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Bonfire Night On The Smallholding
Living in the North Yorkshire countryside, with only a couple of farms for neighbors, I am very fortunate that bonfire night doesn’t cause me too many headaches, although I am well aware of the problems that fireworks can cause for those who keep animals in more built up areas. Whilst, I hate to sound like a party pooper, I really cannot understand the need for loud fireworks.
Keeping pets safe indoors
food and drink
Behind The Kitchen Door: Richard Hurst
Liz Coggins
Features Editor
Richard Hurst freely admits he “loves the whole food experience,” but it was a change in lifestyle that inspired him to learn to cook. “In my teens and early twenties I made some bad choices in regard to my lifestyle and diet.
1:00 AM 1st November 2025
Pumpkins Should Not Be Left Outside For Wild Animals
Image by Aurica Dina Kyra Lotzkat from Pixabay
Each year, Halloween sparks a surge in pumpkin purchases across the UK, with an estimated 17 to 30 million pumpkins bought for carving and decoration. Yet, behind the festive glow lies a startling issue of food waste: around 18,000 tonnes of pumpkins are discarded annually.
1:00 AM 1st November 2025
food and drink
Northwest Bakery’s Products Win Two National Food And Drink Awards.
Lovingly Artisan's Northern Blisscuits Photo:Ailish Adams.
The winners of the Great British Food Awards 2025 have been revealed, and the team from Lovingly Artisan Bakery, based at Plumgarths near Kendal, is celebrating after securing accolades in two national categories.
1:00 AM 28th October 2025
food and drink
Lake District-Based Hawkshead Relish Celebrates National Recognition With Gold And Silver Award Wins
The winners of the Great British Food Awards 2025 have been announced, and Hawkshead Relish, based in the heart of the Lake District, is celebrating after earning accolades in two national categories. Hawkshead Relish’s Brinjal Aubergine Pickle was awarded Gold in the Condiments category.
1:00 AM 28th October 2025
food and drink
Grasmere Distillery Celebrates Double Win At The Great British Food Awards
Grasmere Distillery Sugar Beet Vodka
After months of rigorous testing by expert judges, the winners of this year’s Great British Food Awards have been revealed, and Grasmere Distillery is proud to announce a double win for its Cumbrian handcrafted spirits. At their lakeshore distillery, the team crafts small-batch spirits with a true grain-to-glass ethos.
1:00 AM 28th October 2025
time for life
Autumn Glory: Making Time To Embrace New Seasons
Sharon Cain
Lifestyle & Leisure Editor
Top up your vitamin D by the sea. Images by Steve Hare
With hazy summer days a distant memory, autumn brings a season of transformation with crisp, vibrant leaves, harvests of colourful fruit and vegetables and crackling log fires.
1:00 AM 28th October 2025
food and drink
Fine Dining - Etz: A Metamorphosis In The Making
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
Many chefs make light work
Nuremberg is carving out a reputation in the gastronomic world—something one might not instinctively associate with Germany. Yet delve into the 2025 Michelin Guide and you'll discover 341 starred establishments across the country, including twelve with three stars, 47 with two, and 282 with one.
12:02 AM 25th October 2025
Why This Winter Could Be The Toughest Yet For Millions Of UK Households And What You Can Do About It
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
With temperatures dropping and bills already climbing, many UK households are bracing for what could be the hardest winter yet. Ofgem has announced that between 1 October and 31 December 2025, the energy price cap will rise to £1,755 per year for a typical dual-fuel household paying by Direct Debit, an increase that will hit budgets already stretched by the cost of living crisis.
12:00 AM 25th October 2025
Caring For Our Garden Friends
Allison Lee
Smallholding Correspondent
Peckish Supplies
It’s that time of year again when I turn my attention to the wildlife on the smallholding and how they might survive through the winter months. I am very aware of the importance of feeding birds and I do this every single day without fail, even through the summer months.
12:00 AM 25th October 2025
Out and about
National Science + Media Museum: Where Technology Meets Storytelling
Helen Kitchen
Deputy Business Editor
It had been a while since I last visited Bradford’s Science + Media Museum. When my boys were younger, it was a fairly regular haunt thanks to its “vintage” gaming machines and interactive exhibitions, which were a fantastic, closer alternative to London’s brilliant Science and Natural History Museums.
12:00 AM 25th October 2025
We Need To Rethink How We Talk About Animals
This past July, in Kenya, I visited an elephant orphanage. As the keepers described how each calf had arrived (mothers shot by poachers, families scattered by drought or conflict, etc.) the crowd around me lifted their phones. People called out and angled for selfies while the keepers bottle-fed milk to animals who had, quite literally, lost everything.
12:00 AM 25th October 2025
food and drink
Chef Shares 3 Tips To Get The Most Out Of Soup-Making Season
Kevin Bonello, Executive Chef at The Grand, York.
