Root is for curious eaters who want the stories behind their food, by author, fermenter, culinary educator, creativity coach, and food historian Dr. Julia Skinner.
Expect recipes, historical deep dives, fun food-adjacent essays, and the occasional surprise.
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The newsletter has moved over to WordPress. There are still stumbling blocks but, we are here! If you were a paid subscriber in Substack, your payments there have been paused, and you’ll need to upgrade your subscription by clicking below to access paywalled content here. It’s $3/month: Which is $2/month cheaper than Substack or Patreon…
Keep readingI wrote not one but TWO new books (plus a recipe I’ve been making since undergrad)
Hello friends, This week I’m sharing a simple recipe I started making in my early 20s, and wrote in the first of many homemade recipe books I gave to family each holiday: Printing them out on the library printer and binding them with whatever ribbon I had handy. But first a few things that are…
Keep readingWhat food preservation technology to use, when
The first-ever newsletter issue from my self-hosted newsletter platform! If you were a paid subscriber on Substack, head below to resubscribe and access paid content again (as promised, it starts at $3/month): Choosing a food preservation technique based on your kitchen equipment I recently designed and released a new course called Resilience and Community Care through…
Keep readingHistoric food as a path to the future
The messiness, and interconnectedness, of tradition and memory This is a (heavily adapted) talk from a women’s herbalism retreat I gave a handful of years ago. As we move into the new year, I’m revisiting this work and thinking about how it continues to shape me. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!…
Keep readingIt’s time to unclench your jaw
Your January recipe round up includes a favorite nervine tea, plus things to do with all those cranberries you bought I feel like December was a whirlwind. Beyond the usual holiday reasons, there was an air of tension, of shedding those last bits of old selves off to leave behind in the old year. Of…
Keep readingQuick poll
Cheaper subscriptions, or not having to hit buttons? Hi all! For ages now, I’ve been planning to move to a different platform for myriad reasons. In the next month-ish, I’m making the leap and need your feedback about what would better serve you: [[[[[jetpack/paywall]]]]] Option 1: I move to another dedicated newsletter service (Buttondown), move…
Keep readingHomemade lemon cologne
Plus, the launch of my new book-themed unisex perfume We’re beginning the year with scent, and in particular with the ways I work with scent using one of my favorite kitchen staples (by the way, would you like me to do a full newsletter issue devoted to making scent with aromatic, edible ingredients? Let me…
Keep readingHistorical inquiry as a contemplative and imaginative practice
A recent foray into using stream-of-consciousness journaling as a generative tool for exploring time and place I’ve always been someone who feels very deeply, and for whom experiencing something is just as important as understanding it conceptually. This is probably part of why I got into studying food: Because I can create and experience a…
Keep readingFeasting: Repurposing Food Honors the Hands that Produce It
Your December Recipe Round up includes sweet-and-savory persimmon sauce, reducing food waste in holiday meals, raspberry vinegar, and more Feasting is a big theme for me this month, beyond the usual holiday-related reasons. Having just handed in the final copy on a forthcoming piece about historical feasting practices (particularly in connection to food waste reduction),…
Keep readingThe trials and tribulations of Victorian silverware
And what they tell us about modern eating traditions and ourselves Be sure to read to the end for a thrilling and enchanting side note about being intentional with terminology when discussing historical periods! And, check out my classes as gifts for others or for you, if you haven’t already: from a class with practices…
Keep readingCooking from two historic cookbooks
And devising a modern recipe when comparing multiple historic sources All classes at the Culinary Curiosity School are 20% off with the code HOLIDAY (paid subscribers, use your paid subscriber discount code for 40% off). Unique online culinary classes make great gifts, and mine cover anything from reducing food waste to preserving family cookbooks to…
Keep readingReading list: Fermented futures
Two studies to spark your fermentation curiosity and hopefully, some conversation I love that I get to live a life at the intersection of scientific inquiry and unbridled, sometimes unhinged, curiosity. I thrive in interdisciplinary spaces, as I know many of you do as well, and when I saw these two studies come up in…
Keep readingBook awards, podcasts, and other happenings
Next book’s preorders are open! Plus gearing up for a busy autumn Just a few quick updates this week, as it’s been a bit since I’ve actually listed out the things I’ve been doing in any formalized kind of way. As always, I’m available for private classes, book talks, and really anything where I get…
Keep readingFall opportunities and your own customized writing retreat
Work with me on your culinary + creative projects through the end of the year I typically share current course offerings and private session availability in each week’s newsletter as they come up, but after a few requests to bundle it all in one place, I’ve pulled together this overview of all my fall and…
Keep readingCitrus season is upon us again
