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Welcome to the Wonky Pantry! A selection of planet-positive products you can add on to your Wonky Box order when you’re feeling hungry to do a bit more good.
We’ve hand-picked each brand and product, to showcase other producers who share our vision for reducing food waste in the New Zealand supply chain, and who have products that need rescuing from lesser outcomes. Plus more of the in-season, curious crops you love or that add an extra flavour boost to your Wonky hauls.
Let’s dig in to November’s Pantry Picks:
These Wellington coffee connoisseurs roast to order and aim for zero waste in their production process. But to account for the unknown, they roast a little extra each day, resulting in some delicious ‘buffer beans’ making their way to the Wonky Pantry. The rescue doesn’t stop there! The Wonky stock is packaged in outdated labels, to help use these up.
The coffee variety in your Wonky Box will change weekly based on what they’re brewing. You could receive any one of their three most popular flavours -all delicious, fair trade, and organic:
Creamy Christchurch chocolate – with some cracks! We’ve snagged two of Bennetto’s dark and dreamy flavours — Orange with Chilli and Exceptionally Dark (82%) —for our pantry shelves this month.
These brilliant bars may have been snapped or broken during the rough & tumble of the transportation process, meaning they can’t be sold on supermarket shelves. Plus, Bennetto is switching from 100g bars to 80g bars, so we’re helping them clear their remaining stock. Bennetto is all about doing good, from being B Corp certified to proudly boasting NetClimate Positive status. You can read more about their amazing work here.
Enjoy classic red tomatoes fresh out of Nelson. While they’re on the smaller side, they’re big on flavour! These everyday heroes are perfect for tossing into salads or layering onto sandwiches. A ripe reminder that good things really do come in smaller packages!
We're excited to get a little ‘saucy’ with a few of our favourite Culley’s products this November! Discovered during their site shift, this stock can’t go to supermarkets as it’s past its ‘best by’ date.
But don’t be bamboozled by this confusing label! “Best by” is just a quality indicator and doesn’t reflect safety. As long as it’s stored correctly, this sauce is still perfectly edible. So while it may be ‘late to the party,’ you won’t taste any difference – it’s still the perfect spruce-up for your wonky spuds!
Red and ‘red’y to go! Enjoy these ready-peeled, 3-pack red onions fresh from the fields of Canterbury (just 20 minutes from the Wonky warehouse in fact!) They’ll arrive in your kitchens in a breathable ergonomic sleeve great for storing and freshness. Red onions are like the crowned jewel of onions, with their vibrant color and milder bite. Perfect for dishes where you want a fresh, uncooked crunch—think salads, salsas, and sandwiches. When you’re not enjoying them fresh, try our Red Onion Marmalade perfect for bringing out their natural tangy sweetness.
We couldn't let our North Island Wonkers miss out on the a-'peel'-ing onion action in the Pantry this month! Luckily our friends at Wai Shing in Pukekohe have some "too small" red onions in need of a home, so we're popping them in the pantry! Red onions are perfect for dishes where you want a fresh, uncooked crunch—think salads, salsas, and sandwiches. But these little reds are also just the right size for roasting whole, or making a perfect portion of pickled goodness.
When their tortillas don’t make the cut…they cut them into 6! These bags of ready-to-cook tortilla triangles were born out of imperfect or ripped 100% corn tortillas made in Hawke’s Bay. Bake or shallow fry them when they land in your kitchen, for a crunchy morsel perfect for scooping up your favourite dip! Naturally gluten free and vegan.
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Future-forward, Foxton farmed strawberries – sweet but small! 26 Seasons is New Zealand’s pioneering indoor, vertical grower – and the first to be able to supply kiwis with locally grown strawberries all year long. Because they’re grown indoors in temperature and lighting controlled conditions, you can enjoy these fresh, great-tasting strawberries all year round—without the added food miles. But even indoors some strawberries still grow a little too wonky for retail standards, so we’re tickled red to give these Shoots misfits a home in our pantry this month.
What’s so cool about this farming method? With their vertical structure, the 26 Seasons crew use 6x less land than traditional farming, 90% less water and their strawberries are herbicide free. Plus, they come your way in fully recyclable packaging.
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Our friends Tony & Lisa from Waikawa Fresh are rollin’ in rocket this time of year, and sending their surplus of this peppery, fresh leaf Wonky’s way. Rocket adds a great bite to salads, sandwiches and more. Start 'rocket' and rolling and try our Grapefruit, Rocket and Avocado salad recipe here.
The Gill Brothers are our pick of the bunch when it comes to the zesty, fresh herb that is coriander! We think of coriander as the life of any herb party - bold, zesty, and just the right amount of refreshing. Try it tossed in Vietnamese style salads or slaws, blitzed into a pesto, or as a flavour booster for curries and stirfries.
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