Big Mulch

A paper presented at the 2nd Australia’s Homosexual Histories Conference at the University of Melbourne, 5-6 November 1999 Two moments in the global history of fags, dykes and food resonate across …

Recently I have been writing about South Asian cuisines at the multiculinary Australian table. Spices are a key element in them, giving dishes their characteristic flavour. I felt it was …

November 2025 This article reviews formal meals and menus for imagined meals focussed on Australian native foods across 160 years from 1864 – 2024. The meals were: The first and second experimental dinners …

October 2025 The quandong is used in the back country for making jam, but as it consists chiefly of stone and skin, with comparatively little pulp, it is not a good …

October 2025 I had cause the other day to use Google to find a recipe for Vegetable Lasagna. While searching for it I reflected on the ways I have used to …

October 2025 ‘The Chef Suggests. Strange and exciting dishes with delicacies of the table for to-day and to-morrow’ ‘Compiled and collected’ by John D. Porter and published in 1949 has sat …

October 2025 One is perfectly safe in asserting that the art of cookery is the art of civilisation. In this Australia of ours, the lack of imagination concerning excellent wine and good …

In October 1911 newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne carried reviews of The Bush Boy’s Book (from hereon Bush Boy’s) by Donald Macdonald. Under this title Mr. Donald Macdonald, the well-known member …

September 2025  This paper is a response to the National Food Security Strategy: Discussion Paper. Note: This is a compilation from the various texts cited with little editorialising from me. Why …

September 2025 In 2021 the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) published Edible insects: A roadmap for the strategic growth of an emerging Australian industry. ‘With the global population predicted …

2025 On the 7th of June 1933 a new magazine hit newsstands across Australia  – the Australian Women‘s Weekly (called the Weekly from hereon).  Lauren Samuelson writes of the Weekly: It’s hard to …

This is my grandmother Ada de la Harpe's recipe book. I did a version over a decade ago and have finally gotten around to posting it. There's an introduction to …

July 2025 ‘Bursting out from under the rainforest canopy or rising up from the desert floor wild foods deserve to be tasted, tried and understood.’ This is a brief look at how …