Fans of Jono Walker’s superb bacon and sausages will enjoy Nadene Hall’s excellent profile of Soggy Bottom Holding in the summer 2016-2017 issue of New Zealand Lifestyle Block, “Bringing home the heritage, cured, tasty bacon”. It’s a very interesting read. Jono spills...
A huge celeriac turned up in the last Ooooby box. (Sadly, Ooooby have centralized their operations to Auckland.) Readers of this blog will know that the Waikato Foodbasket is fond of weird vegetables – but celeriac is just about the ugliest I’ve ever come...
I bought a container of edible flowers from a stall at the farmers’ market. They were almost too pretty to eat, but we managed. I add flowers to salads fairly often, but usually they’re not as elegant as these. The salad blossoms out of my garden tend to be borage,...
As the weather warms up, I’ve been watching the taro plants growing in the southeast corner of the garden. Although they’re in a sheltered spot, they usually die down for the winter, and grow back in spring. I’m very fond of my taro plants. They came from my friend...
I’m sad to report that we picked up the last delivery of raw milk today. We’ve been happily drinking Right Choice Live Milk for the last couple of years. We’ve paid for it in advance and it has been delivered once a week to our local Gouda Cheese Shop. However, this...
For the last few weeks there’s been plenty of beetroot at Hamilton Farmers Market. So it must be in season. A couple of the things I especially like about beetroot: that amazing colour. And, I can get two or three different vegetable dishes out of one bundle of...
One of the interesting food events in Hamilton this weekend is the local Weston A Price group’s monthly Saturday afternoon meeting. This month’s theme is “Real Food on a Budget”. Group organiser Marea Smith says, “If you have decided to limit junk and processed food...
Craft beer and superb artisan cheeses are riding a wave of popularity in the Waikato local food scene. This Saturday October 1st there’s a chance to check out some award-winning cheeses, and the burgeoning range of local craft beers, at Hamilton’s first ever...
When I first moved to Hamilton I wondered why the Waikato – the land of dairy farms – didn’t have its own iconic milk brand. Now it does, and it’s called Jersey Girls. Most Sundays I bring home a couple of bottles of wonderful Jersey Girls milk from the farmers’...
When you eat locally, you become very aware of what’s in season. Right now, in mid-September, there isn’t much fruit at the farmers’ market. There’s a new stall selling excellently ripe oranges grown at Ohinewai. There are plenty of lemons, and there are apples that...
