During the year we make condiments and other useful items for the larder, depending on what we can grow, forage, or purchase for a good price. I don't make everything each year as I would [...]

Mr S loves beetroot and it is full of nutrients.  We do grow 2 crops of beetroot but I don't have enough room to grow as much as I would like.  I do not like [...]

At last I have built up enough tomatoes to make some sauce to use during the winter and so we canned some yesterday. Last summer was the first time that I had tried water bathing [...]

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 [...]

I have never made apple chutney before but I thought that it would be nice with our home made sausages, in a toastie with cheese, or in a pork mince burger.  We have foraged lots [...]

The brambles are finally out.  They provide a lot of treats and free nutrition for us during the winter and so we go foraging for them nearly every day when they are abundant.  Blackberries (called [...]

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 [...]

My red onions did really well this year and so Mr S made some of his favourite chutney.   He likes it with a cheese toastie and I like it with quiche.  I even add a [...]

I had read about making courgette flour, apparently the Amish do it. It is gluten free and has low carbohydrate.  Since the shortages of flour in 2020 I have been interested in finding flour from [...]

We use a lot of fresh herbs in the summer but our grand daughter asked me why we bother making our own mixed herbs.  She pointed out that they don't cost a lot to buy [...]

My ice cube trays used to sit at the back of the cupboard all winter until I discovered that I could use them to reduce waste. Using ice cube trays and then freezing is a [...]

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 [...]

We had one of the Christmas red cabbages left which are reduced to 15p in supermarkets over the festive week.  The outside was starting to change colour and so I decided to make some pickled [...]

Caramelised onion chutney is the favourite preserve of Mr S and we try to make it every autumn. We made 4 12oz jars of it from this recipe last night.  Our eyes were streaming as [...]

At this time of year I am processing lots of tomatoes grown in the garden.  I roast them and take the skins off before making them into passata or bolognaise sauce.  I hate waste and [...]

This is the favourite pickle of Mr S.    The origins of this pickle are in south east Asia. One of the first recorded recipes for making this in the UK was written by Mrs [...]

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 [...]

Mr S had some cucumber pickles at a restaurant and loved them and so we decided to make some of our own.  We have plenty of cucumbers growing outside in the garden (I didn't use [...]

Rhubarb is almost ending in my garden at the moment.  I tend not to pick it after the end of July, (unless there is absolutely loads still growing), to preserve the energy of the plant [...]

One of my older pals who popped in when I was making pickles the other day, and picking and freezing berries, said that she didn’t know why I bothered preserving these items of food 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 [...]

April is the start of the food season for me, and when I start filling my pantry and freezer again from things grown or foraged.  I am lucky as wild garlic grows in abundance near [...]

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 [...]