Spring Harvest: Online Edition
Explore the rich culinary history of Vaucluse House through an exciting online program of talks, live food demonstrations, virtual garden tours, recipes and more.
We teamed up with chef, author and host of River Cottage Australia Paul West, along with Cornersmith, The Urban Beehive, Archie Rose Distilling Co., food writer Barbara Sweeney, chef Holly Davis, artisan cheesemaker Kristen Allan and our own resident gastronomer Jacqui Newling and curator Dr Scott Hill, to bring you an online program that you can take enjoy from the comfort of your home.
Plus, we've pulled together a range of Spring Harvest-inspired cookbooks and kitchen items available for purchase from our online store.
Explore our full Spring Harvest program below.
Online demonstrations
-
Bush tucker
Join Uncle Fred of Fred’s Bush Tucker as he shares his knowledge of traditional cooking techniques and flavours.
-
Pickling
For something different, learn how to make this zesty pickled pineapple and discover the historical significance of the ‘King of Fruits’. Sydney Living Museums’ resident gastronomer, Jacqui Newling, shares this simple-to-make recipe that can pack a surprising punch. Plus, it’s the perfect gift for friends and family!
-
Baking
To coincide with the anniversary of the ‘grand fete’ of 1831 at Vaucluse House, we’re making bread. For the fete’s joyous festivities, 4000 loaves of bread completed an enormous banquet. This serves as the inspiration for our baking demonstration: a Barmbrack loaf using currants made by chef, author and educator, Holly Davis.
-
Cheesemaking
The Wentworth family's dairy maid would manage the milk that came in daily from the family’s ‘house cows’. From there, the milk could be transformed into cheeses of different varieties. In this video featuring artisan cheesemaker Kristen Allan, you'll learn the techniques involved in making washed rind cheese.
-
In the colonial kitchen
Chef and author Paul West and our resident gastronomer Jacqui Newling take inspiration from the colonial kitchen garden to whip up an impressive salad that you can make at home.
Meet our presenters and watch the videos when they go live at their scheduled times.
Online talks
-
Bees and honey
The beehives at Vaucluse House form the backdrop to this talk, featuring food writer and honey judge Barbara Sweeney and Urban Beehive’s Doug Purdie. Together, they’ll explore the extraordinary life of the honey bee, the complex workings of their hive and the hives’ role in the garden. Then join them in a honey tasting – you can follow along at home with a full jar of honey and a spoon – where they discuss the myriad qualities of this liquid gold.
-
The timelessness of copper cookware
The kitchen at Vaucluse House features an impressive batterie de cuisine of 137 pots, pans and jelly moulds made from copper. Colonial gastronomer Jacqui Newling, food writer Barbara Sweeney and antique dealer John Cunnington from The Art of Wine and Food discuss the collection, cooking with copper pots, their care and repair, history and provenance.
-
Dining etiquette
The rituals involved in sitting down to a meal have changed over the years, with much less etiquette and finery seen at today’s dining tables. Using the Vaucluse House dining room as inspiration, Sydney Living Museums curator Dr Scott Hill will share tips on how you can transform your next meal into a culinary experience fit for the Wentworths.
Meet the speakers and watch the videos when they go live at their scheduled times.
Virtual garden explorations
-
A visit to Vaucluse
Join Paul West, chef, author and host of River Cottage Australia, as he explores Vaucluse House and its colonial kitchen and garden. During his visit, Paul meets curator Jacqui Newling and horticulturist Anita Rayner, who share some of the history of the property. Paul’s book, The edible garden cookbook & growing guide, is available for purchase through our Spring Harvest online shop.
-
The kitchen garden
Be led through the kitchen garden with Sydney Living Museums horticulturist Anita Rayner and find out what’s involved in the creation of a bountiful kitchen garden, ready for harvest.
-
The pleasure garden
Discover the peaceful beauty of Vaucluse House’s pleasure garden, featuring exotic plants from all over the world. Sydney Living Museums’ Director of Heritage, Assets & Museums, Ian Innes, shares some of the history of the garden, as well as his favourite plantings.
Meet your tour guides and watch the videos when they go live at their scheduled times.
Spring Harvest online shop
Shop our special Spring Harvest collection blooming with gorgeous gifts, kitchenwares and books ready for harvesting.
Recipes
-
Seafood chowder
19th century cookbooks abound with fish recipes. Fish was baked, scalloped, put into pies, curried, potted and of course, made into soups, like the seaman’s chowder.
See recipe
-
Pickled pineapple
This pickle captures the flavours associated with the reaches of the British Empire in the nineteenth-century: ginger and allspice from Jamaica, pepper from India and cloves from Africa or Southern India.
See recipe
-
Regency cheesecakes
Baked cheesecakes made with fresh ricotta-style cottage cheese appear in many cookery texts from the early 19th century.
See recipe
-
Calf's foot jelly
Most cookery books from the mid-nineteenth century indicate that calf’s foot jelly was the most common form of gelatine in domestic cookery, for both sweet and savoury dishes.
See recipe
-
Pickled fennel
This 'very Simple Method, and exceedingly Good' recipe adapted from Mrs Beeton's Book of household management (1861) for fennel is delicious!
See recipe
-
Mrs Wiseheart's salad dressing
This dressing is in the 'salad cream' style – like a lighter version of a bearnaise sauce. It is delicious drizzled over cos lettuce or steamed asparagus.
See recipe
-
Barmbrack bread
Barmbrack is a naturally leavened Irish speckled tea cake. This particular recipe uses beer yeast (barm), which was commonly used to make bread in the 19th century.
See recipe
Blog posts from the Cook & the Curator
-
Of oyster shells and shelly mortar
Oysters' value to the early colonists was very different from today: they were a vital component in building. In search of a local calcium supply – there is no limestone near Sydney – the colonists quickly turned to gathering shells.
-
King of fruits
In your local greengrocer it’s hard not to find a stack of pineapples, and this isn’t including tinned slices or juice. Far from being the luxury item of the early 1800s, they’re now available everyday.
-
A bullock roasted entire
In an act of political defiance, William Charles Wentworth hosted a ‘grand fete’ at his home at Vaucluse on October 21, 1831. A ‘fatted ox’ was paraded around Sydney, with a promise that it would be barbequed next day on a spit, for all to enjoy!
-
Of palings, palisades and prickly pears
Long before chicken wire, the early colonists had some fearsome options when it came to protecting their salad greens! At Vaucluse House’s kitchen garden you can see two nasty options for fencing a colonial kitchen garden – prickly pear and bush lemons.
-
...And the kitchen sink!
If there was any role in any of our 19th-century houses that you’d want to avoid it would surely be the back-breaking, underpaid duties of the scullery maid.
-
Dining a la mode
As any Downton Abbey or Austen aficionado will tell you there are two obligatory scenes in a costume drama: the ball, and the dinner – and we do love a dinner that pulls out all the stops!
-
The cloth is removed – it’s time for dessert!
With the second course finished, it’s time for some precision table acrobatics as we re-set the table for dessert.