Taste Treats

I photographed these gorgeous cupcakes at the Royal New Zealand Show last week. So so pretty. They were too hard to resist. They're made by the very successful Christchurch company, The Cupcake Collection, who now have their own store on Colombo Street in Beckenham. They also make regular appearances at city markets and they have a loyal following - understandably! www.thecupcakecollection.co.nz

Showing Down South - Showtime 25

This is how they do animal showing in the wild south - wild highland bulls, wild beards and kilts. It kicked my Royal New Zealand Show Day off with a grin I can tell you. It seemed to me that the two most popular places on show day opening were the cattle ring and the City Farmyard - no surprise in regards to the latter given the cold weather and the farmyard's indoor location. It was baby everything - all fur and feathers as kids gathered and chatted around rabbits, puppies, piglets, lambs, chickens and ducklings.

www.theshow.co.nz www.nzcupandshow.co.nz

Meet the People - 45 [Showtime -23]

Another in the Series Meet the People – Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders Doing Interesting Things – Christchurch author and gourmet cook, Shirley Bradstock has been passionate about food all her life. She’s run a small catering business; she’s made cakes for Auckland delis, she’s run her own family kitchen; and in between baking and parenting she produced the first of her 14 cookbooks. I caught up with Shirley at the Royal New Zealand Show, where she was demonstrating some of the latest gourmet products in her Shirley’s Kitchen range.

Shirley started producing her small batch gourmet products – panforte, marzipan fruits, spiced figs and plums and the like – in 2001 and she’s since worked hard to include other topline delicacies like chocolate and walnut fudge, Kirsch marmalade, fig and walnut log and a new apricot and almond version. I’m a firm believer in making my products in small batches so I can keep the flavours real and the quality high. I’m involved in everything I make, so I can inspect every jar of spiced figs, every fig and walnut log. That’s important to me,” says Shirley. Initially the products were made in a rented commercial kitchen but in 2002, Shirley made the decision to refit her home kitchen to HAACP standards. After many months of construction, paperwork and testing, she was one of the first individuals in New Zealand to have a Food Safety Programme operating from a home kitchen. She is an active member of the Canterbury Branch of the NZ Chefs’ Association and a member of the NZ Food Writer’s Guild – and as if that wasn’t enough, Shirley also works as a culinary consultant in teaching, recipe development and judging. “ I love trying different recipes, creating my own variations and generally experimenting with food and making good things to eat. I get a little twitchy if I am away from the kitchen for more than a few days,” she says. Her products are now available throughout New Zealand in delicatessans and retail outlets and they’re also used by all major airlines flying through New Zealand. www.shirleyskitchen.co.nz www.theshow.co.nz

Show Business - Showtime 20

It’s been many years since I attended an A& P Show – that most venerable of New Zealand agricultural and pastoral traditions – but the minute I stepped onto the showgrounds at Wigram, here in Christchurch for the 2009 Royal New Zealand Show this morning, it was like I’d never been away. I worked fulltime as an agricultural journalist in the Wairarapa many moons ago and I should have known that not a lot about A&P Shows would have changed. It took me all of an hour to establish that all the old favourites have turned up for what is now New Zealand’s largest agricultural and pastoral show – the horses (3,595 of them), the multi-breeds of cattle (877 in total), a diverse range of sheep (1,103 of those), and everything else from poultry and pigeons to goats, alpacas, pigs and llamas. And that’s before you get anywhere near the farm machinery, the wood chopping, the food demonstrations, the sideshows and all the retail outlets.

Sadly, it was a bitterly cold morning for the show’s opening but that wasn’t stopping anyone. The cute-as-a-button miniature Shetland ponies were wearing their coloured covers as they waited for their turn in the ring; the cattle breeders were putting on an awesome display of huge animals; and the City Farmyard was doing a roaring trade as young (and old) visitors came in to swoon over ducklings, chickens, lambs, piglets, calves and bunnies. Roosters were crowing their hearts out; ducks and pigeons were ruffling their feathers; and animal pens across the showgrounds were already displaying the first of their prize sashes.

I amused myself prowling around the stables, delighting in the horsey-talk of the stable signage. I ducked and dived between a steady stream of cattle beasts being led to and from the show ring. I chatted with the Army boys as they set up for their lunchtime band performance. I tasted food samples in the Food & Wine Pavilion, ducked into tents between rain showers and I photographed wood choppers. It was sunny by the time I left in the early afternoon hours and the crowds had begun to swarm into the grounds. They have a busy schedule of events and performances over the next two days and in that time over 500 volunteers including 196 judges and 247 stewards, will be coming to the end of an impressive 22,000 hours of voluntary service in the year that’s required to bring the show together. www.theshow.co.nz www.nzcupandshow.co.nz

Counting Down - Showtime 9

Arrrhh…sheep shearing, wood chopping, dog trials, horse jumping…..all etched into my brain decades ago when, as a young cadet journalist at the South Waikato News (then [and maybe still] the southern arm of Hamilton’s Waikato Times), I trudged around the Tokoroa A&P Show interviewing sweaty shearers, huge woodchoppers, bull breeders and assorted other brawny agricultural types. Many years later, after a spell in the big smoke (Auckland), I found myself doing the same rounds as an agricultural journalist in the Wairarapa. Nothing much had changed. And now, even more decades on, I’m about to throw myself into the ring again (as it were), when I go along to the 2009 Royal New Zealand Show, which runs from November 11 to November 13 here in Christchurch.

