My kitchen smelt gorgeous tonight as I made chicken Kievs for Mr S.  I had picked lots of wild garlic earlier to take to the community fridge, and wanted to use what was left up.  [...]

The wild garlic is already abundant here in an ancient, sheltered wood near where I live.  At this time of year I pick it a couple of times of week, incorporate it into my food, [...]

Wild garlic powder is a new preservation method of one of my favourite foraged plants.  The wild garlic is ready for harvesting in some of my local haunts.  In other places it is just peeping [...]

The fruit that we forage plays a massive part in our nutrition over the winter and means that we can have lovely desserts at low cost. Locally we find black berries, cherries, raspberries, pears and [...]

We made this for Mr S the other day as it is low in sugar but does not have any bananas in it (which he hates).  It is a healthy recipe that Mr S learned [...]

I am still trying to find ways to use the blackberries so that I don't waste them.  This black berry balsamic vinegar/glaze makes a lovely dressing for salad, is nice with game, or can be [...]

I make fruit leathers as a healthy treat for myself and my grandson.  My own children used to love the bought ones put in their lunch boxes for school and so I thought that I [...]

We have foraged for apples this week.  They are abundant in our neighbourhood, and a free food.  Some I will store for use in winter, but every year I try new recipes to find different [...]

What are Cleavers? If you were a bit of a rascal,  like me, at school you will remember cleavers as the sticky weed that you might have placed on some one's back.  Some people call [...]

Adding flavour to simple food is important.  We grow a wide selection of herbs and buy spices in bulk.  To help flavour our food over this coming year I decided to make some wild garlic [...]

This year I am trying to add more variety to the food that we make with wild garlic.  In the past I have just concentrated on pesto or adding fresh leaves to stews or salads.  [...]

There was an abundance of wild garlic this year and we preserve it to flavour our food all year, as well as using it for cooking in spring. Today I fancied making some cheese and [...]

I am always looking for ways to save money or to visit the supermarket less.  During the pandemic I ran out of wholemeal bread flour and so I foraged some dock seeds and used that [...]

Flavoured gins and vodkas are all the rage now, but they can be expensive.  The nicest ones I have ever tasted are home made blackberry gin and vodka.  They bring back that taste of summer [...]

It is that time of year again when I am busy preserving foraged food and things from the garden.  When ever I cook black berries (brambles) I usually mix them with foraged apples to stretch [...]

I needed to make some room in my freezer the other day as I was making bread and it doesn't last as long as shop bought because it doesn't have the additives. I tend to [...]

Yesterday 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. It is easy to tell the female [...]

Our local moors are totally covered in bilberries at the moment. I think that they have other names if you do not live in the North of the England, and are also known elsewhere as [...]

I don’t pretend to be a doctor, or even a herbalist.  I am definitely not a professional forager, but I do like to study and utilise the plants and trees that are around us to [...]

This week I went on a retreat that taught some skills of self-reliance.  It included basket weaving, making toiletries from nature, archery and making fire by friction.  These skills might seem a strange thing for [...]

I am always looking for more ways to consume elderflower as it is full of goodness and is a free medicinal and nutritious resource.  Nature provides every thing we need, if we would only use [...]

Every where I go walking at the moment I am spying elderflowers.  Did you know that they have incredible health benefits?  They are full of antioxidants, are anti-inflammatory and are so are good for my [...]

I have only just found out how beneficial raspberry leaves are to our general health, though I remember drinking raspberry leaf tea when I was pregnant in the early 1980s.  The books of the time [...]

Finding and gathering wild and natural foods is called foraging. I remember watching the news about 30 years ago and it was about food shortages in Russia.  It showed an old Russian woman picking dandelions [...]