The weather has been unseasonably warm this month in my neck of the woods, but it's finally starting to cool off. I'm ready to go apple picking and bite into fresh, crisp, tangy apples. I'm making pumpkin soup and roasted squash. I'm dreaming about baked pears stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts and drizzled with Port. And I'm finishing up my light summer Roses and Albarinos and Vinho Verdes and turning to fuller-bodied white wines and light reds that perfectly complement fall foods.

I'm not married, so I spend a lot of time thinking about my wedding cake-to-be. I often thumb through Martha's book on wedding cakes on the floor of Barnes & Noble, and I can't pass a window full of them without gazing longingly. They're just so beautiful.

In all of this fantasizing, it's never occurred to me to think about having a cake made out of something other than cake. Like, for example, cheese. But apparently cheese cakes are becoming trendy in countries like New Zealand -- layers and layers of gorgeous, decorated cheese. Has anyone ever actually witnessed or tasted one of these? Would you consider having one?

A peach farmer in New Zealand has been growing a new variety of peaches for a couple of seasons now. Well, the variety is new to the English speaking world, I guess.

The flatto peach has been growing in China and across Asia for thousands of years. In fact it is supposedly one of the oldest varieties of the fruit. It has a flat bottom and flat top, so it's not round like to variety of peach that I'm used to. The flatto also is said to have a superior flavor and juiciness. That sounds great!

The grower, Kevin Paulin, says he's never had this much interest before. Apparently people have been been seeking him out to ask about his new crop. No word yet if this will reach American markets. The peaches have barely begun appearing in New Zealand stores. It's still pretty new outside of Asia, so it may take a while. Does anyone know about this variety of peach, and if it is available outside of China and New Zealand?

I love onions. I love the look of them, the way they smell when you cook them, and the way they taste. There is one thing about onions I don't like, though. I'm sure that a lot of people will agree with me on this one. I hate the way onions make you tear up when they are cut.

But I heard a great report on All Things Considered the other day about an onion that won't make you cry. The reporter spoke to a New Zealand plant geneticist who's been working on these onions. Collin Eady, from the Crop and Food Research institute, has found a way to block the gene in the onion cells which cause a person to tear up.

That mechanism is a natural defense for the onion. It's caused by the combination of the tearing gene and natural levels of sulfur in the cells of the bulb. Those components are separate in the whole cell, but its blinding power is unleashed when cut.

It will be a while before you'll see them in your local super market. The genetic modification would have to be proven safe for human consumption first. Or Mr. Eady could try and breed that quality into his onions, but that would take at least ten years anyway. Ah well. Stay tuned for some tips on how to avoid the tears when doing battle against those delicious bulbs.

On Monday, the New York Times printed an opinion piece entitled, "Food That Travels Well" by James E. McWilliams. In it McWilliams states that while he is a passionate member of the "eat local" cohort, to be absolutely responsible about the carbon footprint of your food, you have to take more into account that just the place where that food was grown or raised.

He offers the convincing example of research done at Lincoln University in New Zealand (done in response to Europe's push to label their food with the number of miles it traveled from field to shelf) that found that lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped 11,000 miles to England emitted three-quarters less carbon dioxide emissions per ton than the lamb raised in England.

Until the FDA starts requiring food producers to print the amount of carbon dioxide emissions along with the fat grams on that package of chicken breasts, this isn't information to which we will have easy access. Neither do I think it means that people should stop buying their food locally when it is available and affordable. But it adds another layer of consideration to the already complex situation that we all face when we open the fridge every morning.

Photo credit

Two 14-year-old New Zealand girls made the news recently when their school science project revealed that Ribena, the popular black currant drink, did not have the high levels of vitamin C it claimed to. According to a story published yesterday in The Guardian, the girls were testing a variety of beverages, expecting to find that the less expensive ones had less vitamin C, when they discovered the opposite. Their results were picked up by a local news show and then eventually a national watchdog group. Today, The Guardian reported that GlaxoSmithKline, the drink's producer, is being fined almost $160,000 for misleading ads, which stated "the black currants in Ribena contain four times the vitamin C of oranges." A GSK press release says that that fact is true "on a weight for weight basis," but also admits that it could be misleading. There's also some discrepancy about the differing vitamin C levels in the concentrate versus the diluted product. On a personal note, I was a Ribena drinker for a while. I think it's tasty stuff. I don't think I ever believed it was good for me, however.

