Editorial: Bountiful land well worth walk

Why buy produce from USA when we have it in season in NZ? Photo/Thinkstock

I ascended Sugar Loaf at the weekend.

Astonishing how such a prominent landmark gets harder to find the closer you get to it. My son and I spent at least five minutes lost in the leafy suburb of Taradale.

At base camp it was obscured in a soft mist, like the steaming loaf had just been pulled from the oven.

Conditions, though, were perfect.

The din of a thousand bees worked the hill's flora. A well-worn track led to a summit of grey boulders, where a rabbit limped through masses of flowering oregano. If it were thyme, it would have been the pitch-perfect Central Otago vignette.

My son saw a marvellous Beatrix Potter scene - I saw dinner.

Already I was browning-off rabbit cuts and adding the wild oregano before roasting the gamey morsels in a combination of citrus zest, Riesling and chilli.

The same thought enters my mind when I travel to our favourite Central Hawke's Bay beach and spy a gang of turkeys on a fenceline.

Such is the bountiful region we find ourselves in.

Squirrel-like, I have numerous public culinary sites in Hastings where I pilfer a sprig of rosemary from a grassy berm, (partially paid for by my rates I'll hasten to add), snip a handful of sugary grapes or twist a lemon from a kerbside specimen near Frimley Park.

It's why when I went to Countdown supermarket last week and bagged four limes, only to see they were labelled "product of USA" that I simply had to put them back.

Culinary treason, surely, when I can count no fewer than 20 citrus trees suffering under the weight of their own fruit on the quick stroll from home to the supermarket.