organic certification
The $450 Dinner and the $9 Carrots
Fifteen restaurants just won New Zealand's first Michelin stars, several of them talking up organic produce. We went looking for the paperwork. Some of it exists. Most of it doesn't.
cheese
New Zealand Is Debating Gene Tech. It's Been in the Cheese for 25 Years.
New Zealand calls itself GE-free. But the enzyme that sets the cheese in nearly every fridge is made by genetically modified microbes, and has been for 25 years, with nothing on the label to say so. It arrived before the GM crops we actually argued about. Here's how, and why.
the month in food
The Month in Food: June 2026
The June wrap. The whole month kept circling one question, what a label actually guarantees, across Weet-Bix, glyphosate, a Central Otago trip, the oils in your pantry, and a closing cup of coffee.
coffee
The organic coffee that doesn't always say organic
Almost every cup New Zealand drinks is imported, grown under exactly the conditions a new pesticide report describes. So who here roasts organic? Here's the directory, cross-checked against the certifiers' own records: fully certified roasters, single-blend ones, and where to buy them.
Why I'm not on a plane to China tonight
Tonight I should have been over the Pacific, flying to China for a tap takeover. Instead I'm at home, because the beer is still in a container somewhere. So while I wait three weeks, a word about being a brewer, standing in hop fields, and the one question I never stopped asking.
Six Months In: What I've Stopped Buying, and What I Buy Instead
A stocktake before I head away for a couple of weeks. It started with bread, a year before this blog existed, and didn't stop. Here's what I buy now, where I shop, and the one question I keep circling back to.
chocolate
Why New Zealand's Best Chocolate Isn't Certified Organic
On 7 July, fourteen New Zealand chocolate makers launch a shared emblem built on transparency rather than organic certification. It's a quiet bet that knowing the farm matters more than knowing the badge — and the best bars on the shelf already prove the point.
beef
Regenerative beef isn't organic beef
Buying beef straight from the farmer, rated by "regenerative tier." Useful idea — but the tier tells you about the soil and grass, not the inputs in your meat. Here's the difference, and where to find certified-organic beef direct.
Cooking Oils
What "Vegetable Oil" Isn't Telling You
Vegetable oil" is the least informative label in your pantry. Behind it sits one of the most industrial processes in the kitchen — and one of the loudest health fights online. Here's what canola actually is, how it's made, what the science really says, and the NZ oil that maps its own provenance.
olive oil
The Olive Oil Scandal and What It Means in New Zealand
The world buys more "Italian" extra virgin than Italy could grow. Most scare stats mash three different problems into one. Here's what's actually going on with olive oil — and why New Zealand's testing rules quietly sidestep most of it.
Organic Wine
What's In Your Glass: The One Corner of New Zealand Where Organic Is Winning
Around 30% of Central Otago's vineyards are certified organic — the highest in New Zealand, far above the ~6% national average. How one small southern region pulled it off, what conventional winegrowing exposes you to, and where to find the certified bottles.
queenstown
Queenstown -The Last Organic Shop in Town
Huckleberry's gone. Wise Cicada's gone. Independent organic retail is dying fastest in NZ's biggest city — yet a small shop in a Frankton mall survives by serving eight regions at once. What its survival reveals about what "organic" is really worth in Central Otago.
