Whetstone Magazine

Founded in 2017, Whetstone Magazine is an independently published print and digital publication about global food origins, culture, and culinary anthropology.

Welcome to Whetstone Vol. 10!

Contributors

Salt and Sex • Cultures around the world and throughout time recognize the link between these two human necessities.

The Quiet Growth of an Unusually Spicy Pepper • Modern sweet bell peppers were created by stripping the spice out of a chile pepper, but their past is betrayed by a lesser-known Balkan variety: the somborka. Now, this heart-shaped, heated, lime-green pepper is making its way around Europe and the U.S., driven by demand from Kosovars who departed the bloc in the 1990s after a tragic war.

The Bitter Past of Japanese Sugar Beet Workers • In Canada, farming offered a back-breaking, underpaid alternative to internment camps.

The Oysters' World • Off the northeast coast of France, we explore the relationship between oysters, the people who farm them and the tidal flats that nourish.

Forgivers of Sin • For a Peruvian American traveling through Peru, getting to know–and eat–guinea pigs takes on a deeper meaning.

I’m Here • In Istanbul, the food of the Karadenizli people speaks of the Black Sea.

‘Like Water in the Desert’ • For Honduran migrants, food has created a nation within a nation in Mexico City.

From Seed to Smoke • Haiti looks to reclaim its legacy as a producer of fine cigars and tobacco.

Quebracho and Catastrophe • This hardwood and the beef cooked over it have become symbols of Argentina, but how long can they last?

Sea Salt in Kampot • In this Cambodian region, traditional farming of a premium product may offer a way forward.

Millets in Parched Zimbabwe • These traditional grains are better suited to drought conditions and a warming climate, but a colonizer preference for corn persists in popular culture. Can incentives to farm millets prevail?

32 Acres in Auburn • Harriet Tubman bought a parcel of land and lived as a free woman in this New York town. What’s left of her legacy, and who gets to tell that story?

Niki Nakazawa’s The Nectar Corridor • Get to know the host and producer of this Whetstone Radio Collective bilingual podcast about mezcal.

Welcome to Whetstone Radio Collective • Whetstone Radio Collective is the world’s largest on-demand audio network dedicated to food. WRC offers a distinctive series of original podcasts focused on global foodways, bringing diverse narrative-based audio stories shared through the lens of food anthropology.