Gold mine
A spoonful of honey makes the yoghurt go down … rather nicely, though I have no problem eating yoghurt without honey and enjoy it in heaps of ways as those of you who pop into Shared Kitchen regularly will know, but I find yoghurt and honey irresistible.
Yoghurt is milk with bacterial cultures, a product that’s easy enough to make. But it’s the quality of milk and the care taken to turn it into yoghurt by adding good-for-your-gut bacteria that is reflected in the finished product. Great yoghurts have nothing else added – no thickening additives like gelatine or starch, no preservatives and no flavour enhancers or colours.
Jackie and Bryan Clearwater of Clearwater Farm down in South Canterbury farm organically, having converted their two dairy farms to organic farming principles in 1999. With 240 gorgeous-looking ‘girls’, the pasture and milk reflects what is happening underneath the grass – years of care in getting the biological mix in the soil just right is increasing farm yields and milk quality and improving the health of their animals. You can read about their commitment to sustainable farming here https://www.clearwaters.co.nz/about-us
The milk on Clearwater’s Peel View Farm doesn’t travel far – just from the milking shed to the Dairy room where it is turned into yoghurt and poured off into pots. Uniquely, the yoghurt is set in the pots it sells in, eliminating further processing. The environmentally sustainable yoghurt pots have a wrap-around card sleeve that can be unzipped and recycled. The pots and lids can be re-purposed for hundreds of jobs (this is a thoughtful way of getting rid of gum and sticky labels. Yay!).
So, to the yoghurt, there’s quite a range, including two new lactose-free flavoured yoghurts, and a rich, sticky clotted cream.
But it is the Clearwater Farm Organic Honey Yoghurt I have fallen in love with (made with Hutton’s certified organic clover honey). It’s a rich creamy colour, with a silky texture and a lingering nuttiness, and a perfectly balanced sweet and lemony fresh finish. Gorgeous. Thanks girls!
And, I’m not alone in thinking this is a superior product: Clearwater Farm Organic Honey Yoghurt has just been awarded a Silver Medal in the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards 2019. The yoghurt also won the Cuisine Magazine Artisan Award in 2011.
Sautéed Spiced Persimmons (with honey yoghurt)
