Nice Pear: a weekly(ish) feminist foodletter | Issue #024 | 07 March 2021
Hello!
This year, when ‘time’ has been so strange and amorphous, I’ve clung desperately to morning routines.
I don’t mean like, a tech-bro, 5-am morning routine - I’ve never been much of a morning person and I typically don’t get up before 8 am. I’d love the freedom to wake up without an alarm, but I need to be logged in for my day job by 9 am, and would regularly be late if I didn’t set one.
I’ve always been a night-owl. I used to get in trouble for reading past my bedtime, and I write best in the evening. I used to desperately wish I was a morning person. My family (and the wider world) always associated getting up late with laziness - and getting up early with productivity - which any good millennial knows is the true meaning of life (/sarcasm).
Our obsession with productivity, hustle culture and the #RiseAndGrind has been thoroughly dissected, debunked, and ridiculed, so I’m not going to add to that discourse.
My morning routine is gentle. It’s more like a series of baby steps, none of them timed, none of them a chore, to make the neverending days at my desk inside my flat, feel a bit more bearable, a bit more worthwhile.
Because at the moment, a lot of things don’t seem worthwhile to me at all.
But still, I get up. I slowly make coffee while I read the news (haven’t quite perfected the art of no-screen mornings just yet). I sit and drink my coffee while I read a few pages of whichever novel I have on the go right now. When I’ve finished my coffee, I write in my journal, pouring out all the feelings and anecdotes I used to share in the pub with my friends, but now have nowhere else to put them. Then I stretch, or do a short yoga routine (depending on how soon I need to be present at my desk).
And slowly, I wake up, and I find small ways that this day is different to all the other days this year. Maybe I’ll start reading a new book, or watching a new show, or try cooking a new recipe for dinner tonight. Maybe take a different route on my daily walk, or maybe I’ll text that friend I haven’t exchanged a brief flurry of messages with for a while (let’s be real, that’s all my friends. Replying to messages is hard right now because, what is there to say? Nobody has news any more, nobody even has gossip).
I don’t really know where I’m going with this, except to say that, though I’ve clung to routine to get me through the days, I thrive on newness. I can’t make big changes right now (not just due to the pandemic), so I’m trying to seek out small changes to get me through the weeks and months and remind me that every day is new - even if it feels like every day is the same.
👇 Scroll on down for Things to Read 👇
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Unfortunately not my bed. Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels
Things to read this week
A couple of tech bros this week launched an app that removes ads and stories from recipe blogs. Creators were justly outraged at the app, which removes both the context of recipes (often including relevant information), and the revenue-generating ads which keep the recipes free-to-access. The app has reportedly now been taken down.
In vegan news 🌱:
Oatly will now be served in Starbucks across the US. I’m not particularly brand-loyal, but oat milk do be the best plant-based alternative (both for taste and texture and for its environmental cred)
How are chefs recreating the umami-salty-sweet magic of fermented fish for a vegan audience? Read about the intricacies of vegan fish sauce in Vice.
Did you know soy milk was illegal in Germany in the ‘80s? I didn’t know that! This is a really interesting read on the (relatively recent) history of tofu in Germany.
And finally… Sitting at the intersection of two of my greatest fascinations (baking and influencer culture), this is a fun & interesting piece on Instagram’s impact on the chocolate chip cookie 🍪
Where to find me this week
Nothing new published this week. I sent two pitches, and got no rejections or commissions - yet!
As always, you can find me @ZoePickburn on Twiter, Insta, and other social media.
Thanks!
Zoe
Freelance writer & journo | Food blogger & newsletterer (she/her)
Say hello@zoepickburn.com with stories, commissions & foodie chit chat
If you enjoy Nice Pear & want to support it (or any of the other content I create online) you can always become a paying subscriber, buy me a virtual cuppa, or throw some change in the tip jar.