• Keeping hens in a backyard coop is skyrocketing in popularity (we'll admit to fantasizing about it ourselves from time to time), but there are some serious downsides to home chicken raising that often don't enter the discussion. Freakonomics

• Lend some theatrical flair to your next grocery shopping experience with this surprisingly apt list of roles one could imagine auditioning for while shopping at Whole Foods. McSweeney's

• Looking for a new cooking project? Canal House's Smallholding Festival has beautifully approachable guides to making earthen wood-fired pizza ovens, brown sugar-cured bacon, and spit roasters, as well as a take on no-knead bread. The Smallholding Festival

• At the height of stone fruit season, what is there to do with those bum peaches that don't get ripe? A green peach salad recipe from Crook's Corner chef Bill Smith just might be the answer. Food 52

• House voyeurs with storage space envy, get your fix here: the very best small cool kitchens. TheKitchn

• To get the creative juices flowing, famous writers have relied on all sorts of culinary tactics. John Steinbeck was known to regularly snack on cold toast and sip stale coffee. Walt Whitman, on the other hand, indulged in a hearty breakfast daily of oysters and meat. NY Times

• Try adding edible flowers and herbs to ice cubes to add a little something extra to summertime drinks. They don't just look nice; as they melt, they lend the flavor of whatever's frozen in them to your beverage. Pitchfork Diaries