Those Barossa Girls

18/01/2026

It's a sunset, and it's beautiful, but also sad. Because it is with heavy hearts that we have to announce that we are stepping away from the public megaphone that is Those Barossa Girls.
There's been changes to work hours, and work roles, and it means we just no longer have the time to both live this, and run it. We've had to choose one, and we decided that living it was the most important, so we are stepping back into our communities to pick up the connections and the giving.
If you are on our mailing list you will have seen this explained in more detail, but the concise version is that despite Those Barossa Girls disappearing from your socials feed, those girls in the Barossa will still be here, doing all the things. Seasonal food, traditional food skills, heritage recipes, regional shows, community events - we will each still be here, involved in all of them. So please don't be a stranger. We are (and will remain) always up for a chat so please don't hesitate to reach out to each of us, or both of us together for a conversation, ideas or suggestions.
And this is also an opportunity to say thankyou to everyone who has followed or supported us in all the myriad of ways. Followers, keepers, and friends. It's been seven years of fun and laughter and conversations - and that's such a beautiful thing, despite the endings.
So as we ride off into the sunset and on to new and exciting adventures, please also remember that once a keeper, always a keeper, so even if we aren't showing up on your screens anymore, we are still here, keeping it alongside you.
You. Me. Us.
We are the keepers.
Always.

Sheralee and Marieka.

20/12/2025

Today is Honey Biscuit day, and anyone who has spent time in the Barossa knows what that means! My now-adult-uni-student-daughter insists that her and a group of friends are making them this year, and I'm not required, which I have to say, I love in every possible way. (Food memory imprinting? Done!)
Honey biscuits, or Honig Kuchen, is a generations old tradition in the Barossa and is always baked at this time of year and it’s based on a recipe for gingerbread that was carried here by German settlers, but they modified it to suit the ready availability of honey and it became a regional specialty. It’s such a popular biscuit that there are fourteen different variations for it in The Barossa Cookery Book, and hundreds more in family recipe books across the valley. More sugar, less spice, extra butter – they are all valid questions. But the big debate that can divide a room, and even a family, is whether they should be thick and chewy or thin and crispy. So how about you? Do you make honey biscuits and have you done this year’s batch? Or are you not familiar with this delicious little tradition and want to give it a go? I’ll go first. My name is Sheralee and . My honey biscuit recipe came from a family friend and it’s handwritten into my little book of favourites. I don’t have the patience to faff around with icing, so my honey biscuits are always simple, and they are always thick and chewy. Because that is the only acceptable way to have them. True story. The end.
Happy Sunday keepers
Xx
Sheralee

13/12/2025

Much excitement here this week with the start of the Apricot season. Delicious eaten fresh, apricots can be dried, made into jam or preserved for enjoyment all year round. Stewing and freezing is also a great storage option - you can even freeze apricot halves/slices to use for jam making at a later time.

Often referred to as the "Queen of Preserves", having jars of preserved apricots in your pantry mean that you always have a little ray of summer flavour at hand. Use them in tarts and cobblers, as a layer under the streusel in a streuselkuchen, or just enjoy on your porridge on a cold winter's morning.

Apricot jam is our family favourite, so I will be putting some fruit aside to ensure that I can make a batch or two of jam to replenish our pantry stores for the coming year. It's always a cheery thing to spread some apricot jam on your toast in the colder months when summer seems so far away!

Are you lucky enough to have an apricot tree in your backyard? Perhaps you are planning on buying a box of apricots from your local orchard. We'd love to hear what's happening in your part of the world and what you will be doing with your apricots this year.

Happy Sunday

Marieka

06/12/2025

Rhubarb would have to be one of my favourite spring things. I love how the cold grey months of winter give way to the froth of green leaves and beautiful pink stalks, like Mother Nature is just having some fun with this. But I also love the flavour and the way the tart astringency just cuts through.
When I was a kid Mum always cooked it with Apple and mixed it through a crumble, and it's true that the two are perfect partners, but have you ever heard of Rhubarb Jam? It's a thing, I promise you! And not only is it a thing, it's a beautiful thing!
In 1917 Sadie Miller was living in Tanunda where her husband was the local policeman and she contributed this recipe for Rhubarb Jam and it's an absolute winner. Equal quantities of rhubarb to sugar, with some lemon juice and rind - couldn't be simpler - and the results are delicious, as well as visually stunning.
If you are a rhubarb lover, you'll love this one.
Happy Sunday Keepers
XX
Sheralee

29/11/2025

One of my favourite things about this time of the year is cherries 🍒

I grew up on a farm in New South Wales and our nearest town for shopping was Young, known as the Cherry Capital of Australia. The town is surrounded by cherry orchards and hosts The National Cherry Festival every year. As you can imagine, we enjoyed cherries each year and I remember having competitions with my brother to see who could spit a cherry seed the furthest whilst sitting on the back step with juice running down our chins.

