Thom Eagle

Starting in September I’ll be running the first session of my online writing course, Grounding Your Words - 8 weekly sessions designed to help you develop your writing practice through ways of seeing and thinking about the world around us. Together we’ll go foraging for ideas through film, images, found objects and texts, and explore the craft of evoking emotion and physicality in your work. Follow the link in my bio to reserve a spot, or send me a DM if you’d like to know more!

One year in the soil. One last goodbye. February produces an abundance of leeks; May inspires blackberry ketchup. June’s glut of courgettes demands endless recipes; August’s blight strikes the tomatoes. October sees beans soaking in home-made broth, red wine and barley. December’s branches ‘die back’, yet life still stirs under the soil. The Allotment Diaries follows the year Thom joined his father on the allotment. It is a year of growing and pickling, musing on wildness and cultivation, documenting his family’s odd yearly rituals, and unknowingly saying a last goodbye. Above all, it is a melodious, nourishing month-by-month portrait of the earth we all have in common. Coming August 2026, with utterly perfect cover illustrations from artist Joanna Lisowiec 🌱

Next up on leading questions we have the lovely @thomeagle from one of our all time favourites @bottegacaruso in Margate. We’ve long admired his calm approach to leading the kitchen. Over to Thom 🎤 How would you describe the Kitchen Culture at Bottega Caruso? I don’t think that’s really for me to say! I hope that it’s fun, most of the time, and that there is always something to learn. There are stresses in this job that are unavoidable, but I think they are bearable if you’re learning. How would you describe yourself as a leader? In my experience people pay much more attention to what you show them than to what you tell them; it’s no good going on about responsibility and so on if you’re always palming gross prep jobs off on other people, or if you’re the first one out the door after service. It’s the same if you’re visibly stressed or snappy – that’s the energy that the kitchen runs on. I try to be unflappable. Did anyone inspire you? @thamas79 at @ducksoupsoho has an incredibly stoic presence in the kitchen I can only aspire to. Are there any rituals, incentives, structures you or your teams put in place to help staff wellbeing / motivation day to day ? Staff lunch! Always varied, always freshly cooked, never an afterthought – that’s the goal anyway. It’s shocking how badly some restaurants feed their staff. It’s also fun for the chefs to cook something completely different from what’s on the menu, try something new. What qualities do you look for in young chefs who want to work with you? If you show up on time and don’t talk too much we can probably figure something out. 📸 @zac.gates_ #chef #leadership #interview #restaurant #headchef #leader #mentalhealth

“I should have been a nettle farmer,” my father would say mournfully whenever some crop or another didn’t grow as expected. From that I understood that if you hope for weeds you’ll never be disappointed. Thom is a writer, cook, grower and photographer interested in fermented, foraged and discarded ingredients. A bagful of nettles from an overgrown garden in Pacentro have been fermented, pounded, boiled and pressed, changed into images. open studio, may 8 + 9 18:00 - 20:00 vico i san francesco, 15 pacentro — "Avrei dovuto coltivare ortiche di professione,” diceva mio padre con aria sconsolata ogni volta che un raccolto non era abbondante come previsto. Da quel momento ho capito che se confidi nella crescita di erbacce ed erbe spontanee non rimarrai mai deluso. Thom è uno scrittore, cuoco, ortolano e fotografo; interessato in qualunque cosa venga fermentata, raccolta e abbandonata. Le ortiche, trovate in abbondanza in un giardino incolto a Pacentro, sono state trasformate: prima fermentate e pestate, poi bollite e pressate, sono così tramutate in immagini. studio aperto, 8 + 9 maggio 18:00 - 20:00 vico i san francesco, 15 pacentro

Hey pals 🫶🏻 We’re excited to announce that on Saturday 30th May, at 7pm we’ll be hosting a special supperclub at @madremargate ; a rare occasion for @thomeagle and I to actually cook together! 🥖 IL PANE DI IERI 🥖 The event is a celebration of ‘yesterday’s bread’ — a menu built around breadcrumbs and stale bread, an often overlooked yet very precious and versatile ingredient. Here's the menu: • A little trio of snacks to welcome you, drawing on our Britalian heritage: Stuffed mussels, Scotch quail egg, Goat cheese & broad beans on rye bread. • Passatelli asciutti with duck ragù. Originally from Emilia-Romagna and Le Marche, passatelli are a type of pasta-non-pasta made with a dough of breadcrumbs, cheese and egg. Often served in brodo, for the occasion we're pairing them with a rich duck ragù. • A spring salad • Mocha bread and butter pudding with cream. Madre’s award-winning chocolate sourdough bread, sliced and baked in coffee custard. • A little nightcap by @rovo.liqueurs 🍷 Leo has curated a special wine list for the event available for you to purchase during the evening. ~~~ 💌 DM me (@adri.myrtus ) to book! Limited seats available, so get in quickly...we'll be cosy 🤗 P.s. please enjoy the two videos of my dad meticulously making breadcrumbs at home! Double step for finer breadcrumbs xoxo 💅🏻

