by Nicola | Nov 1, 2025
If you, like me, were previously only familiar with pectin’s powers in the context of setting jams and jellies, this statement, from a recent article in Nature about the “secret language” spoken by plant cell walls, might stop you in your tracks:... by Nicola | Jun 23, 2024
A long, long time ago, on this remote corner of the pre-Substack Internet, I began exploring what I dubbed the artificial cryosphere—the vast distributed winter of warehouses, juice tanks, reefers, meat lockers, and banana-ripening rooms that we’ve built for our food... by Nicola | Jul 20, 2021
Behold! Edible Geography rises, vampire*-like, from the dead, for today marks the publication of my very first book! Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine is co-authored with Geoff Manaugh, whom long-time readers of this blog will recognize as my... by Nicola | Jul 11, 2018
IMAGE: Peak Pegasus. Photo by Jackie Pritchard, Marine Traffic. Peak Pegasus is a bulk cargo ship, built in 2013, and, like so many commercial vessels, flagged in Liberia. At 229 metres long and 32.26 metres broad, she is Panamax-sized (the maximum width that can... by Nicola | Jul 10, 2018
The year I moved to New York, Sockerbit, a Scandinavian pick-and-mix sweet shop, opened in the West Village. I went once, and never again in the six years I lived in the city. The problem was not that I did not enjoy the fragrant, soft pink Smultronmatta (rippled...