Author Archives: Nicola

“Why are barns red?” is, apparently, the all-time most popular FAQ at The Barn Journal (sadly, no word on what the second most popular might be). A few years ago, design writer Steven Heller dedicated his column in Print magazine to this question. It has also been bothering the Chief Architect of Google+, Yonatan Zunger, [...]

At the New York State Department of Conservation’s fyke net in Richmond Creek on Staten Island, nightly glass eel catch totals have tapered off. Further north, in the Bronx River, the annual migration of tiny, translucent baby eels will continue for another couple of weeks. And, in Maine, one of only two states to allow [...]

Back in 2009, speculative designers Dunne & Raby were commissioned by Design Indaba to think about the problem of feeding nine billion people by 2050. They looked at United Nations reports predicting that food demand will increase by seventy percent over the next forty years; they considered the arguments of pro-GMO foundations and individuals, who [...]

Roadkill cuisine has been making headlines this spring, after the Montana House of Representatives passed a bill (by 99 votes to 1) that allows the state’s motorists to collect and eat the deer, elk, moose, or antelope that was unlucky enough to get in their way. Apparently, food banks in the state already collect freshly [...]

From inner-city food deserts to car-centric suburbs, aspects of the physical environment are frequently cited as a contributing factor to the rise of obesity in the developed world. However, new research, published earlier this year in the International Journal of Obesity and summarised online at the Public Library of Science (PLOS) blog, Obesity Panacea, found [...]

As most readers of Edible Geography will know, smell makes up to ninety percent of what we perceive as flavour, primarily through a process known as retronasal olfaction, in which odour molecules travel from the mouth to the nose via the throat as we eat. In other words, we use our noses to smell food [...]

Behold the missing link between Martha Stewart and Moby Dick: the scrimshaw pie multi-tool. IMAGE: Scrimshaw pie-crimping multi-tools from the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum; photograph by Nicola Twilley. IMAGE: Scrimshaw pie-crimping multi-tools from the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum; photograph by Nicola Twilley. On a recent Venue visit to the [...]