The other day Lena texted me a great question: “I want to start including more probiotics/ live foods into my diet. Could you advise me about the products that are the best (tastiest) probiotics, that you think have the most benefit for maintaining a healthy body/ mind? And where do I buy these locally?” I’ve written this post to help you make choices about probiotic food/ live food, and food that has been made using traditional fermentation methods. We’re lucky in the Waikato. There are some great local producers of these foods. I love making and eating traditionally fermented foods. And I’ve ..read more

I have a broad, inclusive view of food activism. In my definition, food activism is about making empowered choices around food, in the widest sense. Food connects us to wellbeing on all levels: social, personal, physical, environmental, cultural, spiritual. Empowered food choices can be fun, interesting, delicious and life-affirming. Activism is about making a positive choice to act, with the intention of changing the status quo. By status quo I mean the current situation, at any or every level, from personal to local, to national to global food systems. Food activism isn’t one single thing. I ..read more

Last weekend at Hamilton Farmers’ Market, Richard Cato of Pirongia Mountain Vegetables handed me a couple of big, pale green and white, cylinder-shaped Asian cabbages. “What are your favourite recipes for these?” he asked. This kind of Asian cabbage makes great salads. And kimchi. I know what to do with it. But I realized that I wasn’t sure what to call it. “Wong bok” was the first name that came to mind. But when I checked the spelling, I discovered that there are a huge number of names for this vegetable, worldwide. Above: huge wong bok and daikon radishes at Green Fresh Asian supermarket o ..read more

When I was a kid in Papua New Guinea, I yearned for peaches. In the tropics, fresh peaches were magical and unattainable. There were all sorts of amazing tropical fruits, including a wonderful palette of different kinds of bananas. But only canned peaches. I was ungrateful. And homesick for New Zealand. This year all my dreams have come true. My Hamilton backyard peach tree has been having a crazy, bumper crop. This isn’t completely problem-free. Because I’ve had far more peaches than I know what to do with. I’ve been giving fruit away to friends and family, as fast as it drops off the tree. W ..read more

The loquat tree on our driveway has been laden with fruit this year. I’ve been loving the golden egg-shaped fruit. Loquats have a sour-sweet, aromatic and slightly astringent flavour that I especially enjoy. Loquats are distantly related to quinces and apples. They’re easy to grow in the Waikato. Loquat, Eriobotrya japonica, is a large evergreen shrub or tree from the Rosaceae or rose family. It’s originally from the cooler hill regions of south-central China. Loquats are one of the many foods that don’t fit into the commercial food economy of Aotearoa-New Zealand. The only way you can eat loq ..read more

This winter I’ve been dreaming of elderflower champagne. It’s fun, and fizzy, and it reminds me of summer. Elderflower champagne is sometimes described as “bottled sunlight”. It’s sort of flowery, and sort of aromatic, and something else again. It’s one of my favourite things. Both elderflowers and elderberries are great for making interesting and delicious beverages that sit at the intersection between drinks and European herbalism. I’ve just made a batch of non-alcoholic elderflower cordial, using dried elderflowers from my friend Sarah Hargreaves, who also took the photos for this post. Rea ..read more

We have a plethora of beetroot in our kitchen. Our regular vege box delivery includes beets every single week. They are most excellent beets: freshly picked, with huge fresh leaves still attached. The other cooks in my household don’t tend to use beets, but they eat beets happily when I cook them. Part of the challenge is that beets are not “fast food”. You have to think in advance, in order to make the best of beets. You can’t just throw them in a bowl and eat them, as they are. But, once you’ve got your head around what to do with beets, they’re pretty straightforward. Above: Shannon from Ba ..read more

As regular readers will know, the Waikato Foodbasket loves strange and unusual fruit. This week I’m in love with casimiroas. I first encountered this fruit a few years ago. Some friends had a huge tree that was absolutely laden with casimiroas. We were lucky to get landed with a big box of lumpy green fruit. Sadly, the tree fell over in a storm a couple of years ago. Casimiroa edulis is also called the white sapote. It’s a sub-tropical tree, native to Mexico and Central America. It’s named after Casimiro Gomez, who was an Otomi Indian (indigenous Mexican) hero of Mexico’s War of Independence ..read more

Readers of this blog will know that the Waikato Foodbasket is very keen on strange vegetables. So I was happy to find Harvey Till of Vegetills selling tomatillos on Sunday at the farmers’ market. Tomatillos are very popular in Mexican cuisine, but they’re not common in New Zealand. Tomatillos,  Physalis ixocarpa, are a cousin of tomatoes, Solanum lycopersicum. They look superficially like small green tomatoes. But there are some distinct differences. Tomatillos have a papery husk, like Cape gooseberries, Physalis peruviana, which are also close relations. Tomatillos are ready to pick when ..read more

This is a post about organics and the local food economy. It’s a timely topic because the Organic Products Bill is currently going through Parliament. Submissions are open until 28 May. New Zealand has had organic certification since the early 1980s, but this is the first time the organics sector has been recognised in law. If you care about organics and food quality, I suggest you send in a submission. Here’s the link to have your say. Time for organics Our input is especially valuable right now. There are concerns that the due process of the new law has been disrupted by the Covid emergency ..read more