Why eat local? What if it isn’t easy? What if the things I want aren't available? What's the point? Alison and I have both considered these questions for ourselves and factored them into decisions that we’ve made about how we live our everyday lives. We didn’t make the changes overnight, and we don’t even suggest people do so. After the many books we have read, the real-life experiences we have had, and guests we have interviewed on the subject of factory farming vs humane peasant farming, we have come to some conclusions about eating local that might surprise you. They might not be the conclusions or the “arguments” you were expecting.

This episode features an aftershow which could possibly be described as a little bit salty, where some spicier opinions came to the fore. It was impossible to include everything we had to say and keep the main episode at a reasonable length of time. If you want to hear this aftershow as well as over 140 other episodes on our more informal, private podcast Kitchen Table Chats, hop over to ancestralkitchenpodcast.com/join and join at companionship or above level. Thank you for your continued support and to all the supporters, reviewers and listeners who made this episode possible.

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One Earth Health make the grass-fed organ supplements we use and trust. Get 15% off your first order here and 5% off all subsequent orders here.

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Meals at the Ancestral Hearth

Spelt Sourdough Every Day

Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics

Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course

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Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop for a vast selection of ancestral cookbooks: US link here and UK link here.

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Our podcast is supported by a community of ancestral cooks around the world!

Come join our community! You can choose to simply sponsor the podcast, or select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live Zoom calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content from Alison and Andrea, and a Discord discussion group.

To read more about becoming a supporter and explore the various levels, click here!

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What We Covered:

• Simple breakfast, and pheasant in Britain
• A new, free rye resource from Alison
• What countries are our listeners coming from?
• How do they listen?
• See the full list on our podcast website
• Shout out to young listeners
• Why do we eat local?
• Eating like a human - behaving like a human
• What is farm-friendly food
• Is everything we eat local?
• Healthcare spending and food spending
• Money matters
• Our plan to save the world (it might shock you)
• What we can do
• What is our responsibility?

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5* reviews on Apple Podcasts, mean the world to us!

Here's how you can leave one:

1. Open the Apple Podcast app
2. Find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library
3. Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews'
4. Click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening in the box below

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Resources:

• To see the countries where we have AKP listeners, visit www.ancestralkitchenpodcast.com/downloads
• To get Alison’s Beginner’s Guide to Rye Sourdough, pop your details in the sign-up box that’s nestling inside either of these informative blog posts on her site:

https://ancestralkitchen.com/2021/01/04/everyday-wholegrain-sourdough-rye-loaf/

Or

https://ancestralkitchen.com/2025/04/14/how-to-make-sourdough-rye-bread-from-scratch/

Each of the episodes mentioned here includes an entirely packed show notes of further reading and links on that specific topic!

• Episode 46: Sir Patrick Holden
• Episode 116: Leftovers and Scraps in a Frugal Ancestral Kitchen
• Episode 103: 10 Nourishing Traditions Dishes Cheaper Than Supermarkets!
• Episode 102: The Guide to Getting Out of Supermarkets
• Episode 74: 14 Tips for Changing Your Food Habits
• Episode 69: Fake Food v Small Farms
• Episode 66: 50 Ways to Save Money on an Ancestral Diet Part I
• Episode 67: 50 Ways to Save Money Part II
• Episode 50: 20 Small Steps to an Ancestral Kitchen
• Episode 4: The 5 Most Expensive (and Yet the Cheapest) Foods

Suggested Reading

• Leah's Rec: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth (we haven't read this yet, but are reading as a podcast together starting in Jan 2026) 
• A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: one farm, six generations, and the future of food by Will Harris
• The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry
• Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
• The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry by Wendell Berry
• Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin
• The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz
• The Joel Salatin book we mentioned a number of times: Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide to Farm Friendly Food by Joel Salatin

His goal [with this book] is to:

• Empower food buyers to pursue positive alternatives to the industrialized food system

• Bring clean food farmers and their patrons into a teamwork relationship

• Marry the best of western technology with the soul of eastern ethics

• Educate food buyers about productions

• Create a food system that enhances nature’s ecology for future generations"

Do you have memories, documents, recipes or stories of those who cooked ancestrally? If so, we would love to hear from you! Visit our website here for how to share.

Thank you for listening - we'd love to connect more:

The podcast has a website here!

Alison is taking a break from Instagram. You can stay in touch with her via her newsletter at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is on Instagram at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

The podcast is mixed and the music is written and recorded by Alison's husband, Rob. Find him here: Robert Michael Kay