Dark Mountain Issue 23: Spring 2023

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!

Writers: Robert Alcock, Augustin of the Road, Simeon Ayres, John Barron, Antonia Bertucci, Chris Christou, Kimberley Coburn, Charlotte Du Cann, Charlotte McGuin Freeman, Ben Gibbons, Randall Jason Green, Dougald Hine, Max Jones, Daniela Kato, David Lauer, Thomas Little, Kate Long, James Macconachie, Matt Miles, Gregory Norminton, Rob Percival, Kate Rich, Kim Schnuelle, Mark Watson, Hanna Charlotta Wernerssen, Matthew West, Adam Weymouth, Miek Zwambourn.

Poets: Sharon Black, Sean Borrowdale, Gaylord Brewer, Nickole Brown, Nancy Campbell, Giles Goodland, Mark Goodwin, Emily Hasler, Michael McLane.

Artists: Jo Aris, Eva Bakkeslett, Pascal Baudar, Monique Besten, Peter Cameron, Anne Campbell, Cooking Sections, Max Jones, Nick Jordan, David Lauer, Ava Osbiston, Superflux, Graeme Walker, Miek Zwambourn.

Editor cooks: Nancy Campbell, Charlotte Du Cann, Nick Hunt. Art editor: Charlotte Du Cann. Production and editorial assistant: Ava Osbiston.

Cover: Metate, Mano y Maíz Azul (Mortar, Pestle and Blue Maize) by David Lauer