Harper Family Cookbook
Posted by Graham Harper
Download the Harper family Cookbook (PDF)
The Harper Family Cookbook is a collection of recipes contributed and curated by members of the family. Packed with 139 recipes, the book contains a wide variety of recipes, from savoury stews to delicious desserts. You’ll find old recipes for biscuits, cakes and breads which have become family favourites and hold good memories of times spent with family around a table, cup of tea and freshly baked biscuit in hand.
The goal of this book is to help our extended family preserve and enjoy the amazing food we have all come to love as a family. The book is filled with wonderful stories, pictures, and delicious time-tested recipes that will serve as a family legacy to be cherished for generations.
Consisting of 232 pages, the book is professionally printed on high quality paper and bound in a beautiful hardcover. With design by family member Nigel Smith and images from food photographer Cynthia Wong, the book is a remarkable artifact.
The book was produced in a limited number of copies and is no longer available for sale.
Foreword by Gwin Munt
All roads lead to the kitchen
Harper gatherings have always been marked with one essential ingredient - delicious homemade food! Whatever the occasion, family members have always arrived with a stew or a salad, a dessert or a tray bake to contribute to a meal. The feeling of unity that has come from the sharing of food and of recipes is really quite special.
There’s something particularly poignant about cooking a recipe that is time tested and well loved by the family. It reconnects us with past generations, brings back fond memories and reaffirms our place in the family. Many of the recipes you’ll find in this book are old recipes, many of them biscuits, cakes and breads which have become family favourites and hold good memories of times spent with family around a table, cup of tea and freshly baked biscuit in hand.
At the original Coon farm house bread was baked in a bastible pot covered by glowing embers. The bread pan that was used at Coon is a treasured family artifact. Whilst the methods and the ingredients have changed over the years, many of the breads, the bracks, the bakes, are well loved and serve as a reminder of where we come from.
You will also find amongst the pages of this book, recipes that tell the story of how the Harper family have spread out, married and settled around the world. From Nova Scotian beef casserole, to Swedish ‘Fika’ ideas, you will be transported around the world as you cook your way through this book.
Harvest time has always been significant for the family, many being involved in farming. Often the chorus of an old hymn would have been sung in church at a harvest festival service, or around a table laden with freshly cooked food, instead of the usual prayer of thanks. Many reading this will likely know the old chorus; “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above; then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love.”
The goal of this book is to help our extended family preserve and enjoy the amazing food we have all come to love as a family. The book is filled with wonderful stories, pictures, and delicious time-tested recipes that will serve as a family legacy to be cherished for generations.
All roads lead to the kitchen when it comes to the Harper clan and this book will justifiably inspire you to delve into the past as well as the present to create delicious food to be enjoyed by the whole family.
Written by Gwyneth Munt