I was born in Sicily 40 years ago and still in the time we were eating natural food and using natural products to clean as well like vinegar on the glass.

I grew up with my mum and dad and three brothers. I was the biggest - my brothers were after me. We used to spend a lot of time with my mum's sisters and their families and sometimes with other relatives.

You can have the atmosphere a little as you read this by sitting in the sunshine (if you are lucky). For the smell, start with some neroli in the vaporiser and later add jasmine. Play the tape of traditional Sicilian music - the dance is called Tarantella. Buon viaggio!

The first medicine I had, twenty-four hours after I was born, was given to me by my paternal grandmother. She gave me a handkerchief, twisted around a piece of bread and soaked in red wine to suckle. The red wine before any other food was supposed to make your stomach strong and I have never had any trouble, indigestion or anything.

I have taken and put together some of the remedies we used and organised them by the systems they affect. Most of them, my grandmother used with my mum, and my mum with me, but when my kids were growing up we had all these medicines and creams that give the illusion of making miracles. It is in the last two years since my dad died of the medicines they gave that I have become interested again in the old ways and learning about herbs and oils.