MANY towns no longer have an independent green-grocer (Shaftesbury, Bridport, Wimborne and Glastonbury are among the lucky ones) but if you have a Somerset or Dorset farmers market locally you will be able to get some of the freshest, most delicious and locally grown vegetables around. A couple of years ago Somerset Farmers Market organisers…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury visits some of the most beautiful places in the world, cooking for clients in locations from the south of France to the north of Scotland. She was back in Scotland again in May, cooking for a dinner party for 18 people outside Edinburgh. After several trips to Scotland’s capital,…
FOOD writer Christine McFadden, who runs classes at her home in the beautiful village of Little Bredy, visited Morocco in January, particularly to learn more about the country’s food and its unique and magical argan oil. She shares some of her experiences and discoveries at her Spicy Journeys class, Taste of Morocco, on Friday 13th…
PURBECK Ice Cream has scooped not one, but two more awards winning the most innovative watercress product as well as overall winner of the Watercress Food Awards 2014 at this year’s Watercress Festival! The annual festival at Alresford is attended by people who are looking for quality and innovation in food – and in particular,…
LEARN, Cook, Eat, Stay – that is the invitation from Dorset chef Lisa Osman as she embarks on a new adventure, All Hallows School for Cooks and Makers at Wimborne St Giles. Lisa is an accomplished chef, caterer, teacher, trainer and food judge, well-known and respected in Dorset for her dedication to local food and…
THE new album by American folk singer and songwriter Mary Gauthier, Trouble and Love, is released on 9th June, ahead of her two UK visits this year. Mary’s own back story – from abandoned child in New Orleans through teenage runaway years, university drop out, petty crime, successful cook and restaurant owner through sleuth to…
JOHN Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, written in the 1620s and set in Italy, has incest as its central theme, and has been one of the most controversial plays ever performed. Not seen in England until 1923, the tragedy surrounds the bookish young Giovanni, returning from university and realising that he is in love…
SORTING through family homes after bereavement has been a rich mine for dramatists over the years, and the award-winning play by American writer Lynn Nottage at Bath’s Ustinov Studio is a powerful addition to the list. From her grandmother’s Brooklyn Brownstone, she recovered a shoebox of unidentified photographs, from which she wove this imagined story of her…
BARB Jungr has a new album of songs by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen…. A NEW album from Barb Jungr is always a thrill. You anticipate interpretations that will delight, inspire, perhaps puzzle, but are guaranteed to stay with you., When you have listened to a new collection of Barb’s songs, you know you…
TUESDAY Night is Pie Night. Music to the ears of the many fans of Terri Porter’s pie-making skills. Terri, who has taken over the village pub at Thornford, used to run the farm shop in nearby Yetminster, where she sold home-produced meat, vegetables and her own pies, cakes, sausage rolls and more. She was a…