This bread is a miracle. You begin by mixing an impossibly wet dough and leave it to ferment overnight. The next morning you look in the bowl and think ‘there is no way this bubbly, amorphous gloop will make decent ciabatta’. You keep faith and turn it out onto a piece of cling film, dusted with flour and stuck to the work surface with a spritz of water and, with a plastic bowl scraper you shape

Making sourdough bread

First steps……

Good bread is made from three ingredients: flour, salt and water. What distinguished good bread from bad is the method used to make it.

Making sourdough is all about perfecting the method. In most sourdough recipes the ingredients list is short – flour, salt and water - but the method is long and nuanced.

This is a lovely porridge to make as the seasons change and we move into the warmer summer months. Buckwheat is a wholegrain and is rich in dietary fibre and micronutrients. It is also filling and makes an ideal breakfast for both children and adults.

This recipe is my go to basic recipe for granola. It is quick to make and can be varied according to the nuts, seeds and dried fruit you have available. The important thing is to keep the ratio of the ingredients the same.

I love spending time in Northern Finland where we eat beautiful rye bread. It is chewy, lasts long time and has lots of flavour. We love it. So when Shipton Mill asked me to write about rye flour for their website I was delighted. 

I picked up this beautiful, scalloped spoon at the weekend from the antique fair in Ilkley. It was £3.00 and I had to find something to stir. Hunger pangs helped me to find inspiration. When I returned home, I set about creating breakfast --- ummmhhh blackberry and cardamom porridge. Will it work?

Pappardelle with artichokes and lemon. This is a great example of Nigel Slater’s, recipe creation at its best. He takes takes a hero ingredient, in this case sliced preserved artichoke hearts, pairs them with a store cupboard ingredient (pappardelle), flavours them beautifully with fragrant lemon zest, basil and parsley and adds a twist.

Think cheesy, light, green fluffy, rolled up soufflé filled with a layer of luxurious cream cheese, smoked salmon and cut into delicate pinwheels.

This is a great recipe for the festive season. It can be prepared in advance and served chilled. It makes a lovely lunch, starter or supper dish and is best served with a fresh green salad.

This beautiful recipe is adapted from Claudia Roden’s latest book ‘Med’. It is a masterpiece in simplicity. It consists of just a few ingredients - onions sweated in olive oil, a grid of anchovies studded with black olives and a pastry base as crumbly as a sandcastle.

Squashes and pumpkins are in season now and are famous for making sweet pie fillings. This is very tasty savoury version of a pumpkin pie which is much easier to make than it looks. It is full of nutritious ingredients like spinach, pine nuts and olive oil. Filo pastry can be brushed with olive oil or melted butter to make it crisp and golden.

If you travel to South East Asia you will see people eating pho everywhere you go. It is street food at its best. 

Years ago I watched pasta being made in Bologna, Italy when I was a student teaching English to an Italian family during my long summer vacation. The cook where I was staying made pasta by hand, left the dough to rest and rolled it into long sheets using a rolling pin. She then cut the pasta into tagliatelle or made little cap shaped pockets known as tortellini which were stuffed with either meat or cheese fillings and served in a delicious broth.

My front garden has to be cleared for new planting and so I pulled up the last of the rainbow chard and spinach and placed them in my trug. I cut chives, which I swear weren't there a week ago. I found lemon thyme in a pot and some pea shoots which I planted with my three year old next door neighbour Tilly and her mum, Emma. They are now a few inches tall with tendrils that wind around anything close. My trug filled up with possibilities and supper began to look good. It's a hybrid concoction somewhere between a soufflé and a fritatta studded with vegetables and a little cheese. 

This week I heard that I am to continue as a visiting lecturer in nutrition at the Department of Food Science at Leeds University for another three years. Great news as from time to time I need the use my training in nutrition for projects I am working on and I get to use the wonderful university library.

This recipe is fabulous to eat freshly made or to prepare in advance and freeze. It is perfect for those unexpected Christmas guests and even better if one of them is a vegetarian. Most people think it is some kind of giant sausage roll but the discerning realise on the first bite it is a special concoction of chestnuts and mushrooms infused with the smell of lemon and thyme, and studded with cranberries. 

A beautiful drive, north east recently took me to Whitby to meet Rob and Emma Green whose restaurant - Green's - is the go to place for great seafood cooking on this part of the coast. Rob has just opened a cookery school which he runs out of the restaurant kitchen. I visited to write a piece for the Yorkshire Post.

