Meals for 10 men

Lemon drink concentrate
1.5 litres water
9 cups sugar
thinly peeled rind of 6 lemons (no pith)
60 g ctric acid
30 g tartaric acid
30g epsom salts
Juice of 6 lemons
Bring water, sugar and lemon rind to the boil. Remove from heat and stir in other ingredients til dissolved. Strain, cool and bottle in clean , sterile bottles. Keep in a cool place.
To use, mix one part cordial to eight of iced water. It is extremely thirst quenching and refreshing - makes about 12 litres of lemony, not too sweet, drink. You can make this with grapefruit or oranges, replacing up to 4 lemons(juice and rind) with the other fruit. You need some lemon for the "bite".

More Random Ideas
For breakfast
If you can, set the table the night before, ready to put the food on the table first thing. They can help themselves to cereal and/or fruit and make their own toast if everything is handy. If you are doing scrambled eggs, mix it ready to cook and put in the fridge for the morning. Tray up bacon or tomatoes or sausages or whatever, ready to put it into a hot oven first thing. Open the can of spaghetti or beans and put it in a covered pot in the fridge. That way, even if you are not hopeless in the mornings, you can be getting on with measuring ingredients for your smoko items, or making sandwiches.
CLEAN UP AS YOU GO. Nothing slows you down as much as running out of equipment or bench space. Get rid of food scraps quickly, to the appropriate place, so you are not over-run with flies, mice, rats, birds and possums.
Make sure you have plenty of clean cloths - dishcloths, teatowels, cloths and net curtains to cover food. There's nothing like a farm for flies. Wash them at least daily.
Make sure you have plenty of vermin-proof food storage. The Sallies usually have plenty of old-fashioned proper cake tins. Don't leave any food out on benches or shelves.
Sandwiches can be kept fresh by stacking them on a cloth-covered tray, covering with another cloth, then a cloth which has been dampened and well wrung out.
Never, ever, be late with smoko or lunch if you are feeding a shearing gang. They get really bolshy because they set themselves a target of so many sheep "a run", and if you're late, that puts the rest of the day behind and cuts their wages for the day.
Always provide more than you think you'll need for drinks. Plain water, lemon drink, old-fashioned lemon and barley water and tea are the most popular, but you'll always get a coffee-drinker or two.
Be prepared to spend your whole day preparing food and clearing up afterwards. If you are really clever, you'll peel the night's veges early so you can put the meat on and have an afternoon rest with your feet up after afternoon smoko. You'll need it!
Plan meals so that you can do some jobs ahead. For instance, if you plan a roast one night, and shepherds pie the next, cook double the amount of mashed potatoes and make twice the usual amount of gravy with the roast. That way, you only have to put together a salad or cook frozen veg and a pudding on the "shepherd's pie night".

wow you are most kind to your workers punkinthefirst, do you cook fulltime!

I used to. Retired now. There are so many different sorts of farm workers, and the job they're doing dictates the sorts of food you need to serve. Like hospital patients, food is a big part of their day, and if you don't get it right they have no way of heading off to the shops for a burger or whatever. The cook is one of the most important people in a shearing gang - strikes happen if the food isn't good!
Coonz has sent me the details. young men, 17 - 20 years old, doing general farm work. Good facilities with a walk-in freezer, 2 stoves, a dishwasher, and a good selection of roasting and baking dishes. Shopping once a month. Homekillmutton, pork and homemade sausages supplied. A fridge, though she didn't say how big. I presume there are plenty of large saucepans and bowls.
OK girls, I'm about to dig out my recipe file, and if you dig into yours, we can help Coonz out, here.

Sausage "Roll"
2 kgs sausage meat
4 onions
4 apples
6 carrots
egg to bind
pastry

Core the apples, grate them,peel and all, with the carrots and the peeled onions. Mix with the sausage-meat and enough egg to bind the mixture. Form into a roll and cover with pastry, like a large sausage roll, but sealed at the ends. Bake at 200 degrees C for 10 minutes, then lower the temp to 180 degrees and bake til juices run clear. Good with tomato sauce, a salad and mashed potato. If you are lucky, there will be enough left over to have cold for smoko the next day.

Hi punkinthefirst,the fridge is quite big,an yes there are plenty saucepans an bowls large,thank you for all your help

Re my #13. I fear I may have lead you astray re breakfast.
For breakfast I would always have some sort of fruit, a selection of cereals - weetbix, homemade muesli, porridge on cold days, toast, margerine and spreads like honey, vegemite, jam, or marmalade, plenty of tea or coffee, eggs or other savoury stuff when the work is going to be fairly physical, but not needed every day if the budget doesn't run to it. Leftovers are good made into fritters for breakfast, and can be prepared the night before to the pre-cooking stage.

By 10 they will be ravenous, so morning smoko is important. Good advice further up the page re scones, pikelets, sandwiches and savoury items. Cake welcome (especially this age group) but don't have it too sweet. Here's the place to use up several slices of bread as "mousetraps", or push them into a well-greased muffin tin, fill the cases with savoury leftovers, or a few bacon bits, cheese, etc., pour in a bit of beaten egg and bake.

DIY burgers are always popular for lunch or a light dinner. Cook up 20 patties or 20 of those pre-formed "fish fillets" and plenty of onion rings and keep warm. Toast 20 burger buns and keep warm. Have ready plenty of salad ingredients, sliced tomatoes, beetroot, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, mustard.with plenty of tongs, etc. Each person collects his 2 buns and makes up his own burger according to his taste.
Similar thing can be done with sausages in a long bread roll with mustard or sauce.
Follow with asmall slice of cake and fresh fruit.

By afternoon smoko they'll be needing an energy hit, but they'll be tired as well, so make it easy to eat. Pikelets, scones, cake are always popular, as are chocolate biscuits and a piece of juicy fresh fruit. Plenty to drink again.

Thanks so much for all these fantastic ideas punkinthefirst

Don't forget to go to Toops or Moore Wilsons for catering-sized packs of your most-used supplies.

Young menhave hollow legs and arms, shearing gangs work really hard and i have a lot of respect for them, brow sweating out the kilos before half the country is out of bed.Lets hope the sheep numbers build up again to keep them in work, an addictive lifestyle.
You should write a book of your experiences, i'm sure it would be a best seller, interspersed with your big recipes of course

Afghans
(the quick way - and a great way to use up the crumbs in the bottom of the weetbix packet)

14 oz butter
6 oz sugar
12 oz flour
2 oz cocoa
4 oz weetbix crumbs or cornflakes
Cream butter and sugar, and work in the rest of the ingredients. Spread the mixture evenly into a greased roasting dish and bake at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes. Leave till cool before icing with chocolate icing and cutting into squares. Keeps well, if they let it.

i agree with a nice casserole and mash potatoes :) keeps them going with the meat and veges :)

Harvest Cake
3 eggs
150 gms butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsps cream of tartar
3 heaped cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk, or the equivalent in milk powder and water
2 tsps of whatever essence you prefer

Beat eggs and sugar well. Beat in melted butter. Sift flour and cream of tartar together. Dissolve baking soda in the milk. Fold in the flour and the milk. Bake at 180 degrees C as follows
Use all of the mix in a meat dish, or divide between two smaller tins, or bake all or part in muffin cases or cupcake cases (mix will make about 100)
Variations :- Divide mixture into three
Add cocoa and a little more milk to a portion. Bake & ice with chocolate icing
Add coconut to a portion. Bake and ice with lemon icing
Add 1 cup sultanas and some peel to the last portion. Bake as a large cake, or as Queen Cakes, in cupcake cases.

