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Weka Olive Oil with Peter and Laraine Rothenberg

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The word serendipity was first coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 describing people who were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”. This well describes the tale of Peter and Laraine Rothenberg’s journey and the creation of WEKA Olive oil. From the corporate halls of Manhattan to the fertile hills near Motueka, the Rothernbergs have wisely happened upon green, gold, silver and bronze – the colors of the many awards they’ve received.
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Peter and Laraine had been practicing law in NYC for decades when they decided to start planning their retirement. Their son had helped identify the Nelson area as a beautiful place to buy a small home where the Rothenbergs could ‘get away from it all’. As foreigners, buying anything bigger than a small place triggers acquisition laws which Peter and Laraine did not want to get tangled up in. However, having looked around the Moutere Hills they fell in love with a 350 acre block previously used for sheep farming. Acquisition laws now triggered, they had to come up with a beneficial (to NZ) business plan. They decided on timber and bought the place. Sheep still graze part of the block and the NZ timber industry has a few more pine trees to mill now. So far, so good. But on a trip to Waiheke, Peter and Laraine saw some olive groves which they thought would make a lovely border in the place between their home and budding forest.
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This is where the sagacious character of the two takes them another step towards serendipity. In choosing which trees to plant, the pair did their research (once a lawyer…), hired a consultant and decided to plant a bit of a grove (1400 trees) instead of a border. They went with Leccino and Frantoio trees for their fruitiness as well as the rarer Greek Koroneiki for it’s high yield of bold peppery olives. The land they’d purchased happened to be rich in Moutere Clay (perfect for olives) and at an elevation which lifts them above the frosts, meaning their olives can stay on the tree longer and develop their fullest possible flavours.
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Working with local growers, the regions co-op olive press, consultants and a few of their own employees, the Rothenbergs started WEKA Olive Oils. In querying the two on how they created such an amazing product in such a short time (as legal types!), they told me that living in Manhattan had developed a foodie palette which knew quality when they saw it. And they saw it in the New Zealand landscape, the prolific growth of its agriculture and the innovative people working by their side. It’s been lots of work and due diligence to get things this far, and the Rothenbergs have added a bit of their own adopted Kiwi ingenuity to keep things going, like the ‘bird scarer’ they’ve installed to ensure the ripening olives remain on their trees. The last few years have been full of discovery, accidents and sagacity which has resulted in an award winning olive oil.
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I sampled some WEKA Olive Oil this morning with a little home made ciabatta. The verdant green immediately impresses as fresh and rich. The first notes of flavour taste like the hilly fields in which the trees are grown, followed by a mellow olive green which worked beautifully with the fresh bread by itself and then even better as a compliment to the hummus I added. This is definitely a dipping oil, and too precious for cooking with. It’s a little pricey, but not more than a good bottle of wine – and it would last much longer once open. There are a few applications for this level of certified extra virgin oil, (see recipe below) but I suggest starting out with it as a dipping oil, then using it for dressings and perhaps specialty baking after that. It’s so good, you’ll want to pair it’s use with your other best ingredients and foods. It seems that what started as a simple retirement plan has now wonderfully evolved into one of New Zealand’s premier olive oils. It’s so good, they even sell it back in Manhattan!
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Don Rodrigo Sourdough Lavash Bread – Cracker Oil bread with rosemary and WEKA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Serves – approx. 7 pieces
Preparation Time: Resting 6 hours
Shaping 20minutes
Baking 15minutes
Mixing 10 minutes
Ingredients:
 For the dough
250g rye meal or wholemeal rye flour
250g wholemeal wheat flour
12g of salt
12ml of WEKA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3g freshly ground pepper
150g of Don Rodrigo sourdough starter (or similar)
225ml of cold water
*extra sea salt to sprinkle
For the topping
WEKA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh rosemary
Preparation:
• Mix all the ingredients for the dough in a mixing bowl (you might need an extra bit of water, but not too much, this should be a firm dough, but easy to roll). Mixing the dough should take only 5 minutes – you just need to bring the ingredients together, there is no need for kneading. Cover the dough with plastic and let it rest at room temperature for 6 hours.
• After 6 hours the dough should be fermenting, because of the low content of gluten it will not grow. The dough will be ready to roll when it tastes sour.
• Cut into pieces of 120gr, roll the dough (1mm thick), place the pieces of dough on the trays, sprinkle sea salt and bake for 15 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. The dough is baked when it is not soft in the middle and it has a light golden colour. Transfer immediately to a cooling rack and spread a mix of the olive oil and fresh rosemary (ideally mashed in a mortar).
• Serve with cheeses, paté, or put it in the kids’ lunch boxes, they will go crazy!
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Pinoli Pine Nuts with Zoë Thompson & Lee Paterson

