Historical reenactors assemble outside Hyde Park Barracks. Photo © Fiona Morris for Sydney Living Museums
According to Francois-Maurice Lepailleur, a convict living at the Hyde Park barracks in 1840, “You don’t starve but you’re always hungry.” So what did convicts eat at Hyde Park barracks in the when it was home to over 600 male convict workers at any one time?
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Detail of a piano sconce at Rouse Hill House. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
Connections to food turn up in the most unexpected places – but you’d usually hope it wasn’t in a piano! Continue reading
Old fashioned sticky buns at the Wentworth picnic at Lucknow, NSW. Photo © Jacqui Newling, Sydney Living Museums
On the Queen’s birthday holiday on Tuesday May 24, 1887, the miners at the Wentworth goldfields experienced a ‘unique and enjoyable event’ – a picnic with their families, hosted by the mine manager, Henry Newman and his wife. Continue reading
The preserves pantry at Vaucluse House. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
Adding some flavour to their labour, the staff at Vaucluse House have been adding some colour to the pantry under the stairs in the colonial kitchen. Museum guide, Nicole Sutherland takes us through the process: Continue reading
Detail of plate fragments from Rouse Hill House excavations. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
At Rouse Hill House the stories of food and dining are told in oral histories, recipe books and manuscripts, stacks of plates and shelves of glassware – and in the site’s rich archaeological remains. Continue reading
Fred from Fred's Bush Tucker with an eel for the fire. Photo (c) James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
This year’s Eel Festival at Elizabeth Farm was a great success! Continue reading
Olive sprig from Elizabeth Farm. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney living Museums
We’ve chatted before about the prodigiously old olive tree at Elizabeth Farm. This past week it did something very unexpected – it bore fruit! Continue reading
Lindsay Adam from Fred's Bush Tucker showing visitors how eel is prepared for cooking at Elizabeth Farm. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
It’s Eel Festival time! Come along to Elizabeth Farm in Parramatta this Sunday to celebrate the districts close ties with eels – including an opportunity to sample some freshly roasted eel, hot off the coals in the traditional manner. Continue reading
Margaret Ross Steel and the family cow at the Presbyterian Manse, Young, NSW. Photo James Barnet Steel c1918 © Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection 41289 2
“Where are you going to, my pretty maid? I’m going a milking sir, she said” Continue reading
Mrs. Macpherson's cookery class: the Christmas pudding [detail]. Alfred May and Alfred Martin Ebsworth. Australasian Sketcher, December 20, 1879. State Library of Victoria. A/S20/12/79/145
Judging by the fashionable dress of the women in Mrs Macpherson’s plum pudding class shown above, the traditional plum pudding was a standard requirement, if not the centrepiece, on all the best tables. But in the true spirit of Christmas, our archives tell us that the less fortunate were also tucking in to the classic plum pud!