Wordless Wednesday - Shepherd Siblings

This is a picture of my father Malcolm Lloyd Shepherd and his siblings Nancy and Colin, which was probably taken about 1932. Their parents were Christina Sterland Lee and Malcolm Michael Shepherd.  Unfortunately, their father, Mac, died in 1932 as a result of injuries he received in a logging accident.  As I look at this picture, I wonder if it was taken before or after the death of their father. 

Family Recipe Friday - Nanna Carriage's Blackberry Jam

Late January through to February is Blackberry time in Australia. Blackberry bushes have long been recognised as one of the most noxious weeds in Australia and are the bane of many a farmer because of their tendency  to take over valuable pastures

However for those of us who delight in the bushes sweet succulent fruit it is a different matter.  Over the past 150 years or so, children have delighted in heading out to pick the berries in the summer time and bring them home for their mothers and grandmothers to make jam, pies and other delights.  

As I outlined in my recent post, Sharing Memories - It's Blackberry time! blackberry picking in our summer school holidays was something we really looked forward to.

We would head out early in the morning and pick the berries, bringing them back to our Nanna, Christina Carriage's kitchen, ready for her to make her jam.  The obvious next part of this story is the actual jam making, so today I would like to share with you Nanna Carriage's Blackberry Jam.

Nanna Carriage's Blackberry Jam

6lbs fresh firm blackberries

1/2 cup of water

4 tablespoons of lemon juice

Sort berries, to check there are no old, overripe or damaged berries.  Wash in a colander, drain and place into a large preserving pan or saucepan. Add water and lemon juice. Press the berries with a wooden spoon to release their juices. Place on a low heat and bring slowly to boil. Continue to boil slowly for approximately half an hour until the fruit is soft and liquid reduced.  

Add sugar (which has been preheated) to the berry mixture.  Stir till dissolved, then turn heat up and boil quickly until the jam sets when tested.

Pour the jam mixture into warm sterile jars and seal with airtight lids or jam papers. Label, date and store in a cool place. 

Nanna had some other tips for making good jam:

1. If you didn't have lemons, a peeled green apple can be added to the berries when cooking and this will aid in setting the jam.

2. Cook the fruit slowly, and only bring to the boil once the added sugar is dissolved. Remember it is the fruit that requires the cooking not the sugar, so low heat when cooking the fruit to soften, when the sugar is added heat is turned up to cook quickly.

3.  To test if the jam is ready,  drop a little jam into cold water in a saucer and push with finger, if the mixture is set and surface wrinkles it is ready.

4.  To sterilize bottles wash in hot water, dry thoroughly and then place into warm oven before filling with jam.

Sentimental Sunday - Sharing Memories - It's Blackberry time!!

Black stained fingers and a purple grin!!

Yes it is blackberry picking season again.  My son and grandsons  had just returned from the swimming hole in the near by river and were delighted with the haul of blackberries they had picked from the bushes surrounding their swimming spot.  A large container of juicy black berries was proudly displayed, neatly packed into plastic container ready to deliver to Aunty Jo so she could make the family's favorite berry jam!   My grandsons had been hanging out for another jar of this jam, as the last jar had run out over six months ago.

Part of the Blackberry Haul

Their sticky fingers and stained smiles brought back childhood memories of summer holidays at my Nanna's (Christina Sterland Carraige, nee Lee) house in Milton, NSW.  My sisters and I,  and my cousins would head out from our Nanna's house early in the morning to collect blackberries from the nearby fields in the dairy farms that surrounded the small township.  

Dressed in old clothes, we would head off with buckets, gardening gloves, gumboots and long sleeve shirts (protection from the sharp spikes of the blackberry bushes). The youngest family members would tag along behind with smaller containers ready to assist. 

Those of us with long legs would climb over the fences and then help the youngest scramble over into the field.  We would make our way through the long paspalum grass, still damp with the morning dew. We were careful to not disturb the diary cows, flicking the summer flies with their tails as they munched on the grass.

At the bottom of the field we would find the large clumps of blackberry bushes, you could smell the sweet ripe fruit and see the clumps of black shiny berries hanging ready for the picking.   First things first!! testing if they tasted any good! We would all pick some of the berries and shove them into our mouths, sweet, juicy and warm from the morning sun! The juice would run down our chins as we grinned with delight.

