We love to grow fruit and veg. After converting our garden to a kitchen garden many years ago, we also look on a local allotment plot in 2010.
Do you know Niagara-on-the-Lake? No? Well you can probably guess a couple of things about it at least – that it’s near Niagara Falls, and that it’s on the shores of a lake! That’s all I knew too, but last autumn I visited for myself, and discovered a lot more. What I came away with, as well ... Read more »
Visiting the Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal’s Little Italy district, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop; overwhelmed by stall after stall piled with beautiful, fresh, brightly-coloured produce, I didn’t know where to look next. Punnets of tiny physalis, known locally as cerise de terre (ground cherries) sat next to the last of the ... Read more »
If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or my blog’s Facebook page you’ll have noticed that I visited Canada recently, taking in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and the region around Niagara-on-the-Lake. I’ll be sharing lots (and lots and lots!) from that trip in coming weeks. I totally loved all the destinations I visited and cannot ... Read more »
A few weeks ago, I was invited to Almeria and Murcia, two neighbouring regions in Southern Spain, to learn more about their agricultural practices and produce. 1 Agrobio – Biological Pollination & Pest Control We started with a fascinating visit to Agrobio, a company that produces and sells bumblebees for pollination and a wide range ... Read more »
I first made butternut squash soup with candied bacon last autumn, after watching a masterclass episode of MasterChef Australia in which Matt Preston shared his recipe for an easy pumpkin soup garnished with pepita (squash seeds) and bacon candied in brown sugar. I simplified his recipe further to come up with the version I shared ... Read more »
I don’t usually make Halloween dishes. But I had a crate full of home-grown butternut squash in my kitchen when a friend of mine gave me a block of his home-made black garlic cheese. The handover, in a central London coffee shop, probably looked like an illicit drug tryst – the cheese resembled a very ... Read more »
This ice cream is very much inspired by a recipe from The Bojon Gourmet, a blog I discovered via Pinterest. It caught my eye when I was looking for ideas on new ways to put some of our enormous apple harvest to good use. I replaced the cream base with a rich and very sweet ... Read more »
You’d think, wouldn’t you that, for people who’ve grown their own fruit and veg for over 15 years, the thrill of harvesting home grown produce would not quite as shiny as it once was? But you’d be wrong. I still get excited every time Pete brings in a bowl of fresh raspberries or tomatoes from ... Read more »
We’ve been growing a variety of cucumbers called Lemon this year – so named not because of their flavour but their size, shape and colour. The skins on ours have been tougher than we expected, so we’ve peeled them before adding them to salads. This one was combined with very thinly sliced red ... Read more »
Pete came into the house one recent Monday evening with an overgrown courgette from the back garden, brandishing it in the manner of a cartoon caveman and his trusty club. The quiche he made with half of it the next evening was so fantastic that I begged him to make it again the next night. ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]