A group
that I am part of has a project being developed over the next few months. They
are planning a recipe book intertwined with personal stories. The idea is to
capture the history of members, to explore the different pathways which have
brought us to this point Collectively, we span all family combinations,
economic circumstances, and cultural backgrounds. I imagine that most people
who contribute to the book would consider themselves good cooks. I don’t
pretend to be a cook but I liked the concept of favourite recipes being inextricably
linked to our lifestyles. I’m sure my story is not what the organisers had in
view but I like the challenge of tracing a recipe through three generations.
Some skills
are taught and passed down through generations. Others almost seem to be
genetic, where there is no history of that particular aptitude. There are so
many examples of parents and grandparents with amazing creative output and the
offspring are only happy with a golf club or a wooden spoon in their hands.
We’ve seen families like the Douglas’s and Redgraves who shine on the cinematic
stage while their children are happy to drop into obscurity. Equally, there is
that prodigy who appears without warning.
I am
setting the scene for my culinary skills. I can confidently trace them back two
generations on the maternal side. My grandmother, Annie Hardy, was born in
Australia but her parents and older siblings migrated from Scotland. In fact
one sister was born on the ship enroute to Australia. While all the other girls
were given a single name, Great-aunt Elizabeth also had the name of the nurse
and the delivering doctor – Elizabeth Mowatt McCann Roderick.
One regret
I have is that I didn’t follow up on the history of my mother’s family and
there is no one left to tell me. I have only one cousin older than me and I
have lost touch. I don’t know how Annie met and married James Hoban Hardy. My
story starts when she moved to Mackay in central Queensland in about 1918. She
had been on the goldfields of Mount Morgan with her husband. Travelling to
Mackay was quite arduous. She came on a small coastal vessel from Rockhampton.
When she arrived in Mackay, the ship moored in the Pioneer River near where the
Forgan Bridge is now, decades before the Harbour was constructed. They tied up
to the Leichhardt Tree and she and her three small children were swung across
in a basket to the river bank. I can only assume that they had already
purchased a property of some sort and that the little family walked about 800
yards to their permanent home at 65 River Street, which was sold for a unit
development soon after Caneland Shopping Centre was built in 1979. Meanwhile
Grandfather had come by train to St Lawrence which was the northern end of the
railway line at the time. He had the family’s goods and chattels on a bullock
dray and he walked with it to Mackay over about three weeks, sleeping under the
dray, I imagine, at night.
James and
Annie went on to have five daughters and two sons. My mother Enid was born in
1920, to join her first three siblings. Grandfather was at Michelmores[MO1] for his entire working life. As
expected at that time Nana looked after the house and her family. I have photos
of James’ mother, Great-grandmother Hoban in the front garden so she obviously
had her mother-in-law with her at some time. As a child, I had occasional
holidays with Nana where I got to know Aunty Ag (Agnes) and her kids,
especially her youngest Patricia who is the same age as me. Agnes came back to
live at River Street when she was divorced – almost unheard of in those
days. Having raised her own family, Annie
had another five people in the house again.
When I got
a teaching position in Mackay in 1968, I went to stay temporarily with Nana and
Aunty Ag. Two and a half years later, I left to get married. Nana had always
been what she called ‘a good plain cook’. When I was there, she was almost 80
and she was still cooking and cleaning for me and Aunty Ag who had often worked
two or three jobs at meagre female wages to keep everyone fed and clothed. We
always had meat and veges and dessert. One of her favourites (and ours) was
apple crumble, quick to prepare and easy to cook.
Her recipe
was simple:
·
3
or 4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced, stewed gently on a temperamental stove
to soften
·
Apples
were lined carefully in an over-proof dish and sprinkled with cinnamon
·
Crumble
was prepared and layered thickly over the apples
o
3
scoops of plain flour, 2 scoops of sugar and enough butter
o
Combine
flour and sugar, rub butter through until combined
· Cook in unreliable oven until the crumble was browned and crisp.
Annie Hardy 1890 - 1980
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