Welcome to July’s Observer Food Monthly

A farming podcast that reminds us where our food comes from, plus recipes from Skye Gyngell

I invariably wake to the moos, baas and tractor engines of Farming Today– a programme that must be something of a gift to Radio 4’s sound engineers. Amid the gloom of what Brexit and Covid have wreaked on the already challenging job of producing and harvesting our food, there is often a story to bring an element of hope to the proceedings. I find something grounding about starting the day with the question “where does our food come from?”.

For a more in-depth look at how food gets on to our plates there is now a fascinating new podcast – Farmerama. Despite, or perhaps because of, the seriousness of its subject, each episode has become unmissable in this house, or to be more accurate, this kitchen. It is all too easy to think the story of what we eat starts at the shops. It never hurts to be reminded that it doesn’t.