Findcate

CATE Blanchett wants the winner of next month’s federal election to free Australia from its “embarrassing” relationship with the US.

The Oscar winning actress says Australia is too closely tied to the US and has made a mistake by isolating itself from its Asian neighbours.

%26ldquo;Whoever gets in will have to deal with this climate of paranoia,%26rdquo; she told London’s Guardian newspaper.

%26ldquo;We’re so in America’s back pocket it’s embarrassing.

%26ldquo;We have to claim our individualism, but also reconnect to the world in a better way.

%26ldquo;We’ve really isolated ourselves from Asia.

%26ldquo;I think that’s politically and culturally very foolish.

%26ldquo;The problem with Australia is that it’s uranium- and coal-rich, so whoever gets in needs to be really responsible.%26rdquo;

Blanchett was in London this week for the premiere of her latest film, Elizabeth: The Gold Age.

She and playwright husband Andrew Upton are due to take over as artistic directors at the Sydney Theatre Company in January.

Blanchett said she hoped her new theatre role would last beyond the three-year contract she and Upton signed.

%26ldquo;You can’t really achieve anything in three years,%26rdquo; she said.

Related posts

• US ties with Oz `embarassing` - Blanchett
• Cate’s dig at the US
• Cate set to shine for STC
• Cate Blanchett’s green theatre
• Cate Blanchett says US ties ‘embarrassing’
• Cate Blanchett Gives Birth And Heads Straight Back To Work
• Blanchett not fit to run our theatre, says actor
• Blanchett keen to play more screen villains
• Maternal Cate enjoys staging a return to Australia
• Is it baby No.3 for Cate Blanchett?

Latest figures from the Ministry of Social Development show the total number of people living in crowded conditions in the city increased more than 4000, to 22,000, between 2001 and 2006.
The ministry says a house is counted as being crowded if it requires one or more extra bedrooms for those living there.
There was also an increase in crowded housing in the Ashburton, Queenstown Lakes and Dunedin areas.
Community groups say those on low incomes often have to cram as many as they can into a property as they cannot afford high rents.
%26quot;It is a huge issue,%26quot; said Christchurch Tenants Protection Association manager Helen Gatonyi.
%26quot;The cost of rent is an issue, as is the changing profile of the tenant. There are larger families and larger ethnic groups,%26quot; she said.
%26quot;There are the other costs related to renting which have to be taken into account — power costs, food costs. It is cheaper to live in a group than to be single.%26quot;
Rent has been increasing steadily, with the average rent in Christchurch now around $150 a week for a room and more than $400 for a three-bedroom flat.
Apart from the money issues, Gatonyi said people had trouble finding properties owing to a poor record paying rent or issues such as drug abuse.
Large families of immigrants with little money also ran into problems.
%26quot;When there are cross-generational families, that is when the real problems arise,%26quot; Gatonyi said.
She said the tight conditions also led to increased stress, which could be a trigger for domestic violence.
%26quot;The solution is not more housing; it is about making housing more accessible and affordable,%26quot; Gatonyi said.
%26quot;It%26#39;s also about the complex issues involved with these people like disengagement and being disenfranchised.%26quot;
City Missioner Michael Gorman said the number of people going to the City Mission suffering from cramped housing was on the increase.
%26quot;We have a lot of people come to us who are living in garages,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;We also have people who come who live in sheds that they rent for about $70 or $90 a week. What%26#39;s that going to be like in the winter?%26quot;

%26quot;I know of one family of 10 who live in a three-bedroom house,%26quot; Gorman said.
He said he was worried by plans by the Christchurch City Council to raise social housing rents by 24 per cent.
%26quot;People say it may only be a few dollars a week, but that makes an enormous difference when you are on benefits,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;The common denominator is poverty. There does need to be more affordable property to provide somewhere to live for those who have a very low income.%26quot;
Council city housing manager Kevin Bennett acknowledged there was a problem.
%26quot;We know there is an issue out there in terms of overcrowding,%26quot; he said.
The council would refer families who go to it for help to Housing New Zealand, which tries to find them a property.
%26quot;Usually it is to do with money or they have been in a situation where they need some family support and so they move in together,%26quot; Bennett said yesterday.

