What to eat now, garden jobs for Feb and LOTS of events news.

FREE TO READ: February newsletter and it's all going on. Including the return of F&M Seasonal Sundays and a special edition Rough Patch gift bundle.

Welcome to my monthly newsletter - a round-up of news, recipes and life in the veg patch - which is free to all subscribers. If you’ve made it here without subscribing, that’s easily rectified by clicking the button below.

And if you’d like to consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it costs less than a fancy packet of heritage seeds per month and you’ll able able to join my new live cookery classes each month (like this but live), and also receive a weekly recipe (like this) and plenty more (see here).

Whichever subscription you pick, I’m just grateful you’re here. Otherwise it’d just be me and the slugs. So thank you.

Hello you lovely lot.

Boy, have we got a lot to talk about. Rough Patch is OUT. Seasonal Sundays at Fortnum & Mason are BACK. The spring is PACKED with events. Plus, as requested by a reader, I have a list of JOBS for you to do in the patch this month. Oh, and we must EAT. We’re gonna need the energy, so I’ve got recipes for you too…

(TECHNICAL NOTE: There are a LOT of recipes here and they might not all fit in your email. If so, just hit VIEW ENTIRE MESSAGE at the end of the email, or head to the app or online version.)

Rough Patch is OUT NOW

My latest book, Rough Patch, a memoir with recipes, came out on 6th February. If by some miracle you’ve missed/avoided me whanging on about it, you can catch up here:

Publication Day Special

I’ve been so touched by the emails and messages I’ve received. Thank you. It’s amazing and lovely that people take the time to get in touch. And given the truly horrible state of the non-fiction book market at the moment, I’m deeply grateful for every copy sold.

And if you’d like to give Rough Patch as a special gift….

Lovely

Rosie Ramsden

, the artist who created the cover and internal illustrations for Rough Patch, and I have put together a special gift bundle which includes:

• a signed copy of Rough Patch with a personal message

• an A5 print of one of Rosie’s preliminary sketches for the cover

• a packet of radish seeds

• (spaniel not included)

Each beautifully wrapped bundle costs £35 + £3.40 postage (48hr tracked, within the UK). But there aren’t many, so order soon by messaging me with:

• What you’d like written inside the book

• The address you’d like it sent to (and whether this is your address or the gift recipient’s)

I’ll reply with a secure payment link and we’re done.

Events

Seasonal Sundays at Fortnum’s

Seasonal Sundays classes at Fortnum’s are back! Hurray. I’ll be hosting six over the year, each gathering the best of the season in a famous F&M hamper and demonstrating 3-4 dishes with the bounty to create a 3-course lunch. There’s a refurb’ going on in store, so no Food Hall shopping for now, but just as much seasonal loveliness and time to chat. Here’s how it went last time:

gluts_gluttony

A post shared by @gluts_gluttony

Dates for those, and lots of other events below:

13th March - Daunts Book Festival: In conversation with Chloe Dalton, author of Raising Hare. (5-6pm. £10)

16th March - Fortnum & Mason: Seasonal Sundays class at which I share my seasonal picks for early spring, demonstrate what to do with them and turn them into a delicious lunch. (11:30am-2pm. £45)

19th March, 7:30pm - Chloe’s Long Table: I’ll be giving a short talk at Chloe’s in Charlbury as part of her Women in Food night followed by a two-course meal. (7:30pm. £25)

Last time at High Grange (credit: Matt Austin)

28th March - High Grange: a one-day wellbeing retreat featuring woodland meditation, a practical seed sowing session, chat about Rough Patch and lunch cooked on the fire pit. (10am-3pm. £125 inc. copy of Rough Patch)

1st April - Warwick Books: an evening chat about Rough Patch with time for questions, signings and a few tasters from the book. (Ticket info coming soon)

3rd April - St Neots Waterstones: an evening chat about Rough Patch with time for questions, signings and a few tasters from the book. (6:30-8pm. £5)

