For several years now, Mrs. M and I have started our day with a cup of hot water with ginger, lemon and honey. It didn’t take long for me to realise I was generating a lot of empty lemons, so I did some research, found some preserve recipes, and I’ve been tweaking them ever since.
They’re all ‘zero-waste’ and the Lemon and Ginger Marmalade is probably the most recycled of them all – I re-use the empty honey jars to package them. The Gujarati pickle was directly inspired by one of the recipes in Kaushy Prashad’s cookbook, but like all successes, my formula for Preserved Lemons has many parents; Tom Hunt is one of them, and Yotam Ottolenghi is another, along with Nigel Slater, whose recipe for orange, lemon and ginger marmalade is here.
My original intention was to give them to refugees and other people in need through charities and local food banks, but because I was making them in our kitchen at home, I couldn’t provide the necessary assurances about food hygiene, so when Covid hit, I gave them away to all the many delivery people who came to our door, and the feedback was so positive that I’ve continued ever since.
If you’re coming to see me and talk about getting married, choose one to take away with you.
And if you’re a keen cook let me know; you might get lucky and have more than one!
PS Big thanks to Oliver Haas for the gorgeous labels – and to future groom David, who said, “We had family round for a curry the other night. The Lemon Pickle went down extremely well!”
Your story is truly remarkable.
The lockdown forced all of us to pause, reflect, and reinvent ourselves in ways we never imagined.
Some of us stumbled upon something unexpected — a spark that quietly grew into a hobby, a passion, or even a whole new calling.
Like you, I found my spark in wood — crafting furniture from scratch and breathing new life into forgotten toys from the 50s, like those little steel trucks that carry so much history in their rust.
And with every piece I create, I grow — not just as a craftsman, but as a person.
After years of showing up, failing, learning, and trying again, I’ve come to understand something powerful: the moment you dare to begin, you unlock a version of yourself you never knew existed.
You can become whoever you choose to be — and find deep, genuine joy in that journey.
Thank you for sharing your story. It’s a reminder that transformation is always possible — and that it often begins with the simplest of choices.
Thank you so much, Igor! You have reminded me of one of my favourite quotations from the playwright, Samuel Beckett. “Ever tried? Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”