One of the most important aspects of Christmas day is the feast families usually put out for lunch or dinner. Jacob McSweeny talks to some of those behind the production of a few Christmas delicacies.
It is shaping to be a bumper festive season for food producers in Otago, as people work to fill the table for Christmas day.
Some producers rely heavily on this time of the year and for others demand is so high customers have to join a waiting list for products.
The Christmas potato
Armstrong and Co owner Peter Armstrong is adamant the Jersey benne is the Christmas potato.
"Demand is always high over Christmas. Everyone wants them on the Christmas table.
"Good chefs know that’s something that has to be on the table come Christmas day."
At this time of year, workers near Oamaru pull up 15 tonnes of Jersey bennes daily.
Those are sent to the packhouse in Rakaia, before going out to supermarkets.
This year a shortage of potatoes elsewhere meant his production was helping to fill a void.
"This year has been a challenge," Mr Armstrong said.
"There’s two of us that have a category for supplying one supermarket and I supply another.
"Just in general the potatoes are short this year and we’ve got a lot of them so we’ve been helping other growers fill their quota as well.
"We just try and help each other if things get a bit short. Sometimes I’m a bit short and I need a hand and this year it’s definitely the other way around.
"Forecast sales are very strong," Mr Armstrong said.
"My father was doing this 60 years go so we’ve been in it a while."
The Oamaru soil was head and shoulders above the rest when it came to growing a good Jersey benne, Mr Armstrong said.
"The soil type gives us a flavour that nobody else can match. That’s one thing we’re famous for.
"Bluff is famous for their oysters and Oamaru is famous for their Jersey bennes.
"You can take that same seed and grow it in different areas throughout the country and you just won’t get the same result."
Mr Armstrong said he stuck to a tried and tested recipe when it came to cooking the spuds.
"Just bring them to the boil. Cook them for 20 to 25 minutes.
"Got to have a sprig of mint in there and plenty of butter at the other end."
Pineapple on pav a no-go
For Cowells Pavlovas Christmas time is crucial for business.
"Fifty percent of the year’s sales come in six weeks of the year," said Cowells managing director Matthew Heaton.
"Obviously it’s a very busy time of year.
"It starts sort of mid November being busy. These last three weeks just go crazy."
Production for Christmas begins half-way through August.
"We work 20 hours a day, five days a week from mid August through to the December 24.
"We make about 11,000 pavlovas a day ... they all disappear very quickly."
And it was not machines making these pavlovas.
"They’re all made by hand. It’s not done via machines or anything.
"We have two sections of making and packing pavlovas."
Cowells has about 28 staff, he said.
New Zealanders remained loyal to the dessert; sales had increased about 3% on last year.
"The recipe is the same since I started ... I’ve been here for 20 years," Mr Heaton said.
"I think the pavlova’s fairly well entrenched in New Zealand psychology as a make-up of what you have for Christmas."
But what was the right topping?
Kiwifruit and strawberries were common choices, but Mr Heaton had been told of some strange alternatives.
"The ideal topping, I think, is raspberries.
"People go kiwifruit or strawberries. Someone asked me the other day if you’d put pineapple on a pavlova and it’s like ... the pavlova’s quite a sweet product anyway, obviously made with a lot of sugar so you don’t want to add a sweet product on top.
"The kiwifruit, the tanginess offsets a bit of sweetness, that’s why I like the raspberries to go with it, sort of balance out the flavours a little bit."
Get in the queue
Last week Havoc Farm Pork had to close orders for Christmas hams — any that followed went on a waiting list.
"Basically we’ll put people on a waiting list," sales and marketing manager John Grant said.
"We can then call some back and say ‘yep, we have a ham available’ or otherwise."
"It gives them time to make other arrangements whether that’s turkey or some other protein."
There were also alternatives to the traditional Christmas ham.
"It’s not actually just hams, we sell a lot of fresh pork product around Christmas too.
"It’s a range of things ... probably less traditional but pork belly and other rolled shoulder roasts. Some people have that for Christmas dinner."
Mr Grant did not have exact figures but he said sales would have grown on last year.
"We’re talking quite a few hundred ham products."
There was a demand for locally grown pork products and many of the big brands in New Zealand were importing hams.
"There’s just a heightened awareness around the country of the quantity of imported pork products which includes hams.
"The public are just wanting to be more assured of the provenance of their product — to know where it comes from, how it was treated and how it was processed et cetera.
"There’s a greater keenness to be buying local and understanding a bit more about farming practices and that it’s a good New Zealand product."
The Havoc farm is in Waimate. It was started about 20 years ago along with a small butchery shop.
"Havoc started as a farm initially when they had a small butchery shop in Waimate.
"The farm is still just out of Waimate so it’s in South Canterbury but all the processing is done here in Kaikorai Valley."
The company gained a foothold in Dunedin by keeping a presence at the Otago Farmers’ Market.
"Havoc kind of cemented its identity in the local market in Dunedin by being one of the early farmers’ market vendors. That still ticks along pretty well."
A good ham was crucial to Christmas day festivities, Mr Grant said, and he was still experimenting to find a good recipe.
"A good ham that is well glazed, which is basically — the hams are cooked — but then it is traditional to heat it up on Christmas day ... running heat through it again before eating.
"And at that time you’re glazing it, which is the process of putting on either a rub or a sauce on the outside of it to permeate into the product and add some delicious flavours."
The supermarkets
Countdown and Foodstuffs supermarkets had both experienced increases in demand for a variety of products as Christmas neared.
Foodstuffs said Otago shoppers bought more strawberries, gift cards, confectionery, premium beer, ham and turkey, whole beef fillet, reduced and condensed cream, champagne, scorched almonds, blue cheese and Christmas mince tarts and pavlovas.
"We can safely say that Otago has already started stocking up for Christmas and gift cards are a popular option for giving this year," a Foodstuffs representative said.
Volume at Countdown supermarkets around the country increased by 40% during the week of Christmas.
"Most Kiwis pick up all their fresh produce for Christmas including fruit and vegetables, cream, seafood and specialty cheeses in the couple of days before the big day," a Countdown representative said.
"Interestingly, most customers actually purchase their ham in the last week, perhaps because they just don’t have the fridge space for such a large item."
Nationwide 120,000 turkeys had been bought at Countdown stores and the company said its farmers that supply the birds begin preparing them a year in advance.
By the numbers
- 11,000: Cowells Pavlovas workers make 11,000 pavlovas every day from mid August to Christmas Eve.
- 6 weeks: Half of Cowells Pavlovas revenue comes during the weeks around Christmas.
- 15 tonnes: The weight of Jersey benne potatoes currently being harvested daily from Armstrong and Co.
- '100s': The number of hams Havoc Farm Pork have sold this year. There is now a waiting list if people still want a Havoc ham.
- 40%: Countdown supermarkets increase stock in stores nationwide by nearly half.
