It’s that time already! This Friday and Saturday, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Broken Hill Women’s Auxiliary will be selling their Christmas puddings to eager buyers.
An annual tradition, this year volunteers and members alike have been hard at work making and preparing 1470 servings of the delicious desserts.
“We take great pride in having the puddings looking very beautiful. It’s important that we keep a high standard, but the girls have a good time doing it,” RFDS Broken Hill Women’s Auxiliary President, Coral Ford, told the Barrier Truth.
“Without the volunteers, we couldn’t do it.”
The long process of making the puddings starts by weighing the fruit, then adding a combined mixture of flour, sugar, spices, eggs, and margarine. The pudding then gets weighed and goes into the coppers to boil for three hours. Each pudding is then removed, patted down and wrung out, before being wrapped up tightly and hung up to dry for up to a week.
The money raised from the sales go directly to the RFDS South Eastern Section, with Ms Ford saying people near and far purchase the puddings – from interstaters to British royalty.
“[The money] stays in Broken Hill. I think people are well aware of how often the Flying Doctor is used,” she said.
“We’d like our money to be spent out at the RFDS Base; either on the base or the aircraft. We have a say in that, we ask [the RFDS] to provide us with a wish list and then we choose what we’d like it spent on.
“I think we’ve donated more than $2 million to the Flying Doctor over the years. This year we donated $100,000 and that’s the most we’ve ever done.”
Christmas puddings can be purchased at the Perilya Mine Hall on Friday, September 29 and Saturday, September 30 from 10am–2.30pm. Enter through white gates via Eyre St and turn in to the Hall when you see the pink ribbons
Puddings are $25 each with payment options either correct cash or online EFTPOS transfer. Pre-orders can be placed by calling 0408 858 524 to be collected at the above time, with delivery unavailable. No refunds can be given.
From Monday, October 2, the RFDS Bruce Langford Visitor Centre (Airport Road) gift shop will be selling the Christmas puddings on behalf of the Women’s Auxiliary.
