Brand New Zealand

My dear wife – especially dear just now because she has taken the children off to the Manawatu and Wairarapa for the next few days so that I can write a book, or at least get a good start on it as it is due in two weeks – passed on this from Straight Furrow (not online): the owners of a Gisborne lifestyle block sell their organic avocados and mandarins at the local farmers’ market under the label “Quite Tasty”.

“Quite Tasty”. Has there ever been a more quintessentially understated New Zealandy brand name?

Speaking of farmers’ markets, we were in Auckland last weekend so checked out the Grey Lynn version which is down Richmond Road from a café called JAFA and in a hall (unlike our local which is up the road from a café called Rata and outdoors in a park with trees). There was a chap there selling Over The Moon cheese from Putaruru: it is excellent cheese but hardly local which I thought was the whole point of farmers’ markets. Still, the Grey Lynn Community Centre is a very nice hall which is why I published it in Architecture NZ when I was editor a year or 12 ago.