Queenstown Supermarket - Raeward Fresh Queenstown

May 4, 2016March 15, 2020

Provisions founded by Jane Shaw

(2020 update: Provisions was sold the Benjer Gold in 2019 who is still making all the same goodies in the same Cromwell location)

Originally harking from Hawkes Bay, Jane Shaw grew up accustomed to the bounty of New Zealand produce. Well-rounded farmers markets providing a direct farm-to-table link for locals have been a part of that region for years, showcasing the interesting ways growers found to pair and extend their offerings into innovative gourmet products. So, when Jane moved down to the Queenstown Lakes district, she was surprised that so few people were really capitalizing on the abundance of this region’s produce, such as the amazing Pinot crop for instance, or pairing local cherries with other Otago-grown ingredients. This opportunity fired up Jane’s creative, entrepreneurial spirit. She’d been cooking her way around the world for a while before coming to work for Destination Queenstown (in marketing and sales), an experience that gave her exposure to a broader look at the region – who was visiting and where they were coming from (places like The Rocks Farmers Market in Sydney). This, in turn, inspired Jane to enhance the region’s produce offering by starting a thriving farmers market and developing tasty new combinations of South Island ingredients. The results: the Central Otago Farmers’ Market as well as the condiments business Provisions.

Starting up the regions finest farmers market gave Jane exposure to a cool bunch of eccentric and talented growers, men and women who had wrestled an impressive array of crops out of the outwardly barren landscape. Greengage plums and Clutha Sun Apricots were presented to the public along side Lapin cherries, gorgeously plump White Pearl nectarines and, of course, some of New Zealand’s best wines. These items soon became the core ingredients for Provision’s jams, chutneys, jellies, vinegars and sauces. The farmers market became the melting pot for Jane’s preserves.

A natural collaborator and instigator, Jane insists that coming up with fruity ideas like her Plum Paste and Star Anise jam or her Apricot Ginger Marmalade was the easy part. These ideas – and, looking at Provisions product line, there are heaps of them – came naturally for this cook-come-entrepreneur. The hard part was developing a business in the midst of the regions bursting orchards, in a newly developing NZ food culture. But, like many people who’ve come to call Central Otago home, Jane loved the possibilities of the almost naive food scene and saw what it was becoming. Provisions, then, was the next move. Jane came up with the original brand one day while looking at some of the old buildings in Cromwell where “Provisions” was literally written on one of the ancient walls. This matched her intuitive sensibility that her new business should be a mix of the old and the new, where the historical pioneers of the district would have taken their local abundance and pickled, jammed and otherwise jarred up their produce for a long winter or a long trek through the hills.

The new side of this coin came from Jane’s adventurous attitude towards life. Like the trailblazers before her, experimentation and the constant search for better ways to make a zingy jam or a rich mustard spurred her on. Jane loves roasted anything so when her nectarine jam wasn’t quite coming out like she wanted, she decided to roast the stonefruit making the now hugely popular Roasted Nectarine Chutney packed with lemon, rosemary, cumin and fennel flavours, all caramelized during roasting. Provisions went on to develop a Sweet Apple Jelly made with rosemary, fresh chilies and chili flakes, along with other wonders like the Strawberry and Green Peppercorn jam. Each new product became an extension of Central Otago’s own bounty and Jane’s flare for mixing spices, traditional cooking styles and pushing flavour boundaries – all the while, honouring the core features of a good pinot or a fresh apple.

Once Provisions found their way into local stores, Jane wanted to find a way to present her jams and chutneys as though they were coming out of her own beautiful kitchen. She started a cafe in Arrowtown (also called Provisions) and The Boat Shed near Frankton. These lovely cozy spots give Jane a platform to share her love for baking combined with the fruits of her preserving skills. You’ll find the best sticky buns I’ve ever tasted or great glazed ham sandwiches lashed with Provisions’ Wild Thyme Mustard and Plum & Sumac Relish or Provisions Maple Glazed Ham with poached eggs, hollandaise and that stunning Roasted Cherry Chutney on the side. In fact, if you want some great recipe ideas to use Provisions’ gear with, pop into the Raeward Fresh cafe or to Provisions in Arrowtown to see what you can make with these goodies at home yourself.

Like Raeward Fresh, most restaurants around the region are now using Provisions Cherry Vanilla Jam, or their sensational Cherries in Pinot Noir Syrup. The old idea of heading to the town market and storing up provisions for the winter – or these days, for your 4-star restaurant kitchen – is making a comeback thanks to Jane (and her talented, hard working crew).

April 11, 2016March 15, 2020

YUM Granola With Sarah Hedger

Sarah Hedger has had a quite a journey of the heart. She grew up in San Louis Obispo, California, reading cookbooks from cover to cover with parents who made all their food from scratch. She also loved (and still does) food writing and started an organic soup company. When it came to making a decision to study, she naturally started with nutrition. However, she thought the only jobs for a nutritionist in the US would land her in a hospital role, which wasn’t her first choice for a career setting. Sarah really liked business as well, so eventually chose finance as her major and ended up doing commercial real estate. As an entrepreneur she did well, both in the US and also in Wellington, where she moved five years ago. As the years rolled on, however, Sarah found that she was not being consistent with her own life philosophy. Namely, that you should try to fill your days with only those things you really, really love. And she really, really loved food.

