Wild Food Cook Off

Last weekend (nothing wrong with a time delay), we attended the annual Wild Food Cook Off.  It's the third time it's been held amongst a group of our extended friends and it's great light-hearted rivalry and lots of fun.  We have three judges who allocate points on taste, presentation, effort (hunting and gathering), expertise/skill, and originality.   

Rules:  Endangered animals not allowed, you lose points for cooking your neighbours pet or spilling the judges drinks, you're disqualified if you give anyone food poisoning..... ;)

We had roast wild pork with taro.

Possum stew.

Now this may look like seaweed, but it's actually woodsear fungi with sweet chilli.

Wild peacock - well they assured us it was wild!

These won second place.  Seafood skewers - scallop, paua, mussel, crayfish......mmmmmm!

Nasturtium leaves wrapped around a creamy filling I think was cream cheese and salmon.

You can read what this one was and it was quite yummy too.

Creamy Lemon Balm Pudding - sorry, it was getting dark by then!

I decided not to enter this year, but I encouraged the kids to enter instead, just to get them involved and interested.  We went for a foraging theme rather than a hunting one (considering they are 8 and 5) and so they foraged lemon balm from my garden (it was pretty wild - they had to avoid the stinging nettle I'd planted next to it and they also climbed their Grandmother's lime tree (wildness factor: mild, there were a few scratchy twigs).

Then they helped make Lemon Balm Cookies, Creamy Lemon Balm Pudding and LemonBalm Limeade.  I was really proud of how hard they worked and then they were great with the judges too, answering questions and mostly remembering how they made things.  

And they won first-equal in the hurriedly created junior category....there were only two entries, but the judges were so impressed to see kids entering that they wanted to give them some acknowledgement!  Both kids were ecstatic!

Next year I'm thinking they could get even with the nettles and make nettle soup.

Wild Food Cook Off 2011

It was held in the woolshed - for non-kiwis - that's the shed where the sheep are shorn.  The hosts were kind enough to waterblast it out first!

They decorated it appropriately.  These are tanned possum skins.  Possums are a non-native pest here in NZ and last year there was a dish of crumbed possum drumsticks.

Being a woolshed, it had a sheep chute.  The chute that the naked sheep are shoved down to head back to the paddock.  It didn't take the kids long to find it and it took them less time to start heading down it themselves!

These are our two judges hard at work.  The trophy is the polished bit of wood to the right and the judge on the right is last year's winner (duck egg pavlova with a loquat and honey sauce).

And this is one of the dishes.  Presented by last year's runner up.  She went all out with three courses.  This is the main.  Roast Wild Turkey with Rewena Bread.  The dressings on the side were things like Wild Grape and Walnut and Grandma's Quince Jelly.  And yes, she had matching wine!

No, she didn't have any of the wine...it's just soda water and some of my Wild Rose Syrup.  What do you think of her haircut?  I was cutting her brother's and father's hair and she demanded one just the same!  I got in quick before her brother could fill her head with gender concepts and she really likes it.  I do too - not knots and no nits.

It was a great night.  The kids had a ball, we had a ball, the food was interesting and tasty (to varying degrees) and I'm looking forward to next year's.

Updating you with crappy photos

So I survived the half-marathon (on the 17th November, that's how long it's been since I updated this blog!).  I walked it in 3 hours and 43 minutes (and 59 seconds if you want to be precise).  Not too bad for a first go.  The average time was 3 hours and 16 minutes so next year I'm planning to get closer to that.

Later that same night I hobbled went off to our friend's annual "Wild Food Cook Off".  Basically a party where we all bring a dish of food made from things we have hunted, caught, foraged etc.  There was Bombay Horse's Arse (horse curry - yes, we have wild horses up here if you know where to look) and Roast Peacock, Oysters and Banana Flower Burger.  Mine was tame in comparison - Duck Egg and Wild Rose Cheesecake - but it was pretty good if I do say so myself.

A picture of a snail dish from last year's cook off.

The only problem is that I left my camera there!  Hence you haven't had any updates for a while.  I haven't been up to too much, but it's been frustrating being without a camera.  But today I've had a brainwave - I can take pics with my webcam.  Terrible pics and the cord doesn't reach far, but hey, they are still pictures!

My sample on the left, my four-year-old daughter's on the right.

For the last two Friday's, I've been running a class at one of the local primary schools.  Myself and my team of fab volunteers have been doing fabric stenciling with six-year-old children.  I'm counting this as one of my small, experimental quilts as I've had lots of playing with fabric paint and freezer paper stencils to come up with samples.  One more class this Friday and it's all done.  In exchange for the classes, we get to use their school hall for our guild exhibition - a pretty good deal if you ask me!

Next, I've been going a little mad on making these cute little purses.  They are small and just darling and as soon as my girl spotted the one I made as a sample, she snaffled it and hasn't let me have it back.  So I've been making a stack of them for Christmas presents.  Some of them will hold vouchers, or a nail kit or trinkets and some will be part of a set (I enlarged the pattern for a bigger one).

Here's the stack I have made ready to hand stitch up into their proper shape.  They come from this tutorial here.  Thanks Rashida!!  You've sorted so many of my Christmas gifts!  Even my boy has picked out fabrics for me to make one for his 'treasures'.

I've also been working on the vege garden (sorry - webcam won't stretch that far) and this morning planted some tomato and basil seedlings and some carrot seeds.  It's been dry for the last 3 weeks so I've been spending a bit of time watering too.

So that's it for now.  As soon as I get my camera back I'll give you a more thorough round up of the Wild Food party and show you my daughter's funky new haircut!

I'm glad we've evolved past eating lizards.....

I have a headcold and I'm going to use it as an excuse to not write anything new and inspired, but to dredge up some old photos I don't think I showed you.

Snails anyone?  We went to a friends for a mini Wildfood Festival.  Rules were simple,  dishes must be made with as many 'wild' ingredients as possible.



Just for proof when he's 21 - those are snails my boy is eating.  He enjoyed them.  Mind you, he has also enjoyed eating huhu grubs raw and wriggling too. (Images of huhu grubs here.)

Apparently the fried possum with kumara mash was delicious.  Something put me off trying it.....

We also got to sample Kentucky Fried Duck, Pavlova with Manuka Honey and Stewed Loquats, Wild Pork, Venison Pizza, Taro Fritters, and lots of yummy seafood.

It was such a success that our hosts are planning to make it an annual affair.  I'm hoping I'm not picked as a judge - judges have to taste everything!