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Taking Time to Live Well
Songs to inspire meandering and wanderlust in equal measure.
Listen to our songs for wandering playlist now
Cornwall, tranquillity, coastline, countryside, luxury: is there anything in this list not to like?
On page 68 of July's The Simple Things (out 28 June) we visit Bude Hideaways, tucked into the Cornish countryside. Fancy a visit yourself? Entering this prize draw to win a three-night stay there is a good place to start.
The winner will stay in Red Barn, which sleeps up to four guests and a baby in one double and one twin room. One of two contemporary conversions on site, it features white walls, bold art, Eames chairs, Orla Kiely homewares, underfloor heating and wood-burners. Everything you could possibly need has been thought of.
Owners Conrad and Karen live nearby and are warmth itself – totally discreet if you prefer to be anonymous, but there if you want tips on all the quaint villages, great eateries and beaches it has to offer.
Best of all, their gorgeous seven-acre smallholding is an enormous, safe haven for kids, with large lawns for kicking a ball around, free-range chickens strutting around, even a woodland den to discover – all of which gives parents the chance to relax, read books, admire the wildflower meadow, or simply do nothing at all.
Bude Hideaways is part of i-escape’s hand-picked collection of boutique hotels and stylish self-catering rentals. i-escape’s passionate team is dedicated to helping you find and book unforgettable places to stay, and all the properties in its portfolio are visited and reviewed in honesty.
Enter online at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk/competition/bude-hideaways before the closing date, 9 August 2017. The winner will be chosen at random and notified after this date. The prize does not include travel, food, drink or any extras aside from your three-night stay, which must be taken before 1 August 2018. Some weeks are excluded; find full terms and conditions online.
See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Jeska Hearne heads to the Welsh border for a family stay in an architectural gem
Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.
You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 68 of the June issue for more of this rural adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.
Jeska Hearne is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk and co-founder of online lifestyle store thefuturekept.com. More of her photographs and stories can be found on her blog lobsterandswan.com and Instagram @lobsterandswan.
A thirst-quenching cooler with fresh fruit and herbs
Serves 4–6
1 ripe peach
A handful of lemon verbena
A drop of honey (optional)
A handful of ice
Slice your peaches. Add to a large jug of water along with the lemon verbena. Swirl in a little honey, if you want a touch of sweetness. Let it infuse for 15 mins in the fridge. Add a handful of ice before serving.
This recipe is from our modern afternoon tea feature on page 24 of June’s The Simple Things. Other recipes include:
Rhubarb fizz
Curried egg & chive sandwiches
Crab, chilli & fennel sandwiches
Broad bean, goat’s curd & mint open sandwiches
Dark chocolate chip scones
Jammy raspberries
Cardamom, rose & strawberry cake
Cherry & elderflower cheesecake tartlets
Things you might want to do this month (no pressure!)
What would you add? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter.
Photography: Kristin Perers
A sultry midsummer’s eve calls out for an exotic dessert. Enter sweet, iced lassi with a mix of fruitily spiced cardamom and delicate rose water that transforms the traditional Indian drink into a grown-up after-dinner treat.
75g caster sugar
6 green cardamom pods, split open
2 tsp rose water
500ml plain yogurt
About 150ml full-fat milk
3 tbsp granulated sugar
Handful of ice cubes
Handful of unsalted pistachios, cut into slivers, to serve
1 For the syrup, put 100ml water in a pan and add the caster sugar, cardamom pods and rose water. Place on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and you have a thick syrup.
2 Strain through a sieve and transfer to a blender along with the yogurt, milk, granulated sugar and ice cubes. Blitz until chilled, smooth and frothy. Serve topped with pistachio slivers.
Recipe from Round to Ours by Jackson & Levine (Quadrille).
Illustration: Joe Snow
Persuade mozzies to buzz off with this natural spray
You will need:
Small spray bottle
Distilled or boiled water
Witch hazel or vodka
Vegetable glycerin
Essential oils, one or a combination of the following: lemon, citronella, tea tree, rosemary, lavender, mint or eucalyptus
1 Mix your water and witch hazel (or vodka) in the ratio 1:4.
2 Transfer to your spray bottle, leaving space for shaking.
3 Add a tsp of vegetable glycerin and 30 drops of essential oil (essential oils shouldn’t be applied directly on the skin – and keep kids away from them too).
