Serving Up Friendship

Not used to cooking for one or solitary meals, Jenny Wilde came up with a way of sharing the pleasure of eating.

- Carole Richardson

Jenny Wilde has always loved cooking but, after her husband Ivor died suddenly and their family had flown the nest, she found she didn’t enjoy preparing meals and eating them on her own.

When they married, Ivor already had three children, so Jenny was thrown into producing nutritious family meals right away. When they went on to have three children of their own, Jenny rose to the challenge of catering for a bigger brood.

“We all sat down round the table together – all eight of us – at six every night to eat a home-cooked dinner and a pudding. Each of the children had a job, setting the table or loading the dishwasher. Television wasn’t on and I think that helped us to stay close as a family,” says Jenny (77) who lives near Towcester, Northamptonshire.

To make the task of feeding the family more interesting, Jenny attended as many cookery courses as she could to become a dab hand at everything from pickling to baking and bread making.

Lucky enough to have a large garden, she began planting vegetables which cut down the cost of her weekly shop as well as providing healthy organic crops. A greenhouse provided tomatoes and Jenny kept hens for their eggs.