Bookings are now open for Grounding Your Words! Join me for this first iteration of my 8-week online course designed to help you develop your writing practice through ways of seeing and thinking about the world around us. Whether you write stories, memoir, novels or poetry, Grounding Your Words will help you build the craft of observation into your work, evoking emotion & physicality through paying attention and foraging for ideas. The course every Monday from September 21st - check the link in my bio for more info and to book your spot! Hope to see some of you there x

Three from a tiny indie press we love: NOTHING NEW: Considered Cooking, PSYCHOGASTRONOMY, and THE LONG LOAF: Bread for All Days — from Nickel Dinner / @twoplumpress These are not flashy cookbooks. They don’t shout or chase trends. Instead, they are thoughtful, sensory-driven, and slightly stubborn. In a food media landscape that often feels loud and algorithm-shaped, these feel like counterprogramming. NOTHING NEW is @jesper.sjodahl ’s first book — essays, recipes, field notes, kitchen wisdom — the quiet revolution of cooking with intention. Beans, greens, little toasts, wine. The “before and after” kind of book. Malmö to Copenhagen by way of winter lamplight. PSYCHOGASTRONOMY gathers @thomeagle ’s place-letters, blog fragments, annotations — nine years of thinking about taste, memory, preservation. It reads like salt-cured writing: sensory, searching, deeply felt. THE LONG LOAF (a shop favorite) is @andrewdevriesbarton ’s ode to intuitive, naturally leavened bread. Hand-bound, limited run, printed in Portland. Romantic but practical. Bread as daily ritual. Bread as resistance. Available now in the shop and online. Come take one home and rearrange your kitchen brain a little. #nowservingla #indiebookshop #foodwriting

Tomorrow I’m hosting the first Ferment the Seasons workshop of the year at @wcgmargate ! In these monthly sessions we start with a stroll around the gardens to see what’s growing and what has changed since the last time we were here (which is usually a lot!). Then we settle in to discuss what we can learn from our ingredients and from the garden at this time of year and the process and practice of fermenting - all while prepping and jarring a preserve together. No knowledge or experience necessary but please bring a jar of around 300-500ml to take your ferment home with you. Come early to enjoy your packed lunch in the gardens or buy some produce at the Market Stall! Link in my bio for tickets

Join the wonderful Thom Eagle (Chef and acclaimed author and fermentation guru based in Margate) for another fermentation workshop. Each month we will explore a different seasonal produce grown at our site in Margate, You’ll learn all about microbes and friendly bacteria, the do’s and don’ts all guided by the seasons. Previous workshops included Cheong, Nettles, Stoned fruit, Sauerkraut and more. Dont forget to bring a 300 - 500ml lidded jar with you. All ingredients will be provided. Each session will begin with a wander round the garden to see what we can use before settling in to prepare our preserve together and chat about the craft and history of pickling and about fermentation as a gentler way of interacting with the natural world. 🫙 Ferment with the Seasons workshop 📅 Thursday 5th February ⏰ 1 - 3pm 📍 At windmill community gardens Margate CT9 2SH 🎫 Tickets available via our BookWhen page

We're very pleased to announce the first trial for Windmill Community Kitchen! 🌿 With so much wonderful produce grown here at the Gardens it seemed a shame not to be able to offer it up for you to enjoy on site. On 21st October Windmill regulars Adriana and Thom will be cooking a short menu of sweet and savoury dishes for Cabbage Patch attendees to purchase and try.  Stay tuned for the next Windmill Community Kitchen appearance! Menu 🥣 Pumpkin & potato soup with crunchy pumpkin seeds and caramelised onions (gluten free and vegan) 🥗 Barley & seasonal vegetable salad (vegan or vegetarian) 🍪 Crumble bars with quince & cardamom jam (gluten free and vegan) 🥄 Food will be available to purchase on site with cash or card. We'll cook plenty but come early to make sure you don't miss out! Cabbage Patch, parent/carer and children under 7 group. 📅 Tuesday 21st October ⏰ 10:30 - 12:30pm (our community kitchen will be open until 1: 30pm) 📍 At Windmill Community Gardens Margate CT9 2SH 🎟️ Book your Cabbage Patch ticket via BookWhen and join us in the Gardens!

Once you’ve finished shopping at Corfu central market there is a perfect little cafe you can eat at with plastic awnings and no menu, just a very animated old man who sings out “patata, salata, calamarata” alternatively to you and to the kitchen so you say yes to everything and get some tzatziki too. Obviously @adri.myrtus took the opportunity to befriend all the stallholders and teach them the Italian and English for different vegetables while I sat down and ate squashed Haribo from the bottom of my bag. B+W on Ilford HP5+ 120 developed and scanned by @takeiteasylab , everything else on good old greasy smartphone

Last but not least for our kidney recipes… delicious Rabbit Sugo by @thomeagle