on reviving the thrifty, self-reliant skills of home as resistance and reinvention, a reimagining of what our future could be like. this small work* is a friend of the appleturnover film, ‘grain mill’, and in particular, of making fresh pasta by hand. the recipe, more of a basic pattern, is included.


what if the practices that make us resilient are also a great pleasure? 

the pasta recipe is simply 500 grams flour to 5 eggs, a pinch of salt, a glug of olive oil, an extra yolk for smoothness. we hand-mill, or rather, bicycle-mill, fine whole spelt flour for this. with chickens, ducks and geese, egg dishes are welcome here! we mix with fork or fingers, knead smooth, tuck snugly into a sealed container to rest a while, or chill if we won’t immediately use it.

then we lop a thick slice and wind it through the machine, cut it as needed and hang it over a bamboo stake cut from the garden, then cook it all briefly in boiling, salted water.

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thanks for listening to the sunday radio companion to the journal of small work*. 

 x elisa

2 thoughts on “the knowledge and skill to make what we need –

  1. Daki

    Another beautiful episode. That ‘pleasure’ of doing is such an essential part of the resilience inherent in traditional skills. A pleasure that’s visibly absent from so much that is the product of industrial manufacture.

    • appleturnover

      thank you, daki. yes! i love how the embodied engagement comes through. we can feel and see the human touch. i think we probably crave it, seek it, but the industrial is anemic and rarely yields the nutrients we are actually after. your words hold it though and i so appreciate them. x

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