Living Goodness with Peter Kearns and Fiona Dykes

I love finding out where great products come from, who makes them and why. Every time I walk by something new at Raeward Fresh I wonder how it came to be and what went on in the lives of its producers which made its way into that box or this jar. On top of this, the often outstanding packaging (usually made from renewables) and super nice graphic design tells me a lot about the consideration and care these makers embody. Once I get the newbie food item home and have a sample, I’m even more curious about why someone would go to this much trouble to make, for instance, a wide range of perfectly fermented living food sauerkrauts in a place so far away from Germany, or even the U.S. Midwest or Seoul (the other capitols of sour…)? So when I found out that the creators of all these super nice fermented foods met on the solar eclipse trail in China, things started to come together. 

Peter Kearns grew up in Karori where his father owned the Gipps Street Butchery. He grew up working in the food industry and eventually made his way to another foodie mecca on the other side of the world in East London. Fiona grew up near London where she worked in energy efficiency and sustainability. After meeting in China, the couple lived in London for a while longer but became disillusioned with their jobs and decided to move back to NZ. They wanted to start something completely new but weren’t exactly sure what that might be until health issues forced them to look for fermented foods as part of the healing regime for pancreatitis. 

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This is where Peter’s food background came back into play. He knew what he needed health wise, which was a living prebiotic and probiotic food which he could enjoy every day as a way of rebuilding his gut health. Even more importantly though, Peter knew how to combine traditional and innovative approaches to fermenting ingredients which would stand out not only for himself, but a growing group of food and health enthusiasts around New Zealand. And thus, Living Goodness was born. For instance, his deft use of juniper berry and caraway seeds in their Sassy Sauerkraut is brilliant.

Now, it may be true that aside from a few Maori dishes, Kiwi’s aren't typical fermented food eaters (beer not included). But what is true is that we do like to try new things and make even more new things from what we’ve learned. For instance, when you look at Fiona’s suggestions for using their broad range of foods in your everyday eating, you can see fermented foods making a lot of delicious sense:
Living Goodness Sassy Sauerkraut  
• Sprinkle on your salad or a simple avocado and toast open sandwich with olive oil and seeds
ª Mix through some boiled potatoes with just a little bit of butter just before serving

Heartbeet Kraut
• Layer in a pulled pork warp or add to a veggie burger
• Make a hazelnut, salami, gruyere cheese and sauerkraut toastie

Sum Yum Kimchi
• Have it as a condiment to a Tofu and exotic mushroom bibimap
• Put some spice in your rice by adding Sum Yum Kimchi before you serve

Super Superkraut
• Mix through brown rice, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, chopped tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, your favourite herbs, olive oil & lemon juice
• Have as a side to grilled fish with garlic, lemon

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I’ve done some taste tests of my own with some good old Southland Desiree red potatoes and Raeward Fresh Queenstown's Pork and Apple Sausages and came up with this for lunch:​

Sassy
Lovely depth, caraway comes through nicely. Blends beautifully with apple pork sausage. You know it when you strike a juniper berry though. Fiona recommends leaving them aside as they are there to flavour the mix. 

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Quick draw slaw
A punchy balance of celeriac, carrot and chili comes through. Again, mellows with sausage and creates a nice foil to the meatiness

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Super
Seaweed comes through immediately with the kale and cabbage complimenting. Spun my sausage towards a Korean direction, like it would have gone great in a gimbap or as a condiment with bulgogi

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Naked
Super fresh and crunchy with a pert salty flavour. Perfect with sausage, especially warmed up like the Ze Germans would do. Warming up your Living Goodness Sauerkraut will kill off the bacteria but take the flavours in another nice direction.

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Heart
Really interesting with the deeper red cabbage notes coming through softened by the sweet/earthy beetroot. With sausage, mellows to a red cabbage slaw which would pair well with venison.

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Kimchi
I had this with dinner and having grown up with Kimchi in California, found it to be a bright, solid version of this ancient condiment. 

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There’s a growing awareness that fermented foods eaten daily have heaps of gut health benefits. What I learned recently from Fiona however, is that for probiotics to work, they need to feed off prebiotics in order to flourish and do their job. Living Goodness therefore use a prebiotic chicory root in their foods as part of the living system. Which I guess makes sense coming from a couple who met following solar eclipses around the world. Which is not to say that they’re hippies, which they might be, but that they are both visionary and deep in their understanding and appreciation of the world. You can see this in the ingredients and process behind each of their foods and we’re grateful at Raeward Fresh that their journey has become part of ours.