The Potting Shed

Guides, gift ideas and honest answers from the people who hand-pack every kit.

All articles Kintsugi Cheese making Gin making Meat Chilli sauce Wine making Kimchi Gift guides

A cracked ceramic bowl mended with fine golden seams resting on a rustic wooden table beside a soft cloth.

Kintsugi as mindfulness: why a slow repair calms a busy head

Why mending a broken bowl with gold works as an hour of quiet, what a session really feels like, and how to set one up so it stays peaceful.

A bowl of frosted blue-black sloes beside a jar of deep red steeping liqueur and a demijohn of dark fermenting wine.

Sloe wine vs sloe gin: two ways to use a sloe harvest

Sloe gin steeps the fruit in spirit that is already made; sloe wine ferments it into six bottles over eight to twelve weeks. How to choose, or do both.

Several small bottles of homemade chilli sauce on a rustic wooden table beside a plate of fried eggs and toast.

What to eat with homemade hot sauce: 15 ideas beyond tacos

Fifteen things to put homemade hot sauce on, which of the seven kit sauces suits which food, and how to cook with it instead of just pouring it.

A wicker basket of freshly picked blackberries, elderberries and rosehips resting on grass beside a hedgerow in early autumn.

A hedgerow wine calendar: which fruit to pick in which month, from elderflower to sloes

Elderflower in June, soft fruit in July, blackberries and elderberries in September, apples in October, rosehips and sloes in November: a year of country wine.

Strips of homemade beef jerky and a bottle of spiced rum on a wooden table with a bonfire burning in the background.

Bonfire night food and drink: spiced rum, hot sauce and homemade jerky

Bonfire night food should be one-handed and made in advance. Homemade jerky, a bottle of spiced rum and a timing plan that has it all ready by the fifth.

Bottles of homemade hot sauce and dark spiced rum on a wooden table lit by candles beside a fire.

Halloween night in for adults: hot sauce, dark rum and a fire

A Halloween evening in that needs no costume: spiced rum started a week ahead, a range of homemade hot sauces on the table, and a fire to sit beside.

Six bottles of homemade dark fruit wine with plain labels lined up beside a small glass demijohn and a bowl of blackberries.

Hedgerow wine kit vs a 30-bottle wine kit: which one do you actually want?

A 30-bottle kit ferments grape concentrate by the case; a hedgerow kit gives you the ingredients to turn your own fruit into six bottles of country wine.

A glass jar of bright red homemade kimchi beside brined Chinese leaf cabbage and a bowl of chilli paste on a wooden worktop.

Kimchi too salty or too bland? Fixing the seasoning

Salty kimchi usually means the cabbage was under-rinsed; bland kimchi usually needs more paste or more time. How to rescue a batch and get the next one right.

A demijohn of pale fruit wine fermenting with a foamy head, an airlock on top and small sachets of yeast and nutrient on the table beside it.

Yeast nutrient explained: what it does and whether you can skip it

Yeast nutrient feeds the yeast rather than the wine, and in a diluted country wine must it is the difference between a clean finish and a stuck batch.

A stirred gin cocktail in a coupe glass beside a bottle of homemade gin and a twist of orange peel on a wooden bar top.

Gin cocktails for homemade gin: negroni, martini and five more

Which cocktails suit a homemade compound gin, why colour and strength behave the way they do, and seven drinks worth making with a bottle you infused yourself.

Strips of dark homemade biltong in an open glass storage jar on a wooden board with coriander seeds and cracked black pepper.

How to store biltong: keeping it dry, safe and chewy

Airtight, cool and properly dry: how to store homemade biltong so it keeps for a fortnight, how to tell when it is dry enough, and what to do if it goes damp.

Crushed dark berries and chopped apples in a large plastic fermenting bucket, with a wooden spoon resting across the rim.

What is pectolase (pectic enzyme), and why does fruit wine need it?

Pectolase breaks down the pectin in fruit so a country wine gives up more juice and can actually clear, instead of setting into a haze that never drops.

Broken china bowl pieces laid out on a wooden table beside gold powder, a mixing card and a spreader ready for a kintsugi repair.

Kintsugi practice bowls: why your first repair should not be the heirloom

Why every kintsugi kit should include bowls to break, what the first repair teaches you about mixing and gold, and when your treasured piece is ready.

A glass demijohn of deep red country wine with an airlock, beside a sterilising bucket and a bowl of foraged berries on a kitchen worktop.

What are campden tablets, and do you need them for hedgerow wine?

Campden tablets are sodium or potassium metabisulphite, used for three jobs in winemaking, and a hedgerow wine kit batch does not need you to buy any.

Slices of freshly made halloumi draining in cheesecloth beside a pressed block on a wooden board in a farmhouse kitchen.

Halloumi troubleshooting: crumbly, rubbery or will not grill

Rubbery, crumbly or collapsing halloumi? The three usual culprits are too much acid, too much heat and not enough press. How to diagnose and fix each one.

A bottle of dark spiced rum beside a jar of steeping spices, cinnamon sticks and star anise on a wooden table.

Rum vs spiced rum: what spicing actually changes

Spiced rum is rum with spices steeped in it, nothing more. What that changes, why shop bottles taste sweeter, and how spicing your own puts you in charge.

Three bottles of home-infused spirits in different colours on a shelf beside a jar of botanicals and a demijohn.

They already have a gin kit: what to give a maker for the second Christmas

The follow-up present depends on what they enjoyed: blending, the party trick, a different spirit, or making alcohol from fruit rather than infusing it.

A kintsugi-repaired bowl with golden seams and a bottle of homemade spiced rum on a wooden table in low autumn light.

New hobby ideas for autumn evenings: makes you can finish in a weekend

Two autumn hobbies with a visible finish line: a golden kintsugi repair done in an evening, and a bottle of spiced rum ready inside a week.

A narrow galley kitchen worktop with a jar of infusing botanicals, a bag of kimchi and a small mended bowl holding a tea light.

Gifts for people in small flats: no storage needed, nothing to dust

Presents that borrow space for an evening and give it back: gin, kimchi and kintsugi kits, plus the kits we would avoid for a very small kitchen.

A bottle of deep red homemade sriracha-style chilli sauce beside whole garlic cloves and dried chillies on a wooden board.

Sriracha-style sauce at home: garlic, chilli and a little patience

How to make a smooth, garlicky sriracha-style chilli sauce at home: choosing chillies, getting the texture right, taming the salt and bottling it so it keeps.

A repaired ceramic bowl with golden seams holding a lit tea light on a wooden shelf.

Caring for kintsugi pieces: washing, storing and using repaired ceramics

A kintsugi repair is decorative, not crockery. How to clean and store repaired ceramics, what they are good for, and how to redo a join that has failed.