39 Comments
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Janet Jonas's avatar

THIS. Haven't been more convicted about informed changes needed in our food supply since Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver and her family). AVM changed my perspective. This reinforces and promotes forward. Thank you!

Sarah Young's avatar

I loved this episode! I was a history major back in the day and always wanted to take a food and history class and I was never taking classes on campus the semesters it was offered. So my nerdy side got to really geek out with this one.

Kathy McClintock's avatar

What an ear of corn discussion has been replaced with another episode, I want to relisten and share it. Can someone fix this? It was an excellent discussion

Beth Ann Silvers's avatar

Thanks for sharing and re-listening! What a compliment! The Spotify link here automatically updates to the newest episode in our feed. You can still find this episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4BaP3PFlt6jqsZyXk5r5Bd?si=Xy_EBhfrRs6avVqEEoLjPw&utm_source=copy-link

Caitlin M. Bagley's avatar

No piece of food or gardening content has ever inspired me to actually try to grow a vegetable garden until now. And this line made my brain explode (in a good way): Buy ingredients, make food. Don't buy food.

Beth Ann Silvers's avatar

I keep thinking about that, too

Crystal Kemp's avatar

I think about The Three Sisters all the time after reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. So many life lessons wrapped up in there. We flourish the most when we are supporting each other.

Angie S's avatar

I moved to New Mexico 7 years ago and it’s been so great to experience the food culture. Great episode!

Marci Green's avatar

Hi Beth. I enjoyed this episode and wanted to share how my family farm uses precision farming. We raise wheat, bluegrass seed, canola, lentils and garbanzo beans in Eastern Washington. We are non-irrigated so we can’t control our water. We use precision farming for fertilizer applications. With variable-rate technology, we are applying the fertilizer where the plants need and can utilize it. We also use GPS for seeding, fertilizing, and herbicide applications which reduces waste in overlapping parts of the field. Precision farming makes us more efficient.

Thanks for the work you and Sarah do. Love the podcast!

Beth Ann Silvers's avatar

I think this is all so fascinating, Marci. Thanks for sharing! The fertilizer/herbicide applications really interest me!

Colleen Olenek's avatar

This was such an interesting conversation! I learned so much and has really stuck with me and kept me thinking.

Stephanie's avatar

I listened to this episode while preparing a from-scratch meal (mostly - I used storebought chicken stock!). 10/10

Lisa Dorn's avatar

Thank you for such a wonderful episode, Beth! This topic is near and dear to my heart. My husband and I joined our first CSA well over a decade now, and it sparked something in both of us. The French breakfast radish we got in one of our very first boxes was life changing. We stick to farmers markets now because it’s a little easier for us to keep up with since it’s just the two of us, but I love and appreciate how much better and longer lasting the produce is that’s been grown and harvested so close to home.

This episode was also incredibly well-timed, as I’m currently reading The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by chef Sean Sherman. I don’t know if it’s still open, but if it is, he also has a restaurant in Minneapolis called Owamni that focuses on indigenous food traditions from across the Americas. I’ve wanted to make the short trip from western Wisconsin to check it out for quite some time now.

Beth Ann Silvers's avatar

Lisa, I feel like you have the beginning of a novel in “The French breakfast radish we got in one of our very first boxes was life-changing.”

Katie's avatar

I know she recommended making a pie but one of the most fun things I’ve done with friends was a butter tasting. Everybody brought a different brand and we blind taste tested it on bread and ranked them. Kerrygold and Kroger were the two faves. We did it at work throughout the day.

June Smith's avatar

Great discussion today, I was totally fascinated by the food history. I now wants to take a cooking class with Chef, wow!

Gina's avatar

What a delightful episode! Much like Mica, I also spend most of my life thinking about, volunteering for, and working in food.

Regarding precision farming, I’ve encountered lots of food grown in Holland, as someone living in Denmark. I am skeptical of its availability (tomatoes coming from Northern Europe in cold months usually means heated greenhouses). But my main bone to pick is that it’s flavorless.

I am more interested in regenerative farming. The film Common Ground, featuring North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown, is a good intro.

The food organization I work with is Slow Food, which has chapters all over the US and the world. They also support regenerative agriculture (or agroecology).

In the episode when discussing how we change the system, I thought of Slow Food’s ethos. They lead with joy, and with pleasure — with the idea that, if you’re going to draw people into a movement, you can’t do it with anger and cynicism. You do it with flavor and enjoyment and offering glimmers of what a hopeful future feels like.

I could go on, as food is so much of my life. But I’ll end here…with a couple p.s.’s.

P.s. Since everyone is sick of hearing how great Denmark is, y’all might enjoy hearing me say that the US does food wayyy better than DK. When people ask me what I miss most about the US, my answer is ‘Mexican food.’

P.p.s. I also loved the pie recommendation! I spent three years working as a pie baker for a little US American-owned shop here in Copenhagen. Pie baking is such a cool skill to have and use. We would process the flour and butter until butter was between pea-sized and grape-sized chunks; then add cold water. And crimping comes with practice :)

Heidi K's avatar

Mica’s thoughts about the very poor remind me of Demon Copperhead. Kingsolver’s description of how Demon was able to eat in rural Appalachia really stuck with me. There’s a big gap between urban poor and rural poor in terms of food.

Danielle's avatar

Really enjoyed this episode, Beth!

Beth Ann Silvers's avatar

Yay! Thank you!

Sarah's avatar

Excellent episode! Can’t wait to hear Lauren Pinkston on Friday!!!

Beth Ann Silvers's avatar

I’m really looking forward to talking with her