This year’s Australia Day was celebrated in a very Australian/Italian style, making passata from 150 kg of beautiful Roma tomatoes. It was a fun , hard work day of chopping, boiling, puréeing ( if that’s a word), bottling, boiling again then the clean up.

There was lots of gossip, shared food and sparking wine for lunch. We had an Italian friend with us, as quality control and instruction.

In our era of plentiful cheap food, there’s no economic argument for the 8 hours it took 8 people to produce around 80 bottles of passata. However, the sharing and community, and producing of high quality food from beautiful fresh ingredients, for me negates the money equation. I recognise the privilege of that viewpoint, when I could buy a tin of tomatoes for less than $1.

There is a large Italian population here in Fremantle, and throughout Australia, some the Second World War. It’s brought great coffee, pasta and pizza everywhere, and local shops here where the pharmacist, butcher or baker speaks Italian to his or her older customers. Mentioning making passata to people doesn’t elicit surprise, just a nod of agreement.

So for me, stepping aside from the controversy surrounding Australia / Invasion Day, Friday was a lovely, gentle day with friends celebrating the diversity and bounty of the part of Australia I call home.

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