Welcome to the
Waikato
Food Basket
This is a blog that celebrates 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.
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...
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...
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Writing about eating
Local fruit in all seasons
Fruit grows all year round in the Waikato. All kinds of fruit. Well, okay, we don’t have the climate for tropical varieties, like mangoes or pineapples (although some clever people are growing bananas). But just about anything else: berries, peaches, apples, citrus,...
Celtic cuisine: Deliciously retro baking
Meg Daly’s Celtic baking is one of my favourite reasons to go to the Hamilton Farmers’ Market on Sundays. In my house we’re huge fans of her Scottish oatcakes, and we’re sadly disappointed when they sell out (though this gives you some idea of Meg’s popularity). ...
Soggy Bottom: where the bacon begins
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in midwinter I went to find out where my bacon comes from. I joined up with 25 members of the Treecrops Association to visit Soggy Bottom, the small farm where Jonathan and Sarah Walker raise free-range rare breed pigs, cows and chickens...