4 Give it a good shake before use. You’ll need to reapply every few hours.
Photography: Faith Mason
Deliciously marinaded and served fresh from the grill, homemade kebabs are nothing like their greasy takeaway cousins and are just the job for a barbecue
This is a version of Madrid’s bocadillos stuffed with fried squid rings. Like the original, these skewers are wonderful, fresh from the grill, piled into a crusty roll with lashings of paprika aïoli.
Serves 4
400g squid, cleaned (ask your fishmonger to do this)
Zest of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
150g cooking chorizo, cut into 2.5cm chunks
Handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
for the aïoli
6 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika
1 Cut the squid into 2cm rings and halve the tentacles. Transfer to a bowl and add the lemon zest, garlic and oil. Season and set aside for 15 mins.
2 Thread the squid onto four skewers, alternating with the chorizo, and brush with any marinade left in the bowl. Heat a barbecue or griddle pan to high and cook the skewers for 5 mins, turning halfway through, until the squid and chorizo are charred in places and cooked through.
3 Meanwhile, make the aïoli. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, garlic and smoked paprika.
4 Scatter the skewers with the parsley and serve with the aïoli for dipping and the lemon, cut into wedges for squeezing.
Recipes from Posh Kebabs by Rosie Reynolds (Quadrille).
More than a chance to buy the freshest of veg, a day at a PYO farm is a treasure hunt in the sunshine.
Some pick-your-own farms look like they could be in a snap from the 1970s – lines of fruit as far as the eye can see, punctuated only by a small wooden chalet. The simplicity of these places holds a strong sense of nostalgic charm, yet the new breed that can lay on a flat white and a fleet of miniature tractors to entertain accompanying tots as quickly as you can say: ‘One punnet, please’, has an altogether different kind of draw.
Pick Your Own has a number of precursors, such as in the Victorian farmers who invited their urban customers back to their land to harvest their own food, and ‘gleaning’ in the mid-20th century, when villagers were invited to collect and take home the corn that had fallen into the stubble after harvest.
More recently, the entrepreneurial Derbyshire farmer-turned-media personality Ted Moult is thought to have been the first to popularise pick-your-own strawberries by inviting visitors onto his fields in the early 1960s when reportedly, he greeted them one by one. As soft fruit became available in supermarkets all year round due to foreign imports, the pastime lost its allure, but with the 21st century’s renewed interest in seasonal food, it is regaining its rightful place as one of summer’s simple pleasures.
How to fill your punnet with only the sweetest, juiciest fruit
Turn to page 72 of June's The Simple Things for more PYO traditions.
Planting with the moon needn’t be a space odyssey. A little know-how goes a long way. Hear how Kate Turner and Will Heap grow biodynamic fruit and veg and raise free-range hens on their allotment - turn to page 112 of June's The Simple Things for more and read on for the biodynamic basics
Biodynamic gardening is similar to organic gardening in that they both work in harmony with nature, but biodynamic growing goes one step further. In a nutshell, soil fertility is enhanced with specific herb, flower and mineral preparations, and fruit and veg are grown according to the rhythms of the planets and moon. Crop rotation, rich compost and companion planting are also used to produce food that is stronger, tastier and has a higher yield. The basic premise is that you put more into the garden than you take out. We love gardening this way and have seen some great results, but it’s not meant to be a dogma and we don’t get bogged down by it. For us, the allotment will always be about the simple pleasure of getting our hands dirty and the joy of eating our own veg.
THE‘PREPS’: biodynamic preparations are specially formulated natural remedies that have various jobs to do around the garden. Yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion, valerian, equisetum, horn manure and horn silica preparations help to enliven the soil and increase the vitality of your crops. Make them yourself or buy ready- made from the Biodynamic Association UK.
MOON GARDENING: you don’t need to be an astronomer to garden by the moon – biodynamic gardening calendars are available to guide you. They suggest the best times to do allotment jobs, such as planting and pruning when the moon is descending, or harvesting when the moon is ascending. Sowing seeds just before the full moon is always a winner on our allotment.
CROP ROTATION: we rotate on a four-yearly cycle based on groupings of leaf, root, fruit and flower, each representing the part of the plant that we want to enhance and eat.
COMPOST: an amazing way to enrich your soil, literally putting back what you’ve taken out. Adding biodynamic preparations to your compost heap is also the most effective way of getting their benefits into your garden and onto your plate.
