A taste for the local life

If you’ve ever strolled through the Sunday Farmers’ Market in Blenheim, chances are you’ve seen Lynn Stuthridge; cheerful, grounded, and quietly at the centre of it all. As the manager of the market, Lynn brings not only structure and coordination to the weekly event but a lifetime of passion and deep knowledge about food, farming, and community.

Words: Adrienne Matthews | Photos: Aimée Preston

Lynn’s journey to becoming a cornerstone of Marlborough’s local food scene has been anything but linear. Her career path has traversed professional kitchens here and overseas. “I was on the opening team of Planet Hollywood in London of all things,” she laughs. Throughout her life, food – good food, honest food – has remained a constant.

Lynn started out washing dishes as a solo parent and progressed through the kitchen. “They kept asking me to do things, so I did them.” It wasn’t long before she became a head chef in Christchurch, working at well-known restaurants like Tregattis and running the kitchen in several other eateries. She later opened her own delicatessen, converting a bakery her parents helped her purchase.

Despite not having formal culinary training, Lynn’s skills and determination carried her far. “Once you’ve been head chef at one small restaurant, you can only go to another small one, so having my own food business was the logical step,” she explains.

The deli years were a whirlwind. “I also had the contract to feed the workers at Feltex carpet factory 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Managing that kind of non-stop operation while raising two children solo was, as Lynn puts it, “very hard,” but she did it, because that’s what needed to be done.

After meeting her husband Geoff, the couple moved to Little River where Lynn raised ducks for restaurants and took a brief break from commercial kitchens. Over the years, their path took them from an appliance store to a Navy base in Auckland, where her husband was redeployed following 20 years previously in the service. Lynn worked for the Navy as a civilian before the couple moved to Taranaki, then finally to Blenheim, which they both instantly fell in love with.

These days, they live on a 10-acre property in the Wairau Valley where she raises animals, grows produce, and still cooks up a storm. “We basically built a house that’s just a kitchen with a few rooms attached,” she laughs. “I still love cooking. I don’t really use recipes; I make things up as I go. Geoff gets frustrated because I can never recreate the same dish twice.”

Her property reflects the same creativity and drive that’s marked her whole life. She’s planted an acre of apricot trees surrounded by olives, along with a citrus grove, truffle oaks, veggie gardens, nut trees, and glasshouses. “I haven’t harvested olives yet, but hopefully will this year,” she says. “I’m really passionate about local food, about knowing where it comes from and how it’s grown.”

That passion is what led her to the Marlborough Farmers’ Market role. “I saw the job and thought, that’s me. I can’t sit behind a desk all week, but talking to producers, learning about their products, writing the newsletter – it’s all about food, and I love that.”

The market is run by an incorporated society, with a committee overseeing operations, but Lynn is very much the engine that keeps it running. Every Sunday starts at 5am, rain or shine. And for Lynn, it’s worth every early morning.

“I love the stallholders and what the market stands for, especially now, with people becoming more interested in where their food comes from. Marlborough isn’t just about wine. We’ve got amazing food producers here; olive oil, cheeses, preserves, so much fresh produce, and it’s my privilege to help showcase that.”

Lynn is however concerned about the disappearance of small-scale growers in the region. “You hardly see stone fruit growers anymore. Grapes have taken over, and I understand it, because it’s what pays, but it’s heartbreaking when trees that produce world-class olive oil get pulled out because they’re not profitable.”

She says she would love to see more diversification in what is grown in Marlborough. “We’re capable of growing some incredible fruit, for example, but that gets overlooked. More and more people are actually wanting to buy local food. It tastes better, and there is a strong desire to know where it has come from and how it was produced.”

For Lynn, life is full. It is rooted in the land, in the kitchen, and in the community. Her story is a testament to what happens when resilience meets passion, when someone follows their instincts, works hard, and makes space for joy.

In Marlborough’s Farmers’ Market, Lynn has found her sweet spot: a job that blends food, people, and purpose. And for those who cross her path, whether in a kitchen, around a market stall, or over a bottle of local olive oil, her enthusiasm is nothing short of contagious.