Blog
Rhubarb wine (because I’m obsessed with fermenting)
Earlier this year I started brewing my own ginger beer, following instructions in the River Cottage Fermentation Handbook, and I’ve been making batches regularly ever since. My ginger bug – the ginger and sugar concoction that’s used to kickstart fermentation –...
I sowed too early, and other garden woes
It’s a rookie error, really. Getting excited at the first flush of warm weather in March and sowing lots of seeds. Seeds which then develop into seedlings right as the weather turns cold in April – which it inevitably does – at which point they either grow too...
Ah, so THIS is why we moved to Bulgaria
We’ve recently been rewatching The Good Life, the 1970s BBC sitcom about a suburban couple who turn their back garden into a self-sufficiency paradise. And oh lord, my life choices make so much sense now. Because I forgot how much I LOVED The Good Life when I was a...
Eng-er-land
Greetings from the UK, where apparently everyone wishes to cough and splutter on me. Seeing as I’m on a mission to not catch COVID for once – I’ve had it three times in total, twice in the last year, and every single time I’ve caught it, I’ve been in the UK – I’m...
Not fast, not furious: Learning to love slow compost
Once upon a time we were fully intending to follow the ‘fast’ or ‘hot’ composting method, where you turn your compost regularly to aerate it and speed up decomposition. That was the idea. We pretended to ourselves that we would diligently turn our compost every...
Get this garden started (PS. I hope you like lists)
We’re off, Gardening Bore Gang. I’ve sown the first seeds. I’ve cleared the veg beds of last year’s debris. I’ve been catching up on Gardeners’ World episodes… It’s safe to say I’ve recaught the gardening bug. It goes this way every spring. March rolls around and I...
Reducing our food bill. A thrifty soup recipe
I never used to pay attention to food prices. We live a frugal life, have old cars, go on cheap holidays, cut our own hair, and wear second-hand clothes. And because of that, I’ve always given myself licence to buy whatever food and drink I want, without...
Goals for our Bulgarian garden, 2023
Seems a little early to kick off my annual Gardening Bore witterings, but no. March is nearly here, and with it the ritual of starting new seeds and clearing last year’s mess from the veg beds. (If you’re one of those people who do a big garden tidy-up before...
Two packets of Bourbons and a packet of Hobnobs: The food journey of a Brit in Bulgaria
We talk a lot about how immigrant food has shaped British food for the better. We talk less about what happens – food-wise – when Brits move abroad. Which food traditions do we leave behind? Which remain rituals for life? I used to mock people who lived in expat...
How to survive January
How’s January treating you so far? I was livid – actually livid – to see that other parts of Bulgaria had a lovely sprinkling of snow in the past week, while our area is still a sea of brown. Brown trees, brown fields, brown roofs. So although we always ease into...
Worried about winter
Early January. Even though 95% of your body is under the duvet, you can tell it’s going to be cold when you get out. Cold wooden floors, maybe a thin film of ice on the single-pane windows. What little you can see through the window is bleached, the grey and white...
What to feed the vegan or vegetarian at your table this Christmas
If you’re anything like me, you start thinking about Christmas food in, oh I don’t know, September. By November you’re bookmarking more recipes than you could ever cook or bake in the one-week period that is Christmas. And by now, a week or so before C-Day, you’re...