In confronting herself, then, she moved to Wanaka to carry on her heart’s journey. Within a short time she met the chef of Whare Kea Lodge,
a Relais & Châteaux property. She started baking and doing breakfasts. Without any professional kitchen experience Sarah nevertheless ended up being the sous chef within six months! Her heart was emerging and so were her real skills in the kitchen. She developed a grain free granola – based mostly on roasted coconut and dark chocolate – that everyone absolutely loved. People badgered her to sell this exceptional stuff commercially but Sarah took her time to work out the best ingredients, the best processes, as well as the logistics of how to produce it while holding down her kitchen day job.

When the Whare Kea Lodge slowed down for the season last April Sarah took the opportunity to rent a local commercial kitchen. The time was right to begin placing all of her lessons into her hand made,
small batch, gluten free granola. She chose coconut from Blue Coconut in Christchurch,where they can trace each and every batch back to their exact farms in the South Pacific. Sarah makes her own dark chocolate using organic cacao and coconut oil and the honey comes from Flat Out Apiaries, a couple of kms down the road from her kitchen. The hazelnuts come from Wanaka, too, and the rest (goji berries, chia and almonds) come from wherever she can source the good stuff seasonally. Sarah asked a graphic artist friend in Wellington to do some packaging design and, thus, YUM Granola was born.

Sarah tells me the making of YUM is a three-part process where she has to 1) measure out all the ingredients to concoct a perfect flavour balance,
2) bake the stuff that needs baking and let it cool,
3) mix everything in together. If you’ve ever baked coconut you know it can go from perfectly brown and delicious to burnt and useless in the blink of an eye. Sarah’s partner, Mike, helps bake using his meticulous time-management skills to keep an eye on things, including making sure the home made dark chocolate mixes in and bakes just right. Mike also helps package (by hand) and stands along side Sarah at the various markets they’ve consistently sold out of YUM at.

YUM makes a dark chocolate granola (which has a lovely smidgen of Marlborough Sea Salt added) and an Original version which has a warming cinnamon vibe (because it has cinnamon,
of course) along with rich caramel notes thanks to the local honey. Being a cereal nut, I could eat this stuff all day… and heaps of it. The dark chocolate YUM is so rich and delicious, especially wth some Raglan Coconut Yoghurt, that about a half a bowl does me for the day. This works well with my personal approach to buying food, choosing items that may cost a bit more but provide me with exceptional health benefits, unparalleled quality and a delicious flavour experience. I think this is the heart of living as a modern day epicurean; to thoughtfully and thoroughly enjoy what you buy and eat everyday. Sarah and Mike at YUM share this same kind of thinking which flows authentically from their formidable foodie hearts. Keep your eye out for their lighter Bircher Muesli arriving on shelves soon. It’s going to be made so you can soak and activate it the night before, giving you an enjoyably different grain-free, breakfast Bircher experience. Yum, can’t wait!

February 8, 2016March 15, 2020

Bostock Chickens with Ben Bostock

• Bostock Chickens can be found at Raeward Fresh Queenstown

Ben Bostock runs an organic chicken farm. At first glance, this may not seem that interesting given our our well-greased marketing world of slick, modern grocery stores where every other product flashes the ‘organics’ title. However, when you scratch a little deeper, you’ll find that Bostock Chickens is actually one of only two farms in New Zealand to produce truly pastured, naturally fed birds. When terms like ‘free-range’ and ‘cage free’ get used in advertising these days, it gives us the impression that the chicken (or egg) is organic enough, but when you talk to Ben, you’ll find that it ain’t even close. For Ben, truly organic means the chicken lives in its natural environment eating real food that’s grown in the same place and where the chicken is processed under strict, certifiably organic practices. Bostock Chickens embody what I think is at the heart of the organic movement – going back to the basics to create sustainable well-being.

Organic food and practice runs in the Bostock family. Not the trendy nod to being-greener-than-your-Pak-N-Save-neighbors, but a deeply engrained set of values evidenced in their lives and business. Ben tells me that ever since he can remember, the pantry was stocked with organic goods. Back in the ’80s – when it wasn’t even on the social radar – Ben’s mum would be making sure the family ate organic food while his dad ensured their apple orchard in Hastings was strictly organic. Even way back then the family sold their produce to stores in NZ and the U.S. that understood the value of organics. This background prepared Ben to take a unique approach to raising chickens on the very same farm in Hastings that he grew up on.

After studying physics and chemistry at Otago University, Ben spent some time traveling through the UK and South America. Returning to NZ, he got a job at a meat trading company to learn how farmers were connecting their products with the rest of the world. He was truly surprised to see how disconnected most farmers were from the larger process of working with their actual customers, especially how their product’s are marketed, where they’re sold, and for how much. It was at this point that Ben decided to start his own business so that he could impact every link in the chain from egg to bag. And, thanks to the ingrained wisdom of his upbringing, he knew that this new business needed to be run in an extraordinary way – extraordinary for New Zealand chicken farming, that is.

The first scary step was to resign from his secure job. Ben then hopped onto a plane to visit White Oak Farms in the U.S. state of Georgia, the first international destination on his “research list” to check out the best organic farming practices for chooks throughout the world. Next stop – back to Europe to visit organic chicken farms in France. France currently leads the way in both scale of operations and organic practices, so Ben got an education from local farmers in mobile chicken ‘chalets’, feeding practices, and butchery. He visited even more farms in the UK and then, his own business plans set to hatch, he headed back home to get working. Ben’s father bought into the well-rounded idea and together they purchased the chicken chalets, prepared the butchery practices to meet NZ organic standards and started raising his new chooks.

