How gourds are revered at Zimbabwe's rainmaking ceremonies
Our first Gourd Season article is now live, with a teaser of what is to come...
Our first written piece for the season comes from Andrew Mambondiyani about the role gourds play in traditional rainmaking ceremonies
Listen to the latest in our audio series, the interview by drinks writer Yolanda Evans with Panayiotis Savva, who ages alcohol in gourds - reviving and reinventing an ancient tradition.
(It has not escaped our attention that images of gourds, and therefore our homepage, is eeerrr a little… *suggestive*)
Keep an eye out on our Instagram feed for announcements for future articles. Over the next two weeks we’ll be publishing a story about banjos from Jaime Parkinson and a piece about gourds, ayurveda and learning to love traditions by Anjaney Kothari
We also have some exciting news to tease. We’ll be partnering with the National Gallery to put on some member’s tours where we will look at a few paintings in their collection and share what it tells us about Venice and trade during the eighteenth century. These tours will only be available to members so if you are interested please consider signing up!
We’ll be sharing more updates about this partnership in our free newsletter but if you want some insight into our research process (and to support Sourced contributors) we’ll be sharing that info in our paid newsletter.
What we ate and drank
A few weeks back I joined some other London-based food writers and bakers on a field trip to Bath and Bristol. We stopped at Landrace for lunch, Farro for bakes and then rounded out the day with a meal at Bokman. All of it was good but Bokman was the real stand out, maybe one of the best meals I’ve had in years. - CRC
The classics are classics for a reason, and Quo Vadis in Soho will always be a favourite - head chef Jeremy Lee’s desserts are worth eating there alone. On a dark winter January evening this restaurant is the perfect antidote to life - I went with food writer pals, we shared the eel sandwich, all had a pie and then dessert was: quince, pistachio & almond tart; set emilion au chocolate; and ile flottante pralinée (obvs). Quo Vadis’ menus are also a work of art, and I would highly recommend Jeremy Lee’s cookbook Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many - ASM
To Read
Both of us are listening to the audio book of Naomi Klein’s book Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World - it is very fascinating! An important look at the way systems work, how we present ourselves and the slippy line between reality and conspiracy theory. Klein has written a lot about climate change and political systems, and so this work does feel very relevant to the work we are doing.
Just a reminder that we’ve set up a Bookshop.org to list the books in our seasons - take a read!