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Growing pine nuts is an exercise in patience. The European stone pine (pinus pinea) takes around 10 to 12 years to produce it’s first edible nuts, but then doesn’t really come into maturity until it’s 40 years old. The cone itself (which houses the seeds – that we call the ‘nuts’) takes three years to go from a bud (yes, pine trees flower) to the mature cone. Oh, and then there’s the extraction process. Even with heat applied to the cone (which ain’t easy to get off the tree), it takes about 3 months for the tightly clinched woody misers to slowly open up and give you access to the shell, which then needs to be cracked and extracted for the actual ‘nut’ to appear. On top of all that, there’s the hand sorting, cleaning, packaging and sending required for me, the happy customer, to be able to snag a few bags of these precious nuts at my local Raeward Fresh. And to think, all I wanted was to make a lazy Sunday afternoon pesto with rocket from my garden to share with some friends over a glass of Central Otago pinot (or two). Phew!
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For these reasons, we’re all pretty grateful for Zoë Thompson, her partner Lee Paterson, and their business partners Andy and Barbara Wiltshire at Pinoli Pine Nuts who had the foresight to plant 14,000 stone pines 18 years ago. Pinoli have the largest pine nut orchards in New Zealand with about 430,000 trees currently growing and plans to plant at least another 50,000 in the next two years. These guys have been in it for the very long haul and have the right stuff when it comes to growing this rare kind of food. Zoë has worked in gardening for ages and Lee and Andy have worked in forestry, forest management and silviculture all their lives – jobs they kept after planting their pines and waiting for the cones to show up. Along with Andy, Zoë and Lee searched the Marlborough region for just the right Mediterranean-like environment for the stone pine to flourish. They initially chose the Wairau Valley for its fertile soils and high sun shine hours but later plantings have been out towards the east coast of Marlborough where its drier and the land is slightly cheaper. European Stone pine does best in well drained soil. Zoë tells me “they don’t like wet feet and humid weather, preferring instead cold winters and hot dry summers.”
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The bulk of today’s worldwide production of pine nuts (which isn’t a lot) comes from Asian varieties noted for their shorter rounded kernels. These smaller nuts also taste bland by comparison. The team at Pinoli, Italian for pine nut, have instead raised a forest of European stone pines noted for their longer kernels and distinctive taste. It’s like fresh pine combined with buttery, nutty notes. Zoë is committed to this fresh flavour coming through in every package, so she hand sorts these little jewels and ships them promptly. When Zoë and Lee first started harvesting their pine cones they had to No. 8 wire all kinds of systems. No one in NZ had ever done pine nuts at this level. For example, picking the cones was originally done by hand using long, 5m poles with hooks on the end! They have since researched, travelled and invented their way into a harvesting system that now includes proper tree shakers (which again, only work on trees that are at least 15 years old so as not to damage them… more of that pine nut growers patience required) and better processing equipment.
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After all this waiting and diligence, Zoë still packages by hand and heads over in person to the Marlborough Farmers Market to share the pine nut love with their region. She likes the interaction with customers, sharing taste comparisons with other pine nuts, swapping recipes and telling their story. And it seems their story has gotten around too. Initially chefs heard about Pinoli, before a couple of successful Fete events put them firmly on the specialty food map. They still only sell in a few stores around NZ and are now considering exporting as the effects of an evil weevil plaguing Italian and Spanish forests takes it toll on international yields. Pinoli is grateful for the strict bio standards we have in NZ which is helping to keep their forests bug free. Pinoli doesn’t need to use pesticides or fertilizers on their trees and the pine nuts have no added chemicals or preservatives.
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Pine nuts have traditionally been used in making pestos, their creamy flavour rounding out the herbal bitterness. But as you’ll see on Pinoli’s site, there are heaps of ways to make use of these versatile nuts. The nutritional profile of European stone pine kernels is particularly beneficial, weighing in at almost 34% protein with healthy quantities of vitamins (especially Thiamine B1, Vitamin E & K) and minerals (especially iron, manganese and zinc). All of this is good news, but it does come at a price. As our little blog highlights, this rare breed of tree (for NZ) with long harvesting cycles and the labour extensive extraction processes takes both time and money. This is why pine nuts, especially those from the stone pine, are expensive. But like all good things, having a little less of delicious, nutritious high quality food is always better – and, we think, ultimately more affordable across a holistic approach to wellbeing – than having lots of bland, empty-calorie, low quality food. Pinoli’s NZ grown pine nuts are well and truly in the high quality, exceptional food category!
Zoë’s tips on how to toast or roast your Pinoli pine nuts
Pine nuts maybe eaten raw but are usually toasted or roasted to bring out the flavour. The only times we prefer to use them raw are when they will become toasted, fried or roasted during the cooking of the recipe.
To roast: place raw pine nuts on a flat baking tray in a 180C preheated oven for about 10 minutes, shaking the tray halfway through the cooking time. Nuts are ready when they are lightly golden. They will continue to brown a little more even after you remove them from the oven. Keep an eye on them as all ovens are different and pine nuts can burn easily because of their high oil content.
To toast: place pine nuts in a dry (no oil) frying pan on top of a medium heat, move continuously by shaking the pan every 20 seconds or so. Pine nuts will toast quickly, remove from heat when golden and place on a cool plate to stop the pine nuts cooking any further.
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ROAR Foods with Gabriel Power

