Earth Eats: Real Food, Green Living
279 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★ - 35 ratingsEarth Eats is a weekly podcast, public radio program and blog bringing you the freshest news and recipes inspired by local food and sustainable agriculture
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Episodes
Can traditional foods help manage disease?
July 12, 2024 12:00 - 50 minutes - 46.9 MBHave you ever had a hunch about something, tested it out and been shocked by the results? That’s what happened to public health scholar Funmi Ayeni. She took a traditional Nigerian home remedy and applied the rigors of scientific research to test its efficacy. The results were nothing short of jaw dropping. This week on Earth Eats, food research that could end up saving lives.
Indigenous foodways as tools of empowerment
July 05, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“As I started to think more about theories around food, and it’s a thing that we do every day without fail, and it really shapes the way that we interact with one another, it shapes the way we interact with our environments, the ways that we create networks of relationships–being able to name it has given it a power to be able to use it to tap into ways to think about social relationships in the present and propose alternatives.” This week we’re devoting the full show to my conver...
Learn about specialty brewing with local fruits at Upland’s Woodshop
June 28, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MB“We use wood so that we give the various microorganisms sort of a place to colonize and live from batch to batch. And over time those colonies and those species that have taken hold will change, they’ll drift and so, you’ll develop a unique character to each tank that’s really interesting.” This week on the show we dive head first into a giant oak barrel full of aging beer. Okay, well, not literally. Producer Toby Foster pays a visit to The Woodshop, that’s Upland Brewing Compa...
Historian Rebecca Spang on the strange origins of the restaurant
June 21, 2024 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB“The dominant vocabulary for talking about restaurants is ‘what food do they serve, what are the good dishes?’ People think that’s the only thing that’s important about restaurants.” Today on the show we talk with Historian Rebecca Spang, about the origins of restaurants, and what they mean to us today. “The experience just of knowing that there are other people and knowing that they have their own lives, they’re talking about their own things, but that you’re not completely alo...
Palm oil is everywhere–Max Haiven talks about why that matters
June 14, 2024 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“When you begin to zoom out, you realize that in fact palm oil is all around us, and the world, in a strange way, is made of palm oil; and we’re all, in a certain way, made of palm oil–in the sense that we use it to reproduce our bodies and to clean our skin and to live the lives that we live in a globalized world.” This week on the show, a conversation with Max Haiven, author of the book Palm Oil:The Grease of Empire. He traces the history of palm oil production globally, examinin...
Beth Hoffman speaks frankly on the financial challenges of farming [replay]
June 07, 2024 12:00 - 49 minutes - 45.8 MB“It’s a great thing to be outside, to have birds chirping, to be around green grass, and animals. But the problem has become, that you can’t really be a business unless you are a financially viable business.” This week on the show we explore the economics of small scale farming, and debunk some of the myths of the agrarian lifestyle. We talk with Beth Hoffman, author of Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Farming in America, and we hear from farmers across Indiana about how the...
Tacotarian’s plant-based tacos aren’t just for vegetarians [replay]
May 31, 2024 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB“There are a lot of people, they like the faux meats and they want to eat a Carne Asada that reminds of the actual, like, Beef Carne Asada. There are a lot of people who try to steer clear from the faux meats, so we wanted to have plenty of veggie items on the menu for them as well. We really wanted to represent different ingredients and different flavors that anybody can come and enjoy.” This week on the show, producer, Toby Foster visits with one of the owners of Tacotarian in La...
Food sovereignty in times of transition
May 24, 2024 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.7 MB“It’s not about simply that protectionism and nationalism–that we only want to make sure that we eat Lithuanian food. It is a much deeper sense of urgency that as a state–and its political sovereignty–depends on the ability to produce food and feed its population for a long time.” This week on the show a conversation with sociologist Diana Mincyte who studies food systems in post socialist Eastern European states like Lithuania. And Muddy Fork Bakery’s Eric Schedler guides us thr...
Can chefs shape our food system?
May 17, 2024 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MB“There’s a restaurant on almost every street in our various cities–they are woven into the fabrics of our communities, and they are deeply embedded in our lives. Restaurants are the places we go to celebrate marriages, to mourn divorces, the places we go to gossip with friends to celebrate after church and they become these places to hear the stories of their community. They’re talking to the farmers everyday, they’re talking to the fisherpeople everyday, they’re talking to the oth...
Taking on Monsanto: journalist Carey Gillam tells the story of Lee Johnson vs. Big Ag [replay]
May 10, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB“We all need to eat to survive and the quality of the food, the access to the food--the type of food that we eat is central to our health and to the health of the planet.“ This week on the show, a conversation with Carey Gillam, the author of The Monsanto Papers--Deadly Secrets, Corporate Corruption, and One Man’s Search for Justice. And we have a story from Harvest Public Media about how farmers are turning to bio-char for carbon sequestration.