As I did for champagne, I have been putting together a list of some of the best buys in Sparkling Wines of the World for the holidays. I combed stores and the internet for weeks looking for great wines at great prices. Each of these sparklers is a good buy for the money, as well as tasty and interesting. I tried to include as many Rosé bubblies as well since they are becoming so hot and trendy right now. Those in the know have been enjoying their great combination of dry fruit and nose tickling effervescence for years. The following list doesn't have everything out there, but each of these is a great wine for the price, from low to high, they're all worth it. If you have any suggestions please tell us what, where, and how much. Happy Holidays Everyone!

US Sparkling Wines

• Barefoot Bubbly non-vintage Premium Extra Dry - $9
• Domaine Ste. Michelle non-vintage Blanc de Blancs- $12
• Domaine Ste. Michelle non-vintage Brut- $12
• Gruet Brut Blanc de Blancs- $13
• Korbel Sparkling Natural Chardonnay non-vintage- $13
• Piper Sonoma non-vintage Blanc de Noir- $15
• Piper Sonoma non-vintage Brut- $15
• Scharffenberger Mendocino non-vintage Brut-$15
• Mumm Napa non-vintage Blanc de Noirs- $17
• Mumm Napa non-vintage Brut Prestige- $17

South Gin is from New Zealand and is 48.2%abv / 96.4proof. Made from grain neutral spirits from Genetic Engineering (GE) free wheat ,distilled twice, then it has spring water added and is re-distilled a third time to get some regional character from the water. The nine botanicals in this gin are juniper, lemon, orange, coriander seed, angelica leaves, orris root, gentian root, local New Zealand manuka berries, and New Zealand kawakawa leaves. There are some unusual botanicals in this gin. The first is gentian root. I love the bitter herbal taste of gentian root which is the base flavor of my favorite soda, Moxie. The others are manuka berries and kawakawa leaves which are used in the traditional Maori medicine of Aotearoa called Rongoa Maori.

This gin has a very light nose, faintly spicy with a hint of juniper and citrus. The company says that the "fragrance is similar to walking through the bush after it's rained." Well I haven't been to New Zealand and walked through the bush after a storm but at least I now know what to expect when I do. Someone please take me to New Zealand... Pretty please?

The taste is spicy, sharp, complex, and unusual; with water it opens up massively to a huge hit of the sharp herbs and spice, brought together by the juniper. You can tell that there are some unusual botanicals in this Maori medicinal based brew which must come from the manuka berries and kawakawa leaves. This is a very dry and sharp gin, the exact opposite of the current trend in sweet, citrus fronted gins, much to my great pleasure. It's very different, it's gin, but again I say it's very different. A mighty good gin and I would assume from the medicinal botanicals that it's good for you to, or at least I want to think so. A strong nod back to gins traditional roots as a medicinal tonic, but with a great taste. I Like it!

Although the results of the 12th annual Great New Zealand Sausage Competition won't be in until later this week, the most interesting thing about the judging isn't finding out who the winner is (unless you were participating, of course) but who was doing the judging in the first place. In addition to the Beef, Pork, BBQ, Flavored, Flavored BBQ, Saveloy/Polony/Cocktail, Traditional, International, and Gourmet categories that were evaluated by experienced judges, there was also a second judging of a selected group of entries to see who would win the Kids' Choice Award. All the entries, selected from those participating in other categories in the competition, were scrutinized by two groups of kids: seven judges under the age of five, and a group under the age of nine.

Perhaps some will bristle at the idea of their product being judged by kids, but most children love sausages and while they may not be able to pick out the same points as a life-long professional food critic would, they certainly know the difference between a good one and a bad one.

The "food miles" theory says that the further food has to travel to reach its destination - such as food imported to Europe from New Zealand - the worse it is for the environment because of the greater quantity of pollutants emitted during transport. Researchers in New Zealand, where farmers and ranchers had a good deal of revenue at stake due to their remote location, put the theory to the test and came up with some interesting results.

Their overall conclusion was that the number of miles a food had traveled was not a reliable indicator of its environmental impact. Many forms of produce, as well as dairy and sheep meat, were found to be more energy efficient even when travel to Europe was taken into account. A similar study in the UK produced the same results.

