The Silver Lining
Dear Ann,
I hope you have not been holding your breath waiting to hear what the silver lining was in my previous tale! Firstly I had better let you know that we did permit Kay & Em to come back into the Pudding Kitchen as they had to remove their personal belongings. All those involved were present including our Solicitor.
I didn’t cry my eyes out when Em showed me some photos of me taken at the Canberra Show & then tore them up in front of me! Both Em & Kay were extremely hostile & as furious as I have ever seen two people to be.
Newcastle’s Pudding Lady.
However, with things as they were it’s a wonder they didn’t have a sentence hanging over there heads particularly as we had to visit their home to recover several hundred puddings which had been stolen. However, that’s all water under the bridge including other alleged felonies.
Here we were fourteen years later with another Newcastle’s Pudding Lady doing extremely well. I made sure she knew all I knew about the manufacturing of puddings when we sold the business to them & I retired.
Then there is also another pudding business known as the Adamstown Pudding Kitchen that is going really strong & I am very proud of them.
I started the pudding business for them – long before Newcastle’s Pudding Lady was in vogue – in answer to my prayers that my brother would come back from Vietnam safely, where he served in the army. When he did, that’s when all this pudding business started. When I had built a strong business I gave it to the Church.
They pulled the manse (Minister’s residence) down as it had come to its use by date & built a pudding kitchen instead. Last year ABC did an episode on ‘Compass,’ which is a National programme. It was screened last Nov. & Dec. and tells the full story of how the Adamstown Pudding business started.
The TV show showed me making puddings in my own kitchen here in my villa. In the years the Church have had the business, they have looked after it well & raised over one million dollars for the needy. I am indeed proud of all they have done.
Since then the Newcastle’s Pudding Lady was founded & was extremely successful plus a third pudding business was also founded by Kay & Em after they lost out on buying our business. They also have a thriving business & I was the one who taught them from A to Z.
In other words, if I have no claim to fame in any other way, but it was me who started it all rolling when I made the first pudding from my Gran’s recipe. I am proud of the fact that three thriving businesses all started through that as it was through me starting it all that the Christmas Puddings were sold on a commercial basis.
There is also another thriving business going in Melbourne, Victoria called Mandi’s Kitchen whom I also trained. She is the daughter of my old Tupperware friend, Esther crapper & became an agent for us when we still had Newcastle’s Pudding Lady business. After we sold the business she started out on her own & even takes the puddings across Bass Strait to sell at successful markets in Hobart (Tasmania).
Now having told you all this story you can get the general picture of how we are back in the present day. As you know, I have been making Christmas Puddings in recent years as a hobby for gifts to my many friends & acquaintances. I needed something to do with all the spare time I have, particularly since I came out of hospital two years ago when all my housework & garden has been taken care of for me.
Also, because people know that I am the original Newcastle’s Pudding Lady, they ask if they could purchase some & naturally I do not say no! It gives me a reason to get up in the mornings & fills in a few hours.
That’s when Etsy was born & the trouble all started with the ad on GumTree. So I did nothing about John Smith & it wasn’t long before the Food Authorities in Sydney contacted me. The lady I spoke to was Amy & she was just so nice explaining that I must have the okay from them & a food licence. She very kindly said that if I filled in the application form on line it wouldn’t cost me anything.
When cooking puddings the ingredients never touch the bench.
This was done (with David’s help). I have since received the guidelines needed when manufacturing food. Amy advised me that no inspection was required. One good thing about the pudding business is that at no time does any mixture come in contact with benches or tables. It goes straight onto pudding cloths lined with plastic, tied up & boiled for hours. They remain in their inner wrappings which seals them after they are cooked.
While on the phone to Amy she asked my age. I told her to which she replied “Well I take it that if someone knocks on your door to purchase a pudding that person would be using the pudding for Christmas.” When that was correct she then said they would not bother about the labels.
I think she may have got the impression that an old lady of 87 was not going to cause any harm, anyway she was very nice about it all. I liked & appreciated her approach & her warmth towards me!
Then I received a notification in the post box that Toronto Chamber of Commerce were holding their annual Spring Fair, so I thought I would go for old times sake as, when in business, we used to do that one every year. As it’s not an overly huge fair I booked in for it in November.
There was also going to be another fete with ‘Carols by the Lake’ near Christmas in December, so I emailed Philip thinking he wouldn’t mind a bit of nostalgia in doing what we used to do & also to help me, so he decided he would come with me.
Charley was going to help me do the Spring Fair & we both tootled off in November with our tables & our puddings in the pouring rain at 5.30 a.m. to set up in time for the start & guess what? It was cancelled before it started, because the forecast was for torrential rain all day. That meant our fee was transferred for the carols night.
It was then that the powers to be informed me that Newcastle’s Pudding Lane would be there as they go every year. The lass was making sure I didn’t mind having opposition. Not at all I assured her!
However, my stomach was churning a little & then a miracle happened. It poured with rain & Carols by the Lake was also cancelled. I was probably the only person elated as I really didn’t want to meet up face to face with Pudding Lane & have to pretend I wasn’t stressed!
So that was that & no harm done. At this point it was probable that I had some Divine Intervention as over the months I had absolutely no sales from Etsy or GumTree & I truly think this was a blessing in disguise. I am glad I tried, it was an experience, but in view of circumstances with Pudding Lane to remove my shop from Etsy will make some people very happy & it’s not going to hurt me in the slightest. Other good things have happened.
One of those good things was Priscilla’s Palace. The day the Toronto Spring Fair was cancelled, Charley & I came back to Michele’s patisserie where we had a nice cosy breakfast together. On the way out we saw Priscilla & her Palace, which was a three sided stall & looked quite magnificent.
Instead of selling some puddings we ended up buying quite a few Christmas gifts. In doing so we got to know Priscilla rather well as she wasn’t busy at that early hour in the morning. She is a very outgoing young lady indeed & very likeable.
We told her about our tragedy that day, so she proceeded to give us names of a couple of small markets. One of these was at Boolaroo. Toronto was the suburb next to where I live & Boolaroo was the suburb next to me on the other side who was holding a small market at the school the next Saturday morning!
So you see the silver lining was peeping through the cloud & a definite plan was forming in my little head that I will tell you about in the next episode to this saga!!
In the meantime, I send my fond love as always. Dawn X O X O