One of the biggest practical challenges when eating locally produced food is sugar. It’s an everyday food ingredient that is not grown in the Waikato. This became an issue when I was preserving this summer’s fruit harvest. All my favourite chutney recipes call for...
I’m delighted to report that we can now buy locally grown kiwifruit at Hamilton Farmers’ Market. And it gets even better – it’s superb, certified organic green and gold kiwifruit, at a very good price. This is kiwifruit as it’s meant to taste. Try it and...
The kitchen is full of autumnal produce. In the vege box there are plenty of pumpkins. Also beets, bok choi, feijoas, apples, nashi, and persimmons. Great potatoes, but this year’s kumara harvest is just about finished. A few sun-ripened outdoor tomatoes, eggplants...
There were eggplants galore at Hamilton Farmers’ Market this morning. David from Suncakes Gardens was selling excellent spray-free aubergines grown in Whatawhata, and there were eggplants on a couple of other stalls as well. Eggplant is the name most often used for...
This morning my favourite local baker, Meg Daly of Celtic Kitchen, was selling superb hot cross buns at the Hamilton Farmers’ Market. The spicy raisin buns were topped off with a glaze of cider and whisky. I managed to get a photo shortly before the last one...
We’re lucky in the Waikato – all kinds of herbs grow year-round in this region. This is a post about some of my favourite fresh herbs and what I do with them. It was inspired by a recent meeting of Hamilton Organic Gardeners. We met in Wendy’s home garden,...
Curly endive is the one salad green that grows in my garden all year round. It’s my essential salad green. Right now the plants are going to seed. They have shot up into tall spikes with small purple flowers. But there are still frilly green leaves for the...
The Kawhia Kai Festival is an annual food event celebrating Maori food and culture. It takes place at the remote, normally quiet settlement of Kawhia on Waitangi weekend, and this year I went for the first time. It’s one of the Waikato’s most famous food...
On a sizzling hot summer’s day, good icecream is a great idea. And the place to go for locally made frozen treats is right here in my neighbourhood: Duck Island, on the corner of Grey St and Cook St in Hamilton East. Duck Island’s quirky, playful icecreams are...
This is a great time for backyard apples. I’ve just started my first brew of home made cider vinegar from windfall apples. Both my apple trees are doing well, and other people’s are doing even better. If I had to pick a favourite fruit, it would be apples. They are...
