Some Short Stories: Farming, Jam and Tea

As many food writers illustrate, dining (and meal times) are more than part of a daily routine, and as I have observed over the years, it is is an important social opportunity for people to come together. In my family it's not only an opportunity to gabble about the day but to reminisce and tell stories as well; here are a selection of the most interesting and repeatedly told stories that I remember about my family in relation to food:

The Tea Plantation
Not many people have 'tea time' as a meal time of its own, but my family have been loyal to this tradition all my life. This story is frequently told by my Father whenever he hears my sister or my Mother go on about herbal teas, and it was at 'tea time' where I first heard this story:
According to my Father my Great Grandfather, who served in the army as a senior warrant officer, owned an assam tea plantation in Asansol,India, supplying Liptons red label tea, until the tea plantations were nationalised by the Indian government following the country's independance from the British Empire in the 1950's. As far as my father can recall, Great Grandfather bought the plantation with his demobilisation money having served thirty years with the army from childhood.
Whenever I see "assam tea" on a cafe menu or down the coffee and tea aisle at Tesco I always think of this story!

The Family Farm
My Mother comes from an agricultural background, which I didn't realise until a few years ago when I enquired about what her releatives did (career wise) when I was trying to find a job myself. Her father was a respected farmer who owned a considerable amount of land in the Tarlac province of Luzon, the Philippines. The land was used to farm rice and sugar cane, which they rotated farming with the seasons. I had initially thought that they had an animal farm because there was a lot of talk of having pigs, but it turns out nearly everyone in the Philippines has a pig! Though farming may not seem like much the amount of land that my Grandfather owned ensured that his family were one of the 'well-off' families in their village.
Some of my relatives in the Philippines still farm rice but many of them have moved in to more modern jobs and have moved to the cities. The withstanding connection I have to rice and the Philippines is the way in which my Mother taught me to cook rice and measure the amount of water using my fingers - a technique that all Filipinos know!

Great Grandmother Dotty and her sisters
Another story that my Father still speaks of, his version of this is a bit dubious but nonetheless he seems very sure of it!:
Apparently my Great Grandmother Dorothy Austen-Pickering (Dotty) and her sisters were well-known in their local area for their delicious cakes and condiments. Dotty and her sisters were Anglo-Indian, the daughters of a British officer and a local Indian girl they grew up in an army children's home, Southern India (possibly Madras/ Chennai but dad isn't quite sure). Dotty was the youngest of her siblings and they started their little venture when she was in her late teens; together they made cakes, jams and a special tomato ketchup to supplement the army widows pension left to their mother.
Dad likes to go on about cakes recipes with white pumpkin in whenever I ask about her, but like some of his other memories about food, I question whether it is white pumpkin that he's trying to remember!

What I like about all these stories whether they be whole truths or only part is the oral exchange of recipes and stories, the idea that the things I do today are connected to what a great relative bought or started years ago.