Welcome to the
Waikato
Food Basket
This is a blog about celebrating and showcasing the delicious abundance of the Waikato region.
Eat your Greens
I’ve always loved green salads. My definition of an abundant life includes a garden with an apple tree, a lemon tree – and salad greens and herbs. My absolute essential greens are flat-leaf parsley, curly endive and land cress.
Peach dreams
When I was a kid in Papua New Guinea, I yearned for peaches.
In the tropics, fresh peaches were magical and unattainable.
This year my dreams have come true. My Hamilton backyard peach tree has been having a crazy, bumper crop.
Peach dreams
When I was a kid in Papua New Guinea, I yearned for peaches. In the tropics, fresh peaches were magical and unattainable. There were all sorts of amazing tropical fruits, including a wonderful palette of different kinds of bananas. But only canned peaches. I was...
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Writing about eating
Peach dreams
When I was a kid in Papua New Guinea, I yearned for peaches.
In the tropics, fresh peaches were magical and unattainable.
This year my dreams have come true. My Hamilton backyard peach tree has been having a crazy, bumper crop.
Low-hanging loquats
The loquat tree on our driveway has been laden with fruit this year.
I’ve been loving the golden egg-shaped fruit. Loquats have a sour-sweet, aromatic and slightly astringent flavour that I especially enjoy.
Loquats are distantly related to quinces and apples. They’re easy to grow in the Waikato.
Elder generation
This winter I’ve been dreaming of elderflower champagne. It’s fun, and fizzy, and it reminds me of summer. It’s one of my favourite things.
Elderflowers and elderberries are great for making interesting and delicious beverages that sit at the intersection between drinks and European herbalism.