Running a small volume of birds allows Ben to focus on their quality of life. This means the chickens roam free in well established, organically raised, grassy pastures. On top of this, the birds eat Ben’s chook muesli mix. Unlike most chicken mash feeds, it is a substantial combination of whole grains of corn, barley and the apple skins left over from his father’s orchard following their juicing process. That these chickens eat what’s grown in their own environment is just one of many of the organic values Ben has been raised with. That and the complete absence of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or genetic modifications of any kind attests to the old-school wisdom of Bostock Chickens farming practices. So, if you’re after a healthy chicken with your own health and well-being in mind, Bostock organics is truly the real deal.

In the future Ben is looking to grow his business. Not towards a factory sized approach as many of his competitors have, but rather to get more farming environments, like his father’s orchard, to adopt chickens as a natural and sustainable addition to their existing orchard, or olive grove, or vegetable garden. Ben stands behind the value inherent in the price of his chickens, but would like to scale the business in such a way as to multiply the model and bring the costs down for everyone, while using existing abundance (like those of his of apple skins, or other organic feed sources) to keep food and farming as natural as it was when he was a kid.

At Raeward Fresh Queenstown, we’re pretty excited to be one of the few places in the South Island to carry Bostock Chickens!

February 2, 2016March 15, 2020

Coppersfolly Pure Wasabi with Fenton Wood

It always amazes me how New Zealand can adopt a wide range of diverse crops and grow them, in many cases, as good as or better than where they originally came from. Our hazelnuts for instance, often do better here than their European cousins. Our pine nuts don’t suffer from the same pests as in Europe or Asia. Our carefully chosen and cultivated walnuts, stone fruit, fresh herbs and many other foods thrive in God’s own country in such a way as we often then re-export back to the places of origin. And now, thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of Fenton Wood, you can add Wasabi to that long list.

That’s right. That obscure hard to grow rhizome which usually thrives in the cold alpine streams of mountainous Japan is now thriving in and around the South Island of New Zealand. Duh. It’s not only thriving here but New Zealand, as far as Mr. Wood knows, is the only place where pure wasabi paste is made in the entire world, including Japan. No preservatives, no horseradish, no additives, no chems, just pure wasabi root quickly grated and jared moments after being plucking out of the rich Canterbury soil in which it thrives. The pungent quality of wasabi will start to dissipate after around 20 minutes from being harvested so Fenton & co have to work fast to make sure all the flavour and quality of the root stays in tact, placing it glass jars only where the fantastic antibacterial nature of real wasabi keeps it clean and fresh without the need for preservatives. Also, the glass stops the ITCs leaching out whereas plastic doesn’t.

Most of us Philistines will have no idea what real wasabi is about. We either like or don’t like that pea green paste which has passed as wasabi for decades at our local sushi joint or super market. A product, I must say, which has zero wasabi root in the tube. The real thing is impossible to import and even if you’re well travelled, you’ve probably never even had the opportunity to get anywhere near it. There are still places in Japan though, which will break out the freshly picked root and grate it directly onto your plate using a shark skin. The flavour is crisp, pungent – but not the burning kind, and fresh as. In fact, it’s exactly this kind of rare experience where hard to find ingredients meet classic techniques that Fenton is re-creating.

After 35 years in law enforcement, Fenton Wood decided to buy 25 acres outside on Christchurch in Taitapu and grow something different. He chose to get into wasabi, of course, when someone asked him to grow it for their wasabi oil venture. The venture didn’t work out but the wasabi was thriving so Fenton and (now deceased) wife Barbara figured out how to figure it all out. After years of help from the kind fellows at the Food Sciences Dept. of Lincoln University, trial and error, and according to Fenton, “poverty”, he worked out how to coax this cold loving plant (snow, frosts, no worries) into multiplication. Once he developed the best tissue cultures for reproduction, he then found the best places around the South Island to grow the magic (as in health benefits and flavour) root. I’m not gonna give away any secrets here, but one of these places has one of the worlds largest natural springs right next to a salmon farm around the north west tip of the Marlborough Sounds. Wasabi needs the freshest of waters well fed by local fish life. Perfect environment, pure wasabi. And so that’s the name of Fenton’s company (Pure Wasabi by Coppersfolly) of over 15 years in the making.

From a foodies point of view, the real deal wasabi is actually an incredibly diverse food or condiment. You can thinly spread pure wasabi paste on a ham sandwich giving it that mustard kick or on a great steak instead of horse radish. It goes well with seafood of course, or in dressings where you’d want a very fresh spicy twist. From a health perspective, what researchers at Lincoln University found (as is becoming typical when looking closer at a lot of these more traditional or ancient foods) was that the isothiocyanates (ITCs) in wasabi have a dramatic effect on platelet aggregation, keeping your blood from clotting, and being ten times more effective than taking a small aspirin each day as many people do for their hearts. The list goes on which you can read more about here but suffice to say that such a rare and beautiful food such as wasabi is well worth having in the pantry for all kinds of reasons. And therefore, well worth us stocking it at Raeward Fresh where you can get the best that New Zealand has to offer. Thank you Japan, thank you Fenton Wood.

