Fieldwork Recipes
Kelsey's doctoral research included seven months of fieldwork WWOOFing on the South Island of New Zealand. The aim of the fieldwork was to immerse herself in the WWOOFing program leading to a better understanding of the WWOOF program, its members, and their shared culture.
Through living and working with WWOOF Host families and WWOOFers as a complete participant, Kelsey gained access to the WWOOF community, sharing in their labour, meal preparation and consumption, and gaining insights into diverse WWOOFing and alternative lifestyle practices, including organic, biodynamic and permaculture farming and sustainable, alternative and off-grid living lifestyles.
Throughout her fieldwork, Kelsey maintained a recipe book, logging shared cooking, preserving, canning and brewing practices and recipes. Additionally, through participant interviews, WWOOF Hosts and WWOOFers were asked to share a recipe of personal significance, and elaborate on its preparation, personal and / or cultural history and significance and the meaning they hoped that sharing the recipe with their exchange partners would impart.
Below in a repository of the recipes discussed in her dissertation.
Beef Noodle Soup
(Chinese)
This recipes was shared by a WWOOFer from Hong Kong as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was carefully selected by the WWOOFer prior to her travels to New Zealand, because she wanted to demonstrate to her Hosts that Chinese recipes were actually much simpler than many were likely to perceive them to be, and did not require as many difficult or specialized skills.
Eggplant Parmiggiana
(Italian)
This recipes was shared by an Italian WWOOFer a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Coastal Otago. The recipe was selected to highlight Italian cooking traditions from the WWOOFer's home region of Lazio, their use of tomatoes and eggplants, and vegetarian recipes that were not pasta. This was particularly important to the WWOOFer as she and her husband had transitioned to a vegetarian diet owing to experiences they had while WWOOFing.
Domaine de l’Arnot Bread
(French)
This recipes was shared by Kiwi WWOOF Hosts as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe held personal significance for the Hosts as the recipe was something that their son has learned while living in France and studying Viticulture. When he returned to New Zealand, to open his own vineyard, he taught his mother how to make the bread and it is now served in the tasting room as a part of their tours.
E’ia Ota
(Tahitian)
This recipes was shared by a French-Tahitian WWOOFer a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was selected because of the personal significance it held for the WWOOFer. As a dual citizen of France and French Polynesia (Tahiti), she was often served E’ia Ota by her extended Tahitian family when she went home. She also selected it because of the parallel's between the recipe's ingredients and Māori Kai Moana (seafood dishes) and because of positive memories of sharing it with a former WWOOF Host.
Gooseberry Shortcake Tart
(NZ)
This recipes was shared by Kiwi WWOOF Hosts as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Coastal Otago. The recipe was passed down to the WWOOF Host by her mother, who had learned it from her mother-in-law. The recipe holds deep personal significance for the Host family because of this, and it is often enjoyed at special occasions, including birthdays. It is also a regionally significant dish, with the Hosts recounting stories about the importance of gooseberries for the early Mining Settlers in Central Otago (where they had their Bach [rustic holiday home]) who depended on them as a source of Vitamin C.
After learning to make the recipe from her Hosts, Kelsey prepared a modification of this tart, using strawberries and a chocolate drizzle glaze for several of her subsequent WWOOF Hosts.
Lemon Meringue Cake
(NZ)
This recipes was shared by WWOOF Hosts who were a Kiwi-American Expat couple as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Nelson. The recipe originally came from a Nigella Lawson cookbook. The couple had first tried making it when they lived in Auckland and had a bumper Citrus crop. Since then it has been adapted to the citrus they can grow in Nelson, and has sometimes been served with non-lemon / non-citrus based curds, like orange, blueberry, or rhubarb.
After learning to make the recipe from her Hosts, Kelsey prepared a modification of this cake that included a candied thyme infused cream, and lemon meringue, to serve at her good bye dinner when she departed New Zealand.
Kaiserschmarm
(German)
This recipes was shared by a German WWOOFer as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe held deep personal significance for the WWOOFer, who recalled numerous hikes through the German Alps with his family which culminated in preparing this dish in cabins along their mountain top route.
Oma's Apfel Pfannkuchen
(German)
This recipes was shared by a German WWOOFer couple as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was selected because the WWOOFers were travelling over fall and winter in New Zealand and apples were in season. The recipe was also significant because it came from the wife's Oma (grandmother), who had taught it to her as a child.
