Sarah Raven's Kitchen and Garden

This week I'm visiting inspiring projects around the country where pollinating plants and wildflowers are the top priority.

Today I'm filming with the Britain in Bloom team in Harrogate as the judging begins.  Last spring I went to there to encourage Harrogate in Bloom to place more emphasis on growing nectar and pollen rich plants.  I'd like to see as much emphasis placed on attracting insects as is placed on creating beauty and impact.  I'm here today to see how they've got on and to talk to the judges about placing more emphasis on this worthy cause.

I've just returned from the Buxton Literary Festival where I gave a talk on the delights of cooking on the campfire and summer picnics.  There's no doubt about it food tastes much better when prepared and eaten outdoors.  Tonight I'm travelling up to the Hebrides where Adam will be fishing every day.  We'll be in the boat hoping to get mackerel to cook on a wood fire - you'll find my recipe for trout or makerel in a newpaper parcel here >>

Today I'm in Sandwich Bay in Kent researching and photographing some fabulous  wildflowers for my new book.  This morning Jonathan and I discovered a Lizard Orchid, one of the rarest orchids in the UK and we were fortunate enough to photograph the beautiful Marsh Helleborine, as well as two types of Broomrape -an ununusal parasitic plant.  I'll be including  400 of the most intersting British wildflowers in my new new book as well as 200 sites where you can go and see them growing in the wild. 

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.