"Steamed yellow French beans, griddled courgettes and their flowers, rocket and marjoram are all from my tiny, weeny garden. The dough is made from leftover sourdough from this afternoon's mammoth bread making session. Big sis arrives tomorrow. I don't want her to think I am slacking". 

A couple of months ago I was in Mells, Somerset on a garden and plant photography course with Jason Ingrams and Paul Debois. Both brilliant and encouraging tutors. Jason was not surprised when I said I liked photographing food and was a freelancer for the Yorkshire Post. 'Photographing food and plants is similar. David Loftus started out with gardens before he moved on to food' Jason told me.

This is one of my favourite risottos. The flavour and zing of lemon juice and zest cuts through the salmon and the creamy, cheesy risotto.  A pinch of dried sea lettuce seasons the dish perfectly. I would love to try this dish with lobster instead of the salmon. I think it might work. 

Although expensive turbot is one fish I single out for a treat. It cooks well and you don't need a large portion  to make a meal. Eating this fine fish is about appreciating quality rather than quantity. A fine principle to follow if you are still looking for a new year resolution. 

Fish and chips is such established Yorkshire food it is hard to believe it was Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe that introduced the country to the dish in 1860. 

What a privilege it is to be shown how to make fresh pasta by Gennaro Contaldo. He is in Leeds to promote his new book 'Lets Cook Italian'. ennaro is a brilliant teacher and as a partner in Jamie's Italian chain of restaurants he is in charge of training new chefs and developing the menus for their growing chain of restaurants. 

These are a tasty snack based on a Turkish recipe. They are made with sheets of filo pastry wrapped around a filling of spinach, onion, herbs, garlic, feta cheese bound together with yogurt and egg. The recipe is easy to adapt and you can other ingredients like lentils, mushrooms or tomatoes.

This garnet coloured, rooty soup, is spiked with threads of finely grated fresh horseradish. The recipe comes from a book called Seasonal Soups by Fraser Reid.

Think cheesy, light, green fluffy, rolled up soufflé filled with a layer of luxurious cream cheese, smoked salmon and cut into delicate pinwheels.

This is a great recipe for the festive season. It can be prepared in advance and served chilled. It makes a lovely lunch, starter or supper dish and is best served with a fresh green salad.

This beautiful recipe is adapted from Claudia Roden’s latest book ‘Med’. It is a masterpiece in simplicity. It consists of just a few ingredients - onions sweated in olive oil, a grid of anchovies studded with black olives and a pastry base as crumbly as a sandcastle.

This is my favourite beetroot soup. The original recipe is from the Moro Cookbook (Ebury Press 2001) but I have have tweaked it slightly. It is easy and inexpensive to make, tastes delicious and is warm and comforting on a cold winter’s day. I love to eat mine with my rye and seed sourdough.

This is the third in a series of sharing dishes to be eaten with flat brad flavoured with za’atar. Sweet, roasted peppers are pounded and spiked with the flavours of fresh garlic, thyme, sweet smoked paprika and chilli. Walnuts give the paste texture and a dash of vinegar balances the flavours.

Broad beans are a delightful vegetable but they can have tough skins which is why many chefs try to get you to pop them out of their skins. In this recipe you can process small, young, cooked and defrosted broad beans together with a well ripened avocado to create a sublime, silky textured paste.

This spectacular dip is borani an Iranian dish made of delicately flavoured cooked beetroot and yogurt, topped with walnuts, dill and feta. I tried it at Morito the little sister tappas bar/restaurant next to Moro on Exmouth Market, London. I like to serve it with flatbread and other dips or small sharing plates.

These mushroom and walnut samosas are vegetarian and there is not a deep fat fryer in sight. Instead the unusual, gently spiced, mushroom and walnut filling is wrapped in a double layer of buttered filo pastry and baked in a hot oven. This makes them lighter and less oily than traditional samosas.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Meera Sodha’s book Fresh India. I kept faith with the ingredients but halved the quantity and altered the method slightly. These samosas are absolutely delicious!

This is my version of Meera Sodha’s tomato, pistachio and saffron tart which appeared in the Guardian last June. It was made for us over Christmas and we all loved it. The flavours and textures are delicious – there’s a crisp pastry base smothered with a paste of ground nuts and coconut milk flavoured with cumin, coriander and saffron. On top of that  sits a layer of tamarind flavoured caramelised onions studded with semi dried tomatoes. My version is vegetarian and not vegan, as Meera’s was. it is scrumptious!

