Nadia Lim is one of the country’s best-known and best-loved cooks. But even she can run out of recipe ideas sometimes.
That’s how she’s feeling when I talk to her at her Arrowtown farm, where she and husband Carlos live with their boys Bodhi, four, and River, nearly three. They grow almost all the food they eat, something she finds immensely satisfying.
“I really love that,” she smiles. “But do you know what? I’m just starting to get a little bit bored of pumpkin, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, onions, carrots and parsnips. That’s literally all we’ve got left! And even I’m running out of ideas of ways to use it.” She has 18 pumpkins left for the rest of the winter and is on a mission to get Bodhi to enjoy it – he won’t touch it right now.
But being overwhelmed with home-grown vegetables isn’t really what’s occupying Nadia’s thoughts these days.
She and Carlos have a bigger mission than just feeding themselves. They want to feed many others from their 485-hectare farm, too, and along the way help reshape the way New Zealand grows its food. “Our mission is to create a blueprint for other farms around New Zealand for how to farm in the most sustainable, ethical and profitable way,” she says.
“It’s a real trifecta. You’ve got to have all those boxes