January 3, 2016March 15, 2020

Blueskin Bay Honey with David Milne

Imagine having your own beehives surrounded by wild Manuka and Kanuka trees bordering the sea. Imagine having a guy managing these hives for you, someone who’s worked with bees for years and who knows how to keep your hives as single origin or a mix of wildflowers, as you like. Imagine the unusual flavours you’d get from your special part of the world, where Manuka flowers are transformed into an unblended natural honey which pops with notes of lemon, passionfruit and maple syrup. And best of all, imagine that this comes delivered to you in a glass jar, ready to amaze your tastebuds and heal your soul any time of the day.

I’ve wanted to keep bees for years. Every time I get close to the idea, I think of the hard work of establishing and keeping bees, of managing their environment and of the processing to keep the honey and hive in tact… and so I put it off. Bummer, because I don’t much like most of the honey I get in plastic containers or the way they all start to taste the same. I do however like the variety of good honey made available at the local stands you come across on road trips, special for the moment but not something I have access to all the time. And then I come across Manuka Honey from Blueskin Bay just north of Dunedin. I can tell immediately that this honey is special, that it’s been curated to maintain a single origin species flavour and that it’s been extremely well delivered (unheated, hasn’t been blended, not creamed, glass jar). So I call David Milne to ask how he did it.

David grew up around Dunedin appreciating local flavours fused with the mediterranean style cooking of his grandmother who was born in Lebanon. At Otago University, David studied a wide range of subjects from art to law but his food learning took place in Madison, Wisconsin where a girl he’d met from that American midwest town introduced him to the culinary culture of the region. Out in the huge fields around the town David learned to raise bees making pasture honey, hawthorn and willow honey, clover, borage, buckwheat honey to name a few. The potlucks, food co-ops and quality produce of the region was an inspiration to David who wanted to blend his growing interest in food and previous education together to make a brand back in NZ that would reflect these values and ideas.

In particular, David wanted to develop a product that would reflect a way of living a life of pleasure but with balance. Back home in Dunedin, being surrounded by an environment rich with natural resources, David decided to create honey starting with local queen bees that he could build hives focusing on three main sources, Manuka, Kanuka and wild flowers. The core concept being to create an amazing food experience that would be organically created, extremely local, largely untouched in terms of processing and memorable flavours, and to achieve all of this in balance with nature and his community. Having tasted this stuff and spoken to the man, I’d say he’s nailed it. One taste of the manuka in particular made me think I’d never tasted manuka honey before. In comparison to the average manuka or closely related blends, Blueskin Bay’s manuka had a fruity floral clarity, a natural grain mouth feel and a delightful finish all by itself. Imagine then, adding this to say a meat marinade, a dressing with a bit of vinegar or a glaze over muffins. Beautiful.

There’s heaps to be said about the health aspects too and I found David particularly frank and helpful in this aspect. As an apiculture assessor at Lincoln University, he’s not one to hype Manuka factors and stuff like that. Instead, he focuses on the fact that if you eat locally produced honey, made by healthy bees flying around your own region taking in the flora of the region and creating a food from it, then you will be adding a nutritionally fitting element to your diet that your DNA is accustomed to, which for many people will also keep allergies down. There are other anti bacterial benefits to Manuka honey, but these are largely external applications and rarely seen as internal (ingested) benefits. What Blueskin does best, I think, is to manage the hives of my dreams with skill, local knowledge and an organic process which creates a truly outstanding honey which I can enjoy without all that work. But just in case I ever do want to have my own hive, David will rent me one and help me manage it. How cool is that!

January 2, 2016March 15, 2020

Goodies on the Gorge

(2020 update: Goodies on the Gorge has been sold and is now trading as Double Rock)

At the age of 11, David White found himself wandering the summer fields of Yorkshire with not much to do. His father had recently been made redundant and so their low cost holiday consisted simply of a caravan parked in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, a perfect escape from the heavy industrial city of Leeds for two weeks. As David followed his fancy through the trees and paddocks, he came upon a kind of ‘Darling Buds of May’ farm, complete with two wonderful old ladies, their cow Daisy and heaps to do for a young boy. David learned to milk the cow, feed turkeys, stook hay in old fashioned ricks, all accompanied with home made lemonade and cakes for afternoon tea in the middle of an orchard. At this point he fell in love with the land and its culture.

From here on, David had always wanted to farm a plot of land but this seemed out of reach in the UK. So, 44 years ago David the young man, emigrated to North Canterbury and bought a small one acre plot. He worked in advertising while studying at night about soil science and horticulture from a professor at Lincoln College. His experiences as a child drew him to more organic methods and so it became natural for David to collect seaweed from nearby beaches to fertilize his land. 15 years on, the restless farmer moved to Dunedin and in turn bought two much larger plots including a farm in Strath Taieri and at Blueskin Bay where he continued working in marketing whilst farming sheep and cattle and a wide variety of plants, again, following his fancy.

Continuing to follow his heart, David met Jeni in 2001 and on a whim, they looked around Cromwell for some land to buy. Jeni had deep family connections in Otago and so with spade in tow, David looked at various places until he shovelled up a better looking clump of soil at what is now Goodies from the Gorge. The land had laid fallow for a long time, being fed only by years of natural weathering, decaying foliage, and subsequently growing richer with nutrients. The plot also had beautifully established European Plum and Cherry Plum trees with a rolling aspect a few hundred meters into the Kawarau Gorge on the road to Queenstown. At the time, the land looked “like an absolute wilderness”, but David saw through the thick briar, broken trees, and long grass and knew this was the place. At the young age of 60 then, he started building retaining walls, laid irrigation pipes, built a foundation on which to place a house rescued from Christchurch well prior to the earthquake.

