When I was young, on the way home from school we would stop at the ‘tuck shop’ and buy a penny’s worth of ‘gumballs’ - yes that was their name. They tasted like aniseed, but with toffee in the middle, underneath a coating of sugary crunch. What I savoured as a child, turned into fennel as an adult! I am...

Every Sunday morning when I enter the supermarket, list in one hand, trolley in the other, I am in my element. I’m one of those people that likes to take their time and pick the best fruit and veg the shop has to offer. But I will hold my hands up, I am not the most adventurous when it comes...

The time we all look forward to, when we say ‘goodbye’ to winter stews and ‘hello’ to delicious grilled meats, fish and vegetables on the barbie. The addictive aroma of a well-cooked barbecue can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own garden, or from several gardens away! There is just something about it that is so evocative. Why is...

Let’s just face facts. Lettuce is possibly one of the most boring vegetables. Yeah that’s right, I said it. It’s made up of 96% water, so the closest thing to eating lettuce (especially iceberg) is drinking a glass of water. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love it.   Lettuce Entertain You This Summer Picture this. It’s summer, the sun is...

Let me tell you. One of my favourite things about writing these articles is doing the research. You might think that writing about fruit and vegetables can’t be that interesting, but how wrong you’d be. And writing about rhubarb has been no exception. People often wonder why I’m full of unusual and quirky facts, and when you read this post...

Of course, you can go into any shop at any time of the year and see asparagus on the shelves, but if you want homegrown and more flavour – stick to the season. Seasonality varies depending on where you are – in some parts of Europe, depending on climatic conditions in your real provenance area, asparagus has a very short...

On 13th May, the world will celebrate International Hummus Day. Whilst hummus is purported to have been ‘invented’ in the 13th Century by the Egyptians, there has been somewhat of a war between Lebanon, Israel (and any other countries where chickpeas are grown in abundance!), to the extent that a fierce competition erupted for the biggest plate of hummus ever...

Don’t worry, this is not another post on how to make pesto out of fresh basil. I won’t do it to you. It’s the beginning of the basil and wild garlic season and I know there will be plenty of blog posts lurking about on the subject, so I’ll do you the honor of not being one of those posts....

The phrase “I’m on a diet” seems to pop out of everyone’s mouth these days just as much as “I love Succession” or “things are going to calm down next week”. Like most people in the 21st century, I have been conditioned by diet companies, fashion brands, and the beauty industry to accept that only deathly skinniness achieved through starvation...

I am super picky about bananas. Always have been. I like my bananas firm but not so firm that they taste bland or worse, sour. I select only bananas with perfect, smooth, yellow skins—no blemishes. Above all, I refuse to eat ripe, sweet, mushy bananas. Better off for banana bread or smoothies. Perfect bananas straight from the market once home...