Rushing this out, a little, because tomorrow we hit the road and I know that if I leave, it won’t happen. So, possibly sketchy, but done.

Just caught up with the podcast version of Dan Saladino's excellent Seed Stories from the Lockdown on Radio 4's The Food Programme, and of course it prompted a flood of emotions, reminiscences and recognitions. As soon as I got home, I walked through the terrace, thinking about which of the plants I had grown from seed and, more particularly, home-saved seed.

Last week I was sorting through my recipe folder — the physical one, which is a mess of printed, scribbled and ripped bits of paper — and came across a bread that I had not made before and that for some reason called to me.

It was very good, so I wrote it up at the other place: flaxseed currant c...

I’ve ranted many times here about the wanton misuse of biological scientific names. Those are the things, generally in italics, that name a species in such a way that we can all agree what it is we are talking about; Rudbeckia hirta, for example, rather than black-eyed Susan.

People are forev...

For us, another good month. Things are slowly becoming easier; making sure I have gloves and a mask in my pockets when I go out is becoming a habit. Washing hands when I get back in has been for a long time. It’s great that the park is open, even if it is overrun most of the time. Children being at home can’t be easy. Everything has really been rather good. I missed the travel I had booked, but the online Dublin Gastronomy Symposium was very enjoyable and not nearly as difficult as I feared it might be.