Matakana Farmers Market

Busy weekend. Beginning early Saturday with a stroll around the now-famous Matakana Farmers Market, the very same gig that, supposedly, made my friend at The Vintry, Mr. Smith, abandon his career as a London wine merchant (or MI6 spy—you pick) and hot-foot it to New Zealand to pour flights of Rose in a wine bar.

The Matakana Farmers Market is small—about 40 vendors, I reckon. And designed in kind of a wheel with little stalls both on the inside of the circle and around the outside. For some reason I kept thinking of Shakespearian times, half expecting a play to break out at any second with men dressed as women and a jester being chased by someone with a sword. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Since it was barely 10 a.m., first stop was the little coffee bar at the front of the market where I could order a flat white from Matakana Coffee Roasters (“Hand Made Coffees, Slow Roasted in Small Batches”). Sipping that, I looked for a stand to get a morsel of something to settle the ol’ stomach. And guess what I found? A stall selling whitebait fritters! No kidding!

The only problem was that there was a huge line, everyone deciding, like me, that a whitebait sandwich was just the thing to have for breakfast. It must have taken me 15 or 20 minutes to get my order, but it was worth it. A lovely little Kaipara whitebait fritter served on a slice of white bread with just a little salt and a squeeze of lemon. Perfect.

So why is the Matakana Farmers Market such a gem? Good question. Let me sit down on a bench in the sun with my whitebait fritter and cup of flat white and think about this. What I would say is that they’ve done a good job keeping out the junky vendors you’ll find at most farmers markets. No one here is selling trinkets or T-shirts. Plus it’s small. Sometimes when you go to a farmers market there are like 20 people selling strawberries and it can be overwhelming. Here it’s pretty much just one of everything. You’ve got the Mustard Guy (that would be Jon) selling jars of Bush Honey & Orange Mustard (the label reads “delicious with ham & pork”) and Manuka Smoked Mustard (“wonderful with beef & barbecue”), and the Beer Folks (Peter and Decima Freckleton) who make hand-crafted ales and lagers (“canned by hand!”), and the Lemon Tart Lady (“Just call me the Queen of Tarts”) with her luscious pastries (only $1) sold out of recycled egg cartons. And, of course, the Whitebait Fritter folks.

It’s all good and it’s all so manageable.