As the autumnal weather sets in, we turn to warming dishes to help us add a cosy feel to the season. Searches for ‘soup recipe’ recently hit a 90-day high, so it's clear that soup is top of many home cooks’ autumn menus.
12:00 AM 25th October 2025
Top Tips And Advice To Support People With Dementia Through Autumn And Winter
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
As the days grow shorter and colder, Alzheimer’s Society is reminding people to check in on loved ones, friends and neighbours living with dementia. Seasonal changes, including the upcoming clock change on 26 October, can be unsettling, and colder temperatures may bring extra challenges.
12:00 AM 25th October 2025
Health
Airports Are No Longer Just About Duty-Free And Departures; They’re Fast Becoming Wellness Hubs.
Image by Orna from Pixabay
New research from Avanti Travel Insurance highlights how Millennials and Gen Z are leading the shift, with almost eight in ten open to exercising in the terminal compared to just 31% of over-65s. However, the appetite for fitness goes beyond a quick stretch.
1:00 AM 1st November 2025
QEST Scholars Team Up To Create Something Special
Andy Swinscoe, co-owner of The Courtyard Dairy, recently commissioned fellow Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Scholar Clare Pattinson to create a unique piece of art using her automata scholarship. Andy and Clare have both been awarded scholarships from The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST).
1:00 AM 28th October 2025
food and drink
Hydes Brewery Launches Imperial, Its Final Seasonal Ale Of 2025
Hydes Brewery has unveiled its latest and final seasonal ale of the year, Imperial, rounding off a standout 2025 lineup from the brewery’s acclaimed Vintage cask ale collection.
1:00 AM 28th October 2025
Transform Your Cooking With Extraordinary Ivorian Spices
Growing up in the Ivory Coast in a household where food was pure joy, I was immersed in a world of incredible aromas and complex flavours. The kitchen was filled with the warm, earthy scents of toasted spices, the tang of citrus, and deep, smoky notes that seemed to drift from every dish.
12:01 AM 18th October 2025
10 Reasons Why You Need AI For Your Next Home Improvement Project
Home renovations are stressful enough without the confusion of deciphering contractor bids. With prices that don’t match, scopes that rarely align, and details buried in fine print, even savvy homeowners can feel overwhelmed. That’s where AI steps in.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
Sports Nutritionist Shares Hydration Tips For Race Day Running
With Autumn race season right around the corner, runners across the UK are preparing for everything from 10k races to full marathons, and staying hydrated could mean the difference between hitting a personal best and not finishing the race at all.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
Sheep Shearing
Allison Lee
Smallholding Correspondent
Two of my flock
We had our sheep sheared last week. Unlike most sheep that only require shearing annually, our breed, Valais Blacknose, require shearing every six months as their fleeces grow very fast and very thick. I have an amazing lady, Danni Taylor, who shears my little flock and she travels all the way from Derbyshire to North Yorkshire to do them.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
Health
The Benefits Of Eye Surgery And Its Limits
Image by maryannandco photography from Pixabay
The most common vision problems are refractive errors – where the shape of your eye prevents light from focusing correctly on your retina causing blurry vision. This can mean myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness), or astigmatism (where the lens is a rugby ball shape). In the past, these refractive errors could only be corrected with glasses.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
food and drink
Bordeaux In A Bottle
Nathan Lane
Wine Correspondent
Photos: Nathan Lane
Bordeaux is an addictive city. It combines the charms of the grand Haussmann-era boulevards' façades and café terraces filled with locals who’ve mastered the art of looking effortlessly cool. Add in food that spans rustic market fare to knife-and-tweezer fine dining, and you start to understand why Bordeaux has a unique charm.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
Consumers
8 Steps First Time Buyers Can Take To Boost Their Chances Of Getting Their Foot On The Housing Ladder
Sam Fox
Weekend Money Columnist
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: Pexels
A north-west based mortgage expert has shared his advice on how first-time buyers can increase their chances of securing a mortgage and get that first foot on the housing ladder.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
food and drink
Behind The Kitchen Door: Kevin Poeung
“Cooking and enjoying a good meal is my favourite way of relaxing,” says Kevin Poeung, principal dancer with Northern Ballet. Kevin is currently dancing the title role in the company’s highly acclaimed production of Merlin. A challenging role both physically and artistically in this fast-paced and highly energetic ballet, Kevin is hardly ever off stage.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
food and drink
Dining Out: The Alice Hawthorn, Nun Monkton, York
Arriving in the little hamlet of Nun Monkton, where cows grazed on the green, certainly marked a wonderful start to my lunchtime visit to The Alice, which included a sunny afternoon and a catch-up with a friend to celebrate our mutual birthdays. I was very much looking forward to this occasion and was intrigued at what The Alice had to offer.
