I’m a girl raised on the Somerset Levels. Even though I now live up in the hills, the timeless beauty of this part of England never fails to grip me and I will forever be inspired by it’s dramatic landscape. It’s thought that the county of Somerset derives it’s name from this low lying area that was too wet to farm in winter but rich and fertile in the summer – hence Summerlands.  

Farming and food remains an important part of the economy here and there are some amazing local producers and retailers dotted around the towns and villages that rise from the wetlands.   One of these is Kitchen Artisan Bakeshop in Langport. Founded by Peter Ridley a former royal butler to William and Harry, this bijoux but exquisitely presented bakery uses local produce to create the most scrumptious of goodies.  When I visited this week there was a pile of perfect macaroons in shades of silver of gold, mince-pies that stood tall and thin, scones both sweet and savoury, panettone and all manner of breads.  I went for the scone with roasted red peppers and black olives. The oiliness of the red peppers was a great match for the crumble of the scone and even though I’d promised to save a bit for my little boy I’m ashamed to say I wolfed the lot!

When I got home I decided that bread was my “thing” for the day and that what I needed was a roast chicken with sweet and sticky stuffing.  I’m a big believer that the gravy and stuffing are the best part of a roast and I always make an effort with this part of the meal- but more of that another time.

This Balsamic and Prune stuffing for the chicken can work equally well with turkey on Christmas Day just double the quantities.  The stickiness of the reduced balsamic and the prune is, I think, the perfect accompaniment for the chicken. Make sure you’re using a well raised, free range, medium chicken (the non free range taste like cardboard so you’re doing yourself a favour by spending a few extra ££s as well as being kind to chicken-kind ) .

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium free range chicken
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 3 rashers of streaky bacon
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 3 oz of prunes
• 1 oz of roughly chopped hazelnuts
• 1 egg
• 5 oz of breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper

Method:

• Dice the bacon and fry off in the butter on a medium heat with the chopped onion until the onion is soft
• Add the balsamic vinegar and keep on the heat for 1 minute to reduce the liquid.
• Finely chop the prunes and add to the pan with the hazelnuts.
• Add the breadcrumbs.
• Combine over the heat and add the seasoning.
• Take off the heat and when cool add the beaten egg.

• You’ll now need to stuff the chicken with the mixture.  My method is to gently loosen the skin from the breast meat with my fingers to create a space for the stuffing. Very carefully push the stuffing into this space again with your fingers. Do not tear the skin! You can then secure the neck skin together with a cocktail stick to keep the stuffing in place.
• Place the chicken on a rack cover the breast with a little duck fat or butter and season well with salt and pepper.
• Place the chicken on the rack in a roasting pan and cook according to instructions or until the juices run clear.

I served the chicken with confit tomatoes, cauliflower with a mustard cream and smashed potatoes. YUMMY!

If you’d like to visit the Kitchen Bakeshop then you can find their website with directions here http://www.kitchenlangport.co.uk/

Back in the day when I worked at Vogue.com London Fashion Week meant partying all night and then struggling to get through the next day on a combination of Marlboro Lights, Haribo and kick arse Codeine tablets.

Now, I have the pleasure of watching most of the collections as they happen via the wonderful internet and my hangovers are epically reduced. I still miss the buzz of watching front row politics unfold and obviously the parties where my chubby thighs would occasionally brush against the hot-dog legs of the models-du-jour, but life is good down here in Somerset.

I will NEVER miss the terror of “what to wear today!” which made mufti days at school look like a walk in the park, these days my leather builder boots are my best friends. While I do occasionally find myself pulling up weeds in Vivienne Westwood I’m generally sensibly attired and “garden ready” much to the horror of the fashionista who still lurks within.

While wandering in the garden yesterday and picking a bunch of Dahlias for my father it suddenly occurred to me that these tall, showy, scentless plants have a certain affinity with the models who stomp the runways at shows across the globe. Long, skinny, glossy limbs topped with arresting and sometimes breathtaking heads, these are the essence of the English show garden. As a model can reinvent her looks at the whim of a designer so have these stunners been reinvented over the years by obsessive enthusiasts. There are now over 57,000 cultivated forms of Dahlia and this number grows every year.
Despite not having a scent the visual impact of this plant has inspired designers and fragrance houses alike with luminaries such Givenchy naming their perfumes after the Dahlia and Tom Ford designing the oversized Dahlia Sunglasses. Lest we forget there’s always the gruesome tale of Elizabeth Short nicknamed “The Black Dahlia”.

The Dahlia is a perennial tuberous plant that you’ll need to dig and store in the winter months. We’ve not been at the house long enough for this task to have come around on the calendar so I’ve had to rely on the advice of others for this post. The ever wonderful Sarah Raven offers her advice here including how to deter the dreaded earwig!

While arranging a tall and flashy display of these blooms for the house, I smiled at the thought that I was bringing a little of the glamour of London Fashion Week to Castle Farm. Now all I need is a direct line to Vivienne so I can plead with her to craft me some gardening gloves!

At the back of the house we have a terrace onto which all of the downstairs rooms open.  This is utterly divine when the weather is fine as I feel like I’m living some in Tuscan-come-Somerset dream sequence.

There are borders surrounding the house which need some attention if not only for the Brazilian Firecracker which is taking over – and not in a good way. I can’t understand this plant; aggressive and fast growing with the tiniest red tubular flower. It’s strangling the roses and killing off the other clematis. Apparently it’s a great plant to attract Hummingbirds – naturally we have hundreds of those in the Quantock Hills! To my mind there’s no merit here and we’ve been happily ripping it out.

The other dominant plant in the borders is mint – spearmint, lemon mint, cat mint – you name it we’ve got it.  In the last few weeks since moving  here I’ve loved the immense amount we’ve harvested for our Pimms but today was met with Mint Armageddon as I simply couldn’t face yet another fruity concoction. All I wanted was a beer and I was not the one to feel guilty. So, I dug it all out – an entire bed of mint approximately 10ft in length, roots and all and down to the depths of the milky white tubers, we had it all.

With Pimms, you simply must follow the Jackson method and make it with tonic water rather then lemonade and add some borage as well as the  mint.  The most important thing with Pimms is to enjoy it in the moment.  My moment today was casting aside the mint.

The Brazilian Firecracker (Manettia luteorubra)