The Appropriate Omnivore with Aaron Zober

The Weston A. Price Foundation will be holding its annual Wise Traditions Conference at the end of October. Leading up to the event, Aaron Zober returns with his series speakers interviewing people who will be giving talks at the conference. His first is Sophia Eng of the blog Sprinkle with Soil, co-host of the podcast Call to Farms, and author of the cookbook and author of The Nourishing Asian Kitchen Cookbook. Since the pandemic, Sophia has gone from working in real estate in California to homesteading in Tennessee. She tells the listeners how her upbringing in Vietnamese culture has influenced her cooking in terms of the similarities between Asian cuisine she grew up with and Wise Traditions diet. Aaron and Sophia then get into the problems with MSG and why it isn’t needed to get the umami flavor. Plus what it means for Sophia's farm to be regenerative. And a preview of what Sophia will be discussing in her Wise Traditions Conference presentation entitled East Meets Weston A. Price: Nourishing Asian Cuisine Reimagined – A Journey To Reclaim Authentic Flavors, Free from MSG and Excitotoxins.

With this weekend being Labor Day, millions will be grilling burgers to celebrate, so The Appropriate Omnivore host Aaron Zober devotes this podcast episode to one of his favorite foods. With him to talk about everything burgers is Corey Dunn of the blog For Nutrient's Sake! as well as a co-host of the podcast Modern Ancestral Mamas. Aaron & Corey cover all the ingredients in a burger from grass fed patties to organic buns, veggies, and condiments. The two discuss the best products you can find in supermarkets to include on your burger as well as the idea of making everything from scratch. Aaron & Corey also touch upon the popular sides for a burger, such as fries, potato chips, soda pops, and shakes.

Aaron Zober with The Appropriate Omnivore podcast, welcomes another wonderful regenerative organic CPG brand founder as he interviews Ben Ripple. Ben tells his story of how Big Tree Farms came to be. Aaron and Ben discuss how Big Tree's practices fall into the certification requirements of the Regenerative Organic Alliance in terms of soil health and social fairness and why organic needs to be a part of regenerative. The episode then moves into why coconut sugar is a great option over both cane sugar and other natural sweeteners. Ben lays out the benefits coconut sugar has in terms of taste, sustainability, work conditions, and health. Aaron and Ben also cover Big Tree Farms other products, such as the coconut aminos and sauces, and what products we can expect from Big Tree in the future.

The Appropriate Omnivore host Aaron Zober continues his coverage of regeneratively sourced CPG with Raj Vable, the founder of Young Mountain Tea. Raj tells his story from growing up with parents from India who drank tea to a friend in grad school introducing him to single origin tea. He then goes into the problems with conventionally grown tea and the benefits of regenerative organic tea, including a higher yield from crops. Next Aaron talks about the principles of regenerative agriculture and Raj explains how Young Mountain Tea's practices fit into all of those. Raj goes into the different flavors of teas he offers and Young Mountain Tea's project to launch a farmer owned tea factory in the Kumaon village of Champawat.

The topic of regenerative agriculture has been addressed many times on The Appropriate Omnivore podcast. So for this episode, host Aaron Zober gives a warm welcome to Elizabeth Whitlow, executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. As regenerative agriculture is taking on many meanings, Aaron asks Elizabeth how she would define regen ag. Elizabeth explains what she sees as the three pillars. Conversation leads into the roles organic, animal welfare, and farmer & worker fairness play in being regenerative. Elizabeth then mentions the brand that went through the pilot program to become Regenerative Organic Certified. And Aaron talks about the ROC brands he likes. All of the plus where Elizabeth and Aaron would like to see regenerative ag headed in the future.

It's another hot summer, so for the latest episode of The Appropriate Omnivore, host Aaron Zober welcomes SorBabes & Fudgy Pop co-founder Deborah Gorman. With her two products, Deborah has taken the fruit bar and fudge pop, respectively, and put a healthier and more sustainable twist on them. Both products are free of dairy, GMO sugar, and artificial colors. Deborah explains how SorBabes and then Fudgy Pop came to be. She gets into how she's created the different flavors and what possible ones we can expect in the future. Deborah tells Aaron what she looks for in terms of ingredients to source and ways that the two businesses can become even more sustainable.

The Appropriate Omnivore podcast is back for a new series of episodes. Host Aaron Zober kicks it with Sonia Acuña-Rubio. Aaron has talked about all types of productions certifications on this show. Now he brings on a person from the organization which works with so many of the food certifiers. Sonia tells Aaron what the some of the new and popular certifications are. As the program is called The Appropriate Omnivore, Aaron asks Sonia about the various types of animal products certifications the NSF works with. While the NSF is known for all of its food product certifications, it actually began as a certifier food equipment. Sonia explains this in great detail. Plus Aaron and Sonia discuss the future of food and consumers looking for more transparency in what they buy.

On this episode of The Appropriate Omnivore, host Aaron Zober has Melissa Clemente of Wildfare on his podcast. Melissa gives her background working in marketing and sustainable food and then talks all about Wildfare. Wildfare is known for providing a great variety of Mediterranean food from ajvar to olives & olive oil to pasta and many other wonderful products. Melissa explains to Aaron what makes their offerings sustainable. This includes their Empowering Woman Farmers where they partner with fair trade women owned farms and production companies. Melissa also gets into specifics about many of the foods in Wildfare's line and what we can expect from the company in the future.

For the latest episode of The Appropriate Omnivore, host Aaron Zober welcomes Sara Kelly of Season Brand to talk about sustainable seafood. Season is a 100-year-old company known for offering canned fish such as sardines, mackerels, and anchovies. Sara mentions how tin fish is a hot trend and explains exactly what tin fish is. She then moves into discussing the different certifications which Season products have and what makes their seafood healthy and sustainable. Sara also talks about her role as marketing director and the major rebranding which Season is currently working on, which she describes as Season 2.0. Plus Sara tells Aaron what types of future products we can expect from Season in terms of both other seafood and possibly expansion into other types of food.

Aaron welcomes back Dr. Nakisa Nowroozi to The Appropriate Omnivore podcast. Nakisa is the founder of Luv Maman. She also has a PhD in cell and molecular biology and masters in biochemistry and currently teaches anatomy and physiology at Orange Coast College. For this episode Nakisa talks about her family’s experience on the GAPS (Gut & Psychology Syndrome) Diet. As she’s not a GAPS practitioner, she explains the diet from a mother’s point of view. Nakisa had her sons go on GAPS to resolve health issues they were having. To show support, her whole family went on it. Nakisa explains the various stages of GAPS in terms of transitioning to each one and then when you know you’re ready to end GAPS. She also discusses what do after the GAPS Diet and how there are more GAPS friendly products on the market now then when she and her family did it.