Expect to hear a lot more from New Zealand's latest self-declared food bowl - Southland.
The southernmost province is aiming to put itself on the map nationally and internationally for premium food products.
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
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Southland proudly produces dairy products, lamb, beef, fish, wild meat, oysters, honey, carrots, grain, potatoes, cabbages and swedes. An oat milk factory is in the planning.
The province has the most abundant food bowl in New Zealand, says Mary-Anne Webber, food and beverage manager at Southland's regional development agency Great South.
"I think we are allowed to say that because we're from Southland and we're biased."
Invercargill's recently opened Southern Pioneers' Food Hub intends to play a pivotal role in boosting Southland's economy and employment through adding value and attaching stories to locally produced food.
The hub, funded by the Primary Growth Fund, opened in April this year and features a commercial kitchen, a space for seminars, research and development and for small-scale production.
"You name it, we'll do anything to get products moving," says Jane Stanton, co-founder of the hub and the owner of Invercargill's Seriously Good Chocolate Company and its cafe.
"What I have always wanted to do is help people design products from the land, from the sea, especially from Southland to get the product to market, to design it, to get the flavours right."
Chris Fraser, who owns Miele Honey and founded the hub with Jane, says Southlanders tend to keep their food success stories to themselves.
"We're a little bit understated... we know [the food is] good but we don't like standing on a soapbox and shouting about it. What I think it's really about is taking those [food] champions and those great stories and taking our chance to promote them.
"New Zealand makes a whole awesome range of primary products but we export so many in drums or in logs... we're just trying to add that extra value and give it a real Southland story and take it to the world."
Icecream made with pinot noir grape skin powder Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Jane says she is particularly interested in using by-products to create value for producers.
She has been working with Invercargill-based Back Country Cuisine - known for its tramping meals - to freeze-dry grape skins.
"Pinot noir grape powder is fantastic in casseroles. It's a replacement for kiwifruit for marinating meat. It tenderises and gives colour and flavour."
Jane has also been making pinot noir salt and pepper using sea salt that is now being produced at Bluff's paua farm.
"We were looking for a sea salt for my chocolates and food and I thought 'why are we getting it from everywhere else when we can make our own?'"
She says the oyster-coloured salt has a unique local story.
Other new products include a freeze-dried potato crumb and freeze-dried cheese which Jane says it perfect for making Southland's famous cheese rolls.
"We thought, for promotional purposes, to do a freeze-dried cheese that lasted, that people could take away and take a bit of Southland with them."
Southland cheese roll Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles