# headin' out in the cold... From the sunny north to the wild south, NZ is overflowing with breathtaking backdrops, heavenly harvests and a whole lot of fabulous foodies. So jump on board with us as we hang out with the locals, wrangle some wildlife and feast our way around this magnificent country. Come on, Toppy. We got people to meet and food to eat. Yee-hah! # Nga iwi e. # Copyright Able 2018 This week, we discover the old-fashioned art of preserving is very much on the up and up. We head to Napier to make wild game salami with a handsome hunter... ...and learn how to make Pirate Pickles on the shores of glorious Lake Hawea. Arrr, me hearties! But, first up, we're in Paeroa with ex-Brits Caroline and Simon Marriott, who moved to New Zealand 20 years ago with their beloved Safari Jeep! After five years in Kenya, they opted for a life on 30 acres of paradise. Simon heads up the growing at Omahu Valley citrus, while Caroline creates preserves that are out of this world. In fact, they are the best in the world! Last year, she won The World's Original Marmalade competition. JOOLS: What a beautiful machine. WOMAN: Aw, it's definitely child number five, this. She came all the way from Kenya? Yes. She came all the way from Kenya. Whoo-hoo! We just thought, 'Why not bring her?' We've had many adventures in this car. It's really a gorgeous property, isn't it? It's 30 acres, with all the natural bush surrounding on the hills. And those are your lovely sheep over there, are they? Yes, that's my registered Suffolk flock. We're terribly lucky to have this. These are our limes. We've got about 400 of them in the orchard. 400? Yes, it took some planting. You hang out here a bit, do you? This is my job, yeah. (BOTH CHUCKLE) What were you doing in Kenya? I was the administrator for a private wildlife conservancy there, and our main aim was to conserve the Northern Black Rhino, which, as you know, is critically endangered. Initially, a 5000 acre high-security enclosure was built. Yeah, that's quite a lot of fencing. It certainly was. Some of the information on electric fencing came from New Zealand, which are leaders in fencing. Leading the way in fencing! (LAUGHS) That's exciting. So they captured random animals that were still surviving from the poaching wave. They were darted; then you'd manhandle the animal on to the crate; the crate goes on to a truck; and then released in the sanctuary. And did it work? Yes, it did. Yeah. They're threatened with extinction, and hopefully the efforts of the conservancy will prevent that. So you've gone from manhandling rhinos in Kenya to manhandling mandarins in Paeroa. Well, it is a bit of a contrast, I agree. (LAUGHS) Did you make lemon curd in Kenya? I'd never made lemon curd before in my life before we started the business. Oh, OK. So this is a Kiwi thing? This recipe I actually made up. I make up all of my own recipes. Have you copyrighted it? No, but I probably should, shouldn't I? Are you allowed to copyright a recipe? I think Colonel Sanders thought he could. (BOTH LAUGH) So, we're now going to put the sugar in to that. Eggs. Yes. Lemon juice. We're gonna whizz it all together in Maggie the Mixer. It just takes a bit of revving up, and then she's away. (MIXER WHIRRS LOUDLY) OK. You ready? Yes I am. What am I doing? You're gonna be stirring the butter. Do you have a big machine, or are you just making this little one for me today? No, not at all. No, I always make things in just small quantities. Even my marmalades, I make with just 2kgs of fruit. OK. Cos I believe in the love of each jar. Do you think people notice the love that you've put in to it? Oh, I hope so. Well, that's why she's won a gold. There's love in every jar. Every now and again, we're just gonna come back to that and just stir it. It's going to get thicker... OK. ...and become more creamy. Here we go. We have released the mandarins out of their enclosure. (LAUGHS) Free mandarins. I'm hoping it's going to make some great marmalade. I've never had mandarin marmalade. No, well, we're experimenting. And do you think Caroline is one of the greatest preservers in the world? (LAUGHS) I'd better say yes, hadn't I? (LAUGHS) She's very clever and is willing to try anything new. I think that's a good list of qualities to get going. That's a good start for preserving, isn't it? Because you want to have a go at everything. Is this old-fashioned, or is it kind of a new thing? I think the actual preserving of lemons goes back a long way, but preserved lemons has become very fashionable recently. How am I going? I'm getting better. You're doing` You are getting better. It's sort of looking pretty. Now we're going to select four more coriander seeds. Really precise. OK, what would happen if you put five in? Oh, you'd upset the recipe completely! Please! No! (LAUGHS) So we're looking for four black pepper seeds. Two cloves. Four of those. And two cloves. Gosh, you've now got my secret recipe, haven't you? Yep, that's it. What was the first impression you had of Kenya when you got there? We were literally in the middle of nowhere. Just a flat teaspoon of salt. We had warthogs coming in to the garden. We had baboons in the sitting room. (LAUGHS) And we had monkeys in the kitchen! What fun, though. Oh, it was. Every day. Every day was fun. Every day was survival. Every day was an adventure. Did you love it? Oh, I loved it. Yes. Yes. Did you have any preserved food in Kenya? The only one I really know about is biltong, which is` Oh, it's like a dried meat. It is. And what sort of meat do you use? Well, we were using giraffe,... Giraffe! (CHUCKLES) ...which may sound a bit hard to believe. OK, yeah, that's a bit weird. The man saving the Black Rhino eating giraffe for his morning tea! (LAUGHS) What did it taste like? Damn good. (LAUGHS) The next task for you, Lynda, is to burn our prunings. Righty-oh, that sounds good. Whoo! I'm going great guns. And then we're gonna` So, ten of these, is that right? No, no, no, no, no. Four! (LAUGHS) Just kidding! Keep you under control! We're now gonna add some lemon juice. That, with the salt, is what's going to do the preserving. And then she's all ready to go. We have made art. Isn't that right? Oh, you've done a beautiful job there. Now, you've got about 20 more to do, so you'd better get on with it! (BOTH LAUGH) And when did you first meet Simon? Well, you may not believe this, but when I was 4. Our parents became great friends, and we used to go on family holidays together. Wow. Simon's a little bit older than me. He thought my sister and I were just those horrible little girls, which we probably were when I was 4. I was 14. I don't think I had any interest at all in my wife. (BOTH CHUCKLE) But pretty soon, I had left school and joined the army, and we sort of drifted apart. Then my father died, and Caroline came to the funeral. I thought, 'Goodness me, she's suddenly grown up!' (BOTH LAUGH) You'd turned in to the beautiful swan, had you? Well, I'm not sure about that, but it was just one of those very special moments. I just looked across the room, and I remember looking at his blue eyes, and just thinking, 'That is the man I want to marry.' Sadly, it took Simon another two years to come to the same conclusion. Oh, he didn't come to the party straight away, eh? (LAUGHS) No. Two years from then, when we got married. You were four years old... Till... That was when I was 28. We know you can follow through. (BOTH LAUGH) (GUITAR MUSIC PLAYS) BOTH: # There's a fire in my belly, and it's burning just for you. # I've got no cash, and my bills are due. # But I'll keep on singing this song. Whoo! That looks good, that lemon curd there. You made that. Made by you, Jools, today. Yes. And we've gotta try this lovely sponge here that's got lemon curd as well. All things citrus must come my way. I'm trying a little bit. I'm gonna go half. What do you reckon, Simon? I'm a lucky man, that's for sure. (ALL LAUGH) Here's to the lemon! And you must keep preserving them, for the rest of mankind. I will. Cheers. (DOG BARKS) # Let the fire burn on. # Whoo-hoo! * Hello, darlings. Welcome back to Topp Country. Today, we're raising money for Lord and Lady Thompson's Sea Scout Jamboree for Wealthy and Privileged Children. Yes, and we'll be serving a lovely polenta chip wrapped with prosciutto. I call it 'hog on a log'. And the cocktail of the day ` Italian Mandarin Bellini. And I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the Thompsons for all the work they do for the upper class in this country. Yes. Here's to messing about in wooden boats! (LAID-BACK ACOUSTIC MUSIC) Three years ago, Rob Beard decided to leave his long-time job in the wine industry and turn his hobby of preserving meat into a business. Lara, his wife, said, 'Good on ya, mate! Me and the kids will help too'. And so Wild Game Salamis was born. Based in Clive, just up the road from Napier, it's hard yakka, but one thing's for sure ` this little family business has got a big, bright future! What are we making here? Salami. Righty-oh. You know where that venison came from? Not the exact spot, cos my mate won't tell me where it is. (BOTH LAUGH) But, yeah. And do you get quite a lot of hunters drop their meat off, and they want salamis made? We do, and it's a good way of using the stags. Wanna give it a crack, Lynda? I'll give it a go. Beauty. You just follow around that meat there, eh? Nice. Look at that. Oh, beautiful! There you go. So, your bone there. That's right. Yeah. Do you like making salamis, buddy? I love it, yeah. At one stage there, I was shooting a few wild pigs as well, so I started off with chorizo and beer sticks. Can I get in there? Yep, beauty. You get a passion for it, and then you start reading up about it; you talk to people, and then it just becomes consuming. You know, really get in to it. I've been really lucky to be able to turn a hobby in to a job. And you remember when you made your first salami? Yep, in the kitchen in our little house in Meeanee. I wasn't too bad. I think I stuffed it with a broom handle, actually, cos I didn't have a stuffer. (LAUGHS) And, yeah, it wasn't too shabby. The kids like it, eh? Absolutely, love it. Young fulla, Sam, he loves it. Our secret herbs and spices are going in there. I can see some pepper in there. Yep, that's it. (LAUGHS) Black pepper. It just smells really good. So that's gotta be minced. Yeah. That (SNIFFS) is gonna be one beautiful salami. It'll be beautiful. This is gonna be fun. Thanks for letting me drive the Holden. She's pretty, isn't she, eh? Holden Kingswood. Ooh! We call her Big Red. Whoo-hoo! Did you make any kids in the back seat of this car? (LAUGHS) Beautiful! All right, whoa! How exciting! It's only three gears, right? Yes, three on the tree. This could be dangerous. (ENGINE REVS) Hang on, baby! (LAUGHS) Yee-haw! How exciting. Are you both part of the business? Yes, I do all the paperwork, and Rob does all the making and all the... Yeah, you don't wanna be throwing meat around, do ya? No. Rob woke up one morning and said, 'Let's do something different.' Woke up. 'I've got an idea. Let's start a business.' Put his mind to it; hasn't looked back. Where did you meet Rob? Met Rob at a nightclub. Whoo-hoo! Were you party animals, were ya? I was working. He was partying! (BOTH LAUGH) I was 18, and Rob was 17. And you led him astray, did ya? I did lead him astray. Yes, I did! She chatted me up, yeah. You were the hunted one. Yeah, Lara brought me a drink. Kahlua and milk. Kahlua and milk. Must have been late at night to be drinking Kahlua and milk! It was. Very late at night! It was a nightcap! (BOTH LAUGH) And, uh, yeah, so... Did you think that she was the girl for you then, or...? Yep. Pretty much knew straight away. Yeah. Ever since, we've been inseparable, really. Yep. Yeah. Voila! All the way? Yep. We'll give it a bash. Whoo, here it comes! Here we go. Oh, perfect. (LAUGHS) There you go. Getting a lot of pressure off my salami! (LAUGHS) That's it, done. Let's put it up against the master's. Look, mine's longer than yours. Yeah. (LAUGHS) Standing in our herbal field of fennel. Brilliant. I love cooking outside. We've got a beautiful piece of home-killed lamb. If you like meat, boy, that's gonna be a beautiful piece to cook in the oven, isn't it, eh? Did Rob get that ready for us? Yes, he has. Isn't he clever? And here ` your specialty. We call it 'boudin noir'. Boudin noir. Black pudding, blood pudding. They've got a fancy name for their one. (LAUGHS) But anyway, let's have a look at it. It's venison, and it's poached. Poached. So it's a different way of preserving meat. Yes, yep. Salami's over fire. Righty-oh. We're gonna stuff our lamb with this. Yeah. So, just right there? Yep, just