Related posts

• High rents force people into sheds
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• No changes to Easter trading rules
• Labour not budging on food origin labelling
• It’s a beautiful world
• For the record
• Exporters feel ‘tough love’ tactics
• Easter trading law inaction upsets
• Easter shopping rules to remain - Govt
• Divine diva

Latest figures from the Ministry of Social Development show the total number of people living in crowded conditions in the city increased more than 4000, to 22,000, between 2001 and 2006.
The ministry says a house is counted as being crowded if it requires one or more extra bedrooms for those living there.
There was also an increase in crowded housing in the Ashburton, Queenstown Lakes and Dunedin areas.
Community groups say those on low incomes often have to cram as many as they can into a property as they cannot afford high rents.
%26quot;It is a huge issue,%26quot; said Christchurch Tenants Protection Association manager Helen Gatonyi.
%26quot;The cost of rent is an issue, as is the changing profile of the tenant. There are larger families and larger ethnic groups,%26quot; she said.
%26quot;There are the other costs related to renting which have to be taken into account — power costs, food costs. It is cheaper to live in a group than to be single.%26quot;
Rent has been increasing steadily, with the average rent in Christchurch now around $150 a week for a room and more than $400 for a three-bedroom flat.
Apart from the money issues, Gatonyi said people had trouble finding properties owing to a poor record paying rent or issues such as drug abuse.
Large families of immigrants with little money also ran into problems.
%26quot;When there are cross-generational families, that is when the real problems arise,%26quot; Gatonyi said.
She said the tight conditions also led to increased stress, which could be a trigger for domestic violence.
%26quot;The solution is not more housing; it is about making housing more accessible and affordable,%26quot; Gatonyi said.
%26quot;It%26#39;s also about the complex issues involved with these people like disengagement and being disenfranchised.%26quot;
City Missioner Michael Gorman said the number of people going to the City Mission suffering from cramped housing was on the increase.
%26quot;We have a lot of people come to us who are living in garages,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;We also have people who come who live in sheds that they rent for about $70 or $90 a week. What%26#39;s that going to be like in the winter?%26quot;
%26quot;I know of one family of 10 who live in a three-bedroom house,%26quot; Gorman said.
He said he was worried by plans by the Christchurch City Council to raise social housing rents by 24 per cent.
%26quot;People say it may only be a few dollars a week, but that makes an enormous difference when you are on benefits,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;The common denominator is poverty. There does need to be more affordable property to provide somewhere to live for those who have a very low income.%26quot;
Council city housing manager Kevin Bennett acknowledged there was a problem.
%26quot;We know there is an issue out there in terms of overcrowding,%26quot; he said.
The council would refer families who go to it for help to Housing New Zealand, which tries to find them a property.
%26quot;Usually it is to do with money or they have been in a situation where they need some family support and so they move in together,%26quot; Bennett said yesterday.

Related posts

• High rents force people into sheds
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• No changes to Easter trading rules
• Labour not budging on food origin labelling
• It’s a beautiful world
• For the record
• Exporters feel ‘tough love’ tactics
• Easter trading law inaction upsets
• Easter shopping rules to remain - Govt
• Divine diva

