Jean Bland, 81, of Sedgwick, who was brought up at Grayrigg and Skelsmergh, found recipes going back to the 1940s in her mother’s old hand-written notebook

Looking for a recipe for Damson jam recently in my mother’s old hand-written notebook, I found many recipes passed on by family and friends.

The damson recipe was from our neighbour Beattie at the next farm in the 1940s.

Damson pickle, on the same page, was from my father’s sister, Agnes. The raspberry jam recipe is from my grandmother, and the lemon curd from mother’s older sister, Lizzie.

Leafing through the book brought many memories, and recipes covering a wide range of subjects.

Mother’s sister, Maggie, contributed nutty flip (flapjack on pastry) and her sister-in-law, Dora, a rich fruit slice and mother has added, in brackets, very good, as she does on a number of recipes.

A recipe for salad cream is from another sister-in-law described as Tommie’s Mary, as she had two sisters-in-law named Mary. A recipe for tipsy cake includes rum but is not attributed to anyone.

For a treat there are recipes for rum truffles, peppermint creams, caramels and fudge, and one to make block chocolate from mother’s aunt in London.

Long before the days of farmhouse freezers, fruit was bottled to enjoy in the winter and there are notes on using a pressure cooker to do this.

Apart from food, a recipe for furniture cream is said to be from Orton BC. The embrocation recipe is from a sister’s mother-in-law, but the recipe for mustard plaster is anonymous and so is the one for brine to preserve meat, and the homemade hand and face creams. Perhaps I should not have been surprised to see the recipe for rabbit hot pot.

By the 1970s, Mary Berry was already a TV personality and mother includes some of her special puddings, but I don’t know if she ever made them!