Category: Winter

  • Fermenting fruit vinegars at home

      Once you know how to make your own vinegar you can experiment with different flavours. Last year I showed you how to make your own apple cider vinegar. This year, I experimented to see if I could use the same principles to make some blackberry and apple vinegar. I’ve also got into using Kombucha.…

  • September Seedy Cuttings

      As I type this there’s yet another brutal weather front going over. The wind is howling and the rain lashing both pressing & clawing at the windows like hungry sea monsters. The transition into Autumn has crashed down like a saturated ceiling. The seeds I received from Lucy are safely tucked up indoors awaiting…

  • Seedy Penpals – a letter from Gillian

    Gillian sent me a letter about her Seedy Penpals experience which she asked me to blog for her. I do this with pleasure. You can find Gillian as the Impatient Gardener on Twitter. A letter from Gillian Dear Carl Just a letter to update you on my #SeedyPenpals experience. My seedy pen pal was the…

  • Sourdough bread pudding recipe with spices, apricots & cranberries

    The rubbish ‘summer’ weather we’re having prompted a need for comfort food. I had a surfeit of bits & bobs of sourdough loaves in the bread bin, so bread pudding called to me. Instead of just using the normal dried fruit, I wanted some sparkle in the pudding. The vibrant orange of apricots and red…

  • Seedy Penpals

    Yesterday, Mel at Edible Things tweeted a link to a great idea for food bloggers and blog readers to get to know each other, by sending a lovely parcel in the mail every month. I re-tweeted the link to the US & UK schemes and soon got into a chat with Mel and Karen at…

  • Apple custard cake Parisienne

    You’ll love this cake. It has a crispy case;  firm, slightly spiced apple filling and an aromatic vanilla custard topping. What’s more, it’s ridiculously easy to make and you get to play with squidgy pastry. I had a surfeit of apples in the fruit bowl that I wanted to use up and a need for…

  • Vollkornbrot: rye sourdough bread

    In my goody box from Anne at the Felin Ganol Mill was some wholemeal rye flour and chopped rye berries. Along with some sunflower seeds, these are just what you need to make this delicious, hearty & earthy bread. The result was fantastic and we ate it with some very special cheese. The soaked rye…

  • Wild garlic mash, warm chickweed salad & seafood

    This meal started off as one of those: “What do I do with these?” scenarios. Debs had made a gorgeous parsnip, cinnamon and lemon cake with some of our over-wintered parsnips. It was delicious. I had one parsnip left that Debs had not been able to use. And I had cleared a space in our…

  • Felin Ganol – Tybalt Flour: Sourdough Bread

    Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this,—thou art a villain Now why would you name a wheat after someone who would say that? I think this Particular Tybalt, unlike Romeo’s assailant, is more fiery in name than in nature. This is another test bake of one of the flours…