The Lemon Grove – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Lemon Grove

Bruce McMichael

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News

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/6d. Total Eps: 18

The Lemon Grove meets fascinating people from across the world of food and drink, often with a particular interest in citrus. You'll hear from growers, chefs, writers, travellers, the curious and the engaged. Topics range from which citrus is in season in Italy and how to cook with it, to how airlines create their menus and how countries are using their food and gastronomy to win friends in today's turbulent world. Buckle up, it's going to be fun, inspiring, thoughtful, must listen.

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Data updated on 12/10/2026

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Score global : 63%

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Kāren Barnes, Chopping onions, editing delicious., and why the craft of food writing matters

Season 1 · Episode 18

Friday, October 9, 2026 • Duration 52:26

As a five-year-old, food writer, editor, educator and mentor, Kāren Barnes remembers watching her mother peel an onion and thinking, "I'll never be able to do this". That fleeting moment shaped her learning to cook, and as a young teenager, she made Saturday night Flemish beef stew and lemon syllabub for pudding for her family. These are signs of the determination and hard work that thread throughout this fascinating podcast.

Kāren’s earliest food lessons came from her mother, who had spent formative years as a governess to the American ambassador in Moscow during the height of the Cold War. Those dinners introduced flavours from around the world into a south London household, and they left Kāren with a set of practical skills she leaned on when her mother passed away while Kāren was still a young teenager

She describes that teenage life that included shopping at supermarket Safeway, batch-cooking for the freezer and volunteering to cook for a grieving family from church. Those weren’t just acts of kindness — they were formative practice. The result: a food writer who writes from experience, not from an imagined glamour. That practical outlook explains why Kāren still prizes recipes and tips that help people feed themselves affordably and well.

Kāren’s career moved from staff rooms to independent publishing. She still mentors, teaches and hosts events, and she runs a Substack newsletter — KB’s Kāren Barnes Joyous Things — where she tries to combine reviews, guides, product suggestions and cultural pieces.

Her advice to aspiring food writers is to live a broad lived experience; read widely; practise writing relentlessly; and use Substack to learn the craft because it’s a democratic place to experiment. She’s honest about what’s lost since the old office days: “water-cooler” learning, day-to-day osmosis and the kind of informal mentorship that used to happen while waiting for coffee.

Kāren is also realistic about money: she accepts that food writing rarely makes anyone wealthy, and that the new creative economy requires combining writing with teaching, mentoring, occasional commissions and events.

It's a fascinating listen.

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Jad Youssef, Lebanese food as memory, tradition and family

Season 1 · Episode 17

Friday, October 2, 2026 • Duration 30:19

Recorded at Lebnani in Reigate, Surrey, this conversation explores Lebanese food as memory, culture, and daily ritual. The Lemon Grove host Bruce McMichael speaks with Jad Youssef, founder of Lebnani and author of the Lebnani cookbook, about his journey from Beirut to London, Hong Kong, and now Reigate. Jad shares how family, markets, butchers, and seasonal ingredients shapes his cooking to this day, and why he believes Lebanese food should stay rooted in tradition rather than follow passing food trends. The conversation also covers opening Yalla Yalla in Soho, the social nature of meze, and the care and tradition behind dishes such as hummus and tabbouleh.

Jad’s childhood in Beirut and the influence of his parents’ cooking
Learning to choose fresh ingredients at the market
Opening Yalla Yalla in Soho after being made redundant during the recession
Why Jad and his family chose Reigate
Preserving traditional Lebanese recipes while allowing for regional differences
The difference between creativity and changing a dish to follow a trend
Mezze as a way of sharing food and bringing people together
Tabbouleh, freekeh, bulgur, herbs, pulses, and other Lebanese staples
Why a few simple ingredients, prepared with care, can make a memorable dish

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Ella Stewart, Baking as therapy, mindfulness in the kitchen

Season 1 · Episode 16

Thursday, September 24, 2026 • Duration 35:57

Bruce McMichael speaks with Ella Stewart, wellness and resilience coach, mental health first aider, and founder of Bake Well Being, about how baking can support mental well-being. Ella shares how a lifelong love of cooking, a family tradition around food, and her own experiences with anxiety shaped a project that blends creativity, connection, and mental health advocacy. In this episode, they explore how baking became Ella’s mindfulness practice, why sensory, hands-on activities can be grounding, and how Bake Well Being has grown from a social idea into a CIC working with schools, charities, communities, and corporate groups.