Honey leaves four sick in hospital

Health authorities said yesterday they had pinpointed the producer of the honey, which also struck down a Wellington mother, her three-year-old son and another relative.
He is thought to be a Whangamata man who has been running a %26quot;hobby apiary%26quot; for about five months. The man has denied his product caused the problems.
Contaminated honey from the three outlets stocking his products - Meat at the Beach Butchers, Valley Orchards and Quarry Orchards - has been recalled.
Health authorities are urging people not to eat comb honey recently bought from Coromandel.
The National Beekeepers Association is warning consumers not to buy honey harvested from hives or wild bee colonies in the area since December.
A dropoff point has been set up at the Whangamata Medical Centre to dispose of tainted honey.
Hamilton woman Judy Hall ate the honey on toast three times, each time becoming ill, before she realised it might be to blame.
Two packets of honey were bought from Meat at the Beach butcher last Tuesday.
She began vomiting after eating the toast, but thought something else made her sick. She visited the doctor but, feeling better, ate more honey on Friday and Saturday and suffered tremors and convulsions.
Wellington woman Jo Whittle, her son Daniel Fox and her sister%26#39;s partner Joseph Reynolds were admitted to hospital on Friday after eating honey from the area last week.
Mr Reynolds, visiting from London, had a seizure in his sleep and remembers nothing of it. He was discharged from Thames Hospital yesterday, shortly before the others.
Ms Whittle, of Upper Hutt, said seeing her son convulse was terrifying. %26quot;His whole body was stiff and arching. His teeth were clenched so tight it took some minutes before he could relax them. I think the scariest thing was his eyes were wide open and staring and they rolled up under the lids … then he went blue and stopped breathing.%26quot;
As little as a teaspoon of toxic honey can affect the human nervous system and it can be lethal.
National Beekeepers Association chief executive Jim Edwards said processing plants must be registered to ensure honey met health standards.
Apiarists must sign a harvest declaration form to say their hives had not been exposed to chemicals or other risks.
He hopes the incident does not affect the industry, which exported honey products worth $56 million last year.

Related posts

• Wheatgrass juice, sun salutations and a colonic - or two. Just what the celebrity ‘doctor’ ordered
• Toxic honey cases still rising (+video)
• Toxic honey cases still rising
• Three treated for suspected toxic honey poisoning
• Soldier, orphan become family in war
• Seven eggs a week raises risk of death
• Seven eggs a week raises risk of death
• Roosters involved in fast-food brawl
• Poison honey source traced (+video)
• Nationwide strike planned by hospital workers

