Dark Mountain: Issue 23 - Dark Kitchen

The new Dark Mountain issue: Dark Kitchen is an investigation into food and food culture in times of collapse - from the devouring agricultural machine to the regenerative fermenting jar

Our twenty third book is a feast of stories, poetry and artwork that explore food culture in a time of converging ecological crises – from the devouring agricultural machine to the restorative fermenting jar.

Dark Kitchen is based on our online series that set out to document the regenerative acts of resistance happening in kitchens and fields around the world. In this book, we taste the sweet and salt, the sour and the bitter. We look deep into the belly of the beast: into the factories of ultra-processed food; into the slaughterhouse knocker box; at starvation on the Arctic sea ice; in an elite dining room where endangered animals are on the menu.

But among the clatter of our pans, we also remember the connections that nourish the living world: the wild salmon of the Atlantic and Pacific that feed the forests; the seaweed that creates a garden on a Hebridean island; the microbes that link the wild yeasts in Montana to the whiskered wheat of East Anglia to the sourdough loaves that feed a locked-down hill community in Australia. Food that makes sense of everything, even as the civilised world falls apart.

With recipes and reportage, poetry and production techniques, gathering and gleaning, myths and metaphysics  – do join us around our convivial kitchen table!

 You can buy a copy of the new Dark Mountain: Issue 23- Dark Kitchen from our online shop for £18.99 or take out a subscription  and get one for £11.99