E. Oldroyd’s & Sons based in West Yorkshire (and the rhubarb triangle) photographed for Waitrose Weekend. The rhubarb is grown in the ground for a couple of years and then it’s carefully lifted and placed inside the sheds which are dark but warm - the roots think it’s spring so they start to grow. As they’re not planted in soil inside the sheds the rhubarb has to grow from the roots’ glucose which is why forced rhubarb is sweeter and less acidic than if grown outside in the daylight. The roots live in the sheds for about 5 weeks until it’s time for them to be collected. If you listen carefully you can hear the roots creaking as they grow! Really fascinating and loved meeting Janet whose father owned the farm before she did and at 70 she is showing no signs of retiring any time soon.

A few pictures from when I headed up to Ambleside in the Lake District to photograph The Yan at Broadrayne for Guardian Feast. I actually photographed this in 2021 but time has slipped away and I didn’t realise I hadn’t shared them, a lovely restaurant which Grace Dent loved too.

Flora Collingwood Norris, knitwear designer, maker and visible mender photographed for the February 2023 issue of Country Living UK magazine

In 2022 I worked with artist and printmaker Angela Harding on her book Wild Light - A Printmaker’s day and night. The book details 24 hours in nature through exclusive cut lino cut prints and pen and ink drawings. I photographed Angela working in her studio creating the pieces and also documented the light and surroundings that inspire her work as the day goes on - from first light of the day on a cold and frosty morning through to the high glow of the midday sun and then to the wakeful darkness. A very fun project to work on and very nice to work with Angela once again.

Founder and Creative Director Joff Curtoys of Sloemotion, a gin distillery based in York photographed foraging for ingredients for the November/December issue of ASDA magazine.

Earlier this year, I headed over to North Yorkshire to meet and photograph 77 year old Mr Taylor who has been a basket maker all his life. His great-grandfather originally set up the business and it has been at this very site since 1867.
Mr Taylor told me that he started basket making when he was 8 years old and doesn’t know how to do anything else, nor would he want to. At the businesses peak in the 60s they employed 12 people to make baskets and supplied all the mills, factories and farms around Yorkshire with baskets used for textiles or veg. The whole village would come out to help chop down the willow but now he just collects what he’ll need for the following year.
In the 70s and 80s business started to dwindle with the closures of the mills and cheap basket imports coming in from China, so now it’s just Mr Taylor working but he still gets enough work to keep him going. He told me he’s recently been making caskets for funerals and some fencing which is coming back in popularity. When Mr Taylor fully retires (which he has no plans to any time soon) that will be the end of J.W.Taylor’s as a business as there is no one to take it over which he said he is at peace with as the business just isn’t what it use to be nor will it ever be.

Chris Bax showed me around his woodland where they run Taste the Wild courses on foraging and cooking. We foraged all kinds of growth - nettles, wild garlic, rose and then he made some delicious food out of what we found. All photographed for issue 12 of Bloom Magazine

Preparing for the summer season with Silver Grey Foliage