Make | Herbal tea bags

A soothing cuppa is in the bag, when you make your own. The appeal of this project goes beyond having something nice to sip: the touch and smell of choosing your herbs, even before the tastebuds kick in, make it a real sensory experience – something to savour.

Herbal tea bags

You will need:
Unbleached muslin fabric (try souschef.co.uk or johnlewis.com), or you could buy readymade self-fill tea bags from dotboutique.store)
Cotton thread
1 tsp of dried herbs

1 Cut unbleached muslin fabric into squares roughly measuring 10x10cm.
2 Choose between 2 to 4 dried herbs to mix and place in the middle of the square. You need about a teaspoon in total.
3 Gather the corners of the square together and tie the teabag up using cotton thread.
4 Infuse in hot water for five minutes and drink. You can empty out the spent herbs and re-use the muslin again after rinsing it.
         

SOME BLENDS TO TRY

• Rosemary, peppermint & nettle An uplifting blend to aid focus and concentration.

• Echinacea, yarrow & sage A restorative blend to sip when you have a sore throat or cold.

• Lemon verbena, rose & skullcap A relaxing combination to enjoy before bed.

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Nest | Lily of the Valley

With delicate, nodding blooms, lily of the valley is a popular choice for brides. Which doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t enjoy them in the house. Their ephemeral nature means they won’t last long as cut flowers, however.

“Keep them out of sunlight in a miniature mixed posy or as a single bloom in a votive holder,” says Ellie Marlow, florist at Catkin & Pussywillow. “Or dig up and display with roots intact in a slim, glass, bud vase.”

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Being boring

There's much more to boredom than watching paint dry, says aficionado of the dull, James Ward

Boringness is easy to embrace. Slow down. Read Species of Spaces by George Perec. Go for a walk without a destination. Write things down. Don’t start with an end goal in mind, just see where things take you. Once you’ve landed on something, go and read the Wikipedia page about it. Then look at what else the people who edited that page also edited and read those, and so on. Before you know it, it’s three weeks later and you’re obsessed with something you didn’t even know existed at the start of the month.

When you’re on train or a bus, everyone is in a cocoon staring at their phone. I’m loath to be judgmental about people’s relationship with technology. Someone could be playing Sudoku, the person next to them could be reading the New York Times, or a new novel. Someone might be listening to a podcast about wooden palettes or emailing their best friend on the other side of the world. What we do need sometimes is time out from the constant updates and notifications. This is what stops you exploring. Having a day off from that is good.

I always say about Boring, that “nothing of any importance will be discussed”. The conference is a day away from people’s hot takes, where things are just a little bit smaller.

Turn to page 92 of April's The Simple Things for more from James Ward and his Boring Conference.

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Use old bins to grow veg

Reusing old or damaged bins for container gardening is a wheelie good idea

ALL YOU NEED:
An old wheelie bin
Stones or gravel
Seeds: this works with growing (or beginning growing) almost anything
Soil

1 Drill four large holes in the bottom of the bin for drainage.
2 Add stones and gravel to the bottom of the bin, how much you need will depend on what you’re planting and how much soil they’ll need.
3 Fill with compost to just over halfway.
4 Create holes in soil for your seeds, spacing dependent on seed package instructions..
5 Keep it well watered, and add fertiliser regularly.

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Natural first aid | Asthma attacks

Seek immediate medical attention if the individual is wheezing, not getting enough oxygen or has signs of cyanosis: bluish lips and nail beds, pale colour. While you wait for medical attention:

FOLLOW THE DOCTOR’S INSTRUCTIONS.
Administer any medication that was prescribed by the individual’s doctor.

HAVE THEM SIT UP STRAIGHT IN A CHAIR.
Ask them to lean forward and rest their forearms on a table, elbows pointing away from the body.
OFFER A BEVERAGE.
Coffee, black tea or a hot liquid like clear tea can help dilate the airway. If available, lobelia tea (1⁄4 tsp of herbs or 5 to 10 drops of tincture to 1 cup warm water) may help.

APPLY A COLD-WATER COMPRESS TO THE CHEST.
In some cases, it may stop the attack.

Adapted from The Natural First Aid Handbook by Brigitte Mars (Storey Publishing).