Moral: there are many things you can learn from a book, but not how to bake a cake or cook a meal.
You need to know the basics. Boil, bake, fry, roast. There are words that say one thing but mean another %26ndash; drizzle, blitz, curdle, whip, whisk, blanch, fold, bind …
There are essential tools %26ndash; filleting knife, box grater, double boiler, baller, pitter, rolling pin, skimmer, shaker … And many many rules on what to do first, last, and never.
Once upon a time early lessons in cooking were learned by watching older family members. Practical skills were gained by doing as instructed. Reading recipe books came last.
Then, in the 1950s English food writer Elizabeth David re-invented recipe writing as an art form and amateur cooks took up their whisks and olive oil and set out to recreate David%26#39;s Mediterranean-inspired food. She rightly assumed her readers had basic cooking skills and did not require instructions such as %26quot;preheat oven%26quot; or how to to %26quot;melt anchovies%26quot; into chopped tomatoes. With David, cooking was not a daily necessity, it was glamorous.
Fast-forward a few years to when cooking was no longer taught in schools, when takeaway meant chicken tikka and pad thai, and television cooks were entertainers. Jamie Oliver burst into our living rooms and although described in early publicity blurbs as a %26quot;boyish British youth%26quot; he gained a huge worldwide television audience faster than you could say peel a potato. His directions were vague, but it didn%26#39;t matter because he also did recipe books.
Unfortunately, those directions were also vague and I suspect many would-be cooks never returned to the stove after attempting, for instance, Oliver%26#39;s recipe for slow-roasted duck with sage, ginger and rhubarb homemade sauce.
Teachers to the rescue. Cooking schools are booming. Wherever there is a commercial kitchen there is the possibility of a chef, sausage maker, caterer, or baker working weekends and nights demonstrating how to stir- fry rice, grill steaks, and slow-roast ducks.
Some schools invite students to get their hands in the dough, chop the onions, brown the ducks (look for the words %26quot;practical instruction%26quot; in the brochure). Others are passive with a demonstrator talking to an audience and a video camera catching closeups of chopping, drizzling, whisking and pitting. This can be termed a master class or a demonstration, but either way if the word %26quot;watch%26quot; is used you can be sure you will not be doing any cooking yourself. There is audience participation however, with comments and questions encouraged throughout. The food is tasted by everyone and recipes are provided to take home. As with just about everything in life, cooking is easier when someone shows how. If it looks fun so much the better. And if it tastes better than anything bought from a shop, congratulations you have discovered all the joys of cooking.
Class action
March 28 -30 10am - 6pm The Food Show Westpac Arena. 10.30am - 11.15am daily: Annabelle White, family favourites. 11.30am - 12.15pm Friday %26amp; Saturday only: Lauraine Jacobs, confident entertaining. 12.30pm - 1.15pm Friday %26amp; Saturday only: Ray McVinnie favourites from his columns in Cuisine %26amp; Sunday Magazine. 1.30pm - 2.25pm daily: Peta Mathias, Marrakesh %26amp; France. 2.30pm Saturday %26amp; 1.30pm Sunday: Julie Le Clerc, dinner-party solutions. 4.30pm - 5.15pm, daily: Belinda Jackson, wines. Also barbecue demonstrations by Raymond van Rijk and Hawkes Bay produce with Andy Glover. Entry: $15
March 31 - April 6, Elba Cooking Tour, Westfield Mall. Demonstrations 11.30am %26amp; 1pm daily by Richard Till, Simon Holst %26amp; Allyson Gofton.
April 3, 7pm, Mediterranean Food Co %26amp; Cafe, Nic Mavromatis demonstrates Morrocan food. $30 ticket includes lesson, dinner and wines. Phone 379-5122.
April 29, 7pm, Simo%26#39;s Cooking Class, Simo%26#39;s Moroccan restaurant, 114 Cashel Mall. $65 ticket includes cocktail, lesson %26amp; buffet meal. Phone 377-5001.
May 1- 4,, Savour New Zealand culinary masterclasses, the Langham Hotel, Auckland. International and award- winning chefs and winemakers include Govind Armstrong, Andrew Brown, Jonny Schwass, Philip Johnson, Stephanie Alexander, Greg Malouf, Tony Tan %26amp; Patrick Materman. Four master classes a day, with tasting plates %26amp; matching wine. Tickets on sale now from $420 (one-day pass) to $1120 (three days). www. savournewzealand.co.nz
April 3, 6pm - 9.30pm Boy%26#39;s Own (cooking class for men) at Deaux Tartes Cooking School, Sawyers Arms Road. $95 ticket includes dinner. Phone 0800-338-982
May 19 - July 14, 6pm - 9.30pm. NZ School of Food %26amp; Wine, Victoria Street. Essentials of Cooking Fine Food at Home. Eight hands-on classes covering knife skills and cooking techniques. $495. Short courses also available.
May 12, 6.30pm - 9.30pm. The Art of Pastry Making, a practical class with chef Philippe Meyer. $85. www. foodandwine.co.nz. Or phone 379-7501
Throughout the year cooking classes are held in the evenings at CPIT, %26amp; Continuing Education classes at high schools. Information on subjects %26amp; timetables is as close as a telephone call.

Related posts

• Working on top of the world (+videos)
• Woman killed in salmonella outbreak
• Wahine 40 years on: The last rescue
• Wahine 40 years on: The last rescue
• Wahine 40 years on: The last rescue
• The sounds of silence
• The bloody banana’s rule of the world
• The ‘wh’ word
• Supping with angels
• Shoppers’ gloom is worst in decade