David had read an article in the Otago Southland Farmer about blueberries and knew the climate and soil at Goodies would be perfect. He and Jeni travelled to England to visit the oldest blueberry farm in the UK, then to Australia, speaking with farmers to better understand this little blue wonder. He also thought that after a few years and growing to 2 meters in height, blueberries would be the perfect plant to harvest for a 70 year old. A little while later, a friend from Nelson asked if David would rescue some of his family’s 60 year old raspberry plants, of which only twelve were left. Six survived and this rare old breed yielded a bright sweet flavour which David has now cultivated into a large crop featuring regularly on menus at resorts like Blanket Bay, Matakauri Lodge and many high quality restaurants.

David’s fancy has served him well as he continued to grow the Goodies repertoire by adding two varieties of boysenberry, a red, black and a luminous white currant, figs, pears, black doris plums, elder flowers (for their own cordial), quince and many interesting and more unusual vegetables including elephant garlic, sugar snap peas and rouge pumpkins. The list goes on, as does David’s curiosity and ingenuity. He remains deeply committed to organic methods which includes getting horse manure from a local friend who runs dressage horses, and grape pressings from a local winery – which helps boost the pH acidity balance for his blueberries. He and Jeni often work up to 15 hour days picking berries and maintaining irrigation while Jeni meticulously packs the berries and prepares vegetables to classical music and packs for daily couriers for which they often need to be up by 5:30am. This hard working couple could run circles around the average IT hipster.

Before leaving Goodies from the Gorge, Jeni loads me up with a few of her famous jars of goodies, including a tomatillo salsa – the best I’ve had outside of California – a cherry jam, a jar of raspberry preserve and a few heads of elephant garlic; all side projects from the farm which also comes from her passion for food (and her catering background). As I wander towards my car, I pass a local chef showing his family around the blueberries, all of them sampling and smiling along the way. And then there’s David, tinkering under the rotary hoe attached to the tractor. He emerges to say goodbye and tells me he’s always appreciated Nathan and Angela’s approach to selling his berries at the Raeward Fresh. “They don’t haggle us down on price” he tells me, and that he thinks they’re one of the few places in the region that really understand the price of growing the highest quality food possible. That there’s a cost to completely organic, grown with craft, with hand-picked berries that taste just like summer should…

David will keep working to produce these berries until it starts to get cold and he and Jeni will take a break, maybe to Italy, or France, or both. They’ll return a few weeks later and prune the berry bushes and fruit trees, turn the soil and get rid of the remaining weeds, fix a hundred things by hand and get ready for a new season. I think the land likes David and Jeni. It responds well to their care, and to what they choose to plant and tend. On my way home, I pop a huge red raspberry into my mouth. It taste like a warm summers day and reminds me of my own childhood. I’m grateful for people like these guys, and for their ability to put summer in a punnet.

September 9, 2015March 15, 2020

Zoe’s Gardens with Kelvin Speirs

Kelvin Speirs has a knack for managing abundance. Like most gardeners, he has to find creative ways to put a glut of beetroot, or zucchini, or red peppers to good use when they all come ready to harvest at once. Kelvin will trundle off to the Thorndon Markets with some of his fresh produce each week, offer local chefs in the Napier and Hasting region some of his specialty corn salad or baby kale, yet even still he’ll have kilos upon kilos of organically grown tomatoes, red onions and myriad other vegetables looking for good homes. So, Kelvin properly prepares his abundant veg for jarring, adding twists of flavour from the Mediterranean to the Manuwatu. The result is a bevy of fantastic relishes and jams that all come from Kelvin’s own beautifully managed gardens. His latest offerings include:

Caramelised Onion
Spiced Tomato Jam
Gherkin Relish
Pepper Relish
Beetroot Relish
Zucchini Relish

Brinjal Chutney

Growing up in the Manuwatu, Kelvin didn’t have much to do with food besides growing and selling potatoes as a kid. However, after spending 12 years in local council and community development work, Kelvin did start focusing on creating means for the region’s food abundance to connect with the local economy. He developed cooking courses as well as other proposals that would marry, say, the area’s budding wine and market garden businesses to put the Wairarapa on the Kiwi food scene map. After the National Government came to power many of these local plans were either scrapped or shifted to the hub of Wellington, so Kelvin had to find other outlets for his growing community focused connection to food.

Not easily disheartened, Kelvin scaled down his regional food plans into a micro version, starting a bed and breakfast in Greytown that grew lots of interesting veg around the property to share with the guests. Kelvin quickly learnt heaps about gardening situated in such a beautiful growing climate. His gardens thrived and Kelvin decided to move to Hawkes Bay to expand his gardening ventures. Along the way he met a couple of sisters who came from the Mediterranean and who had developed a line of preserves and sauces, but who were struggling to sell their offerings to the Kiwi palette. Kelvin bought the business and started adjusting the recipes to lean more towards New Zealand foodie trends.

The results are very Kiwi 2015; perfectly grown organic vegetables which maintain their fresh flavours in the jar, paired with Brinjal spices or sweetly caramelised onions, flavour notes which hark of other lands and places but which New Zealanders are increasingly becoming accustomed to. Kelvin created a new brand, Zoe’s Gardens, adding the jams, preserves and relishes to his Farmers Market adventures as well as offering the range to local chefs / foodies. This organic journey from garden to jar to market eventually led to Zoe’s Garden goods being available for us at Raeward Fresh. Kelvin has had to work very hard to keep up with demand. If, for instance, you were to try some of some of his beetroot chutney on a slice of dark bread with cured salmon, you would understand why these jars of deliciousness are selling as quickly as he can make them!

