Welcome to my home where we have lived since 1994. This lovely old thatched house, once 3 cottages, was built in 1630 and lies on low ground below the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. It is where I write my diet books and magazine and newspaper columns, and where I indulge my passion for gardening, growing my own food and enjoying my chickens, three sheep and beloved black cat Poppy.
Running a Home
Running a home when you are as busy as I am can be a challenge, but it is also pleasurable, economic and successful if you organise yourself along labour-saving lines. I manage to do most of the house and garden myself, but occasionally I need the services of others, and I hope you enjoy meeting them on these web pages.
This house isn't called The Orchard for nothing. It has 35 very old, established damson and plum trees and eight apple and pear trees were planted nine years ago. The fruit cage is 64ft long and holds strawberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, rhubarb and raspberries. Managing the picking and preparation of the berries can be exhausting when they all come in at once, but rewarding when there's blackcurrant sorbet or strawberry meringue at Christmas!
I will share with you some of my favourite bread and flapjack recipes and give tips on good jam and lemon curd. Plus, now that we're all into saving electricity, I'll tell you how to vacuum-seal and bottle your produce so it lasts a decade without the need for freezing.
I don't pretend to be Wonder Woman, slaving over the stove and entertaining relentlessly. I'm a just-about competent plain cook who also lives 5 miles from the nearest supermarket, so my aim is to save money, get the car out only when necessary, shop as little as possible and eat healthily.
The kitchen still gets a lot of action when I'm writing a new diet book. I have to dream up recipes with less sugar, fat or calories generally, and some of my efforts are totally disastrous! But I promise you that when you follow one of my diets, you can be confident that every recipe was tested and tested again in my own kitchen. The chickens certainly appreciate my failures, however, and many a hopeless cake is seen flying out of the window to the waiting flock!
Jam Making
A fun task is jam-making.
Before you think it is a major WI-type job, turning the kitchen
into a battle zone and producing enough jam for an army, it's
not. Did you know you can make just one simple pot of fruit spread in 15 minutes?
Ideal if you have the tail end of a strawberry crop or have just bought a cut-price
punnet of fruit on Saturday night. I DO make massive amount when it suits me,
usually when it's a wet Saturday or dark winter's evening with nothing
much else to do. Our Sunday tea is usually fresh boiled eggs, home-made bread,
salad and jam or lemon curd, not forgetting a slice of date
and walnut flapjack– all
things I batch-baked months before, usually.
This website has recipes and a few odds and ends about my life here. I hope you enjoy your visit and please leave a message in my Visitor's book, which I will read every day.
The garden is mostly natural, as befits a cottage of this age and I do most of the gardening myself. However the trees and hedges need attention so here are Ben and Jamie who do the heavier work.
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