If there’s one thing I love in life, I mean really, passionately adore, it’s vegetables. Sure, I love my dog and my parents and all that too. But what stirs in me genuine awe-filled wonder, what I worship with all the zeal of a fanatic, are plants.
Hello you lovely lot.
I’m Kathy. I’m a food writer, cook, veg grower and London ratrace escapee (more on that in a mo’).
Here’s the plan…
Are you veggie? No. Me neither. But I do LOVE vegetables. And growing them. So if you, like me, want to put veg at the centre of your plate (maybe your life too, as I have), then I have a plan:
…to share simple, seasonal recipes made for people who aren't necessarily vegetarian but want to eat less meat.
Whenever I chat to people at events, they almost always say they aren’t vegetarian, but they want to eat less meat. I couldn’t agree more. Many of us are now mostly veggie. So let’s cook that way. We don’t have to cook meals that are either vegetarian or meaty. We don’t have to pick a side. It’s dinner, not Brexit.
Plus, I think dishes can be plant-packed celebrations of vegetables without being strictly vegetarian. In fact, sometimes the odd anchovy or a ladle of chicken stock – meat as seasoning - can make our hero harvest sing even more sweetly. And it’s harvests I’m obsessed with – all my recipes are inspired by my back garden veg patch and the Cotswolds (UK) landscape where I live. Fresh veg in peak season are too fabulous to need smothering with tuilles, foams or frippery, they just need putting on a plate so I always cook beautiful, simple, convivial food to get you closer to the land that grew it.
On that note, here’s the second part of the plan:
…to reconnect with the land by inviting you into my garden with uplifting stories about growing my own food and the healing powers of nature.
Maybe it’s everyday niggles or maybe you, like me, have cowered under the duvet as you felt the world fall down around your ears – either way, I have found nature, and especially growing food, to be restorative and comforting in a way I never imagined during my days in the London ratrace. So, if you need of a dose of nature for better mental health, then my garden gate is open in the form of tales and essays from the patch and the fields beyond.
What’s included in a subscription?
For a start, my eternal gratitude. Your support, whether as a free subscriber or a paid one, means I can focus on creating recipes and stories rather than engaging in the fickle nonsense of TikTok and Instagram to try and get work seen, let alone paid for.
On a more practical note, and since I spent a decade working in advertising agencies and living through (indeed, dreaming in) PowerPoint, it won’t surprise you that be made a chart to explain the actual subscriber benefits:
In more detail…
Monthly newsletter with a recipe round up, updates from the veg patch, news on events I’m doing (supper clubs, festivals, talks etc). Plus things like book recommendations, growing tips, gardening goodies – basically, seasonal loveliness direct to your inbox.
Recipes inspired by the veg patch - mostly-veggie, seasonal, faff free and beautiful. Free subscribers will receive one recipe month, paid subscribers get one recipe a week. Everyone will get a beautiful printable PDF like this (Have you tried printing from Substack? It’s a disaster. You’ll be needing the PDF):
Monthly tales from the veg patch - a story about life in the garden, lessons learnt from the soil, or ideas that get you closer to the land. Like this one.
Monthly videos to give paid subscribers chance to come into my kitchen and garden for a chat. It could be a live cookalong with me, a tour of the veg patch, a growing workshop, an interview with a fellow veg-loving writer or a recorded recipe video. This one is especially funny.
A signed copy of my cookbook (with a personal message of your choice) and a branded A4 recipe binder to store the weekly recipe PDFs will be posted to heaven sent Founder subscribers. You can have my puppy too, if you want…
And you are…?
I’m a cook, author, veg grower and sometimes photographer who worked in advertising agencies in London for more than a decade before burnout and depression took hold and I escaped to the Oxfordshire countryside, finding solace, and a new career, in the veg patch. (Full, grizzly details below).
I learnt the ropes at Daylesford Organic Farm and became a full-time writer and recipe developer, hosting supper clubs and cookery demonstrations (at Fortnum & Mason, Borough Market, Big Feastival, BBC Countryfile Live and beyond) with harvests from my garden, as well as food styling and developing recipes for brands and publications.
My first cookbook, From the Veg Patch was named one of the Top 25 cookbooks in 2021 by Delicious magazine. I also write a regular recipe feature in The Simple Things magazine and host two podcasts: Tales from the Veg Patch and gardening and nature podcast, Roots, Wings and Other Things, with my friend, Jez Rose. I’m a regular on BBC Radio Oxford too.
I’ve won some awards, but failed to win more so forgive me if I brag about the wins briefly:
Guild Food Writers Best Cookbook 2022, finalist
Garden Media Guild Awards Best Audio Broadcast 2022, finalist
Guild Food Writers Best Online Food Writer 2019 and 2021
BOOM Soil Association Awards Best Blog 2019
Young British Foodies Vegetable winner 2019
You stayed to the end for the grizzly details!…
For making it this far you get a free trial:
Ok, since if you want the full story…
In 2012, I was a global strategy director for a London advertising agency. I had been working in adland for over a decade. We’d moved to the Cotswolds a few years before with the hope of finding some escape from the rat race. But all that did was add a four-hour commute to my already jam-packed, plugged-in, horse-trading, Blackberry-addicted day. Eventually, and so predictably, burnout and depression took hold. So I quit. With no idea what to do next.
Jobless and dysfunctional, I found solace in the garden, pulling up weeds and scattering a few old vegetable seeds (bought when we first moved and I had visions of becoming Barbara Good) on a bare patch of soil. Despite my haphazard care and wandering attention, the seeds grew and we ate our first homegrown meal. Sure, it was just lettuce and radishes, but it felt like I had conjured then out of thin air. I was hooked. The harvests that first year, and my burgeoning obsession with cooking them, would be my therapy, reconnecting me with the world, giving me hope, and ultimately, a new career. So, without sounding too glib about it, part of the reason I love vegetables so much is because they have been my saviours.
I started writing a blog, Gluts & Gluttony, about the gluts I was getting in the patch and the ensuing gluttony in the kitchen. Enthused by life as a (newly-impoverished) writing cook, I retrained at Ashburton Cookery School and got a job at Daylesford Organic Farm working in the kitchen garden and subsequently full-time in the cookery school. I spent 3 fabulous years at Daylesford learning how to grow, cook and teach. Meanwhile, I began hosting supper clubs and cooking privately for clients in the Cotswolds. All the menus then and now are dictated by what is available in the allotment. Amidst all of this, I did several placements at places like River Cottage HQ and in the gardens at Thyme in Southrop.
I eventually left Daylesford to be a full time veg-evangelist and have been doing that ever since: writing, creating recipes, styling, photographing, teaching cookery demonstrations, hosting supper clubs and events - if it gives me an excuse to talk about vegetables, I’m in.
Thank you for giving me another excuse here in this Substack. Let’s dig in…
