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Taking Time to Live Well
Photography by Alice Tatham
Here’s our April nature table from our back cover. If you’re foraging for wild garlic or picking a small posy from your garden, do take a picture of the spoils of your own nature table and share it with us. The nature table photograph above is by Alice Tatham, of The Wildwood Moth, who runs workshops on seasonal photography and publishes seasonal journal stories from Dorset.
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Image: Shutterstock
Think you know everything about hedgehogs? You might be surprised by how many hedgehog ‘facts’ are in fact fiction. To avoid the little fellers getting too prickly about things, we’ve unearthed the truth about some common hedgehog myths.
1. Hedgehogs use their spines to collect apples and fungi
Afraid not. They may look very sweet, drawn with little pieces of fruit on their back, waddling off to store them safely in their cupboards (Brambly Hedge style) for winter, but they don’t really do this. Firstly, they don’t eat apples. Secondly, they don’t store food; they simply eat what they need when they need it. Thirdly, if they did do this, how on earth would they retrieve the apples from their spines anyway?
You can be forgiven for being taken in though, as this myth dates back centuries. In mediaeval times, hedgehogs were frequently shown in illuminated manuscripts rolling on fruit and carrying it away. Even the Roman Pliny the Elder mentioned it in his Naturalis Historia. But both examples are more Miss Tiggy Winkle than David Attenborough.
So, if you see a hedgehog with an apple stuck to its back, you can remove it and know you have done the hedgehog a favour.
2. Hedgehogs love milk and will even steal it from cows.
No. Dairy farmers, relax. Firstly, they are lactose intolerant, but quite how anyone ever believed a hedgehog (even standing on tippy toes) could reach a cow’s udders or that a cow would put up with it for a moment, we are not sure. But it is an interesting myth that has persisted over the years.
3. They are riddled with fleas.
Like all creatures, some hedgehogs will have fleas but they are not particularly known for it. Also, hedgehog fleas are specific to hedgehogs so they won’t give you or your pets fleas, even if they do have them.
And here are a few hedgehog facts that might sound like nonsense but are in fact, true.
1. They weren’t originally called ‘hedgehogs’.
They were actually once known as ‘urchins’ and sea urchins are named after them as they also look kind of round and spiky.
2. They shed their spines, even though you never see them.
We don’t know why you never see hedgehog spines just littering the pavement either, but the fact is that each spine on a hedgehog’s back only lasts about a year before it is shed and a new one grown in its place.
3. Their collective noun is most confusing.
Hedgehogs are very rarely seen in a group; they are solitary creatures. However, they do have a collective noun, just in case. A group is called an ‘array’ of hedgehogs, which is also confusing because there isn’t much of an array available. Although there are 15 species of hedgehog across the globe, there is only one species in the UK - the European Hedgehog. So if you do see a gang of hedgehogs, it will likely be more of a uniform collection than an array.
If you’d like to know more about hedgehogs, you might like to read our feature ‘Prickly Customers’ in our April issue, which is taken from Ghosts in the Hedgerow by Tom Moorhouse (Doubleday).
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Photography: Kirstie Young
Swoosh, salt and scoff – the most fun to have with a radish
Serves 4 as nibbles
1 bunch of radishes
100g salted butter, softened
3 tbsp flaky sea salt
1 Wash the radishes and pick off any soggy leaves. Pat dry – they need to be very dry otherwise the butter won’t stick to them.
2 Arrange the radishes on a board with a mound of salt next to them and a slab of softened butter. Encourage people to pick a radish, swoosh it through the butter then dunk it in the salt before tucking in.
The radish slammers are just one of the ideas from this month’s Veg Patch Pantry feature by Kathy Slack, which also includes recipes for Chard & Herb Frittata, Whole Poached Chicken with Kale & Mushroom Broth with Barley and Caramelised Radish and Feta Salad.
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A traditional Easter pie from Liguria, Italy, that can be traced back to the 1500s and still enjoyed today
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
500g whole milk ricotta
550g chard, spinach, or a mix
160g parmesan, finely grated, or a mix of parmesan and aged pecorino
5 medium eggs
Nutmeg (optional)
Olive oil or melted butter, to brush
1 pack filo pastry (around 270g)
Fine salt
To make
1 If your ricotta is watery, drain it for 30 mins in a sieve set over a bowl.
2 Discard any tough stems from the greens. Rinse and divide across 2 large pans and allow to wilt, stirring occasionally over a medium heat (or blanch in a pot of boiling water for a minute or two, just until wilted), then refresh under cold water. Transfer to a colander and squeeze out as much water as possible, then chop finely.
3 In a bowl, mix the ricotta with the greens, parmesan and 1 egg. Add a few gratings of nutmeg and season with salt to taste.
4 Preheat the oven to 210C/Fan 190C/Gas 6–7 and brush a deep, 23cm springform tin with olive oil or melted butter.
5 Layer sheets of filo over your tin, letting them settle so they cover the base and drape over the sides. Brush each sheet with oil or butter as you layer. Reserve 1 sheet for the top.
6 Spoon the ricotta mixture into the pastry, level out with the back of a spoon, then use the spoon to create 4 small hollows in the filling.
7 Crack the remaining 4 eggs into the holes and season the yolks. Dot a little butter onto each egg. Fold the overhanging pastry over the top and use the remaining sheet, to cover any gaps. Brush oil or butter over the top.
8 Cook for 40 mins until golden on top, then cover with baking paper. Cook for a further 20–30 mins.
Cook’s note: Can be stored in the fridge for 5 days and eaten cold, or gently reheated. Traditionally, families without ovens took their pie to a local bakery to be cooked, carving their initials into the crust so that the right pie came home for Easter Sunday
Taken from: Stagioni: Contemporary Italian Cooking to Celebrate the Seasons by Olivia Cavalli (Pavilion, HarperCollins Publishers). Photography: Sophie Davidson
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Photography by Stocksy
In our April issue, we met Katherine May, who set out on outings to reawaken her sense of wonder. Here, we’ve collated a few books (including one of Katherine’s own) that might help you do the same…
Enchantment: Reawakening wonder in an exhausted age by Katherine May (Faber)
Exhausted and overwhelmed, Katherine sought out a different ways to be in a more meaningful relationship with the world and rekindle that sense of wonder and play that comes so easily to us as children. Rather than something that is given to us or requires grand adventures, she discovers how it’s something that’s everything – it just requires our small but deliberate attention. Honest and inspiring.
Awe: The transformative power of everyday wonder by Dacher Keltner (Penguin)
A scientific exploration into awe and how finding and experiencing it can help to make us feel happier. Dacher’s extensive research has led him to conclude that this feeling of awe or wonder at something greater than us gives us a sense of worth and belonging and connection with the people and natural environment around us. We can experience every day awe in our own way, says Keltner, whether it’s a panoramic view, meditation, music or the laughter of a loved one, if we just allow ourselves to pause and wonder.
Twelve Moons: A year under a shared sky by Caro Giles (Harper North)
A beautiful memoir written over the course of a year from the author’s Northumbrian home where she lives with her four young daughters. Structured according to the twelve moons of the lunar calendar, Giles writes honestly about the challenges of single motherhood and how she finds strength and guidance from the natural world beyond her four walls and the ever-present, shimmering influence of the moon.
The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World by Jennifer Higgie (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Longing for ‘a kind of re-enchantment’ at a moment of transition in her life, art writer Jennifer turns to often much neglected women artists, such as Hilma af Klimt and Ithell Colquhoun, who tried to explore realms beyond the physical with their work. Their fascinating stories, dating from the 12th century through to today and interwoven with the writer’s own – suggest a myriad of other possibilities and ways of being in this world.
Read more about Katherine’s outings in search of wonder in our April issue.
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Photography by Ilya Sobtchak
Make this pretty scarf using natural ingredients and a bit of elbow grease
In our March issue, we met Liza and Luisa of Indigo Garden London, who told us all about growing and using indigo and shared this weekend project with us.
You will need:
Tops of 10–15 indigo plants
Metal bowl
1–2 tsp salt
Rubber gloves
Silk scarf
1 The easiest and most direct plant-to-fibre method for dyeing with indigo is to pick the tops of 10–15 indigo plants and give them a rinse. If you want to be a purist, you can wake at sunrise and pick while still fresh from the morning dew, as this is when they have the highest indigo content.
2 Remove the stalks from your plants so you’re left with just the leaves.
3 Place your leaves in a non-reactive bowl and sprinkle on the salt. Put your rubber gloves on to protect your hands from the dye and start to mash the leaves with your hands to break down the plant matter.
