Happy Monday dear friends, and welcome to the inaugural edition of Home, Hearth & Harvest, our free monthly journal celebrating the seasons. You might want to put on the kettle because this is a bumper issue: there’s a lot to read and dig into here!
Click the cover-image below to open and read it right now, or scroll to learn a little more about what’s what. (There’s also a downloadable link further down).
ADDENDUM
Oops! Something was bound to happen in our very first issue. There is a step missing in the Barmbrack recipe on page 34. In between steps 3 and 4, please include the following:
“Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and break in the egg. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix the egg with the dry ingredients. Add a little bit of the liquid the fruit mix is sitting in and mix it through. You may not need all the liquid – you are looking for a wet dough. Then stir through the fruit mix until everything is thoroughly combined.”
What to expect
Inside this journal, you’ll find 40 pages of seasonal food, recipes, letter-writing prompts, illustrations, storytelling, and more.
We dig into the garden (it’s strawberry season!), bake some old-fashioned financiers, write spring-inspired letters, pick up seasonal produce at the farmers’ market, and make a spot of mail-art.
For those of you who celebrate Halloween (or just enjoy the seasonal change), we explore the history of food that goes along with this holiday - a long time before the chocolate brands began to take over. Melanie shares a recipe that will transport you back in time, while Naomi tells a story of food and fortune-telling, and a second list of letter-writing prompts and ideas to spark your creativity.
Final chance for 20% off paid subscriptions
Finally, we’re giving you a sneak-peek at what to expect from the upcoming Meals in the Mail dispatches, which will kick off this week. If you’re a paying subscriber, look out for the very first dispatch in your inbox tomorrow. Woo hoo! If you’re a free subscriber, you’ll receive your first dispatch next week on Tuesday.
(BTW - If you were thinking of upgrading to a paid subscription, today is the final day to nab the 20% pre-launch discount. Grab that here if you’re keen - it’s in US dollars).
How to read and share it
There are two ways to read Home, Hearth & Harvest. It’s a responsive “flip book” that you can read online if you’d like to, or you can download your own copy as a pdf if you prefer to print it out first. (Or both, if you love it that much 😉).
Likewise, we encourage you to share this journal with anyone else you think might enjoy it - every issue of Home, Hearth & Harvest is and always will be completely free.
Tell us your thoughts
We’d absolutely love to hear from you and know what you think, and what you’d like to read in future issues of Home, Hearth & Harvest, so please leave your comments in the box below. We promise to read every single one!
Happy reading,
Naomi & Melanie
ps. To go along with our inaugural journal, we’ve created some printable gifts for you:
The first is a printable version of the “October in season” illustration that Naomi hand-painted for the journal
The second is a colouring-in template that you (or your children) can print, colour, and fold into an envelope to be posted (write the address on the horizontal planks of the strawberry crate)
Click the pictures below to download them. And if you’d like to create and colour the envelope along with Naomi, pop onto Instagram tomorrow - Tuesday - at 10am Melbourne time, and she’ll paint it live with you. (She’s @naomibulger).
What a beautiful journal you made! All about this project really warms my heart.
I will have to get used to the different season you enjoy from us in Germany - now I want strawberries so bad! But its refreshing, too.
I love how the layout/design is minimalistic but still full of detail. Good aesthetic! So often our eyes get overloaded; reading this made me feel calm and uplifted.
Thank you so much for DOING this. Its much appreciated and hopefully you feel rewarded on many levels as well!
ADDENDUM from Naomi & Melanie
Oops! Something was bound to happen in our very first issue. There is a step missing in the Barmbrack recipe on page 34. In between steps 3 and 4, please include the following:
“Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and break in the egg. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix the egg with the dry ingredients. Add a little bit of the liquid the fruit mix is sitting in and mix it through. You may not need all the liquid – you are looking for a wet dough. Then stir through the fruit mix until everything is thoroughly combined.”