If you ever thought a preserve contest would be a leisurely, gentle meandering affair, think again... turns out timing is everything on the day!

With over 40 years experience to share, it's safe to say that if you're tempted to start preserving but are unsure where or how to start, it'll be well worth taking a visit to Katherine's Kitchen. A no waste philosophy and a passion for sharing her skills and knowledge is what drives this year's Preserve Contest sponsor.

For as long as there’s been the Richmond Community Garden, there’s been preserving. From the get-go we wanted to be sustainable as an organisation, and preserving always played a part in that. We also had a dream of opening a café from the beginning, and even though we had to head over and get our hot water from Avebury house, right from the start we were preserving purple peaches, pears and feijoas in readiness for that.

Taking out awards in the past two preserve contests, RCG’s friends at Recreate NZ love taking the opportunity to test out their preserve making skills on the judges and voting public. But what inspires them to preserve in the first place? And what’s the secret sauce to their great track record of success?

Every good preserve, pickle or ferment starts with some ingredients, a recipe and a whole lot of love, and behind every jar, is a story. 'Follow the Seasons' is the first in a series of stories originating from the Annual Preserve Contest at the Richmond Community Garden, Ōtautahi, Christchurch.

Looking back on which organisations have made the greatest difference to me in this city post-quake, it has to be those that seek to connect us; to bring us together. The organisation in Christchurch that does this better than any other is Te Pūtahi, Centre for Architecture & City Making, so that’s where the How This City Works spotlight will fall first.

Curriculum vitae literally means course of life. And I feel that in the course of writing this blog, it will take on a life of its own. My thinking at this point is all over the map, but I know as with any piece of writing, it'll come together as its meant to over time. To begin with, I'll start with the basics of any CV, gathering core information and seeing what there is to work with.

By the time I landed in Christchurch, I had lived on three continents, 16 different places (towns, cities and villages ) and 27 different flats or houses. I moved a lot. I've never had a hometown to speak of, but I have lived here longer than I have lived anywhere else. And while there's no way I can claim it as 'my own', I figure it makes sense to begin my adventures of looking at how cities work, right here, in a place I know well.

What do you think it is that makes one city different from another? Is it the architecture? The transport system? The food? The business that gets done there? The fortunes that can be made there? The fun that can be had there? Well... maybe there's a little bit of all of that going into a city's mix. But do you know what I think really gives a city its personality? The clue is right there. It's the people; what they do and how they do it.

The quakes have put our city in a unique position. While it's hard to compare different urban centres in the same way - no others have literally had to rebuild from the ground up - in terms of aspirations, of 'what we want', local council websites provide an obvious source for comparison.