Welcome to Seasonal Simple Life
Join me in creating a self-sufficient, sustainable life through gardening, preserving, and simple living.
Every season offers fresh opportunities to grow your skills and reconnect with nature’s rhythms. 
Latest Posts
Fermentation for Beginners: A Simple Guide to Lacto-Fermented Vegetables
Fermentation is one of the oldest, simplest, and most rewarding ways to preserve food. In this beginner-friendly guide, you’ll learn how fermentation works, why it’s safe, what equipment you need, and how to make your first fermented vegetables with confidence. Whether you’re interested in reducing food waste, preserving your harvest, or exploring traditional food skills, this guide will help you get started.
What to Sow and Plant in June: A Complete Vegetable Gardening Guide
June isn’t just harvest season — it’s a golden opportunity to keep your vegetable garden productive well into autumn and beyond. 🌱☀️ In this seasonal guide, you’ll discover what to seed-start indoors, which vegetables you can sow directly outdoors, and what’s ready to plant or transplant into your beds right now. From cool-season brassicas and summer squash seedlings to carrots, beans, lettuce, spinach, and beetroot for direct sowing, there’s plenty to keep your garden growing. You’ll also find tips on hardening off plants, transplanting fruiting vegetables like pumpkin and peppers, and essential June chores like mulching, harvesting herbs, and fertilising hungry crops. Smart June plantings now help ensure a steady, delicious harvest throughout the rest of the season.
June Garden Tasks: 10 Essential Jobs for a Healthy Summer Garden
Originally published June 2024 • Updated June 2026 with expanded June garden task and FAQs. The...
From the Garden
Garden Tasks in May: Essential Jobs for Your Vegetable Garden
May brings warm sunshine and the end of frost—finally! Your garden explodes with growth, but success depends on 11 essential tasks this month. Learn how to protect seedlings from hungry slugs, harden off indoor starts for transplanting, fertilize heavy feeders with homemade nettle manure, and time your sowings perfectly. From mulching techniques to pest protection and smart watering schedules, this guide ensures your May garden thrives all summer long.
May Reflections: Growth Without Overwhelm
These May reflections are part of the Seasonal Reflections series — a year-long practice of living...
How to Grow Cucumbers: The Complete Growing Guide (Seed to Harvest)
Growing cucumbers is one of the most rewarding experiences in a summer garden. This complete guide walks you through every step — from choosing the right variety and planting seeds to caring for plants, solving common problems, and harvesting crisp, homegrown cucumbers.
From the Pantry
Non-Bitter Orange Marmalade (Just 3 Ingredients!)
Traditional marmalade too bitter for you? This easy orange marmalade recipe changes everything. With just fresh orange juice, zest, and sugar—no pith, no bitterness—you’ll have sweet, glossy marmalade in about 30 minutes. Perfect on toast, in yoghurt, or as homemade gifts!
How to Preserve Quince: 5 Easy Methods for Beginners
Quince may seem intimidating at first—hard, tart, and inedible when raw—but this golden autumn fruit transforms into something magical when preserved. Whether you’re making fragrant quince paste, jewel-toned jelly, or simple quince compote, preserving this heirloom fruit is easier than you think. In this beginner-friendly guide, you’ll discover simple techniques to capture quince’s unique flavour and fill your pantry with homemade preserves that will last for months.
Pickled Zucchini: From Garden Surplus to Flavour-Packed Treasure
Every gardener knows the cycle: the first zucchini of the season is a celebrated trophy, but by number ten, the family is in full revolt. If you’re watching your zucchini plants with a mix of pride and panic, this pickled zucchini recipe is your salvation. This simple preservation method transforms your garden surplus into flavor-packed jars that will brighten winter meals for months to come. The best part? No salting required, any size zucchini works (even those that have grown into baseball bats), and the recipe comes together in under an hour. With a tangy brine infused with curry, dill, and mustard seeds, these pickles are perfect for sandwiches, cheese boards, or mixed into potato mash for an unexpected flavor boost. Stop letting those zucchini go to waste—turn your overflow into a pantry treasure you’ll actually be excited to use all year long.Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
From the Kitchen
Authentic Spaetzle Recipe: German Egg Noodles in 20 Minutes
If you’ve ever visited Southern Germany, you’ve likely encountered Spaetzle—and if you have, you know how delicious they are! These traditional egg noodles, whose name translates to “little sparrows,” are a beloved staple in Southern German cuisine. The best part? They’re surprisingly easy to make at home with just four simple ingredients: flour, eggs, salt, and milk (or water). Unlike store-bought versions, homemade Spaetzle have an unbeatable tender texture and fresh flavor. The dough is pressed through a special tool (or even a colander) into boiling water, where the noodles cook in just 2-3 minutes. Serve them as a side dish with beef and gravy, or turn them into a main course like cheesy Kässpätzle. With this traditional recipe and helpful pro tips, you’ll master this classic German dish on your first try.
Savory Rouladen: Germany’s Timeless Beef Rolls That Tell a Story
When my mom made Rouladen, I watched as she spread mustard over thin beef slices, tucked in bacon and pickles, and rolled each one into a perfect package. She learned it from her mother, who learned it from hers. These German beef rolls aren’t just Sunday dinner; they’re edible family history.
Back when times were lean, Rouladen were ingenious—a way to stretch thin cuts of meat into something magnificent.
The beauty lies in their simplicity: flatten beef, spread with mustard, layer with sautéed onions and bacon, tuck in pickles, then roll and braise until tender. It’s not complicated—it just needs time, patience, and the willingness to carry a tradition forward.
Authentic Bavarian Apple Strudel (with Vanilla Sauce)
When my siblings and I were children, we used to play outside a lot (those were the days), even in...
Home and Hearth
Soapmaking Safety Guidelines
Soapmaking is a wonderful and rewarding occupation! We can be creative and invent our own recipes,...
Soapmaking Step-by-Step
Before you start making your very first batch of soap, you should be familiar with the process....
The Science behind Soapmaking
Soap is the oldest and most used washing detergent in the history of mankind. The oldest soap...
About Me
Imagine growing your own herbs on a windowsill, turning summer tomatoes into winter comfort, or creating your own gentle soaps with ingredients you can pronounce.
These aren’t impossible dreams—they’re your next small steps toward a more self-sufficient life.
Whether you’re planting your first seeds or you’ve been gardening for years, every season offers fresh opportunities to grow your skills, reduce your footprint, and reconnect with the natural rhythms that sustain us all.
Hi, I’m Angela, the “face” behind Seasonal Simple Life. Welcome to this blog!
Do you dream of creating a colourful and lively vegetable garden where you’ll cultivate all the vegetables you want?
Without chemistry but diversity and many tried and tested varieties that will fill your harvest basket with healthy and tasty fruit and vegetables?
In the evenings, the flavour of freshly cooked tomato sauce flows through the house; winter will come, eventually, and your pantry won’t fill on its own…
Do you want to live a seasonal simple life, decorate your house, craft things that make you happy and add beauty to your home?
Let’s do this together!
If you want to learn more about me, click here.