there, and we'll just cut it to the size. So a lot of people get put off by the fact that it's blood in there, but actually, it's a pretty good-looking sausage, isn't it? Very good. What do you reckon? We better put a bit of fennel in. We're in the paddock, so we might as well. Yeah, we're in the paddock. I'm gonna reach over here and grab a little bit of fennel, cos we're surrounded by it. Sprinkle it on. Righty-oh. We do three steps of preserving, really. So it's cured, smoked, and cooked. This is what's going in the smoker, this rod? Yep. You feel like you've really achieved something, eh, when you do preserving like this? Oh yeah. I still get a buzz out of it now, you know, even though I've made hundreds of them. There you go. Look at that, eh. You're gonna preserve yourself in there, buddy! Yeah, I know. That's my one there. That's the long one there. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. I'm gonna check that when I come out tonight. Push her down. Perfect. Done. She's smokin'. Can go and have a cold beer down at the duck pond. How does that sound? Sounds perfect. You changed your whole life to start this new business. It's not an easy task to get all this small goods right, is it? No, starting from scratch is a lot of time. Big hours for Rob. Yeah. Yeah. I reckon we've done pretty good with that. That looks perfect. What do ya reckon? Looks good. There you go! Pretty damn French. (LAUGHS) Do you do a lot of duck shooting? Yeah, I do heaps, yep. Nah, duck shooting's pretty big, yeah. So it's always nice to come down and just chill out, and, yeah, probably more so now. Make sure I take time out. I woke up quite crook early one morning. Just sore shoulders and that sort of thing, sore chest. It'd been pretty full-on. You know, 80 to 100 hours every week. Woke Lara up and said, 'I think I'm having a heart attack.' 38. You don't expect people who are 38 to have a heart attack. No. Wow. Did you have to rush him through to the hospital, did ya? No, he got up and had a shower and drove himself in. Silly bugger! I know! Yes! (LAUGHS) No, a silly bugger, really, as they told me. (LAUGHS) As the nurses keep telling me. I didn't want to panic the kids. Doctor came in, and he said, 'Mate, you've suffered a massive heart attack.' Yeah, so I was just buzzing out, really, thinking, 'Crikey.' It was a wake up call. Especially, like, Lara and the kids and that. I made a mental note ` that was it. Weekends are over. Yeah. I don't think I've worked another weekend since. I just love it. And you'll be excited about those ducks coming in. Your little heart's ticking away there when the ducks come in, and that's good that it's ticking, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. (LAUGHS) Absolutely! Yeah. Our final ingredient ` I've been waiting to do this all day ` pour a bit of wine on it. You can never have too much wine. No, definitely not. Has to be local, of course. Local wine, of course! And we're just gonna braise that for three hours. Here we are. To the working mothers of New Zealand! We'll be braised in three hours after this, too, won't we? Sounds good. Cheers. Cheers. Righty-oh, Jools. Wait until you taste my salami that I made. Is it your salami? Yes, this is the one I made. I was the apprentice, but I did a pretty good job on that one. Did a really good job. Who wants salami? CHILDREN: Me! There's your one, buddy. How long will it last for? Oh... About five minutes on this table. (ALL LAUGH) I'll go the salami. BOY: I'll have a whole roll! (ALL LAUGH) It's only a little bit over, mate. It's always just a little bit... until you're on the receiving end. One times gold-coloured necklace and pendant. She was alive when I got there. Maybe they'll find a few less K's would've saved her. Imagine having that on your shoulders. (ALARM BEEPS) Everyone thinks they drive well. (HELICOPTER WHIRRS OVERHEAD, INDISTINCT POLICE COMMS) But I've never seen anyone crash well. (WOMAN CRIES) FEMALE OFFICER: Is there anyone we can call for you, Mrs Woolford? (SOBS) MAN: Well, this speed's fine along here. I know these roads. I know these roads pretty well too. And I'm doing everything in my power to stop you from seeing the things I've seen on them. Can I see your driver's