Firstlight Foods

I bought tri tips wagyu beef from Farro - how do I cook that?? Uta

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:35:59 +1300

Hi,

Most of our tri tips go to California where this cut is an institution. In California they put a dry rub on them, and roast or BBQ on a low heat for an hour or so. leave to rest for 15 minutes before slicing thinly to serve. If you want to the full Californian experience serve with tortillas and a salsa. Enjoy!

Hello All, I am very interested in using your product at Otahuna Lodge, Taitapu, Christchurch. Please email me with Price & Product List. Kind Regards, Jimmy McIntyre, Executive Chef, 0274787896

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 19:04:09 +1200

Hi Jimmy,

Happy to help, our local sales manager will fire a price and product list through first thing Monday morning.

Cheers

A neat little clip from the Chipotle Mexican Restaurant chain in...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:12:00 +1200

A neat little clip from the Chipotle Mexican Restaurant chain in America

Grass-fed Wagyu arrives in Beverly Hills

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:48:42 +1200

Back in summer the boys from Bristol Farms visited us to learn about Grass-fed Wagyu http://www.firstlightfoods.co.nz/market-partners . It was therefore with great pleasure we returned the favour with a trip to Los Angeles to launch Firstlight Grass-fed Wagyu beef in Bristol farms http://www.bristolfarms.com/blog/2012/07/grass-fed-wagyu-beef/ . Next time you are in Beverly Hills or Hollywood and in need of a Grass-fed Wagyu fix, Bristol Farms is the place to head!!!

Best in Season

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:32:00 +1200

First Venison UK is Waitrose’s (recently re named…) UK venison producer group. Firstlight Venison and First Venison UK together supply Waitrose with ‘Best in Season’ fresh venison. This year it was our turn to visit the First Venison farmers on their home turf. Firstlight farmers, the Holden’s, the Tickner’s and the Goodall’s, chaperoned by Gerard, made the long journey to Northern Scotland where they spent the day at Strathdon Deer Farm in Glenbuchet, Aberdeenshire. No shortage of Grass in Scotland this Spring!

Follow the good grass...

Wed, 09 May 2012 01:29:00 +1200

Winter is on its way and these little guys are on the move. In the wild they would have come down out of the hills, away from the cold weather and following the good grass. These Firstlight fawns are following the same cycle, having spent their first 6 months with Firstlight breeders up on the Central Plateau they are heading to Hawkes Bay and Manawatu where they will be well looked after on Firstlight finishing farms.

Flank Steak at Farro Fresh

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 05:48:18 +1200

Last week we launched Grass-fed Wagyu Flank Steaks in Auckland with the guys at Farro Fresh. Flank Steak is one of the hidden gems of the beef world, it has a bit more bite than the traditional cuts, but it makes up for it with a delicious deep wagyu flavour and lends itself to all manner of quick cook recipes. Flank Steak recipes tend to be simple and delicious, and if the response from all the people who tried it when we cooked it for them at Farro is anything to go by it is here to stay. Enjoy!

Lunch at Pegasus Bay

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:58:04 +1200

If you are looking for a spectacular setting to enjoy a world class lunch, put Pegasus Bay at the top of your list. Through the Pegasus Bay label the Donaldsen family have helped put Waipara on the map as a premium wine growing region, and their appreciation for quality food has earned them Cuisine’s best winery restaurant award for the 4^th year running. At Firstlight we want to be aligned with the best, and we put even more value on the relationship when our partners share our ethos of producing beautiful natural products with empathy for the land it comes from. Our favourite match for Grass-fed Wagyu is the Pegasus Bay Merlot Cabernet 2008 http://www.pegasusbay.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=76 . Enjoy!

Eating with the girls

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:19:37 +1300

Last week we hosted Xanthe Clay, food writer for the Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/xanthe-clay/ and Niamh Shields, author of the largest food blog in the UK http://eatlikeagirl.com/ . The girls were in New Zealand talking and writing about the best food New Zealand has to offer, and Firstlight Grass-fed Wagyu and Venison were on their wish list. Hawkes Bay turned on the weather and they got a good look at some fat and happy Wagyu steers at Mike and Charlotte’s Glazebrook’s family farm, Te Tua station. Not sure how you get to do what Niamh’s does, but judging by her blog it doesn’t look like a bad job to have!

Marks and Spencer come to town

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:02:44 +1300

These people are all looking pretty happy about standing around in a paddock in the sun. It’s because they are a team from Marks and Spencer, and their colleagues are all back in the UK under a foot of snow. There are always a couple of laughs when hosting weary travellers, and this trip was no different. Only quick thinking from his dinner companions averted an international incident as Tom lost his fight with jetlag and nose dived into his dinner…

The class of 2011

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:17:00 +1300

These little guys are a month or so old and enjoying a fantastic start to life on Poronui Station up on the Central Plateau of the North Island. As well a being one of New Zealand’s premier hunting and fishing lodges Poronui is an extensive farming operation and an important part of the Firstlight farming family. This year 5,000 Firstlight wagyu calves were born between October and December. They were born on high country properties like Poronui where stocking rates are low and human contact is minimal. In April/May they will be weaned and will move down to Firstlight finishing properties in Hawkes Bay, Manawatu and Waikato. This year 8,000 cows were mated so this time next year another 7,000 will arrive to make up the class of 2012!

