MANDY LIEU

BEYOND FOOD: DIARIES

Rewilding community gathers to share stories

It was a delight to host the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s annual rewilding network event here at Ewhurst Park this month. The day started with welcoming our guests. We gave an overview of what we’re doing here at Ewhurst Park, then the Wildlife...

The case for fewer sheep

I want to highlight an issue that is currently being debated as part of our thinking about conservation and agriculture. Some conservationists are pointing out that the UK’s traditional focus on sheep farming could be reconsidered. Sheep grazing on rolling green...

Education Day 2: Plant Your Pants

We recently hosted an education day here at Ewhurst Park. We welcomed children from five schools that are participating in the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Trust’s Wilder Lives schools initiative, along with some local home schooling groups. They spent a full day...

Education Day 1: Migrating birds and pond life

Earlier this month we were visited by children from five schools in Hampshire, along with some local home schooling groups. They were invited to Ewhurst Park for a special education day, with a host of talks, demonstrations and activities lined up for them. Our...

Looking back to 2023, looking forward to 2024

What an incredible year we had in 2023. The turn of the new year has seen us reflecting on how far we’ve come. And hopefully we can expect more of the same in 2024. 2023 started with a landmark moment. In January, we released two beavers into an enclosure on the...

Festive fun at the Ewhurst Park Christmas Fair

We hosted our first Christmas Fair at Ewhurst Park last Thursday, with plenty of fun activities and attractions to spark off the festive season. We set up a heated marquee in our market garden. Hambledon Vineyard sold its wines and Hampshire Deli displayed a range...

Ewhurst Park Christmas Fair

Halloween fun helped children connect with nature

This month, we teamed up with our neighbours Little Tots Montessori Nursery for their Halloween celebrations. In fact, it was the culmination of a collaborative effort that saw children from The Priory School planting pumpkin seeds in our market garden in April. In...

Inspired by Winterbourne Downs Nature Reserve

Earlier this month we visited Winterbourne Downs Nature Reserve, near Salisbury, to look at their chalk grassland, as well as the butterfly banks and flower meadows they have created. It was of particular interest to us because we are looking to establish our own...

Congratulations, Your Royal Highness!

Congratulations to King Charles on his coronation! His Royal Highness is someone I have always admired for his commitment to environmental issues. King Charles has been campaigning on the environment since before I was born. Back in the 1960s, he was ahead of the...

April: An ideal time to start foraging

I love foraging. There’s something about foraging that embodies the spirit of what we are trying to do at Ewhurst Park, which is about appreciating and reconnecting with nature. I often refer to Ewhurst Park as an ‘edible landscape’. This is because, when we slow...

Our market garden showcases new farming techniques

This year will see a lot of activity in the market garden at Ewhurst Park. Building on our previous test beds we will be implementing environmentally friendly approaches to cultivation, such as ‘no dig’, permaculture and green composting. The overarching philosophy...

First ‘bee audit’ carried out at Ewhurst Park

Insect pollinators of all types are in decline in the UK. Remember how, years ago, when driving through the countryside, insects and flies would splat onto the car windscreen? This rarely happens now – it’s an unmistakable sign that something drastic has happened...

Beavers released into the wild at Ewhurst Park

We are celebrating a significant milestone at Ewhurst Park. This January, two beavers were released into the park – making this the first time beavers have been seen in Hampshire in 400 years. This is significant for a couple of reasons. First, the introduction of...

Appreciating global nature on Geography Week!

Geography Awareness Week is approaching: a time to consider the relationship between people and their environment. To me, geography means thinking of the world as a whole. I have had the amazing opportunity to live and work all over the globe, experiencing many...

Ewhurst Park Animal Spotlight: Piglets

Piglets and Proud Mamas at Ewhurst ParkSpringtime is known as the prime time for baby animals, but this year at least our piglets waited until the early Autumn to grace our farm. I love pigs and piglets. They are intelligent, curious and brimming with...

Foraging: Mushrooms with Marlow

As the leaves change and the weather becomes cooler, I have been struck by how quickly the time is flying by at Ewhurst Park. We are now firmly in the autumn season, which has brought bursts of colour to the trees, honking geese to the lake, and what appears on the...

