The Cook Book

Growing up we were led to believe that privilege meant money, vast amounts of money. During the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic when income streams were essentially stopped I found myself in hedgerows with my two small children, being stalked by our kitten, foraging nettles, clover and elderflower. Reaching into my own childhood memories for making our own bread and growing vegetables - effectively budgeting our faces off and making something out of absolutely nothing. I realised that privilege is not money; it is knowledge. Until that point I had absolutely taken for granted the skills given to me as a child and how much I would need them now to keep my children and me fed and warm. Then I decided to embark upon an adventure to learn more on self sustainability from making our own cheese and bread to butchery, pickling and learning to build green houses and play houses out of recycled materials. 

With this funding we will be publishing a cookbook, and running projects within the community, involving individuals, and groups from all branches of life who most need our help to keep themselves and their families afloat.

The cookbook is not ‘just’ a cookbook. It starts out as a celebration of delicious family recipes, which are easy to make and accompanied with beautiful illustration by our resident artist. It gives clear and helpful cooking instructions, as well as tips and help for being self sufficient - from growing food to changing a tyre! It’s styled as a modern day Mrs Beeton (but with a splash less patriarchy)  and will include chapters from leading practitioners in their related fields. So it’s much, much more than a regular cookbook, and it is a starting point for the full program of food poverty support we want to create.

We will be working with professionals in horticulture, no dig, florestry and butchery to help us run the learning and creative sessions. We will also be taking advice and skills from those who are self taught with our inter-generational session. We will be continuing the projects with local schools and young groups so they

The money will provide slow cookers and meal kits over winter, run sessions teaching about the environment around us and the skills of fire safety, how to save energy and budget correctly. The aim of this is to give people the tools to help themselves, as part of the solution to the challenges they face. 

The cookbook will be an introduction to our way of joining together of food, love social inclusion and self sustainability. With your help, we can use that as a launchpad to empowering people who are experiencing tough circumstances and want to do what they can to help themselves. Reducing stress and feeling included will be part of the deal. We'll pay your support forwards and turn it into something bigger and better - and create change where it's needed.

All of our sessions are inclusive to LGBTQ+ participants and professionals taking part. We will be diverse in the recipes and the cultures who created them. We want this book to be a permanent fixture on your shelves, in the bottom of your bag or stuff in your back pocket!

Testimonial from Annie's previous book we achieved through Crowdfunder:

"Annie's writing style is so engaging; heart felt, but smattered with belly rolling comedy and timing. She can make you feel like a fly on the wall of situations she's writing about and she talks about her family and friends with tender, loving care and builds incredible depth of character. I wish she would write all the books I read.  I was so engaged and invested in the story of Geoff and his family's plight, I read the entire book in one afternoon and was left feeling like I was yearning for more when it was over! An absolute belter of an author and I hope she goes far with her writing as this was a total hit!" 

Testimonial from one of our recipes tried and tested:

"That was easier than I thought and it tasted SO GOOD!"