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Happy 2022! To celebrate, we have written a series of blogs that dig in (pun intended) to the many connections between soils and food. These blogs are inspired by our sustainable soils research at ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ and include a recipe that connects our soil research to the dinner plate! Read them all here. We hope you enjoy digging into both our research stories and recommended recipes. Enjoy – bon appetit!Ìý

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Emilee Severe, PhD Student, ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Environment Centre

e.severe@lancaster.ac.uk Twitter:@EmileeSevere

If you look out the kitchen window at my parent’s home you will see my mother’s pride and joy (and no it’s not me) it is a small patch of soil, her garden. As a growing girl, I spent hours in that garden, making rows, planting seeds, supporting my mother in her endless war against the weeds and of course the culmination of our summer’s labour, harvesting. I can remember small changes my parents made over the years to improve our bounty. As a little girl, I can vaguely remember using raised soil beds for the carrots. Then we moved to planting everything in ridges and furrows. Later, to suppress the weeds, we added grass clippings around the borders of the garden. I remember my dad creating all sorts of cages, stringed lines and stakes to help the tomato plants grow tall and fruitful. Ìý Continue reading →

Angeliki Kourmouli, Senior Research Associate ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Environment Centre

a.kourmouli@lancaster.ac.uk Twitter:@AKourmouli

Photo credit: Thomas Downes

All human activities, from breathing to burning fossil fuels, emit carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Once the CO2 molecules are in our atmosphere, they absorb and radiate heat, and together with a group of other gases, they create the greenhouse effect. Because of this effect, we are able to live on this planet without freezing to death! However, because of the increases in our activities the concentration of atmospheric CO2 has been rapidly increasing, breaking a record high in 2021 [1] trapping more heat in the atmosphere and increasing global temperatures. Ìý Continue reading →