December 10, 2017
Rare corn keeps heritage alive
It’s the planting season and in Ngati Koroki Kahukura territory around Lake Karapiro lawyer Willie Te Aho has his gumboots on.
He’s been planting out a special sort of corn on the iwi’s farm to use for kanga pirau or rotten corn.
The kaanga ma seeds are sourced from heritage seed specialist Koanga Gardens but growing the variety is just the start of the process of creating the fermented delicacy.
"With the cooks I’ve walked around and looked at our various streams and the cooks have indicated the type of stream they would like the kanga to be put in to ferment and so we are looking to do that in about April and in June. Having our kanga kopirau on our tables at our two pokai in Maungatautari and Pohara in when Kingi Tuheitia comes to our marae," Mr Te Aho says.
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