Local, seasonal, organic
Three ways to reduce your carbon footprint and support your local community.
- Eat local products
- Eat seasonal fruit and vegetables
- Eat organic food
Eating local, seasonal, organic food keeps our community growing and pays respect to the awesome producers that spend so much time and energy growing and processing all this incredible organic food. You can download our seasonal guide to fruit and vegetables at the bottom of the page.
Buy local! Buy fresh!
All our fruit and vegetables (except bananas) are grown in New Zealand. We purchase local, seasonal produce.
Buying local, seasonal, organic food will reduce your carbon footprint. Supporting local growers reduces the amount of transport and fossil fuels used to get our food to us. Be conscious in your consumption! Local, in-season fruit and vegetables are fresher than produce that has travelled from far away or had an extended life (due to preservatives). They taste better when they are fresh. The nutritional content is higher, and it is more cost effective to produce and purchase seasonal products.
How the seasons influence what we sell
Strawberries are awesome in summer, Asparagus is for the spring, in winter we love Kale- in Autumn we are harvesting!
You won't see many tomatoes on our shelves during winter because in the organic world, we try to stick with the seasons. Greenhouse vegetables are available in winter but are much more expensive than produce grown in season. Conventionally grown crops are often harvested under-ripe, shipped long distances and stored in artificial conditions. They can't compete with local, seasonal organics when it comes to taste and vitality!
Seasonal living
Do you have a garden? This is the best way to get in touch with the seasons- and the reality of seasonal growing!
For example- Spring is a strange season full of contradictions. Spring seems to be full of life but there is actually very little to harvest! All the root crops start to sprout- potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic. Our produce staff do a great job nipping the sprouts off but nature has a way of bursting through anyway… Then the new season comes and we get excited about asparagus, oh lovely springtime!
Download a copy of our instore Seasonal Guide which gives an indication of what you can expect to find in our stores across the year.
Creative kitchen challenge
Creative ways with crazy vegetables
The limited produce in the winter through to spring is a creative challenge in the kitchen. Do not forget the consistent heroes of the organic world! Celeriac, Kohl Rabi, Kale and Cavolo Nero. Now is the time to be creative in the kitchen. Create culinary masterpieces with your Cavolo Nero!
Cavolo Nero
Cavolo Nero is delicious, but it doesn’t work if you cook it just like ordinary cabbage. The taste is too strong and the spines are too tough. Cut most of the spine out, chop and steam for a few minutes. You can use in a stir-fry, soup (it’s one of the main ingredients in Tuscan bean soup) or put it into a stew.
Celeriac
Celeriac is like celery, but has a gentler taste. Use it anywhere you would use celery – soups, stews, salads. It goes really well with potato.
Celeriac soup: Peel any brown off a large celeriac and cut up into rough cubes. Sweat a clove of garlic, a small potato and the celeriac in butter or oil for 5 minutes. Add 600ml vegetable stock and 1Tbsp lemon juice, simmer until soft. Blend, add 275ml milk, salt and pepper. Reheat and serve.
Celeriac and potato mash: Boil a large celeriac in a pot with half an onion. Blend when soft. Boil an equal quantity of potato in a pot with half an onion. When soft, mash together with celeriac.
Kale
Kale can be finely chopped and added to hearty soups and stews 10 minutes before they are ready. Kale adds flavor, texture and freshness. Nothing beats Kale in a spicy North African stew!
Eating seasonally is about learning to go with the flow and working with the seasons, rather than attempting to dominate them.