I need to work on my timing for next year. This is my first time covering a preserve contest.
While I thought I was totally focused on the job at hand, it was such a beautiful day, I decided to take my time riding across town and enjoy the view. However, I failed to register this fact ahead of time, turns out that judging is a serious business, and judges get cracking early. Of course they do, if the public is going to start tasting at 10am, they need to get in first.
Distracted by the prospect of something delicious from the food trucks and stalls up at Avebury House, I went for a wander. And although there was definitely an upside… I encountered possibly the most delicious nasi goreng I’ve ever eaten from the amazing Jamila Ehsani of the Afghan Cooking Group, who I understand can regularly be found at the Riccarton Racecourse Market… Not only did I miss the opportunity at the start of the day to eavesdrop on the judges’ deliberation at the start and increase my preserve contest judging knowledge tenfold in 10 mins, I came pretty close to missing the People’s Choice vote count!
Luckily I arrived just in time to catch the most exciting part of the day… the presentations!
Lesson Two
Home made preserves are a hot commodity.
In my head, I was going to arrive at the gala, browse the preserves and then sit alongside contest sponsor Katherine, from Katherine’s Kitchen and have a leisurely chat with about everything preserves.
Well, there was no chance of that… turns out she sold over 100 jars of her own preserves within just a few hours. There was little time for her to breathe, let alone sit and pass the time of day with a nosy writer!! I’m really looking forward to a decent catch up with her in coming weeks to get her take on events, how you judge such a range of entries and which was was the most popular product on her own stall that day.
Lesson Three
Having had the pleasure of visiting the crew in Papanui before the contest, I was thrilled to see them, I take out the People’s Choice Award with their delicious raspberry jam. I’ll be publishing a piece on the work they do at ReCreate and – most importantly for this blog – what the story is behind their recipes. It’s a REALLY good one!