Food for thought

Learning to cook is beneficial - whatever your age.

Meat and milk from animals grown on farms may well be a thing of the past for many people when the new products of cellular agriculture come on stream in an estimated four or five years, Charmian Smith writes.

At the Otago Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, stallholders were wearing brightly coloured hats to celebrate the market's 15th birthday.

These days, Christmas and New Year have become such important celebrations and holidays that it's strange to realise that they weren't always so, Charmian Smith writes.

Fermented foods are becoming increasingly trendy, and there's evidence the fermentation and the compounds produced are linked with physical and mental health.

Local food has become fashionable in the past decade or so with initiatives popping up in all sorts of places.