Self-crusting Quiche
Grease well, and flour a good-sized roasting dish . Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.
3 cups milk
9 eggs
1 flat tablespoon salt
1/2 cup oil, or 3 tbsps melted butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
2 - 3 cups grated tasty cheese
4 - 6 cups leftover vegetables or use frozen veg
2 -3 cups bacon pieces (optional)
3 onions (peeled and chopped)
Cook onions gently in the oil or butter. Drain the onions, reserving the oil or butter, mix with the veges, cheese and bacon pieces and spread carefully into the prepared roasting dish. Beat the eggs until well-mixed, then add the milk and oil or butter from the onions. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt
and mix quickly until just combined. Pour the egg mix over the veges and bake at 220 degrees C until light brown and firm in the middle. For best results use a roasting dish with a heavy bottom, grease well, don't overmix once you add the flour, and bake at a high temperature so that the bottom browns well. Should serve 10 - 12 for lunch with crusty bread and a salad. This is just a basic recipe, which is limited only by your imagination!

Don't forget good old Pita Pockets and Wraps for lunch for a change.You can make them up, or provide the makings and everyone helps themselves.

Apple Strudel
To make this, you will need a good-sized table, covered with a large, clean cloth which has had flour worked into it.
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 to1/2 cup tepid water or milk
1/8 tsp vinegar
Sift flour and salt into a warm bowl. Make a well. Pour in the rest of the ingredients, combine quickly, then knead on a lightly floured board until the dough is pliable and silky and no longer sticks to the board. Brush with 2 tsps melted butter, cover with a warm bowl, and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes to an hour for the gluten to develop.
Meanwhile, make the filling:-
Brown 4 - 6 tablespoons of fresh breadcrumbs in melted butter, then set aside
Mix together:-
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup raisins or currants
6 - 8 cups finely chopped tart apples, (cored and peeled, the recipe says, but I often leave the peel on and grate them. Nobody seems to notice, and it all adds to the roughage).
Roll the pastry out on the board as thinly as possible. Transfer it to the centre of the floured cloth. (Here's the fun part!) With clenched fists, and using the backs of your hands, coax the dough into a large circle, moving around the table as you work. The dough will be 4- 5 feet across and is supposed to be "thin enough to read a love-letter through it". Cut any thickened edges off and use to patch any holes. Brush with about 5 tablespoons melted butter. Scatter the browned breadcrumbs on top, then spread the apple filling on.
Pick up one edge of your floured cloth, and use it to coax the strudel into a long roll, much as you make a sponge roll. You may need to cut it in two, depending on your oven sheet. Form into a horse-shoe shape and place on greased baking sheet, brush with more melted butter. Bake 20 minutes at 200 degrees C, then lower temperature to 180 degrees C and bake for a further 10 minutes.
Dust with icing sugar and serve warmor cold with ice cream or whipped cream. If there are leftovers, delicious in hand with coffee or tea.
It looks a bit complicated, but is really easy once you get the hang of using the backs of your hands underneath the pastry to coax it out to its delicious thinness!
Same pastry can be used to make savoury strudels. Fill these with the browned breadcrumbs and a thick sauce to which you have added cooked chicken pieces and vegetables, mushrooms, or whatever.

An old fashioned Haybox
These are what my grandma used to use to keep food hot or cold.
Decide which lidded containers you are going to use. may be saucepans, jars, or whatever. Choose a solid box which is about 6 inches bigger all round than your container. Put a pad of hay in the bottom. Now, put the container on top of the pad of hay, and pack more hay solidly all around. Lift out the container. Put a cloth in the hole it came out of. Fill your container with hot or cold food, place in the centre of the cloth, in the hole. Cover the container lid with the cloth so you don't get hay in the food, and put another solid pad of hay on the top. Voila! You have a home made "thermos" which will keep food hot or cold for a couple of hours.

Lemon Barley Water (makes just under 4 litres)
1 cup pearl barley
water to cover the barley
20 cups water, extra
3 lemon, rind of, grated
2cup lemon juice (or other juice of choice)
2 cup sugar
Directions:
1 Rinse the barley well.
2 Cover barley in a pot with cold water & bring to the boil, drain.
3 Return barley to saucepan with the lemon rind & 20 cups water, cook slowly for 1 hour.
4 Add the lemon juice & sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved.
5 Strain and chill to serve.
Your pigs will enjoy the cooked barley, or put it in the vege soup pot in the winter.