I have just bought the fabulous The Green Kitchen by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl. It makes simple vegetarian food look as sexy as anything you have ever seen on a plate. 

This is a great bread recipe because it is quick to make and it looks fabulous. The mix of fennel, chilli, lemon and garlic flavours is delicious and adding rye to the bread dough gives texture and flavour. I have served it with a brightly coloured butternut squash soup.

Miso soup is the ultimate comfort food. It is gentle, soothing and has a delicious savoury flavour. It is the ideal thing to eat if you feel like a nutritious, simple meal. 

"That looks yummy" my three year old niece, Anneka, proclaimed as she sat on my lap as I tried to check my email. She was looking at this photo which I have used as a screen saver. I loved the colours and the way the light was falling on the juice as it dribbled into the Mascarpone cheese. I was rather taken aback she thought it looked good.

Jay Raynor, one of the UK's most revered restaurant critics confesses to adoring his toast burnt with a smear of butter and a smattering of Marmite. ‘Toast’ is the title of Nigel Slater’s award-winning biography of a childhood remembered through food and Toast House is the name of my favourite cafe in my home town of Ilkley, West Yorkshire. 

At seven years old most children will spend their summer holidays watching TV or playing computer games. Not Amelia Hirst. She will be busy producing veg on her own allotment.

"Do you think it suits me? My nephew Lewis asked as he tried on a dark, navy blue, linen shirt in the Fara Workshop just off the Angel, Islington, North London. "Yes" I replied in truth. He returned to the changing room, dressed and took the shirt to the counter. 

I walked into the greengrocers in Ilkley where I live and saw a basketful of large artichokes from France.Two things caught my eye. Their beautiful mauve, scaly bracts and their size. If artichokes are large their 'hearts' are big enough and nutty enough to stuff and make a satisfying meal. If they are too small I don't really think they are worth bothering with.

Pastry is definitely not a health food. It contains fat, salt and processed white flour which I know very well should occupy only the tiniest a tiny corner of our diet. Eaten too often, or in too big a portion, it will tip the weighing scales in the wrong direction and more. 

This recipe has been driven by flavour and colour. Jerusalem artichokes are in season and there is something about the bite of them I love. It reminds me of coconut. So perhaps I will add a little coconut milk to this soup for creaminess. Nobly blue potatoes are in the shops too so I thought they might look lovely as crisps aloft this delicate soup. The colour of pink pepper corns also sprang to mind, so too did lemon grass and ginger and before long I had the recipe for a very pretty soup which was lovely to eat and gorgeous to photograph. Just the thing for a cold winter day with a biting wind. 

Spicy, fragrant, sweet, sour, hot and gutsy were the flavours I tasted the first time I ate falafel in a soft, freshly cooked pillowy pita. I was a student working on a kibbutz outside Jerusalem. After finishing a day's work I would hitch a lift into the city and revel in tasting new foods cooked on the street in the stifling heat. 

This week has been a mad dash. I have been asked to exhibit my iPad illustrations at the Staithes Arts Festival this weekend. How did that happen? I started drawing a year ago when I bought my iPad and it has really taken off. I have even sold some of the drawings to Rob Green, Yorkshire's great seafood chef to illustrate his menus. 

It is the time of the year to enjoy peaches at their best. I buy mine from Asquith's an independent green grocer in Ilkley who sources peaches which are displayed outsidethe shop and left to ripen in the sun naturally. I buy them warm and soft and they are brilliant value at three for £1.00.

This is another really great easy to make bread which is lovely to eat with summer food like grilled fish, meat or salads. The dough only needs to be left to rise once which makes the turnaround from start to finish swift without compromising the quality of the bread. The mashed up chick peas and baked cumin and coriander seeds add depth to the flavour and provide a clear signal that this bread goes well with Middle Eastern food, and perfectly with the salad below.

It's happened again. My kitchen  has a dribble of beetroot here and a spot of beetroot there. It does not quite look like a massacre but it's close. The beetroot came from Arthur's allotment which is a few strides along the famous Dales Way walk close to the Old Bridge in Ilkley.

Wash the wild garlic leaves, dry and chop roughly. Grind the pine nuts in a pestle and mortar, add Parmesan cheese and about half of the wild garlic leaves. Pound these ingredients together and then add the remaining wild garlic leaves. Gradually stir in the olive oil and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

These are the simplest tarts to make yet they taste so good. They are perfect served with a salad of bitter green leaves and a dribble of lemony dressing. 

Sometimes the simplest food tastes best. Also - the closer your food is to nature the more nourishing it is likely to be. Most of the food I like to eat relies on these two principles.