The future is regenerative

The recent heat wave really drove home for me just how important biodiversity and nature-based initiatives are in the fight against climate change. Projects like Ewhurst can help change the way people think about food and nature, and help to build a...

Ramsdell Village Hall Fundraiser

As autumn sets in, the leaves begin to fall and the days get shorter, I naturally begin to think about community and belonging. For some, autumn means hibernation and retreating into the warm glow of home and family. But for me, autumn is a time to reconnect with...

The heatwave in Hampshire

The recent heat wave really drove home for me just how important biodiversity and nature-based initiatives are in the fight against climate change. Projects like Ewhurst can help change the way people think about food and nature, and help to build a...

Summer at Ewhurst: New life and beating the heat

I hope that everyone reading has been staying healthy and hydrated during this heatwave. Apart from the current heatwave, the summer has, so far, been a wonderful one for me at Ewhurst. It has been great to see our projects moving forward and the new wildflowers...

In Conversation With: Derek Gow

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with my friend Derek Gow. Derek was one of the first rewilders in the UK, known for his work reintroducing beavers, water voles, white storks and wildcats in the natural habitats at his farm in Devon.

Wild food and foraging at Ewhurst Park

Wild food foraging is defined as the search for wild, edible food and resources. It dates back to the beginnings of civilisation, and there are still small communities around the world that rely on foraged food as their only source of nourishment. I am fascinated...

The official opening of The Priory Jubilee Orchard

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the official opening of the new orchard at Priory Primary School. This was a fantastic event, celebrating the new orchard and the opportunity it brings for pupils to experience and interacts with nature. We were joined by...

Reflections on our natural health service

The pandemic offered a moment for many of us to reflect on our own and our family’s mental and physical health, including myself. For people stuck indoors for weeks, in cities without easy access to nature and open spaces, an emotional strain was...

Thinking Global, Acting Local

With summer starting to shine its light, I'm looking forward to the new season at Ewhurst Park. But I'm also keeping an eye on the global conversation around biodiversity as we approach crucial UN negotiations in Kunming this year. 

Wildfarmed

The wheat industry takes on regenerative farming.Last weekend, I read an interesting article in the Financial Times titled, Flour power: three men and a farming revolution. Exploring the paths of the founders of Wildfarmed – a new company that grows and...

How Organic Food Fights Climate Change

Whenever I visit a grocer, I am impressed by the organic food selection. What once was a niche trend, with items only offered in health or specialty shops, has infiltrated the current market. With the rise of organic products, it is important to...

Letter to the Guardian – 27.09.21

Damian Carrington writes about regenerative farmers making the most of planned government subsidies for carbon-cutting measures like hedgerow restoration, changing livestock feeds or agroforestry (‘Why not start now?’ On the track to regenerative...

Five ways to make your life more sustainable

As lockdowns continue to ease across the UK, more and more of us are slowly getting back into our regular pre-covid routine. Saying goodbye to days spent in pyjamas and working from home, tasks that were once mundane are exciting. As we adjust to our...

It’s Here! Ewhurst Park Summer Series

In this column, I’ve kept readers up to date on our journey at Ewhurst Park, as we transform the estate and explore its possibilities for bio-diversity.as well as developing a few local community group initiatives, I have been very focused on inviting...

Celebrating New Life at Ewhurst

With the start of a new month comes the chance of a new beginning. As we change our calendars, we get a fresh start, an opportunity to leave the past and focus on our future. As I anticipate what this new beginning brings, I find myself smiling at the...

Why you should reduce your food waste

When thinking about ways we can help the environment, I am sure that very few of us think of reducing our food waste. However, this is one of the main ways we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on an individual level. Moreover, it is a great...

What is sustainable living?

“My Sustainable Life”, a new series by the Independent, looks at how famous figures take steps in their daily lives to make a more sustainable world. Drawing from the worlds of politics, fashion, music and beyond, the figures are interviewed about how...

Sunday Times: Born to rewild

If you live in a city, there is a high chance that lockdown passed in a blur of property listings as you dreamt of a new life amid rolling fields. Not many of us, however, were in a position to make that dream a reality — not, in any case, on the same scale as...

