The joy of celery
It’s a great season for celery in the Waikato. Last weekend the Suncakes Gardens stall had piles of beautiful fresh unsprayed celery at Hamilton Farmers' Market. Celery is one of the unsung heroes of the vegetable kingdom. The celery we get in the supermarket all year...
Seedlings of success
It’s the time of year when plants grow like crazy as soon as they’re put in the ground. And, in Hamilton we’re lucky to have a source of great quality seedlings at the Hamilton Farmers’ Market. Mark and Nikita from Weathersfield Organics are selling their locally...
Jersey Girls: Cream of the crop
My article about Jersey Girls is in the current issue of OrganicNZ magazine. In a country full of huge dairy farms, it’s wonderful to be able to drink milk from this small family farm near Matamata. Every Sunday I bring home a couple of bottles of Jersey Girls milk...
Seaweed: On beyond sushi
I started thinking about this article when we were on holiday at Matangi. There was beautiful fresh seaweed washed up on the beach. I collected some and made it into a Scandinavian-style smorgasbord salad. (See later in this post for the recipe.) I love sushi, but I’m...
Buckwheat breakfast
My favourite winter breakfast is hot buckwheat porridge. With a spoonful of home-made Caspian Sea yoghurt, a dash of Sweetree honey and a sprinkle of Trade Aid cinnamon, it’s warming and sustaining. For the purposes of the Waikato Foodbasket, the locally produced...
The fruits of winter
Last weekend my friend Jane texted: “Let’s go and pick persimmons!” So on a sunny Saturday afternoon we drove out to the persimmon orchard at Matangi and collected some huge bags of gorgeous orange fruit. It was by far the easiest and most rewarding "pick your own"...