Nasturtium flowers at Vaucluse House. Photo Scott Hill © HHT
(It’s a dreadful pun… sorry about that!) If you’re a dab hand at mint sauce, how about trying another colonial favourite with your roast mutton / hogget / lamb – caper sauce? Continue reading
Merino sheep at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute. Photo Scott Hill © HHT
If there’s one thing people think of when they hear the name ‘Macarthur’, it’s sheep! Continue reading
Mulligatawny. Photo Jacqui Newling © HHT
Purchasing receipts from 1822 tell us that curry powder was one of the many imported goods that the Macarthurs bought from Sydney grocers. By that time, curries were commonplace on finer tables. Continue reading
The Elizabeth Farm dining table set for breakfast (detail). Photo © Paolo Busato
While we don’t routinely set the table at Elizabeth Farm, when we do we draw on a wide range of primary sources that describe the Macarthurs’ daily lives as well as wider, but still closely related, colonial themes. Continue reading
[Anna Maria Macarthur (nee King)] (detail), William Nicholas, 1843. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW: P2 / 469
A long letter by the anonymous ‘Mrs E’ to Anna Maria Macarthur gives us a marvellous insight into the social life expected of a high-class family. Continue reading
Elizabeth Farm (detail). Photo © Christopher Shain
In 1831, when Thomas Mitchell set off on his Journey into the Interior, he started the account metaphorically at Elizabeth Farm, in ‘A Garden’. The description of Macarthur’s estate served both as a symbolic starting point for his journey into the unknown, and also as a contrast to what he would describe as he journeyed into ‘the wilds’, leaving first the elegant houses, the gardens, the fields and, finally, even the scattered sheep-herds of the colony behind.
Elizabeth Farm. Photo © Christopher Shain
Happy New Year from all at The Cook and The Curator! With any luck, everyone’s had a good lie down to recover from a week of festivity and puddings and, in the finest January tradition, is now setting about breaking resolutions that were really a good idea at the time but in hindsight seem, well… Continue reading
Christmas at Elizabeth Farm. Photo Scott Hill © HHT
Think back to a time before tinsel, fairy lights and singing Santas. In early 19th century Britain, the favourite Christmas decorations were the age-old ‘holly and the ivy’, along with evergreens such as mistletoe and pine. In Australia however, where the vegetation was evergreen, the symbolic value of a few precious green leaves emerging from a snow-covered landscape was replaced with scenes of abundance. Continue reading