Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm. I have plans to read their book A Farm on the Roof over my holiday (which begins in 10 days!!!)

Massimo Bottura on sustainability and food waste.

Cured.

Should red velvet cake always have cream cheese icing? This perfect recipe suggests not but I am a staunch red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting believer.

Piccalilli.

The Roca brothers are on tour.

Chefs, substance abuse, jail time and recovery.

A bakehouse in east London and a bakery in Kenya.

Urban agriculture and food security.

I listened to a load of podcasts this past week. Favourites included On Being’s conversation with Paulo Coehlo (which I listened to twice and will probably listen to at least one more time) as well as their conversation with Joanna Macy. Coehlo talks about love as being more powerful than anything else, ‘the love that consumes’ and uses the Greek word ‘agape’ to describe this love. ‘We do not need explanations for everything, we need to fill our lives with love, and as love does not have explanations, okay, let’s simply enjoy‘. This week on Brainpickings Maria Popova writes about Proust and the way we try to intellectualise love, rather than listen to ‘the wisdom of the heart‘.

I also listened to Kat Kinsman over on Radio Cherry Bombe talking about mental health issues in the food industry. The website she has set up ‘Chefs with Issues‘ is a fantastic step in starting the conversation about wellbeing at work.

Allotments in pictures.

New chef crush: Maya Lovelace of Mae in Portland, Oregon.

Strawberries on the Radio 4 Food Programme. I do love listening to Jeremy Lee talk about strawberries: ‘a shocking exuberance that just needs tempering‘.

On figs. Blueberry pie!

Michael Pollan, 10 years on from The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Totally making Ruth Reichl’s grilled cheese sandwich sometime this week.

I found a new blog yesterday. It is called Eat Me Blog and it is just super. It is written by a woman called Sasha, based in the Ukraine and details her Slow Living Project, cakes and the life of her cafe.

On eating weird, bad foods.

I got my hands on a copy of Unfinished Business: Men Women Work Family which I have been wanting to read for absolute ages. I’m only 20 pages or so in but so far it is compelling. And also depressing.

This! I love the look of this illustrated life of Julia Child. Someone buy it for me please?