This is a beautiful recipe from Dee Rettali’s book Baking with Fortitude. Sourdough cakes and bakes. Published by Bloomsbury.

If you need to put a cake on the table quickly this is the one and it is seasonal too. A simple base of sunflower oil, soft brown sugar and eggs are whisked together before folding in grated courgette, walnuts, spices and flour. The topping is a heavenly floss of mascarpone and Greek yogurt, spiked with lemon zest, and sweetened with a little icing sugar. White currant berries are in season now and make a jewel like flourish to this statement cake.

This is a great to have up your sleeve for when you need a pudding or cake to put on the table for family or friends. The cake freezes well. I like putting two of the small loaf versions in the freezer. One serves 4-6 with a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of fruit purée and there is another one stored for later.

This is one of our go to brownie recipes. I photographed this recipe for Doves Farm but have since adapted the recipe slightly. Just to make it quicker to make and a little less rich. I like the chewy, boozy prunes and the combination of macadamia and pecan nuts together with dark, dark chocolate. Just a note - soak the prunes if you can in any alcoholic beverage. Brandy, grappa, kirsch all work. I have also made this recipe with plain and self raising flour. Both work.

Panpepato is also known as peppered bread. Based on a very old Italian recipe it is predecessor of Tuscan Panforte. It is not really a bread at all. The ingredients: a mix of nuts, home made candied peel, Muscat raisins, bitter cocoa powder and spices, including pepper and coriander, are bound together with acacia honey and shaped with wet hands. I am not sure how many takers I would get if I served this but I love the bitter notes of chocolate, the crunch of nuts and a little sweetness from the honey. My recipe is from Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio’s ‘Baking’. It’s a gem.

These two recipes are perfect for Christmas celebrations. The cake is delicately flavoured with orange and chocolate, and has a hint of vanilla. The pears are poached in a ginger and honey syrup flavoured with rosemary and bay.

I love cooking with children because it is fun and they can learn so much from the experience about ingredients, how to weigh and measure, dexterity, social skills and so much more.

This week I had 8 year old Anneka helping me to make these cookies from wholegrain rye flour, buckwheat, tahini, dates, butter and sugar.

These gorgeous, orange topped muffins are adapted from the signature recipe from Honey & Co’s baking book. They appear on the front cover.

This carrot, pistachio and almond cake is subtly flavoured with cinnamon. It does not contain any flour and is held together with eggs and ground nuts. Grated carrot and coconut give it a wonderful crumbly texture. I have made this version of Sabrina Ghayour’s recipe with olive oil, rather than butter and I have reduced the amount of sugar as the carrots make it quite sweet. It is a fabulous recipe and delicious with a dollop of thick Greek yogurt. I also served it as a pudding with a side of stewed and spiced apricots and some extra slivers of pistachio nuts.

Madeleines are easy and quick to make once you have measured out the ingredients and put the oven on. They are best eaten fresh within an hour of making as they lose their texture quickly. These are flavoured with fresh lemon zest and juice. They are so delicate and lovely to look at. A real treat.

Apricot, frangipane tart. Apricots are at their best at the moment. Beautiful eaten just as they are or laid on top of a layer of almond flavoured frangipane. The heat of the oven concentrates their flavour. One of the sublime joys of summer.

This is a very forgiving recipe and does not require much skill to make. Don’t worry about whether the eggs whites or cream/yogurt mix are whipped up enough – if they are white and fluffy they will do. If all the ingredients are mixed together well enough and given enough time to freeze the recipe will taste delicious regardless of what order you put the ingredients together.

The combination of sweet, tangy orange juice, nutty flavoured of tahini and crunchy pistachios are set against the creaminess of enriched Greek Yogurt is a winner.

The idea is inspired by Alastair Hendy's beautiful Christmas Book which tells the story of a baker who is down on his luck and struggling to make his business work.

These Tuscan almond biscuits have been adapted from Baking by Antonio Carluccio - I halved the quantities. The recipe is also influenced by Honey & Co, London where they serve a riciarelli type biscuit studded with juicy pieces of apricot. So I add plumped up dried apricots to this recipe when I have them. I also add tiny chunks of very dark chocolate when I feel like a bite of chocolate. Maya Gold by Green & Black is good.

