Growing My Digital Garden, A Simple Plum Recipe

Simmering thoughts & stewed Plums, a culinary approach to Knowledge

Growing My Digital Garden - A New Direction

I've been struggling of late around this Substack newsletter, in a sea of other brilliant foodstacks. I was wondering what the purpose was, and missing why I started it in the first place along with the drive to keep going. Call it a little blip whilst I sorted a few things out in my head. It's strange, in a time where I have more time than ever, I feel I don't have enough of it. My current work situation between roles and the thoughts around my purpose is beginning to seep in and take over. I feel like I'm coming out of some sort of reality vortex. I've found my thoughts pivoting towards other things, and for that, I took a few weeks off.

A New Space for New Thoughts

This week I set up another publication under my name. I know, I know, the blogging gods, the SEO counters and soothsayers will be screaming: "Nooooo! Just because you can doesn't mean you should!"

Anyway, I have, and it was relatively easy to do. I now have a publication called CookOneThing. It marries up with my self hosted "Digital Garden-CookOneThing" concept.

What Is a Digital Garden?

An online space at the intersection of a notebook and a blog, where I can share seeds of thoughts to be cultivated in public. This digital garden is evergreen meaning I can keep editing and refining notes rather than letting them decay after publication. Think of a recipe, that could be tweaked over and over again. There's also no chronological order, instead, you'll find a network of interconnected ideas linked together, creating trails that can be followed based on interests.

The garden Cook One Thing is there to help me share the evolving seeds of my thoughts as I grow with Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), my cooking adventures, and perhaps as I move forward with tiny experiments in AI, data and personal growth. Some paths will be well-trodden and polished, while others might be rougher works in progress. Much like a real garden with both manicured lawns and wild experimental patches!

In this instance, I'm using "Cook One Thing" as a metaphor for doing one thing at a time, not necessarily cooking, being intentional, and for me to share my thoughts in my own space in a rough and ready format as they come to me.

The Future of This Newsletter

This newsletter is still going to continue, I'm still working on that recipe book! I was just feeling I was heading into a different space, the process of thinking and knowledge management. I was concerned that you, the readers of this newsletter, hadn't signed up for those kinds of rambles, and out of respect for your inboxes, I didn't want to blatantly spam you with new content on an unrelated topic.

T-7: The Catalyst for My PKM Journey

D7 - The Curse of Learning

This will leave me with a dilemma on my notes feed. It might become more eclectic as I connect with other folk who write about Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) and their systems.

Bridging Two Worlds

So this is a bridge piece, the join-up from one world to the other, even though they are both in my head! I wanted to give you a chance to sign up for that as well, without assuming you would.

The food bit and how it bridges

For a while now, I've been reflecting on my recipe management system and the fact that I have more cookery books and recipes than I can ever get through in a lifetime. And I need to confess I cracked on my New Year's resolution of "no more books - for a while anyway!". I couldn't help it though, I came across Gill Meller's "Gather" in the local charity shop. It felt like new and on flicking through a beautiful book. Cheaper than a magazine, I thought I'd treat myself. I argued with myself—"one in, one out."

I've picked the book that's going, and then did that thing where I started checking there weren't any recipes that I thought I'd want to keep and... raaagh, big mistake. Lots! So it's still sat there, winking at me, challenging my system once again.

Perhaps this is exactly the kind of journey that belongs in my new digital garden - the messy, evolving process of managing knowledge, recipes, and the physical books that contain them.

I hope you'll stick with me here as I continue to explore our original themes, and if you're interested in joining me in my other playpen too, you'll be most welcome! I just felt I needed to explain why I’d gone rogue!

And finally... a simple recipe to close - stewed plums

Speaking of doing one thing at a time, here's what I made this afternoon when I had a spare few minutes:

Stewed Plums

A beautifully simple recipe that lets the fruit shine

You'll need:

• A couple punnets of red plums

• 2 tbsps of wine, sherry or water

• 2 tbsps of demerara sugar

• A large lidded pan

Method:

1. Run a knife around each plum, twist and remove the stone.

2. Place all ingredients in the pan.

3. Cover with the lid, and cook for about 30-40 minutes on a really low heat. (Our induction hob goes up to 10; I left ours on 3).

4. Essentially just let them stew on a low heat until soft and tender.

Perfect on porridge, with yoghurt, or just eaten warm from a bowl. Sometimes the simplest things are the most satisfying.

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Until next time……..thank you for reading