Hello Vegemite lovers! The wonderful Liza has asked me to write a little blog or 2 or 3. I said sure, no worries. How hard could it be? Harder than I realised, as it turns out. I love Vegemite so much, both eating and collecting. I have so much to say, but where to start? At the beginning could be a good place. So here goes….
Turns out the start is over 50 years ago. As long as I can remember, Vegemite has been my default go to food. As a child, in a time when birthday parties were simple home affairs, I always made a bee line for the fairy bread (with 100s & 1000s, not sprinkles) and the Vegemite sandwiches. Imagine my despair, upset and I think sometimes tears when the Vegemite sandwiches tasted yucky. Turns out the birthday child’s family bought other black spreads ending in ‘mite. As a child I could not fathom why there wasn’t Vegemite in their cupboard. School lunches ALWAYS included Vegemite sandwiches. Every few months, years after year after year, Mum would ask me if I would like a change on my sandwiches, perhaps jam or peanut butter. No Mum, just Vegemite please was always the response. If I want something else, I’ll ask then. Sometimes, if I screwed the lid on too tight for her to open, she would threaten me with something else on my lunch. As I grew older and made my own school lunches, it was still always Vegemite sandwiches. I’ve never been a fan of soggy weetbix, so brekkie would be weetbix spread with butter and Vegemite, with lots of milk to wash it down. Lordy help the household if we ran out of Vegemite. Unacceptable!
Even when I grew up and left home, I still took sandwiches to work for lunch, at least one of them being Vegemite. Just butter and Vegemite. Not Vegemite and cheese or Vegemite and lettuce or Vegemite and certainly not avo, even before avocado became such a trend.
I grew up, made my own home and had children. The classic ‘learning to spread’ photos continue. From black and white at 2 years old, one of my kids at 2 and now my 6 year old grandson.
We love our Vegemite, we all adore our Vegemite. It puts a rose in all our cheeks!