Super Bowl Sunday is a big day for football—and guacamole. But how much do you know about avocados—specifically the green variety, also called Florida avocados?

Today we’re doing a deep dive with Tom Siddons. He and his wife own Sleepy Lizard Avocado Farm in the Everglades, where they grow and ship avocados, mangos and other tropical fruits. Tom also hosts the popular Sleepy Lizard YouTube podcast about their farm.

In this conversation, Tom shares why he got into the avocado business and offers tips for planting the best-tasting avocados right in your own backyard.

Thanks to Sonya Bryson-Kirksey for suggesting this episode. Who do you want to hear on the podcast? Send your Zest guest suggestions to: [email protected].

Related episodes:

• Florida Fruit & Vegetable Gardening 101

• Super Bowl Chef to Showcase Florida Flavors

• Conscious Cuisine: Edible Gardening Tips from Albert Risemberg

• The Olive Grove Brings a Taste of Tuscany to Brooksville

Kiera Wright-Ruiz has an impressive resume: food writer with creds in The New York Times and Bon Appétit. Photographer for big-name brands including Taco Bell. Recipe developer for the Japan Times, The Kitchn and Food52. Picture book author.

We could go on.

But perhaps most impressive is the vulnerability Kiera displays in her latest work, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen. Part cookbook, part memoir, the book explores her multicultural roots through a lens of food. Between mouthwatering recipes, photos and illustrations are personal essays about her mixed heritage (her father is Ecuadorian, and her mother is Korean), father’s drug addiction, time in foster care and other personal subjects not usually found in a recipe book. The result is a work that will feed both your body and soul.

Dalia chatted with Kiera, who grew up in South Florida and now lives in Tokyo.

Related episodes:

• Talking Seoul Food with Miami’s 2 Korean Girls

• For Storyteller Natasha Samreny, Multicultural Family Dinners Set the Table for a Comedy Career

• From Florida to France: Food Writer Jamie Schler on Cooking with Oranges, French Hotel Life and More

This week on The Zest Podcast, revisit Dalia's conversation with Toni Tipton-Martin. The renowned food journalist won James Beard Awards for her books The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks and Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking. Martin also serves as editor-in-chief of the Cook’s Country magazine and television show.

This conversation was recorded at the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival in 2020. (Yep, that 2020.) The episode was hand-picked for you by The Zest's brand manager, Alexandria Ebron.

Related episodes:

This season we're talking avocados, food sovereignty, Latinx identity and a whole lot more. New episodes are released on Thursdays. Listen wherever you're hearing this or at thezestpodcast.com.

Today, we’re dishing up a second helping of a conversion we enjoyed so much that we wanted to make sure you got a chance to listen, in case you missed it the first time around. If you’re a longtime Zestie and you remember this classic episode, we hope you’ll enjoy it even more the second time and of course share it with a friend.

Zest editor Andrew Lucas has such a fondness for key lime pie that he wanted to listen back to Dalia's conversation with Kermit Carpenter of Kermit's Key Lime Shop (formerly Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe).

Today we’re getting to know Ana Quincoces. Long before she was a cast member on The Real Housewives of Miami, she was an attorney and avid foodie.

The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Ana chats with Dalia about the latest of her four cookbooks, Modern Cuban: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Recipes.

Related episodes:

• ​​Miami Herald’s Carlos Frías on Cuban Coffee, Edible Iguanas & Winning the James Beard Award

• Brenda Popritkin of ‘The Whet Palette’ on Her Favorite Miami Restaurants and Dining Out with Special-Needs Kids

• How “Food Led the Way” for Cuban Influence in Tampa

New year, same us.

We could resolve to eat more kale, do 100 burpees a day or rein in our online shopping. But let’s be real… we’re not going to stick to any of that. Here at The Zest, we’re about adding joy to our life—especially if that joy comes in the form of food.

