Blog
What to do with all those Jerusalem artichokes
Yes, it’s the latest in my long-running series of ‘What to do with all those [insert veg that I’ve grown too much of]'. We’ve dug up barely a third of the Jerusalem artichokes and I’m already at a loss. What on earth do I do with them? I’m wracking my brains trying...
Thoughts of Christmas dinner
I don’t want to hear the ‘it’s too early to think about Christmas’ complaints. When it comes to Christmas dinner, there’s no such thing as too early in our house. We generally start talking about Christmas dinner in September. Yes, September. While the sun beats...
Myths, questions and misconceptions about moving abroad
Something a little different this week. I asked my Instagram friends (follow me here) what they really wanted to know about moving abroad (in our case, to Bulgaria). And these are the questions they sent. Let’s get into it… Did you consider other countries? Not...
Putting the garden to bed, winter greens
Well, well, well, it’s mid-October already. Soon it’ll be Christmas, then 2024, then 2025, then 2030. And then I’ll be 50. Anyone else feeling their hair waft in the wind as time literally wooshes by? (It’s like that scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Sally is...
Revamping our Bulgarian summer kitchen
Delighted as we were with our rustic summer kitchen, I’ve been itching to give it a final zhuzh over the last year or two. We needed more worktop space. Part of the stone floor was too wibbly and uneven (and that’s saying something, since everything in our house...
One of those ‘whoa’ moments
You may not expect this of me, sweary, dungaree-devotee that I am, but I’m surprisingly into visualisation and manifestation. No, really. Woo woo me up, baby. I draw the line at crystals and horoscopes (with apologies to crystal- and astrology-lovers – you do you),...
Roasted courgette dip, savoury courgette muffins, and the aggressive giving away of vegetables
I dare not venture into the garden during daylight hours. The second I sneak into the veg patch, our elderly neighbour pops up on his side of the fence and yells (in Bulgarian), ‘Do you want some courgettes?’ Each time, I firmly remind him that we have four...
A really, really good vegan burger recipe
Not going to lie, this recipe has so many things that should make me hate it. I have to wrestle my food processor out from the cupboard. There’s the frying of onions. (As a human smell sponge, I usually nope out of any recipe that starts with caramelising onions.)...
Mixed planting, finding my gardening style
Our first veg patch was in the style of a traditional market garden or old-school allotment – as in, rotovated earth with crops sown in long rows. We didn’t think too much about how we wanted the veg garden to look. We were new to gardening and our neighbour had a...
How to love tofu (by an ex-tofu sceptic)
I don’t mind admitting I’ve been on a journey with tofu. A journey that started with me as a staunch tofu sceptic and has arrived here, at the point where I get nervous if I have fewer than four blocks of tofu in the fridge. You, too, can learn to love tofu to this...
Planted up, garden zen
I knew if I moaned about the weather (see previous post) it would improve instantly. Tis the way of it. This week has been sunny and hot and settled – and finally the garden gets a rest from the grey skies and snail army. It’s a chance for plants to put on some...
Why does this summer hate me?
I don’t want to be one of *those* Brits. Those Brits who complain about the weather all the time (it’s either too cold, too hot, too dry or too wet for those people). But I have to get it off my chest, guys. I just have to. I’m going to explode all over my office...