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In this way they gained early experience in the productive activities of the family and
actively participated in the maintenance of cultural traditions.
ChUd labour is essential to the success of subsistence economies, and in this
cultural context the Lafranchis were happy to see their family grow. In 1887 the
seventh child Margherita was bom, foUowed by Giglia in 1890 and Giuseppina in
1893. Lacking a strict division of labour, the seven girls and two boys, who ranged in
ages over eighteen years, provided a workplace of baby-sitters, farm-hands, household
help and hotel staff ^^ Their farm now supplied a wide variety of fhiit trees, nut trees,
vegetables and vines. Chestnuts were grovm as a nutritious food source and the basis
for flour; chestnut gathering picnics in the surrounding bush were also a popular
pastime recalling, for the parents, earlier times in their village. The farm's livestock of
pigs, cattle and poultry provided a good supply of eggs, meat and dairy foods and all
the family was involved in their preparation for the table. The children were
encouraged to perform traditional tasks, such as sausage and bacon-making, which no
longer occurred during the same months of the year as in Ticino. The slaughter of the
animals in Europe, a November task coinciding with the onset of winter, took place in
Australia at the end of May, the celebrations which had accompanied the completion of
these tasks being also postponed to fit in with the immigrants' new working calendar.
The transition was not always easy. Christmas, previously heralding a rest period and
the certainty of a full cellar, was now a time of crop growth and work to be done.
Like most northem hemisphere immigrants, the Italian speakers would have felt
confused about which foods to eat at Christmas time, a hot and heavy lunch no longer
seeming appropriate.
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