This morning, I tried Zoe’s Garden beetroot relish on a piece of The Breadman’s Casava bread. The relish is a bright fresh red with a bright fresh flavour to match. Kelvin’s pickling techniques tone down the beet’s earthy notes, leaving all the lovely piquant strength of this healthy root veg. I also had some Breadman’s Pumpkin Snackers left over from a weekend do, and tried Zoe’s Garden’s Caramelised Onions straight up on these (since I didn’t have a steak or pork roast to hand over breakfast). The red onions were beautifully sweet and rich, brought to new depths by the combination of mustard seeds, ginger and rosemary in the jar.

It’s cool to see how all of Kelvin’s experiences throughout the years have woven together, making their way into these relishes, jams and chutneys. We’re so glad at Raeward Fresh to share his story in a jar.

September 5, 2015March 15, 2020

Paneton Bakery with Dominique Colombié

Dominique Colombié grew up in the South-west of France where baking is a sacred art. His father ran a patisserie and taught Dominique how to bake using classic French techniques. This meant using a simple list of high quality ingredients – including local butter which is a wondrous thing in France – and a patient hand with the dough. The Colombié kitchen table had the freshest croissants, tarts and breads which Dominique grew up appreciating and sharing with his village. After some years, Dominique went on to learn modern baking and production techniques as well, in order to take his special family traditions into the next millennia. With all of his quiver full of knowledge, both old and new, Dominique ventured into the wide world to see where he could bring his skills.

It was during a visit to New Zealand in 1982 with his wife Celia that the pair noticed this country didn’t have access to the kinds of croissants and quiches Dominique had grown up with. They decided to return and change all that. In 1986 Dominique and Celia started La Tarterie, in Auckland, which had queues of people lining Khyber Pass waiting for their very own taste of France. Dominique kept all of his family traditions in place, exchanging only French butter for New Zealand butter. Not skimping on ingredients or process, his croissants and quiches became legendary in the area. So the Colombié’s decided to expand.

Dominique and Celia sold their successful cafe and started a new bakery called Paneton. The name refers to the classic willow bread proofing baskets which are lined with a special linen. This reference to classic technique was to be bridged with new methods of production, such as pasteurization and flash freezing technology. These contemporary skills allowed the ideas that Dominique, Celia, and now their daughter Madeleine too, had around their own kitchen table to be shared with the rest of the country. Dominique wanted to give the same kind of experience they and their local customers had (of waking to the smell of fresh pastry baking in a nearby oven) to, say, the farmer out on the rugged West Coast or the Southlander who didn’t have a great cafe within brunch distance.

It is the latest in flash freezing technology that enables Paneton Bakery to create croissants, danishes and pain au chocolat that can be kept in the freezer until needed, and then still come out of the oven as good as at the bakery. If you’ve been to a good French patisserie and had great croissants, you’ll know this is quite a thing. Dominique explains that the trick is he decided to offer his pastry to the customer at the stage where people will need to proof their pastries at home before baking. You can buy frozen, pre-proofed croissants a dime a dozen but it’s not the same thing, both in terms of the baking experience and the end result. This was important to Dominique because the main idea was to share the experience of making and enjoying great pastry while Paneton did all the hard work in between. To proof your croissants, you simply put them in a closed oven the night before. When you wake up, take them out. Give them a little egg wash while you preheat the oven to 180˚C and then bake for 12-15 minutes. My Paneton pastries had a lovely curved shape, a beautiful rise and were as flakey as – as they are in Paris!

My only complaint was that the danish needed more of Dominique’s home made custard or hand sliced apricots. Paneton makes everything fresh and, even after being frozen, you can tell it’s good stuff… and you will want more. Dominique tells me that to keep the price point affordable to as many people as possible they’ve decided to have a petit amount (that is, just the right amount) of fillings for the waistline. You can add a bit of glaze (say, melted apricot jam) or a few fresh berries for yourself to these danishes and they’ll be even more fabulous. I’m looking forward to getting their new flakey pastry and making some quince & rhubarb tarts with fresh ingredients from my little garden outside. At Raeward Fresh we’re grateful that the Colombié’s have shared their traditions and innovations with the rest of us via Paneton. We’re looking forward to what comes next from their kitchen table to ours.

Recipe: Paneton’s apple galette

Ingredients:
300 grams of Paneton Flakey Puff Pastry
2 large apples
Apricot jam
Icing sugar for dusting
Method:
• Unroll the Paneton Flakey puff pastry as per instructions on the packet
• Cut 4 rectangles from the pastry
• Peel, core and finely slice the apples
• lightly score (don’t slice through) the edges of the pastry making a 2cm border. This will allow the outer edge of the galette to puff up around the apples. You could also fold the out edge over the apples at the end for a different effect.
• Place apple slices onto each rectangle (you can also place a wash of custard underneath if you like
• Sprinkle with caster sugar
• Gently wash the edges of the pastry with a beaten egg
• Bake your galettes in a pre-heated oven at 200˚C for 15 minutes or until golden brown
• Wash with melted apricot jam and dust with a bit of icing sugar
To serve, add a bit of your favourite vanilla ice cream.
Tip: you can use any left over pastry strips to make canapés or snacks like cheese straws.

