Edible And Credible

This is just an update post on several things that have been going on, as well as a round-up on the last year – or two, even.

Firstly, I want to thank all the new readers, people who have placed links on their own blogs, and the people that have signed up to follow. After two years the blog is picking up steam and as a result I have made many interesting contacts and friends in the history, research and collecting fields. Longwhitekid has even been listed on the National Library of New Zealand’s website as one of their “go-to” resources on the genre, I was pretty chuffed by that. Now the National Library of Australia are archiving the lot too. Longwhitekid has also been featured recently on the websites of Groove 107.7 FM, The Cultural Mapping Project, NZICMA (The New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturer’s Association),  and Living in 60s 70s 80s Christchurch on Facebook. Thanks everyone for your support!

Just when I was ready to write off Facebook for good, for the first year they jumped from nowhere to the number one slot – and I received more traffic from there than any other source. Previously most of my visitors have come through from the blogroll of my friend Lisa Truttman’s definitive (not to mention extensive) Auckland history journal Timespanner. Flickr traditionally follows after the fact. The most highly read post was the one I did on Tip-Top’s Moggy Man and TT-2s. The rest of the posts that ranked in the top five most reads were on Whittakers, Reckitt & Colman, Spaceman candy cigarettes, and the history of Buttermaid and the Dustin family business.

It has also brought in some interesting offers. I was adamant from the start, and have maintained that, as one of several projects I work on – I wanted this one to stay simply a pastime. It didn’t have to have an “outcome” for once – it was to be pure enjoyment and didn’t serve any real purpose – a hobby in the definitive sense. Although I have been approached over various tentative writing projects and the like… I have elected to avoid most of them (how many times have I heard “really, you should do a book”- the first time was one too many). However I have finally caved – a few months back I got a very interesting proposition via one of my posts here which has been under discussion for a while now. I’m not at liberty to discuss the details except to say it is moving and that’s the only hint I am going to give. The prospect is a very exciting one!

With some notoriety comes the down side. Recently I was dismayed to discover that a woman named Sarndra Raybould of Waipukurau had been downloading the artwork from Longwhitekid, my online store, and also my Flickr account, and putting it on various (cruddy, embarrassing) items of merchandise for sale on her website and Trade Me. You can say “well, that’s what you get for putting it out there”, and she did say that – in between the lines . That still doesn’t make it right. I wasn’t the only one. Other people had photos filched, and she took artwork from Wattie’s, Sanitarium and an advertising agency Fly Creative that have worked with everyone from CSR to Edmonds.

Then, when I confronted her and asked for an explanation (not an apology – I never actually got that) , she had the gall to tell me that all I do is “just use bits of other people’s stuff and Photoshop it together” so who am I to criticize  etc. This probably comes from someone that thinks an Adobe Suite is one of the better rooms in a mud hut hotel in the desert somewhere. Anyway, apparently that justifies theft, by denigrating my skills. A weak excuse, and irrelevant I may add. No, I corrected Miss Ravebold – I have respect for what I do – whereas she is just a thief.
She was not even justificatory – she arrogantly believed she had a right to do whatever she pleased. She did take (most of) the stuff she had for sale off Trade Me and her business website. By the end of it she had made me furious which was clearly her intention. What a piece of work! Apparently it was too much to simply say sorry – I would have let it go. I’m good like that.

So, this has led me to placing a copyright by-line on the main page, as well as under every post from now on. It’s unfortunate I have to do this but that is just the way it is – Give some people an inch as they say. I probably should have done this from the start but I really didn’t think anyone would be that interested in anything I am doing. Seemingly, this has all changed. The premise was always sharing information. Sadly, some people will just take whatever you offer up – and further to that clean you out completely.

Unlike some people I don’t think I own history; it belongs to no-one and never will belong to anybody. And I don’t personally think that because it comes up on Google, I can just take it. I try to give credit where it’s due, going to some trouble to track down authors and copyrights (many things are from private collections that are kindly and generously lent to me for my use alone). And I try to remember to thank people if they help me. But if you print it off and paste it on a butt-ugly toilet roll holder (which she did) – and then give me an attitude about it, you’re asking for a war. You’ve been warned. Fortunately for me, the Marmite people, pissed off about her use of their imagery, stepped in with their issues and finished the job off for me. Anyway, in lieu of simply biting the bullet and conceding with that one simple word – every time someone Googles Sarndra’s name – this will come up from now until eternity. That’s a pretty apt punishment, I think. And I rank quite highly on search engines, unfortunately for her.

The image at the top is a recreation I have done of yet another label from the Kaipara Dairy Co-op, which I covered here in April 2011 and here in January 2012. I guess it dates from the early 1960s. They don’t come up for sale that often, but they do come up – perhaps once a year. I’d describe these cans as a “hard to get” item. Yet it’s interesting that both Auckland venues MOTAT and the Maritime Museum have the bulk versions of this can in their “ol’ timey grocery” displays – and in multiples. They look in too good condition and are too difficult to get for me to believe they are the real deal; I think someone has made them. I will see them with my own eyes one of these days and be the judge. Anyway, that’s what I’ve done, since I have really wanted an example for my collection for quite a while and every single time I’ve missed out on it. As far as the future of the dairy buildings in Helensville – I recall someone slipped me a note somewhere saying that the building, after being re-listed for auction, was purchased, but by whom – and what for – is unknown. There was talk that it would possibly be grabbed by local council, for an arts precinct – which would be brilliant – but I doubt that’s what happened.

Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s to another fun and interesting year for Longwhitekid.

