Roam Leisure

Birthday time at Farro

• Howick and Pakuranga Times

Farro – the fresh food market, 80 Lunn Avenue, Mount Wellington. Ph: 570 7071. www.farrofresh.co.nz

Fabulous Farro Fresh in Mt Wellington turns two years old this weekend and is celebrating with a three-day market weekend starting tomorrow. What’s more, together with Howick and Pakuranga Times, Farro is giving our readers a chance to win a basket of goodies valued at $100. (click here for draw details).

The birthday celebrations kick off with a free demonstration at 11 am by guest chef and food writer Kate Hill and there will be a great range of in-store specials plus tasting of products from all over New Zealand.

A favourite shopping place for many Aucklanders, Farro is the result of visionary owners James and Janene Draper who wanted to provide one-stop shopping, offering the best of New Zealand artisan products.

“The idea was that customers could open a cook book and find all the ingredients right here,” says Janene  “Our next priority was value. We work hard to make sure we matched supermarket prices for everyday items and often we are less expensive.”

Farro also offers daily recipes – simple meal ideas based on seasonal produce available in store and James says since opening, the market has seen loads of regulars coming in several times a week to buy fresh.

For those of you, who haven’t been to the Farro Fresh complex in Lunn Ave, it’s an easy shop to travise and is based around a large central island, with produce, artisan breads, cheeses, meat, fish, grocery, and herbs and spices.

There are no aisles, or mundane products such as shampoo or toilet paper, but there are kitchen gadgets and eclectic choice of cookbooks and food magazines.

The only part of the store not owned by the Draper family is the seafood section run by Oceanz Seafood.

“We felt it was important to source an experienced operator with his/her own fishing quota,” James says. “In this way the fish can come straight off the boat and into store – you can’t get fresher than that!”

With so much choice and lots of innovation, Farro Fresh is a must to check out so why not call in this weekend, join the fun and score some great specials.