About the blog

I've started this blog as a record of what I'm doing in the garden and what I'm cooking, week by week. It will be a way for me to look back and see what's worked best in the veg patch and the ornamental garden, and to remind myself of the food I've cooked and who I've cooked it for. I'll be keeping a note of new dishes and ingredients I've tried and liked here - please feel free to email me at a-cooks-plot@gmx.co.uk if you decide to try any of them out too! And if you'd like to follow me and have any trouble doing so via the 'Subscribe' button at the top of the page or the Bloglovin' link at the bottom, just email me and I can send you a direct link to sign up for free and get an update in your inbox each time I put up a new post.

Who am I? I'm Sarah Giles, a freelance journalist specialising in gardens, food and interiors, and gardening and cooking are my passions. I was editor of BBC Easy Cook magazine for seven years, and I've also been editor of Garden Design Journal (the Society of Garden Designers' monthly magazine). I've edited two successful cookery books (The Easy Cook Cookbook, and Easy Cook Express)... Oh, and I reached the semi finals of MasterChef way back in 1992!

I live in a little village in East Sussex, and work from a studio in the garden which wraps around the house on three sides and is backed by woodland. One border has been converted into a veg patch, with flowers dotted through it so it still looks attractive, there are several fruit trees and the rest of the garden is ornamental - it's constantly a work in progress as I experiment to find out what likes my clay soil (saturated in winter and dried-out in summer). Last year, I also took on two small beds at the village allotment so I can grow more veg that I don't have space for here - like leeks, broccoli, onions and parsnips.

For me, cooking is a way of relaxing and if I can cook with home-grown fruit and veg that makes it even better. My house is packed with cookbooks and tear-sheets from magazines, and recipe ideas and ingredient combos scrawled on bits of paper that I use as inspiration before coming up with new recipes of my own. This blog is a way of making me organise all that in one place, once and for all, and then sharing my favourite successes.


This is all about real cooking, in a real home kitchen, using everyday ingredients to make food that tastes great but doesn't take long to prepare. I'm certainly no great photographer, so the pictures that go with my recipes are just there to give you an idea of what the finished dish looked like when it was ready to eat - you won't find me using lens filters, or special lighting, or messing about with tweezers to get every herb leaf in just the right place. And that means that if my recipes tempt you to have a go at them too, they'll come out looking just like they do in the picture!

So to get started, here's what I made to go with with today's pasta lunch. It's something I've got a bit obsessed with recently: Super-Quick Pickled Cucumber (above). It's a taste of summer in the middle of winter - sweet and sharp at the same time, with a wonderful freshness. Just slice a cucumber thinly, pour over 1tbsp white wine vinegar, sprinkle over a little salt and caster sugar and then add some chopped fennel fronds. (Fennel's just starting to make an appearance in my veg patch now. Dill is fabulous too, when it's growing in summer.) Shake or stir, leave for 5 mins and it's ready to eat - or keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. It goes with pretty much anything - serve it as a side dish on its own or as one element of a mixed salad.

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