Key topics:

Ella introduces herself as the founder and director of Bake Well Being, a Community Interest Company focused on getting people talking, baking, and sharing cake for better mental well-being.
Her interest in baking started very young, learning from her nan and growing up in a family where food, cooking, and kitchen-table connection were central to life.
A Saturday job in a cake shop at 13 opened her eyes to the wider world of cake decorating and led to an Instagram side hustle called Cupcakes by Ella.
Ella explains that special-order cakes gave her an early sense of joy, especially seeing how birthdays and celebrations bring people together around one shared moment.
A major turning point came when her nan experienced a serious mental health breakdown, which sparked Ella’s long-term interest in mental health advocacy.
While studying events management at university, she researched stress management, mindfulness, and grounding, and realised baking had long been her own form of meditation.
She describes making a highly detailed fishing-themed cake for her partner as a moment of total mental quiet, helping her understand baking as a healing practice rather than just a hobby.
The idea for Bake Well Being grew after a conversation about “cupcake therapy” and a university enterprise challenge, where she won funding and rebranded the project as Bake Well Being.
Ella outlines three strands of the project: education talks and webinars, baking classes and bake-alongs, and decorating sessions such as cake painting and sprinkle embroidery.
She explains why baking works so well for mindfulness: it is grounding, flow-based, and engages all five senses at once.

Sam Bilton, The hidden history in your food

Season 1 · Episode 15

Sunday, September 20, 2026 • Duration 47:38

Bruce McMichael speaks with food historian and writer Sam Bilton about how she moved from food writing to food history, the family recipe notebook that sparked her curiosity, and why food is such a powerful lens for understanding social change. They also discuss her books on gingerbread, saffron, chocolate, and Shakespeare, as well as the upcoming Serve It Forth conference on the Norman impact on British food. Sam explains how historical recipes reveal class, culture, and everyday life, while also showing the limits of authenticity when recreating old dishes today. She shares why she loves uncovering the stories behind ingredients and how food history can make the past feel immediate.

Key topics

Sam’s journey from food writer to food historian
The inherited Mrs Beeton notebook that inspired her interest in food history
Why surviving recipe books often reflect the upper classes
Sam’s work with English Heritage
Food in Shakespeare’s plays
The challenges of recreating historical recipes
The history of gingerbread, saffron, and chocolate
Why Saffron Walden became associated with saffron
How chocolate has been viewed as a spiritual drink, poison, and aphrodisiac
The Norman influence on British food
Food as a lens for understanding class, culture, trade, and migration
Why food history can bring overlooked stories to life
The Serve It Forth food-history conference.

About Sam Bilton

Sam Bilton is a food historian and writer whose work explores the relationship between food, culture, literature, and society. She has written about gingerbread, saffron, chocolate, Shakespeare, and historical food traditions, and contributes to English Heritage.

About Serve It Forth, October 17, 2026, online.

Serve It Forth is a food-history event combining presentations, interviews, and cookery demonstrations. The conference brings historical food to a wider audience through accessible conversations about different periods, cultures, ingredients, and culinary traditions.

Shane Holland, What Slow Food and Terra Madre Teaches Us About Food, Farming, and Biodiversity

Season 1 · Episode 14

Friday, September 4, 2026 • Duration 44:45

In this episode of The Lemon Grove podcast, Bruce McMichael speaks with Shane Holland, executive chairman of Slow Food UK, about Terra Madre, biodiversity, regenerative farming, and the politics of food.

Shane explains how the Slow Food movement began, why it has grown into a global network across 150 countries, and why its message of “good, clean, fair” food still matters today.

The conversation explores how food choices shape health, farming, communities, and the environment.

Bruce and Shane also discuss the value of local producers, heritage crops, school food education, and the challenge of making good food accessible to everyone.

They share stories from Terra Madre in Turin, the huge public celebration of food, culture, and solidarity that brings together producers, chefs, policymakers, and consumers from around the world and takes place in Turin every two years.

If you care about where food comes from, how it’s made, and what it means for the future, this episode is for you.

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Ramin Ganeshram, talks US Revolutionary food, citrus, enslaved cooks and the invention of diplacy through food

Season 1 · Episode 13

Friday, August 28, 2026 • Duration 42:30

Ramin Ganeshram, writer, journalist, chef, culinary historian, and executive director of the Westport Museum for History and Culture in Connecticut, USA, shares her life's work on the enslaved cook Hercules Posey and her research into the food around the time of the American Revolutionary War, which was fought 250 years ago and is widely celebrated this year. The conversation explores how foodways reveal migration, class, race, commerce, and power in American history. They also dig into Ramin’s research on Hercules George Washington’s enslaved chef, and how his food and Washington's political skills shaped diplomacy in the early republic.

Key topics

Ramin’s background and perspective

She shares her Trinidadian, Iranian, Kurdish, and New York roots, and explains how that mix sparked her interest in food, culture, and heritage.

What “foodways” really means

Ramin defines foodways as more than eating and tradition. It includes production, commerce, politics, sustainability, and the broader impact of food on society.

