From the high country around the Waihopai and Awatere valleys, where Premium Game hunters track wild pork, venison, rabbit and goat, to the patchwork of farms and orchards of the Wairau Valley, there’s a huge array of the good stuff being produced in Marlborough. And every Sunday they’ve got a market in Blenheim where you can pick it all up in one fell swoop.
Jennie Crum of Windsong Orchard was in on the ground when the market started in 2001, and along with fellow market enthusiasts Chris Fortune and Ian Thomas, helped to set up a national body in 2005 to promote the idea of local food, sold by the producer, in order to showcase the area and to support local producers.
From a dozen stalls in the beginning, the Marlborough market has become a weekly standard shop for locals with over 40 stallholders. Along with ticking off the grocery shop, they also have a range of hot breakfast options, freshly made coffee, live music and even pony rides for the kids.
Jennie and her husband Bob grow over 20 kinds of plums, seven varieties of blueberries, three kinds of feijoas and four flavours of old-fashioned table grapes. At the market in January and February, 12 plum varieties make an appearance at their stall, including the huge, juicy Black Amber, definitely an ‘outside plum’ explains Jennie.
There’s also the Santa Rosa, and New Zealand varieties Hawera and Luisa, “the plum for people who don’t even like plums”. They have plenty of blueberries through January but in February the early bird gets the berry, as red, black and green table grapes replace them before feijoas and kiwifruit make an appearance.
Neville White of Farmside specialises in heirloom fruit and vegetables, planted over three hectares on his biodynamic farm on the northern side of the Wairau River. Their little Tommy Toe tomatoes are keenly sought after in early January when his customer’s own tomatoes aren’t yet ripe and Neville says they can never grow enough of their Scarlet Nantes carrots to meet the demand. White-striped Chioggia and Golden Beet are also great sellers for fermenting, grating raw, boiling and roasting.
Julian Cunningham of Everyday Gardens reckons he runs about the largest stall at the market and takes between 200-300 punnets of seedlings to market, depending on the season. He says customers at the market seem to be split between the older generation who still want their classic cabbages and cauliflowers, and ones that are after something a bit different like Florence Fennel Milano, yellow-tipped Zephyr zucchini, Blue Ridge kale, green and red kohlrabi, or purple Brussels sprouts.
Julian says coriander remains one of the biggest sellers, along with red onions and basil. And for those that struggle to keep their basil alive in their garden, Julian is also there to explain a few tricks of the trade, learnt from a lifetime spent in horticulture.
Chris Thoms of A Taste of Yesteryear makes jams, chutneys and pickles from her catering kitchen, a 1959 Cresta Craft caravan stripped out and rebuilt for preserve-making purposes. She invents her own recipes so they’re unique to anyone else: “I have learnt to write them down as I have lost a couple of beauties”.
Chris also organises cooking demonstrations at the market using a mobile kitchen her husband Keith made several years ago – it has a sink with running water, power, gas burners and a microphone. In January, demonstrations include cooking with pine nuts, as well as a spotlight on Chinese and Italian cooking; in February there’ll be biscuit icing, fish smoking, bread making,
and Indian cuisine.
Zoë Thompson of Pinoli Pine Nuts plans to demonstrate some sweet and savoury dishes using pine nuts and discuss their orchard processes during her stint at the mobile kitchen. Along with partner, Lee Paterson, they grow trees of the Mediterranean Stone Pine variety and sell raw pine nuts at the market, but offer tastings of them lightly roasted so people get an idea of the intense flavours brought out by cooking them.
Lee explains the Mediterranean variety is a little longer and slimmer than Chinese pine nuts, which are most commonly found in New Zealand shops. His personal favourite use for pine nuts is in biscuits, but most Kiwis generally use them to flavour salads.
From the wilds of Marlborough come Premium Game meats; started by four recreational hunters in 1996, they sell 300g-500g vacuum-packed meats at the market. The animals are sourced in areas known to be poison-free, so the operation has no negative effect on the environment or their customers.
Wild goat and rabbit are currently very sought after at the market, but wild venison has remained the most popular item they sell. They also make a wild game pet roll – so even pets have something to look forward to at the market.
Melvyn and Denyse Goodall of Nuggety Creek Farm sell pork products made from heritage breed Wessex Saddleback pigs. They’re a slow-growing breed with great tasting meat and are turned into sausages, salami, pâté and haslet (pork meatloaf).
Customers can also pre-order the likes of pork belly, pork loins, boned out shoulders, legs of pork, hocks, and trotters at the market for home delivery.
Margaret McHugh of Gourmet Deli makes her own seeded mustard, horseradish sauce, smoked pinot noir sea salt, strawberry vinegar, terrines and pâtés, along with sweets like chocolate fudge brownie, caramel slice, and butter-less date scones. She also makes her own venison sausages, chorizo and cured bacon for hot breakfasts at the market and has tables and chairs around her deli counter trailer.
She says none of the food is served in bread and her customers like that – paleos take note.
There’s also Pedro’s Empanadas, selling their version of the South American stuffed pastry, and Mississippi Herbs who sell freshly baked bread, oat cakes and sweet loaves alongside their cut herbs, salad dressings and vegetables.
Marlborough Farmers’ Market
Sundays 9am-12pm, A&P Showgrounds, Corner Alabama and Maxwell Roads, Blenheim, Marlborough.
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