May is the best-behaved month in the British calendar, and this year it has been especially generous with cloudless blue skies: quite dangerously so, as we risk growing accustomed to them. The ubiquitous Sambucus nigra is responding with a … [Read more...]
Cook it with flowers: chocolate rose cake, and tips for making pretty salads
June is the month of longest days, of herbaceous borders, roses and elderflower, of picnics, garden teas, barbecues and al fresco drinks – any excuse to eat and imbibe outside while we can. Even on those inevitable rainy days (this is English … [Read more...]
Elderflowers: champagne, cordial and a cake
There’s just time to make one more batch of elderflower cordial and champagne, with their inimitable fragrance of English summer – floral, yet also a little wild and very slightly musty. Nothing drinkable is more evocative of our hedgerows and … [Read more...]
A Midsummer Night’s Eve potion
There is something so magical about Midsummer Night’s Eve that it calls for a potion -- something drawn from Shakespeare's green world to induce dreams of love and pagan revelry, safely resolved with all the right embraces after a dalliance with … [Read more...]