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Gabriel Power. What a name. It conjures up images of MI 6 exploits in Istanbul or at least, a guy who really knows his super foods. Gabriel even looks like he could be up to some kind of international do-gooding – which would not have been the case if you knew him growing up. Instead, Gabriel was that kid eating crumbly rice crackers and drinking soy milk for lunch at school. He was that kid who’s mum called ahead for birthday parties prescribing the limited foods Gabriel could eat. Embarrassing. Gabriel was also that kid who’s health conscious parents were constantly self diagnosing potential allergies and food related pitfalls for the poor young lad. And if not for some cosmic twist of food fate, Gabriel would have been that kid who grew up to work in some dark corner of a science lab or evaporating the hours playing video games in his mums basement, eating kale chips of course.
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The twist for Gabriel however, was that as he grew up, he channeled his ‘organic’ food upbringing into a serious interest into how food actually works. He studied psychology and biology in school and gained his BSc in science. After an OE in Europe, Gabriel returned to NZ working with organic shops in Auckland and then in Melbourne where the serious work in raw foods was developing. During this time, Gabriel did some serious research into the many health claims and possibilities of raw food in particular, and in particular, how to get these organic concepts into some great tasting products.
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Returning to Auckland, Gabriel decided to put all his experiences and research to work in the form of a company he’s called ROAR Foods. The core idea is to make things that have outstanding flavour, extremely high health value and by happenstance, are raw. Not raw to be trendy, but because when Gabreil puts his super-food powers to work, he comes up with say, a scroggin, that has activated almonds, goji berries and raw cacao nibs. Or a line of snack nuts that have been properly soaked, dried and packaged to provide a great tasting Brazil nut or peacan. Or a creamed coconut butter that has all the benefits of coconut oils with the combined dietary fibre, proteins and minerals.
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So far, you may think this is becoming par for the course, that a lot of people are packaging raw nuts or cacao nibs or making coconut oils… At ROAR though these products have been taken a few steps further. For instance, at ROAR, the raw nuts are soaked so as to strip the anti-nutrients they inherently have to avoid being eaten and ‘activate’ the sprouting properties of the nuts which is where all the really good healthy stuff lives. After Gabriel activates the almonds or Brazil nuts, he then dries them back out in such a way that they gain that all important crunch and flavour of a roasted nut, however without having lost their nutrients being cooked.
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This kind of attention to the science and epicurean details of ingredients is applied across the board at ROAR. Gabriel has watched this field develop for a while now and has gone deep in both the application of smart principles in raw food development and also in a better kind of communication regarding the benefits. Talking with Gabriel about health claims for instance, you can see that he’s not only stripped the bitter tannins in the nuts, but also all the inaccuracies behind the certain health claims. Instead, Gabriel will break down the facts in say coconut sugar, and describe how their’s not really a lot of data to substantiate the low GI count. But as a scientist, he also knows the inulin in coconut sugar (which slows the sugars uptake in our metabolism) when properly tested, would indeed show a low GI and he clarifies this to his customers.
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Reading through ROAR’s web site, you can find heaps of this rich level of detail. Even better, it’s not the nerdy approach Gabriel’s youth might have led him to. Instead, it’s got all kinds of accessible information on great tasting products and processes. Gabriel’s attention to food detail is matched with his commitment to great flavour and value. I highly recommend having a good peruse through these web pages to get a better understanding of what makes ROAR foods so great, and definitely worth the money. At Raeward Fresh stores around the country, we’re stoked to have Gabriel’s ROAR Foods on our shelves so that you, and maybe your kids, can have a seriously delicous food, including killer kale chips, that won’t get them beat up at school.
Recipe: Raw Christmas Cake
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Gabriel has been kind enough to break out his chef skills this Christmas combining all these great nutritional tips with a seasonal and delicious culinary expression. Check it out!

Ingredients (serves 10):

Wet ingredients:

*You can flambé the alcohol to burn it off or use 30ml vanilla extract (which contains a little alcohol) for a non-alcohol version.

Binding Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

Garnish:


Vegan Raw Christmas Cake Method:
This recipe is actually quite flexible. As long as you adhere to the simple principles of combining dry ingredients (ground nuts and seeds) and wet ingredients (dried fruit and liquids) along with the binding ingredients (ground linseed, water and coconut oil) you can mix and match the types of dried fruits and nuts as you wish.

Put all of the wet ingredients in a bowl together to soak.

Blend the dry ingredients in a food processor until they have reached a meal consistency. Ensure you do leave some nice big chunks for added textures so don’t over blend.

Put the the dry ingredients and wet ingredients into a food processor. Combine the binding ingredients in a separate bowl first and then add to the dry and wet ingredients in the food processor. Combine everything by pulsing again ensuring leave a little texture in the mixture.

Your cake mixture should be moist and combined at this point. You may need to add a little extra water at this point but the less moisture you can get away with the less you will have to dehydrate out of it later so only do this if it isn’t combining in the food processor or look dry.

Put into the dehydrator for a minimum of 4 hours up to 24 hours (depending on the moisture content you added and how moist you want your cake). If you don’t have a dehydrator, just put your oven onto its lowest setting (usually 50°C) and wedge the door slightly open with a steel dish cloth or something. If all else fails you can just skip the dehydrating step and put into the fridge – your cake will be quite moist though.

Once the cake has finished dehydrating you will notice that some of the oil will have risen to the top. Poke some holes in the cake to let it soak back in and then smooth the hole over with a spoon.
Sprinkle over the garnishes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least half an hour before serving.
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Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year : )

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Foundation Foods Stocks & Glazes