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Make | Appliquéd top

When life gives you lemons, put them to use on a pretty top

YOU WILL NEED
An top in need of a spruce
Appliqué fabric (try a mediumweight woven cotton – this is a good project for using up scraps)
Double-sided iron-on transfer adhesive, such as Bondaweb or a washable fabric Gluestick to hold the motif in place before stitching
Iron
Sewing machine (you can do this by hand, it’ll just take longer)

1 Choose the areas of the appliqué fabric that you want to add to your top and cut a large rectangle around them. Give the fabric a press to smooth out any wrinkles.

2 Cut the transfer adhesive to the same shape and size as the appliqué fabric and place the shiny side against the wrong side of the fabric (you may need to peel off a backing sheet, check the packet instructions). Hold a hot, dry iron on top for a few seconds to fuse the adhesive to the fabric. Be careful not to get adhesive on your iron or ironing board – it can leave
a mess! You could place a pressing cloth – a piece of lightweight fabric or even a tea towel – between the motif and your iron to avoid the adhesive sticking to it.

3 Cut around the motifs, leaving a little space around the sides for the stitching allowance. It’ll be easier to stitch around the motifs if you cut them out without too many tight curves.

4 Once you’ve decided where you want the motifs to sit on your top, peel off the backing paper and carefully lay them, adhesive side down, onto the right side of the garment fabric, making sure they sit nice and flat with no bubbles. Hold a hot, dry iron on top for a few seconds to fuse them in place.

5 Now you can stitch the motifs in place. Practise on a scrap first. Try a short and wide zigzag stitch, 1mm long by 4–5mm wide. Position the project so most of the zigzag is falling on the appliqué piece, with one side of the zigzag overlapping the edge just a teeny bit. Take your time to carefully navigate the curves and pivot the fabric with the needle down where needed. When you need to wash your appliquéd top, it’s best to do so by hand.

Adapted from Tilly and the Buttons: Stretch! By Tilly Walnes (Quadrille). 

Turn to page 111 for more clothing customisation ideas. 

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The Comfort of Things | A lovely window

There are certain things in your home that are like old friends: they always cheer you up. This month we feel the love for a lovely window - turn to page 115 of April's The Simple Things.

This month's home quandary:

My kitchen is at the front of the house, which means that as I cook or stand by the sink, I am visible to anyone walking along the street. Can you suggest a neat and clean way of obscuring the view of passersby? I don’t want to hang net curtains, as they’ll get grubby and are old- fashioned. And I am not a fan of blinds as I would have to have them down the whole time, which would be gloomy indeed.

Answer in brief: disregard fabric options and go for a frosted pane.
Is your window double-glazed? If it isn’t and you are thinking of making it so, choose frosted glass. This will screen your activities without blocking the light. If replacing a pane of glass is unnecessary or too costly, window film is your friend. These days it comes in many different different patterns from plain frosted to elaborate designs (left, Saplings by MissPrint, windowfilm.co.uk). It’s easy to clean and has a smart industrial look about it. Anyone strolling past will still be able to see shadowy outlines within, but your anonymity will be protected.

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My Plot | Greenhouse advice

Every gardener craves a big, beautiful greenhouse. Julie King, who owns an enviable one in Suffolk, tells us how it gives her year-round blooms and much pleasure

• Decide how you are going to use your greenhouse before you plan it. I like to grow flowers in a greenhouse bed, so only have staging (a shelf on legs) down one side. You might want more floor area for seating or more staging for seed sowing.
• Choose your site carefully. My greenhouse faces south but is shaded by a tree on summer afternoons so it doesn’t overheat.
• Try to include water and electricity in your plan. Being able to have lighting and a heatmator propagator will extend the winter use of your greenhouse greatly.
• If your budget extends to blinds, fit them on the outside of the glass. Your greenhouse will be much cooler if you can stop the glass from heating up too much.
• Most flowers find the heat of the greenhouse too much in summer, but tender vegetables, such as chillies, peppers, tomatoes and aubergines, thrive in the hot, humid environment. l Herbs that are grown in pots outside can be brought inside and will continue to grow all winter if you place them on a heat mat. Rhubarb and strawberries can also be brought inside in January for an early crop.
• Include as many cold frames as possible in your greenhouse plan. Young seedlings that are kept in a greenhouse too long will be very tender and may not thrive when planted outside. Cold frames are basically mini unheated greenhouses sitting directly over the soil and are an ideal place to harden off your young plants.

Turn to page 106 for more greenhouse advice from this month's My Plot. 