Earth Day 2021

Today is Earth Day, an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection across the world. This year’s theme is Restore Our Earth, something which I definitely support given my own activities in regenerative agriculture. Restoring the...

Putting purpose first

This month is b-corp month, the month where we celebrate businesses all over the world that choose to put people over profit. I’ve had extraordinary opportunities in my career, from being spotted while working as a dance teacher in my native Malaysia to...

Letting your garden grow!

Last week, Monty Don, lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series Gardeners’ World urged gardeners across the country not to cut their grass, but just let it grow. A messier lawn creates a much better environment for insects and little...

Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day comes at the end of the first week back at school for my kids, and I’m sure for many of your kids too. It’s a day of celebration in many ways, celebrating the gifts of motherhood, celebrating a gradual end to the pandemic restrictions,...

Month of snow, crops will grow

The snowfall these past few days has made the reality of lockdown even starker. When you’re used to spending as much time outdoors as I do, it’s challenging to be inside most of the time. As I wrote back in November when my family and I finally got to...

Why Veganuary’s Not Just For Vegans

New Year, new resolutions, new outlooks… new diets. It’s that time of year when we all try to make a fresh start – and it’s no surprise that many of us want to begin by cleaning up our act in the kitchen. And, of course, with lockdown still a fact of...

Back to (home) school

If you’re anything like me, on 4th January, when we received the news that the kids weren’t going back to school after all, you would be forgiven for finding yourself in a slight panic. How could we be back here again!? How am I going to make sure they...

2020 is over, long live 2021!

The British tradition of families getting together to watch queen’s message on Christmas Day is one, I’ll confess, I wasn’t familiar with before i moved to the UK. It’s exactly the kind of quaint Britishness we read about from afar or watch in Richard...

A different kind of Christmas

Christmas in London is one of my favourite times of year. When I moved here to start a family, it was around this time of year that, even as the temperatures plummeted, I truly fell in love with the place. People’s spirits lift and the city discovers a...

Behind The Good Plot

People would always tell me: “whenever you start a new business, but especially a restaurant, you need a vision.” Mine, simply enough, was to create an organic farm-to-table deli that would celebrate sustainability and cater to all tastes. But to turn...

Visiting Worton Kitchen Garden

I have already used my blog to share my interest in land for agriculture – in the soil and what it means for crops and livestock – and how important this is to me on my Ewhurst journey. But as I build my dream for Ewhurst, there’s still one important...

Fir Farm’s sustainable farming with a megaphone

Sustainable farming, as you all know by now, is a new beginning for me. It’s a journey of exploration and education, as I meet brilliant farmers and ecologists who are seeking answers to the fundamental questions about our relationship with nature and food...

Visiting Neston Park

If you close your eyes and try to imagine an English country estate, the chances are you’re imagining something like Neston Park. Which is not surprising, as it’s often used as a location for tv and films! Over 200 years old, featuring a beautiful house...

Nose to tail – best to start early

Not long ago, a friend of mine had a had a baby. It’s a strange time to give birth, in the middle of the pandemic with all the restrictions, so I wanted to do everything I can to support my friend. Of course I was excited for her and her family, and all...

It all started with Poppy and Rosie

‘Mum, for Christmas this year I want a cow and a chicken’ – oh wow, here we go, we’re really moving to the English countryside. When my daughter told me she wanted a cow and a chicken for Christmas, and that they’d be called Poppy and Rosie, I knew that...

Eating seasonal and local

The early days of the pandemic feel like such a long time ago that it’s easy to forget the fears of food shortages that gripped many in the uk. As panicked shoppers rushed to supermarkets to stock up on essentials, empty shelves were a common sight around the...

What’s new for Mandy Lieu?

Fans of Mandy Lieu, Malaysian-American actress and entertainment personality, have learned to expect the unexpected. But even the most ardent fan couldn’t have predicted that she would resurface in London, five years after her last public appearance, about to set...