12:00 AM 18th October 2025
Northwest Chef Wins National Chef Of The Year Award
Be Inclusive Hospitality (BIH) announced the winners of its fourth annual Spotlight Awards on the evening of Monday, October 13th. Among the winners was Nina Matsunaga, chef and co-owner of The Black Bull, Sedbergh, Cumbria, who received the Chef of the Year Award for 2025.
12:38 PM 16th October 2025
Health
Penrith And Kendal Leisure Centres To Stage Free Community Health Festivals
Following the huge success of the inaugural Sunday Funday last year which attracted 260 members of the community from toddlers to grandparents, Penrith Leisure Centre will once again open its doors for a day of action-packed entertainment, interactive activities and exercise for the whole family.
12:00 AM 15th October 2025
Lake District Based Chef Kiera Carolan Crowned Young National Chef Of The Year 2026
Kiera Carolan YNOCTY 2026 Session 2 Kitchen Shots Photo: Hospitality Media.
Kiera Carolan, a former Academy by Simon Rogan student now working at Henrock at Linthwaite House in Bowness, has been crowned the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Young National Chef of the Year 2026. Fellow Umbel Restaurant Group chef Mitchell Collins from L’Enclume in Cartmel secured third place, with Oliver Redgewell-Welch of Entier Ltd taking the runner-up position.
12:00 AM 14th October 2025
Yorkshire Heart Vineyard & Brewery
Nathan Lane
Wine Correspondent
Yorkshire Heart Vineyard
Tucked just off the A1, down a peaceful country lane, Yorkshire Heart Vineyard and Brewery is a hidden gem in the heart of rural Yorkshire. What began in 2006 with a few vines has grown into a thriving 16-acre estate with 26,000 vines, a brewery, and a welcoming café. The café is bright and friendly, serving hearty lunches and indulgent afternoon teas.
12:00 AM 14th October 2025
How To Avoid Being Put On Hold When Making A Complaint About Poor Customer Service.
Jane Hawkes
Consumer Expert
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Consumers are having to deal with a “worrying decline in standards” of customer service. A new survey revealed alarming levels of poor customer service showed almost one in two people had experienced a poor customer service experience in the last year.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
I’m A Gardening Expert; Here's What Causes Excess Weeds In Autumn
Image by Couleur from Pixabay
While autumn may seem like an odd time to start thinking about weeding your garden, it’s the perfect time to maintain them in preparation for their full growth in early spring. Annual weeds often begin their lifecycle in the late summer and then germinate throughout autumn and winter for the spring.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
Expert Shares His 5 Tips On Checking For Defects In Newly-Built Homes That Could Cost A Fortune
A property care specialist has shared his advice on how to best tackle defects in newly-built homes - as demand for the properties dips. According to Rightmove data the demand for newly-built properties in the UK is actually falling with just 17.7% of new-build listings across Britain marked as “sold subject to contract” (SSTC) in Q3.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
food and drink
Behind The Kitchen Door Susie Blake
Susie Blake views food as “fuel”. Currently on a long tour of Torben Bett’s comedy thriller Murder at Midnight, Susie admits she doesn’t feel comfortable using someone else’s kitchen when touring.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
food and drink
The Gastro Pub With A Secret Garden
From the outside, Three’s a Crowd looks like most of the other chic gastro pubs that line West Park, but walk through the heavy antique wood doors, and it’s a completely unique story. With its amazing vintage décor, top-notch imaginative cuisine and a ‘secret garden’, Three’s a Crowd is the jewel in the town’s gastropubcrown.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
Linthwaite House Retains Its Michelin Key For A Second Year
Linthwaite House, Bowness-on-Windermere, part of the prestigious Leeu Collection, which operates exceptional properties in South Africa, Italy, and the UK, is proud to announce that it has successfully retained its Michelin Key for the second consecutive year.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
Storm Amy's Silver Lining: An Anniversary To Remember
Allison Lee
Smallholding Correspondent
Chopping logs
Friday the 3rd of October was our 38th wedding anniversary. It was also the day that Storm Amy hit the UK. My husband and I spent a very wet few hours wandering around Helmsley where even the market stall holders had decided to pack up early and go home due to the awful wet weather. We enjoyed a lovely lunch in the Black Swan before deciding to head home, wet but happy.
12:00 AM 11th October 2025
Health
Turning Pain Into Purpose: Yorkshire Mum Launches Brighter Skies After Postpartum Mental Health Crisis
Stef Scurr (centre) with her husband Andrew (left) and baby boy, Harlan
A mother from North Yorkshire, who endured a life-threatening mental health crisis following the birth of her first child, is marking World Mental Health Day (Friday 10th October) by launching Brighter Skies - a campaign and support initiative co-founded with her husband Andrew - with the aim of driving systemic change in perinatal mental health care and providing local, practical support for n…
12:00 AM 10th October 2025
food and drink
San Carlo Launches Its Winter Warmer Menu
Family-run Italian restaurant group San Carlo has announced the launch of its autumn-winter menu, marrying comforting winter warmers with fresh, authentic ingredients. It features a variety of carne (meat), pesci (fish), and pasta dishes, as well as new starters and sides. The new menu is available now at San Carlo sites including Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.
