I don’t know whether it’s down to the weather this year – very wet spring and weeks of hot and dry conditions during the middle of summer – but my curly kale is doing incredibly well. I love having it instead of cabbage to complement a roast dinner with loads of roast potatoes and parsnips and oodles of gravy It takes no more than 5 minutes to cook on the hob in a few spoonfuls of simmering water. But surely there must be more to this pretty, frilly leafed green vegetable

I suspect most men and women out there have at some stage been on a low calorie diet in order to lose weight. I know I have without thinking twice, over the years, counted calories in any alcoholic drinks I’ve had So the article I recently read came as somewhat of a surprise!

I have to confess that I’m not a diet soft drink fan. I know it’s often said that the higher sugar drinks are bad for me but the diet or low sugar varieties just seem to be lacking somewhat – I don’t know whether it’s the flavour, the lack of sugar rush or something else, but they definitely don’t hit the spot as far as I’m concerned.