Then Nanna's voice fare-welling us earlier in the morning would bring us back to reality "Don't  eat them all! Bring lots back so I can make some blackberry jam and blackberry pie!"  Visions of Nanna's chunky jam on fresh bread with cream and bowls of fresh berries topped with vanilla ice-cream spurred us into action. Buckets were placed strategically near the bushes and we started to fill up the smaller containers from the bushes and then carefully tipping them into the larger buckets. 

By mid morning the bedraggled group of cousins, full buckets in hand, arms and legs adorned with purple stains and scratches, faces glowing with a mixture of berry juice and a little sunburn would head back to Nanna's house.  Proudly the buckets would be placed on the bench in Nanna's kitchen! 

In a short time, with hands and faces washed, the band of cousins would all sit around the kitchen table and hoe into the pile of fresh sandwiches and large glasses of cold cordial that Nanna has prepared.  As we munched we would watch her wash and carefully weigh out the berries, preparing them for her part of the blackberry story - the jam making!!

  

Sentimental Sunday - Grandparents Day

Today's post is inspired by an article that I saw on this morning's news which advised that today was Grandparents Day. "Everyone has fond memories of being at their Nan and Pop's place its where you go to get the kind of love that only a grandparent can give.  This year Grandparents Day celebrates our memories of being at home with out grandparents.

My grandparents lived in very different environments.  My maternal Grandparents, Edna and Roy Herbert lived in the outback mining town of Broken Hill, and my Nanna, Christina Carriage and Pop , Lionel Carriage (step grandfather) lived in the small coastal town of Milton.

Edna Palin and Roy Herbert - on their Wedding Day in Broken Hill, NSW

Herbert Home, 58 McGowan Street, Broken Hill

Edna and Roy passed away when I was quite a young child so my memories of their home is quite dim.  However, I do have some memories of being there as a young child, when my mother stayed to help look after my grandfather, when my grandmother was in hospital.  I remember a very bare and dusty back yard with a corrugated tin fence  that backed onto a lane way.

Nanna and Pop Carriage

My paternal Grandparents were Christina Lee and Malcolm Michael Shepherd.  However, my Grandfather passed away after a logging accident in 1932 and my Christina remarried Lionel Carriage, so we grew up visiting Nanna and Pop Carriage in the small diary town of Milton on the South Coast of NSW. 

We regularly spent Christmas at their home, with all our cousins, Aunts and Uncles, playing in the big magnolia tree out the front of the house, putting on concerts on the front veranda, exploring the neighbouring fields and lane ways and spending lots of time on the nearby beaches.

Nanna and Pop's home in Milton

Sentimental Sunday - 56 Wason Street Milton

56 Wason Street, Milton

My childhood memories of visiting my Nanna, Christina Carriage (Shepherd, nee Lee) and Pop, Lionel Carriage are filled with memories of playing in her yard under the huge Magnolia Tree, performing concerts with my cousins on her front veranda, climbing the well on the side of her house, picking plums from her fruit trees and snuggling up in her cosy kitchen, warmed by the huge combustion stove and reading the books and magazines from the corner bookshelf.

Milton is a small dairy town on the south coast of NSW, and my father spent most of his childhood living in Wason Street, in this house and prior to that one a few doors up the street. I was recently delight to rediscover an old post card that my Aunty Nancy had sent me with a picture of Waston Street around 1912-1914.

Wason Street Milton - circa 1912-1914

On the back of the card she writes about living in Wason Street, mentioning the Magnolia Tree, which can be seen in the distance.  The house that my Nanna lived in is not there anymore, having been replaced by a new much larger home, however, the beautiful old Magnolia tree still stands guard in the front yard.  

At the bottom of the street in this picture you can see the Methodist Church.  This was the church that I where I was christened and the church that I would go to with my Nanna when I was visiting as a small child.  My Aunty Nancy who send me this post card was married in this church as well. 

Wordless Wednesday - James McGregor's Grand daughters

It is always exciting when something you write or post links you with family members.  This afternoon, my Facebook page, Family Stories: Photographs and Memories, I was contacted by a cousin who had come across my blogs on the McGregor/Lee Families by pure accident.  She was quite excited to see the stories on her ancestors.

Her great grandmother Mona Lee was my Nanna's, Christina Lee, sister and they were the daughters of Catherine McGregor and George Lee and the Grand daughters of James McGregor and Mary MacPherson.  So especially for you cousin, I have posted their photo for you.  I look forward to catching up with you soon.