Christmas comes to Sydney's markets

There's a craft to making a Christmas pudding. Not only must it have the right density, maturity and consistency, but it has to be just like the puddings we remember from childhood.

That's the view of Newcastle's Pudding Lady, Anne Cummings. She's been making cloth-boiled puds for over 30 years and remains committed to producing a product that's “exactly like grandma used to make.”

Traditional Christmas puddings remain Cummings' most popular product, despite the wide range of flavours on offer, from whiskey and marmalade to rum and fig, and date and honey. All will be available at tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald Growers' Market. Other Christmas-focused stalls include The Australian Bush Christmas selling fruit cakes, ham at the Trunkey stall and an orange, cumquat and liqueur muscat wine jelly ham glaze from The Grape Alternative.

“We start making [the puddings] very, very early because to get a pudding that's a real pudding, it's not about necessarily what you do in advance it's what you do at the end,” Cummings says. Pudding production starts in April and ends in October.

"Unless a pudding has enough time to mature, it never, ever gets the right sort of density and consistency that a true pudding should have."

Time and preparation is also key for Matt Rothman of Hands Lane, whose preserves will be available at the Christmas artisan food market at the Hyde Park Barracks on December 21.

Rothman uses only seasonal Australian fruits, so products are made once a year in single batches. Think tomato chutney, seville orange marmalade, and apricot and almond jam. He recommends the marmalade as a ham glaze for Christmas.

The festive season also has an influence on Farmer Jo's muesli. A white chocolate and cranberry variety has been created just for Christmas.

Each ingredient in the muesli is roasted individually in-house before being combined to produce small batches of muesli.

“We try and keep the hands in everything we do and that's why the principle is to do it in small batches,” says Farmer Jo co-founder Scott Tulloch.

Both markets will also feature a number of stocking stuffers, from olive oil to tea.

Sydney's Christmas food markets

Sydney Morning Herald Growers' Market, Saturday December 7 from 7am - 11am
Pyrmont Bay Park, Pirrama Road, Pyrmont
growersmarketpyrmont.com.au

The Sydney Living Museums Christmas Artisan Food Market, Wednesday December 18 from 4pm - 9pm
Hyde Park Barracks Museum
hht.net.au

Eveleigh Farmers' Christmas Market
Saturday December 21, from 8am - 1pm
Carriageworks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh
eveleighmarket.com.au/