Thoughts

  Donald Hall was an American poet. And a really good one, too. When I was a teenager, I read his poem 'Maple Syrup'. It's about a man returning to his dead grandfather's house, with his wife.  In the cellar they find a...

This skull comes from Oaxaca. At least, that’s where I bought it. In reality, it probably comes from the same factory as all the other millions of ornamental calaveras that you see for sale in Mexico. Because skulls really do seem to be something of...

Not every Wylde box is as cute as this one. But customers do tell us how beautiful the produce is. Which is rather lovely. So we'd love to celebrate this with some unboxing videos.If, when your order arrives next Friday, you can film...

Seen any deer recently?Unless you live in – and never leave – a big city, the chances are that you have.They’re everywhere. And, while they might look cute, they’re a real problem. It’s because there’s too many of them - 2 million...

It was a little restaurant in a back street not far from where we lived. They specialised in paellas and other ‘arroces’. The food was fabulous. But the thing I remember best was the sign outside the door with the opening hours on...

It ain’t often you get an invitation from a Duchess. Not me, anyway. So when The Duchess of Richmond and Gordon - I know! - invited us to her Gut Health Conference at Goodwood this week, we said yes. Obvs. And it was...

Changeover day is normally a Saturday. Turns out nature’s no different. Yesterday marked the autumn equinox – the point when the sun passes directly over the equator and starts focusing on warming up our pals in the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, this...

Spencer Metzger is a legend. Until recently he was Head Chef at the Ritz, but he first got my attention when he won Great British Menu a couple of years ago. His cooking is off the scale good, but it was his...

Hanna hates having her photo taken. I know because she’s told me. On multiple occasions. So how Matt got her to pose for this one - and in her oilskins, to boot - is no doubt one of those best-left-unsaid husband and...

What's in a bottle of wine? Most of us think we know. But the truth is that we don’t. How could we? Wine labels, uniquely, don’t have to tell you. Come December, that all changes. The EU is requiring that all ingredients in wine...

Mayonnaise is not French (whatever they say). It’s Spanish. More precisely, it’s Balearic. It comes from Mahón, the capital of Menorca. Already kings of emulsifying garlic and olive oil - a true aioli contains no egg - the Menorcans worked out that you...

Bruce Forsyth wasn’t really my cup of tea.  But I did like The Generation Game. There’s just something so deeply ‘right’ about seeing different generations trying to help each other out. I visited producers on three regenerative farms last week....