When Felicity Peel thinks of substituting ingredients at her Ashfield bakery, The Tart Sisters, she visibly shudders. The compact shop, tucked next to a cafe on a quiet suburban roundabout, has been running for 30 years. Peel has weathered a lot of tough times, but she’s never compromised on ingredients.

“A few years ago, I’d pay $100 for a 25-kilo block of butter,” she tells Broadsheet. “Now it’s $400. We could swap to margarine – others do – or use half butter and half margarine. I don’t know if it would even taste different, but I would know. I’ve got high standards.”

Peel’s recipes are not something to be trifled with. The pastry for the roast-tomato galette is crunchy and golden; the pie crusts are flaky, with the perfect firmness to hold cauliflower and cheddar, or mushroom and gravy, without falling apart. The team uses olive oil, free-range eggs, and fresh fruit and veg always. It’s clear a lot of love has gone into getting the offering just right.

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“I think a lot of people come into this business and think they’re going to make a fortune. But if you’re using good ingredients, and paying your staff fairly, you won’t. You have to do this job because you love it. We make enough, and I like my lifestyle. I like being my own boss.”

The Tart Sisters’ menu is strictly meat-free – Peel is vegetarian – even though bacon-and-egg tarts or meat pies might do well alongside its fan-fave pumpkin and goat’s cheese tarts, or golden sweet-potato-and-lentil rolls.

Peel started the business with her sister Catriona in Pyrmont, doing wholesale only. Eventually Catriona left the business and Peel’s other sister joined, along with her cousin and another staff member. Over the years they moved a handful of times, finally settling in Ashfield in 2014.

The original tart-only offering has evolved since the Pyrmont days. Today there are raspberry and almond tarts, and fig and mascarpone numbers. Plus trays of chocolate and praline scrolls. And on the savoury side, it’s roasted pumpkin and goat’s cheese, caramelised onion, and roast tomato and basil. All of them on a lovely, short pie crust.

An assortment of beautiful cakes fill the display. It’s classics like carrot and walnut, fruity slices like peach and raspberry, plus a truly excellent chocolate and coconut cake. “It’s a loaf cake that we slice. There’s so much butter in it – it’s just divine.”

The fit-out isn’t fancy, letting the laden front counter – with sweets on top of and under glass – do the heavy lifting. The tarts and pies, marked with handwritten signs, sit on silver baking trays on a tall rolling rack. The only seating is a yellow bench out front.

In a week, the bakery goes through 60 kilograms of flour, 400 eggs and “a lot of sugar”. And there’s nearly no waste. Food scraps go to a neighbour with backyard chickens, and when Broadsheet visits, the team’s working through bowlfuls of lemons and grapefruits donated by the community. A shelf near the front door is stacked with jars of grapefruit marmalade.

As locals pop in to pick up their lunch, Peel greets them from where we sit on the yellow bench. It’s clear The Tart Sisters is an adored part of the community. “Lots of things used to keep me up at night, but I don’t really worry anymore. When things get hard, I think, things have been hard before and we always pull through. We could get by on the smell of an oily rag. We’re always going to be alright.”

The Tart Sisters
117/119 Holden Street, Ashfield

Hours:
Mon 8am–1pm
Tue 8am–2pm
Wed to Fri 8am–3pm
Sat 8am–2pm
Sun 8am–1pm

thetartsisters.com.au
@thetartsisters