AUGUST NEWSLETTER

News of a very special supper club; one recipe, three cheap mid-week meals; and, the Courgette Support Helpline is open and has ALL the recipes to get you though the glut...

Aug 11, 2023

Hello you lovely lot.

Look, I’m sorry to gush, but I have to say how utterly bowled over I’ve been by the response to last month’s launch of my substack newsletter and weekly recipes. Thank you - for subscribing, commenting, sharing and generally being the best cheerleaders anyone could wish for.

I’m so happy to have this place to chat directly with you and share ideas, recipes and the the joys of growing food. I don’t want to get all soppy, but for me it feels so liberating to just write recipes I love and share them - no algorithm, no hashtag, no like-count anxiety - and still pay some bills. I hope for you it feels useful and fun. Please keep your feedback coming - I’m grateful for all your advice about how to make this most useful to you.

And if you’ve not the foggiest what I’m on about, catch up here.

Some elements of Tales from the Veg Patch are now just for paid subscribers (watch this space for our first like cook along in a couple of weeks!), so do take a look at subscription options if you’re interested.

Right, to the news…

Book Event TOMORROW and Supper Club SOON

Peterley Manor Farm is the farm shop of my dreams. So I’m delighted to be there TWICE this summer.

First, on Sat 12th August (TOMORROW!) 11am-2pm with a table full of tasters from my cookbook, From the Veg Patch, and time to chat. Do come for a bite (there’s cake) and a flick through the book.

Then, on Thursday 21st September 7pm I’ll be hosting a supper club featuring recipes from my book made with produce from Peterley. We’ll serve up big sharing platters outside by the fire and I’ll talk about the food, how it’s made and grown. This is going to be a really special evening - my biggest and most magical supper club yet, I reckon - and I’d be absolutely over the moon if you could come. Book here.

September Events

A couple of lovely bits and bobs coming up:

8th and 9th September - RHS Bridgewater Festival of Flavours: I’ll be hosting cookery demos and a stroll around the enormous veg garden in this festival celebrating homegrown food.

9th September 3:30pm (yes, I’ll be hot-footing it from Bridgewater to Ludlow) - Ludlow Food Festival: where I’ll be chatting about growing your own and the power of nature to heal and restore a tangled mind.

Courgette Helpline Open

Thoughts and prayers to everyone with a courgette glut. Once they start, they never stop. Here’s a round up of some helpful and delicious ways to use them (and stay tuned for next week’s Weekly Mostly-Veggie Recipe which uses a LOT of courgettes):

Courgette and lime cake from my cookbook. (I’ll have tasters of this at Peterley on Saturday.)

Courgette ricotta fritters super useful recipe from

Debora Robertson 🦀

Very tall zucchini quiche from

Alison Roman

(it really is a whopper).

Zucchini baba ganoush from

Susan Spungen

(how I survived so many courgette gluts without this recipe is beyond me).

Charred zucchini with corn and basil from

To Vegetables, With Love

via the ever useful