Day 2: a land of milk and honey

Most milk, in fact 95%, in New Zealand is processed by Fonterra, in a nation that contributes more than 2% of all milk worldwide. New Zealand creates 30 times more milk per capita than the average country. Fonterra's North Island milk, as far as I was able to find out, passes through a distribution depot in Palmerston North. This includes Anchor, Anlene and Meadow Fresh. The second-largest milk producer, Synlait, is based in the South Island.

All this means that most milk available to the public, whether is it locally-squeezed or not, travels a long way before it is ready for consumption. An exception, however, is found with Green Valley, an independent company based in Mangatawhiri, east of Pukekohe. I found it at a health food store, but only because it was organic (the store appeared to have no local goods of any kind, but stocked organic-branded goods from the four corners of the Earth). And at $4.80 for two litres, it was the most reasonably-priced indie purchase I had ever made.

At the other end of the Reasonable/Ludicrous Scale lay a honeycomb from Mossop's, an apiary just outside Tauranga in Tauriko. I have driven past the location probably hundreds of times without having the slightest twinge of temptation to purchase their combs. This is because honeycomb is one of the most annoying foods in the world. Let me describe the process of eating honeycomb:

1. Cut open part of the protective plastic layer.

2. Try to peel it all off. Now cut open another part and try to peel that off.

3. Slice gingerly along an entire side. Try to peel that off.

4. Get the plastic stuck to your fingers.

5. Wipe the leaking honey off the bench.

6. Wipe the leaking honey out of the lid.

7. Get a teaspoon and lever out some honeycomb.

8. Drizzle all you can on your target.

9. Put the rest in your mouth.

10. Chew until you're sure that all the honey is gone.

11. Spit out what looks like a shredded candle.

12. Spend an hour picking wax out of your teeth, trying to forget that everything you just put in your mouth was, at one time, bee vomit.

And all this for just $8.60 for 340 grams. It's fun for the whole family (in the event that your whole family are sadists). Sadly most commerical honey in New Zealand is processed in Nelson or Canterbury, so this is the only product approaching sugar I can eat this week.

I have nothing to put my honey on, as the ingredients of bread and baked goods are not local and very seldom national. Grain crops from Australia and North America are our sources for flour, sugar comes from Australia and Asia, and common salt (apart from the small saltworks at Lake Grassmere near Blenheim) is likewise imported.

We are in a global economy. We are all connected, and interdependent, and competing, and trading. Without cereal or bread, what's the point of a land of milk and honey?