September 4, 2015March 15, 2020

Dr Feelgood Frozen Pops with Craig Jackson

Craig Jackson is quite a character. A quintessentially Kiwi character in many regards but, this being 2015, he’s one of the well travelled, highly skilled, creative and entrepreneurial breed of quintessential Kiwi’s. At 52 years old Craig is making a career transition into the kind of job you dream of having as a kid. Here’s how it happened…

Craig worked in the film industry (mostly as an editor) for 25 years before he got tired of selling other people’s stuff. He learnt heaps in advertising boardrooms around the country, especially about peoples needs and wants, and he watched NZ food culture transform from the time of his childhood, this island nation morphing into an amazing country packed with food entrepreneurs championed by an eager and increasingly informed public at farmers markets, small stores and larger retail venues. He observed that something was calling out the pioneering character and substance of Kiwi ingenuity in the agricultural and culinary scene over the last 20 years, and Craig also felt this shift within himself. Perhaps it was triggered during his first adventurous sushi experience in 1980s Auckland or on one of the many trips he took overseas where he would come across stunning cafes or restaurants? Or, maybe like many people, this “knowing” simply lay dormant until Craig could take the space to sit down and figure out what was in his own heart.

So, upon leaving the film & TV industry (where his wife Melanie still works as a director) Craig knew he wanted to do something with food. He wanted to do something that made the most of New Zealander’s love for wholesome ingredients and had a hunch that he’d find a niche with a new twist on an old theme. He began by experimenting with kefir – a healthy, fermented milk drink made with ‘kefir’ grains – and tested numerous varieties on his family. The experimentation went well, but the process stalled when he couldn’t figure out how to get it fresh to people due to shelf life issues with his live cultures. On the night he finally gave up on his kefir trials, Craig found an old popsicle making machine online (googling his way out of grief) and thought, “Yeah, that could work.” He got immediate and joyful encouragement from his kids who were way over kefir testing. Craig bought the machine, plonked it on the kitchen table and started playing with various ingredient combinations. His business plan: It’s gotta be fun and stay that way if I’m to stay in business. (Actually, Craig wrote up a proper business plan based on core values he’d learnt during his time in film – namely, stay nimble, smart, creative, and have fun. He coincidentally received an email from ANZ asking for submissions for their business plan competition so tossed them his. He got 3rd place out of 400 submissions).

So, with popsicle machine placed firmly in the middle of the kitchen, Craig (and kids, friends, neighbours and anyone else fortunate enough to pop by) went to work on the creation of ice blocks. In Craig’s mind, this meant ice blocks that capitalized on all the years of his food culture experience around the world blended with a solid contemporary Kiwi food aesthetic. Which goes a long way to explain the strangely natural yet kooky flavours they came up with (15 originally, but 6 being being produced as of January with more coming online soon). Have a look below to see what I mean:So, with popsicle machine placed firmly in the middle of the kitchen, Craig (and kids, friends, neighbours and anyone else fortunate enough to pop by) went to work on the creation of ice blocks. In Craig’s mind, this meant ice blocks that capitalized on all the years of his food culture experience around the world blended with a solid contemporary Kiwi food aesthetic. Which goes a long way to explain the strangely natural yet kooky flavours they came up with (15 originally, but 6 being being produced as of January with more coming online soon). Have a look below to see what I mean:

A Flat White ice block made from freshly brewed coffee and good ole kiwi milk, sweetened using organic coconut sugar? Is that not quintessentially modern Kiwi? Or Granny Smith Apple with lime and mint? Feels like it’s been around for ages and yet it’s as hip as ice blocks get, especially the Salted Caramel and Apple – awesome. All these ideas forged in a kitchen a few kilometres north of Auckland on a ten acre block. The old horse stable on their property is now the proper commercial kitchen/factory/headquarters of Dr Feelgood Handcrafted Frozen Pops. The name came from Melanie who one day just said “Dr. Feelgood”. That easy, that cool.

Craig spent this past year getting flavours and techniques perfected. He connected with some brilliant NZ food companies to help him sort out ingredients and ramp up to market-level production. Next, he went to work on the brand. Craig and Melanie did a lot of the groundwork and a friend of theirs, Todd Young, at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney, did the finishing design work. They didn’t want to create plastic bags which don’t biodegrade, so they went with Interpac to create a zero waste cardboard box. With that sorted, Craig thought he’d begin selling in Auckland and then see how far his ice blocks would go. Instead, he happened to have some extra product when he went to Wellington for the ANZ business plan competition. Moore Wilson and other stores in the area loved them. Since then it’s been a constant stream of, in Craig’s own words, “Every bastard said yes!” – in contrast to the title of Jeff Ross’ biography about vodka brand 41˚ Below, Every Bastard Said No.

It’s been way fun for Craig so far. Solar powered bicycle ice block stands and showing up at events with a freezer full of pops. Keeping up with demand has meant some hiring, but basically, it’s harvesting mint on the property and then into the old stable to make another batch of Raspberry Lime and Coconut, or Chocolate made with Raw Cacao (not cocoa), or Lemon with Manuka Honey & Ginger (a great winter ice block for those sore throats). At the end of the day, for Craig, it’s about creating guilt free treats that feel very, very good. At Raeward Fresh, we think the way Craig has combined new Kiwi cool with outstanding flavour combos is sweet as indeed. We’re all for championing his new adventure in handcrafted goodness.

