Barley was stewed in the brown earthenware dish and the liquid was deliciously pink in the morning.
The fruit and sugar was put into the brown earthenware dish and left all night and we had thick jam the next day, mainly rhubarb as that was free from any allotment owner. Plums we had when the costermonger came round about 9.00 p.m. most nights, the cost – 2d per lb. Also, he used to sell plum tomatoes for the same price. I haven’t seen them since, except in tins and Mother never bought anything in tins; she thought tinned stuff unsafe. Perhaps tinning processing wasn’t so good in those days.
Barley was stewed in the same brown dish and the liquid was deliciously pink in the morning after being in the oven all night; never have I been able to get it like that. I think the black range oven cooked everything well. Mother had it all weighed up and knew the temperature of that oven very well. She was a very good cook and her bread pastry and cakes were excellent.
She baked for lots of people; she was taken advantage of; she was a soft touch. The barley water was for our neighbour to give to her baby daughter, who was a sickly baby. She was fed on Nestle’s condensed milk and the barley water. The left-over barley was served to us with raisins and sugar added for our pudding.