From the soil
What we have published thus far in Season Soil - saffron, chocolate, rum, red velvet cake and a dive into ancestral farming in Aotearoa...
This is our last month exploring the ingredient Soil. We have looked at this ingredient in a number of ways, from the idea of being rooted in places with rum, the notion of origin, and all the complications that brings with Red Velvet cake and the toiling of soil and plants with saffron in Spain and diary farming in Aotearoa; to name but a few! And, there is still more to come!
Chloe and Anna have explored soil in our newsletter with sugar, and the idea of ‘the natural world’, and here is our reading list for Soil and we will be holding a tutorial on Tuesday 9 March at 6.30pm on Instagram.
Here is our round up of what we have published so far this season!
Sowing Culinary Tradition in the Saffron Fields of La Mancha, by Esme Fox
Saffron is an ancient spice that has been considered one of the most expensive ingredients in the world. Esme writes about how the plant crocus sativus has found a home in the region of La Mancha in Spain, outlining the extensive labour behind the spice and the importance it plays in local and national culture.
From the soil up: dairy farming with heritage at its core, by Cathy Tait-Jamieson
Māori dairy farmer Cathy Tait-Jamieson tells us how her family farm developed and grew by keeping ancestral farming practices central. She believes that farming health begins with the soil, which is a holistic approach including building in generational input and knowledge.
Carla Martin
To kick off our Soil season I wanted to interview Carla Martin, so as to set the scene about what 'soil' could mean. It is of course about the ingredient of soil, and how that feeds plants and environment, but it is also about ownership and being part of a wider chain that is global - food and drink chains move across many soils!
Carla is Founder and Executive Director of Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute, a non-profit organisation which is dedicated to research and education on fine cacoa and chocolate, and a lecturer at Harvard University in the Department of African and African American Studies.
Ian Burrell
Ian is a renowned rum expert and ambassador who launched a new rum brand Equiano this year. Equiano it is made from two distilleries, one in Mauritius and one in Barbados, which represents a history of rum separate from the white-washed history more commonly known about the spirit. We spoke about how they planned to grow as a business and how history, place and storytelling is rooted in everything they do, as well as celebrating a contemporary drinks culture.
Nia Raquelle Smith
When we think about baking we often think about the end product - the beautifully decorated cake, the treat at the end of a meal or to get you through the afternoon. We don't often think about the ingredients as being direct from the soil, the agriculture of flour, the farm-ness of the eggs and butter. And, we don't often think of the journey, the history, the sense of place and the cultural shaping of the cake - or pastry - as we fixate on the celebratory nature of the dish. Nik Raquelle discusses all of this in the context of Red Velvet Cake.
This season we went entirely New Zealand / Aotearoa for The Ten!
Cathy Tait-Jamieson - Māori dairy farmer
Aaron McLean - photographer and founder of Stone Soup publication
Ashleigh Payne - chef, baker, writer, maker
A wee reminder about subscribing -
To read a ‘behind the scenes’ of our research, with an essay, a recipe and a reading list twice a month - subscribe to our paid newsletter! These subscriptions also are what fund our articles, how we pay writers and researchers for their work - so more subscriptions means higher fees to contributors! We don’t publish more, we aim to pay more.
Starting this year we also decided that the first month fee from all new subscriptions will be donated to charity. We first implemented this at the end of our first introductory season with donations allocated for the Trussell Trust, a food aid organization and extended these donations through our Soil season so all new sign ups this month will contribute to that pot. Starting in April we will be donating to Made in Hackney to kick off our season on Water. We will talk about this further in our next newsletter (with some other exciting developments)!