Savouring Nelson, the land of milk and honey

Charmian Smith finds out what's cooking in Nelson.

A recent visit to Nelson for the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers conference revealed that though wine and art are often matched in the region, there are also many artisan food producers, some of whose products can be found here in the South.

The region boasts several artisan cheese makers.

Brian and Sharon Beuke farm milking sheep and their range of Neudorf Cheese, made by Fiona Guyan, is available at the Gardens and Centre City New World. There's a salty feta for salads or cooking, a lovely Mt Arthur Swiss-style cheese with a delicious hint of caramel, and a pungent washed rind Richmond Red.

www.neudorfdairy.co.nz

Averill Turnbull, a third-generation farmer on her land, milks 50 goats. Her fresh cheese has a light tang that cuts the natural sweetness and there is no goaty flavour. The secret in her Meadowcroft milk and cheese is to get the milk into the pasteuriser within half an hour of milking, she says. The fresh cheese and cheese marinated in grapeseed oil with garlic and herbs of Provence can be found in Gardens New World in Dunedin.

www.meadowcroftfarm.co.nz

Wangapeka Downs farms both lamb and dairy cows and Karen Trafford is making cheese, butter, yoghurt, double cream and a lusciously rich clotted cream from her milk. She says it's all done the old way with 35 Jersey-cross milking cows fed on a varied pasture. The double cream and Greek yoghurt are naturally thick without added thickeners. Their products are available from their website.

www.wangapekadowns.co.nz.

Several producers are making nut butters, both those who grow their own nuts and the irrepressible Pic Picot, making peanut butter. He complained when peanut butter producers started putting sugar in their peanut butter and was told that surveys showed consumers wanted it sweeter. So he decided to make his own. He imports peanuts from Australia, roasts them and crushes them to a crunchy butter. With the red star on its top, Pic's Peanut Butter, both salted and unsalted, is available in good supermarkets around the country and at the Nelson market.

www.reallygood.co.nz

Besides peanut butter there was hazel butter from Maria Jackett, of Rock Ridge Nuts, who also sells hazelnut oil and other varieties of nuts, and a rich walnut butter from Denis and Jocelyn Laird, of Golden Hills Walnuts, who also make walnut oil, walnut flour and sell shelled and unshelled walnuts.

www.walnuts.net.nz

Stuart Franklin and his team at Proper Crisps in Nelson make well-flavoured potato crisps from South Canterbury agria potatoes, cooked in sunflower oil and flavoured simply with Marlborough sea salt.

They are becoming available around the country and have a delicious flavour with no residual greasiness.

They are found in good supermarkets.

www.propercrisps.co.nz

King Salmon is hardly artisan, but it is bred in Golden Bay, farmed in the Marlborough Sounds and processed and packed in Nelson. It's widely available under the brands Seasmoke, Regal and Southern Ocean and comes hot- or cold-smoked, brined, and spiced in various ways - salmon pastrami is particularly delicious - and in various-sized packs. King Salmon has done a lot of research into the best and most sustainable ways to grow king or Pacific salmon and has a breeding programme to improve its stock.

www.regalsalmon.co.nz

Also working on breeding programmes but for mussels, cockles, Pacific oysters and geoduck (an unusual clam that buries itself in a metre of sand in 8m or 9m of water and is prized in Asia) is the team at the Cawthron Institute, an independent research facility.

Until recently, mussel spat was harvested from the wild, so breeding for size, colour or tenderness was impossible, but now, in collaboration with some mussel-farming companies, scientists at the institute are working to breed spat.

Some Nelson products are truly local, available only in the city, by mail order or at the Saturday Nelson market and the Wednesday afternoon farmers' market, where you'll also come across olive growers, exotic mushroom growers, makers of German-style sausages, and many other small producers.

Philip van Der Waal, of Penguino, in Montgomery Square, made smoked salmon and dill gelato that raised a few eyebrows at the conference, but it actually worked well. I could imagine some innovative chef serving it as an entree on a savoury crisp.

www.penguino.co.nz.

Tracey Walker, of Zatori, makes a dark chocolate flavoured with chilli - not as strange a combination as you may think as both come originally from Mexico and are used there in various sauces.

www.zatori.co.nz

L'Artisan Bakery sells bread at the markets, but it's worth a visit to their bakery in Founders Park historic village, for its pizzas, with simple, but flavoursome toppings such as marinated goat cheese with garlic spinach.

Nelson also boasts numerous family-owned wineries, some with restaurants, and, as a major hop-growing region, also has many craft beer and cider breweries. Pick up brochures for the wine and beer trails if you are up there this summer.