Taste of Nelson
Afew years ago I told you about Karamaya black garlic. We use a lot of garlic in our cooking at home and one of our favourite garlic products is black garlic. Karen Pickford and Ralph Butcher sold their business to Teena and Noe¨l Jelsma who have rebranded it as Neudorf Black and significantly expanded the range of black garlic products.
Black garlic isn’t a variety of garlic that is black, it’s ordinary garlic that becomes black garlic by heating it at a medium temperature for up to two months so the enzymes within the garlic transform it to create a stable, cured, or aged product that no longer has the highly astringent characteristic of fresh garlic.
As well as changing the colour, taste and texture of the fresh garlic, the process also adds to the nutritional value.
While very little is known about the origin of black garlic it is recorded as being used in Asia, especially in Korea, Japan, and Thailand for a very long time.
As well as being used as a food condiment, a natural gourmet ingredient or as a tasty spread on crackers, black garlic has also become a health product and is sometimes added to energy-boosting drinks.
We like black garlic because it is easy to use at home to add flavour and goodness to dishes we cook.
At Neudorf Black they have even used their essence on ice cream and made chocolate with black garlic!
Karen and Ralph told me the way they produce black garlic is unique ‘‘by retaining the volatile essential oils the whole cloves retain more goodness … it is a system that ensures the nutritional richness from the volatile oils is retained’’. It is a secret that Teena and Noe¨l bought with the business.
When I spoke to the pair last week, I asked them why they bought a small, artisan black garlic oven and recipe. Teena told me: ‘‘We spent eight years living in Asia, the birthplace of black garlic, but our first tasting experience of black garlic was 40 minutes from our New Zealand home, at the Nelson Market, and that’s where we met Ralph who made black garlic paste.
‘‘In 2019 while we were living overseas, we heard that Ralph was looking for a buyer before closing up shop and we thought his black garlic was the best in New Zealand; we didn’t want it to fade into the sunset so – Neudorf Black was born.’’
Noe¨l said: ‘‘We relocated from Singapore back to our property on Neudorf Rd in Upper Moutere in December 2019 and it’s where we make our black garlic condiments. This is our first venture in the food sector.’’
Noe¨l has a background in enterprise software while Teena is a digital marketing specialist so they have had to learn the food business from the ground up.
‘‘The support from other small food producers in the area has been fantastic and we have been able to help them in return.’’
The couple make their products on their five hectare property, Tinaku Farm.
‘‘We can’t grow the quantity of garlic we need though, so, to produce the very best black garlic we work with New Zealand’s best garlic growers. All the garlic we use is New Zealand grown,’’ Teena said. She said they had ‘‘tweaked the recipe for the better, we now cook it for six weeks rather than eight. We made some changes to the original oven to make it more efficient, but our production has outgrown it and we just took ownership of a new purpose-built oven last week so we can cook a lot more in each batch. It was made by some brilliant engineers in Motueka.’’
As well as the original black garlic puree the couple have added black garlic
‘‘We’re amazed at how flavours really develop when you use it in various dishes.’’ Teena Jelsma
essence, olive oil infused with black garlic and the latest product, black garlic sea salt.
While the olive oil and salt are infused with black garlic, the essence is the juice that is released from the garlic during the long, slow cooking process.
‘‘No added water or other stuff, this is just the pure black garlic juice,’’ Noe¨l said.
‘‘For the infused olive oil we use black garlic puree to infuse the olive oil with, while for the salt we have some black garlic puree dehydrated and then blend it through the salt. We only use pure Marlborough sea salt so it has an intense salt character and is perfect as a finishing salt.’’
The couple told me they have a lot of fun doing what they do. ‘‘We love eating the product and coming up with new ideas. We’re amazed at how flavours really develop when you use it in various dishes, and we get really excited when other people discover it too,’’ Teena said.
Their range has become so popular that as Teena and Noe¨l learn more about the business and scale it up they have also had a few challenges.
‘‘The whole time we have been in this business it has been Covid-time so there have been challenges around sourcing things like glass jars,’’ Noe¨l said. ‘‘By the time we choose jar types and sizes we now have to order six months in advance because that’s how long it takes to arrive from overseas. Shipping delays are a nightmare at the moment for any producer, importer or exporter.’’
Neudorf Black garlic products are stocked in more than 60 stores around the country, particularly in specialist grocers and delis as well as being sought after by consumers overseas.
Noe¨l told me that ‘‘a couple of months ago we stumbled across our black garlic puree on Amazon in the US, we had no idea if it was ours or a knockoff. It turned out that an exporter of premium artisan products to the US had sent some of our product to a specialty retailer there. That store had closed due to Covid so the products ended up on Amazon, which was fine with us. Best of all, it had rave reviews.’’
Neudorf Black is now one of New Zealand’s leading black garlic producers and you can get your hands on some of this outstanding product direct from Neudorf Black at the Nelson Market, from their website ( www.neudorfblack.co.nz ) or from a number of local retailers. Just check out the website for a list of stockists.