Hello! I’m Stephanie, welcome to my website and blog.
I’m an organic no dig kitchen gardener, plant based cook, award winning author, food and gardening writer, small scale homesteader and mum of three.
In this blog I share my gardening experiences (the successes and the disasters!), recipes for plant based food, crafts and natural products for home and garden. And some of my adventures and outings too!
This blog is all about enjoying the space you have, small scale homesteading wherever you live.
The Creative Kitchen is full of economical plant based recipes for everyone – over 180 recipes! Scroll down (past the reviews) to read the contents page.
I really want the book to be good value, so filled it with as many recipes as I could for meals, drinks and homemade products for your home. The book is full of ideas to inspire you to be creative in your kitchen.
Learn how to create fantastic flavourful colourful meals year round with these clear, uncomplicated delicious recipes. All of the recipes happen to be vegan and are animal/dairy free. The ‘potions’ also use plant based oils and waxes.
photo: Heather Edwards
Most of the ingredients can be homegrown in gardens and allotments and are also widely available in markets and shops. The book is for everyone, whether you grow some of your own veg or buy everything from shops. Although they are all made from scratch recipes, where practical I have made sure that fresh ingredients such as tomatoes and beans can easily be replaced with tins for speed and simplicity.
In The Creative Kitchen I hope to inspire you to create seasonal meals and organic products for yourself, family, home and garden.
Over 180 recipes including how to make your own:
Main meals, sides, soups and salads
Store cupboard ingredients including flavoured salts, vinegars, essences
Drinks including herbal teas, cordials and liqueurs
Soaps, balms, cleansers, toothpastes, gifts and more!
There is a whole chapter based the salads I make for the course lunches at Homeacres which are complete meals in themselves.
Some reviews!
How could everything not be delicious with such beautiful produce fresh from the ‘No Dig’ garden – just what Stephanie’s many devotees have been waiting for.
Darina Allen, Ballymaloe Cookery School
Creative and quirky, yet totally practical. This book is full of brilliant foodie ideas and inspiration.
James Wong: ethnobotonist, TV presenter & author
Stephanie’s book is indispensable for any kitchen, but particularly if you grow your own, as she truly understands harvests and gluts and how you might have to think creatively about what the garden imagines supper might be. There’s plenty on storage, teas, cordials and delicious meals year round from what you can grow at home. I promise it will be well thumbed addition.
Alys Fowler: garden writer, horticulturalist, TV presenter, journalist & author
Given that Steph grows such incredible fruit, vegetables and herbs, it’s perhaps unsurprising that she would be equally skilled at turning them into incredible food, drinks and more in the kitchen. From creating transforming store cupboard staples to delicious, nutritious lunches and suppers, to healing and refreshing drinks, this book will inspire and enable you to make the best of what’s in season.
Mark Diacono: author of award winning books, A Year at Otter Farm,A Taste of the Unexpected and The New Kitchen Garden
Steph’s book is packed full of thrifty, imaginative, colourful and delicious recipes, all test driven by the attendees on her courses. We are in good hands. A lovely book.
Lia Leendertz: garden and cookery writer and author of The Almanac: a Seasonal Guide
As a disciple of the no dig gardening method that Steph and Charles practice and teach, I am really excited about this new book from Steph. I have enjoyed many dishes of Steph’s cooking at Homeacres so can vouch for these recipes. Don’t let roasted slugs or spicy rice breakfast soup put you off. There are tremendous seasonal recipes in here that will do justice to the produce from your vegetable patch or your local farmers market.
Simon Hill-Norton: Co-Founder and CEO of Sweaty Betty
This wonderful book is an essential reference for anyone who wants to live in a more sustainable way. It is just packed with environmentally friendly, plastic-free ideas covering every aspect of modern living from household cleaners and home-made cosmetics to super-delicious recipes using easy to source ingredients (do try the home-made baked beans). Many of her ideas are highly original, some have been around for centuries; Stephanie pulls them all together in one fantastic volume. Established ideas are brought bang up to date and shown to be just as relevant today a they ever were. We simply can t continue to live in the unsustainable way we currently do; this book can help us all to do our bit and to have fun at the same time. I love it the world needs this book!
Steve Ott: Editor of Kitchen Garden Magazine
The Creative Kitchen offers a breath of fresh air to anyone beginning on a journey to a more sustainable lifestyle. Its easy to follow recipes and no nonsense support, shows anyone how they can make their home, along with their diet, a place where earth care and people care really become manageable and simple for everyone to achieve. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in growing, permaculture and cooking, and applaud Stephanie for creating such a beautiful and yet practical resource. I can’t wait to get my copy!
Sara Venn: professional horticulturist and founder of Incredible Edible Bristol
Steph’s fast feasts: I love them and love the looks of wonder when people come in for lunch on course days, greeted by colours, flavours, new ideas; it’s all here and more.
Charles Dowding: no dig expert, co-author of No Dig Organic Home and Gardener
All of the recipes and most of the photography are my own work.
A huge thank you to Heather Edwards for her help with the photography, including most of the gorgeous photos for the cover. Working as a professional photographer for 12 years, specialising in gardens, food, interiors and flowers, Heather is regularly published in Landscape, The English Garden, Country Living & RHS The Garden magazine.
No Dig Organic Home and Garden, co written with Charles Dowding, won the Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year Award at the 2017 Garden Media Guild Awards.
I write about no dig gardening, potion making, seasonal recipes and other sustainable homesteading and self sufficiency topics – all based on my own experience.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss commissioning an article or blog.
The Creative Kitchen is full of economical plant based recipes for everyone – over 180 recipes! Scroll down (past the reviews) to read the contents page.
A huge thank you to 
No Dig Organic Home and Garden, co written with Charles Dowding, won the Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year Award at the 2017 Garden Media Guild Awards.
For signed copies of my books
