YOUR PAGE
FROM MAKING CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS TO HOW THE DROUGHT IS REPRESENTED IN THE MEDIA, OUR READERS REVEAL THEIR REACTION TO OUR RECENT STORIES.
A BRIGHT FUTURE
I’ve just finished reading Annabelle Hickson’s column in the Christmas issue over lunch and couldn’t help but say a big ‘Thank you’ out loud. My partner and I are young farmers and have often discussed our frustration at the way farmers are invariably depicted as ‘battlers’ in Australian culture. Unfortunately, this mentality undermines the high level of skill, knowledge and professionalism that the running of an agricultural enterprise demands. As a vet, I’ve also been concerned by the romanticism in the media of drought stories featuring starving animals that don’t accurately reflect the majority of the ag sector. So thank you for writing about savvy business people over baked beans receiving victims! If nothing else, I think that while the future of farming is in the hands of the sophisticated modern men and women she writes of, the future is bright (however dry it may be). Sarah Bolton, SOUTHGATE, NSW
THE MAGIC PUDDING
I have subscribed to Country Style for many years and I keep every issue. I was so excited to read Pudding Club in the December 2018 issue. Every year I have made my husband’s family pudding recipe with our children and now their partners; we usually start on Melbourne Cup weekend, too. Our adult kids say it’s only really Christmas when the puddings are hanging around the house. Then on Christmas Day every year, the cousins take turns to flame the pudding, while my daughter makes a different brandy sauce to go with it. Thank you Country Style for sharing the traditions of Christmas. Rebecca Foot-connolly, PARKDALE, VICTORIA
WINNER LETTER FROM THE PAST
Although I now live in a city, our heritage is in farming. Your stories of those affected by the drought reminded me of a letter I wrote to my husband in around 1977. The district in which we farmed was experiencing a major drought and he was struggling personally, feeling that he was failing his family and also as a farmer. I placed the letter in with the lunch that was taken to him while he worked, trying his best to keep the animals alive and, in some way, continue to provide for those he loved. He never mentioned that he had read it, and we never discussed it, but about 10 years later I found it in his much-worn wallet. The following is an excerpt from that letter. ‘I’m proud of you. You have made a success of this farm and it is the conditions, not you that are causing us to lose the battle right now. You’ve always planned ahead for times like this and we may not come out millionaires, but we will come through knowing the best we could do was done.’ Another farmer’s wife in this current drought said, ‘I’d really like people in the city to remember us, see us, hear us, know that we’re still here.’ Thank you Country Style for making this possible because the struggles of drought can make you feel very alone. Beverley Dales, ADELAIDE, SA