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The difference between an average meal and one that’s really special is all about the layers of flavour and seasonings that have gone into its preparation. For instance, a great soup is built upon an outstanding stock. And great stocks require someone to put hours of work into developing them using the best fresh vegetables and quality meat bones, taking care to use just the right amount of heat over a long period of time to extract all the goodness of the ingredients while removing fat and gunk. Creating just a couple of litres of top shelf beef stock can take 10 hours of effort from a cook who really knows what they’re doing. And this, I believe, is why too many of our day to day meals remain average. Who has the time (even if you have the skills) to build these kinds of layers into a Thursday night leak and potato soup or to make a killer sauce to drizzle over those local lamb chops on a Saturday night BBQ?
Fortunately, Shane Blake at Foundation Foods has all the time, skills and gear to transform my average everyday meals into fantastic fare.
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Shane grew up in Christchurch and started working as a butcher at the age of 15. After learning heaps on the job about all the various kinds and cuts of meats, he went on to Christchurch Polytech and studied to be a chef. As a chef, Shane had to build soup stocks as well as the more difficult to create consommés. Being a natural born researcher he wanted to know why the restaurants often did not have perfectly clear broths and sought out traditional techniques to make the pure, rich, cloudless consommé required for their dishes. This meant studying meat proteins, methods for removing impurities and the right tools and temperatures to get a perfect result. As time went on, Shane got bored with repetitive restaurant work and wanted to focus on creating the best stock and glazes he could for other professionals.
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Like a lot of the producers we’ve profiled in this blog, Shane took a punt on what looked like an opportunity and started a business producing product of the highest quality for people who appreciated the end result but did not have the time, means or skills to create it for themselves. Shane figured there were enough kitchens around the country who would want this kind of foundation for their dishes. Thus was born Foundation Foods in 1995. Shane tells me that he destroyed a lot of cooking gear in his quest to get just the right techniques and thermal interactions to produce stock in large quantity, innovating methods along the way so that he could reliably scale what he knew how to do in smaller volumes at a commercial restaurant kitchen. He was part of the pioneering group of New Zealand chefs who helped develop the cook and chill methods which allowed Foundation Foods to produce an amazing product that could be kept in the fridge until needed (between 45 days and 6 months, depending on the stock or glaze).
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After making his first production batches and sharing it with chefs around the country, he got orders that ran his fledgling company off its feet. They went from making 700 litres a week in 1996 to 10,000 litres per day today. Perhaps more amazingly, Foundation Foods have kept the same level of quality in their stocks and glazes throughout their expansion. This comes back to Shane’s ability to research and find the best cookery gear and processes available to maintain what he knows chefs need. The trial and error inherent in such a process is intense, from finding the best ingredients to keeping up with demand (including a commitment to NO PRESERVATIVES), to finding the perfect packaging for storage and simplicity of use in a commercial kitchen setting.
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The success of Shane’s business means that many of the really great meals you’ve eaten in restaurants all over NZ probably have their foundational layers of flavour built using Foundation Foods stocks and glazes. I know this is true in the kitchen where I work where we’ve been using Foundation Foods stocks for ever. I can attest to the rich depth their beef stock adds to our beef cheek stout stew (see recipe below) or our slow cooked traditional french onion soup. I’ll pull out a five liter container for these dishes knowing the whole batch is going to deliver a fabulous and consistent flavour, aware that it would have otherwise taken me two days to create just the stock alone.
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So here’s some good news: Foundation Foods are now selling their stocks and glazes at Raeward Fresh. Happy days ahead for my home kitchen and yours! This is a boon for anyone serious about quality cooking at home. I’ve tried powders and stocks from the mainstream brands, and they’re better than nothing but not by much. If you warm up a bit of your average supermarket stock next to one from Foundation Foods and do a taste test, you’ll experience a huge contrast in flavour, texture and if you’re a super taster, you’ll probably notice a distinct lack of preservatives from Shane’s brand. To get a feel for this, try the recipe below or even a simple chicken noodle soup using Foundation’s excellent and relatively inexpensive chicken stock. Getting this level of flavour, quality and, all without the preservatives typical in most stocks, will probably make you a believer like we are at Raeward Fresh.
Recipe: Beef Cheek & Dark Stout Stew
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Down the road from the Raeward Fresh store in Queenstown, Kinloch Lodge makes a hearty beef cheek & stout beer stew. Hikers coming off the Routeburn or Greenstone tracks want a nourishing stew (which is why they add a local dark stout!) that has depth and a rich flavour to counter the cool weather outside. Foundation Foods beef stock is the perfect ingredient to both mellow and enrich the natural gelatinous nature of beef cheeks throughout this slow cooking process. Similar to a Boeuf Bourguignon, this meal is about browning the inexpensive but super tasty beef cheeks and then cooking them long and slow with some alcohol, in this case, a dark or chocolate stout beer. Bring on winter!
Ingredients:
1 kg of beef cheeks (cut into 3cm cubes, leave the fat on)
100g unbleached white flour
sea salt and ground pepper
canola oil (enough to fry the meat in)
2 large carrots (chopped)
2 large onions (chopped)
2 leeks (chopped)
a splash of red wine (optional)
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 tsp dried sage
4 bay leaves
1 litre Foundation Foods beef stock
500mls dark stout beer (I like No 8 Wired The Big Smoke, although a chocolate stout works wonders too)
200g tomato paste
50g brown sugar
Method:
• Coat the beef cheek cubes in a mix of the flour salt and pepper, dust off the excess.
• In a large heavy bottomed pot, add enough canola oil to cover the bottom at a height of a few millimeters. Over medium high heat, brown the beef cheeks in small batches (so they don’t stew) and set aside.
• In the same pot, fry the carrots, onions and leeks all at the same time until they soften, and start to brown just a tad. Add a splash of red wine to deglaze the bottom and cook a couple minutes more to burn off the alcohol.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.
• At this point, you can either add the beef cheek cubes and bring to a simmer for a few hours, or (my preference), place the beef cheeks in a large casserole dish and pour the liquid / vegetable mix over them and cover with foil. Some like to add a couple of sprigs of rosemary.
• Bake at 170˚ for 3 hours, checking the fluid level once in the middle of the cooking. If you are simmering, keep the lid on and stir occasionally, watching your liquid levels. If you run low in either case, add some more beef stock.
To Serve: At the restaurant in Kinloch, we like serving this with a dollop of horseradish cream (horseradish mixed with heavy whipped cream or sour cream) alongside a parsnip mash.
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Anne Halson’s  Fennel & Coconut Tart with Wanaka Organics Eggs

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Fennel and Coconut Tart (GF) with Wanaka Organics pastured eggs
Our lovely chef Anne Halson has come up with a tasty treat using John McRae’s eggs from the rolling hills around lake Wanaka. Perfect for a summers picnic or, if you live near Queenstown in January, a snack by the fire (it was 8˚ this morning). Check out more of her great recipes at her food blog – Fresh Kitchen.
Ingredients:
Makes I medium 24 cm tart
GF Tart case
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
3 tblsp potato flour, or cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tblsp coconut oil
4 tblsp ice cold water
Fennel custard filling
1 large fennel bulb finely sliced
1/4 preserved lemon or zest of 1 lemon
3 Wanaka Orgainics’ free range eggs
1 cup coconut milk
4 bay leaves
Salt to taste
Method:
• Preheat oven to 190’C
• Sift or whisk together dry ingredients, add coconut oil and ice water and mix lightly together with your hands to form a dough, you may need to add a little more iced water.
• Wrap in cling film and refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Roll pastry between sheets of baking paper then press out into tart tin, this is a gluten free pastry and will need to be pieced in. You could substitute a regular savoury short crust or flakey pastry if you prefer.
• Toss fennel with preserved lemon or lemon zest and put 1/2 of it in to tart shell. Whisk the eggs and coconut milk together and pour over custard filling then pile on remaining fennel and place bay leaves in amongst fennel.
• Bake at 190’c for approximately 35 – 40 minutes
This tart has a very subtle soothing flavour as it is but can also be bumped up a notch by serving with salmon gravlax or hot smoked.
Nutritional Advice from Kim Malcolm
Wanaka Organics’ eggs
There are few things that you can eat which compare to the nutrient value packed into one egg. Especially when it is a pastured organic or free-range egg. I truly value the health benefits of eating eggs that come from chickens that are eating such nutrient dense feed from land that is free of all chemicals and pesticides. Add to that chickens that are roaming around outside all day taking in the sunshine and absorbing vitamin D.
Studies have shown that eggs from these good conditions outweigh the nutrients found in eggs from caged birds.

