This is as free range as free range can be.  A hillside woodland in North Somerset.  Home to hundreds of trees, acres of undergrowth and a small herd of very happy ginger pigs.

There's a carpet of wild garlic across the whole woodland right now.  The smell is delicious.  

The distinctive rusty colour of Tamworth pigs is more vivid than ever against the natural green setting of the woods.  They belong to Andrew Sartain of the Wild Food Larder.  He is striving to produce the most delicious possible pork in the most natural possible setting.

These happy foragers have never seen the inside of a cramped intensive pig farm.  They've only ever enjoyed real daylight, real fresh air and the woods.  They have no idea how much better their environment is than that of hundreds of thousands of pigs destined for our supermarket shelves.

They love rootling around among the trees to sniff out the tastiest morsels the woodland floor can offer.  They appear to be as happy as pigs in...  wild garlic.

Had the great pleasure of eating at Bristol's Thali Café this lunchtime.  A new lighter, faster daytime menu is being launched - aimed at encouraging more of us to consider an Indian street food approach to our lunch breaks.  

So busy eating, chatting and taking a few quick snaps, that I failed to note down exactly which dish is which.  Guess I'll just have to go back to check.  Oh well.

Photographed this as soon as it came out of the oven.  No studio, or lighting set up.  Just daylight from the kitchen window and a very nice cake.

You can see it's started to sink a little in the second shot.  Not a good sign according to some cook books.  But if it means stickier ginger cake inside, it's fine by me.

Surplus of Christmas present lemon curd in the Eat Pictures kitchen cupboards.  Folded (yes - with a large metal spoon - not sure it really makes that much difference) into softly whipped cream.  And plopped into tea glasses with a messiness that you can just about get away with if you serve them with enough confidence.

Made a huge pie from scratch.  Unashamedly pleased with myself.

Hot water crust pastry. Looks very wrong as you tip molten lard and boiling water into flour. Then becomes pleasingly simple to squish into place - far easier than fussy shortcrust.

Packed full with coarsely chopped pork, hard pork fat and smoked bacon.

Seasonal trimmings. And a teeny chimney in the middle to let the steam out.

Once the pie is cooked it needs to be topped up (using a thin funnel through the chimney) with a rich jelly stock.  It fills the gaps as the meat cools and holds the whole thing together.  Trotters simmered for hours with winter vegetables make the most wonderful stock.  I also added a good glug of Somerset Cider Brandy at the last minute for a warming seasonal kick - recommmend.

Ta-Daaa!

Antidotes to Autumn no.153

The last few bunches of little green cherry tomatoes from the garden have been ripening on the window sill.  Finally they're red enough to chop them up and chuck them in a warm pan with a good slosh of olive oil and a squidge of fresh crushed garlic.

Think I'm going to tip the whole lot into the blender and make a rich pureé.  One last intense hit of that real tomato flavour that I never get from the fat wet plastic-wrapped excuse-of-a-tomato that supermarkets offer.

purple carrots piled up in the November sunshine on Winchester farmers market this morning

Our dining table is plain white.  So are the plates and bowls.  I love the way simple food can look so good in a simple setting.

These pictures are of three lunches that I've eaten recently.  On each occasion I couldn't resist grabbing the camera to capture that moment of simple pleasure.

Broccoli and stilton soup

Mushrooms on toast

Spiced parsnip soup

A most delicious shoot with Bristol's Real Wrap Company

Thanks to Daniel for seeking me out, to Sam for the recommendation, and to Jason for the chance to photograph such scrumptious looking local grub.

Lunch anyone?

it's an old fork on a mac (obviously)

just playing around with a vintage food prop, a laptop and a nice camera

those sharp scratchy old prongs actually make me feel a little bit nervous, so close to the smooth perfect surface of that trackpad

(please click the image to see larger version)