These gorgeous cantuccini are made from a recipe I adapted from Jeremy Lee from when he was at the Blue Print cafe. The recipe appeared in the Guardian in 2000. Jeremy credits his pastry chef 'Andeas' with the recipe which works wonderfully.  Cantuccini last for ages in an airtight container and give all of the shop bought ones a run for their money. Traditionally served with vin santo the sweet Italian dessert wine but equally lovely dunked in cappuccino or any dark sweet wine or sherry. 

For anyone who likes dried fruit, toasted nuts, the darkest of chocolate and the scent of orange oil this is a fabulous, nutritious festive treat. Fig salami is quick to make and gluten free. It keeps for a couple weeks in a cool, dry place. Only a little sugar creeps into the recipe with the home made crystallised orange peel which is chopped up and folded into the mix. 

If I make a cake I like to enrich it with some nutritious ingredients including, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. I also like to use interesting flour. Last year I hunted around for a basic, cake recipe that could be adapted to the seasons. I came up with a wonderful plum and almond cake which can be adapted to be gluten free by substituting gluten free flour for plain flour. This year I have tweaked the recipe and used yogurt instead of buttermilk and added a few other complementary ingredients.

This is the season for ripe, succulent figs. It is rare to taste ripe figs in this country but if you are going to now is the time to seek them out in good green grocers where they have been imported from Europe. 

We love this gluten free polenta cake. It takes 10 minutes to weigh out and mix the ingredients together and just 40 minutes to cook. It can also be adapted to the flavours of the seasons.

Sorry for the gap in posts. I am in New Zealand and it is not easy to cook on the road. I prepared this post just before I left and it is gorgeous. A little rich so keep portions small. This size feeds a crowd and is perfect for Christmas. 

It’s almost Halloween and once again if you are out and about with friends it is nice to have something to offer them at home or take with you. I got the idea for this cake from my friends at Toast House, in Ilkley where I live who told me the sunken apricot cake by brilliant cook Harry Eastwood (Harry is a girl) is a best seller in their enchanting café. 

This is just a very quick post but it might help you. If you ever have a vegan friend round for a meal this is a simple, beautiful recipe you can pull out of the bag. There is the flavour of raw chocolate, the texture of velvet and the mystery of guessing what it is made from. So book mark it now. 

I have been stopped twice in the street this week. "Have you posted the recipe for your chocolate rice pudding yet?" two friends asked as I was shopping (I put a sneaky teaser image on Facebook to see if any of my friends liked the idea). They did so here is the recipe in full.

I have been looking for a plum and almond cake recipe since I went to Tasmania in 2006 and my friend Marion made such a good one it has been haunting me ever since. Each summer when the plums are about to fall from the trees I reminisce and vaguely look for a recipe that hits the spot.

These tartlets are summer on a plate. A few years ago when I was staying in Hobart, Tasmania I discovered lemon verbena. My friend Marion grows it in her garden as a straggly bush. In summer she picks the leaves and places them in hand thrown bowls her mother makes. The leaves dry in the warm air and fill her spacious, weatherboard house with a fresh lemony scent which smells clean and welcoming. 

The reputation of porridge has suffered over the years. It is often thought of as a virtuous, worthy dish. 

Nougat has always been one of my favourite confections, along with marshmallow and Turkish delight. It should be sweet, chewy with a little crunchy but not rich. 

One of the earliest mentions of mince pies was in the 16th century by Thomas Tusser who writes about mince or ‘shred’ pies in his 1557 list of Christmas foods. Shred because the meat was shredded with a knife. Mince pies were also described in The Country Housewife’s Family Companion by William Ellis in 1750. Both manuscripts are part of the Cookery Collection at the Brotherton Library, Leeds University. 

This neat 100ml coffee cup bears Susie Cooper's navy blue asterisk design. I found a set of six cups and saucers in a hoard of old china when clearing an elderly relative's flat. I think they were designed in the early 1940's.

Plums and elderberries have been on my mind over the last few weeks. The plum trees growing in the Church orchard at Addingham are dripping with dark red fruit waiting to be picked by someone brave enough to climb the ladder.

Sorry for the absence of posts but I am in New Zealand travelling. I have been in the North Island for two weeks and I have loved every minute of it. From the giant sand dunes of Opinoni to Waimangu Volcanic valley near Rotorua with it's amazing steaming fumeroles and hot water lakes. I like it all.

I really love these spiced pickled pears. Their translucent flesh turns golden as it simmers in  a syrup made from soft brown sugar, white wine vinegar and a mix of spices. I have adapted the recipe from Sara Paston Williams's Christmas book written for the National Trust. 