CPP: short for ‘cowpat pit’ and a brilliant natural fertiliser. We have a sunken half- barrel in the corner of our allotment that we fill with cowpats from a local farm. Add the preparations and cover; let it quietly rot down before using anywhere and everywhere on the allotment.
COMPANION PLANTING: widely used in both organic and biodynamic gardening to discourage pests and disease (see The Simple Things Issue 59). Try planting nasturtiums with broad beans to lure blackfly away from the crop, or chives with carrots to discourage carrot fly.
LIQUID TEAS AND NATURAL FERTILISERS: simple plant-based sprays to boost the health of your crops and stimulate growth. Submerge a sack of comfrey and nettle leaves in a water butt to create a potent (and very smelly) liquid fertiliser.
DYNAMISING LIQUIDS: vigorously stirring liquid manures and plant ‘teas’ into a vortex before use is thought to enhance the vitality of the liquid and strengthen the benefits for your plants. Our children love to see who can create the biggest whirlpool in the bucket!
The Biodynamic Association UK: Great for advice and ready-made preparations.
Calendars: The Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar is the most comprehensive. lunarorganics.com sells a simple version with a booklet to help get you started.
Biodynamic seeds: Stormy Hall and the Seed Co-operative produce top-quality open-pollinated seeds.
Books:
Biodynamic Gardening by DK, featuring advice from Kate and Will.
The Biodynamic Year by Maria Thun (Temple Lodge Publishing).
Biodynamic Gardening for Health and Taste by Hilary Wright (Floris).
Gardening with the Moon & Stars by Elen Sentier (Earth Books).
Afternoon tea is brazenly frivolous. Not only does it flagrantly flout traditional meal times, but also its ingredients read like a roll-call of treats: fizz, finger sandwiches, elegant tarts and cream-laden cakes. Modern treats, too. This menu of cardamom cake, spiced crab sandwiches and chocolate-pimped scones is moreish, memorable and anything but chintzy.
Why have fruit scones when you can have chocolate!
Makes 8 scones
350g plain flour
A pinch of sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
85g cold, unsalted butter, cubed
3 tbsp caster sugar
75g dark chocolate, finely chopped
175ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
A squeeze of lemon juice
1 beaten egg, to glaze
1 Preheat oven to 220C/Fan 200C/ 425F. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the butter. Rub it in with your fingers until the mix resembles fine crumbs. Fold in the sugar and chopped chocolate.
2 Gently warm the milk until warm but not hot. Add the vanilla (if using) and lemon juice. Set aside for a moment. Put a baking sheet in the oven.
3 Make a well in the dry mix and add the warmed milk. Combine it quickly with a cutlery knife – it will seem pretty wet at first. Scatter some flour on a clean work surface. Tip the dough out.
4 Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour. Fold the dough over 2–3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round, about 4cm thick.
5 Dip a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) into some flour. Plunge into the dough. Repeat until you have four scones. Press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Brush the tops with the beaten egg and transfer carefully onto the preheated baking tray.
6 Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking. If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/Fan 140C/ 325F) for a few mins to refresh.
Turn to page 25 of June's The Simple Things for more of our afternoon tea menu, including:
Rhubarb fizz
Curried egg & chive sandwiches
Crab, chilli & fennel sandwiches
Broad bean, goat’s curd & mint open sandwiches
Jammy raspberries
Cardamom, rose & strawberry cake
Cherry & elderflower cheesecake tartlets
Peachy lemon verbena iced tea
Illustration: Joe Snow
You may not beat the world record of 88 bounces but you can give it your best shot
Pick your pebble
Even the novice spinner can improve their chances by seeking out flat, round and smooth stones. Scientists have proved that stones of roughly 5cm in diameter fare best (it’s down to their surface area). Record holder Kurt Steiner recommends a weight of around 100–200g and a thickness of 6mm.
Find your entry point
Another previous record holder advises keeping the first bounce close – aiming for splashdown within 4.5 metres of the throwing point.
Give it a spin
Spin the stone as it leaves your fingers.
Let’s get technical
Those clever scientists have proved you need to ensure there’s an angle of 20 degrees between the stone and the water and that it’s launched at a speed of at least 5.6 miles per hour. How you actually use that knowledge out in the wild, we’re less sure of, but you’ve got until 27 September, the date of this year’s World Stone Skimming Championship near Oban in Scotland, to figure it out.