4 The plants will start to look like wilted spinach and some indigo juice will start to form in your bowl. At this point, add a small, pre-wetted silk scarf (or other protein fibre*) and continue to mash the scarf with the leaves. At first, your scarf will look a greenish colour, but keep pounding and slowly the liquid and your scarf will turn blue – the more you mash, the bluer it will become.
5 Once you’re happy with the colour, give the scarf a gentle rinse in water. No further fixatives are required.
MAKER’S NOTE: To speed up the process, you can half fill a blender with leaves and top up with ice cold water – no salt needed. Blend until blitzed and use immediately. Always use the leaves straight after picking otherwise the fresh enzymes will die and the process won’t work.
Friends Liza Mackenzie and Luisa Uribe founded a garden together in east London where they grow indigo and run workshops teaching others how to extract colour from nature. Follow them on Instagram: @indigo_garden_london. You can read more about Indigo Garden London in our April issue.
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Photography by Flavia Brunetti
It’s one of the most fascinating historical cities in the world, but there are a few things you might need to know in order to do as Romans do on a visit.
1. Cross the road with a nun. Or an old person. But preferably an elderly nun. Drivers in Rome show little care for pedestrians but they make exceptions for the elderly and women of the cloth, so if you’re crossing the road with one of them, you’re a little safer.
2. Do not ask for a cappuccino or a latte after midday. You will not only be laughed at but they’ll probably refuse to serve you, too. Milky coffees are for breakfast. Espressos or machiatos are for later in the day.
3. Ice creams, however, are for any time, any day. And you should have at least one gelato a day. But aim for three. Go for a gelateria with the steel tubs, never white plastic ones. Steel tubs probably means they made it themselves.
4. Beware Romans bearing gifts. A common scam is to ‘give’ you something on the street… and then charge you a fortune for it. Simply say ‘non, grazie’.
5. Only make a wish at the Trevi Fountain. There are many fountains around the city where you will be encouraged to hurl your Euros into the water, but the Trevi Fountain is the ‘proper’ one and the only one Romans bother with where wishes are concerned.
6. Go for the rectangular pizza, not the stuff cut up like a pie. It’s called Pizza al Taglio and you can buy it on most streets in Rome. Trastevere is the best district to buy food in.
7. Don’t buy water - fill your reusable bottle from one of the 2,500 free drinking fountains around the city. They knew what they were doing when they built those aqueducts - it’s fresh, clean and cold.
8. If you’re dining on a budget, have ‘aperitivo’ rather than dinner. For around 6-8 euros you can have a drink and a good, cheap plate of something (often a buffet) and leave full but not broke. Sometimes, aperitivo plates are actually free!
9. The best coffee is at Saint Eustachio cafe. It’s a fraction of the price if you have it standing at the bar rather than taking up a table.
10. Don’t look like a tourist by standing in a queue for hours. Buy your Vatican tickets online to skip the queue. And if you’re visiting the Colosseum, first visit the less popular Palatino and buy your Colosseum tickets there so you can just saunter through the door at the Colosseum later.
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Photography by Kym Grimshaw
A more substantial take on the much-loved spritz. Still refreshing, but with added depth.
Makes 1
50ml Aperol
25ml grenadine
1 tbsp lemon juice
125ml tonic water
Ice
Orange slices, to serve
1 Combine the Aperol, grenadine and lemon juice together in a glass and add ice.
2 Top with the tonic water, garnish with orange slices and serve.
Cook’s note: Serve with moreish taralli (traditional Italian nibbles) or breadsticks.
This aperol tonic recipe is just one of the ideas from our April issue for a Sunday Roast with an Italian twist, including Roast Fillet of Beef with Salsa Verde, Crispy Roast Gnocchi and Peperonata, Simple Shaved Asparagus Salad, Roasted Parmesan Cabbage and Lentils and a Traditional Colomba Cake. The recipes are by Lottie Storey and the Photography by Kym Grimshaw.
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If wine is good enough for pairing, then so is cake. Just match your cake to your occasion. Any occasion.