In that spirit, we’re kicking off 2025 by sharing some of our favorite gastronomic splurges—foods, restaurant meals, kitchen appliances and other things we think are worth going out of your way for. Maybe they cost a little more or require a bit more effort, but they’re worth the investment. Hopefully this conversation inspires you to create your own list of foodie goals.

For this conversation, Dalia Colón is joined by Zest team members Andrew Lucas and Alexandria Ebron. Plus Alex’s husband, Robert Ebron, stops by to tell us about a restaurant deal you won’t want to miss out on.

Related episodes:

• Potluck: Zest Staffers Reveal Our Favorite Cooking Hacks

• Food Hacks for Your Next Vacation from Travel Blogger Carrie McLaren

• Author Kristen Hare on Things to Eat in Tampa Bay Before You Die

‘Tis the season for lofty resolutions. Maybe you’ve vowed to stop drinking alcohol, run a daily 5k or cut your takeout budget to zero and cook every meal at home.

Whatever your goals for the new year, Jo Bakal says to start small. Jo is a Tampa-based wellness coach and cookbook author who’s sworn off meat, dairy products and cane sugar. She even makes her own oat milk.

We can feel your eyes rolling already. But hear us out—Jo made these changes gradually, going from a steak-loving New Yorker to a plant-based Floridian. And her advice can help you evolve into the next version of yourself, whatever that looks like for you. Jo stopped by our studio in Tampa for a chat with Dalia. In this conversation, they discuss how there are two types of food, and why Jo’s wellness tools aren’t as “woo-woo” as they might initially sound.

Related episodes:

• “The Sporkful” Host Dan Pashman on Pasta, Podcasting & Imposter Syndrome

• Eat Better, Feel Better: Simple Swaps from Carly Paige of FitLiving Eats

• Gabrielle E.W. Carter & Dr. LaDonna Butler on Food as Rest & Resistance

• From Florida to France: Food Writer Jamie Schler on Cooking with Oranges, French Hotel Life and More

Head to Lakeland to hang out with Kadean and Laures Dockery. They're the husband-and-wife team behind Our Noire Kitchen. Noire is French for black, and yes, they are a proud Black-owned company. Kadean is the chef; Laures runs the business side and takes all the great photos you see on Instagram.

The pair run Our Noire Kitchen out of the business incubator Catapult Lakeland, and they travel with their food trailer throughout Central Florida for pop-up events, catering gigs and private chef services. Dalia caught up with the Dockerys at Catapult.

Related episodes:

• Pasta Packs Co-Founders Nic & Greg Bryon on Pandemic Dinner Parties, the Flour Your Pantry Needs and Cooking While Black

• Soul Food Scholar Adrian Miller Will Headline the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival

• Beef Chief: Black Cattle Rancher Huey Howard Reflects on the Racism & Rewards of His 6-Decade Career

For many chefs, the road to running a kitchen starts with culinary school. But Hart Lowry forged his own path, working in restaurants across the United States, Europe and Asia, convincing chefs to take him under his wing.

It worked.

Today, Hart is culinary director for Hi Hospitality Group, where he oversees five Sarasota-area restaurants: Speaks Clam Bar, Kojo, Bar Hana, Palm Avenue Deli and Central Park. Hi Hospitality Group’s newest project is Central Park St. Pete.

Hart chatted with Dalia about his unconventional path to chefdom, the fundamental differences between French and Japanese cooking and advice for elevating a home-cooked meal.

Related episodes:

• Chef Mike Collantes of Michelin-Starred Soseki Modern Omakase on His 10-Seat Restaurant and a Hack for Making Better Sushi at Home

• Why You Should Stop Haggling at Florida’s Farmers Markets

• Chef BT Nguyen on How to Cook with Booze

• Chef Johnathan Rodriguez on Finding Cooking Inspiration

• Firehouse Chef Manny FD on Cooking for his “Second Family” and the Right Way to Extinguish a Kitchen Fire