For example the organic free-range eggs contain:
• Four to six more times vitamin D (needed for the absorption of calcium and phosphorus into the bones)
• Two thirds more vitamin A (good for skin and eye heath)
• Three times more vitamin E (antioxidant that protects and repairs your skin)
• Double the amount of Omega 3
• Seven times more beta-carotene
• Good levels of Iron & Calcium
• Protein – approx. 7g per egg – one of the highest levels found in a singular food.
Therefore, choosing where your eggs come from really does make a difference!
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Crystal Gardens Lettuce

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For our maiden Raeward Fresh blog expedition, we visit two Queenstown trailblazers, Andrew and Erika Colby of Crystal Gardens, they’re like a force of nature. Andrew was drawn to the Queenstown region back in the mid ’80s during an initial visit. He decided to sell up everything, pack his life into an old Land Rover, and head south to see what he could make of the place. An innovator like his father, Andrew noticed how manky the vegetables looked in the local stores, arriving on trucks after long drives from Christchurch, or even further north. So, in partnership with his farther Robin, he put his hand to the plough (so to speak) and developed a state-of-the-art hydroponics system to grow some of the country’s best heirloom lettuces, right on Queenstown’s doorstep.
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Andrew’s attitude at the time was, “If you grow it, they will come”. With an almost prescient knowledge (“accidental”, in Andrew’s modest recollection) of both trending food-culture tastes and the biological advantages of cold climate agriculture, Robin and Andrew developed an extraordinary mini-ecosystem to produce salad leaves that could meet the high standards of local chefs, avoiding the fungal issues (and thus the pesticide sprays) that most North Island growers deal with. Now, more than 20 years on, the results speaks for themselves. Crystal Gardens Lettuce, a hybrid of Andrew and Erika’s passion for quality and No. 8 wire Kiwi ingenuity, is the mainstay fresh greens supplier for the wider-Queenstown district culinary scene.
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It’s rare to come across people who are both passionate about and skilled in the growing of really good food. When you find them, like at a farmers market or on a serendipitous country drive, you want to keep ’em. My drive in the country to find Crystal Gardens takes me down Littles Road, winding through a wide, undulating valley – Coronet Peak crested white with snow to the right and the Remarkables range jutting raggedly heavenward to the left. Nestled amongst million dollar lifestyle properties is their tree-lined drive and quietly unassuming operations. As I pull up, Erika is loading a truck with crates of beautiful dark green Cos and Red Oak lettuce. While we share introductions, she gives the leaves a final misting with local spring water for their journey down the valley and into the kitchens of local restaurants, as well as the fresh veggie section at the Raeward Fresh.
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Andrew and Erika – who still live in the original barn built next to the greenhouses – experimented with many lettuce varieties before settling on the range they now grow today, namely, Cos, Green Frill, Red Frill, Green Oak, and Red Oak. Crystal Garden’s seeds are sourced from the best breeders around the world. Erika doesn’t use any pesticides and the lettuces are easily the healthiest I’ve ever seen. In keeping with the eco-conscious values central to their enterprise, Erika loves that they are reducing CO2 emissions by providing the community with locally grown produce.\
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Instead of hiring seasonal tourists with no vested interest in their process, Erika employs locals who love the pace and diversity of growing lettuces in the unique Crystal Gardens way. Her mature staff consists of women from the neighborhood who have a life-time of gardening skills of their own. Lynley for instance, has been with Crystal Gardens for over 11 years. She showed me how they manage the delicate seedlings (kept in an adapted Coke fridge set to a constant 20˚C), spreading the sprouts evenly by hand with a pair of tweezers so that each lettuce gets the maximum light and space to grow. After the seedlings leave the Coke fridge they spend a short stint in the light room, and are then rotated on custom racks in the greenhouse until their leaves reach full size. The system of racks housing the lettuces are pumped with a constant stream of nutrient rich spring water direct to the plant’s roots. The Colby’s have spent years arriving at the best pH balance for the entire system to ensure that each lettuce variety has the perfect acid / alkaline conditions.
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It seems a sophisticated and complex system to the untrained eye, but Erika and her fellow gardeners manage the entire process from germination to harvest with a neat set-up of garden tabs listing variety type and rack rotation dates, along with colour coded markers – brightly painted tennis balls on wire sticks – dotting the greenhouse rows. I find the greenhouses almost meditative – warm air, luscious green plants, glass walls looking out on powdery ski fields and jagged alps, the gardeners chatting about morning tea…. It’s all pretty idyllic.
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As for the Raeward Fresh connection, back when the Colby’s were first getting up and running they discovered Nathan and Angela’s (previously owned) speciality wholesale business and cultivated a long-term relationship. Currently, around 10% of Crystal Garden’s output heads directly into the Raeward Fresh retail space. Erika personally oversees the daily deliveries and presentation at the store so that customers have the freshest lettuce leaves possible. Each lettuce is cut on the day of delivery and washed with local spring water, providing an exceptionally fresh product.
The many benefits of lettuce – a word on nutrition from Kim Malcolm
Crystal Gardens’ hydroponically grown, eco friendly lettuce takes eight to13 weeks to naturally reach maturity. From sowing the seed to harvest there are no harmful chemical sprays, which means you receive all the great elements of health in each lettuce leaf. The nutrient values are surprisingly high every time you enjoy your salads but if one thing is remembered it can be this. The minerals in lettuce (namely calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, copper and zinc) have the ability to help remove toxins from your body and keep your acid/alkaline balance in order. Make salads a part of your life and enjoy the health benefits!Our Chef Anne Halson gets to use the best and freshest Queenstown has to offer in the Raeward Fresh Kitchen. This week Anne has created a delicious wrap using Crystal Gardens Cos leaves, smoked duck breast and her roasted beetroot marmalade:
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Cos Lettuce Wrap – with smoked duck breast, roasted beetroot marmalade and black bean hummus

