“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.”

“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.

“And so I really love to be able to see how other BIPOC farmers in the community are doing good with the land.”

This week on the show, we talk with recipients of a fellowship that brings BIPOC farmers together to build community in Monroe County, Indiana. The farmers also receive funding for farm projects. We talk about what the fellowship has meant for the three farmers and how they will put the funds to use enhancing the local food system

“We have about a four acre parcel of land here that’s subdivided into a whole bunch of micro-plots, basically, where we can isolate, you know, the Black Strawberry Tomato, or the Chinese Wool Flower or a gourd or whatever it happens to be. And we can make sure that those seeds stay pure. Purity is one of the biggest things that we do here. We do a lot of purity trials, so we maintain that the seed we’re selling [to] somebody–we wanna make sure that that seed is 100% true to type.”

This week on the show we visit Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company to learn the particulars of growing for plants for seed. 

And Violet Baron talks with the owners of Lost Farm Meal Service about growing a business during a pandemic. 

“Apple cake is a very family-specific recipe–I’ve never heard of it anywhere else, seen it anywhere else. My gramma started it–for as long as I can remember we had it on Thanksgiving. It was served in a very specific bowl and as a child, for Thanksgiving everyone would look forward to the apple cake. And when that blue bowl came out on the table it was just like –gasp!-- there’s the apple cake. And you knew that Thanksgiving had arrived.”

This week on the show, a Thanksgiving special featuring a dessert that’s served with the meal, a side dish that MUST be made correctly, and a daughter attempting to make her mother’s flan for the first time.