Penny's Plate

11/08/2026

Holiday time 💛 We swam every day, ate lots of seafood, and were dictated to by tide-time 🌊

Co-owning a business that is open 7 days a week is haaaarrrd, so taking time off is never fully off, but special time to reconnect as a family nevertheless.

07/08/2026

Visit a farm shop during your summer holidays! Now more than ever farm shops need your support, the intense heat has been affecting crops and livestock.

Shopping at a farm shop helps support the wider network of growers, farmers and workers whose livelihoods are so intrinsically linked to the weather.

Go to:
👉🏼 Soil Association to find organic farms and shops
👉🏼 Better Food Traders for a map of independent businesses to visit
👀 Look out for Farm Shop signs on your travels!

Our local Farm Shop in Sussex is Wakehams. I managed to get everything I needed on my list, plus bonus plums...
..opted for the Victoria's instead on the Top Hit, maybe I missed out

We also picked up one of Jonny's aunties cards

Wakehams Farm Shop also has Pick Your Own French beans 🫛

This field of sheep made us particularly sad, the camouflaged sheep were so hot and visibly starving. They wouldn't even move when we walked near. Even those that were in the shade along the edge were suffering. The kids were really shocked.

23/04/2026

Last week while staying near Hastings we visited Jonny's mum's Pot Woman no.5 as part of The Open Odyssey exhibition .contemporary. Sally sculpted it using clay from the sea when the tide is out. This Pot Woman is just one of many she has very cleverly created.

We then headed to The Snug at to see Sally's twin sisters' work lining the walls there. We both had the most delicious roast lamb dish, and the kids ate well, it's the kind of pub you could find yourself in for hours!

There were many quality pieces at the Hastings Contemporary exhibition, especially those focusing on immigration to the UK. I highly recommend a visit if you can 🤍

28/01/2026

Well this is exciting, I've finally got my hands on Jenny Chandler's Green Kids Book 📗

I’m on a roll of 'food exploring' with the kids recently, and I've found using this term a gentle and exciting way of encouraging them to try new flavours.

Tonight's meal was appreciated so much that Louis has asked for the same again tomorrow, it's always such a relief when a new dish goes down well! I cooked One Pot Chicken and Orzo - which isn't actually one of Jenny's as the book arrived while I was cooking said meal.

Anywho, what I love so far about the book is that not only are there recipes, but also messages for children, and adults, about shopping locally, eating seasonally and naturally, and how this can benefit not only is but also the planet. I love it.

💚

09/11/2025

A mini break to the countryside for food, art and rest with 💛

We went into the cheese cave and surprise surprise ate cheese and charcuterie, followed by small plates and a beer, walked, ate more, slept, ate, walked, did art, walked, home!

The perfect girly foodie weekend 👭🏼

(Starts planning the next)

01/11/2025

Halloween
It wasn’t the trick or treat that was the speciality of this evening,

It was the old man’s ears that had grown pointy, making me do a double take

The bat that cried out as it flew overhead in a built up estate

That thick black spider that ran out from underneath a basket at bedtime

The decorations knocking on the front door keeping me on my toes

Our pumpkin coloured cat disappearing in the rain and being spooked when returning

The moon, not full, but still big and glowing behind whispy clouds

And the wind, howling through the trees, blowing the curtains and moving the doors.

It was the supernature that was reaching out to me, louder than the clatter and chatter of Halloween.

It was Samhain.

🖤

26/10/2025

A week away with the family on Skiathos island 🩵

We stayed with the Organic King & Queen of the island thanks to their lovely daughter 🥗

Geof & Lida have lived on the island since the '70's and have built all that they own (including 3 houses and the road that leads to them!). They kept chickens and goats to provide eggs, meat, milk, yogurt and cheese for their family, while also running a successful organic market garden for years. They still harvest the olives and grow veg and fruit on their land. A truly inspirational couple, and utterly charming.

26/10/2025

Food and nature is totally entwined on Skiathos island, I love that so much. You can taste the landscape in this pot of honey; herbs, pine and flowers ... totally divine.

When traveling around the island you are never far from the potent sweet and sometimes astringent scents of nature. Even when traveling around the coast by boat the bushes of honeysuckle let you know you're getting near the shoreline. Never before have a experienced this, it's entrancing.

03/10/2025

I'm thrilled to announce I'm now a Ambassador as part of their Farm to Fork programme 🌾

Myself and and an amazing cohort have just finished some training at the sublime - my new favourite farm shop 🧑🏼‍🌾

For years I've been admiring the work that the Soil Association do, and now to be involved, even just in a small way, excites me and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next 💚

29/08/2025