Category Archives: Cooking

Lardy Cake

This morning is bright and crisp. The washing is on the line. Lorries have been trundling in and out of the farm yard. They are here to collect some cattle. Have any of you ever heard of Lardy cake? When … Continue reading

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Bonfire Night

Here are some burning sparks from our bonfire on saturday. After last year’s unfolding disaster with the cinder toffee I didn’t bother with it this year (read about it here, here,Β and here). I did return to Delia Smith’s Parkin recipe … Continue reading

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Community Resilience Plan

Yesterday there was a coffee morning at the village hall in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. As one of the other mum’s in the village says, “you just never know when you might need them.” There’s always a good bake sale … Continue reading

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Rhubarb jam

Everyone is agreed that it’s been a bad year in the garden. One plant that has thrived where others have not is rhubarb. We now have four crowns in our garden and we’ve had a bumper crop. Big Dreamer has … Continue reading

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Lost tales

The journey back to Scotland from Devon is a long one so we’ve broken it with Big Dreamer’s parents in Yorkshire. Rain is pattering on the chimney cowl, echoing down the flue to where I’m sitting. As we were driving … Continue reading

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Broad Beans

Some seeds in our garden have completely failed to germinate this year. I’ve not seen hide nor hair of the beetroot, courgettes, or pumpkins. The odd spinach and lettuce has come up but nothing compared to last year. In contrast, … Continue reading

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Bread

Here is my contribution to a fun evening with friends this week involving LOTS of food. Little Owl got to stay up, which she thought was marvellous. The Moroccan (sorry, spelt wrongly above) sesame bread follows a normal bread recipe … Continue reading

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Pace Eggs

Here are our Pace Eggs for Easter. I always plan to be more experimental with them and try lots of natural dyes but never quite manage it. Next year, next year! Little Owl had an Easter Egg hunt in the … Continue reading

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Making cheese

  Look! We made cheese! Actual, real cheese! We were given a wonderful kit from Urban Cheesecraft for our birthdays and tried it out this week. The kit comes with instructions, a thermometer, rennet, salt, and citric acid. I especially … Continue reading

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Pancake Day

Here is Big Dreamer flipping pancakes. We had to save our pancake day celebrations for Friday as this week has been jam-packed. I know that pretty much undermines the whole point of pancake day: the idea of intentionally pausing to … Continue reading

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