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What I treasure | My kayak

My kayak is a bright, cerulean blue, and sturdy, with smooth, solid curves. When I see photos of me in it, I look different, somehow – alone, strong, adventurous. This person, paddle slicing through glassy water, is free. She can take off on a whim, cope with whatever is thrown at her, and is always on the cusp of discovering something new – a hidden cove, a shoal of darting mackerel, a secret house only glimpsed from the sea. This person knows exactly where she is going, isn’t lost in the day to day.

My husband bought it for me after a hospital stay. Me, clock-watching as his 30-minute operation became four hours, words muttered about haemorrhaging, cauterising, complications. When he finally emerged, he still wasn’t well. I remember the nurse’s flushed face, the young doctor’s shaking hand as it dawned things weren’t quite going to plan. I’d never faced death like that, right in the eye. What scared me was how lonely it was – my husband was the one I turned to in a crisis, but this time the crisis was him. My stomach dipped as I thought about our two young daughters. What would I tell them?

But he made it through, and after, there was a freedom about him – something loose,
untethered. We did the things we’d only talked about before, dreams we’d squirrelled away inside our heads – took the risky job, adopted the kitten my daughter wanted (not just one but two), bought the kayak I’d been coveting.

There’s something primal about paddling. It feels ancient, the rhythm of it. I’m part of the water, literally feeling it, its movements, as it resists the paddle stroke by stroke. So low on the water, without the grumble or whine of a motor – the birds mistake me for one of them. They arc through the sky, or sit perched on a nearby rock, feathers slick with water. Cormorants dive headfirst into the waves right in front of me, reappear a minute later, black heads gleaming.

I chart the changing seasons from the water, and I’ve learnt that the sea has its own topography. I now know where the rocks are, crusty with barnacles, just jutting out of the water, and where the beds of sea grass hide, the swathes of seaweed – gelatinous green ropes and brown fern-like growths that loop around the paddle.

I can’t wait to show my daughters this world, but I’ll still kayak alone – remembering why we bought it, to become the person I am inside my head.

We’d like to know what you treasure - whether it’s a sentimental artefact, a person, a place or something else. Tell us in 500 words what means a lot to you - email thesimplethings@icebergpress.co.uk

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Turmeric pickled cauliflower & chilli

Cauliflower makes a good crunchy pickle with a touch of heat – just the thing to go with cheese and crackers

Makes 2 jars
1 head cauliflower
4 chilli peppers
400ml distilled vinegar
400ml water
2 tbsp granulated sugar
11⁄2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp coriander seeds

1 Break the cauliflower into florets, halving or quartering the larger ones so that each is bite sized. Slice the chillies in half and scoop out and discard the seeds (unless you want a very fiery pickle, in which case leave them). Pack these into sterilised jars.
2 In a pan gently heat the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and spices until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins.
3 Pour the hot liquid over the veg, making sure they’re completely covered. Seal and store in a cool, dark place.

Cook’s note: You can eat this after a week, but the flavours will have more chance to mellow and develop if you wait for a month or longer. Will store, sealed, for at least a year.

Turn to page 42 for more cauliflower recipes from Lia Leendertz.

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Stories behind superstitions | Umbrellas

Why is it bad luck to open an umbrella indoors? Is it a snub to ancient gods or just health and safety?

One suggestion links it to the Egyptian goddess Nut, also known as “coverer of the sky”. Man-made umbrellas, to shield their users from the sun, were said to have been crafted as a tribute to her – and were therefore as symbolic as they were practical, their use associated with nobility. Being able, or asked, to stand under one was an honour – and not one that should be violated.

A more practically minded explanation comes from 18th-century London, where foldable umbrellas were still a relatively new invention. These large and unwieldy metal-spoked brollies had a habit of violently springing open, making them likely to cause damage to belongings or people if opened in too close a proximity.

Prepared to risk Ancient Egyptian wrath and trust in the safety of a modern brolly? Mark 13 March in your 2019 diary: it’s National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day.

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Beautiful bluebells

You can have a mindful walk in any woodland, but a bluebell wood is one of the sights of spring that never fails to bring joy. About half the world’s population of bluebells (hyacinthoides) grow in the UK; they love our ancient woodland, where the ground has been undisturbed for many years. Never be tempted to pick wild bluebells down to the root – they take five years to grow from seed into bulb and native bluebells are a protected species in the UK.