There’s always time for cake. But some events call for a very particular sort of cake. Cake should always come out for a new job or a new baby, of course. But cake ought not to be saved just for special occasions. Cake is the stuff of life – the trick is to recognise when it’s needed and, more specifically, what sort of cake fits the bill. These moments are ‘Cakecasions’. Sunday afternoon spent sorting the shed? That needs a nice, stoic fruitcake – plenty of fruit and nuts for decluttering energy and a good excuse for punctuating the work with several cups of tea. Crafternoon with a friend? A simple Victoria sponge always hits the right note. But the cakecasion might simply be ‘Tuesday afternoon’. Who said the occasion had to pass a validity test? If it demands cake, that’s good enough for us. As the American author Dean Koontz once said: “Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.” To help you get started with your cakecasions practice, in our April issue, we’ve matched a few delicious cakes to some events and situations that practically demand them. Here’s one of them…
Picture this Sunday scenario: you’ve de-mucked the walking boots, piled the anoraks into the back of the car and are ready to set off to a National Trust property for a bit of light history and a couple of hours spent nodding appreciatively at the Capability Brown features of a large garden. What have you forgotten? A Thermos and some cake for after your walk, obviously. What this Cakecasion calls for is something cheering and practical. It should be easily transportable, and preferably not require the use of a fork so that you can hold your cake in one hand and your flask top of tea in the other. Mini limey olive oil cakes are ideal. Sensible, but with a hit of Mediterranean sunshine. Moist, but with a light crust that allows them to be held without covering yourself in icing. They’re sturdy, easy to munch one-handed and individually portioned so you don’t even need the knife you’ve inevitably left at home. The other inevitability, of course, is that it’ll rain. So when the heavens open as you arrive, you can gaily abandon your plans to admire the landscaped gardens and, instead, enjoy cake in your car. Try not to look smug: rather, smile beatifically as damp dog owners and wet walkers stagger past you, back to their cars.
MINI LIMEY OLIVE OIL CAKES Individual cake bites with a crunchy edge and a moist centre. Makes 12
163g plain flour
80g fine or medium polenta
11/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp lime zest
250g granulated sugar
250ml extra virgin olive oil
3 large eggs
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
For the glaze:
120g icing sugar
2½ tbsp fresh lime juice
A couple of drops of vanilla extract
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas 4 and grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2 Whisk together the flour, polenta, baking powder and salt.
3 Put the sugar in a large bowl, then rub the lime zest into the sugar using your fingertips. Add the olive oil, eggs and lime juice, and whisk until combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula until just combined.
4 Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20-22 mins, or until golden. As soon as the cakes are cool enough to handle, pop them out of the tin and place them upside downon a cooling rack.
5 In a small bowl, whisk the icing sugar, lime juice and vanilla extract. Drizzle the glaze over the warm cakes. Wait a bit for the glaze to set before serving. Cook’s note: Store at room temp in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Recipes taken from Baking By Feel: Recipes to Sort Out Your Emotions (Whatever They Are Today!) by Becca Rea-Tucker (Harper Wave). Photography: Amy Scott
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DJ: Frances Ambler
Image: Anneliese Klos
Our latest playlist celebrates the magic that can be found all around us. Take a listen here
The warmer weather is here, so get more from your outdoor space with elegant garden furniture and smart accessories
Spring has arrived and we’re looking forward to sunnier days, and plenty of time spent outdoors with friends and family. Now is the ideal time to enter our competition with garden-furniture specialists Lazy Susan, to help you prepare your garden for the warmer weather.
Lazy Susan was founded in 2007 by Michael Scott from his shed in West Sussex. After years of struggling to maintain his teak garden table, he realised that the long-term solution wasn’t to continue fighting a losing battle with wood, but to use cast aluminium to make garden furniture. Maintenance-free and rustproof, aluminium doesn’t tarnish or rot, and can be left outside all year round. After much searching, product testing and deliberation, Michael decided on a range that fit the bill and Lazy Susan was born.
Five lucky Simple Things readers are in with the chance to win £100 each to spend on high-quality garden furniture or accessories at Lazy Susan. Shop around to find the perfect set for your garden, patio or balcony; the wide variety means there is something to suit every outdoor area.
Lazy Susan specialises in timeless designs and each piece is powder-coated to produce a long-lasting finish. Elegant touches such as cushions, parasols and other accessories are also crafted with durability in mind, so you can find everything you need to create enduring memories in the heart of your garden.
For more, visit lazysusan.co.uk or call the customer service team on 01243 684 873.
For your chance to win one of five £100 vouchers, click the button below and answer the following question by the closing date of 10 May, 2023.
Q: In which county was Lazy Susan founded?
The competition closes at 11.59pm on 10 May 2023. Five winners will be selected at random from all correct entries received, and notified soon after. The winners cannot transfer the prize or swap it for cash. Details of our full terms and conditions are on p125 and online at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.
We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.
