The Country 16/12/25: Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie talk to Jamie Mackay

A celebrity cook and a celebrity farmer discuss Nadia’s Farm Kitchen and Carlos’ Nuffield Scholarship thesis in what has been a very busy 2025 for New Zealand’s power farming couple. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're counting down to Christmas here on the country, and
I reckon and many Christmas stockings could be a book
by one of our two next guests. Her name is
Nadia Lemon. Of course, the book is Nardia's Farm Kitchen. Nadia.
We're going to talk to Carlos Bagri in a minute.
But your book is number one on the nonfiction best
sellers list. You even headed off just cinda a different

(00:23):
kind of power.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh, thank you, Jamie. Do you know I had only
heard rumors of that, so you have actually confirmed what
I've heard, So you knew the news before me. But yeah,
I was kind of told that, yeah, that it looks
like the book was going to be number one for
this year, and great to hear that it actually is.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, when I say I know it's number one, I
read it in the Listener like everyone else, so I'm
going to take the listener at their words. So you
are number one.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I did it to the farmers. I'm not sure your
books are on the way because I posted them last week.
Sorry I was a bit let's post them so you
probably haven't seen it yet. But the dedication is to
our farmers and food producers of New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Well, they're not actually my books. I'm giving them out
to a couple of winners that were neglected to oh
this one for me. Well, there's one Christmas present. Sol,
there's a box and Mackay's that coming your way. Twenty
twenty five for you guys, has been a bit of
a change around. Instead of Nadia's Farm, the TV program
became Nardier's Farm Kitchen. And I know, Carlos Bagri, you

(01:24):
were heavily involved, obviously, especially at the early part of
the year in your Nuffield scholarship.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Oh and what a journey that's been. You know, that
has been a I think it was a bit thirteen
countries bit, a part of four months abroad and got
back this year and hit to sit down and this
was hearder than anticipated to be writing. A twenty third
was that twenty thousand word paper on my findings and
what I saw abroad.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I've got a really short attention span, Carlos, And I
tell Michelle, my producer, if it's more than an a
four page I'm not reading it. Do you have an
executive summer?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I do, Yeah, there's there's there's a one to two
page tucked away on if you if you want to
find it will be on the Rural Leader's website and
so you can. Yeah, they're there be not just mine,
but that all the other Nwfield scholars have their exect
summaries as well as their full papers and all the references.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
So to just in thirty seconds or less, what was
the guts of your thesis.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
The guts of it really was looking at it from
a macroeconomics perspective and looking at the New Zealand economy
going okay, look, we've got two main, two main businesses
that are generating our expert earnings, one being of course tourism,
the other one being primary production. So those are your two,
your two big ones, and we need to maintain and

(02:42):
drive both those as hard as as well as we
possibly can into the future. Basically, what I come out
at the end of it was, hey, look, we've got
two amazing industries that we need to continue to invest in.
But what is the third leg to our economy? Like
what is what like, what's the third leg to our stall?

Speaker 1 (02:58):
And what is the third leg?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
That's up for debate, all right, Yeah, so that's that's
that's that's kind of the crunch of it what what
is it that we can invest in the New Zealand
and continue to drive forwards worth and well, yeah, I
mean there's all sorts of things. You can look at
Ireland with taxation, and you look at finance with like
Switzerland and Singapore as well, like economies are similar to ours,

(03:21):
populations are similar to ours, and what has other what
has other countries done that has worked?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I know you two are an incredibly busy and I
caught and you hate this, I know, but the celebrity
farming power couple of New Zealand, you lead very very
busy lives. So Nadia, what's up next for you? In
twenty twenty six? Will there be another series of Nadia's
Farm Kitchen.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, I'm not looking too far ahead right now because
I feel like I needed to take a little bit
of a break, you know, just maybe at least six
weeks or so over the Christmas summer holiday period, so
hopefully I won't be doing too much over that period
of time. But yeah, it looks like we've been commissioned
for another series of Nadia Salm Kitchen. That did really well.

(04:08):
It was it was really popular and the book that
came up with it has been has done really well too.
So yeah, it sounds like we'll be doing it next year.
But you know, I won't say definitely until we actually
start rolling the camera, but it has been commissioned.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, Carlos, bag, you're not renowned for sitting around twiddling
your thumbs or sitting on your thumbs. What's up for you?
What new adventures have you got on the farm?

Speaker 3 (04:32):
On the well, a lot of it has you off
the farm at the moment. On Fire is continuing driving
a butchery in Erbatphire. We're scaling up her arable so
we've got a lot of crops in the ground this year,
more than we've ever done. But a lot of my
focus over the next twelve months will be Swifty Beer
and of course in the mckibbon's resale stores. So we

(04:54):
took over a retail store, like a small small supermarket
in Queenstown late last year. I mean working around that.
So really, to be honest, we're very lucky. You get
to work on some very cool projects and those are
a couple of them.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
How good is it having your own beer, Carlos, It's right, No,
it's I know Emerson's make house. It's just got my
name on it. I don't do anything about it. You
do all the work for yours.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Well, that's probably my favorite. You turn up to a barbecue.
I've got my own land meat, I've got my own beer.
That's a that's a great scenario.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
And you've got Nadia Limb on your arm.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, this is.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
You're punching. You're well, I'm truly punching Carlos here. It's
a compliment that all right. You guys, Hey, look, thank
you very much for me always being available anytime I
ring you up. You say, sure, have a great remainder
of your twenty twenty five and Merry Christmas with your family.
Will catch you back next year. And I've sent you
a box of Makaisa. No pressure, Carlos, but you know

(05:59):
reciprocation mm.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Hmm, it will be on its way.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
It. Good on you, and thanks for the books, Nattie,
see you later.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Thank you, Jamie. Merry Christmas.