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Stories

Everything we’ve published, free to read.

Essays, reportage, interviews and recipes from every issue. Filter by section, or start with the long reads.

Essays, reportage, interviews and recipes from every issue. Filter by section, or start with the long reads.

The last salt rakers of Castro Marim

Reportage

The last salt rakers of Castro Marim

Fourteen families still rake flor de sal by hand on the Algarve’s eastern edge. We spent a summer with the youngest of them.

Words by Inês Carvalho

A kitchen that cooks with the sea

Essays

A kitchen that cooks with the sea

On the Faroe Islands, one chef has stopped buying salt altogether. Hana Sørlie on brine, patience and the taste of a cold ocean.

Words by Hana Sørlie

Salted lemons, three ways

Recipes

Salted lemons, three ways

One jar on the shelf, three dinners on the table. Kwame Asante’s preserved lemons, and what to do with them all winter.

Words by Kwame Asante

Five generations of klippfisk

Reportage

Five generations of klippfisk

In Kristiansund, the Moe family has dried salted cod on the same rocks since 1871. The rocks are still there. The cod is getting harder to find.

Words by Hana Sørlie

In conversation with Maria do Céu

Interviews

In conversation with Maria do Céu

She took over her father’s salt pan at 61. Priya Raman asks what changed, and what never will.

Words by Priya Raman

Field notes: a morning in Tavira

Field Notes

Field notes: a morning in Tavira

Four hours, one notebook and a market that closes at noon.

Words by Inês Carvalho

Anchovies under salt

Recipes

Anchovies under salt

The simplest preserve there is, and the one that teaches you most about patience.

Words by Kwame Asante

The people who pick our tomatoes

Reportage

The people who pick our tomatoes

Every August, ten thousand seasonal workers arrive in Foggia. Luca Ferrante follows one crew from dawn to the long dinner after.

Words by Luca Ferrante

Three weeks of cherries

Essays

Three weeks of cherries

In Fundão the whole town works the harvest, then eats nothing but cherries for a month.

Words by Inês Carvalho

A long table in Puglia

At the Table

A long table in Puglia

The menu for the end of harvest: twelve dishes, forty people, one very old olive tree.

Words by Kwame Asante

The amaro makers of the Dolomites

Reportage

The amaro makers of the Dolomites

Thirty-two herbs, one secret, and a family that hasn’t changed the recipe since 1902.

Words by Luca Ferrante

On learning to like bitter things

Essays

On learning to like bitter things

Coffee, chicory, grapefruit, grief. Hana Sørlie on the flavours we only understand later.

Words by Hana Sørlie

In conversation with a winter forager

Interviews

In conversation with a winter forager

Dandelion, wild chicory, sea beet: what grows when nothing else does.

Words by Priya Raman

Charred radicchio with blood orange

Recipes

Charred radicchio with blood orange

A plate for the end of winter: bitter leaves, sweet fruit and too much good oil.

Words by Kwame Asante

Read it in print

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The stories look better on paper.

Every issue is 200 pages of uncoated stock, printed in Lisbon and posted anywhere.

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Octavo

© 2026 Octavo Press · Printed in Lisbon

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Octavo
A quarterly of food & culture
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