Great Days Out – the Harvest Experience at Yotes Court Vineyard

For vineyards across Kent, the arrival of October means it is time to start the grape harvest. Now grape picking is one of those activities that sounds rather lovely in theory, but if you have to do it all day you quickly realise it is actually pretty tiring work. Fortunately, some of Kent’s vineyards now offer members of the public an opportunity to try their hand at grape-picking for just a few hours at a “Harvest Experience” day.

What is a “Harvest Experience?”

A Harvest Experience is essentially an opportunity to come along and help pick grapes at a vineyard, but without having to commit to doing it all day! Typically, this means 2-3 hours spent among the vines doing the actual picking, followed by a hearty lunch, washed down with a few glasses of the vineyard’s own wines.

Around Kent: Among the Cherries and the Vines

Cherry-picking at Chegworth Valley and a visit to Yotes Court Vineyard make for a great day out.

One of the brilliant things about living in Kent, the so-called Garden of England, is the sheer abundance of locally-grown soft fruit available in the summer months – strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and gooseberries, as well as stone fruits such as plums and cherries. In autumn, Kentish orchards are bursting with apples and pears and the local vineyards are producing a rich crop of grapes.

The Lavender Walk: Shoreham to Castle Farm

One of the loveliest walks in Kent takes you through the beautiful village of Shoreham to the lavender fields at Castle Farm in the Darent Valley. The ideal month to do this walk is July when the lavender is in full bloom and there’s a sea of vivid purple in the valley.

Starting Point

Most people will probably arrive in Shoreham by car, but the village is very accessible by train as well. Shoreham Station is only 200 yards or so from the starting-point of this walk. The narrow lanes of Shoreham mean that it isn’t the easiest place to find parking. If you’re coming by car, my suggestion would be to park along Station Road, down the hill from Shoreham Station.

Review: The Syrian Spoon

A review of "The Syrian Spoon" - a brand new vegetarian cookbook available now. All the recipes are from two former Syrian refugees.

Review: The Vegan Bean Cookbook

A vegan cookbook that should interest non-vegans too

I’m not a vegan myself, but like so many of us I’m constantly on the lookout for healthier ways to eat. So when I stumbled across The Vegan Bean Cookbook recently it grabbed my attention.

This is a new publication from Sicilian author and food blogger Andrea Soranidis. It’s now available in the UK and looks to be a little gem, packed full of creative and tasty recipes.

What’s the USP?

The focus is on helping you create memorable vegan meals which are good for your body, relatively inexpensive and which can be prepared quickly.

Healthier School Meals for All Children: An Interview with Ian Dunn

Ian believes passionately that children should be eating healthier school meals. He’s the driving-force behind https://selfsufficientschools.co.uk/ and https://vegschoolmeals.co.uk/

I first came across the Self Sufficient Schools account on Twitter last year. It had a post asking people to sign a petition to make School Food-Growing & Self-Sufficiency a dedicated subject area of the UK National Curriculum. I was curious to find out more about this initiative, which was started by North London-based Ian Dunn, because it immediately struck me as a very good idea.

I still have fairly vivid memories of school food, which, back in the 1960s and 1970s, wasn’t very good at all. This was a salad-free era. I remember great big tubs of mashed potato and baked beans, toad-in-the-hole at least once a week, and always fried fish, or fish fingers, on Fridays. If we ever saw any green vegetables they’d usually been boiled to within an inch of their lives. Desserts were stodgy and unhealthy – treacle sponge or spotted dick – and nearly everything was served with custard. Fresh fruit was a rarity!

Sussex – Kingscote Vineyard and the Gravetye Circular Walk

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I take a keen interest in the Kent vineyard scene. I recently broke ranks and slipped unnoticed across the county border into Sussex to check out the Kingscote Estate and Vineyard.

Some friends in London had organised a walking day in West Sussex last week, loosely following the bucolic route of the “Gravetye Circular” in the High Weald. The route takes you past historic houses, lakes and vineyards and through lots of natural woodland. Knowing of my interest in local vineyards they kindly invited me along. The opportunity to call in at the Kingscote Estate was not to be missed, even if it meant a 7 mile walk on a hot June day! Our walking route actually took us through Kingscote twice.