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PICK YOUR OWN – A DAY OUT AND A WIN WIN FOR ALL THE FAMILY

With essential picking tips

On a recent trip to visit a friend in Surrey I took a detour and stopped off at a Pick Your Own Farm to gather up some strawberries for jam making and a few other supplies. The place was called Garsons farm and just outside Esher. It was huge and as with many farms overflowing…
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NATIONAL BREAKFAST WEEK – TIME FOR SOME NEW YEAR FUN

Such a good idea and it is still only January

What a great idea to have a National Breakfast Week and here it is from January to 24th to 30th.  I just love the idea of National Breakfast week. It is my favourite meal and then marmalade,my favourite preserve, comes into its own. So this week is a winner. All day breakfast for me. Breakfast comes in…
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MARMALADE – FOR BREAKFAST AND BEYOND

Nineteen ways to use your marmalade

It is that time of year when Seville oranges arrive on the stalls. I still aspire make a trip one winter to the orange groves of Spain and the renowned Ave Maria Seville orange farm For now, the time has come to transform these fruits into that wonderful tart and bitter golden preserve. Marmalade has many more uses, however, than just…
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MINCEMEAT SOUFFLE – PLAYING AROUND IN THE KITCHEN AGAIN

A kick start to my Christmas preparations

I realised I had been dragging my heels a tad in starting to prepare preserves and fare for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the coming months. Well  I have been a little busy and  it is only the beginning of November after all. Then a few days ago I was brought up short when someone mentioned that…
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APPLE CHEESE and THE  PECTIN POWER FRUIT

How to preserve and enjoy apples through the winter

If asked to choose ONE food that I could not live without, it would be a very close call between an apple and cheese. That is not to say that I am planning on living on solely one food. It is just that without that one food I would be devastated, lost, mourning . And the apple wins….
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TEENAGERS AND PRESERVES AND ENTREPRENEURS

A variation on the selling lemonade and the USA right of passage

Just a little motivation ? It seems that once they have reached their teenage years and feel safe using a hob and oven, some teenagers may need  just  a little motivation to start cooking. Making preserves offers lots of scope . For a start, cooking to impress their friends may include knocking up a Tomato…
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SCHOOL HOLIDAY BLACKBERRYING and SAFE FORAGING

Go blackberrying

If there is just one MUST DO OUTING to enjoy with your children in the summer holidays it is to go blackberrying. By the end of August the hedgerows will be heaving with dark shiny berries and I cannot wait to collect them and then sit back and enjoy a plain bowlful. And then some for puddings, cheesecakes…
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SCHOOL HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES – COOKING WITH PRESERVES WITH THE YOUNG

With Jam and Coconut Slice for all ages

When my daughters were small and would come back from school at about 3.30pm they were generally absolutely famished and often totally ratty. A small sandwich would smooth everything out until their evening meal. By the time they were aged about six or seven, I would put out the sliced bread, spread and filling for them…
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SCHOOL HOLIDAY ACIVITIES – A KITCHEN GARDEN FOR THE YOUNG

Grow, pick and preserve

  CHILDREN’S GARDENS The one childhood memory that my sister and I can always agree upon is that my mother paid us two pence a pound for picking blackcurrants. Old pence you understand. There was a row of inexhaustible bushes at the bottom of the garden. My mother was not generally so generous. Did she find…
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START A KITCHEN GARDEN FROM SCRATCH – FOLLOW IN TOM AND BERYL’s FOOTSTEPS

It is NATIONAL GARDENING WEEK - START SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

This week is National Gardening  Week in the UK and there are  events taking place all over the country.  TOM’s INSPIRATION My memories  go back some fifty years ago when Tom Wood, a Yorkshire man by birth (and so proud of it), left the swinging London of the mid-sixties to settle with Beryl in the tiny village…
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