The cost of renting a home in Invercargill has risen 18.7 percent in the past year — more than anywhere else in the country, a Massey University study shows.
The median weekly rental in Invercargill rose from $160 in February last year to $190 in February this year, the study shows.
The city%26#39;s renters still paid the second-lowest rent in the country from those places surveyed. Only Wanganui, whose median rent was $185 a week, was lower.
However, Invercargill%26#39;s Jubilee Budget Advisory Service manager Sharon Soper said Southlanders paid higher power and heating prices than other parts of the country in winter and, coupled with food and petrol hikes, the rent increases were hurting many in the community.
Those on low incomes were particularly hard hit, with more than half of many incomes going on rent, she said.
%26quot;We have definitely seen a turn in people sharing accommodation because they can%26#39;t live by themselves and pay $200 a week in rent.%26quot; Solo mums with children and even married couples had got boarders or overseas students in to help pay the expenses, she said.
%26quot;In a lot of cases they have made comments like they have had to put their kids in one bedroom to make way for a boarder because they can%26#39;t afford to pay rent by themselves.%26quot; Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Southland vice-president Tony Jenkins said his initial reaction was the 18.7 percent Invercargill rent increase quoted by the Massey study was too high.
A large number of homes rented at the top end of the market in a particular month could distort figures, he said.
%26quot;My gut feeling is there%26#39;s been a slight increase (in rentals) but I would be very surprised if it%26#39;s 18 percent. I still believe rentals are at a very affordable level where they are. Rentals are still fairly attractive (in Invercargill) compared to the rest of New Zealand.%26quot; There was still a good demand for clean and tidy rentals in the city, he said.
Invercargill sickness beneficiary Pam Milne said she couldn%26#39;t afford to pay $150 for her small Tweed St flat so her daughter, Dena, had recently moved in to help pay expenses.
Ms Milne, 53, said she was paid $238 a week but her rent was $150, which left $88 for power, food, phone, petrol and doctors bills. Her daughter%26#39;s moving in had helped ease the burden financially, but it was not ideal as both wanted their independence, she said.
She had worked and paid taxes all her life and said her predicament %26quot;stinks%26quot;.
%26quot;To have to have a child support me … parents are usually there for their children. There%26#39;s definitely something wrong somewhere,%26quot; Ms Milne said.
Massey University property expert Professor Bob Hargreaves said rental costs tended to fluctuate in Invercargill.
%26quot;Clearly there%26#39;s something going on in your market because house prices have gone through the roof,%26quot; he said.
As city homes became less affordable more people entered the rental market, which allowed landlords to lift rental prices, he said.
%26quot;If you have got demand exceeding supply you can push the prices up.%26quot; Wages were going up slightly ahead of inflation, he said.
%26quot;Rents typically go up faster than wages but they can%26#39;t go up too fast because people can%26#39;t afford them, then kids move back in with mum and dad … but that isn%26#39;t happening now.
%26quot;Most people are doing okay still. Employment%26#39;s still too low for that.%26quot;

Related posts

• ROD ORAM: THE VALUE CHAIN
• Kiwis still cross ditch but increasing number returning
• It’s a beautiful world
• Your say: The luxury of 1kg of Tasty cheese
• WTO trade talks face crucial two weeks
• Vainikolo’s tragedy and triumph
• Trap set for fugitive Nai Yin Xue
• The Sandon; and Faces
• The luxury of 1kg of Tasty cheese
• Shopping shock

Justin Dunning, 17, has admitted 27 counts of wilful damage for tagging more than 20 properties in the Christchurch suburb of Fendalton in December.
He will return to court next month for sentencing.
However, Dunning is keen to become a legitimate artist and has given up tagging in favour of a one-year foundation certificate in design at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT).
%26quot;It is good. I get to draw instead of doing nothing at home. I have given up tagging on people%26#39;s houses and stuff,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;They are good tutors and I am learning a lot. If I stay at home then I think about tagging, so I had to put my mind to something.%26quot;
He sold his first artwork on canvas to a family friend for $100. %26quot;It was girly. It had a cartoon butterfly on it,%26quot; he said.
He wants to create more artworks for sale, but cannot afford the canvases until his education allowance comes through.
%26quot;I will spend all my allowance on food, spray paints and canvases and call anyone who wants a wall done,%26quot; he said.
Dunning said getting caught and the recent Government plans to impose a $2000 fine for tagging were behind his desire to go legitimate.
%26quot;Since they changed the laws, it is pretty stupid to go out on the streets now. I cannot afford spray cans, never mind $2000. I did tagging to practise, but I practised in the wrong places,%26quot; he said.
He also planned to complete a three-year bachelor course in art after the year-long foundation course and pursue an artistic career.
%26quot;I hope to do something with drawing because it is the only thing I am good at. It is just a year, so I will go through it and start a job and go for the bachelor for three years and get a good-ass certificate and then a really good-ass job,%26quot; he said.
Henry Sunderland, the programme leader for CPIT, said Dunning had potential. %26quot;I think potentially he is a bright young man and we could turn him around. I believe he could really do well,%26quot; Sunderland said.
Fendalton resident Jessica Stewart, who was one of Dunning%26#39;s victims when her house was tagged by him in December, believed the art course was a good move.
%26quot;I hope he sticks to it.
%26quot;If he is serious and not just pulling people%26#39;s leg, then good on him. It would be great,%26quot; Stewart said.
%26quot;He is doing something with his life,%26quot; she said.

