Wasted junk can be music to our ears

Picture from here 

The ABC here in Oz on New Year's Night played the wonderful doco, Scrapheap Orchestra.  This was a wonderful program about the top instrument makers in Britain who were commissioned to make musical instruments from junkyard scrap with the aim of having the professional musicians of the BBC Concert Orchestra playing  Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture on the scrap instruments at the 2011 BBC Proms.

Needless to say there were dramas.  There was professional pouting from some instrument makers and some musicians.  As well, there was the high drama of whether the whole scenario would meet the exacting standards of the Prom management.  At one stage, the whole project seemed to be at risk.  There would be no appearance at the Proms.  But, in the end, with tweaking here and re-arranging there, all was well and the project in all its glory and humour made it to the stage at the Proms to the great delight of all present.

Following on all this, to-day has arrived this delightful video on a similar theme.  You can find it here.

Resourcefulness collected: Australian Family Recipes 1868 to 1950 by Victoria Heywood

I love a bit of food history.  Food history is not only quaint and historic recipes.  Possum Pie, Beetroot Beer and Lamingtons: Australian Family Recipes from 1868 to 1950 by Victoria Heywood is a social history of lives gone by.  As of the first of this month, a wonderful contribution to Australian food history has hit the bookstands.  

Click to enlarge

Victoria came across many weird, supposedly edible, things in 17 years travelling the world as a journalist, but none so strange as some of the dishes she encountered back home in Australia when researching Possum Pie, Beetroot Beer and Lamingtons. In a writing career spanning 20-odd years, Victoria has written extensively about food, sex, health and travel for magazines and newspapers both here and abroad, and is the author of numerous other books.  One that would be of interest to Oz Tucker lovers is:

More about this book here

Bring the family down for a FREE sausage sizzle and 

some other tasty treats from original Australian cookbooks 

and hear Victoria Heywood chat about her new book:

• Where - Westgarth Books, 77 High Street, Northcote
• When - 12-1 pm, Saturday, October 15, 2011
• Phone - 9482 7117