My maternal grandmother made beautifully yummy pies....she was a wonderful cook. In those days we could go out in the bush and pick wild blackberries but now they have been declared a noxious weed so we can't (because the climate in Oz is such that they keep growing all year and take over wherever they are planted, our winter isn't severe enough to stop them). Nanna would make a pastry shell, put in the stewed blackberries or some jam (home made of course, frequently blackberry), decorate the top with leftover pastry strips, and bake it. She served it with cream. I can still taste it. Her apple pies were delicious too. And all cooked in a wood oven rather than a modern stove.

When her first marriage broke up - I am guessing in about 1920, she and her first husband were divorced which must have been a scandal in those days - she moved from the big city to a job as cook in a hospital in a country town. She met my grandfather when he was a patient in the hospital....so, in a sense, her cooking led to their being together. And to my mother and her brother being born. And then to me bring born......

Cheers
JennieG