Related posts

• Wheatgrass juice, sun salutations and a colonic - or two. Just what the celebrity ‘doctor’ ordered
• Shopping shock
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• One year later
• It’s not too late to save Christmas
• Hebron: A Case History of Separation, Forced Displacement and Terror
• Everyone poorer if town’s heritage is allowed to be trampled
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated

Nobody knew much better, and there was no choice anyway. Little wonder, when the chance came, we lined up like lemmings for salmon quiche and salad and a glass of sauvignon at the latest street-side cafe bar.
Times have changed. But while the advent of micro-breweries and a return to real ale has transformed life for the thinking beer drinker, it has taken a while for the food to fall into line. Madison Ave, the Wall Street of advertising, invented the ploughman%26#39;s lunch to get beer back on the lunchtime menu but, for a long time, that was it for innovation. Why should cafe wine bars get all the good food?
Christchurch%26#39;s Twisted Hop is part of the next wave, where hand-crafted beer and an innovative menu come together in a complementary mash-up. Anyway, that%26#39;s the theory. To test it, My Opinionated Girlfriend and I fronted up on a holiday-weekend Saturday to check the reality.
Easter may have been early this year but it already made sense to head for a seat inside, where the gas heaters were glowing. We were shown to a cosy booth in a back corner. I was impressed %26ndash; art on the walls. Not a twee horse collar or reproduction Kiwiana advert in sight, despite such fittings being almost compulsory decor for similar once-were- warehouse brick-and-timber interiors.
The menu took some studying, best done with a drink in hand. Mog plumped for a glass of Wild South chardonnay ($8). I%26#39;ve always been more of a wine than beer drinker but on this occasion I felt duty-bound to step outside that comfort zone. Alongside its own draught beers, brewed on site, The Twisted Hop showcases keg and bottled beers from other New Zealand micro-breweries. The %26quot;guest%26quot; beer on our visit was Invercargill Breweries%26#39; Biman lager ($8.50 a pint), which I had enjoyed once before when down south for the Bluff Oyster Festival. Time to get re- acquainted.
The menu was intriguing, and we resisted such easy choices as %26quot;I%26#39;ll have the chicken%26quot;. Some of the starters, such as the beef involtini ($16.50), came with salad and potatoes, and sounded like small meals rather than entrees. Others, such as the charcuterie plate ($18) or the premium cheeseboard (price varies), were obviously intended to be shared by two or more and washed down with two or more. English-pub staples such as pork pie ($14.50) or Cornish pastie ($13.50) had been made over for the new millennium by the addition of a %26ndash; gasp %26ndash; salad. Mushy peas ($3.50) could be had with anything.
The Manchego goat%26#39;s cheese with grilled chorizo, olives and breads ($12.50) nearly had us but in the end we rather tamely opted for Turkish bread with pesto, hummus and tzatziki ($11) as an entree, to be followed by a Caesar salad with grilled chicken ($19.50) for Mog and grilled Akaroa salmon with Israeli couscous, cucumber, tzatziki and satay sauce ($19.50) for me.
%26quot;To be followed by%26quot; %26ndash; well, that didn%26#39;t happen. Let%26#39;s just say that holiday weekend must have meant holiday staffing and holiday staff %26ndash; our waitress later unnecessarily volunteered that, %26quot;The kitchen is under a bit of pressure%26quot;. That, apparently, is why Mog never got the grilled chicken with her Caesar (they did only charge us $16.50 once we pointed it out). Not sure why we got served our bread and dips two minutes after our salad and salmon arrived, rather than, say, 10 minutes before.
No complaints from me about the salmon, which was tender and juicy. It was a strip of fish rather than a lump, but the price reflected that. Mog%26#39;s Caesar was pretty ordinary, though %26ndash; hardboiled eggs rather than the softboiled on the menu, and the aioli dressing had a texture more akin to garlic butter. But by then Mog was cradling a second chardonnay and I was sampling a Twisted Hop brew by the name of Challenger ($8.30 a pint) %26ndash; it was hard to get too antsy in such circumstances.
The Twisted Hop
Where: 6 Poplar St, Lichfield Lanes, Christchurch. www. thetwistedhop.co.nz
When: Sun-Mon %26ndash; noon-10pm; Tue-Thu %26ndash; noon-11pm; Fri-Sat %26ndash; noon-midnight.
Upside: Intriguing menu, with beer to match.
Downside: Failed to match the promise.

