Erana Blandford – Ngāti Pou, Ngāpuhi
Erana Blandford is the Director of Puku Ora Ltd. A company centred around gut health. Her business is run from the East Coast Juice Bar in Gisborne where she sells fermented foods and drinks, along with healthy desserts, juices, smoothies, fresh salads, and protein shakes.
The focus of the menu is to provide Gisborne healthy choices of food. Erana also runs education classes, educating on fermented foods and gut health.
In 2013, Erana’s son was diagnosed with autism. This was when she found her way into the fermenting and micro-biome universe. Following on from this, her husband was diagnosed with cancer, and again she found her previous research connected with her deeper into the fascinating universe of micro-biome.
In 2017, Erana was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and adrenal fatigue. She believes this came about from being overworked and eventually burnt herself out, however, it wasn’t until she hit rock bottom in terms of her health that she realised things needed to change.
Fast forward a few years, she is now 20kgs lighter, symptom free and living life on her own terms. As a family they experienced a huge change in their health after changing their diet and lifestyle. These experiences awoke a passion for using food as medicine, and so decided to share this passion with others.
It was through these health journeys that this business idea, Puku Ora developed. Erana recognised how hard it was to obtain information to achieve measures of whole health and wellness. She saw a need and opportunity to share what she had learnt throughout her research with others.
Erana’s latest development has been to launch her very first product. It’s a protein shake made from bone broth. This concept was conceived almost 4 years ago and she has been researching and developing it in the background ever since. She utilised her health shop to test the waters, and complete a product analysis.
When she first launched their chocolate bone broth through their website she sold out within hours. Now she has a range of flavours of Puku Ora Bone Broth for customers to enjoy. Visit www.pukuora.com or if you’re in Gisborne go see Erana at East Coast Juice Bar, 420 Gladstone Road, Gisborne.
