by Simon Edwards
With COVID forcing cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 Horowhenua Taste Trails there was a risk that absence would bite a big chunk out of the annual event’s momentum. But not so.
Ticket sales for last month’s Trail topped 2000, nudging the 2019 total, and all of the 16 producers and growers involved were pleased with the level of trade on the day, the event’s executive director, Kathy Mitchell, says.
“I haven’t seen the final returns yet but I have the feeling we saw a lot of new visitors last month that we haven’t seen before.”
When most urban Kiwis get their food in bags and containers from supermarket shelves and fridges, it’s not hard to understand why farmers and growers (and plenty of consumers) are keen to bridge that producer to plate disconnect. That’s what the Horowhenua Taste Trail achieves.
The event’s chairperson, Erica Guy, says a main aim is to educate more people about how good food is produced and the care and passion producers have for their products.
“It is a real privilege to witness pesto being made, learn how to butcher meat, see eggs being processed, ride in a tractor, watch cows being milked and sample cheese products, understand how strawberries are grown hydroponically and experience and sample so much more that was on offer,” Erica says.
John Lewis, of berries, honey and asparagus growers Lewis Farms, had long envisaged launching some sort of food festival in a district that grows as much as 20% of New Zealand’s fresh produce, and exports to Australia, Singapore and Japan. When he connected with then Federated Farmers policy advisor and Horowhenua farmer Kirsty McGregor (and now Shepherdess magazine editor), the Horowhenua Taste Trail concept was hatched.
Kathy Mitchell was then communications manager with Horowhenua District Council and it quickly saw the potential for promoting the area (the council is still a major funder, along with the likes of Fonterra, Fruitfed Supplies, Rabobank and Horizons Regional Council).
Four successful Taste Trails were held before the pandemic disruption and the fifth Trail, on November 26, shows its back on track, Kathy says.
“There are quite a few food and wine festivals all around New Zealand but this is a ‘behind the scenes’ type event, a real paddock to plate experience where producers craft their offering and people enjoy it where it’s grown or made.”
There are only so many sites visitors, by car or bus, can comfortably get around in a day so Trail organisers limit it to six or seven. The core participants are Turks Poultry, Lewis Farms, Woodhaven Gardens, Genoese Foods, Bagrie Farms and the NZ Egg group. But smaller producers and newcomers - the likes of hemp oil, power and product maker Hemp Connect and beef and lamb producers Heights Farms – set up displays and taste tables at the main sites. It’s good exposure – and experience should they later bid to join the Trail as one of the main sites.
This year the theme was sustainability, reflecting a preoccupation with the producers on looking after the environment and the desire of organisers to protect the future longevity of the event.
Initiatives included commercially composting the soiled food containers used on the event day, using QR codes and a digital site map rather than printing on a whole lot of paper, and also reusing merchandise by collecting lanyards at each site at the end of the day for reuse at the next event.
Producers are on board too. For example, Genoese Foods has moved its fresh basil supply to be 100% New Zealand sourced, removing the need to use agrichemicals to meet biosecurity importation requirements on the basil it had been importing from Fiji.
