We’re enjoying my father visiting us from Australia at the moment, so we took the opportunity to do a bit of sight seeing on the weekend and rented a house in the beautiful Waitakere Ranges, just 30 minutes west of central Auckland.
First thing Saturday morning we all set off to the local Oratia Farmers Market to stock up our food supplies for our stay. It had such a lovely ambience to it and the produce was really impressive.
One of the things that I’ve discovered since moving to New Zealand is its love affair with food. They have such an abundance of quality local produce, and artisan foods are fully supported, making it quite affordable.
I’m a convert to Manuka Honey and it’s benefits, so my first sampling was at the Earthbound Manuka Honey stand. Karlene, the owner, swears that her children have never been to a doctor, which she credits to her 100% active raw Manuka honey. Needless to say, as a mother myself, I was sold.
My husband, always in search of the perfect steak, was excited to purchase that evening’s dinner; beautifully marbled angus beef scotch fillets, direct from the farmer.
From there I just wandered around, taking in the beautiful textures and colours -most of the stores actually offer samples of their products. I probably didn’t need to have breakfast before going there…
Our last purchase was a jar each of rhubarb and red plum jam. Divine!
Yesterday morning, before we left our weekend retreat, we took our time around the breakfast table, savouring the previous day’s purchases, while taking in this view of the Waitakere Parkland .
We had such a lovely weekend and I can’t believe how close it is to Auckland city. Do you have a local farmers market that you go to? I’d love to hear about it.
Mel x
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Ahhh I wish we had a farmers market close to Coogee, shame we’ve only got Woolworths or Coles. May be we should put a petition together and take it to the Council! Enjoy fresh and yummy food!
You should! The grass patch between the beach and road would be perfect!
Not a local farmer’s market, but I have in my possession a jar of Jim Elliott’s home-made chili dill pickles – YUM!! They will be a feature at tomorrow night’s pre-dinner cocktail party:)
Jim should hunt down his local farmers market and set up a store. It sounds delicious!
I love how the Kiwis are obsessed with food. Everyone enjoys their meals and the magazines always have lovely food spreads. Sounds like you had a perfect weekend day! Teri
Hi Mel! How great to meet you through BYW and what a gorgeous looking blog! Huge congrats on launching something so fabulous looking right from the start! The trip around the farmers market is lovely to see as is all the vintage haul from the previous post.
Really impressive start-congratulations! Caroline :-)
Thanks Caroline, feedback really appreciated! Mel
LOVE Oratia Farmers Market! We’re there every Saturday morning – it’s our local!
It’s got such a great vibe, I’m hooked!
What a fantastic weekend!
mel, any idea if i can find this particular manuka honey in syd? i am a converted as well, just finished my jar – then everybody got sick **sigh**- and there are so many “pretend” manuka here around, it is confusing….
That’s definitely a question to ask Earthbound Honey. Before I arrived in NZ I didn’t realize that there were different grades of Manuka honey. Certainly an untapped market! Thanks for reading:)