How a Battered Tin Box Became an Archive
Heirloom started the way most family projects start — with a box. An actual, physical, battered tin box that lived on top of the fridge at Nanna June's house in Ballarat. Inside were recipe cards, some typed, most handwritten, a few barely legible. Flour-dusted, tea-stained, folded so many times the creases had become part of the recipe.
When Nanna passed, the box came home with Mum. And with it came a quiet terror: what if we lose these? What if the handwriting fades? What if nobody remembers that Mabel's fruit cake needs to be fed every Sunday, or that Pop's damper only tastes right over coals?
Heirloom is our answer. A digital archive for the recipes that matter — not because they're clever or photogenic, but because they belong to someone. Every dish on this site carries its lineage: who made it, when, where they learnt it, and who they learnt it from.
Because a recipe without its story is just a list of ingredients.