Sketches and paintings of early New Zealand show the landscape, occasionally with men or animals in it, but never depicting women and domestic life. What happened to European women after they arrived in the raw colony? From their letters, diaries and cookbooks their story emerges. Colonial Fare records their struggles to find housing, food and friends. We learn how they kept food fresh without a refrigerator, how illnesses were treated without antibiotics and how they found entertainment without radio, television or movies.