Jackson’s Re¯wena Bread on the rise in Whanganui East
Whanganui’s George Jackson has been making traditional Ma¯ori Re¯wena potato bread for the past seven years but now he has a shop front.
Jackson’s Re¯wena Bread open in Whanganui East month.
Jackson said his nan made the bread when he was a kid, and he was “brought up with it” since he was little.
“I wasn’t a big fan of it way back then, but as I grew up and became teenager I just loved it,” Jackson said
“She passed on when I was about 20, and the bread kind of disappeared for a while. Fast forward another 20 years and I met my cousin in a restaurant, who was making some.
“I had a piece and all those memories just came flooding back. I got some bug off him and started making it for my family, and for my kids to enjoy.”
That “bug” refers to the vital potato starter that ferments and causes the bread to rise and gives it its unique flavour.
Jackson said the particular bug he was using, the one he was given by his cousin, had been passed down through generations.
“It goes all the way back to the 1840s in Taranaki.
“A member of my whanau was a maintenance guy on a ship, and he was friends with one of the cooks, who was Scottish or Irish. will next
“Potatoes were stacked up everywhere on those ships, and the cook had some kind of potato yeast that he used to make bread with. He gave some of that bug to the maintenance guy who took it home to his wife, who made some bread of her own.
“From Taranaki it came down to Ranana, where my nan was brought up, and she brought it to Putiki where I was brought up.”
Jackson only makes traditional Re¯wena bread, and that will be the one product for sale at the bakery.
“If you don’t have the potatoes, you don’t have the bread,” Jackson said.
“I get the ones that people are chucking away, which is pretty cool. It doesn’t matter what kind they are either. The more starch the better. We actually planted some of the discarded ones out the back and they’ve already started growing.”
The potatoes go through a peeler before being boiled in a pot for two to three hours. The water is then left to cool and it turns into
“fermenting goodness”.
“We get that water and add it to the bug, along with sugar and flour, and give it a mix up,” Jackson said.
“Then you shut the lid and leave it. The bugs start multiplying over three days or so, then you make the bread.”
The bug was added to flour and water, Jackson said, before being mixed into dough and left to sit in a warmer (30C) or a further nine hours.
“Then we take the dough out, knead it up, and put it into baking tins. From there it will go into a proving room for another three or four hours, and then off they go to the ovens to get baked.
‘It’s a pretty long process, start to finish.”
Jackson said he would be opening the bakery at 131 Duncan St on January 26, right after Wellington Anniversary Day.
“My bread is all natural. It’s just flour, water, bug, sugar and salt, that’s it. There’s nothing artificial in there, it’s all straight up old school.
“The sodium levels are low in it too, and because there’s a longer proving process to it, the gluten is broken down and it’s easier for the body to digest. On top of that it just tastes yum.
“You’ve got to eat it with butter. No margarine or anything, it’s got to be butter.
“My ultimate aim is to supply the whole of New Zealand, and over time I want to take things to the next level.”