Like most kids growing up in rural South Australia in the '70s, exotic holidays were not part of our lives. Summer school holidays mostly meant carefree, barefoot days at home, the risk of fire too great to leave the farm unattended. Shearing time often fell during the May and September breaks, when the whole family rolled up their sleeves and got to work.Goodness knows how many cakes I cooked during those times! As well as a necessity on the farm, baking was my creative outlet and I spent hours in the kitchen at my mother's side. Just as one cake was placed ...
The Bread Run
Flashback to 1969The yellow school bus pulls off the main road and lunges to a halt. My brothers and I cross the road gingerly, three small figures in the soft afternoon sun. There’s the drone of a tractor in a far-off paddock, the occasional screech of a galah in the tall gums above. I head straight for the four-gallon drum perched sideways atop a wooden post at the start of the gravel track that winds up the hill to the house. It is hot to the touch.I lift the little flap door that’s designed to keep out the birds and ...