Country House

I have found some recipes for mead but they seem to vary enormously and are rather complicated. Have you a simple one?

Over the past months we have shot 20 grey squirrels as they have been causing extensive damage to our young sycamores and beeches. Yet other squirrels just come and take…

There are stirrings in the hedgerows as the peak season for first pheasant and then partridge hatching gets under way. With this comes the biggest dilemma in low-ground wild game…

I may be a dyed-in the wool country bumpkin, but sometimes I envy the urban gardener. Life on a town-centre vegetable plot is so pest-free.

There is a widespread myth that to be a successful trapper you need to have inherited generations of skill, learnt at your father’s knee. My father, by whom I was…

I read that Sir John Mortimer has a glass of champagne a day and describes it as “penicillin for the soul”. What a wonderful idea. As I’d only have a…

On a shoot recently I was given a snifter of 1997 orange gin, a great change from sloe gin. I would like to have a go at making this. Have…

In this day and age you can plant a fruit tree at any time; pot-grown plants are available all year at garden centres.

Make your own cider

Cider's now rosy. Thanks to the clever marketing of the Magners brand, cider is a tipple to be seen with. Robert Gore-Langton tells you how to make your own cider

How to make rowan vodka

Last year I made rowan jelly but had copious numbers of berries left over. This year I would like to try making something else using the berries. Can one make…