Top artisans in Tauranga

Some of the country's top artisan food producers gathered in Tauranga for the 2015 Farmers Markets New Zealand conference and the winter food awards during the weekend.

Saturday night's three course dinner at Classic Flyers consisted entirely of produce from the award winners demonstrating the quality and diversity of foods they grow and produce.


Classic Flyers chef Trevor Davis and his team enjoyed working with fresh produce, baked goods, and preserves from the winner of the 2015 Farmers' Markets NZ winter awards.

FMNZ chair Maggie Asplet of Gisborne says this is the first time food produced by members has been used for the conference dinner and the idea proved popular with the 60 guests.

'We are delighted that Classic Flyers and chef Trevor Davis were willing to prepare the meal from foods we supplied and he and the team did a fantastic job.”

Trevor is delighted with the quality and diversity of the foods, baked goods, pickles preserves, sweets and deserts which made putting together the impressive buffet meal easy.

In all this year's winter foods awards attracted 116 entries from throughout the country, which were judged over two days by 2014 MasterChef winners Kasey and Karena Bird of Maketu in Tauranga in June.

The sisters took judging very seriously, taking turns to read the information entrants provided about their particular product, before inspecting it closely, including using their sense of smell and then taste.

'You can just taste the love and care the farmers have put into their produce and we love reading about the stories that go along with the produce,” says Karena.

Maggie says the standard of entry was so high in some cases just a fraction of a mark separated winners.

FMNZ represents around 25 independently owned and operated farmers' markets attended by more than 1000 small food businesses, with an estimated 50,000 customers supporting them every week of the year. Tauranga Farmers Market manager Trixie Allen, says it was exciting to have the judging and conference in Tauranga.

'We have six winners, two runners-up and five highly commended award winner among our stall holders,” she says.

All the winners were notified of their success immediately after the judging so they could display their results on their Farmers' Market stalls, so winning came as no surprise on Saturday night but the occasion was a chance to share their success and network with producers from throughout the country.

Entries included in-season fruit and vegetables; baked goods including donuts and bread; preserves; butchery and nut products. They came from Stewart Island, Cromwell, Lyttelton, Christchurch, Kaikoura, Nelson and Marlborough for the South Island and from Gisborne, Feilding, Whanganui, Hobsonville Point, Grey Lynn, Parnell, Britomart, and Tauranga.

The six Tauranga Farmers' Market winners included Pauline Alexander of Pahoia Fresh Produce in the juiciest stone fruit section with her avocado entry and ‘dirt off the roots' winner Southern Belle Orchard's Emily Meese with Sweetpoint capsicums grown on the family property at Hinuera.

Competition was so tough for the creamiest produce from the dairy section that two winners were announced; Liz Mackay of Jersey Girl Organics, Matamata with fresh organic jersey whole milk, and Chris and Jill Whalley of Mount Eliza Cheese Ltd Katikati for a selection of cheeses.

Wyn and Chris Daniell of Harbourside Macadamias Katikati won the tastiest nut products category with their macadamia liqueur, and Jim Pringle of MaKutchens NZ Ltd, Tauranga, won the preserves section with probiotic fermented vegetables.

Other winners were: Freshest Produce from the Paddock, Tastiest Pip Fruit; winner – Grown (Cam and Melissa Booker), Christchurch/Lyttelton - Winter Strawberries.

Dirt on the Roots; winner – MPV Products (Phil Spence), Gisborne – beetroot.

Organic Producer winner – Earthbound Honey (Karlene and Terry Shaw-Toomey), Hobsonville Point – honey.

Best Produce from the Kitchen Bench; Bread/Baking winner - Oliebollen (Anita Geuze), Gisborne - Oliebollen dutch donuts.

Freshest Produce from the Water; Winner - Stewart Island Smoked Salmon (Nic Adlam), Ashburton/Lyttelton - Smoked Stewart Island Salmon.

Tastiest Produce from the Butchery Winner - Shemski Beef (Lee Askew), Gisborne - Red Devon Beef.

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