If planting bluebells, make sure they are natives (var. non scripta), as they’re under threat from their interloper cousins. Bluebells flower from early April, before the trees come into full leaf and the sunlight from the woodland floor.

Find your nearest wood at woodlandtrust.org.uk. Join its Big Bluebell Watch by recording your sightings and help to monitor the status of UK bluebells.

Turn to page 76 for more on our walk in the woods feature.

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Toast | Spring peas, broad beans & flowers

Full of the things that shine in spring.*

Serves 4
100ml extra virgin olive oil
350g podded broad beans and peas
Handful of parsley, stalks and all, finely chopped
Handful of mint, leaves picked, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 dried chillies
1⁄2 lemon
4–8 slices of sourdough

TO SERVE
Lemon
Ricotta
Edible flowers
Cook’s note: You can now buy edible flowers at the supermarket, usually stocked alongside the fresh herbs.

1 Heat 80ml of the olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan over a low heat. Add the broad beans, peas and a pinch of salt and pepper. Fry for about 10 mins.
2 Grind the parsley, mint, garlic and chilli with the remaining oil to a paste using a pestle and mortar. Add to the pan with the veg and fry for 2–3 mins. Remove from heat and add a squeeze of lemon juice.
3 Boil the eggs for 6 mins and toast the bread.
4 To serve, peel and halve the eggs, spoon the broad bean mix on the toast, then top with the eggs, a squeeze of lemon, some ricotta, a pinch of salt and freshly ground or cracked black pepper, and a scattering of flowers.

Turn to page 31 for more from our Grown & gathered feature to find out how Australians Matt and Lentil have learned to live alongside nature, adapting an ancient way of life for the modern world. Hear their story and try a few more of their recipes. 

* ...if you’re in Australia. In temperate Britain, you’ll have to wait until early summer!

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The secret to getting ahead is getting started

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How to host a salon

A salon supper, dotted with informal talks, brings the promise of knowledge to the table, and good food, too

We all know a bit about something – whether from work or study, travel or a hobby. These pearls of wisdom, however, are unlikely to come up in conversation. Yet, with the right setting, good food and willing friends, you can create a memorable evening, peppered with stories shared (see how on page 29). A modern salon calls for dishes that impress without stealing the show – a menu that needs only the lightest of last-minute prep. The result? Appetites sated and minds broadened.

How to host your own salon

Think about space
How much room have you got for people to sit comfortably? A nice full room creates a buzz, but too many people makes the space seem squashed. Where will you position food and drink? It needs to be accessible without disrupting speakers.

Check, one, two
If you’re not meeting in a house or flat, but in a pub or another borrowed venue, it’s worth checking your speakers can be heard without a microphone.

Be the curator
What do you want your salon to look like and who speaks? It could be that you’re
a group of friends and you all share, or that each of you brings an interesting person to speak.

Choose a theme
This will help an evening hang together. Keep it broad to allow for interpretation and creativity. You can either go abstract – new or lost, for example – or concrete – topics such as holidays or school.

Play the host
Beyond serving food and drink, you’ll need to introduce the event (or ask someone else to): thank people for coming, set out the theme of talks, and describe the shape of the evening – how many speakers there are, when breaks will be – so that guests know what to expect. Then just see where the night takes you.
 

Turn to page 22 of the April issue for more from our salon Gathering, including Beetroot & horseradish dip, Mixed olives with lemon zest, Asparagus spears with parma ham & toasted almonds, Spring lemon & cardamom chicken, Rainbow roasted carrots with cumin and Jewelled couscous with watercress, peppers & pomegranate.

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Recipe | Brown butter and toffee cookies

The addition of browned butter gives these cookies a rich, nutty edge, making them all the more moreish. The recipe also works well with white chocolate

BROWN BUTTER & TOFFEE COOKIES
Makes 16
150g unsalted butter
1⁄2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1⁄2 tsp mixed spice
300g plain flour
1⁄2 tsp salt
150g light brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp whole milk
150g chocolate-covered toffees, such as Fazer’s Dumle*, or white chocolate, chopped
Sea salt flakes (optional)

1 Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat until it starts to bubble noisily. Eventually the bubbles will become smaller and stop. Swirl the pan – you will see and smell the change from yellow butter to brown. Immediately remove from the heat. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool a little.
2 In another bowl sift together the bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, flour and salt.
3 Mix both sugars into the browned butter until well incorporated. Add the egg and egg yolk, syrup, vanilla extract and milk. Add the dry ingredients, then the toffees or white chocolate and stir to combine. Cover the bowl or wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for a few hours.
4 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Form egg-sized rounds of cookie dough using your hands and place on the lined baking sheets. These cookies spread a lot during baking, so leave a minimum of 8cm between each round.
5 Sprinkle with sea salt flakes, if using. Bake for around 8 mins until slightly brown at the sides but not entirely puffed up. Remove from the oven and let cool (if using Dumle, let cool for a bit longer before eating).

