| 7 T T Richard Loader Consumers going nuts for products Donna and Andrew started Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Products after falling in love with a beautiful and tranquil farm at Makarewa, Southland. Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Product REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT With this versatile ingredient providing excellent flavour, health value, and a beautiful local food producer story, chefs are going nuts for the raw products from the award-winning Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Products on the outskirts of Invercargill, where Donna and Andrew Davis are growing, harvesting, and producing small batch, fresh hazelnut products to order. Donna and Andrew started Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Products after falling in love with a beautiful and tranquil farm at Makarewa, Southland. Taking over in 2018, they thought the farm’s 3500 hazelnut trees could be a side benefit, and set about establishing a commercial kitchen and oil press. Through research and development, Donna and Andrew were able to develop 14 product lines, including roasted and salted hazelnuts, hazelnut oil, meal, and flour, as well as a range of bespoke nutty sweet treats from their own grown, high quality hazelnuts. “With our passion for food, and the care that goes into growing a high quality harvest, it made sense to create our own products rather then selling the bulk of the harvest to wholesalers,” Donna says. “We love to support local and the Southland economy, and we sell our products through other local businesses as well as online.” Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Products soon caught the eye of Southland chefs looking for fresh and flavourful ingredients with a great local story. In 2002, exectutive chef and owner of The Fat Duck Gastropub in Te Anau invited Donna and Andrew to a Taste Fiordland event where they were able to tell the story of their products to about 80 Southland business people and foodies. “Jude and Neil from Brunel Peaks Cafe and Bar loved our packaging and our story, and wanted our product straight away,” Donna says. “Then top Invercargill chef Ethan Flack came on board. Ethan cooks for large functions as well as immersive dining experiences in his own kitchen, and he loves to showcase Southland’s primary produce and tell the stories of Southland farmers. “We’re really enjoying the chefs coming on board because their dishes are made the from our products. They send us photos of what they’re making and we get to see our raw product being turned into something quite special.” Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Products are now available in a growing number of cafes and small food retailers, and its raw products are being used in restaurants around the country. Chefs are loving the fact that Donna makes every single product to order, so it is always fresh and good. The increasing popularity of Davis Downs Homestyle Hazelnut Products’ raw products and baked goods encouraged Donna and Andrew to enter their hazelnut brittle, hazelnut shortbread, hazelnut macarons, and hazelnut pesto into the Outstanding Food Producers Awards 2024, where they brought home two gold and two silver medals. These products are so popular, unique, and they really showcase what can be done with the hazelnut meal, flour, oil, and the nuts themselves. Andrew says while the products won the awards, it’s his wife who deserves the recognition for doing everything in the business herself. “The products won the awards, but it’s really Donna behind the products that won the awards.”
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