Sarah Raven's Kitchen and Garden

I’ve been preserving hydrangeas in glycerin today – one part glycerin (from any chemist) to 3 parts water into a jam jar, with the stems of the hydrangea into the mixed solution. Then just shove them somewhere out of the way and leave them for about a month. The flowers should then keep their colour for 6  months and a soft pliable texture for ever.

The greenhouse is looking at its best at Perch Hill, jam-packed with all the tender things we have outside until we think there may be a frost. The gardeners at Sissinghurst have given me an incredible Tibouchina - it’s got too big for them and we have plenty of under glass space here - and a huge and beautiful Fuchsia paniculata, with shiny, almost camellia like leaves, purple flowers and large sweet-like berries.

I had a great day on Tuesday creating a template – with Molly, our youngest daughter – for a very English ginger bread house. Lots of the patterns around are Scandinavian as they’re much keener on making gingerbread houses than we are, so we decided to make a cottage/slightly ramshackle farmhouse instead. We then made the house and stuck it together with toffee and iced the roof with great dollops of snow.

I’ve just spent a couple of days running veg and cutting garden workshops in the Lloyd Lindsay rooms in Ardington near Wantage. It was a brilliant venue and we’ll do more courses again next year.

I have spent the last couple of days testing recipes for my next cookbook – High Days and Holidays – cooking for friends  - which is out May 2010. We have had Jo, Debbie, Liz and I all trying to fit into the small school kitchen, each trying to cook their list, but we have some brilliant recipes as a result.

I’ve just been in Holland for three days, immersing myself in new dahlias, – the good ones to look at and use in food  – chrysanths and lovely new food ideas. I had chicken stuffed with dahlias and nuts (incredibly good), salad dressed with dahlia vinegar (also excellent) as well as eating an extraordinary new plant (Mertensia) whose leaves tasted of oysters.

It's been a busy month for us here at Perch Hill. At this time of year we're planning for the winter and spring months ahead. We've been filling the vegetable garden with winter salads and lettuces to pick through the colder months. There’s no need to stop eating salad for lunch in the winter with a big bowl of soup. We're also still sowing the last of our hardy annuals for flowers next year, they come up earlier and are much hardier when they have a chance to get established before spring, so I try not to miss this autumn window.