August 11, 2015March 15, 2020

Akaroa Salmon with Tom & Duncan Bates

Duncan Bates and his father Tom are classic farmers. They care for their stock, they love the land (and sea) and they have an innate ability to solve problems with very practical solutions. Farming is in their blood and therefore their hearts. In listening to their story, you get the sense that they have a deep affinity with the environment, something shows up in the final flavour of their produce – farming at it’s best.

Tom Bates was running sheep and cattle in Canterbury back in the early ’80s when he went on a fishing trip around Stewart Island. The salmon farm in the area intrigued him and his entrepreneurial side got to work doing research to map weather patterns, look for coastal shelter and locate nutrient flows. Tom was further motivated by the fact that land based farming was becoming more and more limited in NZ. Farms were becoming small, low-cost production units (storing and not finishing stock) for larger companies. Tom wanted to diversify and use the families farming skills in a new way. Duncan was just coming out of Uni (Agriculture) at the time and, in the same way that a farmer would identify good pasture, the two of them looked around the coast to see what would suit ocean farming. During the search, they found that Akaroa harbour was nicely protected from southerly winds but the marine infrastructure was in decline and being extremely underutilized. With an intelligent research base coupled with down to earth Kiwi sensibilities, Tom and Duncan formed a marine farming plan which they submitted to the local council.

After lots more learning and even more hard work, Tom and Duncan put 10,000 salmon hatchlings into their Akaraoa facility. The Stewart Island crew were developing a ‘salmon ranch’ just inland from the harbour where they would hatch salmon in the rivers and release them into the ocean, hoping they would follow their migratory path and return as fully wild salmon. They didn’t get the results they were hoping for but they did kindly give the Bates 10,000 hatchlings to start of with. A year later (1987), the council returned to see the development and granted them the second only salmon fishing license in the country at the time. Tom and Duncan had successfully translated their land farming skills to the sea.

Some of their carry-over farming skills can be seen in managing Akaroa Salmon’s growth. For instance, how do you split of pen of 10,000 hatchings as they grow to maturity? Tom and Duncan looked around to see what other salmon farms were doing as well as taking their own environment into consideration. Ingeniously, they ended up sewing a ‘V’ into the facility so that fish could swim into other pens in the harbour of their own accord as they grew. Another, this time land-based, approach they adapted to the sea was letting the animals live as naturally as possible. Duncan tells me that salmon want to be left alone and not managed too much, and also, that they need as much space as you can give them while eating feed that is the same as in the wild. Accordingly, Akaroa has fewer fish in their pens than most salmon farms and have developed a feed made of high quality fish. Tom and Duncan have created an organic space simply by being practical and paying attention to the ecosystem they farm in, finding systems that suit the environment. The results, in terms of flavour and quality are pretty amazing. Most farmed salmon have an oil content of around 30% and, while the omegas in salmon oil are really healthy, too much of it in a fish can leave an oily after taste and drown out the real flavour qualities. Wild Pacific Salmon in the U.S. West Coast comes in at around 11% oil content and Akaroa Pacific Salmon is 10%. Damn!

As small, specialized producers they decided to find a market connection that best suited their salmon. True to Tom’s love of people, he jumped in the car and started visiting chefs around the country. One of his first stops brought him to a young Simon Gault who was just starting out at the Auckland Viaduct. Simon said to send him some fish and if he liked it, he’d keep ordering – and if not, he’d simply send it back. He kept ordering, as did many other chefs around the country, who are now the primary buyers of Akaroa Salmon. You won’t find Tom and Duncan’s salmon in supermarkets and we feel privileged to have it at Raeward Fresh. Duncan’s criteria for our rare and special retail situation is that the fish is fresh as, meaning it comes out of the harbour and into the store in 24 hours and is ordered regularly to stay that fresh.

Akaroa has become a vertically integrated business by both ingenuity and necessity. They process 250 tons of salmon a year in such a way that it’s out of the harbour and into restaurants (or our store) within one day. They manage both the fresh and cool-storage chain to ensure speed and quality. Other salmon farmers in the country are doing around 7000 tons per year and, while the product is okay, you can really taste the difference in Akaroa’s artisanal approach. In the 26 years since they started, Duncan has taken over the salmon farm and Tom has sold the sheep and cattle business. They both brainstorm the management and development of the farm, just like they always have, but with a view to keeping the place as natural and as beneficial as possible. Their entire team embraces the story and are glad to keep it humming along.

I think the privilege for us as foodies today is that we get to enjoy the level of quality Akaroa is producing in our very own homes. Sure, some people have the skills and time to head out to sea to hook (or mates who will bring over) a fantastic fresh-caught catch, or they can could walk down to their local wharf and buy the catch of the day. For the rest of us however, I’m really glad Tom, Duncan & Co. have put their heart and farming skills into bringing such beautifully raised Pacific Salmon fresh to our tables.

Recipe: Akaroa Salmon with an Asian twist…

Ingredients:
Sauce:
2 x sachets of miso soup paste
2 x tbsp. soy sauce
2 x tbsp. brown sugar
2 x tbsp. sesame oil
2-3tbsp. warm water
Akaroa Salmon
Method:
• Heat oven to 180
• Whisk the ingredients to make your sauce
• Lay the Salmon fillets (or whole side) on baking paper in an oven dish and pour over the sauce.
• Bake for approx 10 mins or until the salmon is cooked through to your liking.
• Serve over rice with the remaining sauce drizzled over and some steamed bok choy.
Note: sauce is enough for 2- 3 portions, just double for more

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