Eat your history – the book!

5 November 2015 The Cook 4 Comments

Jacqui Newling, author of Eat your history: stories and recipes from Australian kitchens Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

Handwritten recipes passed through the generations, tales of goats running wild in colonial gardens and early settlers’ experimentation with native foods…
Eat your history dishes up stories and recipes for Australian kitchens and dining tables from 1788 to the 1950s.

Jacqui Newling, resident gastronomer at Sydney Living Museums, invites you to share forgotten tastes and lost techniques, and to rediscover some delicious culinary treasures. Continue reading →

The artichoke question

3 November 2015 The Curator Leave a comment

'Artichaut gros vert de Laon' [detail], from the Album de cliches; Paris, Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co., 1888. Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection.

Its been a long time since we posted twice a week, but we’ve got so much coming up over the next few months that I thought we could have a second helping of artichokes. Continue reading →

The art in eating artichokes

29 October 2015 The Cook 1 Comment

Fresh globe artichokes Photo © Jacqui Newling for Sydney Living Museums

Artichokes are in their prime at the moment. They are a member of the thistle family, and have been popular in the Mediterranean region since antiquity, but to many Australians they still seem very curious and foreign – partly because we’re not quite sure how to prepare and eat them. We’re more likely to buy their ‘hearts’ ready-pickled in brine or oil as an antipasto ingredient than cook them whole, which is a shame, because freshly cooked artichokes are a fun and highly sensorial food to eat – best eaten without cutlery and nibbled on rather than dined upon. Continue reading →

Spring harvest festival – this weekend

15 October 2015 The Cook 5 Comments

Jacqui Newling, ‘the Cook’, and Scott Hill, ‘the Curator’, in the kitchen at Elizabeth Farm. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

Our gardens with fruit and vegetables are extensive; and produce abundantly. It is now spring, and the eye is delighted with a most beautiful variegated landscape; almonds, apricots, pear and apple trees are in full bloom; the native shrubs are also in flower, and the whole country gives a grateful perfume … Continue reading →

A kitchen garden in spring

8 October 2015 Helen Curran Leave a comment

A bee in the borage in the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House. Photo Helen Curran © Sydney Living Museums

This Sunday 11 October, Vaucluse House is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a house museum with a free community open day. It’s also the 15th birthday of our recreated Victorian kitchen garden – and it’s never looked better! Amid the spring abundance you’ll find heirloom tomatoes, tender sugar-snap peas and colonial favourites like white icicle radishes, sugar-loaf cabbages and salsify.

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Punch drunk on guava jelly

24 September 2015 Helen Curran Leave a comment

Cherry guavas and flowers from the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House, September 2015. Photo Helen Curran © Sydney Living Museums

There’s a special pleasure in tasting a fruit straight from the tree. Just a few months ago, the cherry guavas in the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House were tiny, unpromising-looking green orbs. This week, the first of them ripened: little rose-coloured marbles of sweet-tart deliciousness, each a perfect mouthful – and the perfect ingredient for a clear fruit jelly.

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Sea captains and shaddock jam

17 September 2015 Helen Curran Leave a comment

Citrus maxima, or shaddock (detail), colour plate from B Hoola van Nooten, Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de l’ille de Java: peints d’après nature, 1880. Image courtesy Missouri Botanic Garden

In the winter months, you’ll see them dangling from the branches of a tree at the bottom of the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House, by the compost heap, like bright baubles. These days, the shaddock (also known as pomelo or pumello) is less well-known than oranges and grapefruit. But in colonial Australia, this outsized citrus was a thing of wonder. Continue reading →

Spring has sprung!

10 September 2015 The Curator 2 Comments

Damson plum blossom at Meroogal. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums

It looks like Spring has well and truly arrived at Meroogal, with the damson plum bursting into bloom by the side of the house! Continue reading →

Custard apples and cherimoyas

20 August 2015 Helen Curran 2 Comments

Photograph of a custard apple with other fruits in a market display

A custard apple among the avocados at the Marrickville Organic Food and Farmers Market, August 2015. Photo © Helen Curran

One of the things that’s surprised me most about colonial gardens is just how exotic they were. I like to think of myself as relatively broad-palated, but when I stumbled across a list of fruits available in NSW in 1824 my jaw dropped. Apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and plums. So far so expected. But the Chilean cherimolia and alligator pear – what on earth were those?

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