Shaping Our Identity: Food

In the publication "A Good Plain Cook: an edible history of Queensland", Susan Addison and Judith McKay wrote:

As regards the preparation of food, English customs and methods are followed. The roast and boiled, the hot, the cold and the homely hash appear in the never-failing rotation of an older civilisation. The entrees or sweets are prepared under the instructions of Mrs. Beeton, and the cold rice pudding of New Farm is the same humble but healthy fare as the rice pudding of Bayswater. Except for the preponderance of meat and tea, all meals in Queensland are English meals, and are eaten in that sober, comfortable manner which characterises the feeding Briton all over the globe.

Mrs. Beeton's book titled The Book of Household Management was first published in 1861. The Title page of this book has been used for the image above (from Wikimedia Commons).

We can gain an insight into the types of food that families grew in vegetable gardens at home, from personal diaries such as the diaries of James Ivory who lived at the Bremer Mills at Bundamba. While the property was a commercial venture with a boiling down works, sawmills and housing for employees, the Ivory's also had their own garden. In 1863, James noted that his crops were excellent and they included wheat, grass, turnips and potatoes. 

Another good source of information includes articles about gardens in the Queensland Times. In the 1860s, many people had a kitchen garden, a fruit garden and a flower garden. In a kitchen garden cabbages, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts, celery, peas, leeks, garlic, parsnips, onions, shallots, lettuce, watercress, carrots, potatoes, spinach, curled cole, asparagus, turnips, beets, radish and cucumbers were grown. In the fruit garden could be found gooseberries, currants, raspberries, almonds, oranges, lemons, peaches, plums, apricots, pears, cherries, strawberries and grapes.

Food and Produce Merchants in Ipswich in the 1860s and 1870s