Sharing a family’s love of cooking
Lynette Jackson has fond childhood memories of living in Tasmania with her closeknit family, growing and making everything for themselves from raspberry jam to pasties for the local sports clubs. From this she has a wholesome love of baking that she brought to Queensland and shares through her business, Vanilla Goose.
It’s not your typical modern baking business – it has no Instagram or website, much to Lynette’s granddaughters’ disappointment. However, her Portuguese tarts and small batch preserves have no shortage of followers.
The former events manager turned pastry chef is humble, but surmises customers value the taste and flavour of her food most, as well as the love she puts into it.
“I just love baking, especially small batch baking,” Lynette says simply.
“I make small batch, homemade preserves from home grown citrus. I make lemon butters and marmalades. I source raspberries from Wamuran for my raspberry jam.
“I think the difference is that it’s just everyday food that I cook, but it all starts with good ingredients. People do appreciate what I put into it when they buy it.
“For my ingredients, I buy locally. All the fruits and veggies are fresh. I don’t buy tinned fruit. I don’t use cheap chocolate when I make brownies. I make sure it’s fair trade and good environmentally.”
Lynette says her connection to cooking comes from her mother, nana and aunties.
“When I was growing up, we never bought tomato sauce – we made it together in 10-kilogram batches in Tassie. I still do that for our family two to three times a year. My granddaughters absolutely prefer the ‘home-made’ sauce recipe to store-bought tomato sauce.”
Lynette says her mother had an incredible mind for detail and never wrote down a recipe. Lynette replicates the recipes and is putting them into a family cookbook.
Whether this cookbook will be available for purchase remains to be seen.
In the meantime, Lynette will continue to share her family’s love of cooking by selling her pastries, cakes and preserves through word of mouth and REKO rings in Dayboro and Samford.
Despite her offline business, Lynette says she loves the online farmers market REKO rings because it cuts out the middleman and brings the community together at the weekly pickup.
“I connect with people I haven’t had the opportunity to connect with before,” Lynette says.
“It’s opened my eyes to what’s available. It’s opened me to new opportunities. We use each other’s produce. I use their honey, buy their lamb. It’s supporting everyone, just how we traded in Tasmania.”
Lynette is eager to spread the word about REKO rings, listing a string of benefits for potential vendors and customers.
“It’s quick, it’s easy, the Facebook page is brilliant,” she says.
“Customers can see your product, they’ve already paid for it and the ease of driving through and picking it up is great.”
The best way to sample Vanilla Goose goodies is to join the Samford and Dayboro REKO Facebook groups and to respond quickly to Lynette’s posts so as not to miss out.
Samford and Dayboro REKO are online farmers markets where residents can source local products, pay vendors directly and collect their goodies from:
DAYBORO 11am - 12 noon Saturdays, Dayboro Community Hall Carpark (off Bradley St.) Dayboro
SAMFORD 9-10am Saturdays, Samford State Primary School, School Road, Samford
“It’s quick, it’s easy, the Facebook page is brilliant. Customers can see your product, they’ve already paid for it and the ease of driving through and picking it up is great.”
– Lynette Jackson, Vanilla Goose
