Forest @ Kelmarna Gardens ‘Farm Dinners’ Series.
Kelmarna Gardens is a city farm in Herne Bay, in a world where we are increasingly looking towards sustainability. Started in 1981 they’ve always been ahead of their time.
There is a growing movement towards local, organic and community initiatives in food production and in Herne Bay, Kelmarna Gardens is leading the way. A few years ago they launched a new initiative, teaming up with local restaurants with a series of “Farm Dinners” over the summer months where guests are welcomed amongst the rows of flowers and crops and a gorgeous set up which perfectly complements the food to come.
I joined them in late February for their evening collaboration with Forest - the Symonds St vegan and vegetarian restaurant which aims to source in the most sustainable way possible - through foraging. Because of this, there is an ever changing menu to suit the season’s best produce on offer and there is always something new to try. Founder, Plabita Florence, has put her own unique twist on plant-based dining, making Forest like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. We began with a pepino sorbet alongside pickled cucumber, smoked tomato salt, nasturtium oil, lovage and garlic chives.
Forest is well known for presenting dishes which on paper may sound wacky, but trust me when I say that savoury sorbet works - it was beautifully delicate and the flavours matched each other perfectly.
The next dish was beans, fennel, turnip and shiitake cream, mandarin mayo, herbs and garlic - something perhaps more conventional and with flavours a little more familiar.
Next up was banana and walnut mole, yoghurt (coconut for vegans), greens, and with a generous chunk of oregano bread to mop it all up - finger food but not as you may know it.
Sitting at communal tables, myself and my fellow diners were all intrigued by the next course - marrow custard, tomatillo caramel, Marmite, potato skin sherbet. Yes - you read that right...Marmite. It was definitely unusual, but worked with the flavour juxtapositions together creating a party in the mouth!
The final course was a very pretty presentation of shiso jelly, rhubarb, pear and chocolate, and was the perfect balance of sweet and textured flavours to finish on.
To accompany the food, Forest created drinks made too with foraged ingredients. Both naughty and not so naughty were on offer; think fig leaf soda, mandarin, marigold and gin; or plum pit, burnt honey and vodka.
It had been a strange week in Auckland. The dinner had been rescheduled due to a lockdown, and happened fortuitously between that and a second lockdown only a few days later. Lucky us to have this in between. Myself and my fellow diners all left as the sun was setting, with a feeling of optimism.
There is a real sense of community about visiting your local garden and being fed kai which complements both the work of the chef and the farmers - it’s truly an experience like no other.
As we head into the colder months, these “Farm Dinners” will not be held, but instead Forest’s restaurant on Symonds Street is available for bookings - perfect for date nights if you’re wanting something intimate and special I think.
The “Farm Dinners” will be back in summer but sell out fast so keep an eye out with Kelmarna, and in the meantime get involved with some of their great workshop initiatives on offer - mushroom and banana growing workshops, “the fundamentals of fermenting” and “ways with weeds” - to name just a few.
(Sofia Roger Williams)
Kelmarna Gardens, 12 Hukanui Crescent, T: 09 376 0472, www.kelmarnagardens.nz www.whatisforest.com