Mandy Watson
Mandy Watson is a freelance journalist, specialist gardening copywriter and plantaholic with roots firmly planted in working-class NE England. MandyCanUDigIt grew from the tiny seed of a Twitter account into this rainforest of information. Teesdale Mercury Magazine editor. Garden Media Guild and NUJ member. Mission statement: to make gardening more accessible to the often excluded - the less able, the hard-up or beginners. An advocate of gardening for better mental and physical health.
Easy recipes for blackcurrants, raspberries and other berries
Make the most of gluts with alcoholic 'Ribena', compotes and cake
Currants and berries tend to come in gluts and don't keep for very long,...
Vinegar toffee and cinder toffee for Bonfire Night
Jaw-breaking post-war sweets from my mam's school recipe book
Vinegar toffee and cinder toffee always remind me of autumn, Halloween and Bonfire Night. These recipes...
Rosehip syrup
Emulate the wartime 'Hedgerow Harvest'
Rosehips contain 20 times the amount of Vitamin C as oranges, so making your own rosehip syrup is a no-brainer....
Soda bread – a much-loved traditional recipe
Easy loaf was my grandmother's pride
Before sourdough bread and all its rustic variants became fashionable (and pricey), ordinary working-class housewives had to make do...
Pickled vegetables – Nelly Yeoman’s pickle
Classic home-made condiment
This recipe, echoing that classic Pan-Yan Pickle, is the pinnacle of pickled vegetables recipes in my opinion. It was contributed by Bev...
Plum and apple gluts
Freezing plums and apples
If you have fruit trees in your garden and the crop appears all at once, it's a pain, especially when it...
