Candied Flowers for Easter….

Happiest when I am about to tackle a new challenge and happier still if the job involves flowers, I set off into the frozen wastes of the Cottage Garden to see what I can pick. This wasteland of dried stems with the odd pernicious and very hardy weed is hardly an oasis of verdant growth … Continue reading

The Cosy Cake Club….

I am in a baking frenzy. There is a flour tornado in my kitchen as I open up self-raising, plain and gluten free flour and bag after bag of sugar. The KitchenAid mixer is maxed out and I am juggling four recipes whilst desperately channeling Bree Van de Kamp and trying to remind myself that I … Continue reading

Cosy Cake Club……

“It’s a pop-up cake club on Dartmoor and the sweetest place to be” I used to own and run a restaurant and inn. So I know a bit about how to make a place look nice and how to make people feel welcome. I can cook, write a menu, lay a table, clear it and … Continue reading

Nasturtium Butter…..

My pre-breakfast morning walk is a push for power; for a fast-paced, heart-pumping, energizing surge where battling against the wind and weather helps me to reclaim some of the adrenalin driven lifestyle I once had. Yes, I rise when the bats are still following their flight paths home to roost and with a torch strapped … Continue reading

My Pumpkins are Invincible!

Seduced by the beauty of their ghostly, pale, grey-green skins and the plump rounded curves concealing burnt orange flesh beneath, I have left several of my ‘Invincible’ Pumpkins untouched because they are simply too beautiful to eat! But  this season’s crop is starting to plump up in the Kitchen Garden  and it really is time to … Continue reading

Old Fashioned Raspberry Vinegar…..

Many, many days from now, when the spiteful rain beats sharply on the window panes, the cold wind rattles all the sash windows and when someone you love has a cold, you will be so pleased that you have a bottle of this magical, pure and natural potion in your store cupboard. Raspberry Vinegar and … Continue reading

Lilac Sugar……..

Capture a fragrant memory of this evocative, heady perfume by tossing some dry Lilac blossoms between layer upon layer of fine sugar crystals.  This scented time- capsule containing the  essence of spring will be there for you until long after the Lilac in your garden has faded and died. Then later, sprinkle a little romance … Continue reading