We caught up with the amazing Jackie Sales recently to learn a little bit more about how she juggles three boys (and a fourth on the way) whilst sticking to her guns when it comes to minimal packaging, supporting local and building a supportive community around her.
Tell us your story, what brought you to Newcastle?
I was born and bred in Newcastle (in Lambton), as was my partner Pete (in Beresfield - arguably not quite in Newcastle!).
We set foot further afield for several years after university and lived in Canberra and Sydney, but when I had our first child it became obvious we needed to make Newcastle home again. We couldn’t afford a house in Sydney unless we had a huge commute to work, and it’s invaluable to have family around once you start your own family.
Now we live in Hamilton. The community is so fantastic we couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in Newcastle.
What inspires you day to day?
During this phase of my life with young children, finishing the day with all of us happy and healthy and snug in bed is my biggest inspiration!
Life is so hectic and tiring at the moment that I do have to stop myself to be inspired by the little things. Like my children finishing a healthy meal, or mastering toilet training, or getting to work on time with my clothes in a reasonable condition without Wheetbix or peanut butter smeared across me!
I also keep inspired by feeding my podcast addiction and listening to other people’s stories to stimulate my mind with what’s going on in the outside world. They can keep me going when faced with a mountain of washing!
Do you have a food philosophy?
There is a big difference between my personal philosophy on cooking food, and my philosophy on how food is produced.
I am an incredibly lazy cook and my philosophy is to get a meal on the table as quickly as possible! Sometimes this means I don’t quite follow recipes and the result might not be great..... but when I’m eating other people’s cooking I love when they take the time to create beautiful flavours. I just wish I had the patience to do that myself!
What do you love about YFC?
Everything! The philosophy around eating locally produced seasonal food is such a basic one, that has sadly been usurped by an expectation that every ingredient needs to be available at all times at the supermarket.
I spent time living in Sapa, Vietnam and became friends with girls from a local ethnic tribe who live a subsistence lifestyle. Their family would have planted every grain of rice they ate, and their lifestyle was so in tune with the environment.
I’m also a bit of a greenie and can’t stand the waste created by the over-packaging of a lot of supermarket foods.
I’ve found our household rubbish has dropped substantially since having YFC.
I also support the fact YFC pay fare prices to their producers. There is so much time and space between those who produce a lot of the supermarket foods and the person buying them, so it’s easy to forget about the producer and what they earned for their work. It’s a strange concept that it can be cheaper to produce food overseas because wages are lower.
I hope my children live in a world where that equation has been reversed and they are shocked at the fact food used to be shipped across the world instead of grown close to home.
Another part of YFC I LOVE is getting it delivered to my door. Dragging children along to the supermarket is a nightmare, so having the groceries delivered saves the sanity of myself and other shoppers! I always order so much that I never have to pay for delivery.
What's your go to in the kitchen at the moment?
About 90% of our groceries are from YFC so most of our meals are either completely or partially made from YFC food.
For the kids my go to is YFC sausages or smoked ham and vegetables and fruit (at the moment that’s cucumber, cherry tomatoes, watermelon, carrots and pear). I told you I was a lazy cook!!
If I’m feeling a bit more inspired I’ll do a bolognese with YFC mince or a vegetable soup in the thermomix. Pete might cook a YFC smoked trout pasta, and he also makes a mean toastie with Uprising or Baccos sourdough and those cool YFC mushrooms grown in the coffee grinds of Charlestown Square!
What are you looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to, whilst being slightly terrified of, having our fourth child. I am due very soon and look forward to seeing my 3 boys get excited about having a new little human in the house. It’s been lovely seeing them so fascinated and inquisitive about my pregnancy, and I (hope!) they will learn a lot about caring for someone much smaller than themselves once number 4 is here.
It's always so beautiful opening a door into the lives of other people and learning what keep them going and loving what they do. Good luck Jackie with number four! Those little ones are so precious!!