5th April - Daylesford Organics: I’ll be in the House & Garden room of the Kingham store demonstrating recipes from Rough Patch and signing copies. (Demos at 11:30am and 12:30pm. Free)

7th May - West Bridgford Library: an evening chat about Rough Patch with time for questions (7pm. £5. Booking info coming soon)

11th May - Fortnum & Mason: Seasonal Sundays class at which I share my seasonal picks for late spring, demonstrate what to do with them and turn them into a delicious lunch. (11:30am-2pm. £45)

Last time at St Ives (credit: Laura Field)

16-18th May - St Ives Food Festival: I’ll be on the beach cooking recipes from my books over the fire pit. Yes, it is a heavenly as it sounds. (Times tbc. Free)

19th-23rd June - Manoir Mouret: my Delicious series collaborator,

Kirstie Young

, and I will be hosting a 4-day food and photography trip at a beautiful farmhouse where we’ll show you how to let the landscape and potager inspire your cooking and photography. (E1650 inc. food and accommodation)

And lots of other exciting ones still to add! More soon…

Live cookery class - Tues 25th Feb 1pm GMT

All the salads

The first topic for my new live cookery classes from the greenhouse will be winter salads. Ideas, inspiration, tips, tricks and a little bit of theory on what makes a great salad. And yes, they’ll likely be the odd blood orange too.

These classes will last about 40 minutes and are for paid subscribers.

They will be streamed here on Substack which works just like Instagram Live (ie: you can see me and type questions in a public chat at the bottom the screen, but I can’t see you).

You can join via the Substack app or on your desktop from your Substack homepage. Click below to download the Substack app. If you make sure to enable notifications, the app will notify you when we go live. Just tap that, and you’ll be able to watch and ask questions live.

And if you miss it, don’t panic, I’ll post a recording afterwards along with recipes.

It’s a bit of an experiment so we’ll see how it goes…

Jobs for February

A regular reader asked if I might suggest weekly To Do lists for the veg patch. I do love a list, but weekly seems a little officious, even for me, so I’m going to experiment with monthly. Here goes:

• Spread compost or soil improver on your growing area. An inch thick at least. Homemade compost is ideal, but something like Dalefoot’s Lakeland Gold would be fabulous too. Even multi-purpose compost is better than nothing. More on buying soil here:

  How to Buy Soil

• Fettle (Yorkshire for ‘tidy up’) the greenhouse (scrub and jet wash with soapy water) and wash empty seed trays and modules for reusing this year.

• Prune apple trees. Last chance for a winter prune (no job more stress-inducing in the garden in my view.)

• Sow tomatoes and chillis on a warm windowsill. You could risk sowing some broad bean and pea seeds in modules in the greenhouse, as I have done, but it’s still quite chilly and dark for that. I’ve also planted up my garlic sets in module trays in the greenhouse ready for transplanting in spring (they die in the damp soil if I plant them straight outside).

• Chit potatoes. Put them in an egg box on a windowsill so the little eyes can sprout ready for planting in April.

• Sit on your hands. Believe me, I know it’s tempting to start sowing, but it’s too soon (unless you have a heated greenhouse or super-human green fingers). If you want to quench your impatience try…

• Ordering all your seeds and planning your growing space. You can see more about how to choose seeds here:

  How to Sow Vegetables Seeds

Have I missed anything?

All this has made me hungry

So here’s what’s on my table this month:

• Leeky bread and butter pudding from my new Delicious magazine series.

• Bay, rye and hazelnut loaf with poached rhubarb also from my Delicious series.

• Roast onion and marmite beans with cheesy crumbs from, roughly, this time last year.

• Crispy squash with salsa verde butter beans from Rough Patch.

• Blood orange blondies, the newest recipe on Tales From the Veg Patch.

---

Know someone who might enjoy this free newsletter? Spread the word: