Earth Eats: Real Food, Green Living

“And she brought two jars of lilacs, like [a] drink made of lilacs. She brought also cups and everybody could try it. It was really something like a miracle for me because I have never thought that it could be drunk in this way.” This week on the show, a story about a community garden in Tallinn, Estonia. We talk with Jerry Mercury, a political immigrant from Russia whose encounter with the garden was transformative.  And later in the show we have a recipe for quick, garden-fresh pickles, plus stories from Harvest public media about composting efforts in Midwestern cities and Federal investments in farm-to-school programs.

“And as the blade rotates and the interior cylinder freezes, it begins to churn the ice cream into a wonderful fluffy content that will be established shortly thereafter.” This week on the show, let’s kick off the summer season with a story about ice cream. Toby Foster talks with Jordan Davis and Elijah Lawson of the Chocolate Moose, Bloomington's classic ice cream stand, and so much more. And we go into the kitchen with Chris Manansala and Maria St. Claire of Pinoy Garden Cafe to learn how to make their vegetarian lumpia.

“You know, you’d wake up the day before, in the morning, and there was Grandma, already in the kitchen. You’d just get the smells, the aromas of the garlic and the citrus from the mojo, and you know it was just kind of ingrained in the memory of sitting there with my grandma while she was preparing it and just talking…” This week on the show, we dive into a family recipe from Cuba with producer Alexis Carvajal.  producer Daniella Richardson review the critically acclaimed show all about kitchen culture, The Bear. Plus, are you wondering what to bring to your eclipse viewing picnic? We’ve got ideas and an original recipe for some special eclipse cookies.

“We’re not shooting for perfection, we’re shooting for richness of experience.” This week on the show, we revisit a conversation at Groundwork Indy with then Executive Director, Phyllis Boyd. She gives us a tour of their on-site garden tended by teams of young people in their youth development program. Then we take a drive around Northwest Indianapolis to see more inspiring projects, including a community orchard. Plus, from Harvest Public Media, we have reports on an increase in honey production, drought in the midwest, PFAS in crop fertilizer and a story about the forest floor as agricultural land.

“After the peace, whenever that comes, we will have land that will have to stay out of production for years because it is so heavily mined or full of cluster bomblets.” This week on the show we talk with geographer Elizabeth Cullen Dunn about the current food landscape in Ukraine. We discuss what the future may hold for farmers and food producers in the region as the war with Russia drags on and as land policy shifts in Ukraine at the start of the new year.  We also talk about ice cream! We look at current shipping challenges in Ukraine, and the meaning of an ice cream cone in former Soviet Bloc countries

“We know that there are all sorts of good chemicals that come out of the dirt and working with land–working with plants–that are beneficial to our mood and our health. For refugee populations that have had to be on the run or had to live in refugee camps for decades, having a little piece of land that you can tend to that you can take care of and then see the results and not feel like you’re gonna be bombed out the next day–it brings a kind of peace of mind and a little bit of healing.”  This week on the show, Tammy Ho, Professor of Gender and Sexuality studies at University of California-Riverside, shares her research about refugees from Burma and their participation in the United States food system. We’ll learn about a supermarket sushi mogul, Burmese meatpackers as essential workers, and how a group of refugees saved a failing church by starting a community garden.

“I just wanted to provide context for folks because I do think that the conversation around plant-based food for the last eight years or so has been pushed toward a more corporate, vertical, lab meat, impossible burgers, beyond burgers, meat substitutes that act like meat and look like meat and has gotten really far away from whole foods and vegetables and legumes and how nice it is to just eat some beans sometimes.” This week on the show we talk with food writer Alicia Kennedy about her new book, No Meat Required: the cultural history and culinary future of plant based eating. 

This week on the show, Toby Foster talks with the creators of Planted, a local plant-based food truck and catering operation in Bloomington, Indiana. We learn about their inventive, plant-based menu and their commitment to sustainable practices. We have an interview with Julie Guthman about the troubled strawberry industry and we wrap up the show with a recipe for  pickled carrots.

“Bloomington is known in the science world--if you say Bloomington, people think fruit flies.”  This week on our show, we tap into the 15 years deep Earth Eats archive, for one of my very favorite stories. It’s about our visit to the kitchen of a science building on the campus of Indiana University, where they prepare food for a tiny organism that supports genetic research around the globe. This one is from 2020, so you’ll hear some mention of the global pandemic. This is a strange one–but fascinating.

"Peanuts had become popular because of this movement of new American pastimes that were accessible to like the common man, or the common person. So, baseball and theater halls and circuses--all of those places became places where people were interested in buying peanuts." This week on the show Kayte Young talks with Jori Lewis. She’s an award winning journalist and the author of, Slaves For Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation and a Crop That Changed History. It’s a book about the natural and human history of the peanut and the role it played in West Africa as the transatlantic slave trade was ending. 

