Food History- Joint Session

Carla Baker - Where did northern Tasmanian apples go? (lightning talk)
Apples played a central role in the ecological colonisation of lutruwita Tasmania, also known as the ‘Apple Isle’. By the early twentieth century, much of Tasmania was covered in apple orchards, reaching 3 million commercial trees by 1950.   An icon of British domesticity, the apple’s swift acclimatisation was perceived to be legitimisation of British settlement and used to justify the theft of Indigenous land.  Land grants were offered to those who would farm the land ‘productively’. In the West Tamar region in northern Tasmania, ‘Anglo-Indian’ soldiers purchased orchards which were promoted as an investment or retirement opportunity. At the core of Tasmanian apple advertising was the imagined location of the ‘Apple Isle’, an idyllic, pure, English farming utopia. Apple crate branding and multi-faceted advertising campaigns were employed to support this distortion of Tasmania’s geographical and cultural remoteness. 

When Britain joined the European Common Market in the 1970s, apple exports experienced a massive decline. The cultural significance of apples didn’t wane; Tasmania retained its title as the ‘Apple Isle’ despite the disappearance of the physical orchards from across the state. The history of northern Tasmanian orchards and associated wharves such as Inspection Head at Beauty Point have been obscured by the dominance of southern Tasmanian apples in historical imagination.  
By focusing on northern Tasmania, this paper will expand the existing regionalised ‘Apple Isle’ narrative and link the historical iconic status of Tasmanian apples to the recent classification of Launceston as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.

Chihyin Hsiao - Changes for Soup: Charitable Food and the Plight of Manchester's Paupers during the Early Victorian Era
The soup kitchen was a common form of poor relief in early Victorian England. Previous scholarship has indicated that hunger was a familiar experience for industrial laborers due to the rising cost of food and the growing population in urban areas. Building upon this, this research investigates the social aspects of soup kitchens, which have been marginally discussed and yet to be explored with public records. Here, the primary focus is on issues such as how local soup kitchens were set up, how these establishments were financed, what was considered nutritious for paupers, and the seasonality of such ingredients. Through an examination of cookery books, public announcements, advertisements, and readers' comments in provincial newspapers during the Hungry Forties, this research attempts to evaluate the accessibility of charitable soup kitchens in the Greater Manchester area, where industrial laborers were densely populated, and pauperism was on the rise. It begins by examining the fluctuating prices of staple food items such as corn, bacon, onions, carrots, etc., then delves into the setup of soup kitchens, grounded in the commonly accepted political ideology of 'self-help.' Finally, it explores the ticket system of soup kitchens, which ultimately provided paupers with the opportunity to access readily-prepared hot food. Through the exploration of archival materials mentioned above, it is hoped that more textual examples can be included in broader studies of Victorian philanthropy and working-class diets.