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 [...]

A lot of food that I make during April involves wild garlic as it adds a lovely taste to food and saves me buying onions or garlic. We use these  air fryer wild garlic scones [...]

My aim is to be more organised for next winter and make sure that we have enough preserved food for the 'hunger gap' that occurs between us eating most of my crops (usually by the [...]

The wild garlic is finally out in Yorkshire.  This is one of my favourite things to forage as I use it in meals, in baking, to flavour butter and to make pesto (which I freeze [...]