History – Auckland’s food basket

Tastes of Tamaki is the theme of the Auckland Heritage Festival next month. If we go back around 150 years, we find that many of those tastes came from the Rodney area. Rodney was, and is, blessed with sheltered valleys, a temperate climate and easy access to the city of Auckland. Back when the country was being opened up for settlement and Auckland was the capital, ships were already operating between Mahurangi, Omaha, Matakana and the city. In fact, many of those ships were built here, too.

By 1860, several orchards and nurseries were operating in the Matakana – Pakiri region. The main one, and in fact the largest in Australasia at the time, was that of James and Charles Mathews, brothers from Scotland. Their father, an orchardist and nurseryman himself, supplied them with barrels of plants and they planted several orchards.

Apples, pears, plums, peaches and nectarines were the main fruits grown. A lot of the interesting, exotic plants that Sir George Grey planted at Mansion House on Kawau came from the Mathews’ nursery.

By 1880, when the Mathews brothers closed their orchard, Edward Morrison’s Red Bluff nursery and orchard on the Mahurangi River was in full production operating there until 1919. Edward experimented with many varieties of fruit to find the best for local conditions, as well as trialling the unusual such as tea, red currants, passionfruit and grapes. At one stage, he had 140 varieties of apple. Fruit was sent to Auckland in boats with holds specially designed for fruit transport.

Post-World War I dairying offered better returns and a lot of local orchards were pulled out. Jump forward 100 years and Rodney is still Auckland’s food bowl. There are now many vineyards in the area, though some of those have been and gone, and there is still serious fruit and vegetable growing, with diversification into boutique products such as locally brewed beers, and quality sauces and preserves using local produce.

Some different tastes to consider, and an offshoot of the earlier dairying takeover, were dairy products from the local co-op dairy factories, with the likes of the Rodney Dairy Company in Warkworth. Then came the Albertland cheese factory, which operated in Warkworth for 20 years from 1968. Puhoi Valley Cheese started around the time Albertland closed and is still going strong.

Another taste from the area is seafood, of course, with Kawau Bay and the Hauraki Gulf on Rodney’s doorstep.

Leigh Fisheries was set up in 1957 using long lining methods, and is still going strong. Oysters from the Mahurangi River are also part of our seafood bounty.

Warkworth Museum has put together an interesting display to celebrate the Auckland Heritage Festival. If you want to find out about oysters, orchards and more, come along to the two talks being held at the museum on October 2 and 7.