Turkish hand pies spark childhood memories for Derya Dogan
May 03, 2024 16:14 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MB“Imagine, we have dinner like at 7, 8 pm–my baba would take all of the çörek to the bakery and have it baked and he’s back home at 10pm–doesn’t matter! Fresh tea, hot tea, feta cheese, olives–breakfast. That’s like your night breakfast the day before Eid.” This week on the show, we spend time in the kitchen with Derya Dogan . She walks us through the steps of making her version of Poğaça–a Turkish hand pie filled with cheese and herbs. She shares treasured childhood memories of com...
In celebration of Earth Day: a conversation on the deep roots of regenerative farming
April 26, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“When I try to understand–why on earth would agriculture be practiced that way? The answer is colonization. The answer really is, this wasn’t about managing land for everyone’s mutual benefit. This was a process of extraction.” In honor of Earth Day earlier this week, we are revisiting an important conversation about regenerative agriculture with Liz Carlisle, author of Healing Grounds:Climate, Justice and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming. And learn about restoring native pra...
What a garden can mean–when you need it most
April 19, 2024 16:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MB“And she brought two jars of lilacs, like [a] drink made of lilacs. She brought also cups and everybody could try it. It was really something like a miracle for me because I have never thought that it could be drunk in this way.” This week on the show, a story about a community garden in Tallinn, Estonia. We talk with Jerry Mercury, a political immigrant from Russia whose encounter with the garden was transformative. And later in the show we have a recipe for quick, garden-fresh ...
Get ready for food truck season, and ice cream with the Chocolate Moose and Pinoy Garden Cafe
April 12, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“And as the blade rotates and the interior cylinder freezes, it begins to churn the ice cream into a wonderful fluffy content that will be established shortly thereafter.” This week on the show, let’s kick off the summer season with a story about ice cream. Toby Foster talks with Jordan Davis and Elijah Lawson of the Chocolate Moose, Bloomington's classic ice cream stand, and so much more. And we go into the kitchen with Chris Manansala and Maria St. Claire of Pinoy Garden Cafe to...
Three generations collaborate to cook a favorite Cuban dish
April 05, 2024 16:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MB“You know, you’d wake up the day before, in the morning, and there was Grandma, already in the kitchen. You’d just get the smells, the aromas of the garlic and the citrus from the mojo, and you know it was just kind of ingrained in the memory of sitting there with my grandma while she was preparing it and just talking…” This week on the show, we dive into a family recipe from Cuba with producer Alexis Carvajal. producer Daniella Richardson review the critically acclaimed show all...
Youth in Indianapolis build personal and community resilience in the garden–with Groundwork Indy
March 29, 2024 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“We’re not shooting for perfection, we’re shooting for richness of experience.” This week on the show, we revisit a conversation at Groundwork Indy with then Executive Director, Phyllis Boyd. She gives us a tour of their on-site garden tended by teams of young people in their youth development program. Then we take a drive around Northwest Indianapolis to see more inspiring projects, including a community orchard. Plus, from Harvest Public Media, we have reports on an increase in ...
Present and future foodways in Ukraine–a conversation with Elizabeth Dunn
March 22, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB“After the peace, whenever that comes, we will have land that will have to stay out of production for years because it is so heavily mined or full of cluster bomblets.” This week on the show we talk with geographer Elizabeth Cullen Dunn about the current food landscape in Ukraine. We discuss what the future may hold for farmers and food producers in the region as the war with Russia drags on and as land policy shifts in Ukraine at the start of the new year. We also talk about ice...
Sushi rolling, meatpacking and community gardening
March 15, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 47.6 MB“We know that there are all sorts of good chemicals that come out of the dirt and working with land–working with plants–that are beneficial to our mood and our health. For refugee populations that have had to be on the run or had to live in refugee camps for decades, having a little piece of land that you can tend to that you can take care of and then see the results and not feel like you’re gonna be bombed out the next day–it brings a kind of peace of mind and a little bit of heali...
The future of food according to Alicia Kennedy
March 08, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MB“I just wanted to provide context for folks because I do think that the conversation around plant-based food for the last eight years or so has been pushed toward a more corporate, vertical, lab meat, impossible burgers, beyond burgers, meat substitutes that act like meat and look like meat and has gotten really far away from whole foods and vegetables and legumes and how nice it is to just eat some beans sometimes.” This week on the show we talk with food writer Alicia Kennedy abo...
This new food truck makes top-notch, plant-based food to-go
March 01, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MBThis week on the show, Toby Foster talks with the creators of Planted, a local plant-based food truck and catering operation in Bloomington, Indiana. We learn about their inventive, plant-based menu and their commitment to sustainable practices. We have an interview with Julie Guthman about the troubled strawberry industry and we wrap up the show with a recipe for pickled carrots.
Meet the guy who cooks for flies–and for science
February 23, 2024 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.7 MB“Bloomington is known in the science world--if you say Bloomington, people think fruit flies.” This week on our show, we tap into the 15 years deep Earth Eats archive, for one of my very favorite stories. It’s about our visit to the kitchen of a science building on the campus of Indiana University, where they prepare food for a tiny organism that supports genetic research around the globe. This one is from 2020, so you’ll hear some mention of the global pandemic. This is a strange...
