Two reports were released recently which should have sent us all into an urgent, we-have-to-do-something-now panic. The first was a warning from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says we’ve got ten years in which global leaders will have to make unprecedented action in order to stop the planet’s average temperature from rising…
Everyone has food blind spots; things they don’t go near or never cook, for reasons of fear, indifference, ignorance or simple bloody-mindedness. For me until about 18 months ago, gnocchi was on my list of blind spots, along with poached eggs, which I avoid cooking if I possibly can (I’m inexplicably bad at it) and…
How much do we care where our food comes from? If a recent survey by Consumer NZ and Hort NZ is anything to go by, we care a lot: around 70% of people agreed or strongly agreed buying NZ-grown fruit and veges is important to them. A slightly higher proportion (72%) agreed it’s important for…
Hash browns are one of the main reasons to go out for breakfast, in my opinion. Along with their crispy, crunchy, starchy friends: rosti, hash, bubble and squeak, potato fritters etc, there’s something magical about fried spuds in all their forms. It seems like as long as people have been eating potatoes, they’ve…
Last week came the news, widely reported, that humans love foods that combine carbohydrates and fat. My first reaction was that this seemed to come from the ‘no s—, Sherlock’ school of research. To be fair, this was a slightly new twist on it; brain research has shown our rewards centre lights up at this…
These days we are bombarded with so much information about what and how we should (and shouldn’t) eat. It comes from everywhere: mainstream media; social media; friends; family; strangers. There’s so much information; so much advice, that healthy eating has, it seems to me, acquired a veneer of difficulty. It can feel that if…
What are the world’s best potato dishes? Niki Bezzant asks in her latest Potato Chat Blog… I’ve written here before about the marvel that is the Tartiflette – an extravaganza of potato, cream, onion and garlic topped with a round of gooey washed-rind Reblochon, a cheese from northern France. At an event recently I mentioned…
In her latest blog Niki Bezzant discusses how he replied on potatoes (“a budget star”) whilst completing the Tear Fund’s Live Below the Line challenge. Potatoes really saved the day for her… For the past five days I have been eating on $2.85 a day. That’s the international poverty line, as defined by the United…
If there’s one thing guaranteed to get some of the foodie purists het up on social media, it’s ‘processed’ or pre-packaged versions of primary produce. I’ve seen so much huffing and harrumphing, for example, over pre-chopped vegetables ready to roast in the oven. Or pre-chopped stir-fry or vege soup mixes. Why? Because, the offended ones…
Last weekend a worker died after becoming trapped in a potato harvester near Pukekohe. The accident happened at a potato farm near Puni, Waikato shortly before 1pm on Saturday 17th February. CEO of Potatoes New Zealand Inc., Chris Claridge, said the accident a real tragedy. “Any death is a tragedy. Worker health and safety is…