Mandy Lieu turns over a new leaf

Mandy Lieu causes a stir wherever she goes, but her latest reinvention as a food and farming entrepreneur has captured attention from Hong Kong to London. The Malaysian-American actress and entertainment personality built a huge following in Asia over 15 years with...

Life in Food

Welcome to my new regular column for sublime magazine, where I hope to discuss sustainable food, lifestyle and family. A few years ago I left behind a life in the entertainment industry spotlight in Asia to start a family in the UK. Now I invite you to share my...

One day everything changed

When I held my daughter in my arms for the first time, the whole world melted away. The maternity ward, the hospital, London, my career, everything I’d experienced in life up to that point – it all faded into the background. From then on, I knew it was...

Welcome to my website!

Hi there, and welcome to my website!   My name is Mandy and I am currently building a business and exploring food systems, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.   After I moved to the UK in 2015 to start my family, my passion for nutrition and education...

Why you should reduce your food waste

When thinking about ways we can help the environment, I am sure that very few of us think of reducing our food waste. However, this is one of the main ways we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on an individual level. Moreover, it is a great...

Rewilding community gathers to share stories

It was a delight to host the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s annual rewilding network event here at Ewhurst Park this month. The day started with welcoming our guests. We gave an overview of what we’re doing here at Ewhurst Park, then the Wildlife...

The case for fewer sheep

I want to highlight an issue that is currently being debated as part of our thinking about conservation and agriculture. Some conservationists are pointing out that the UK’s traditional focus on sheep farming could be reconsidered. Sheep grazing on rolling green...

Education Day 2: Plant Your Pants

We recently hosted an education day here at Ewhurst Park. We welcomed children from five schools that are participating in the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Trust’s Wilder Lives schools initiative, along with some local home schooling groups. They spent a full day...

Education Day 1: Migrating birds and pond life

Earlier this month we were visited by children from five schools in Hampshire, along with some local home schooling groups. They were invited to Ewhurst Park for a special education day, with a host of talks, demonstrations and activities lined up for them. Our...

Looking back to 2023, looking forward to 2024

What an incredible year we had in 2023. The turn of the new year has seen us reflecting on how far we’ve come. And hopefully we can expect more of the same in 2024. 2023 started with a landmark moment. In January, we released two beavers into an enclosure on the...

Festive fun at the Ewhurst Park Christmas Fair

We hosted our first Christmas Fair at Ewhurst Park last Thursday, with plenty of fun activities and attractions to spark off the festive season. We set up a heated marquee in our market garden. Hambledon Vineyard sold its wines and Hampshire Deli displayed a range...

Ewhurst Park Christmas Fair

Inspired by Winterbourne Downs Nature Reserve

Earlier this month we visited Winterbourne Downs Nature Reserve, near Salisbury, to look at their chalk grassland, as well as the butterfly banks and flower meadows they have created. It was of particular interest to us because we are looking to establish our own...

Congratulations, Your Royal Highness!

Congratulations to King Charles on his coronation! His Royal Highness is someone I have always admired for his commitment to environmental issues. King Charles has been campaigning on the environment since before I was born. Back in the 1960s, he was ahead of the...

April: An ideal time to start foraging

I love foraging. There’s something about foraging that embodies the spirit of what we are trying to do at Ewhurst Park, which is about appreciating and reconnecting with nature. I often refer to Ewhurst Park as an ‘edible landscape’. This is because, when we slow...

Beavers released into the wild at Ewhurst Park

We are celebrating a significant milestone at Ewhurst Park. This January, two beavers were released into the park – making this the first time beavers have been seen in Hampshire in 400 years. This is significant for a couple of reasons. First, the introduction of...

Appreciating global nature on Geography Week!

Geography Awareness Week is approaching: a time to consider the relationship between people and their environment. To me, geography means thinking of the world as a whole. I have had the amazing opportunity to live and work all over the globe, experiencing many...

Ewhurst Park Animal Spotlight: Piglets

Piglets and Proud Mamas at Ewhurst ParkSpringtime is known as the prime time for baby animals, but this year at least our piglets waited until the early Autumn to grace our farm. I love pigs and piglets. They are intelligent, curious and brimming with...