“There’s a feeling to it that’s kind of satisfying in that way. It doesn’t feel so much like we could survive on it, as we’re able to provide some of our sort of staple foods.” On today’s show we’re continuing to celebrate our 15th anniversary with a favorite story from 2020 about my visit to a farm East of Bloomington Indiana, to speak with Denise and Sean Breeden Ost.  We talked about growing food, preserving food and eating food.  We check out their dry bean threshing techniques and reflect on the notion of  food self-sufficiency. Plus, food news from Harvest Public Media.

“I think our approach is: making it better–improving the land every time we have a chance.  We are benefited by the sweetness of the maple, right? So, that’s a source of sweetness for us and for the people to come after us. And hopefully the pawpaws will be. One of these days, somebody can enjoy that fruit. Yeah.”  This week on the show we explore what it can look like to have a vision for your land that extends beyond yourself and even your family. We speak with Larry Gillen and Helen Vasquez about their decision to gift their farm to a tribal college.  And Josephine McRobbie visits with a Regenerative Farmer building soil in the sandhills of North Carolina with the help of some four-legged(and winged) “teammates.” 

“...Call them tamale pancakes, stuffed masa frita, the humble lovechild of a quesadilla y calzone…” This week on the show, we’re celebrating 15 years of Earth Eats with favorite stories reaching back to 2018. We visit a midwest chocolate factory crafting world-class chocolate and a poet making pupusas in his kitchen. We talk with Suzanne Babb, an urban farmer with La Finca del Sur in South Bronx and hear about how home canning is making a comeback (that last one is from Harvest Public Media, and it’s new!) 

 “For me it feels like we live in an age where you look on the news and it just feels like everything is going wrong. And so gardening feels like a small way we can have an actual, tangible, positive impact on the world around us. In a world where it’s easy to feel like everything is just falling apart, it’s a small way to actually see progress.” This week on the show, it’s back to school part two. We talk with high school students and educators about what their school gardens mean to them. 

“Society has gotten so far disconnected from where their food comes from, that if we can begin with the students, start with children, teaching them how to grow food, they will be much more interested in where their food comes from as they get older. I think that’s a very important part of the process” This week on the show, we talk with Kendall Slaughter, he’s the farm-to-school coordinator for Springfield Public Schools in Southern Missouri. We’ll tour an elementary school designed as a sundial, meet the bunnies and the chickens and hear about how the school system is building a sustainable school garden program and moving towards local food sourcing in school lunches.

“When you think of literacy and you think of what does that mean and what are all the parts of it– think about reading a recipe. Think about measuring the ingredients. Think about learning how to cook.  Think about planning a meal, or budgeting for that meal.There are so many things that are learning-through-play, learning-through-doing-it, in a teaching kitchen. That’s the reason  why we call it a teaching kitchen. It really is about learning literacy as well as some skills that are very specific to cooking.” This week on the show, conversations with an architect, a library director and the head of a food pantry about how a teaching kitchen found its way into a public library and what it means for the community.

“Double zero refers to the fineness of the grind–so it’s super fine because of that designation, which also helps make it be as smooth and glutenous as possible in the final dough. I buy it in these 55 pound bags through a restaurant store and I just have it shipped to me.” This week on the show we talk with Pete Giordano about what it takes to make the perfect, Neapolitan-style pizza at home. And we learn how to make persimmon pudding using a recipe from Clara Kinsey.

“I love cookies. They’re hands-on, there’s a lot of technique involved in them,  they’re really fun and easy to do with kids,  they bake quickly,they’re perfect for gift giving any time of year, and they’re great.” Holidays and baking go hand in hand. Join us for a collection of favorite wintery stories for the holiday season with Earth Eats.  We drop in on a cookie baking workshop with kids at a food pantry, we enjoy a hot cup of coffee on a chilly bike ride, and we toast up a batch of maple granola for holiday gift giving.  All that, plus CHESTNUTS on the Earth Eats Holiday Special.

“And that’s why we call it a food value chain.You know, it’s a supply chain but it’s based on the values that you have as far as how the land is treated, how people are treated, what kind of nutrition contents in your food–all those things [that] people up and down–from the farmer to the consumer have an interest in. And so, this system that we’re developing is about addressing those values and making sure they happen.” This week on the show, an uplifting conversation about organizations and coalitions working together for stronger rural economies and robust local food systems. We talk about micro lending, food hubs, farm-to-school programs and more. 

This week on the show, producer Toby Foster visits with one of the owners of Tacotarian in Los Vegas. They talk about the vision behind this vegan taco spot and explore the possibilities of both fake meats and vegetable-forward options.  Plus, East Coast style bagels come to Indiana, and a story from Harvest Public Media about a new farm to food bank program.