“As a UK associate artist, I am not ‘in-residence’ at Delfina Foundation, but am based from my home in Somerset. I moved to the UK in April this year to help run my husband’s family pub, Rose & Crown. The pub has been in the family for over 150 years. It is a Grade II listed building, and famous for having no bar, which creates a really interesting and intimate experience both for customers and the person serving.”
“This autumn I am participating in Delfina Foundation’s Politics of Food programme. This collection of books is important to my research for that. At the top of the pile is a book about zero waste cooking, written by the chef from Silo, a zero waste restaurant in London where I will be doing an internship this December. Also included are books on brewing, cocktails, and koji.”
“During my time as an associate at Delfina I have been researching the history of alcohol production. In particular I have gone down a rabbit hole of learning about cocktails and I am exploring ways in which I can use them to talk about climate change solutions. This is a part of my growing collection of carbon negative alcohols produced in the UK along with homemade bitters and honey syrups made with foraged ingredients.”
“At home I have been doing a lot of recipe testing. This is a recent batch of crackers made with dehydrated apples from the orchard at the pub. In the future I would like to make them with local nuts and house-milled flour made from a brewery’s spent grains.”
“This is one of my many fermented honey experiments. I began doing these experiments a couple of years ago in San Francisco where I used to keep my own bees. I have tried using everything from berries and fruits to nuts and mushrooms. You take raw honey and add another ingredient, ideally with a higher water content, and then let the microbes do their thing. This honey contains foraged sloe berries. I used the final product as an ingredient in some carbon conscious cocktail recipes I presented to my co-residents at Delfina a few weeks ago.”
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Annalee Levin is a UK associate for Delfina Foundation’s fifth season of the Politics of Food. Taking place during autumn 2022, the season is in partnership with Gaia Art Foundation and with additional support from a range of individuals and partners.
First photo by Georgina Woodhead. Others artist’s own.