Recipe from ScandiKitchen Summer by Brontë Aurell (Ryland, Peters & Small).

Cake in the House is our monthly recipe feature - get a cake recipe every month in The Simple Things!

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How to grow cut flowers

Here's an idea: turn a tired area of your garden into a cutting-flower patch and you'll be picking blooms all summer

If you don’t have green fingers, start with long-lasting perennials and shrubs from your local nursery or garden centre. A trio of scented ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ roses underplanted with pincushions of astrantia, daisy-like echinacea, and the foliage of bronze fennel all make good picking and will supply dozens of fragrant bunches. While autumn is the time for planting daffs and tulips, spring is good for getting gladioli and allium bulbs in the ground, as well as dahlias, with their stunning cactus and anemone shapes. 

For everyday bunches of loveliness, sow sweet peas. They’re easy to grow, and so benevolent with their blooms, you can pick every day of summer. There’s a wide range of colour, too. Build a hazel or bamboo wigwam for them to twine around and plant at the base of each strut. As seedlings appear, encourage them to clamber onto the frame with twine. Tender seedlings are a gift to molluscs, so sprinkle some wildlife-friendly slug pellets, too.

Turn to page 118 for more cutting patch advice, including how to do the groundwork, growing from seed and how to arrange your blooms.

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Things to note and notice in April

From lifting your head up to making time for tea, there are lots of little ways to brighten up April

If still too chilly to pitch the tent, check out Canopy & Stars’ latest spring-friendly additions (think hot showers, duck-down duvets and four-poster beds). 
canopyandstars.co.uk

‘The best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain’
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet

Dust off your trainers – 6 April is Walk to Work Day. Why not aim to walk every Friday this month (to the shops/ school/pub)?

Create a meal using food that could have been binned, take a photo and post the recipe on social media, #RecipeforDisaster, with a donation of £5 to combat food waste.
insight.wfp.org

Note the time the sun rises and sets on the same day each week and watch the days lengthening.

More on pages 16-17 of April's The Simple Things.

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Homemade nut butters

All you need is a blender and a bag of nuts and you can make your own homemade nut butter in no time. Delicious spread on hot toast or oatcakes, stirred into porridge or sneakily licked off a finger.

Hazelnut butter

Makes about 150g
130g hazelnuts, skins removed
1 tbsp neutral-tasting oil, such as grapeseed or sunflower
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa or cacao powder (optional)

1 Blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor for 8–12 mins, depending on your machine. First you’ll get a fine powder, but continue blending until you get a denser, softened nut butter.
2 Add the oil, vanilla, salt and cocoa or cacao powder (if using) and blitz to combine for 2–4 mins until smooth. Store in the fridge in an airtight jar for up to a month.
 

Cashew butter

Makes about 250g
240g raw cashews
Pinch of sea salt
1 tbsp neutral-tasting oil, such as grapeseed or sunflower

1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Place the cashews on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake in the preheated oven for 6–9 mins until lightly toasted.
2 Allow the cashews to cool completely before transferring to a food processor. Add the salt and blitz. Once you have a rough paste (after 6–7 mins), slowly add the oil with the motor running. Blend for 8–12 mins in total. Be patient: you will get a nut butter eventually! 

Cook’s notes: You’ll have to scrape down the sides a few times between blitzes. Store in the fridge in a jar for up to a month.

Recipes from The New Porridge by Leah Vanderveldt (Ryland, Peters & Small).
 

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Nest | Pilea

Once a rare sighting, the round, glossy leaves of pilea are now seen increasingly in our homes. This is largely because they are so easy to propagate.

Plantlets that spring up around their base can be snipped off and potted on in a twinkling, with the resulting plants dispersed among friends.

“They’ll lean towards the light,” says Alice Howard of Botanique Workshop, artisan store and flower shop, “so keep them out of direct sunlight. Otherwise, they are as easy to care for as they are to propagate.”

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