There are times when ingredients appear in the garden in such a way that the resulting meal is a no-brainer. Such was our Sunday evening considerations- artichoke, broad beans, peas and basil. Throw in some homegrown bacon and the whole thing has a pasta resolution. […]
I been gone. For six days, to South Australia. It’s a long time to be away in the growing season; M. Nature can throw a lot at you in that time, and throw she did. Gale force nor-westers to be exact and seriously high temperatures for this time of the year. Yet, thanks […]
Ahhh Spring. Life seems just a little bit easier. It’s an illusion we all buy into gladly handing over wads of ‘readys’ for a little later evening purchase served with sides of outside meals, more social times and a fervent belief […]
We are just beginning our ‘hungry gap’ here in North Canterbury. It’s a time of year when very little harvestable food is available. We still have the stored crops of winter and a few greens cheating the season in the tunnel house and protected positions, but there is no fruit or anything else beyond the […]
At the end of the tunnel. It’s always the darkest before dawn. June is the month of darkness. Of stillness, and reflection. The wines are safely away in barrel or fermenting quietly. The vineyard is still, burrowing into its winter hibernation, pruning happening at a leisurely rather than frantic pace. For a short period of […]
Pinot Noir is one of the most elusive, fickle mistresses in our industry. Lynnette Hudson, (aka ‘The Groove’) attempts to shed some light on this winemaking process, through the diary entries she’s been keeping over the last six weeks. March 28th: Gorgeous morning, perfect for the first day of picking. The Pinot Noir grapes taste […]
Wine critic Alice Feiring recently said; “The benchmark for me is that if you’re growing great tomatoes, you’re making great wine. The two seem to go together”. I would like to think she wasn’t simply making a statement about regionality and degree days. I would like to think she was also talking about an affinity […]
Last Sunday afternoon was a peaceful one; spent at a friend’s place in Gore Bay, oblivious to the weather warnings about a ‘super cell’ or super storm brewing to the south of us. That evening as we travelled back into the Valley from the north an enormous cloud was tracking towards us from the south. […]
It’s hard to remember sometimes that December is only the first month of Summer. The growing season has taken her sweet damn time to get to this point, and our expectations of settled weather are always higher than the reality. Mother Nature has no regard for our imported northern hemisphere traditions, and it’s almost part […]
This month on The Food Farm is more of a hurtle towards summer than a gentle meander through spring. November seems awfully close to the end of the year, and that crazy deadline that is Christmas. Locally we use Show Weekend (2nd weekend of November) as the supposed ‘end of the frost season’ measuring stick, […]
