Alive, or recently

There is a short list of staples we would put in every kitchen, and they have one thing in common. Everything on it is alive, or was until very recently.

Raw honey, straight from the comb, still with the pollen and the enzymes that pasteurising takes out. Eggs from hens that scratched about outside and ate insects and greens, with the orange yolk that tells you they did. Butter from grass-fed cows. Fermented things: sauerkraut, kefir, proper yoghurt, where the living cultures are the whole idea. And raw milk, where you can get it legally and from a farm you trust.

The principle behind the list is that pasteurisation, refining and long shelf lives all solve the same problem, which is that real food goes off, and they all solve it the same way, by killing whatever was alive in it. That takes the harmful with the helpful. We have got very good at making food safe and very bad at keeping it food.

You do not need all of it. Start with the eggs. Find someone selling them from a gate or a market stall, pay the extra pound, and crack one next to a supermarket egg. The colour will do the arguing.