AFTER BEATING HER GR ANDDAUGHTERS AT CARDS, PHYLLIS
HARDING WON THEIR AFFECTIONS WITH BACHELORS’ BUTTONS.
WORDS SARAH NEIL PHOTOGRAPHY MARK ROPER STYLING LEE BLAYLOCKfun and games
ONE OF JOChatfield’s fondest childhood
memories is of making these colourful biscuits with
her grandmother, Phyllis Harding (pictured right).
“I remember my sister Robyn and I helping Grandma
to make her famous bachelors’ buttons,” Jo says.
“We were always a little slow at putting the icing on
— probably because we messed around a bit — and as
a result the hundreds and thousands wouldn’t stick,
so Grandma’s kitchen f loor ended up covered in them!
I can still see her saying, ‘Come on then. Hurry up,
girls, hurry up,’ with a warm smile on her face.”
Jo describes Phyllis as “very grounded” and
attributes her grandmother’s demeanour to her
rural upbringing. Born in 1907, Phyllis was the
second youngest of eight children who grew up
on an orchard near Somerville on Victoria’s
Mornington Peninsula. As well as working on
the farm, all the children were expected to “help
with the day-to-day tasks of looking after each
other, and getting the meals on the table”.
As a young girl, it was Phyllis’s job to make the
cakes for her large family. “She loved to cook and
could make just about anything,” says Amy Flagg,Jo’s mother and Phyllis’s eldest daughter. “Sponges,
lamingtons, scones... she’d had a lot of practice.”
Phyllis’s motto was ‘it’s nice to be nice’. “She
often said that,” says Jo. “She was a very kind
person. She was forever helping others and
never said anything nasty about anyone.”
And Phyllis always had a lot of time for her
four granddaughters — she enjoyed teaching
them to cook and to play cards. “Grandma was
a sensational card player,” recalls Jo. “After giving
us a whipping at euchre, a cup of tea and a plate of
bachelors’ buttons would always appear. I do miss
her being around, but at least we have bachelors’
buttons to remind us of her.”If you look forward to this
page each month, you’ll love
Country Style Heirloom
Recipes, $16.99, a collection of
28 recipes and the stories of the
people who made them special.
Available at magsonline.com.
au/country-style-specialsHEIRLOOM RECIPE