407 - Knitting Renaissance Meets Nostalgic Sips

In an episode celebrating South Australian innovation in unexpected places, Bickford’s Group Marketing Director Chris Illman shares how a 150-year-old drinks maker is modernising adult soft drinks while preserving quirky local traditions like our distinctive brown lime cordial. Between sips of their sophisticated new Pineapple Passion Fruit and Cloudy Lemonade soft drinks, we discover why South Australians developed different taste preferences from the rest of the nation.

Port Adelaide’s Tanya Keen then unravels the surprisingly radical world of contemporary knitting from her Yarn Trader sanctuary, where cinema crafters work their magic in the flickering dark and being “knit-worthy” separates the appreciative from the uninitiated.

We wrap up with Dr. D and Fergus Maximus transporting us to balmy Somerton Beach evenings with their perfectly timed summer anthem “Somerton Nights,” previewing their upcoming Fringe show that promises to time-travel through Adelaide’s musical history.

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Running Sheet: Knitting Renaissance Meets Nostalgic Sips: Adelaide’s Love Of Tradition

00:00:00 Intro

Introduction

00:02:39 SA Drink Of The Week

The South Australian Drinks Of The Week this week are Cloudy Lemonade and Pineapple Passionfruit “Adult Style” soft drinks by Bickfords.

Picture this: you’re in a backyard on washing day, sheets flapping in the summer breeze. That’s the exact moment Steve captured while savouring Bickford’s new Cloudy Lemonade, a drink that took an astounding decade to perfect. Chris Illman reveals it’s all about the real lemon concentrate creating that nostalgic weight across the palate.

The Pineapple Passion Fruit follows, floating what Steve dubbed “Willy Wonka aromatics” through the studio. It’s a sophisticated departure from standard soft drinks, though Chris assures us there’s still room for that “permissible indulgence” we occasionally crave.

Between sips, we discover South Australia’s unique relationship with Creaming Soda and learn why cloudy pear juice is cheekily known as “young person’s prune juice” – a revelation that had Steve reconsidering his medicine cabinet.

00:24:04 Tanya Keen, Yarn Trader

Step into Yarn Trader, where Tanya Keen is revolutionising Port Adelaide’s crafting scene one stitch at a time. Who knew knitters were nervous about crafting in public? (“It’s usually because people decide that knitting or crocheting in public is an invitation to open a conversation,” Tanya explains with knowing wisdom.)

Steve’s live attempt at mastering the knit stitch provides both comedy and insight – though his suggestion of passing down a “hand-knitted mankini” as a family heirloom might not make it into Tanya’s customer recommendations.

The real eye-opener? Contemporary knitters are crafting everything from precision-fitted socks (“like Cinderella’s slipper”) to “knitted knockers” for post-mastectomy support. As Tanya notes, “We&rsq