licence, thank you? * Lorne and Cherilyn Knight chucked in their lofty London lifestyle after their first kid was born in favour of life here in Cherilyn's hometown of Lake Hawea. They reckon this is as busy as this beach gets! Lorne is crazy about preserving, and Pirate Pickles is his absolute passion. No picnic in this family is complete without lashings of Pirate Pickles. A-harrr! Let's walk the beetroot plank! (LAUGHS) Yep. Ho-ho-ho. It's a brilliant name you came up with. How did you come up with Pirate Pickles? The idea was, really, we wanted to try and make sure that we could get our hands on as much windfallen fruit in the area. OK, so you started stealing it first? (LAUGHS) Well,... getting it from places that otherwise would have gone to waste. Then people started offering us stuff, and in return, they get jars of pickles, chutneys, and jams. Well, look at some of these that you can see here. Ah! Look at that monster there! Let's see how much chutney we can get out of that one, shall we? Yes! There we go! (GRUNTS) I can hardly pick it up! You got it, you got it, you got it! (LAUGHS) Central Otago beetroot. That is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. What are you two up to? Oh! Oh! Hello, Paul! Paul, Jools. We've been caught red-handed! They're only babies. Throw them back! Look at that! That's a real beetroot. Oh, that's amazing! We'll fill up our bucket. We should have got a 44 gallon drum to take them home in. There you go! Thank you so much for your beetroot. I know you like that one, and there's a cucumber one. That's our own cabbage pickle. Oh, fantastic! You've got cabbages too? Do you need a front-end loader to pick up the cabbages? (ALL LAUGH) Hey, cheers, Paul. Thank you. Thank you. Arrr! So, we're gonna dig up this potato here. These are all potatoes that we've put in place to break up the land, first and foremost. Oh, look at that! Look at that. Lots of spuddies there! Beautiful. Look at that. Oh, look, worms! Worms! We dug for two years before we found a worm, and then I accidentally chopped it in half. And then you had two worms! Yeah, well,... (CHUCKLES) ...I'm not sure the second one survived. Look at that ` Hawea gold right there. Righty-oh, is that enough spuds for our dish? I think that's plenty for us. Perfect. Was this always a dream of yours, to be a pirate pickler? I've always enjoyed cooking. Always had a passion for it. But then, when I started my career, I started a career in recruitment ` very much corporate lifestyle. Yes. Which is really, really nice, but at the end of the day, I felt that I'd never created anything. I'd made some money, but I'd never actually created anything. I bought a really nice French recipe book, which had a marvellous recipe for an onion chutney in it. I cooked it up one evening, I took it to work the following day, and the lads at work managed to consume the whole thing at lunchtime, and they all raved about it. (LAUGHS) So that was my first-ever chutney. I thought it would be great to develop a chutney and pickle business. Sustainable, no artificial flavours or colouring. The kind of food that your grandmother used to make. And that's kind of how the story started. It's a passion; it's fun. And you certainly came to the right place. It's a total no-brainer. We had the opportunity of living in London, with all the things that that goes with, or we could take our kids to this beautiful location and bring them up here. It was a very simple decision. Life doesn't need to be about making money. It can be about enjoying life and enjoying what life has to offer, and that kind of just worked beautifully in to the idea of doing this. OK, Mrs Pickles. Yes, right. They call you Mrs Pickles, do they? When I used to do the stall with Lorne, I used to get Mrs Pickles. (LAUGHS) What am I supposed to be doing? Right, you need to dice these potatoes up, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna finish them off by frying them in the bacon fat. OK, righty-oh. And we're putting it in a little pastry. It's like a baby bacon and egg pie. Yeah. Lorne's the cook of the family. I basically stay out of the kitchen as much as possible, and he keeps me out of the kitchen as much as possible. Have you ever