Make, Bake and Grow Day

"Good-Old Fashioned Home-Made Goodies" - proudly made by me

The table above displays the following home-made donations:

• sweet orange marmalade
• mulberry jam
• jaboticaba jelly
• strawberry jam
• kiwi jam
• chocolate mud cake
• choc chip macadamia bikkies
• coconut ice
• caramel macadamia fudge 
• Bailey's chocolate fudge
• &
• My recipes, a bottle of Bailey's, strawberry tea cup & saucer together with strawberry scented tea leaves, strawberry tin for tea leaves, chocolate coffee cup with saucer and dessert plate, a packet of CWA scone mixture, rustic rounded metal tray, tea towel and a wooden spoon.

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Recently we had a "Make, Bake and Grow Day" out in the valley.  It was held in the heritage-listed, century-old community Hall.  The idea was to raise funds to help renovate the kitchen which is most overdue for an uplift.  The lovely craft ladies having tasted some of my preserves and other goodies, asked me if I would be prepared to 'create' the major prize.  They were having their annual cent auction and the prizes had to be made or grown.

All very nice, but let's face it.  Even in the country there are people who simply don't have the time any more to do things the old-fashioned way, so we did end up with the odd donation of knives, books and other wares that weren't home or hand made or grown.  All for a good cause, so we can't be too fussy.  However.  I don't fall into that category. I'm into old-fashioned.  I made, I preserved, I baked, I even printed recipes from my blog to prove it.  You may recognise some of them.  I felt obligated to uphold an authentic "Make, Bake and Grow" theme and I think the ladies were absolutely delighted with what I managed to put together.  A fair bit of work on my part, but I loved every second of it.

Setting Up - Prizes were placed behind the ticket numbers

There was a good showing of people from the valley and my daughter Larissa was the first winner of the evening.  She won the tea pot with cosy prize package as shown in the corner.  The tea cosy was knitted by an eighty year old lady and Larissa just loved it. 

Friends sitting opposite me were delighted to win a prize containing my carrot cake. 

The very same friends went on to win this prize including my Jaboticaba Jelly!

I burst out laughing when our other good friends won a prize containing my orange marmalade

with recipe and mandarin jam.   I wanted to win them back!  They said they'd sell it to

me and  I replied I didn't have the money for such a quality prize.  So many laughs we had. 

I won this gorgeous door stop.  I had a rather good evening actually.  I also won a hand sewn

country apron with two pot holders made from the same fabric and heaps of other goodies, including 

a set of knives.  More laughs. I came home and Hubby claimed them.  We'll need to stock the

house on our new country property soon , so he was most pleased. 

I took samples of my bikkies, fudges and coconut ice for people to try. Turned out to be a good move.  We sold more tickets.  Sooooooo funny!

The hand-stirred Bailey's fudge was beautiful - even though  my arm nearly dropped off making it!

A terrific night was had by all and the Old Hall continues to bring people together - as I look at the  faces of the valley pioneers hanging on the walls, I can only hope they'd be happy to see their country values and community spirit still alive today.