Shane Mitchell

reach for the stars placing this here because for me it’s never about the awards, if you’re in it for that, you’re not doing the work. do the work. but okay, sans false modesty, it truly helps to know someone is actually reading the work. a longlist I hardly imagined joining. onward.

may the food be with you my sister Hilary sent this message hours before the JBFA ceremony last night: “May the food be with you. All of the food. From the route 52 chilli dogs, the NYC slices, and boiled peanuts in wet paper bags—to the fancy-schmantzy high-falutin’ chemistry experiments—and the naked oysters, and… like I said, all of the food.” Last night received this bling for the hardest story of my career. It almost broke my heart to write, and if I achieve anything by it, it’s to elevate the voice of the whistleblower who hoped that his story might bring change. Read his own words, link in bio. As for me? Like the takeout bag says, thank you and have a nice day.

Here are people and places and meals that are the heart of The Crop Cycle. Thanks so much to @bittersoutherner for putting them all in one special book. But also thanks to the great-aunts for letting me take their names in vain. Hope you’ll get a copy, please order now at the link = bio. 📸 by me.

big swing a kind of spring tide, between the full and new moon, when gravitational pull aligns. pretty good metaphor for taking risks, and what’s coming next. and you never know what’s in that marsh. #earthday

these women one was part of the New Woman movement back in the 20s, one was part of the Women’s Liberation movement back in the 70s, and one (the baldy bean wearing puffy sleeves) will celebrate them every day, not just one day, or one month. that’s my little sister kaki, hefted in mom’s other arm.

wild things just us girls way out here breaking trails this first day of the new year. if there isn’t a path, make your own. pseudo wisdom and greetings from a cold start to 2026.

rice is life Ine ni naru means reaping of rice. Ō-Inari is the kami, or spirit, of tea, sake and rice, and she often inspires those in the performing arts. The ancient word associated with rice also symbolizes the miracles of heaven and earth. I could have gone to the biggest shrine in Kyoto but it’s always packed with people taking selfies along the thousand torii path. This tiny one, tucked on a less visited hillside, gave me uninterrupted space to say hello to the kitsune, her guardian foxes, and ring a little bell for inspiration.

blue bell bottoms for life. art, too.

the birbs I see them in the wild all the time but apparently they’re on a rise in the ‘burbs too. gobble gobble. 📸 my sister hilary

snap Helping to fight hunger since 1939. I grew up food insecure, and even now struggle to eat lunch because it’s such a fraught meal for me. Some days I didn’t have enough school lunch money. Or lunch at all. (Got by with a small packet of potato sticks from a vending machine.) And then there was the “couldn’t afford anything else” sandwich era while working my first job at Hearst in NY. (It’s why I hate sandwiches.) Some prompts on how to help while the powers that be play hunger games with food assistance: 1. Punch in your zip code to @feedingamerica and donate $ to your nearest food bank. 2. Adopt a free fridge or pantry. Help keep it filled. 3. Volunteer for local initiatives, like weekend soup kitchens, often listed in the “free paper” or community forums. (Ours is called the Oneida Rural Star.) 4. Pay special attention to the kids. Trust me, there’s lots of them out there dealing with what I did, and you won’t always be able to tell who, because we’re good at hiding it.

New episode is up! We are joined by @shanefarafield , editor at large @saveurmag and author of The Crop Cycle, a @bittersoutherner collection of essays that profile 11 iconic Southern crops. Shane chronicles the history of their cultivation, their significance in contemporary culture, and poignantly captures glimpses of the lives of those who grow and devour them. We talk about loving/hating grits, hot wet goobers, pouring peanuts in your Coke (it’s a thing), and cod trauma so bad it has you reaching for hàkarl. Plus, we share our picks for “ride-or-die” Joy recipes with a listener. Most of our answers are driven by the need for comfort, others by nostalgia, but our Joy Scouts recipe for this week does not fall neatly in either category. We did not grow up eating apple dumplings, nor do we bake them when we’re feeling low, but they do have an old-timey quality to them and they *are* very comforting to eat. We found them surprisingly delicious during recipe testing and have been making them around apple season ever since. Perhaps the most “ride-or-die” quality about apple dumplings: we’ve been telling people how to make them since 1931. All nine editions have this recipe, but you’ll find it in the 2019 on page 688.

shattered wrote about the creative process and what it’s like to have a fire in the mind. this one damn near wrecked me. a broken necklace, some hard letters bundled with a soft pink gingham bow, dad and mom (her back to the camera) at one of his gallery openings in the ‘60s, self portraits of beauford delaney and anna catherine wiley. thank you as always @bittersoutherner for giving me the space to bring clarity to deeply personal darkness. shine on. and support the arts, okay? link>bio