What are we doing here? Well, this was a day for the younger ones (and their cousin) to experience an "old world" day on the farm.
Lanyon Homestead was built in the 1850s, many buildings by convict labour. It was in the kitchens and outer buildings that we spent our time, rather than in the homestead itself, because the focus was on the physical work that had to be done in that bygone era.
The first task was to help in the making of some damper. Each child got a chance to stir the dough
before it was transferred into a large cooking pot and put on the fire to cook.
Coals were put on top of the lid as well to help with even cooking. We then left the damper to cook for about an hour and went to other activities.
We were introduced to a colonial kitchen and what were routine tasks in those pioneering days. This was great because the children had been watching the SBS series "The Colony" with me at that time and this dovetailed nicely.
As you can see from the photo, one of those physical tasks was making butter. We were shown the distinct stages of the process before then "having a go" ourselves:
We were then able to go on a short tour with the current farmer, looking at sheep, and being told about how the farm runs now.
We were also able to stop and enjoy the scenery along the way…
before going back up to the kitchen to see how that damper was coming along.
Well, it smelled so delicious
and with homemade butter, it tasted that way too!
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