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Addendum, early Aug 2013: Our chef has a name! Meet Pierre Auguste. Finally this week an ad  turned up showing that Instant Kaipara was in production from at least the late 1950s, also in labelled jars as well as the two sizes of tins. This is the only time I have ever seen the product advertised. 

From the Recipe Book and Household Guide by Women’s division Federated Farmers NZ (Inc)., exact publishing date unknown but appears to be late 1950s-early 1960s.

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All content of Longwhitekid copyright Darian Zam © 2012. All rights reserved.

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Bite Size: Reconstituted Retro

Here I have recreated the label for a Meadow Maid milk powder can which probably dates from the early 1960s. They come up for sale every once in a while, maybe every eight months or so. I am pretty sure I remember my grandparents having one of these around at some point when I was a youngster. I am fairly sure it wasn’t new then, but being used to store something else; perhaps in the kitchen cupboards but more likely nails or screws in my grandfather’s workshop.  This was produced by the Kaipara Dairy Co-op which I previously wrote about in this post “The Creamy Dragon Strikes Again” back in April:

https://longwhitekid.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/the-creamy-dragon-strikes-again/

Kaipara produced several products that I know of including skim and full fat milk powder, ice cream mix, malted milk, margarine and gouda – under different brand names .

I can’t see what’s on the back of the can from any of the images I have, so I sort of “imagined” the rest of the label by basing it on the design on the back of another yellow Kaipara tin with a snooty chef on it, that is in both the MOTAT and Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum ol’ timey general store collections respectively (I am pretty sure they are reproductions, it’s interesting how they both have new-looking large versions of them, I’d like to know the story behind that). The yellow can is a neat design that’s on my list to add to my collection but I haven’t been successful in yet getting one. I’ve never seen what the malted milk can looks like and don’t know what brand name it was under.

I hadn’t heard anything further about the situation with the long-abandoned Kaipara Dairy buildings since the council had ordered the removal of them early last year; and the last news item appeared in April of 2011 – in which residents were still agitating for the old factory to be turned to rubble. However it seems the factory site is still standing and an auction was slated yet again, this time for December 2011. Someone posted this clip of their interior tour in October

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqeOPTiOeAU

and it looked like it was cleaned up a little for the sale. Same as the last time, I suspect it was passed in. There’s rumbling about a community art space, which sounds good to me.

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Addendum, early Aug 2013: Finally this week an ad  turned up showing that Meadow Maid was in production from at least the late 1950s. This is the only time I have ever seen the product advertised. 

From the Recipe Book and Household Guide by Women’s division Federated Farmers NZ (Inc)., exact publishing date unknown but appears to be late 1950s-early 1960s.

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All content of Longwhitekid copyright Darian Zam © 2013. All rights reserved.

The Creamy Dragon Strikes Again

This “Cloverdale” brand Ice Cream Mix tin was up for auction a little while back. I have never seen one before or since, but in the meantime a couple of other items have turned up from the Kaipara Dairy Co-op; a Gouda box and skim milk tins – all with wonderful graphics. I am assuming the products tasted delicious (mmm, can’t go far wrong with cheese or butter), but they also had a fabulous designer! A little out of my price range, combined with shifty dealings from Trademe sellers and plenty of missing mail has kind of made me reticent in my purchasing so I settled for recreating the design myself.

The Kaipara Co-operative Dairy Company was established in 1911 amongst the rolling green pastures of Hellensville (and not to be confused with the Northern Kaipara Co-op which I understand is another, quainter building still standing much further North in the Kaipara Harbour in Whakapirau). The building at it’s current location was apparently erected in the 1950’s, all though the date “1937” painted on the edifice is a mystery according to Auckland historian Lisa Truttman, author of one of my favourite history blogs “Timespanner.”

Apparently once with a great 1950’s curved glass exterior the premises has now been completely smashed inside and out by vandals. The building is still standing to my knowledge, as testified by the many online photos of the grafittied ruins – but perhaps only just; I believe it was on the auction block recently, failed to sell and the owners ordered by local council to demolish the buildings due to “danger” by end March 2011.

It was very a successful company during its heyday and one of the more innovative dairy enterprises of it’s time – during the seventies the company ventured into the manufacture of Margarine – the first New Zealand company to do so – building an edible oils factory which is adjacent to the building and producing the “River Valley” brand.

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The factory shut in the late 1980s with the general decline in farming, as well as general economic downturn resulting from “Black Monday”. In 1987, The buildings were sold to Martec Industries who attempted to run a fruit juicing operation there and failed twice. Finally the company was put into liquidation around 1989 and the machinery within the buildings stripped out and sold. The River Valley brand went to Meadow Lea Foods Ltd.

AnchorMart Ltd was formed from the retail divisions of NZCDC and the Kaipara Dairy Cooperative. Over the next decade a series of many mergers and acquisitions took place, until the company eventually became what is known now as, you guessed it – Fonterra, or – what I have come to think of as “the big creamy dragon, eater of all brands and abandoner of neat logos”.

Photo of the old Co-op courtesy and © of Lisa Truttman http://timespanner.blogspot.com/2008/11/helensville-ruins.html

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Addendum, early Aug 2013: Finally this week not one, but two ads turned up at the same time showing that Cloverdale was in production from the mid-late 1950s. .

The Weekly News, Feb 29 1956.

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From the Recipe Book and Household Guide by Women’s division Federated Farmers NZ (Inc)., exact publishing date unknown but appears to be late 1950s-early 1960s. 

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All content of Longwhitekid copyright Darian Zam © 2013. All rights reserved.