Serves 4Ingredients:
1 duck breast (preferrably smoked, but seared or roasted is great too)
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup bean sprouts (we used Mung sprouts, feel free to use what you like)
1 cup roasted beetroot marmalade (see recipe below)
1 cup black bean hummus (or regular hummus if you have some on hand)
1/2 cup sun dried tomato or red pepper pesto
12 large leaves of Cos or Romain lettuce
Method:
• Slice the smoked duck breast into thin pieces ready for the wrap.
• Lay the lettuce leaves flat on a cutting board. Take a rolling pin or wine bottle and gently flatten the lettuce stalks. Be careful to just cover the thickest few inches (4 to 5 cm) – if you roll too hard or too far up the leaves you’ll bruise them.
• Place three leaves on top of each other, alternating the direction (so, first layer the stalk facing down, second layer the stalk facing up…). Layer a mix of the ingredients across the width of your leaves. Don’t pile up too much of the ingredients or you’ll not be able to fit it all into the wrap. You may have to experiment with the first one (and eat it quickly if necessary before any one else sees).
• Fold the bottom of the lettuce leaves over the ingredients tucking them tightly under the mix to complete the wrap.
• If you have some twine or raffia, finish the wrap off with a simple bow then serve.
Roast beetroot marmalade
• Roast 1.5kg beetroot in foil in a moderate till just tender (this can be done in advance when you are using the oven). Allow to cool and then grate or julienne. If you prefer, you could boil the beetroot on the stove top.
• Add:
2 finely sliced onions (1/4 moons)
4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons grainy mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 /2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• Mix well.

• Bake at about 160’c till jammy and thick. This will take approx 1/2 to 1 hour. You could also do this last step in a pan on the stove top over a low heat, stirring often so it doesn’t stick. Feel free to substitute any of the wrap ingredients with your own favourites.
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Chef Anne Halson’s Tuna Potato Cakes

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Anne has a wonderful ability to transform fresh ingredients from Raeward Fresh into delicious creations. Here, she shares her recipe for fresh tuna and Desiree potato cakes. Check out her other recipes at Fresh Kitchen.
Ingredients:
4 large Desiree potatoes
Half this volume of fresh tuna
Japanese mayonnaise
Spring onion
Coriander and or mint
Fresh ginger
Limes
Crisp onion
Toasted black and white sesame seeds
Method:
• Steam potatoes till just cooked and allow to cool.
• Rub tuna with lemon oil and season lightly with salt and pepper and bake or pan fry till just cooked.
• Coarsely grate potatoes into a large bowl add finely chopped spring onions, coriander, finely chopped ginger, lime zest, 1/4 cup of Japanese mayonnaise salt an pepper to taste.
• Mix all together gently.
• Flake tuna and mix gently through potato mixture.
• Check seasoning, add more if desired to taste.
• Form into cakes and pass through toasted black and white sesame seeds.
• Allow to rest for a couple of hours, or overnight.
To serve:
You can either sauté these in a pan or drizzle with a little coconut oil and put into a hot oven to lightly brown.
Serve with Japanese mayonnaise, lime wedges, coriander and crispy fried onion.
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Johnny Bath’s hand made sausages

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Johnny Bath is our beloved (former) butcher. He’s a strong man with a ready smile. His exceptional butchery skills and his eagerness to create something new are fixtures of Raeward Fresh’s deli. When he’s not spooling out some butchers twine to help a customer with their roast, or sharpening up his knives while chatting with a local about a sausage sizzle for their upcoming birthday party, he’ll be dreaming up new sausage creations. It’s part of his makeup – because Johnny’s been making sausages, thousands of them, all over the world for years.
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As a young South African – in a land where chicken is considered a vegetable – Johnny began his training alongside his brother-in-law at the local abattoir. The place gave him an appreciation for where the meat came from, who sold it, and how to produce the best cuts for his community. He went on to perfect his butchery skills working in the continents largest meat works, processing (among other things) over 200 sheep per week. The works taught him how to manage large scale production, but it lacked a direct connection with people and the opportunity to collaborate. Always looking for a challenge, Johnny jumped up and stepped in when his butchery school instructor sliced four of his fingers on the first day of training and taught the class how to break down a half steer himself. Even though the meat works tried to keep him on, his desire to see the world at large got the best of him.
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Being a bit of an adventurer, and a sky diving instructor, Johnny travelled the world meeting inspiring people while also furthering his butchery skills. In Denmark he worked with the director of the country’s premiere butchery school. He then hopped between Scandinavia and Israel for a few years before landing in what he considers to be the cherry of his travels – Queenstown, NZ. Johnny had been looking for something special and, like a lot of other people, feels he’s found it here.
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At the Raeward Fresh Johnny’s right at home in the middle of a dynamic conversation between his suppliers and his customers. Like his days back at the abattoir, he has regular conversations with those supplying his lamb, beef and chicken. But the inventor in him also loves the chance to chat with Raeward Fresh’s other producers, Mondillo winery for instance, where Johnny got the idea to add their surplus Merlot grapes to his cracked pepper beef sausages.
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A bloke who’s always listening, always learning, he’ll be discussing new ideas with his customers and taking on board their good suggestions – like adding local mussels to Angus beef, or blue cheese to a pork sausage. He loves being the creative agent in the middle, daily roaming the store to gather a wide range of fresh supplies for the makings of his sausages, which have included:
• beef and mustard
• pork, apple and chive
• Merlot and cracked pepper
• beef and mussel
• dark chocolate and beef
• greek lamb
• Cumberland
• Boerewors
• Waitoa free range chicken
• pork chipolatas
• chorizo
• biltong and drywors
• preservative free and gluten free pork
All of these sausages use Johnny’s secret herbs and spices and are made with natural pork or lamb casings. (If you have any special dietary needs, Johnny also has detailed print-outs listing every single ingredient for each sausage)
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Johnny thrives on these creative connections, but when it comes to producing fresh sausages every day he’s all business. His large hands quickly line the sausage maker with all natural casings and he deftly pumps just the right amount of ground meat through the machine, tying off each sausage like an origami master. He fills orders, passes out samples to curious newcomers, and comes up with even more ideas as tray after tray of lamb and mint or gluten free pork sausages fill the cabinet. And when it comes to cooking them, he knows exactly what to do: “Pop them in the oven at 180˚C for 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and let the steam out. Close the door for another 10 minutes and they’re perfect!” Sausages baked “Johnny-style” come out of the oven crispy on the outside, juicy and full of flavour on the inside – flavours Johnny’s perfected with years of craft, beautiful combinations of the regions tastiest ingredients.
Next week our chef Anne Halson will remake a kiwi classic using Johnny’s greek lamb sausages.
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Nutritional advice from Kim Malcolm
Understanding what holds your sausage together.