Food as cultural memory in immigrant households

She describes growing up in a home where food preserved identity, especially when language and other cultural expressions were pressured to assimilate.

Why food history in America is racialised

The discussion covers how whiteness, immigration, and access shaped whose food was celebrated, absorbed, or marginalised.

Early America’s global pantry

Ramin explains how citrus, tamarind, sugar, olive oil, almonds, coconut, and other ingredients moved through Caribbean and Atlantic trade networks into colonial North America.

The role of wealth and enslaved labour

George Washington and other elites could access rare imported foods because they had land, money, and enslaved labour supporting their households.

Claudio Seechi and the speicial citrus Pompia fruit of Sardinia

Season 1 · Episode 12

Saturday, August 22, 2026 • Duration 04:14

Lemon Grove Podcast - Claudio and Sardinian Pompia at World Travel Market

This bonus episode is a short travel and food conversation centered on Claudio, a citrus grower from Sardinia, and the unusual fruit Pompia. It matters because the discussion connects local food culture, tourism, and how a small family producer is expanding into new ventures while keeping a traditional citrus alive.Bruce also reflects on meeting Claudio at Terra Madre in Turin in 2022 and reconnecting at World Travel Market in London, where Sardinia is being promoted through food, excursions, and Slow Food ties.

Key topics

Pompia as a Sardinian specialty

Bruce introduces Pompia as a distinctive citrus fruit from Sardinia, used for marmalade, jellies, and liqueurs.

Reconnecting at World Travel Market

Bruce and Claudio meet again at the Sardinia stand in London after first meeting at Terra Madre in Turin in 2022.

Sardinia tourism and Slow Food promotion

Claudio explains that they are promoting Sardinia through excursions, holidays, and Slow Food-related experiences.

A shift in the family business

Claudio says the team is opening a tour operator and, after the tourism season, a farm to continue producing Pompia through a generational handover from his mother.

New products in development

Claudio hints that new Pompia products are coming, but does not reveal details yet.

Working with Letitia Clark

Bruce and Claudio mention Letitia Clark, who wrote For the Love of Lemons, and how she has connected with Sardinian citrus projects.

Özlem Warren shares her love of cooking and teaching Turkish food

Season 1 · Episode 11

Friday, August 14, 2026 • Duration 51:02

How a childhood in Antakya, Ottoman markets and a fridge full of lemons became three cookbooks and a life teaching Turkish food culture and techniques around the world.

Anna Ansari, Travels and cooks the Silk Roads

Season 1 · Episode 10

Friday, August 7, 2026 • Duration 53:00

Anna Ansari’s Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing begins with a question that feels bigger than a cookbook: how do food, travel, and family history shape the way we see the world? In this episode, Anna shares how a teenage stay in Beijing, a meal with her father, and a lifetime of moving between cultures led her to write about the Silk Roads as more than trade routes. For her, they are living pathways of ingredients, stories, and identity.

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Julie Bertoni and Jesse Dart, citrus sharing in Arizona

Season 1 · Episode 9

Friday, July 31, 2026 • Duration 33:51

Join us for a lively discussion exploring the vibrant citrus culture in Arizona, community gardening, and how the fruits of the land bring people together. This episode features Jesse Dart, a food anthropologist with deep roots in Arizona's citrus history, and Julie Bertoni, a local garden activist, sharing insights about living with and sharing citrus in an arid climate.

In this episode:

Jesse Dart discusses the anthropology of citrus and his experience living in Phoenix and Santa Fe
Julie Bertoni shares the origins and community impact of Clark Park Community Gardens
The evolution of citrus harvesting, sharing, and community events in Tempe and Phoenix
How flood irrigation sustains old citrus trees in desert environments
The seasonal cycle of citrus and adjustments due to climate change
The cultural significance of citrus sharing, recipes, and community bonding
Unique citrus varieties like citron and innovative uses, including marmalade and culinary experiments
The resilience of fruit trees amidst heat waves and ageing orchards

Time Stamps

00:00 – Introduction to Citrus Culture in Arizona
02:13 – The Clark Park Community Garden Experience
04:37 – Exploring the Abundance of Citrus
06:53 – The Citrus Exchange and Community Involvement
09:27 – Flood Irrigation and Its Impact on Gardening
12:01 – The Citrus Share Initiative
13:54 – Harvesting and Sharing Citrus Fruits
17:29 – The Citrus Community Revival
19:50 – Creative Culinary Uses for Citrus
23:20 – Building Community Through Shared Harvests
25:43 – Challenges of Climate Change on Citrus Trees
30:14 – The Impact of Citrus on Local Culture

The Lemon Grove – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Lemon Grove – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

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Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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Latest published episodes

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