Propaging is a method of producing plants for free. At this time of year I always propagate lavender and rosemary plants. Spring is another good time to do this. The plants that grow are great [...]

Be prepared was my Girl Guide motto, and one I have tried to live by ever since. I see lots of posts on social media at the moment about preparation. This may be for winter, [...]

Lasagne is a staple for us. I make it every other month. I used to always make it with meat bulked out with vegetable and lentils. As meat doubled in price over the last few [...]

We don't  eat a lot of meat, and we definitely don't eat a lot of bacon because of the nitrates. However, every now and again I will buy a packs of bacon mis-shapes as a [...]

I have grown an allotment or a garden for a lot of years, but over the last few years I have had to make some changes due to the rise in the cost of living. [...]

We have had the Autumn Equinox The days will be getting shorter, and we have entered  a new cycle. Our temperatures are certainly falling and so we felt like comfort food last week. I had [...]

My kichen feels like a factory at the moment.  I am exhausted. Garden and foraged food have been preserved to get us through the winter. I am better at planning my preserving now.  Notes have [...]

I am slowly going through my cupboards and using up what I have in. We bought some biscoff spread look alike last year to ripple through ice cream, but forgot about it. I found it [...]

I don't like mayonaise but like the thought of eating a slaw. We were having family around for a meal and I wanted to make falafels in wraps and needed something else to put in [...]

Since retiring and having time to forage and grow food, I have felt a stronger connection to the food that we eat. It is no longer a habit to eat because it is a certain [...]

I have a glut of big tomatoes at the moment. We are eating lots every day but I don't want to waste any. I have no more jars to make passatta, and no room in [...]

I love cous cous. It is so quick to make. Today we had some bits and pieces to use up from the freezer and so I made spicy summer cous cous to accompany them. I [...]

The other day I picked hawthorn berries. I want to use them for medicinal uses. It is sad that a lot of us have forgotten, or never learned, the connection between food and medicine. The [...]

I had the munches today but am trying to be good. I therefore decided to make a healthy, crunchy snack to eliminate my craving. I soaked and boiled some chick peas yesterday and so I [...]

In the past I have waited for tomatoes to be red and ripe before picking them. However, this year, after research, I have found a better way to harvest my  tomatoes. They are beautiful and [...]

The garden is slowing down and the leaves on the trees are starting to go yellow. This has given me a nudge to start getting ready for Autumn and the following winter. I can't believe [...]

Every day is a school day, and every year I like to feel that I am still learning in my kitchen and garden. I have been growing food and cooking for so many years, but [...]

I am on a mission to have healthy snacks in September. We have a wedding to go to in February but I usually put weight on over winter. I am therefore trying to get into [...]

I needed to make some turkey burgers in a hurry but didn't  have a lot of turkey mince. The turkey mince had been in the freezer a while. I was worried that it wouldn't taste [...]

This potato, cheese, onion, and bacon layer bake is a meal that my family and I like to eat when we have lots of potatoes. It is tasty without bacon, but family were coming for [...]

I am trying to be more imaginative with the way that I use my crops. The idea is that they form part of the main dish rather than a side. Today I made filled beetroot [...]

We have had to eaten similar food each day recently as there is just no room in the freezer. My priority is to freeze vegetables and fruit for winter nutrition. During the summer when the [...]

Managing a low food budget is not easy, and takes time and planning. I seem to be spending a lot of my time preserving food at the moment. Trying to be food secure is a [...]

When I gave up my allotment, i knew that I wouldn't be able to grow the same amount of food in my suburban garden. Being on a fixed low income, I needed to subsidise for [...]

One thing that I like to do to save money, and cut down on shopping, is to buy ingredients that I can use in lots of recipes. One of these items is oats. Having them [...]

My lifestyle involves spending as little money as possible and making good use of any resources that I already have. Some one asked me the other week if my little, extreme, frugal habits actually make [...]

We try to use the seasons to our advantage to save money. I wish that we had solar panels to use the free sun's energy, but we don't. When I enquired 25 years ago I [...]

We have a massive bag of foraged apples to process, and we went blackberry picking today. I managed to squeeze one bag of blackberries into the freezer, but had lots left. Water bathing  blackberry and [...]

I was lucky to get one of those £1.50 Lidl veg boxes last week. It is produce that needs selling quickly before it deteriorates. Luckily everything was in reasonable condition. Mr S was happy as [...]

Last January I got one of the £1.50 veg boxes from Lidl. It had a few yellow and orange tomatoes in it. One was squashed and so I saved some seeds. Only one germinated, but [...]

At last it is raining. Apologies if that sounds insensitive to any one who has experienced flooding. I know that it has caused devastation to many. We have just had a drought and hosepan ban. [...]

My daughter rang me today asking me for the recipe of a lentil salad that I made for her birthday buffet. It is full of flavour, has great texture and lasts 4 or 5 days [...]

We were up at 5am walking with a tub in our hands this morning. Bramble/blackberry season has just started here in Yorkshire. Luckily there were not too many ripe ones yet and so that should [...]

I don't have a large area to grow food. In fact a lot of it is grown in raised boxes and tubs. We  therefore have to make sure that I can get the largest harvest [...]

It is time for picking the last of my rhubarb now. I rarely pull rhubarb past the end of July. This helps it preserve it's energy and produce a good crop next year. We have [...]

The free energy supplement is nettle seeds! Today I was collecting female seeds from nettles when on my walk. I dry them out in order to use them in bread, porridge, smoothies, and seed bars. [...]