When the quality of meat and poultry used to make a sausage is unquestionably the best, then the best choice of casing to hold it together is a natural one. Natural Casings are made in the same way today as our ancestors made them centuries ago. Animal intestines are naturally cleaned, then treated with salt to make them ready for use. Natural casings have a unique combination of tenderness and thinness so they shrink equally with the meat while cooking to give you a better tasting sausage. These casings have natural tiny pores that allow the meat to permeate the flavour throughout the sausage and also allow the sausage to breathe when resting on your plate before serving, which further enhances the flavour.
Synthetic Casings are a mix of highly chemical processed options originating from cowhide, collagen, and cellulose fiber. There is a lot of technology attached to the synthetic casings right now, which make them more edible and digestible, but it is the process to get them to that point that needs awareness. If you want the best for your body, make sure everything you put in it, casings and all, or as healthy as can be.
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The People’s Bread with Ruth & Jeremy Heath

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Ruth & kids out on a bread delivery, as you do.
Available at Raeward Fresh in Queenstown.
• The People’s Bread can be found at Raeward Fresh Queenstown
Living just outside of Westport at the time, Ruth and Jeremy Heath began their journey into Sourdough over 10 years ago when a chef friend chided them for buying white bread at the supermarket. This same friend milled his own organic flour, made sourdough starters from scratch and offered them a delicious alternative. Like most people, the Heaths had no idea the bread they bought each week was loaded with bleached flours, preservatives and grains way past their nutritional best. Once informed, they decided to have a go themselves to see if they could make a better staple for their growing family.
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A lot of people (like me) would simply switch to a darker Vogel’s bread for instance, or look for unbleached white flour in the ingredients, but Ruth & Jeremy took the opportunity to go all the way. They learned to use their friend’s stone grinder, adding a washing machine engine to mill their own fresh grains at 500 grams per 10 minutes! Next, they learned the simple-to-begin-but-tricky-to-master art of sourdough starters. Then they gave their breads time to form naturally, allowing loaves to proof for 24 hours to get the maximum benefit of organic yeast cultures and micro organisms. Jeremy (a pharmacist by trade) dove into the biological background of sourdough creation and Ruth experimented with the different flavour profiles available by using various combinations of rye, wheat and spelt flours to name a few. Over time, their in-house exploration grew into solid expertise.
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The Heath’s moved down to Albert Town where Ruth decided to take her in-house journey to the Wanaka Farmers Market. Sell-out days led to orders for home, cafe and shop deliveries. Jeremy decided to quit the pharmacy and go full-time along side Ruth juggling school runs with the kids and loaf baking in their mobile commercial kitchen alongside of their house. They bought a larger stone grinder from Germany, (made of Larch which Ruth says smells wonderful) made their own proofer (to remain debt free) and organized a consistent grain supply all in order to systemize their hard won process. A process I must add, which is extraordinary in NZ or anywhere in the world. Firstly, they source their grains from Kiwi organic pioneer Harry Lowe of Biograins and biodynamic farmer Ian Henderson of Millmore Downs. These producers provide top quality heirloom grains of wheat, rye and spelt which the Heath’s grind fresh for each batch of baking. I mean, who does that today? Next they add spring water and their own well aged (91 years!) and perfected sourdough starter which brings out extraordinary flavour as well as super-healthy wild yeasts and lactobacilli. Once they form the dough, they let it proof good and long before baking and then delivering fresh to their customers, and now, Raeward Fresh in Queenstown. This is a real gift because you simply cannot buy bread like this anywhere in the country.
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I know this is a lot of talk about bread, and, it’s only bread right? Actually, there’s a real shift occurring in New Zealand that’s transforming how we do everyday food. Sure, white bread and a tuatua fritter is pretty tasty and a warm slice of Vogle’s and marmite is hard to beat. But we know that the commercial process and ingredients in baking these breads is simply unhealthy. We also know that people are developing gluten issues and that has to be addressed. The basic shift seems to be focused on taking these every day food items and finding a healthier and tastier alternative. And bread, being one of the basics of life is a good place to start. Ruth and Jeremy have written a white paper (see below) on the health benefits of freshly ground grains and sourdough cultures and back up their philosophy with 1kg loaves of fresh baked substance. They’re seeing that what people want, like at the Wanaka Farmers Market, is to have a conversation with those who make their food and to come away with something they can give to their family knowing that it’s healthy, substantial and delicious, especially as toast with avocado, or marmite, or a tuatua fritter.
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The Heath’s have named their company The People’s Bread and are now working very hard to share their passion with anyone within their natural reach. Have a look at their Facebook page to see what they’re up to and come by the store for a taste.
Recipe: Smoked trout with chevre cheese and parsley butter on
The People’s Rye Bread
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This simple, lovely and tasty recipe was provided by Ruth who simply got some local smoked trout, added a bit of creamy chevre (goats cheese) and made her own parsley butter (soften some butter and stir in chopped parsley) – all atop her rich rye bread. A simple snack that facilitates all those bicycle deliveries and what not.
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European Bakery