And time to make the recipe with the most unappetizing name in history Winter is citrus season here in the U.S., which means time to preserve fruits at their most luscious and flavorful. In Ireland, I’ve become accustomed to citrus that is passably good, but when you’ve lived for years near or in citrus-growing regions…
Keep readingYour October Recipe Round up includes cozy, spicy treats that are simple to make
Maple apple butter, reducing waste from preserving projects, another cocktail, and more I love autumn cooking. It feels so cozy to make some simple, nice things for myself when the weather cools down, and these particular recipes are all ones that feel like nice little treats for myself that make life just a bit more…
Keep readingProcess pieces: Reflections on making a culinary oracle deck
Conceptualizing a book idea as something beyond a traditional book I’ve written two fermentation oracle decks: A self-published one (The Hidden Cosmos) and later, the traditionally published (and now award-winning) The Fermentation Oracle. These particular projects pushed me beyond my comfort zone with writing, conceptualizing design, and thinking about projects. They pushed me to consider…
Keep readingFrankly, not a very good pizza
A life-changing meal, and the limitations + affordances of writing about life-changing meals I’ve been thinking a lot about one meal that really shifted things, fundamentally, for me. In some ways, I think the “I had a meal that changed my life, let me tell you about it!” trope feels, well, like a trope. Overdone,…
Keep readingAfternoon tea, and tea as a savory food
Writing about food comes in layers Years ago, I wrote Afternoon Tea: A History, and as always happens with writing, I learned about A Really Cool Thing (in this case, Burmese pickled tea salad) immediately after the book went to press. A book is never really ‘done,’ we don’t come to a point where everything…
Keep readingCool weather foods present possibilities
Your September recipes include a book-themed cocktail, ways to preserve apples, pretend pumpkin butter, and more This month, we’re moving to cooler weather and to different ingredients. In some places, tomato and basil harvests are winding down, while winter squash and grain harvests are ramping up. I think of September as a month where I…
Keep readingThe map shapes the (food) story
Wayfinding is a collaboration between author and reader, in food writing and beyond I’m an avid lover and confused user of maps. Maps as objects bring me such joy: Studying them, admiring the ways we try to conceptualize complex 3D spaces in 2D renderings. What gets left out, and what gets included, says a lot…
Keep readingBog Butter
History and flavor of place ”Passenger measure your time, for time is the measure of your being” -inscription on the Shandon Bells, Cork, Ireland There’s something special about bog butter: butter that’s sometimes centuries old, buried in a bog only to be unearthed, often by surprise, at a later date. We don’t have exact dates…
Keep readingThe Butter Museum
If heaven on Earth were a place, it would probably be in the old Butter Exchange “This world deserved to be tasted, greedily” -Asako Yuzuki, Butter A stone’s throw away from Cork’s city center (and, conveniently, also a stone’s throw away from my house) exists one of the greatest museums on Earth: The Butter Museum.…
Keep readingSmoked sauerkraut
And how to make your own Smoked sauerkraut has become a staple side dish and topping for my meals, adding lots of depth and a surprise hit of smoke that’s complex without overwhelming. The combination of sour and smoke with the gentle crunch of fermented cabbage makes sandwiches sing, particularly when I’m craving savory depth.…
Keep readingAn abundance of herbs, and easy ways to preserve them
Your monthly recipe round up includes tulsi chocolate syrup, tea, and more For a while, I’ve been sporadically sharing recipes a couple times a month in my weekly newsletters, but I’ve decided to shift to this monthly recipe round up format so you have the bulk of them in one place. I may still share…
Keep readingFermentation short stories
A peek into my inner world of fiction writing All my published writing is nonfiction. But recently, my unpublished writing has become more fiction-heavy (I share one of my short stories below). I’ve long craved the ideal of writing interesting and successful fiction, but my academic brain has put up guardrails against sharing things that…
Keep readingArtist's statement: A life in balance
Humoral theory, food as art, and a book as a portal Following up on my last newsletter issue, my humoral theory artist’s book is all boxed up and ready to mail off to the Center for the Book. Below are some thoughts on the work, but also some sneak preview photos of the finished piece,…
Keep readingMaking art with kombucha SCOBY
And a humoral theory-themed artist’s book For years, I’ve been experimenting with using kombucha SCOBY and vinegar mothers in artwork. I always have them around, and because they exist in such constant abundance I have a rich source of artistic experimentation to play around with. Since much of my current creative work is as a…
Keep readingExploration list: Collaboration
What if “resource use” were relational, not extractive? What if reading were a conversation, and cooking a symphony? The current moment is full of reminders of our very human tendency to be extractive. Extractive in how we engage with each other, the natural world, with our own ideas. We focus on what we can get.…
Keep readingFrozen Yogurt
An unexpected exercise in preserving abundance I adore frozen yogurt, but despite having an ice cream maker and a constant supply of yogurt, I rarely seem to make it. Frozen yogurt and ice cream feel like things that are so luxurious that it feels somehow taboo to make them just for myself, as though freezing…
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