MEMORIES OFTHE WEEKLY STEW

I lived with my Aunty Ruby,Uncle Allan and cousin Bill Newton from the age of 2 till 9 years of age. So many memories ... The family house in Fleming St, Morwell had a combustion stove, a wood heater over the bath, which you lit if you wanted water warmed for your bath. An ice box for refrigeration , the ice was delivered weekly by a man on a horse and the ice block was deposited in the top part of the ice chest with an ice pick leaving just enough room for the brick of ice cream , that came in a cardboard box. ( ice cream was'nt an essential , a rare treat ). The milk was delivered by a man handling a horse and cart filled with milk bottles and cream if you had left a note on your front porch to pre order the cream ,( another treat ). The ingredients for the stew were placed on the kitchen table , a pile of potatoes, a large slice of pumpkin and a cheap cut of beef that was best served slow cooked. My Aunty Ruby told me that the trick to making a stew flavoursome was all in the timing . First was to cook the beef in an iron pot with salted water, pepper and leave it to simmer most of the day on the combustion stove. Then add the potatoes until they are strating to sweat, which meant they had to be boiling for 5 minutes . If you added the pumpkin sooner , it would just go to mush . The stew would be served as every main meal at 6.00pm (?) each night while we would listen to Dad and Dave on the wireless. Memories are priceless.