Related posts

• Working on top of the world (+videos)
• Waitangi Day events - what’s on where
• Wahine 40 years on: The last rescue
• Wahine 40 years on: The last rescue
• Wahine 40 years on: The last rescue
• Theft stalls Olympic plans
• The sounds of silence
• The Farm at Cape Kidnappers
• The ‘wh’ word
• Supping with angels

When Venetia Hill got the phone call from the organisers of the Cuisine New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards, she immediately assumed the worst: maybe her entry in the hobbyist category had gone mouldy while being couriered to Auckland from her Motueka home, and wasn%26#39;t fit for judging.
But it was quite the opposite. The call was to ask if she would be able to fly up to Auckland for the awards dinner, to receive the two prizes for hobby cheese-making in the keenly contested competition: the Curds and Whey Champion Hobbyist Cheese title, and the Katherine Mowbray Champion Hobbyist Cheesemaker award.
As it was, the notice was too late for Hill to manage a trip, but her success is probably no surprise to those fortunate enough to have tasted her efforts with fresh goat cheese made in the coulommier style (similar to brie).
While Hill is self-taught, she has been making her own cheese since the 1980s and has more than once been urged to go into commercial production.
She is a firm advocate of goat milk. She originally introduced it to her family%26#39;s diet in an attempt to find something to cure her oldest son%26#39;s eczema.
It worked, and she went on to discover its many other qualities, particularly for cheese-making.
At the time, in the 1980s, she was running a herd of 80 goats on a Dovedale property and while most of their milk went for calf food, she kept a little aside to dabble in cheese-making as part of her enthusiasm for self-sufficiency.
Among various cheese-making mentors she has had over the years, one of the first was an English woman who provided her with %26quot;bit and pieces%26quot;, including, early on, a pamphlet containing recipes and including one for a coulommier-style cheese.
Hill tried it, successfully, and has continued to build on that success, sharing it with friends and family, often to acclaim.
Judy Finn of Neudorf Wines, for example, had long told her she should go into commercial production, Hill says. The real irony, though, is that from the beginning, Hill didn%26#39;t know if her interpretation tasted as a coulommier cheese is supposed to, and she still doesn%26#39;t. Not that it matters, obviously.
The key to it, she says, is a delicate touch. The delicacy is rewarded and repeated in terms of the texture and flavour; it is not at all %26quot;goaty%26quot;.
While the coulommier has been her mainstay, she has branched out and one of her current projects is to produce a feta-style cheese marinated in a local olive oil.
She is also planning a camembert-style goat cheese, and will start hard-cheese production when the days are cooler and conditions are better for storing the hard styles without a specialist cellar.
Hill works occasionally at Neudorf Dairy and it was her sometimes-boss there, Brian Beuke, who encouraged her to enter the awards (Neudorf was also a winner, receiving the Massey University Champion Sheep Cheese Award for its Neudorf Ewes Milk Cheese).
Hill%26#39;s dream is to launch into commercial production of her own. But the hurdles set by regulation are high, not least the pasteurisation rules which have frustrated many a purist%26#39;s enthusiasm for classic, unpasteurised cheese.
While Hill says unpasteurised milk makes a superior cheese and thinks the treatment is pointless anyway for goat milk, since goats don%26#39;t suffer the diseases pasteurising is intended to counter her main problem with pasteurisation is pragmatic rather than principled.
The cost of a pasteuriser would be prohibitive at the scale she would like to work at.
While she hopes that the authorities might relax the rules and allow the commercial production of unpasteurised cheese, she is continuing to investigate options to get into business.
Her current milk source is one of her two pedigree toggenburg goats (although the prize-winning cheese was supplemented with some milk from an anglo-nubian goat owned by Julie Nicol of Kina, who shares a block of land with Hill for the goats%26#39; grazing).
She would like to increase her flock to six goats, which would give her up to 30 litres of milk a day still a minuscule production, but enough to mean that her prize-winning cheeses are not confined to those lucky enough to be in the know.

