Nick Wallace is a farmer with 20 years of experience in direct marketing. He has a vision for marketing regenerative, humanely raised beef, pork and chicken. The 99 Counties project hopes to impact Iowa agriculture and culture by bringing back small business, independent farms, and thriving communities.   https://www.99counties.com/

Donna and Lonna encourage listeners to explore and enjoy the often forgotten flavors left on the back shelf. Black lime, fennel seed, fish sauce, ghee, lard, miso, nduja, sumac, tamarind, yuzu and more.

And a bit of food history with the story of the Jenny Lind melon.

Many herbs come from the backyard garden. But there is a whole world of tastes to explore. Donna takes us through the familiar and not so familiar world of herbs and spices.   In this episode, Donna and Lonna discuss lemon grass, black lime, star anise, bayleaf, hyssop thyme, sumac powder, and a wide variety of peppers.   Guest Ben Hoksch, Iowa naturalist and forager, introduces us to the surprising taste of Prickly Ash berries. (Quite an adventure for the taste buds.) Lonna gives a short lesson on saving tomato seeds.

What's in your pantry? Donna and Lonna de-mystify kitchen ingredients that may be sitting on your shelf. They also talk about the cookbook: No Recipe Recipes by Sam Shifton.   Lonna does a jam and jelly overview and they visit some exciting kitchen/food disasters, both in their own kitchens and elsewhere.

Donna and Lonna get excited about all the good food from the garden at the end of summer. They give recipes for eating and preserving melons, tomatoes, corn, eggplant and cucumbers. And forager/naturalist Ben Hoksch talks about his work with butterflies and how to eat and propagate milkweed.

Donna and Lonna talk with farmer, cook and author Angela Tedesco about her new book - "Finding Turtle Farm: My Twenty Acre Adventure in Community Supported Agriculture"   Angela talks about starting a farm, transitioning to organic, dealing with neighbors and introducing folks to the joys of vegetables.   https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/finding-turtle-farm

Donna and Lonna talk to author Beth Hoffman about her book Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America.   This book is a clear-eyed view of farming. Beth has a long career as a journalist writing about food issues and is now farming with her husband on Whippoorwill Creek Farm in southern Iowa.

Donna and Lonna celebrate tomatoes fresh from the garden: varieties, recipes, cultivation and all-time favorites. They also talk about cucumbers, basil, Skittles, Norman Lear, vichyssoise, borscht and gazpacho.

Meredith Nunnikhoven established Barnswallow Flowers & Produce in 2018 near Oskaloosa, Iowa. Following a career in the film industry, Meredith came home to re-engage with the family farm in a way that feeds her passions, reflects her environmental ethic and exercises her creativity and strategic thinking.   On this episode, flower farmer Meredith Nunnikoven talks with Donna & Lonna about developing long-term diversity and resilience on her farm near Oskaloosa, Iowa.   Meredith also talks about having flowers as part of a traditional Iowa row-crop farm, her farm store, marketing flowers, and her on-farm bed & breakfast.   We'll learn about growing techniques for chemical-free, Iowa-hearty flowers with information on growing dahlias and suggestions for a 'cut and come again' flower garden.   Learn more about Barnswallow Flowers on their website: https://barnswallowflowers.com/   Connect with Barnswallow Flowers on social media: Facebook | Instagram