December for me is all about the spices, not just in my mince pies and mulled wine, they are excellent to work magic with. Cinnamon...

A replay of my recent talk, just a casual stroll through some of the items in my herbal stash... The books referred to in the talk:

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) There are so many varieties of the tomato from tiny cherry ones to huge beefsteak and all sorts of...

Turmeric (Cucurma longa) Turmeric is a perennial plant with long tuberous roots; it is this part that is used to make the spice we are...

Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) Vanilla seeds come from an orchid in the Vanilla family. The seeds are scraped from the vanilla pod to use...

Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) Nutmeg hails from a tall tree with smooth greyish bark that flowers three times a year. It takes nine years...