For the Christian feast day of Epiphany it is a tradition in many countries to bake a festive ‘king cake’, which marks the visit of the three kings to the infant Jesus. Part of this tradition involves baking a token into the cake, with the recipient having particular privileges bestowed upon them for the coming read more…
Quince are not a commonly-found fruit in Britain, but I’m fortunate enough to live close to a country estate with a handsome Victorian walled garden that plays host to two mature quince trees. The garden also harbours numerous different varieties of apple and pear, and the estate sells the fruit for a donation to the read more…
It’s great to see that The Real Bread Campaign is one of the finalists in Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards 2012, the winners of which will be announced on Wednesday. They’re up for the Derek Cooper Award, named after the venerable food journalist who first presented the station’s Food Programme in 1979. If you read more…
Amongst other things food- and drink-related, I love coffee. I started drinking it when I was quite young, and never really developed a taste for tea. Of course, the British and tea are widely considered to be inseparable, but a passion for coffee pre-dates the association of this beverage with the British Isles. The first read more…
I took a walk across the fields at the weekend and spotted this unorthodox, though innovative, use for a bread bin outside a local farm.Like the yard that it graces, this bin repurposed as a postbox is functional rather than pretty. Judging by the state of it, though, it may not keep the mail dry read more…
I’m a big fan of real ale as well as bread: after all, the two are linked by a common heritage thanks to the role of yeast in their creation (and that’s not the only reason…). Like many real ale drinkers, I’ve been seduced by the punchy, citrus flavours of beers made with hops from read more…
Sadly my partner and I have decided to separate, for a while at least, and I have left the family home to become, for the first time in my life, a lodger. My new house is not very far away, in the depths of the Suffolk countryside, and comes complete with cats, chickens and a read more…
Over the last ten years or so the lifestyle media has turned breadmaking – at least, a certain approach to and enthusiasm for breadmaking – into a fashionable pose. It isn’t the first time this has happened – as part of the wholefood revolution it became quite vogueish in the 1970s as a complement to read more…
One of my abiding childhood memories is of my Polish grandparents taking me to the Quantock Hills in Somerset, near where they lived in Taunton, to pick bilberries and forage for mushrooms. Bilberries – which go by a variety of rather whimsical names around the country – are native blueberries, which grow on upland heath and read more…
My mother-in-law is a keen forager and gave me a present of some wild mushrooms yesterday: Calocybe gambosa, known in this country as St George’s mushroom because it normally matures on or about this date (St Georges Day, that is). To appreciate their fine flavour, fry in just a smear of butter and serve on read more…
