New Year! New Italy!
January 7th 2009 03:10
Large New Italy cooking pot
My reasoning is that while we, now-established Australians, are being told that we are about to hit hard financial times in 2009, I wanted to take inspiration from our ancestors who faced HUGE mountains, physically, mentally and even spiritually in their adopted homeland.
By 1885 the New Italy area was settled by forty families on fairly poor land. Through perseverance and hard work they created a flourishing farming community. The farming areas that the immigrants chose were quite small in comparison to other pastoral lots being taken up by other farmers in NSW.
Early pasta making machine used in New Italy
Being mainly European agricultural labourers, the New Italy immigrants were accustomed to small-scale intensive farming to make a living. Also, as there was no permanent water-course, the new Australian farmers had to dig wells finding water at a depth of 8 - 12 feet.
The majority of the immigrants houses that were built in the New Italy area had partial or full cellars to store wine, cheese and salami. In fact a wide range of agriculture was grown in the area including lemons, apples, loquats, peaches, maize, oats, barley, sugarcane, tobacco, grapes, sweet potato, onions, cabbages, lettuce and peas. They made good use of their small parcels of land.
Large Olive Oil containes used by New Italy Immigrants
Interestingly, the establishment of small vineyards, orchards and vegetable gardens was done by the women, as quite often the men would be away six months at a time supplementing their income with work in the sugar cane fields around the Broadwater area.
Families eventually moved on to less remote areas as they became better established, but it is an inspiring reminder that after a long, adventurous journey to Australia from Italy, the first settlers didn't starve. They resourcefully made poor land fertile and ran productive kitchens and gardens to feed and nourish their new little community.
May we be that resourceful for our families and communities as times may become tougher in the year ahead.
(This information is courtesy of the New Italy website www.new-italy.com)
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