Celebrating seasonal, homegrown, and wild food
The courgette glut is a well-known phenomenon. Every year I know it's coming, and every year I continue to be surprised by how many of these incredible vegetables can be produced by a single plant in a very short space of time. We have about 5 courgette plants on our allotment and I would say [...]
Reflecting on the couple of years since we first got our allotment plot it feels like we've really had everything thrown at us so far. From cold snaps and late harsh frosts to the recent record-breaking heat waves, and from periods of drought to the pretty disastrous flooding our plot suffered last year, each have [...]
We are finally enjoying our first successful year of growing carrots. We were able to harvest a handful in our first season, but didn’t yet have enough growing space to get very many. Then last year we didn’t harvest any at all due to the flooding of our plot and the destruction caused by what [...]
The elderflowers are out and summer feels like it's really here. I find myself making more and more with elderflowers every year as they're wonderfully abundant and so incredibly fragrant and delicious. They also keep their flavour really well with heat which I find isn't the case with many of the other wild ingredients I [...]
Cherry blossoms might be long gone by now this year, but if you joined me in preserving some of the young buds with the recipe in this Japanese Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossoms post then this recipe is for you! If you didn't preserve any blossom buds this year, don't worry you can actually buy them online if [...]
There's something magical to me, some sort of alchemy that happens when you cook over a simple wood fire. I know it can seem unpredictable and perhaps daunting to cook with fire, without dials and digital displays, but the flavour imparted to any ingredients cooked this way is unbeatable and I find it so grounding [...]
Flowering currants are a beautiful pop of pink in gardens, parks and the occasional hedgerow in spring. They are particularly abundant in March and April, but can still be flowering in early May in more northerly parts of the UK. I love their fruity aroma and gorgeous bright colour and they are just perfect as [...]
I know it's probably a little late now for cherry blossom buds unless you live fairly far north in the UK, but I've been sharing how to make these Japanese salted, pickled cherry blossom buds over on my Instagram stories and wanted to put together a post with all of the information in one place [...]
You might have noticed a hiatus in my blog posting over the last few months. Without going into too much detail at this point, my body wasn't taking no for an answer and the enforced rest was pretty much mandatory for a while! The good news is that I'm in full health, there is nothing [...]
Slurping delicious buckwheat soba noodles is a New Year's tradition in Japan. I know New Year's celebrations might feel like a while ago at this point, but we're still in January, and I'm certainly still in transition mode from one year to the next. I think we too often forget that this transition is something [...]
Plot & Lane 