When I designed the Secret Kiwi Kitchen packaging, I wanted to honour the women who came before me.
Women who loved flowers the way I do.
Women who looked closely at the natural world of New Zealand and wanted to share its beauty with others.
Sarah Featon was one of them.
Born in England, Sarah emigrated to New Zealand in the 1870s and settled in Gisborne. At a time when many botanists believed New Zealand had no flowers worthy of painting, she set out to prove them wrong.
Working largely from her kitchen table, she created the artwork that would become The Art Album of New Zealand Flora, the first full-colour art book published in New Zealand.
The Art Album of New Zealand Flora. Collection Tairāwhiti Museum.
The work was so remarkable that a copy was presented to Queen Victoria for her Diamond Jubilee, enclosed in a casket made from native New Zealand timbers.
Yet despite her achievement, Sarah's later years were marked by financial hardship. To survive, she sold 134 of her original botanical watercolours for just £150.
I've often thought about that.
The patience it took to paint every leaf and blossom.
The determination to document the flora of a country many overlooked.
The conviction that beauty and the natural world is worth preserving.
The Art Album of New Zealand Flora. Collection Tairāwhiti Museum.
The artwork on our Buttermilk Scone Mix comes from a botanical plate painted by Sarah Featon more than a century ago.
Every time I see it, I think of the women who looked at Aotearoa, NZ and knew it was special.
Worth preserving.
Worth sharing with the wider world.
I feel the same way.
Arohu,
Lulu
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