interfered in making the pickles? No, not a chance. I mean, Lorne is what I call a 'kitchen troll'. He doesn't let anyone in the kitchen. He's like the troll under the bridge who won't let you past, to the point where he didn't even know that I could cook. It sounds like a perfect arrangement. Exactly. A couple of rashers per pie, is it? Uh, we might as well go for the whole lot. The whole lot? I like bacon in my pie. Mrs Pickles is so extreme! (LAUGHS) So, how did the pickling empire begin? Well, the first time I really sort of noticed Lorne doing any pickles, he was on paternity leave. So he was supposed to be at home helping me out with the kids. Instead, he locked himself in the kitchen for two weeks; we didn't see him. Did he do anything with the kids in that time? Not really, no. He did actually provide quite a lot of pickle, though, to his friends. (LAUGHS) They were very impressed with his paternity leave. Now, these are beautiful apples. These were plundered` Given to me, to be fair, by my next door neighbour. This is a mighty fun machine. The core should stay on the thing. Ooh! And look at that! That's the most amazing apple peeler. It just comes out all like that. I'm gonna give that to Lorne. He's gonna chop it up for me. Pirates don't usually have wives, do they? No, I'm unusual, in that respect. I met Cherilyn in England. She was doing the Kiwi thing, travelling around the world. We were working in an office in London. She was an office worker? In your office? Absolutely, and she came wandering across one day` That's a big, fat no-no, isn't it, buddy? Um... (LAUGHS) Well, that's what she felt about it, but it worked out all right. The company matched us up together at the Christmas party, and then, when I start` You were forced together? Pretty much. I didn't know this at the time. I sat down at the table. There was a bunch of party poppers on all of the side plates. Reached across and grabbed some, to which some obnoxious person turned around and told me that wasn't my side plate, and did I know which knife and fork to eat with? And that was Lorne? That was Lorne! (BOTH LAUGH) What I remember was the hat ` the beanie hat. (LAUGHS HEARTILY) I'm not entirely certain, but maybe her grandmother knitted it for her, I'm not sure. If she was a Kiwi girl, she would have had something that Mum knitted! She wanted to keep her head warm. OK, I wasn't expecting to go to a posh Christmas party. I'd just started with the company. (LAUGHS) So I looked like the typical Kiwi in London. Yes, the Kiwi girl messing everything up in England. Pretty much, yup. So` Something must have gone right, though. I think, with Lorne, he's extremely honest. He's probably one of the most honest people I've met. If you're looking for someone you wanna be able to trust, then he's definitely your man. He's a good bugger. He is a good bugger. Nice. Had to go halfway around the world to find him, but... I found him. (LAUGHS) And here we are now. Two kids, living in Hawea. A very happy pirate. Yes, indeed. A very happy pirate, indeed. (LAUGHS) So, we've got some mustard seed here, some coriander, some clove and some cinnamon, and the red wine vinegar and red wine. So all the ingredients will be this lovely red colour when they come out. Can't wait. No, neither can I. (BOTH LAUGH) We're gonna be in a pickle later on. Actually, we're not gonna be in a pickle; the pickle's gonna be in us. (BOTH LAUGH) I know that the pie's good, because Mrs Pickle and I made them, and they're perfect. I can assure you the pickle's good as well. Cos I'll tell you something ` that's how they grow a beetroot down here, matey! (ALL LAUGH) That's beautiful. Little spicy. It's the pie that makes it. Beautiful! So, a pirate toast, then? Yes! ALL: Arrr! Ya blaggards! To the pirates! The pickling pirates! Arrr! ALL: Arrr! (LAUGHTER) I remember when I was just a wee boy. My mother loved to cook. She did it all from scratch, Ken. Never used a book. My mum loved to bottle. Her pickles were a treat. She'd let me help her cut the fruit. She even cured meat, Ken. And on a Winters evening, when all the trees were bare, we'd open up that luscious fruit for all of us to share. I love you, Mum. I love you more, Mum. No, you don't. Yes, I do. No.