This does not mean that buying goods from far away is necessarily "better" than buying local goods. It simply means that the method of production is what counts, not overall distance traveled, if environmental factors are a primary consideration when purchasing food. Locally produced food may be better in some cases, but it might not be if it is not responsibly produced in the first place. Buying local is a great way of supporting the local economy and keeping revenue within the community and for consumers who make that a priority, local still might be a better choice.

If you're sitting around trying to decide on a new wine to try tonight with you dinner, may we suggest a little something from New Zealand?

Forbes picks 15 "Five Star" wines from the tiny country that served as backdrop to a giant movies about hobbits:

1. Cable Station Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2004 ($18) - "bright, ripe fruit flavors balanced with just the right amount of acidity to keep it food-friendly. Forget those ponderous zins and shirazes, this is the red for a barbeque"
2. Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, 2005 ($26) - "Deceptively light at first, it slowly evolves in the glass to eventually reveal a long, rich finish packed with a smoky minerality."
3. Craggy Range Merlot, Hawkes Bay, 2003 ($35) - "a perfect balance of silky tannins, lush ripe fruit and good acidity for a robust structure that's unusual for this varietal."
4. Crossroads Destination Series Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay, 2003 ($16) - "Rich and lush with ripe fruit in the front of the mouth, but with a fine, tart, green apple finish."
5. Drystone Pinot Noir, Central Otago, 2003 ($30) - "bright flavors of red cherry fruit and June strawberries abound, pulled together by a soft touch of oak and round, ripe tannins"

I'm not vegetarian (though I did try a vegan lifestyle for about a year), but I love this idea of a vegetarian film festival. Organizers of New Zealand's first ever Vegetarian Film Festival will be showing selected movies that have vegetarian themes, ranging from "light" like the indie film Shooting Vegetarians to "heavy," like the story of a live sheep export campaigner in Jill's Film.

But it's not just vegetarian in the movie, it's vegetarian at the movies as well, with concessions stands selling popcorn, vegan ice cream, and contests in which festival-goers can win vegetarian wines (aren't all wines vegetarian!??!) and vouchers to vegetarian restaurants.

The film festival will take place in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealan on October 8 in conjunction with World Vegetarian Day.

We've mentioned the new Netscape here on Slashfood before. In case you haven't heard, what used to be an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, netscape.com, got an extreme makeover in mid-June and has become a social bookmarking site, similar to del.icio.us, digg (technology) or flickr (photos), but for news. In case you're not familiar with social bookmarking, it is the concept of users collecting bookmarks of their favorite websites, and sharing them with the community. Users can collect, categorize, and "tag" bookmarks, which makes it easier for other users to find similar bookmarks. On sites like digg and newsvine, users can "vote" on each others' stories.

Over on Netscape, it's mostly about news, but users can also submit stories in a number of "channels," or categories - from Art & Design to Careers & Jobs to Health & Fitness to Popular Videos. It goes without saying that Slashfood's favorite channel is Food & Travel, but we'll get into more detail about that shortly.

Moves are afoot to ban the sale of chicken, except in its frozen form, in New Zealand.

The call comes after a report showed that New Zealand had the "dubious distinction of being the campylobacter centre of the world" A Food Safety Authority (FSA) report showed that all fresh chicken carcasses carried the campylobacter bug. It also detailed that New Zealand has more than three times the rate of notified campylobacteriosis as neighbour Australia. The rate of 370 cases per 100,000 people has been rising at about 12 per cent a year over the past five years. Over the last 9 years it is beleived that 11 people have died from the disease that causes diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach ache for up to a week.

[Chicken Little image from Disney]

A man in Auckland, New Zealand almost died from consuming a plate of poisoned meatballls. The dish had been made by a kitchen hand who thought he was adding flavouring to the meat.

The 47-year-old South Auckland man ate the microwaved meatballs for an evening meal but an hour later he vomited and lost consciousness. His family discovered him unconscious and he was taken by ambulance to hospital.

He had turned blue and was severely short of oxygen. Doctors diagnosed a potentially fatal condition in which the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity was reduced by nitrites affecting the haemoglobin in the red blood cells. He made a full recovery and was discharged after three days. Meanwhile, his daughter found the leftover meatballs in the fridge and they were sent for scientific analysis which revealed a level of the preservative sodium nitrite which was 344 times the permitted level for cured meats under the Australia-New Zealand Food Standards Code. The meatballs had 43,000mg/kg; the maximum permitted is 125mg/kg.