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(2020 update: Last year the Scheider’s sold the European Bakery to Peter Price & Amanda O’Donoghue who are carrying on the tradition)
The cool thing about Andre and Daniela Schneider is that they’re in love. They love each other and the baking adventures they’ve been on together. They love the craft of making exceptional breads and sharing that with a public on the verge of a bread revolution. And they love raising their family in this uniquely beautiful region, where Andre is still blown away every time he drives through Twizel or goes fishing on Lake Wakatipu. All that love seems to make its way into the bread, which sounds kinda cheesy, until you you’ve taken your first bite of one of European Bakery’s ficelle white loaves.
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Andre and Daniela combine the best of old world bread making skills with an active imagination for the future. They bring an artisanal baking approach to Queenstown that seems to fit perfectly with the region’s growing demand for crusty ciabattas and sweet sourdoughs. As the Kiwi love of simple white loaves gives way to the more complex flavours of breads tasted on holiday in Europe, Andre and Daniela are poised – dark ryes and sourdough fruit loaves in hand – to put something fresh on the table.
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It’s actually a real privilege to have the Schneider’s in town. They’re both classically trained in Europe (Lucern, Switzerland for Andre and Stuttgart, Germany for Daniela) and have and an impressive resumé of baking around the world. They started off by apprenticing at the famous Café Hanselmann in St. Moritz. This amazing bakery has a 115-year tradition, which both Andre and Daniela soaked up during their time in the gorgeous small Swiss town near the Italian border. From there, the couple went on to work with high end cruise lines and hotels around the world – until they heard about the many wonders of Queenstown from a friend while working in Toronto.
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When Andre and Daniela first arrived here in the early ’90s, they felt right at home amongst the tall pines, dramatic alps and deep water lakes so reminiscent of Europe. Some of their early jobs in the region were both fulfilling and frustrating. They really appreciated their bosses at Avanti Restaurant (Chico, Bruce and Ralph) who helped them “settle on dry land” and made Queenstown feel like home. The real challenge though, was having to live with food which to their European taste buds, tasted like “plastic yellow cheese and wet socks white bread”. Not having old world breads in the area actually provided an opportunity which inspired the Schneiders to put a stake in the ground and start their own bakery.
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Andre had been looking for a premise for a few years before the owner of their present location called one night around 10pm, desperate, asking if they wanted to buy the bakery and start running it immediately. Daniela and Andre spent the next six months, working 20-hour days to whip the place into shape. While serving the bakeries previous customers, they worked non-stop to prepare the bakery for making the artisan bread they truly loved.
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They started selling their new sourdoughs, long light baguettes and huge ciabattas at the Queenstown market and word began to spread. Angela saw what they were producing and asked them to sell their beautiful loaves at the Raeward Fresh. The Schneiders appreciated Angela’s eye for quality and the showcase for great food the store had become. European Bakery’s seven or eight bread varieties have been selling out each day at Raeward Fresh ever since.
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It’s still a bit of a slog for Andre and Daniela to convince the average Kiwi that the crusty outside of their huge ciabatta is normal, and that you don’t even have to toast the bread to eat it. Daniela regularly tells her customers that their sourdough are actually really sweet and healthy – even for those with gluten issues – as the sourdough enzymes break down differently than in a typical white bread. Daniela’s often at the store, offering samples and sharing her deep knowledge of baking and health with ex-bread lovers who’d think bread is no longer healthy for them, which breaks Daniela’s heart.
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As for Andre, his heart is focused on quality and innovation. It’s not hard to make a great loaf of bread he tells me, the challenge is to make it great day after day. Andre makes his bread the old fashioned way, and that takes time. Time for the bread to be kneaded and form, time to proof and rise – giving it the artisan crumb and crust European Bakery is known for – and time for Andre to keep inventing. He’s always testing new recipes or improving on the old ones. For example, his sourdough starter (9 years old now) is now used in their fantastic fruit loaf which adds depth to the sweet brown bread packed with walnuts, figs, raisins and apricots. His marshmallow light ficelle white is the product of focused testing and hard work. And their punchy jalapeño bagel is born of the Schneider’s personal sense of whimsy. We’re all looking forward to what these two (and their crew) will come up with next.
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Nutritional advice from Kim Malcolm
The benefits of sourdough bread
When a Sourdough starter is used to ferment the flour over a of period of time, the complex carbohydrates in the flour get broken down into simple sugars meaning that the GI index is lower so the body absorbs the energy over a longer period.The protein within the sourdough flour is broken down into 18 amino acids, which increases the nutrient density and makes it easier to digest. Sourdough bread also gives you the benefits of vitamin B, zinc, iron, selenium and magnesium.People with allergies to commercially made yeasted breads may not have the same sensitivities if they eat a naturally fermented sourdough bread. When wheat gluten is property fermented it becomes a lot more healthy for the system. When wheat bread is not properly fermented it can become one of the most allergenic foods we consume and perhaps a reason why so many people are now allergic to gluten… just a thought!
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