This is the time of year when anyone can forage for lovely food. Take the kids roaming along riverbanks and through the woods. It is the time for them to learn what they can and can't eat from the hedgerows. This is the time of year when anyone can forage for lovely food. Take the kids roaming along riverbanks and through the woods. It is the time for them to learn what they can and can't eat from the hedgerows. 

What can be nicer than a gift of plum jam which has been carefully made by someone you know? Last week I was in London visiting my two brothers. As I left my older brother Martin's house, he pressed a jar of amber coloured mirabelle plum jam into my hand.

Kombucha is a deliciously cool, slightly fizzy, ginger flavoured, hardly sweet drink. It is my ‘go to’ non alcoholic drink. This is the low down on how to make kombucha at home.

Stage one

You need to buy something called a SCOBY (or symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts). A SCOBY looks like a pale rubber disc and is home to the bacteria and yeasts that ferment the cold black teas which forms the basis of kombucha. The SCOBY arrives in a sealed plastic bag immersed in liquid.

“It's a cross between a stroke and a rub" says Arthur from his allotment by the Old Bridge, Ilkley as he described the technique required to remove elderberries from their stalks to make elderberry cordial. "If you use a fork or anything like that the little blighters will be all over the place" he continued. 

Arthur a lifelong gardener, now in his 80's and with a voice reminiscent of Alan Titchmarsh, gave me clear instructions on how to make elderberry cordial. He recommended pouring a teaspoon or two of the deep, dark purple liquor over ice-cream, taking a little in hot water to sooth a tickly throat and, he gave me a glass of cool, freshly made lemonade spiked with a few drops to try on the spot. The flavours were spicy and fruity and made me think of all kind of other uses for this regal juice. I think it would marry well with apples, plums and pears.

Interestingly elderberry syrup does have a place in the household pharmacopeia as a cough linctus. If you browse the cough medicines along the shelves of any big pharmacy you will come across Sambucus based syrup. The thick linctus soothes sore and itchy throats.

The berries must not be eaten raw but can also be stewed and mixed with other berries in jams and compotes. They are too good to waste so enjoy collecting them and making this gorgeous syrup.

Last year I wrote a post on how to make elderflower champagne using straight forward white lacy elderflowers. This year I decided to try a version of the same using pink elderflowers from a black elderflower tree (sambucus nigra) growing in my garden. 

I have been inspired by colour this morning. Returning from running on a steely cold Ilkley Moor I was hungry and thirsty. I needed a drink and sustenance. I rooted around the fridge and store  cupboards and came up with this wild, vivid pink, naturally sweet, exotic slurpy and really want to share the idea. 

At this time of the year the hedgerows are full of elderflowers. In the early morning light their flat white heads appear to hover in the dark green foliage. There are also soft pink and white bramble blossoms that signal their forthcoming dark autumn fruit. On my morning run through the woods I find more beauty in the form of hatched eggs shells and decide to celebrate this glorious time of the year by making a bucket of elderflower champagne. It should be ready for Le Grand Depart on Saturday 5th July. The race passes close to my house in Ilkley twice over the weekend.

I didn't quite realise just how delicious the combination of fresh vegetable and fruit juice could be. I guessed the flavours might be more soup like than fruit like, but I was wrong. This juice tasted of citrus, lime flower, lemon and apple with a hint of cucumber. The spinach and parsley were not dominant flavours but including them gave the juice its deep, vibrant colour.

This morning I am multitasking - trying to write at the same time as eat breakfast which includes a shot of this brilliant, deep, blood red juice.

In 1984, antiquarian book valuer Derek Law from Addiingham in West Yorkshire came across Gilbert White’s book ‘Garden Kalender’ while working in the British Library. White (1720-1793) a rector/naturalist developed an orchard for his parish in Selborne to feed fruit to the poor all year round. 

This year I visited the Chelsea Flower Show on the wettest, coldest summer day ever. We huddled in the overcrowd pavilion with everyone else trying to make the best of a bad day. We shuffled around inside inspecting, admiring and being intrigued by the gorgeous displays and got drenched when we ventured outside. Eventually we gave up and as we left we fell into a Pizza Express on our way home.

I squeezed some oranges from the fruit bowl this morning and did not realise they were blood oranges until deep red, juice poured from their cells and bled into the reservoir of my juicer. The liquid glowed with beauty. It seems that at the moment they are the only fruit that really are ripe, fresh and seasonal.

Local blackcurrants are in the shops in the moment. If you feel like an afternoon in the fresh air you can pick your own at a fruit farm or you may be lucky enough to have a bush in your garden.