about

ABOUT GRACE

I was born in a time when food was plentiful. We lived on a farm which served all our needs. My childhood was filled with happy memories of tending my own vege patch, I had immense pleasure and pride when mum picked some herbs from the garden my family and I shared.

If I wasn't looking after my own garden, I would be watching and helping my parents or grandparents on the farm. There were always eggs to be collected, seasonal fruit to be picked, hazelnuts to be shaken from their branches or sheep to be herded on their afternoon wander.

Our home was in Vasto, Abruzzo, Italy. Our farm was subsistence. The olives provided the oil. The wheat was milled into flour and all the fruit and vegetables were plentiful. As a child I did not want for anything. My absolute favourite time was during the wheat harvest over the long hot summer days. All the neighbouring farmers would lend a hand with our harvest and dad would in turn help them.

I loved all the people around, but I loved most being around mum and watch in amazement how she cooked up delicious meals for the workers. The tables were set end to end under the white mulberry tree, always covered in pristine and stiffly ironed tablecloths. And the food, the glorious food, it was simple fare, but oh so delicious.

Looking through a child's eye it all seemed perfect, but the reality was that if the seasons were bad, then there were not enough olives for oil or wheat for the flour to make bread. The market price for the vegetables and fruit fluctuated considerably throughout the year. Sometimes the prices were so low that it was not worthwhile to harvest or go to market with our produce. To make ends meet, my dad worked abroad building roads in Germany to give us financial support. It was not easy for my mum with 3 young children and ageing in-laws to keep the farm viable at the time. My dad returned after a number of years, but the job prospects in Italy were few and far between. This is why many Italians emigrated at that time. They wanted to work and earn an honest income where they could give their children a better life and better opportunities without the constant financial worries they had.

In Australia, we quickly turned our suburban backyard into a small farm to feed us. It is what we were used to. Many of our familiar vegetables were just not available. Eggplants, artichokes, fennel, zucchini, cos lettuce, rocket, chicory, roma tomatoes, fresh herbs had to be grown so we could eat the variety of food we were used to.

Growing our own food that we enjoyed and earning an income from jobs that were available gave my parents peace of mind.

My love for cooking fresh foods was born out of my life experiences and what my family taught me. I still get immense pleasure in nurturing plants, harvesting and cooking. It will never cease.

It is the experience of harvesting and cooking that I would love to give children. The pleasure gained from such simple acts will last forever. If growing food can also be part of the experience, then the cycle of seed to table is complete. We need to teach our children because these skills should not be lost. In turn they will teach future generations to enjoy fresh food and also improve the world they live in.

ABOUT CLAIRE

I could see food being grown in the fields around our family home from a very early age. Growing up in a small village in Yorkshire, the view from my bedroom window was ever changing – from wheat to rapeseed, cabbages to cows.

My family had a large vegetable patch which although pretty barren in winter, usually provided us with bounty of fruit and vegetables in the spring and summertime. I relished the time helping my dad thinning out radishes, picking runner beans and harvesting plump blackcurrants from the abundant bushes. My mum and I would make blackcurrant pies (what a lot of sugar we added!) and with my grandma I’d make beautiful blackcurrant jam.

I experienced firsthand what an integral part of life preparing, cooking and sharing a meal was in many different cultures when I started travelling as a young adult. Having grown up with the appreciation of where food came from and the enriching experiences of cooking with my family and friends using our home grown ingredients I realised how food always brought people together - family friends workmates and communities.  In places where I couldn’t speak the language, food became the ‘international language’.  From sharing homemade onion soup with truck drivers at a roadside truck stop in France, sitting in a park with locals in the centre of crazy Saigon devouring green papaya salad bought and delivered from a street cart across the road. Good food brought us together. It was the common ground.

Here in Australia we are fortunate to have access to fresh, nutritious and inexpensive foods in many areas. We are also blessed with a good climate to enable us to grow most of our own food. I truly believe that by developing the skills at any age to grow or source, prepare and cook a nutritious meal  you are then empowered to make healthy choices for yourself your family for life.