Foraging: Mushrooms with Marlow

As the leaves change and the weather becomes cooler, I have been struck by how quickly the time is flying by at Ewhurst Park. We are now firmly in the autumn season, which has brought bursts of colour to the trees, honking geese to the lake, and what appears on the...

The future is regenerative

The recent heat wave really drove home for me just how important biodiversity and nature-based initiatives are in the fight against climate change. Projects like Ewhurst can help change the way people think about food and nature, and help to build a...

Ramsdell Village Hall Fundraiser

As autumn sets in, the leaves begin to fall and the days get shorter, I naturally begin to think about community and belonging. For some, autumn means hibernation and retreating into the warm glow of home and family. But for me, autumn is a time to reconnect with...

The heatwave in Hampshire

The recent heat wave really drove home for me just how important biodiversity and nature-based initiatives are in the fight against climate change. Projects like Ewhurst can help change the way people think about food and nature, and help to build a...

Wild food and foraging at Ewhurst Park

Wild food foraging is defined as the search for wild, edible food and resources. It dates back to the beginnings of civilisation, and there are still small communities around the world that rely on foraged food as their only source of nourishment. I am fascinated...

Reflections on our natural health service

The pandemic offered a moment for many of us to reflect on our own and our family’s mental and physical health, including myself. For people stuck indoors for weeks, in cities without easy access to nature and open spaces, an emotional strain was...

Thinking Global, Acting Local

With summer starting to shine its light, I'm looking forward to the new season at Ewhurst Park. But I'm also keeping an eye on the global conversation around biodiversity as we approach crucial UN negotiations in Kunming this year. 

Wildfarmed

The wheat industry takes on regenerative farming.Last weekend, I read an interesting article in the Financial Times titled, Flour power: three men and a farming revolution. Exploring the paths of the founders of Wildfarmed – a new company that grows and...

How Organic Food Fights Climate Change

Whenever I visit a grocer, I am impressed by the organic food selection. What once was a niche trend, with items only offered in health or specialty shops, has infiltrated the current market. With the rise of organic products, it is important to...

Letter to the Guardian – 27.09.21

Damian Carrington writes about regenerative farmers making the most of planned government subsidies for carbon-cutting measures like hedgerow restoration, changing livestock feeds or agroforestry (‘Why not start now?’ On the track to regenerative...

Five ways to make your life more sustainable

As lockdowns continue to ease across the UK, more and more of us are slowly getting back into our regular pre-covid routine. Saying goodbye to days spent in pyjamas and working from home, tasks that were once mundane are exciting. As we adjust to our...

It’s Here! Ewhurst Park Summer Series

In this column, I’ve kept readers up to date on our journey at Ewhurst Park, as we transform the estate and explore its possibilities for bio-diversity.as well as developing a few local community group initiatives, I have been very focused on inviting...

Celebrating New Life at Ewhurst

With the start of a new month comes the chance of a new beginning. As we change our calendars, we get a fresh start, an opportunity to leave the past and focus on our future. As I anticipate what this new beginning brings, I find myself smiling at the...

Why you should reduce your food waste

When thinking about ways we can help the environment, I am sure that very few of us think of reducing our food waste. However, this is one of the main ways we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on an individual level. Moreover, it is a great...

What is sustainable living?

“My Sustainable Life”, a new series by the Independent, looks at how famous figures take steps in their daily lives to make a more sustainable world. Drawing from the worlds of politics, fashion, music and beyond, the figures are interviewed about how...

Sunday Times: Born to rewild

If you live in a city, there is a high chance that lockdown passed in a blur of property listings as you dreamt of a new life amid rolling fields. Not many of us, however, were in a position to make that dream a reality — not, in any case, on the same scale as...

Earth Day 2021

Today is Earth Day, an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection across the world. This year’s theme is Restore Our Earth, something which I definitely support given my own activities in regenerative agriculture. Restoring the...

Putting purpose first

This month is b-corp month, the month where we celebrate businesses all over the world that choose to put people over profit. I’ve had extraordinary opportunities in my career, from being spotted while working as a dance teacher in my native Malaysia to...

Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day comes at the end of the first week back at school for my kids, and I’m sure for many of your kids too. It’s a day of celebration in many ways, celebrating the gifts of motherhood, celebrating a gradual end to the pandemic restrictions,...

Month of snow, crops will grow

The snowfall these past few days has made the reality of lockdown even starker. When you’re used to spending as much time outdoors as I do, it’s challenging to be inside most of the time. As I wrote back in November when my family and I finally got to...

Why Veganuary’s Not Just For Vegans

New Year, new resolutions, new outlooks… new diets. It’s that time of year when we all try to make a fresh start – and it’s no surprise that many of us want to begin by cleaning up our act in the kitchen. And, of course, with lockdown still a fact of...

Back to (home) school

If you’re anything like me, on 4th January, when we received the news that the kids weren’t going back to school after all, you would be forgiven for finding yourself in a slight panic. How could we be back here again!? How am I going to make sure they...

2020 is over, long live 2021!

The British tradition of families getting together to watch queen’s message on Christmas Day is one, I’ll confess, I wasn’t familiar with before i moved to the UK. It’s exactly the kind of quaint Britishness we read about from afar or watch in Richard...

A different kind of Christmas

Christmas in London is one of my favourite times of year. When I moved here to start a family, it was around this time of year that, even as the temperatures plummeted, I truly fell in love with the place. People’s spirits lift and the city discovers a...

Behind The Good Plot

People would always tell me: “whenever you start a new business, but especially a restaurant, you need a vision.” Mine, simply enough, was to create an organic farm-to-table deli that would celebrate sustainability and cater to all tastes. But to turn...

Visiting Worton Kitchen Garden

I have already used my blog to share my interest in land for agriculture – in the soil and what it means for crops and livestock – and how important this is to me on my Ewhurst journey. But as I build my dream for Ewhurst, there’s still one important...

Visiting Neston Park

If you close your eyes and try to imagine an English country estate, the chances are you’re imagining something like Neston Park. Which is not surprising, as it’s often used as a location for tv and films! Over 200 years old, featuring a beautiful house...

Nose to tail – best to start early

Not long ago, a friend of mine had a had a baby. It’s a strange time to give birth, in the middle of the pandemic with all the restrictions, so I wanted to do everything I can to support my friend. Of course I was excited for her and her family, and all...

It all started with Poppy and Rosie

‘Mum, for Christmas this year I want a cow and a chicken’ – oh wow, here we go, we’re really moving to the English countryside. When my daughter told me she wanted a cow and a chicken for Christmas, and that they’d be called Poppy and Rosie, I knew that...

Eating seasonal and local

The early days of the pandemic feel like such a long time ago that it’s easy to forget the fears of food shortages that gripped many in the uk. As panicked shoppers rushed to supermarkets to stock up on essentials, empty shelves were a common sight around the...

What’s new for Mandy Lieu?

Fans of Mandy Lieu, Malaysian-American actress and entertainment personality, have learned to expect the unexpected. But even the most ardent fan couldn’t have predicted that she would resurface in London, five years after her last public appearance, about to set...

Mandy Lieu turns over a new leaf

Mandy Lieu causes a stir wherever she goes, but her latest reinvention as a food and farming entrepreneur has captured attention from Hong Kong to London. The Malaysian-American actress and entertainment personality built a huge following in Asia over 15 years with...

Life in Food

Welcome to my new regular column for sublime magazine, where I hope to discuss sustainable food, lifestyle and family. A few years ago I left behind a life in the entertainment industry spotlight in Asia to start a family in the UK. Now I invite you to share my...

One day everything changed

When I held my daughter in my arms for the first time, the whole world melted away. The maternity ward, the hospital, London, my career, everything I’d experienced in life up to that point – it all faded into the background. From then on, I knew it was...

Welcome to my website!

Hi there, and welcome to my website!   My name is Mandy and I am currently building a business and exploring food systems, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.   After I moved to the UK in 2015 to start my family, my passion for nutrition and education...

Why you should reduce your food waste

When thinking about ways we can help the environment, I am sure that very few of us think of reducing our food waste. However, this is one of the main ways we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on an individual level. Moreover, it is a great...