Winter is the time to curl up with a good book.
Here are a few I have been reading this year:
Ultra Processed People – Chris van Tulleken
Published in 2023, it has taken me years to get around to reading this book, even though lots of people I trust have been telling me for ages that I MUST read this book…
But I judged a book by its cover: it seemed already obvious that fresh, seasonal and simply-processed foods are the bedrock of healthy, sustainable diets; of good food culture; of connectedness with one another – from friends and families who eat with us, to those who farm and tend the land. If I’m frank, the title feels deliberately contentious, maybe even slightly insulting, and anyway, I thought, I could basically guess what it was going to say.
HOW WRONG I WAS – this book has been blowing my mind with every chapter! It is challenging me look differently at food, people’s bodies, and the food environment around us.
Recipes from Holly’s Garden Kitchen – Holly Young
A recipe book from Lincolnshire!
Holly Young, who runs a small private catering business and food van from her home village of Leadenham, is a long time friend of the food partnership.
It won’t surprise you, then, that she puts emphasis on seasonality, health and minimising waste in her approach to food.
Holly catered the Fens workshops that we convened over the last two years – and it went down a storm!
Her food is vibrant and lush and colourful – and so is her book. Her recipes are uncomplicated, her attitude joyful.
It might also inspire you to grow a garden or an allotment in 2026 – you have been warned! What more do you want from a cook book?
Edible Economics: A hungry economist explains the world – Ha Joon Chang
Food touches practically everything. Food Partnerships, with our systems approach, see this all the time.
This surprising book takes food – along with its histories and cultures – as a mouth-watering and thought-provoking way into economic theories.
“Getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: if we understand it, we can change it – and with it, the world.”
Lark bookshop on Guildhall Street in Lincoln have these and plenty other good food books.
Thanks to the Lincoln Independent for publishing this in their December edition.
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