I have fond recollections of foraging for blackberries with my maternal grandparents. They lived close to the coast and I remember wandering about in wellies, my fingers purple with the juice of the blackberries my sister and I ate as fast as the others could collect. We’d happily brave the thorns for the delicious berries […]
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This summer I have become a woman possessed. What started out as casually bringing a few courgettes along on playdates as a novel hostess gift culminated last week in me landing a rather shocked friend with a massive amazon box full of marrows and courgettes. It was so heavy I couldn’t even carry it, I […]
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I grew up in Portugal and there, we believe that soup is important. It’s practically a sixth food group all of its own. In winter here in the UK I’ve brainwashed Mr Land and the children into believing that a hot bowl of soup before dinner every day is the norm. In truth, it’s so […]
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Karma really does have a sense of humour. Every time I get a bit too puffed up with smug smallholding pride, out comes her little pin ready to deflate me. We had some friends from London visiting this weekend and amongst the other home-grown delights we planned to serve them I thought we could throw […]
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We recently harvested our Crown Prince squash. I really enjoyed growing the squashes and pumpkins vertically and I was pleasantly surprised by how well they climbed but I do wonder if the fact that they were growing up rather than out was responsible for their poor crop. That or lack of pollination perhaps? Because I […]
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This is a really easy and tasty seasonal dish using home grown basil from the garden that I often make when I”m short of time. We are ardent carnivores but tend to eat vegetarian food during the week and this dish is absolutely delicious. We eat unholy amounts of garlic and so that sauce packs […]
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I’ve always tried to incorporate our own produce into my cooking but there are times where what we get from our tiny garden sadly just isn’t enough for any one project. Take, for example, strawberry ice pops. I like to make homemade ice lollies for GarlicBoy so that I can let him eat his fill […]
Read MoreGarlic towers is ready for our first feathery patrons A rainy weekday afternoon and an overexcited toddler with energy to burn combine brilliantly to mean one thing – bird feeders! We had a birdfeeder outside our sitting room window before we embarked on our harebrained scheme to gut and refurbish our entire house last year. […]
Read MoreOne of the biggest problems with having such a tiny city garden is that you can’t fit in lots of plants. This isn’t a problem in itself as most plants, especially berry bushes, will crop quite heavily over the growing season. However, if you find yourself (as I do) in the first year of your […]
Read MoreAs I mentioned yesterday, I’ve only really be able to harvest herbs from our garden so far. However, I’ve been using them as generously as possible. This is a recipe I like to use for a really fresh, easy and creamy salmon and parsley pasta that’s really quite low in calories. Serves two adults / Takes […]
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