12:00 AM 8th October 2025
Northumberland Chefs Listed Among The World’s Best
Pine chef-owner Cal Byerley & head chef Ian WalleR
The team from Northumberland's Restaurant Pine learned on Thursday, October 2nd, that Chef-Owner Cal Byerley and Head Chef Ian Waller were recognised as New Entrants in the 9th edition of the Best Chef Awards, receiving a One Knife Award.
12:00 AM 6th October 2025
Annual Vaccinations
Well it was that dreaded time of year again this week, the annual vaccinations for the ponies and donkeys. I lose sleep over these types of appointments as I never know how they are going to go. When I booked the appointment, I asked for a veterinary nurse to accompany the vet and said I preferred a morning appointment.
12:00 AM 4th October 2025
food and drink
Behind The Kitchen Door - Joe Layton
Actor Joe Layton freely acknowledges his love for food, but like most in his profession, he must sometimes make sacrifices and temporarily set aside his greatest interests. Joe is currently touring with the physical theatre company Frantic Assembly in their production of Lost Atoms at York Theatre Royal from 7 to 11 October.
12:00 AM 4th October 2025
food and drink
Taylors Of Harrogate Barista Heading For The World Coffee Championships In Milan
A Taylors of Harrogate barista has beaten 40 rivals from across the UK to secure a place at the World Coffee Championships in Milan this October. Will Woodhouse-Banks (36), Innovation Developer at Taylors of Harrogate, clinched the UK title at the country’s coffee competition in London earlier this year.
10:45 AM 29th September 2025
Dishwasher Vs Handwashing - How To Reduce Your Energy Bill
Ian Palmer-Smith, appliance repair expert at Domestic & General, shares his tips on how you can save energy with these simple dishwasher tricks. Dishwasher over handwashing Ian says: “Dishwashers generally use less hot water than hand washing.
12:00 AM 27th September 2025
The Joys Of Foraging
Allison Lee
Smallholding Correspondent
Apple Picking
This year has been the first year that I have been able to go foraging on my own land and directly from my front gate and it has been wonderful. Being able to pick up a basket and gather fruit and berries without having to trek far has meant I have been able to forage often; making the most of a snatched ten minutes here and there whilst carrying out jobs around the smallholding.
12:00 AM 27th September 2025
Health
Endometriosis Testing Specialist Expands Reach With Adolescent Clinic In Manchester.
In the Endosure test, myoelectrical activity is recorded for 30 minutes. Photo: Lawmed
Surrey-based medical testing specialist Lawmed has announced the opening of two new clinics to keep pace with demand for its services. The firm operating under It’s About Time by Lawmed offers endometriosis testing to women and adolescent girls, to enable them to receive a diagnosis and achieve a treatment pathway via an endometriosis specialist.
12:00 AM 24th September 2025
food and drink
Fine Dining: Pipe And Glass Dalton
Sakina Ali-Hanson
Food Correspondent
Nestled in beautiful South Dalton Sits an old 17th-century coaching inn, housed in a beautiful setting; it's precisely the kind of place you want to turn up for lunch at. The Pipe and Glass is an institution of comfort gastronomy, having earned Michelin star status and holding its star since 2010 and owned by James and Kate McKenzie since 2006.
10:36 AM 20th September 2025
Safety On The Smallholding
Allison Lee
Smallholding Correspondent
Administering medication
Careful consideration should always be given when carrying out tasks on the smallholding. Aside from the obvious dangers surrounding machinery, other factors need to be taken into account when dealing with animals. When cleaning out a chicken coop for example, it is important to consider protection against bacteria such as Salmonella and E.Coli.
12:00 AM 20th September 2025
Weekend Money
Expert Tips For Securing A New Mortgage Deal This Autumn
As millions of fixed-rate mortgage deals approach their end, experts are warning homeowners to prepare for a sharp rise in remortgaging activity this Autumn. Forecasts from UK Finance suggest a 30 per cent increase in remortgaging in 2025, putting pressure on borrowers to make timely, informed decisions.
12:00 AM 20th September 2025
How To Declutter Your Home In 10 Steps And Save Cash Before You Move
A leading property expert says decluttering a property is the key first step to a successful, stress-free and lucrative house move. Property specialist Jonathan Rolande, who has over 30 years’ experience in the property market, says decluttering can save money and help to prevent moving day chaos. He said: “Decluttering should be an essential step for anyone in a property chain.
12:00 AM 20th September 2025
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