I still love cherries and it is a treat to buy a case from the local orchard to enjoy in the lead up to Christmas and over the Festive break. I could honestly eat them all with no embellishment or processing, but I do try and keep a kilo or so for Fowlers preserving so that I can enjoy them later when they are no longer in season. Cherries are great in cobblers and clafoutis or in Louisa Keil's Cherry Trifle - yum!

Do you have a favourite recipe that uses fresh or preserved cherries? Please share with us if you do 🍒🍒🍒

Happy Sunday

Marieka

23/11/2025

22/11/2025

We are big lovers of Sweet Mustard Pickles in this house, and the cauliflowers are just magnificent at the Barossa Farmers Market at the moment, so I grabbed one last week and whipped up a batch. I love the old recipes in The Barossa Cookery Book, but any old community cookbook will have a variation (or two), and they are such forgiving recipes. You can mix in a bit of whatever else you have – zucchini, green beans, capsicum - it all works.
As a kid it was always my favourite condiment with cold roast meat, or better still, left over corned beef. Slathered thickly on a slice of bread, then some chunky pieces of meat thrown on top as an after-school snack. (usually eaten on a mad dash up the track to see what Dad had happening in the shearing shed). But this week I needed to eat lunch on the run so I planned ahead with a cheese and pickle sandwich. Eaten in the car as I raced from work to a writers workshop, it was the perfect lunch. Easy and delicious with a wonderful side serve of nostalgia.
And also, just in case anyone is wondering, I might have also had some for dinner with Jatz and cheese, and a sneaky glass of grape juice. Red grape juice. Of the fermented kind.

Happy food memory keepers
xx
Sheralee

15/11/2025

Well after soaking my dried fruit for the last couple of months in a mixture of brandy, orange juice and the surprise addition of citrus pepperberry gin (I ran out of brandy and rather than go and buy some more, i thought I would make use of what I had) I made my Christmas Cake this week.
I don't have a Christmas Cake recipe that has been passed down to me or any particular recipe that I make each year, so i thought I would make the 'Christmas or Birthday Cake' recipe from page 94 of the Barossa Cookery Book. This recipe was submitted by Agnes Kleemann and is heavy with dried fruit with the addition of ginger and almonds. My kitchen smelt wonderful while it was baking, and I am looking forward to sampling a piece or two during the Festive Season. In the meantime, the cake is wrapped tightly in foil and is safely tucked away at the back of the fridge.

You can read about Agnes Kleemann and many other wonderful Barossa women (and their recipes) in our book 'Rolling Up Their Sleeves'. If you would like to send a of 'Rolling Up Their Sleeves' as a gift for someone special this Christmas, we will include a lovely Australian Christmas card, handwritten with your message and sent directly to your gift recipient. The cutoff date for guaranteed Christmas delivery via Australia Post is Wednesday 17th December, so please get your order in before then so we can get it to the receiver before Santa slides down the chimney. You can purchase Rolling Up Their Sleeves via our website - www.thosebarossagirls.com.au/shop

Are you making a Christmas Cake this year ? Is it on the list to be done, or have you already ticked it off the to-do-list? We'd love to hear.

Happy Sunday

Marieka

08/11/2025

I have to do a radio interview this week and the host wants to talk about seafood and given that the Barossa is a bit inland that’s not such a regular ingredient for us! In these days of supermarket supply chains it’s much easier to source, but traditionally getting here required a full day horse and buggy trip - Consequently, many of our old recipe books don’t have much to offer.
The Barossa Cookery Book does have a fabulous recipe for Fish Pie, contributed by Emma Kassabaum in 1917 (page 10 for those following along at home). I particularly love the instruction in this recipe to use a baking dish ‘suitable for sending to the table’. How brilliant! There’s also a fabulous recipe for Scalloped Fish, contributed by Sister Lilian Ronayne, who was serving in the Australian Army as a nurse. (she’s on page 11) – and both Emma and Lilian’s stories were included in ‘Rolling Up Their Sleeves’ (available through our website) so if you’d like to read about them (and use their recipes) you’ll find them both in the opening pages.
But that only gives me two recipes to talk about on air, so I need your help Keepers. What are your favourite memories of seafood dishes? And they can be as traditional or as retro as you like. Prawn cocktails, salmon cob dip, crumbed whiting, and does anyone else remember seafood in aspic?
But there’s a classic right…and I know it’s the first thing we all think of. Tuna Mornay. I used to love it and Mum always put boiled eggs in it, which was one of my favourite bits. Loved it. My Dad hated it though, and it was Mum’s secret weapon in the kitchen diplomacy. We ate our own farm-reared lamb and Dad was the in-house butcher, so when Mum wanted a fresh lot of meat for the freezer she’d dish up Mornay. Next night, like magic, the freezer was full and lamb was back on the menu again! She was a wise woman.
Anyway, while I sit here dreaming about reheated tuna mornay on toast (it’s a thing, don’t knock it), hit with me your suggestions. What traditional seafood recipes have you got tucked away in the memory banks, and which ones should I be encouraging people to dust off?
Happy Sunday Keepers
###
Sheralee

