight greeted us when we got up!

The lemons were in the same spot they’d been the night before. Except, every (and I mean every) lemon on our tree had been decimated with surgical precision. The Possums had very carefully eaten the skin off each piece of fruit – taking great care to leave it hanging on the tree!

Suffice to say that ‘bother’ and ‘oh dear’ were not the words that came immediately to mind.

I’d seen a few Possums around the back yard, but certainly not enough to wreak this kind of havoc! It was with the quickly-fading memory of a Lemon meringue pie in mind that I dialled the exterminators’ number.

I was shocked to discover that the little group of trees at the bottom of our garden was home to an entire clan of (very full-looking) Possums. In fact, that was to be their undoing. They were so lethargic after their feast that they were easily dispatched – although sadly, not to be made into a beautiful Possum New Zealand scarf

Thanks Jenny we’ll give you a Possum-pressie. If you’ve got a Possum story let us know. We’ll publish it and give you a little gift as a thank you.