History
When Karaka started, back in 2014, there actually wasn't a kitchen. Sander would work on location to fund his full time wine making studies & support his young whanau. The next big leap was in 2017 after a friends 40th in the far north when he decided to leave the winemaking industry and focus solely on catering. Single owner operated Karaka then jumped to our simple home kitchen (council registered, of course ;-) with no place for the children to create their school lunches. The arrival of the Karaka mobile kitchen 3 & a half years later, in 2018, gave the family back their own kitchen & the long nights perfecting his craft were underway.
Later that year the remarkable Karaka Riverlands crew entered the scene, giving roots to our business & the creation of our team culture. Karaka had really arrived in the Marlborough Food scene.
With the opening of 2a Park Terrace in the Blenheim township, 'Karaka Central' was the beginning of a longly held dream for Sander, a place where he can slowly create a European style Kiwi-flavoured neighbourhood deli where people come together to share good food & take home delicious products to keep the connections & memories lingering 'til the next visit. The 'Karaka' kitchen was born, 2020, during an unprecedented year. Although we make all our food from scratch & delicious frozen meals ready to heat + eat, we also align with others who share our views and create wonderful high quality artisan foods & products that we proudly stock in store.
Later that year the remarkable Karaka Riverlands crew entered the scene, giving roots to our business & the creation of our team culture. Karaka had really arrived in the Marlborough Food scene.
With the opening of 2a Park Terrace in the Blenheim township, 'Karaka Central' was the beginning of a longly held dream for Sander, a place where he can slowly create a European style Kiwi-flavoured neighbourhood deli where people come together to share good food & take home delicious products to keep the connections & memories lingering 'til the next visit. The 'Karaka' kitchen was born, 2020, during an unprecedented year. Although we make all our food from scratch & delicious frozen meals ready to heat + eat, we also align with others who share our views and create wonderful high quality artisan foods & products that we proudly stock in store.
Fast forward to today, the biggest leap yet, the opening of our catering branch at Karaka Westwood.
These are our people, our Karaka Team. We cannot thank you enough for giving it your all & trusting us enough to share the journey. We couldn't be any prouder of you.
To our Marlborough community "Thank you" for giving us the opportunity to cater to your important life events - your businesses, weddings, births, funerals, celebrations & parties. It is a true honour that you share your daily lives with us. Let the adventure continue ... It has been a whole lot of learning, a lot of crazy and a whole lot of fun. With good food being created along the way!
To our Marlborough community "Thank you" for giving us the opportunity to cater to your important life events - your businesses, weddings, births, funerals, celebrations & parties. It is a true honour that you share your daily lives with us. Let the adventure continue ... It has been a whole lot of learning, a lot of crazy and a whole lot of fun. With good food being created along the way!
Our Name
‘Karaka’ is the colour ‘Orange’ in Te Reo Maori.
Orange is also the colour tracing back to the very heart of The Netherlands.
Sander being a proud Dutchman and a long way from home, ‘Karaka’ marries our two worlds - his roots and her home.
‘Karaka’ is also a native NZ tree with fresh glossy evergreen leaves. Its leaves were used in traditional Maori medicine as wound dressings and the timber for waka paddles. Huia is a qualified & registered Medical Herbalist, rongoa (traditional Maori healing practices) holds great fascination for her. The bright orange fleshy fruit was eaten raw by Maori as a healthy and nutritious food.
Beware of its fresh kernel containing alkaloids, if not known how to properly prepare is highly toxic! Nevertheless, treated karaka kernels were of great importance to Maori for food, second only to kumara and have a food value resembling oatmeal. Karaka groves were often established around pa sites.
Sander grew up on tree nursery as the de Wildt's family business in Flevoland and Huia’s iwi in Pukepoto, Te Rarawa & Te Aupouri, used to eat the carefully prepared poison free kernels as popcorn.
So, Karaka it was!
Karaka Family
The Karaka Kitchen is a family owned business so you may well see these two young men being trained up being involved in the school holidays or after school hours.
Why The Karaka Kitchen?
Maui:
‘the free food and drinks. I like helping in the cafe and Camille with baking’’
Tamati:
‘the good food. I like the wifi & flash tv in the meeting room too’