Photography: Kirstie Young
The fruit cup and all its trimmings in jelly form goes down well at garden parties
For 4 glasses of Pimm’s jelly
Pimm’s No1
Lemonade
1 lemon, sliced and quartered
4–5 strawberries, halved and sliced
1⁄4 cucumber, thickly sliced and quartered
8 sprigs of mint
Gelatine sheets
1 Fill each glass a quarter full of Pimm’s and top up with lemonade. Pour all of this liquid into a measuring jug. You will need one gelatine sheet per 100ml.
2 Place the gelatine sheets into a large heatproof bowl and pour a little of the mixture over them so that they are just covered. Put aside for 10 mins, or until they have softened.
3 Set a small saucepan of water simmering and place the bowl on top of it, until the gelatine has melted. Remove from the heat and pour in the rest of the Pimm’s, stirring as you go, then pour the mixture through a sieve into a second bowl, to catch any lumps of gelatine.
4 Tip it into a jug and then pour into the glasses, until they are about two thirds full. Place the glasses in the fridge, reserving the leftover jelly mixture.
5 After 2 hours, when the jelly has started to set, remove the glasses from the fridge and push in the fruit, cucumber and sprigs of mint. Once you have packed each glass with fruit, pour over a little liquid jelly (warm it a little if already set) to make the top smooth and glassy and return to the fridge for a further 4 hours at least before serving.
For the cucumber sorbet
700g peeled and deseeded cucumber (approx 2 whole ones, should weigh 700g after prep), cut into chunks
Juice of 1 lemon
200g caster sugar
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Chill for 2 hours in the fridge, then churn in an ice-cream maker until stiff. Transfer to a container and freeze for around
2 hours before using. If eating at a later date, remove from the fridge 20 mins before serving.
The thing about imagination is that you never know when it will kick in. But you can encourage yours by feeding it and giving yourself the time for creative thoughts. Idle pastimes and simple pleasures absorb you fully, so you can solve problems or come up with brilliant ideas in a way that would have you sucking your pencil if you tackled them head on. And midsummer is surely the time; a quiet moment appreciating your garden, picking berries, a walk through a meadow, cloud-watching. Be enchanted and feel the magic happen.
Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
View the sampler here, buy back issues or try our sister mag, Oh Comely
Photography: Clare Winfield
More interesting than a plain old wrap, a South Indian dosa makes a tasty accompaniment to a spring salad. Many recipes require the pancake batter to ferment overnight but these need no fermentation, making them ideal for speedy dinners.
SERVES 4
400g smoked trout, coarsely flaked, bones removed
1 cucumber, sliced
2 handfuls fresh coriander
25g shredded coconut*
1⁄2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 fresh kaffir lime leaves**, thinly sliced, plus extra to serve
Juice of 11⁄2 limes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Cos lettuce leaves, to serve
for the dosas
150g wholemeal flour
50g rice flour
2.5cm piece ginger, grated
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 To make dosa batter, combine flours, ginger, chilli and cumin seeds in a large bowl, then whisk in 430ml cold water. Season and set aside.
2 Combine trout, cucumber, coriander, coconut, onion, kaffir lime leaves and lime juice in a large bowl and set aside.
3 Heat 1⁄2tsp of the oil in a large frying pan. Add 2 tbsp of the dosa batter, swirl to thinly coat the base of the pan, cook until golden (1 min), then flip and cook until crisp (1 min). Transfer to a plate, cover with foil to keep warm and repeat with the remaining batter. Stack the cooked dosas between sheets of baking parchment to prevent them sticking to each other.
4 Serve with the smoked trout, extra lime leaves and lettuce.
Recipe from Lemons and Limes by Ursula Ferrigno (Ryland Peters & Small).
* Shredded coconut is available frozen from Asda and Morrisons, or grate fresh chunks, which are more widely available.
** Find fresh kaffir lime leaves with the fresh herbs at your supermarket.
Illustration: Joe Snow
An old colander can be turned into a nifty hanging home for dry-loving plants
YOU WILL NEED:
Water-permeable liner
Scissors
Old metal or plastic colander
Strong ropes or chains
Hooks strong enough to hold a container of plants and water (try your garden centre) – one per hanging basket
Compost
Water-retaining crystals
Slow-release fertiliser
Container friendly plants such as herbs, ivy or succulents
1 Cut the liner to fit snugly in the colander, then attach your rope or chains.
2 Screw your hook into where you’re hanging the colander from.
3 Combine your compost with the crystals and fertiliser.
4 A little compost goes in the bottom of the colander, before you position your plants. Then secure around the plant roots with more compost.
