Tradition is thick on the ground in the Reed household. Annette Reed has been busy making traditional Christmas puddings from a recipe handed down through the generations.  

“It was my Nannas-mothers-mothers-mother’s, I don’t know how many generations back, it came out from England a long time ago,” Mrs Reed said. 

Walking into the small out-building where the Christmas magic is made, the smell of spiced puddings fills the air. Mrs Reed said the smell of puddings is “the smell of Christmas.”

Mrs Reed has been making and selling her traditional puddings for over 20 years. 

“They were actually my very, very first enterprise, when I had little kids at home and I just needed to do something else so I started making my grandmother's christmas pudding; it was the one that we grew up with,” she said.

“It was Nanna and Mum, and I remember helping; the big thing was always licking out the bowl.”

Ms Reed thinks all the little traditions come together to make Christmas - even the last last minute panic, “much to my husband’s horror”.

“Just that family getting together and eating beautiful food,” Mrs Reed said, who will be hosting a family Christmas of 50 to 60 people this year. 

Making a Christmas pudding isn’t a simple undertaking, they cook from anywhere up to seven hours. 

“It’s a whole day’s work just doing the mixing, and the preparing the pudding, and the cooking, and the hanging at the end,” Mrs Reed said. 

For the market puddings, Mrs Reed has put a Tassie twist on the generations-old recipe. 

“I don’t know if my grandmother would would be horrified or pleased but I’ve adapted them slightly for market ... I now have swapped some of the fruit around and we now have our own cherries off the tree, we have our blueberries, our hazelnuts, our apples and Tasmanian apricots,” she said. 

The tradition of making the Christmas pudding is so ingrained now, Mrs Reed said the family secrets to the perfect pudding are innate. 

“I know there are a lot, but we all just do it so naturally that we don’t even think about it,” she said. 

“I think a good trick that we learnt, because my mother always used to boil them dry, was to put a plate in the bottom of the pot so that if it boiled dry it was at least sitting on a plate.”

Another trick is to never let the water go off the boil, even when you’re getting it out.

Mrs Reed still makes the pudding for her family Christmas, and includes the age-old tradition of putting coins in the pudding. 

“Traditionally the old puddings had a favour, a little token of some sort, hidden in the pudding and it was always special to get something,” she said, adding for her family it was always old coins. 

Mrs Reed sells puddings in a range of sizes at the Harvest Market, but she advises people to call ahead and order to ensure they get one.

“Once they sell out at the market, that’s it,” she said. 

Mrs Reed can be contacted on 0438 009 522 for orders.