Fugu

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:40:41 +1300

This is what ¥10,000 (NZ$160) worth of Fugu or the famous Japanese pufferfish looks like. The numbing effect it has on your tongue when eating it is slightly disconcerting, as is the thought that you may have caught the chef on a bad night. It is delicious, which may be the fish or it may the satisfaction of having made it to dessert.

Signature Dish 2011

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:55:54 +1300

Congratulations to Vidal Estate, and to Executive Chef Jillene Slui for winning this years Hawke’s Bay Regional Signature Dish Competition. Jillene has recently returned to New Zealand after 15 years travelling and working around the world, most recently at the Como Resorts in Bhutan. Jillene is loving being back in Hawkes Bay where she is blessed with exceptional produce like Firstlight venison which she describes as delicious, tender - ‘the perfect product’. Clearly this year the judges agree!!

Spring on the Central Plateau

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:44:34 +1300

Spring has arrived up on the North Island’s Central Plateau and with the longer days comes a welcome flush of new grass. The deer pictured are on the property of Firstlight Venison shareholders ‘Rangiatea’ based on the Western bays of Lake Taupo. They are a mixture of stags and hinds, approaching 1 year of age and starting to lose their winter coats. Rangiatea is the monitor farm for the Beef Lamb New Zealand Lake Taupo Monitor Farm Program. Firstlight co-sponsors this project which recognises more pressure will be put on sustainable farming systems around our waterways, and focuses on developing systems which allow farmers to farm sustainably and profitably under a Nitrogen cap. Farming under a nitrogen cap limits the farmer’s ability to increase stock numbers and hence income in times like this when grass is plentiful. It is worth noting the sacrifice Rangiatea and others are making in the interests of keeping our water clean as we holiday on the shores of pristine Lake Taupo this summer….

Food doesnt get more free range than this...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:34:49 +1300

October 2011 was my first time visiting New Zealand and what a fantastic experience it was. My job at Pilot Brands is to sell Firstlight Grassfed Wagyu beef and Venison to the restaurant trade in the North East corner of the US, and the story I tell is all about healthy animals raised in a pristine natural environment. What a pleasure it was to visit and spend time with the Firstlight farmers who are actually living the story, and to come home with a full understanding of what goes on before the meat arrives in the US in a carton. As if I needed further convincing about natural New Zealand a day fishing the rivers of the central plateau with fellow American fishing guide Fishy Steve (on a river I cannot mention because I cannot spell it) was the icing on the cake!

Larry G. Thompson II

Larry gets the message

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 09:44:00 +1300

This week we hosted our US partners Pilot Brands to a tour of the Firstlight supply chain. We started in Auckland with Venison canapes at Rugby world cup party zone ‘The Cloud’, drove down the country visiting a couple of Firstlight farms along the way, and finished with a wagyu dinner in Hawkes Bay. The message of raising animals on grass, as nature intended, is at the heart of the Firstlight story. Larry got a reminder when he spotted this message on the wall as he was having his lunch at ‘The Cloud’!

Firstlight and Waitrose

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 06:59:00 +1300

We enlisted the help of Peter Gordon to present Grass-fed Wagyu at Waitrose head office in Bracknell this week. While we told the story of Firstlight Grass-fed Wagyu beef Peter prepared a range of dishes to accompany each cut. The dishes included a mixture of more traditional European options such as ‘Firstlight Grass-fed Wagyu Ribeye with Mustard mash, spinach and wild mushrooms’, through to more typical Peter Gordon European-Asian fusion options like ‘Firstlight Grass-fed Wagyu Sirloin with sweet potato miso mash, spinach and chilli pickled shiitake’. Firstlight Wagyu, the company and the product, were very well received and we will now hold our collective breaths pending a decision. Again we see the value and the power of the producer group model which for Waitrose equates to provenance, integrity, sustainability, and control over product quality.

"Our food is familiar and straight forward, yet highly innovative"

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 06:31:33 +1300

If you are looking for a birthday present for mum put ‘Ottolenghi – the cookbook’ on your list. These guys started with a small café and delicatessen in North London, and now have 4 stores, 2 books and a new restaurant to their name. The owners Yotam and Sami are great friends of Peter Gordon’s, and recently enjoyed a gastronomic tour of New Zealand with Peter. Their food is exceptional and it is easy to see why they have quickly developed a cult following in the UK.

New Zealand Lions

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:45:55 +1200

This statue is one of two which sit in front of Buckingham Palace. At the base of each statue are engraved the words ‘The Gift of New Zealand’. It raises the question as to why, of all the gifts we could have given HRM, we went with 2 lions? It also brings into question the legitimacy of the Brits using Lion motif’s given the distinct shortage of Lions in the UK. I guess you are less likely to strike fear into your enemies if you are known as Richard the Badger Heart…

Danish design

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:10:00 +1200

Copenhagen. A beautiful city which is home to a design industry built around beautiful natural products. By embedding the design of beautiful natural products into its economy and its culture Denmark has transformed itself from being a small agricultural based economy of the 1950’s, to a country which today is so much more. Food for thought.