In an age where any kind of cuisine is available all year round, it's easy to lose touch with where the food on your plate comes from and the work it takes to get it there.
FMG, New Zealand's leading rural insurer, has teamed up with Kiwi Chef Michael Van de Elzen to bring you a beginners’ guide to living on a lifestyle block, growing your own food and the benefits it can bring to your table.
In the first two installments we talked about what you need to know before you get started on your own lifestyle block, then what you need to know to get your land working for you.
Now that you're set up, Michael gives his advice on what he knows best - the food.
"Moving back onto the land after working in large restaurants, in a way it made me rediscover my passion for food….I've rediscovered recipes I was taught 30 years ago."
Michael opened the Good from Scratch cookery school on his lifestyle block in Muriwai to share his 'farm to table' cooking philosophy. He says only using what you've grown yourself will push you into being a better chef.
"The gardens dictate to you what you're cooking, you don't dictate to them. You have to think outside the box. Every so often you will only have one or two items to choose from because that's all that is ready. It will actually force you to be creative because what is there is what is there."
Beyond making you cook outside your comfort zone, growing your own food not only makes you appreciate it more, it stops habitual food wastage, says Michael.
"We just dug up some cabbages to make KimChi and they'd been in the ground for over three months so when you've spent that long with something, you're going to use it and you're going to use all of it...you get a bigger respect for the produce."
New Zealand sends over 120,000 tonnes of food to landfill annually - enough to feed everyone in Dunedin for two years.
Michael says being unable to quickly nip to the supermarket to buy a replacement when your avocado looks faintly bruised forces you to become more sustainable. His own garden operates on a 'closed loop', where everything is repurposed and recycled to help grow more produce.
"So there is no wastage per se with our food at our place. We use the leftover meats, we use all of the vegetables. We burn the cardboard. The only thing that goes in our bins is plastic because unfortunately there is still so much plastic involved in packaging."
According to Michael, once you start cutting down on wastage, you quickly realise seasonality goes hand in hand with sustainability.
"When you grow things they flourish at the same time year in and year out. If you've grown eggplant you know what time of year it flourishes and you'll be harvesting more than you consume then, and so you can plan around that. Then you think about ways of storing and bottling and preserving so you can go back and use that excess later."
While buying seasonally is better for the environment, it's also better for your tastebuds and your wallet.
"Whether you're on a lifestyle block or you're in the heart of the city, seasonal produce has to be something that you're aware of. You don’t want to buy green beans in the middle of winter. They're going to be tough, they'll have been snap frozen for months and you'll pay $13 for a handful."
If you're currently on your lifestyle block, ready to start growing but perhaps a little inexperienced, Michael says do the research and don't be afraid to ask for help.
"The foundation is the most important, what's in the ground before you even start. The preparation of that ground before you even consider putting seeds in. Make sure you seek some advice, get a local in to help you.
"You've got to layer that garden with a lot of goodness, a lot of organic matter. You can't just clear a bit of land, rake it all up and chuck a seed in and say 'right, grow! We made that mistake ourselves setting up our garden."
And a reminder that while the rewards of living off the land are many, don't expect everything to go to plan.
"It's not all smooth sailing," says Michael.
"Not everything you want to grow will make it to the table. We got a rabbit in our tunnel house the other night and he annihilated half the produce. That rabbit is now part of our fertiliser, he wasn't coming back the next night, I tell you that but just know not everything works out."
With Christmas just around the corner, if you're wondering what Michael’s recipe is for the festive season, he suggests a twist on a familiar classic.
"You can't go past a nice spring lamb at the moment. Go to your butcher and get a bone-in rolled shoulder. Smash up some rosemary and some lavender and then roll it through."
Now that you've got the basics for growing your own food, and hopefully a little culinary inspiration courtesy of Michael, all that's left is to get stuck in.
This article was created for FMG
