Essays on food, drink, travel, culture, sustainability, farming, and more.
Even before our guide Mike Roser took us through the origins and history of apple cultivation, I had it in my head that the National Fruit Collection (NFC) at Brogdale was about collecting and preserving traditional British varieties of apples, alongside other fruits such as pears, plums and cherries. I was wrong on at least ... Read more »
Serendipity and silver linings. That’s how Edible Ornamentals came into being. Joanna Plumb, who runs the business with her husband Shawn, told us the story. Many years ago, her parents (who were commercial cucumber farmers) were approached by a national DIY store to grow 3000 chilli plants for their shops. Unfortunately, the DIY company ... Read more »
I’m very used to making jams, jellies, chutneys, ketchups and pickles, all of which require basic sterilisation of jars, easy recipes and a straightforward process to fill and seal the jars. In these recipes boiling helps kill harmful bacteria and yeasts as well as reducing the moisture in which they thrive; sugar or acid stops ... Read more »
Do you know what a Bronze turkey is? What about a Kelly Bronze? No? Neither did I before a recent visit to the Kelly Turkey Farm in Danbury, Essex. My parents came to England from India just a few years before I was born and, of course, there was no tradition in our family ... Read more »
I was recently invited to a tasting event to learn about Scotch beef. It was an eye-opening experience, and I learned a great deal about beef in general and Scotch beef in particular. Firstly, why Scotch beef and not Scottish beef or beef from Scotland? Because they all mean different things: To be described as ... Read more »
The First & Last Voyage of RMS Titanic The RMS Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton on the 10th of April 1912. On the 15th of April 1012, she hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sunk. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew, only 710 survived. It remains one of ... Read more »
Holi is a Hindu festival, also known as the festival of colours, and is celebrated all over India. It is divided into two parts, Holika Dahan and Holi. Scheduled according to the lunar calendar, it is celebrated at the end of the winter, on the last full moon day in the lunar month of Phalguna, ... Read more »
Southern Lebanon is not much visited by tourists, given its volatility. Only a few days ago, six Italian soldiers were hurt in a bomb attack on the main highway near Saida (Sidon). Less than two weeks before that, there were 11 fatalities and many injuries, during clashes at the Lebanese Israeli border. The region is ... Read more »
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it I have always had an interest in World War Two. Not a Boy’s Own fascination with military manoeuvres, tanks and planes or playing soldiers, but from a historical, political and people perspective. At school, history was one of my favourite subjects. I never much ... Read more »
Professor Tim Jacob, at the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, has found that the smell of toast is Britain’s most loved food smell. A recent survey by the Flour Advisory Bureau found that we are a nation of toast lovers with a whopping 99% of us putting our hands up to loving toast. Apparently, ... 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]