We celebrated Chinese New Year this afternoon with Sisters Magali and Maria from the order of the Little
Sisters of Jesus. This order has been at Yuendumu a long time and have been in Central Australia for over 50 years. It was Magali’s vegetable garden that first got us into gardening at Yuendumu. Maria has a gift with the garden and has been able to keep the garden going as Magali’s strength has waned over the years. Here is a picture of Maria, and you can see a picture of Magali sitting with one of the women from Yuendumu on the home page of the Little Sister’s of Jesus’ website.
We shared soup, homemade spring rolls, Chinese spiced pork. a beautiful prawn salad and a huge watermelon. And of course we talked about life and gardens and chickens and ducks as we shared this lovely meal.
Magali comes from the Auvergne in France and Maria from Vietnam. Both grew up in a village and agricultural environment. Trevor grew up in the same kind of environment. So there was lots of talk about the ways that food was prepared on special occasions with family coming together to do all the things that needed for a feast – plucking ducks and chickens, slaughtering and butchering pigs, making special meats using fermentation methods and lots more.
Magali’s niece in France is now running an organic chicken and goose farm where all the animals are free range, and when slaughtered are hand plucked. This got us onto talking about howthe whole animal was used, including the feathers and down. Magali remembers having a feather mattress and how all the children in the family complained in summer because the bed was so hot, but in winter there was no better place to be. She also remembered that the main meal was lunch and there would be a soup or cassoulet always that was kept going. Her mother would put the soup “to bed” by placing it in the midst of a feather mattress, where it would never lose it’s temperature, and be ready for the next day’s additions to it.
Trevor and Maria shared stories about the ways in which meats were prepared using rice that would ferment and pickle the meat. And about the markets were meat produce was bought live. Maria said how she got homesick at the thought of how meat was carefully wrapped in rice and banana leaves and kept for a couple of weeks in anticipation of family coming to be together for Chinese New Year. Each member of the family would be given a slice of the meat to take home, and her sister who could never wait would always peak at the meat and just have a little taste to make sure it was all going OK.
These were the days before refrigeration when people had to be creative to make sure things lasted. And when food couldn’t be sent thousands of kilometres without rotting.
Refrigerators, washing machines, electric stoves – I’m not going to complain especially if a dishwasher is thrown in to – they’ve made it possible for me to do things other than be a home keeper. At the same time the separation of people from “straight from the ground” or “straight from the animal” food has been profound. Is it too much to link these changes directly to climate change? Don’t know, and I am not sure that I want a life that involves a lot of chicken feather plucking, but I suppose part of the issue is that life in the “old days” was based on having extended family with you living in family compounds with grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, where work would be shared.
These things aren’t anymore and personally I blame refrigeration.
