News Archive

Regency Pies Assistant Baker Logan Johnson helped prepare a trial batch of wild goat pies.

The Council plans to give away about 2500 wild goat mini meat pies in a bid to attract more visitors to its marquee at the March 2-4 Northland Agricultural Field Days days, as well as offer a fun way to draw attention to the problems caused by goats and other pests.

Regional Council Events Co-ordinator Liz Woodward says the Council hopes to repeat the success of last year’s possum pie promotion, which drew hundreds of extra visitors to its marquee.

“This year’s pies will once again be professionally baked by staff at Whangarei’s Regency Pies.  They will be using commercially-sourced meat from young wild goats that has been approved for human consumption.”

Ms Woodward says about 40kg of goat meat will be used to produce pies with a slightly gamey taste.

She says with no natural predators and a low mortality rate, goats can cause harm out of proportion to their actual numbers, especially on slip-prone hillsides where their eating habits can considerably worsen erosion.

“They can also have an economic impact as they can target young plantation trees.”

Meanwhile, as well as distributing the wild goat pies, Regional Council staff will also be on hand to chat about other aspects of the NRC’s work from sustainable land use to water quality and weed control.

Ms Woodward says with limited numbers of pies available over the three days of the field days, the Council will restrict tastings to three times a day at 10am, noon and 2pm.

She says people keen to try the pies can visit the Council marquee at its traditional field days location; site A9.