About me and mine

About me – cook, forager, gardener

I am an amateur cook with an enduring passion for quality and flavour. I will tackle almost anything, often (though not always) with success.

This blog will serve as a badly needed diary for my cooking/fishing and foraging/gardening antics. It will allow me to occasionally indulge in my adulation for coffee, reviews of my (infrequent) restaurant visits and gadgets (kitchen mainly). These may at times be unapologetically set to my soundtrack (avoiding the Easton-Ellis/Alan Partridge styley).

I don’t croft, I don’t manage or rear livestock – I don’t have the time or the inclination. I have enough space to grow most of the veg, herbs and soft fruit we need.

I enjoy a full time career related to applied science/ecology (though not to my insect ecology PhD). I also have time for a few other interests. I started fly fishing a couple of years ago. What a great excuse to get out to the wild and isolated parts of North Uist and bring food to the table. I am frequently absorbed in music – from Meshuggah to Mendelsson, go to gigs when I can (mostly metal – although I am now more in the ‘Mum of Metalhead’ age range). I love literature (mostly literary fiction of the gloomy persuasion), dabble in natural history and try my hand at bow-making and re-hairing (I do live with a violin maker). I also run a lot (not least on account of my penchant for crème pat.).

Finally, I enjoy nothing better than a walk with my ‘family’ – Eric, my partner (AKA The Man Named Sous) and our two handsome Hungarian wire-haired viszlas, Hector and Darwin.

The Man Named Sous

Yes, a nom de blog. My partner Eric. A capable Chef de tournant with a fine palate. Resident Barista and coffee geek. A perfectionist by nature, qualified and reinforced by his chosen career as a violin maker. Shares my musical soundtrack. Addicted to the Desert Island Discs archive.

Happy to indulge in foraging trips, especially if these involve fly fishing. Definitely not a gardener, but a fantastic landscaper. Uses the belt and braces approach, over-engineering all garden structures to make sure our plants and the structures protecting them have a chance of surviving the force tens we experience here.

Head gadget researcher, buyer and techhead, roles I actively avoid. I get the benefits in using carefully sourced quality products, so it is a good division of labour.