The Maple&Sage Story.

Mums are always right, right?

For as long as I can remember, my Mum told me to open a café and to write a cookbook..... or just something with food. She loved my cooking so much. So that’s what I did, without intent or even realising that my Mum had planted those seeds all those years ago.

I grew up in Mackay with my Mum and siblings. Holidays were spent with my Dad and more siblings. We had a big blended family and I loved it like that.Maybe my Mum disagreed as it was tough for her. Mum worked a few jobs and used to iron clothes for my art teacher and cleaned the house of my meditation teacher because she couldn’t afford my classes, but it never seemed a burden. She always had a big smile and an even bigger hug. I never realised or gave her credit for how amazing she was until I had my own children.

Some of my fondest memories of my Mum, apart from her craziness and the way she was with my kids, nieces and nephews, involve cooking and not for obvious reasons.

Mum was actually an okay cook, I mean you can’t complain if someone is cooking you dinner, but we laughed and laughed at all her frequent mishaps and we still do. Rice - rice was her nemesis or one of them. I laugh as I write this and remember all the times we ate rice soggy, squishy but slightly crunchy all at the same time!

My Dad on the other hand can cook rice and taught me how thankfully. My Dad, aka Peter, Corey, Kaikee, Plum, has always been an amazing cook and grew up with his parents owning a well-loved Chinese Restaurant, that was unfortunately gone before I was born.

Perhaps this is where my love of food comes from. When I was very young our holidays always included a visit to my Kaikee’s (Grandad’s) cane farm, where his home smelt of spices, herbs and always something spicy simmering away for dinner. Our afternoons would consist of enjoying each other’s company eating amazing food, playing cards, swimming in the creek and taking myself, siblings and cousins on the ride on a mower or tractor around the different fruit trees to harvest enough to take back to the family to share. Or collecting peacock feathers and feeding the horses.

For as long as I can remember, animals, food and babies have always been such a love of mine. The order of those loved things has probably changed since having my own babies. I was 23 when I birthed my last baby and now enjoy them as adults at 22, 19 and 18.

Even from a very young age, my children were aware of where our food came from and at aged 5, my eldest son, Ethan, made the decision not to eat animals, after visiting a farm on a school excursion. This lasted a year and then we flowed back and forth for years. We loved animals, yet we were eating them, it didn’t make sense. It wasn’t until watching the documentary, Cowspiracy, that I made a strong connection with all the damage to the planet and the deaths that I was causing.

I felt so much guilt and sadness and at that moment there was no possible way that my conscience would allow me to ever be a part of that suffering again. That night, ingredients were replaced and cooking and creating became fun and interesting again. My family enjoyed these changes too and joined me in watching other informative documentaries, with Game Changers having a massive impact on my boys in particular.

My partner Alex was coaching my youngest son, Keoni ‘s football team at the time and our change in lifestyle was mentioned. To our surprise, vegan sausages were from then on made available for the after-footy BBQ and we were always well catered for at events, which we loved and appreciated so much. Alex has also loved getting his workplace involved and we recently delivered close to 100 cupcakes for a men's mental health morning where his co-workers questioned him on the cupcakes being vegan because they couldn’t believe how amazing they were.

I think this kindness and understanding from a footy team and a workplace of tradies really shows that veganism is slowly losing its stigma and is becoming more accepted and easily catered for with just a little bit of effort.

As a family, we have all enjoyed the changes and in particular the creativity that comes with adapting and changing recipes that we have always loved. I always loved making cakes and cookies when my children were young and they always helped. When I say helped, I mean lick the bowl and decorate with way too much icing and rainbow sprinkles.

My daughter, Taijah even had her MasterChef Kid’s apron, bowl, spatula and recipe cards. We still have that bright pink bowl and Taijah and I still cook together every day in our Maleny Hinterland store. Taijah is always suggesting recipes that we need to recreate and I will forever cherish these days that I work side by side with my daughter.

I still pinch myself with every cake order we receive, especially for life-changing events. I mean, years from now someone will be looking through their wedding album and bam! A Maple & Sage Cake! I am forever grateful and amazed at this path that was always in the stars, even when I didn’t know it. I never planned on opening a store or writing a book, but I guess the surprises in life are what make it beautiful.

Thank you for planting the seeds Mum, this book is for you and for my children, their children and all our loved ones near and far.

As Mum would say:

“See you, Love you, Bye”.