Paua and Venison Fritters
(Māori)
This recipes was shared by Kiwi WWOOF Hosts as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Coastal Otago. The recipe was both personally and culturally significant to the Host and their extended family as it has been first prepared for the Host's sisters wedding and represented the Host's bi-culturally family (Pākehā [New Zealanders of European descent] and Māori). The dish was served to Kelsey as a part of her day-exchange with the family. On that day, the paua had been foraged by the Host's brother-in-law while the venison came from the Host's father's red deer farm, and the vegetables came from the Host's garden. It was shared as a part of a large communal family meal following a morning of work on the farm.
Piklets
(NZ)
This recipes was shared by Kiwi WWOOF Hosts as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was selected by the Hosts' as it is a Sunday morning breakfast favourite in the family, and because they served it with homemade jams from the family's orchard business. Thus, it also allowed them to highlight the orchard's produce and preserves when shared with their WWOOFers, as well as sharing a staple Kiwi dish.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Button Cookies (Canadian)
This recipes was shared by Kelsey as a part of her fieldwork in Nelson. While staying with a Host family in Upper Moutere, Kelsey was asked to teach the teenage daughter of the Host family how to bake a "Canadian Cookie" that she could take on a visit to her brother's place on the North Island. As the combination of peanut butter and chocolate is a very North American thing, and peanut butter cookies are both simple to make for novice bakers and quite popular in Kelsey's family, she choose to teach their daughter this recipe. It was very popular with the family, and the leftover cookies which the daughter did not take with her on her trip where shared with friends and family who came round for afternoon tea.
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Raggmunk
(Swedish)
This recipes was shared by a Swedish WWOOFer couple as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was selected by the WWOOFers because they had shared it with previous WWOOF Hosts, and felt that their Hosts had liked it because of their perception that Kiwis eat a lot of potatoes, and because it is a regionally specific dish from Östergötland County in Sweden where the couple normally resides.
Roasted Lamb Dinner
(NZ)
This recipes was shared by Kiwi WWOOF Hosts as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Nelson. The recipe was selected by the Hosts because everything in the meal could be sourced from their farm and permaculture garden. Furthermore, they felt that it was important to highlight a traditional Kiwi meal including lamb, and to teach WWOOFers how to make aspects of the meal, like gravy, from scratch.
Sautéed Daikon Stars
(Japanese)
This recipes was shared by a Kiwi WWOOF Host family as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was originally taught to the Hosts by one of their Japanese WWOOFers. While the Hosts had been successfully growing Daikon for years, they did not have a big repertoire of dishes that they could use it in and relied mostly on serving it in salads or pickling it. As such, they were very pleased to learn this traditional Japanese winter dish from their WWOOFer. Since then, it has become a staple in their household. Using mostly ingredients from their permaculture farm, the dish is seen as an excellent example of sustainable self-provisioning, and a nice antidote to often heavy winter meals.
Stuffed Kumara
(NZ)
This recipes was shared by a British Expat WWOOF Host as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was selected because of its versatility / adaptability, ease of preparation, filling nature, and use of kumara (multicoloured New Zealand sweet potatoes that can be a range of orange skinned and fleshed, purple skinned and yellow fleshed, to purple skinned and purple fleshed, and red skinned and yellow-white fleshed).
Forgotten Cookies
(NZ)
This recipes was shared by Kiwi WWOOF Hosts as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Coastal Otago. The recipe is a Christmas favourite among the Host family, and often made to use up egg whites after making passionfruit curd with the yolks. The addition of ginger and dark chocolate sets it apart from other Forgotten cookie recipes.
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Vanillekipferl
(German)
This recipes was shared by a German WWOOFer as a part of Kelsey's fieldwork in Central Otago. The recipe was selected because the WWOOFer had learned to prepare it from her Oma (grandmother) and had taught it to her WWOOF Host who subsequently asked her to prepare it for sale in her Cafe in the week's leading up to Christmas. It quickly became a favourite amongst Cafe patrons.
Pear, Lavender, and Vanilla Jelly
(NZ)
This recipes was created by Kelsey and one of her Hosts as a part of her fieldwork in Coastal Otago. While staying with a Host family near Dunedin, the Hosts expressed an interest in developing a field-to-market product for gate sales and sale at the Otago Farmers Market. As it was mid-summer, their pear trees were overflowing with fruits and the Lavender surrounding their back deck was in bloom. Given Kelsey's knowledge of preserving and canning, she suggested they experiment with a pear-based jelly that would be unique because it was infused with Lavender blossoms. They spent the next couple of days experimenting with the recipe, and ultimately settled on this version of it.