01/11/2025

Depending on what part of the country you are in, you might be smack bang in the middle of the asparagus season. Asparagus is one of my favourite things about Spring. The tasty green spears appear at the markets (or in your garden if you are lucky enough to grow your own) and are only available for a short couple of weeks.

My favourite way to eat asparagus (beside eating it raw in the garden) is to pan fry with butter until just cooked through, but still a little crunchy. It's also quite delicious in stirfries, sliced thinly.

When the asparagus is plentiful, I also like to pickle some for enjoying later in the year. The pickled spears and sliced stems make a crunchy zingy addition to summer salads and cheese platters. I use a simple pickling liquid using the 4:2:1 ratio - 4 parts vinegar, 2 parts water and 1 part sugar - and then add the spices that I like. Lemon and mustard go quite well with asparagus but you could use peppercorns, garlic or chilli.

Asparagus also reminds me of a November day in 2020 when we visited Cherie Hausler and recorded an episode of All The Things . One of the many tasty things that we ate that day was a green spring salad with potatoes and freshly picked wild asparagus (courtesy of Richard) - it was delicious! You can see a video snippet in the comments

Are you a fan of asparagus? Perhaps you have childhood memories of tinned asparagus (I know I do!) and can't bear to eat it as an adult. Either way, we'd love to hear your thoughts, and if you have a favourite way to enjoy asparagus, please share!

Happy Sunday

Marieka

25/10/2025

Ok – it’s the end of October and the number of weeks between now and Christmas can be counted on less than two hands… (eek!) Which means I need to start thinking about fruit cake. I’ve always been a sucker for a rich, dark fruit cake and I’ve got my Mum’s very decadent recipe that’s been in use for many years. My kids complain every time I pull it out because they don’t like this cake, however, my brother-in-law does, so I make it for him and me, and while this recipe calls for something like eight eggs it also needs a cup of Sherry. It’s always best if you soak the fruit first, so, given the timeframe I thought I should make a start. I went to the cupboard, and there was no Sherry. Oh dear. A quick trip to the bottle shop saw me with a bottle under my arm, but then while I was standing there I started thinking about Sadie Hoffmann, and if you’ve read her life story in ‘Rolling Up Their Sleeves’ you’ll know what I’m talking about here…
Sadie’s story was one my favourites to write because she was such a wonderfully warm and fun woman. She loved a joke, and one year for Christmas she used an entire bottle of brandy in the pudding sauce because her son in law dared her to. How brilliant! Her family still laugh about it when they tell it, and I just adored the joy and love in their voices when they spoke of her. So, while my Mum’s recipe doesn’t call for Brandy, I bought a bottle purely in honour of Sadie and added a generous dash anyway. Just because who says recipe rules have to be slavishly followed?
I think recipe traditions should be honoured, but I also think they should be a little bit flexible. And fun. And full of laughter and love - and I adore the idea of generous helpings of brandy!
So, here’s cheers! To me starting the fruit soaking for this year’s Christmas Cake, and introducing Sadie and her generous additions of Brandy my Mum’s recipe. I think the two of them are going to get along beautifully. And who knows, maybe it’s the start of a whole new tradition?
Happy Sunday Keepers
XX
Sheralee

18/10/2025

When I was a child, every year for my birthday, my mum would make me a chocolate cake. It was always filled with whipped cream and decorated with her Tala Icing set that lived in a special container in the pantry. The array of nozzles allowed her to do all sorted of fancy things and there was always a dusting of chocolate sprinkles on the top.

Now it's been many, many years since my mum last made me a birthday cake, but I can tell you that I was transported back to my childhood when I baked this Victoria Sandwich from the Barossa Cookery Book a few weeks ago. It was that same chocolate and cream combination - I was 5 years old again!

This quick and delicious cake was submitted by Martha Brook in 1917. You can find her recipe on page 87, and it's also been translated here for you to try. Martha and her husband Ben farmed on a property north of the Barossa at Frankton. Martha gave birth to 13 children between 1906 and 1922- I wonder how many times Martha made this cake for her childrens' birthdays and other special occasions.

Do you have a favourite childhood birthday cake? Maybe, like me, you got the same lovely cake each year, or perhaps there was one year that sticks in your memory as being extra special. We'd love to hear your birthday cake memories..

Happy Sunday

Marieka