Hi, I’m Angela.
I’m the gardener, cook and maker behind Seasonal Simple Life, where I share practical ways to grow food, preserve the harvest, cook from scratch and make more of the things we use at home.
Most of what you’ll find here begins with curiosity and a willingness to try: in my garden in Bavaria, in my kitchen, or with yet another project that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Seasonal living, one project at a time.
How Seasonal Simple Life Began
Seasonal Simple Life grew out of the way I’ve gradually learned to live: growing food, making things from scratch and becoming a little less dependent on buying everything ready-made.
My garden is on a rented meadow in Bavaria, Germany. Over the years, I’ve turned part of it into a productive vegetable garden where I grow everything from tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to garlic, pumpkins and herbs. Gardening here has taught me plenty — including that nature rarely cares about carefully made plans.
Growing food naturally led to finding ways to use and preserve it. I began making jams and pickles, fermenting vegetables, baking bread and experimenting with homemade alternatives for things I would otherwise buy. One project invariably seemed to lead to another.
Seasonal Simple Life is where I bring those experiences together. I share what I’ve learned, what has worked for me and, just as importantly, what hasn’t — with practical information to help you try these things for yourself.
You don’t need a large garden, endless time or a perfectly self-sufficient life to begin. A few vegetables in pots, your first jar of pickles or a loaf of homemade bread is already a start.
What I Bring to Seasonal Simple Life
I’m not a professional gardener, chef or homesteader. What I bring to Seasonal Simple Life is something different: years of hands-on experience, a habit of asking questions and researching the answers, and a strong preference for trying things myself before explaining how to do them.
Gardening
I’ve been gardening in one form or another for decades. Today, I grow a wide range of vegetables, herbs and fruit in my garden in Bavaria, working with a temperate climate, a limited growing season and all the unpredictable weather, pests and plant problems that come with growing food in real life.
Cooking & Baking
Cooking from scratch has long been part of everyday life for me, and I’ve been baking bread for around 20 years. Much of what I cook begins with what is growing in the garden or what happens to be in season — and with the question of what I can make from it.
Preserving & Fermentation
Preserving became the natural next step once I began growing more food myself. I make jams and jellies, pickles and other preserves, and have been fermenting vegetables for several years. Wanting to understand the science behind fermentation as well as the practical side led me to complete the HarvardX course Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes, for which I earned a Verified Certificate.
Home & Body Care
My curiosity doesn’t stop at the kitchen door. I’ve made my own soap for several years and regularly experiment with simple homemade alternatives for everyday household and body-care products — keeping the ones that genuinely work and happily abandoning those that don’t.
How I Work
Experience matters, but so does knowing its limits. For the guides and recipes on Seasonal Simple Life, I combine what I’ve learned through years of doing these things myself with careful research and reliable sources where they’re needed.
I don’t expect every project to work perfectly the first time — mine certainly don’t. My aim is to give you practical, trustworthy information that helps you understand what you’re doing, avoid the mistakes I already made and feel confident enough to try it for yourself.
What You’ll Find Here
Grow
Practical guidance for planning, planting and caring for a productive vegetable garden — from your first seeds to harvest.
Cook
Seasonal recipes, everyday cooking and baking from scratch, with plenty of ideas for putting the harvest to good use.
Preserve
Learn to preserve seasonal produce through fermentation, pickling, jams and other practical preserving methods.
Home & Body
Simple homemade alternatives for the home and body, from soapmaking and natural body care to useful household projects.
And Sometimes, I Stop and Reflect
Seasonal living isn’t only about what to sow, cook or preserve. It’s also about noticing what is happening around us — the first signs of spring, the abundance of summer, the gradual slowing of autumn and the quieter months in between.
In my Seasonal Reflections, I step away from the practical guides for a while and write about those changes: what I’m noticing in the garden and in everyday life, what a season is teaching me, and why I think there is value in paying attention to the year as it unfolds.
They’re a quieter part of Seasonal Simple Life — a reminder that sometimes living with the seasons means simply stopping long enough to notice them.
One Project at a Time
Living more seasonally or becoming a little more self-reliant doesn’t mean you have to grow all your own food, preserve every harvest or make everything from scratch. I certainly don’t.
It can start with something much smaller: growing a few herbs, baking your first loaf of bread, making a jar of pickles or learning one new skill simply because you’re curious. Try it, learn from it and see where it leads. There will always be another season — and probably another project.
That’s the idea behind Seasonal Simple Life: not doing everything, but gradually learning to do more of the things that matter to you.
Seasonal living, one project at a time.