The Royal New Zealand Show of course, completely eclipses any of the other provincial A&P Shows I’ve visited during my lifetime. For a start, they’re expecting over 120,000 people to visit Canterbury Agricultural Park this year – for a show that has been showcasing the best of the agricultural world for 147 years. In addition, over 6,500 animals – horses, beef & dairy cattle, sheep, alpaca, llama, poultry, pigs, goats, dogs and more – have been brushed, fluffed and groomed for their big day out in the show ring. Over 600 trade exhibitors are also taking the opportunity to present new ideas, products and services; and live music, the NZ Army Band, the eternally popular and much-loved Topp Twins will all be adding to the noise and fun. Me? I’ll be heading straight for the wood-choppers….a little trip down memory lane as it were. And I probably won’t get past the International Aromatic Wine Competition or the New Zealand Gourmet Oil Competition. There’s just something eternally chummy about everyone standing around sampling good stuff! www.theshow.co.nz Both photographs courtesy of NZ Cup and Show Week/Christchurch City Council

Showtime 8 - All the Fun of the Fair

Image Courtesy CCC&NZCup&Show Week

Love the swirls of colour and movement in this image from last year's Royal New Zealand Show. It says so much about the pace, the colour, the extravagance, the fun of New Zealand Cup and Show Week, which is now New Zealand's largest festival of racing, fashion, agriculture and entertainment, all crammed into one hectic week from November 7 -14. It's a week that's filled with parties and socialising and a city filled with hats and high heels. I loved watching all that last year when I was in Melbourne in time for the Melbourne Cup. As trams, cabs and trains pulled to a halt all over the city, passengers spilled out in their finery - giggling groups of young women excited yet still a little self-conscious about wearing hats; men in pinstriped suits; the fashionistas strutting their stuff. It's the same in Christchurch - although forget trams and trains spilling out hat-wearing race-goers. That ain't a happening thing here; but packed bars and restaurants are. And for the kids the Royal New Zealand Show turns on another whole world of entertainment - the animals, the rides, the fairground atmosphere. It's all happening - soon! www.nzcupandshow.co.nz www.theshow.co.nz

Showtime 4 - Putting on a Show

It’s been a long time since I went to an A&P show - Agricultural & Pastoral for those overseas who may not know what an A&P show is. But as a kid growing up in the Waikato, they were part of the annual calendar. I wasn’t a farmer’s daughter but A&P shows have a way of luring in entire communities wherever they are held in New Zealand – and in Australia. My last association with A&P shows was as an agricultural journalist in the Wairarapa about 20 years ago – reporting on show events, interviewing stud farmers, photographing shearers and wood-choppers – all the fun of the fair as they say. And then last year, when I was in Melbourne and its rural environs for three weeks – that’s Australia by the way, not New Zealand – I visited the Kyneton Show. What a treat. Everything much the same as our smaller rural shows – the cows, the poultry, the horses, the dogs, the machinery demonstrations, the side shows and ferris wheels – with the added bonus of something distinctly Australian – red dust and a poisonous snake display.

This year, I’m priming myself for a return to the A&P show scene – yes, already – for the Canterbury A&P Association’s annual show, which has been delighting visitors every year since its inception in 1862. The association was granted the rights to host the Royal New Zealand Show until 2012 inclusive and that has inspired a new level of excellence among livestock competitors and judges alike. It’s the most prestigious agricultural event of the year – over 120,000 people attended in 2008 - and whether you’re a food and wine lover, a daredevil or an animal fan, you’re going to find something to please. There will be over 7,000 livestock and feature competition entries, a grand parade, and around 600 trade exhibits; and during the three days of the show over 3,000 horses, 1,000 sheep, 900 cattle, 300 alpacas and hundreds of other animals from dairy goats to sheep dogs, converge on Canterbury Agricultural Park at Wigram, in Christchurch. It’s all part of New Zealand Cup and Show Week, the 10-day festival that contributes over $27-million to the local economy. If you want to check out this year’s programme and get yourself some of the first tickets, check out http://www.nzcupandshow.co.nz/ and there’s additional info at http://www.theshow.co.nz/ This year’s Royal New Zealand Show will be held on Wednesday, November 11, Thursday 12 and Friday 13th. All images courtesy Christchurch City Council, NZ Cup & Show Week.