Related posts

• The bee’s knees of cheese
• Toast Wellington
• The ‘wh’ word
• Supping with angels
• Crimp lets flavour of the sea shine
• 100 years of dog trials
• Your wine problems solved
• Your say: The luxury of 1kg of Tasty cheese
• Yes, we heard the news first on the grapevine
• Working on top of the world (+videos)

In Belgium a handful of artisan farmhouse brewers and blenders in and around Brussels make the beer world%26#39;s most unique and ancient style of beer.
Although the recipe is similar to a standard wheat beer, roughly 30 percent wheat to 70 percent barley, lambic is the only modern-day brewing style where brewers don%26#39;t inoculate the wort (boiled malt extract) with cultured yeast strains.
Brewers in the sixteenth century knew only that if they left the hopped wort overnight in open-topped vessels and with the brewery windows wide open, by the morning the %26quot;miracle%26quot; of fermentation had begun.
We now know exactly what happens: Wild fruit yeasts from local apple and pear orchards float in on the breeze, land in shallow open vessels full of sweet malty wort and begin a spontaneous fermentation. A day later the brew is pumped into unlined oak casks where it will continue a sequence of fermentations for up to three years.
There are several sub-styles of lambic beer. In each case the traditional unsweetened variants are usually labelled %26quot;oude%26quot; (old), while modern, sweetened, versions are identified with the term %26quot;nouveau%26quot; (new).
In New Zealand sweetened beers from Belle Vue, Mort Subite and Timmerman%26#39;s are the most popular (and least costly), but traditional examples from Boon, and occasionally Cantillon, can also be found in Belgian beer cafes and the most beer-savvy shops.
Authentic gueuze is made by blending old and young lambics. As a rough rule the best results come from blending three-year-old lambic with some one-year-old.
Pouring the colour of onion skins, with no head, it smells and tastes earthy and slightly savoury, something like a cross between a toasty, nutty chardonnay and a bone-dry cider!
The tradition of adding locally grown soft fruit to casks of lambic goes back centuries. Raspberry (framboise) or cherry (kriek) lambics are the most traditional, cherry stones can impart delicious almondy/marzipan notes, but peach, blackcurrant, banana and even tea-flavoured variants can also be found.
An old fashioned style that%26#39;s enjoying something of a comeback, Faro is a young lambic that has been sweetened with brown crystallised cane sugar, caramel or molasses.
Pouring a couple of shades darker than a straight lambic or gueuze, this sweet and sour style sometimes offers suggestions of apricot.
Lambic wit beers spiced with coriander seed and Curacao orange peel (in the manner of Hoegaarden and other Belgian witbiers), tend to have a silky, lactic creaminess. The first hybrid lambic-based wheat beer, Timmerman%26#39;s Lambicus Wit, offers suggestions of toast and ginger along with a hint of the lambic%26#39;s wine-like acidity.
Despite their complexity, lambics particularly the oude versions are wonderfully refreshing and, when served chilled in a flute glass, make an excellent alternative to champagne as a welcoming drink at a barbecue or party.
Wonderfully food-friendly, they are, however, probably the ultimate challenge to those whose appreciation of beer is based exclusively on modern lagers.
You have been warned!
Cheers!

Related posts

• Yes, we heard the news first on the grapevine
• TRAVEL: Wild things in the great outdoors
• Toast Wellington
• The luxury of 1kg of Tasty cheese
• The ethical dilemma over eggs
• The ethical dilemma over eggs
• The bee’s knees of cheese
• The bee’s knees of cheese
• Tainted ice cream recalled
• Supping with angels