MEET YOUR {OUTSTANDING} MAKER - KIWI QUINOA
Dan and Jacqui Cottrell
Take a farmer with an itch to do something new and an agronomist with a passion for health food and what do you get? New Zealand’s first locally grown quinoa!
Dan and Jacqui Cottrell harvested their first commercial crop of quinoa in February 2016 and began selling it in September 2017. Kiwi Quinoa received critical praise from day one and that was affirmed earlier this year, when Kiwi Quinoa was awarded a Gold Medal in the 2019 Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards.
The idea of growing quinoa came about as a diversification opportunity on the family sheep and beef farm near Taihape. Their Kiwi Quinoa journey began in 2012 on their OE. Dan and Jacqui travelled though South America when they recognised parts of Peru’s landscape looked like the Central Plateau where Dan’s family have farmed for four generations. Jacqui says “We’d eaten so much quinoa on the Inca Trail. It’s one of the Bolivian and Peruvian people’s staple foods. This was where the idea of growing quinoa in the Rangitikei was born.”
Kiwi Quinoa is grown on rich volcanic soils using sustainable farming practice. It comes from Dan and Jacqui’s farm-saved seed and grows outdoors without irrigation. It is spray-free; with no herbicide, fungicide or pesticide used - a mixed cropping system and mechanical weed control make this possible. Growing quinoa integrates well with their livestock farming operation and is part of their regenerative approach to farming.
The past few years developing Kiwi Quinoa have provided many trials for the pair, from crop failure to becoming marketers, educators and sales people - but they wouldn’t have it any other way. From an initial 2014 trial, they found the perfect quinoa variety that suited their high altitude, hill country farm and had a short growing season of 110 days which suited the climate. “Little did we know how much work there was - from growing it, to marketing it, all the way to getting it in front of customers. There’s been a lot of learning along the way,” Dan says.
One of this year’s highlights was having their farming and quinoa featured on Country Calendar. "This has been fantastic - a proud moment for our family business to tell our story," says Dan.
Kiwi Quinoa is a wholegrain variety which is unprocessed and has not been polished. This preserves its nutritional benefits and its distinctive golden colour. Jacqui says it tastes different to other quinoa, “it has a mild nutty flavour (as it is saponin free), it has no bitter aftertaste. We’re big on taste and food being delicious.”
People are just figuring out what to do with quinoa, how to prepare it and what to include it in. That’s what Dan and Jacqui have identified as the biggest barrier to get people to enjoy it on a weekly basis. We’re taking away the fear and letting people know how they would use it beyond a salad, Jacqui says. Jacqui has developed some delicious recipes not only for salads but for Bliss Balls, Chocolate Cake, muffins and tarts.
Kiwi Quinoa was a popular choice on Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards Winner Dinner Series menus around the country earlier this year as well as at classes at Main Course Cooking School.
Look out for their fresh new attention-grabbing pack design with a cheeky stylised Kiwi making it clear the quinoa is proudly grown in New Zealand. Kiwi Quinoa can be found at New World, Farro, Sabato, Moore Wilson's and Fresh Choice. A full list of stockists is on their website.