Maori Kai/Maori Food

Maori Foods, which mainly consists of crops like wheat, potatoes, maize, carrots, cabbage and other vegetables. Over the years Maori began to raise live stock like sheep, pigs, goat and poultry. The average Potatoe were much more easier to grow unlike kumara, and pigs could be fattened quickly, so pork, puha (water crest) and potatoes created and became a new staple meal.

Growing and Gathering Process: The Ancestors of the Maori brought edible crops from their homeland, including kumara, yam and taro. In New Zealand the climate was colder than their home and Maori used special cultivation techniques to adapt these plants to the new environment.

Early Settlers - Introduced Foods: Maori quickly adopted food sources introduced by the Europeans, growing potatoes, gifting pigs to other tribes, and developing large wheat plantations and mill. In the early 1800s, pigs and baskets of Potatoe were used as currency. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the only sources of meat for the Maori were kuri (dog), kiore (rats), and birds.