An Update on the Newsletter

A little pause for now

Jul 28, 2025

Greetings from the Midwest, where we are deep in corn sweat season. Yes, that’s real and you should look it up! Tonight’s newsletter is going to be short and sweet.

I started this newsletter in March of 2023, when I rediscovered my love of writing, and newly realized that I loved writing about food. Since my first post, I’ve written about so many topics that are quintessentially “Deep North”, poured my heart out about my personal life and learnings, and given advice about how to store veggies. I started a business and travelled internationally. I have felt busy for a while, and despite reducing this newsletter from every week to every other week, I’m not feeling particularly inspired to write. I’ve just got too much going on.

Celebrities have flocked to Substack and not a lot of people are finding my newsletter in the ever-growing sea of options, and it’s hard to not feel the impact of that! Readership is down, and the subscribers climb by a handful every few months, mostly thanks to recommendations from other newsletters (thank you!). I tried to post a bunch of “Notes” to get more eyes on my newsletters, but it just felt like another social media app that was adding things to make this app just like all the others with a new focus on video. Overall, writing on Substack hasn’t felt joyful, unfortunately.

I share a lot of my personal life here, and I’m feeling a desire to pull that back as well, to hold my life things closer to my innermost circle. With all of that in mind, I’m putting a pause on this newsletter. You can still stay subscribed (I hope you do!), and when/if I kick this whole thing up again, you’ll still be on the list!

You can stay up to date with Audrey’s Cookbooks things by subscribing to the email list, and if you have Instagram, I’ll still be posting on there (@mulberrymelissa)!

Thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing, for being in this space with me. I appreciate you all, and hope to see you virtually or in person soon!

Things I Like

I made some scallion kimchi and it’s fermenting away in the fridge! I’ve been so excited to check in on it every day, and sample a little bit too.
Gen Z is living for the digital camera, and I have to admit that I dug mine out. Here's hoping I can find an SD card and that it holds a battery charge for more than three minutes so I can actually use it.
If you’re local, I highly recommend the small movie theaters, and if you can’t go to one of those, the Emagine Theatre in Eagan has served me very well lately.
A loaded Italian salad!