5 Hang it up, and make sure to keep it well watered.
These mini pork and apple pies are portable pockets for flavour, just right for a bank holiday picnic
Serves 6
220g pork loin, diced
110g pork belly, diced
3 rashers back bacon, diced
30g chicken livers
1 small onion, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Pinch of ground mace or nutmeg
1 red apple, peeled, cored and diced
for the pie crust
310g plain flour, plus extra to dust
11⁄2 tsp salt
50g vegetable shortening (such as Trex)
for the glaze
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp milk
you will need
1 jam jar (approx 7cm diameter)
Kitchen twine
6 strips of wax paper, about 30x8cm each
1 Preheat oven to 190C/Fan 170C/375F. Put the pork loin, pork belly, bacon and chicken livers in a food processor and blitz to mince. Transfer to a bowl. Mix in onion, sage, garlic and mace, and season to taste.
2 To make the pie crust, sift flour and salt in
a bowl. Put the shortening and 120ml water into a saucepan and heat gently until the fat melts and the water comes to a boil. Pour the
liquid into the flour and, using a wooden spoon, gently bring together into a soft dough. Once the dough is cool enough to handle, knead lightly until smooth.
3 Divide dough into eight pieces and roll six of them into 12cm disks. Invert them, one at a time over an upturned jam jar. Wrap a strip of wax paper around the outside, and tie round the middle with twine (as above).
4 Turn the whole thing over so the dough sits flat. Carefully work the jar up out of the pie crust (you may need to slip a palette knife down between dough and jar). Divide pork filling into six portions and put one portion in each pie. Put the diced apple on top.
5 Roll out the last two pieces of dough and, with a cookie cutter, cut three disks from each piece the same size as the tops of the pies. Put a disk on each pie, press edges to seal, then turn edges in and over to form a rim. 6 Brush the pies with egg-milk glaze. Pierce each top with a fork to let the steam escape. On a large baking sheet, bake for 45–50 mins, or until golden. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack to cool, and serve cold.
Recipe by Louise Pickford from Traditional Pub Grub (Ryland Peters & Small)
From the green hills and red soils of Devon, Pipers Farm produces slow-grown, 100% pasture-fed meat. And the farm is offering readers the chance to win a meat box every month for a year, including native Red Ruby beef, Saddleback pork, properly free-range chicken, Suffolk lamb and gluten-free sausages and burgers.
Pipers Farm believes in producing food in harmony with nature, encouraging a diverse ecosystem to inhabit the farm alongside the livestock. So fields remain small, with 400-year-old hedgerows marking their boundaries. And Pipers Farm has championed other small family farms who are raising native breeds in a traditional way.
With a commitment not only to high animal welfare but also to creating a truly delicious product, Pipers Farm has received high praise from foodies such as Jamie Oliver (being featured on Chicken Out and Jamie Saves Our Bacon) and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and was named as one of Rick Stein’s ‘food heroes’.
The farm is also one of the most decorated food producers in the country, having scooped a multitude of awards, including numerous Great Taste gold awards for its range of delicious meat.
Choose from boxes including The Big Breakfast, Student Survival , BBQ, Wellness or Offally Good – they even do a Doggy Bag box for your pet.
Enter below by 14 July 2017. You can find full terms and conditions on page 129 of June's The Simple Things and at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules. The prize comprises a meat box delivered to your door once a month for 12 months, packed with seasonal cuts, to arrive on a day arranged with the winner. Each box is Pipers Farm’s ‘box of the month’ and is worth £30.
Big-sky fan Gavin Pretor-Pinney may be encouraging us all to have our heads in the clouds but there is real purpose behind his passion. Known as ‘the cloud guy’, Gavin founded the Cloud Appreciation Society 12 years ago on a whim, and it has now grown to over 43,000 members in 110 countries. Along with the app, his books – The Cloudspotter’s Guide and The Cloud Collector’s Handbook (plus another on wave watching) – have earned him widespread praise, and he is the go-to expert on the topic for journalists. Today alone, he has already spoken to the BBC and Al Jazeera, responding to news about new types of cloud being added to the International Cloud Atlas.
Watch his TED talk here or turn to page 32 of June's The Simple Things for more of our chat with Gavin.
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.
