WOMEN’s WORK - HONOURING FAMILY & TRADITION
At Women’s Work, every jar tells a story. What began as a search for authentic flavours and memories of home has blossomed into a celebration of craft, care, and resilience. Rooted in Granny Ida’s generational recipes, Women’s Work honours the quiet, extraordinary labour of women who have stitched, stirred, and nurtured through generations. From small-batch relishes to thoughtfully curated gift sets, each creation turns everyday labour into lasting legacy.
We are proud to stock Women’s Work relishes in our gift boxes, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
“Every time we stir a pot of it, we’re not just making relish- we’re remembering the women who made those first batches with fruit from their own backyards, on wood stoves, during harder times. It's our way of keeping them at the table.”
Can you take us back to the very beginning - what inspired you to bring Granny Ida’s recipes to life as Women’s Work?
Women’s Work was born from frustration and memory. Standing in the supermarket aisle, searching for something that tasted like home and finding only soulless jars of mass-produced preserves. So we returned to Granny Ida.
Granny’s relish wasn’t just delicious, it carried stories. Her recipe was passed down from her mother, shaped by scarcity, resilience, and creativity in a cramped terrace in Glebe. Every spoonful is a tribute to the backyard gardens they tended, the treadle sewing machine she worked at for decades, and the Sunday roasts she made feel like feasts.
What started as a craving for flavour turned into something much deeper: a way to honour the often invisible, undervalued labour of women who’ve always made life better, one jar at a time. That’s why we’re called Women’s Work. It’s a reclamation. A reminder that food made with care, craft, and memory is powerful. It connects us across generations, and it deserves to be celebrated.
We are so excited to be stocking your incredible Caramalised relish in our giftboxes. What’s your favourite product you make, and why is it so meaningful?
Thank you! We’re thrilled to be part of your beautiful gift boxes.
As much as we love our Caramelised Relish (that sticky-sweet tang is chef’s kiss), the product closest to our hearts is our Ripe Tomato Relish. It’s our original heirloom recipe, unchanged for over 150 years, and the true taste of our family history.
Granny Ida would bring a jar to Sunday dinner without fail. My mum can still remember the smell as the lid came off: vinegar and spice, warmth and love. The family would polish off the whole jar before dessert. It is my Mum’s childhood, and now it’s something we get to share with others.
Every time we stir a pot of it, we’re not just making relish—we’re remembering the women who made those first batches with fruit from their own backyards, on wood stoves, during harder times. It's our way of keeping them at the table.
What are some of the most inspiring moments you’ve had that made you think, this is why Women’s Work exists?
It’s the handwritten notes from customers who give our relishes to their loved ones and say, “She cried when she tasted it—said it reminded her of her grandparents.” That kind of emotional connection to food and memory is always the ultimate compliment. It tells us we’re not just making preserves, we’re preserving stories.
It’s watching my children help during a cook, or while I’m packing orders, and knowing we’re showing them firsthand that this isn’t just “women’s work” in the traditional, undervalued sense. It’s skilled, creative, meaningful work that deserves to be seen, respected, and celebrated.
One of the most inspiring and affirming moments for me was completing my first full year in the business after leaving my corporate job. That transition came with so much uncertainty but also an overwhelming sense of freedom. For the first time, I was living and working on my terms, building something that not only honoured generations of women before me but also had the power to sustain my family in the present. The fact that Women’s Work could actually support us financially was huge. It validated everything we believed in from the beginning. We always knew our work had value, but to see that value recognised, in a tangible, sustainable way? The proof, quite literally, was in the pudding.
Moments like this, when we’re invited to share our story, remind us that what we’re doing truly connects. People feel the value, and they can taste the care and tradition in every jar.
How have you navigated honoring family and tradition in your business?
With care and intention, we balance preservation and innovation, staying true to the heart of our family recipes while adapting gently for modern tastes, technology or availability.
We never rush or cut corners. Everything is made in small batches, with seasonal produce, often grown right in our own garden or sourced from local women farmers.
And always, we tell the stories: of Granny Ida and her treadle sewing machine, about backyard chickens and apple pies, about the Sunday lunches and wartime losses that shaped our family.
Honoring tradition means keeping these stories alive, not as nostalgia, but as nourishment.
The definition of Mettle is to face adversity with spirit and resilience. Is there someone in your life that has inspired you with their Mettle?
Granny Ida is our north star. Her life was one of quiet resistance, unwavering care, and remarkable endurance. Born in 1885 to poor Scottish migrants in the working-class suburb of Glebe, she grew up in a cramped terrace house with nine siblings, an outdoor dunny, and a backyard garden that fed her family through sheer determination and hard work. Life offered her very little equity, but what she lacked in opportunity, she made up for in mettle.
Widowed in her early 20s with two young children to raise, Granny returned to that same terrace, stitching clothes on a treadle sewing machine to support her family. By day, she sewed; by night, she stirred jam pots and preserved fruit from the backyard. In every stitch and every stir, she gave us not just sustenance, but grace.
She gave generously, but her work was so often invisible, as it is for so many women. Taken for granted then, but not anymore. That’s why Women’s Work exists.
By making relish, we get to continue Granny Ida’s legacy. Her recipes weren’t written down with great ceremony; they were practiced, repeated, embodied. In every jar we make today, we taste the life she lived. It’s feminist history, hidden in apple cider vinegar and ripe tomatoes.
That’s mettle. The kind that doesn’t make headlines, but makes everything else possible. The kind that turns hardship into heritage. That gives us a blueprint for care, resilience, and radical creativity in the face of scarcity.
Granny Ida never saw her work as extraordinary. But we do. And now, through Women’s Work, the world gets to see it too.
Honouring Women
Honouring Women
For someone (or a group of people) who deserves EVERYTHING!
Note: Sme of our local suppliers have run out of stock due to seasonality of produce and small batch runs. On this occasion, some items have been replaced with a similar product of equivalent or higher value.
THIS GIFT BOX CONTAINS:
Mondo soft vanilla nougat
Eagle Bay spiced nuts
Macadamia White Choc Cookie
Bahen & Co chocolate Bar
Eagle Bay Olives
Native Lemon Myrtle tea in partnership with Aboriginal owner Gather Foods.
White chocolate & raspberry bullets
Pistachio & almond biscotti (swapped for local fudge or fairy floss where not available)
Mettle made Dukkah
Women’s Work caramalised relish
Hunted & Gathered chocolate
Falwasser GF crackers
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