KEY POINTS:
I knew I should have got up earlier. There I was, downing a quick flat white on Anzac Ave and about to hit the road when, suddenly, my intended destination was bandied round the cafe as if it were merely round the corner.
It turned out half the cafe was off to the farmers' market in Matakana after their communal coffee pit-stop. Hmph, I grimaced, slamming down my empty cup and firing up the car.
That's the problem with good things; other people cotton on and, before you know it, your little secret is no longer, well, a secret. You show up as usual one day to find your cafe/butcher/pie shop swamped with the world and his dog panting for a slice of the action and spoiling it for everyone (you).
Matakana Farmers' Market had been my little secret. That I'd previously never been was neither here nor there; I'd been intending to go for some time. Just not in convoy from Anzac Ave.
Bizarrely, Matakana is not sign-posted from the main highway (take the Leigh turn-off at Warkworth) though this doesn't deter its many punters - and they're certainly not all locals.
All that extra traffic means you won't find a park within a hundred yards of the action (unless you got up earlier and skipped coffee). So you have to drive out through the village then walk back into the stream of people who arrived before you and have already stuffed themselves silly with super-size strawberries and salty oysters. For this is a typical Saturday morning in Matakana; the village is positively humming with energy before you've even set eyes on the market and next time you'll vow to arrive at dawn. Well, before 10 o'clock.
So what's the fuss all about? Imagine going to a supermarket and cherry-picking the best of everything, then stripping it of its commercial processing and packaging.
Add to that a whole heap of organic, home-grown stuff you wouldn't find in your average high street.
Next, round up everyone who made or grew it beneath stripey topped stalls. And there you'll have the honey guy, Tristan Reid of family-run business Marshwood Apiaries, who makes pohutukawa honey - not many beekeepers do this, he says - and grows dark, malty avocados.
Matakana Fresh grow tiny, round capsicums, earthy basil with pointed leaves and firm green beans. Jeni Quayle of Waybyond, makes up bags of salads with a difference; edible flowers, from nasturtium to kale and borage, tumbled with celery, fresh herbs and half a carrot. A guy called Brian whips up hot mussel fritters - mine just one of about 180 he'll fry that morning - enriched with a dark stout beer, sprinkled with lemon salt and served on a soft slice of buttered wholegrain.
Joy Iversen makes fresh lemon curd, which she spoons into dinky short-crust pastry shells and sells for a dollar a pop.
Lorraine North from Windfall Foods does curds, too - lemon, passionfruit and lime - and can tell you that her mother's tomato chutney is good with blue cheese. And if you fancy steak for tea, smear it with a fiery manuka-smoked mustard made by Mustardmakers Jon and Morag Standbrook. The pepper-pot mustard - on its debut outing when I visited - has terrific crunch and heat.
And is it worth the one-hour drive? Absolutely.
As well as all this brilliant produce, the setting's easy on the eye; and you can sit by a quiet stream beneath trees which rustle in the breeze.
If it's sunny, soak up the rays or take shade at a giant picnic table.
Enjoy the live music and smells wafting over from the hot-food stand - waffles, crepes, home-made gnocchi - and, without realising, you'll be part of a happy gathering committed to sorting plastic forks from paper cups for the recycling pots.
Wander round the surrounding boutiques while you're there - you'll find local wines, a florist, a bookshop, pottery. Or catch a film at the cinema (now there's a great bribe for the kids in the car).
But all those people, those crowds? Well, it wouldn't be much fun on your own, now, would it.
And how did they all find out about this place, anyway? Answers on a home-grown, recycled postcard please.
Matakana Farmers Market,
Saturdays 8am-1pm
www.villageatmatakana.co.nz
- Detours, HoS