Author Jori Lewis on the natural and human history of the peanut
February 16, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MB"Peanuts had become popular because of this movement of new American pastimes that were accessible to like the common man, or the common person. So, baseball and theater halls and circuses--all of those places became places where people were interested in buying peanuts." This week on the show Kayte Young talks with Jori Lewis. She’s an award winning journalist and the author of, Slaves For Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation and a Crop That Changed History. It’s a book about ...
When the apocalypse comes, what will we eat?
February 09, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“There’s a feeling to it that’s kind of satisfying in that way. It doesn’t feel so much like we could survive on it, as we’re able to provide some of our sort of staple foods.” On today’s show we’re continuing to celebrate our 15th anniversary with a favorite story from 2020 about my visit to a farm East of Bloomington Indiana, to speak with Denise and Sean Breeden Ost. We talked about growing food, preserving food and eating food. We check out their dry bean threshing technique...
“We don’t own the land, we’re taking care of it”--conversations on leaving a land legacy
February 02, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB“I think our approach is: making it better–improving the land every time we have a chance. We are benefited by the sweetness of the maple, right? So, that’s a source of sweetness for us and for the people to come after us. And hopefully the pawpaws will be. One of these days, somebody can enjoy that fruit. Yeah.” This week on the show we explore what it can look like to have a vision for your land that extends beyond yourself and even your family. We speak with Larry Gillen and ...
Celebrating 15 years of food stories with chocolate, pupusas and urban farming
January 26, 2024 18:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“...Call them tamale pancakes, stuffed masa frita, the humble lovechild of a quesadilla y calzone…” This week on the show, we’re celebrating 15 years of Earth Eats with favorite stories reaching back to 2018. We visit a midwest chocolate factory crafting world-class chocolate and a poet making pupusas in his kitchen. We talk with Suzanne Babb, an urban farmer with La Finca del Sur in South Bronx and hear about how home canning is making a comeback (that last one is from Harvest P...
High school students learn about plants (and life) in their school garden
January 19, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“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.” This week on the show, it’s back to school part two. We talk with high school students and educators about what their school gardens mean...
Farm-to-fork education for elementary students
January 12, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MB“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 design...
When a library includes a teaching kitchen, community connections multiply
January 05, 2024 17:00 - 51 minutes - 47 MB“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 ar...
Make pizza like a pro–at home
December 29, 2023 13:00 - 45 minutes - 41.4 MB“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.
Winter holiday foods
December 22, 2023 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.9 MB“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 ba...
Making a local food system that works for everyone
December 15, 2023 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.9 MB“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 organiz...
Nostalgic or innovative–Tacotarian has plant-based tacos for everyone
December 08, 2023 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MBThis 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.
BIPOC farmers connect through a fellowship
December 01, 2023 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.7 MB“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
Raising seeds
November 24, 2023 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.7 MB“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.” ...
Thanksgiving food traditions connect families across generations
November 17, 2023 20:32 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MB“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 speci...
Katherine Miller on how chefs can help shape our food system
November 10, 2023 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MB“There’s a restaurant on almost every street in our various cities–they are woven into the fabrics of our communities, and they are deeply embedded in our lives. Restaurants are the places we go to celebrate marriages, to mourn divorces, the places we go to gossip with friends to celebrate after church and they become these places to hear the stories of their community. They’re talking to the farmers everyday, they’re talking to the fisherpeople everyday, they’re talking to the oth...
Who sets the menu for the animals at the zoo? [replay]
November 03, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MBThis week on the show, Toby Foster talks with Barbara Henry at the Cincinnati Zoo. She’s the one who figures out what each of the animals need to eat, where to source their food and the best ways to feed the animals to ensure that they thrive. And, Daniella Richardson talks with the founder of the Indiana Black Loam Conference about obstacles and opportunities for Black farmers in Indiana.
Piccoli Dolci brings Italian treats to The Heartland [replay]
October 27, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“I’m passionate about the idea that food should not just nurture our body, but should connect us with the land where the ingredients are from. Food should respect and value the techniques of the farmers that are growing those ingredients and the food should also highlight the creativity and the skills of the cooks that are transforming these ingredients. In this little country, we have so many examples of everything that actually makes sense about food.” This week on the show, Mari...
A forest for the future [replay]
October 20, 2023 12:00 - 50 minutes - 46.9 MB“A community is not resilient unless those benefits that we have from natural resources, like urban trees, are distributed in a way that all people are benefiting from them. And we do know that we have areas of the city that have lower canopy cover and some of those are associated also with lower income communities and marginalized communities. And arguably those are the people [who] would be most benefited by ecosystem services and the benefits of trees.” This week on the show, ...
Is food your love language? Kashika Singh builds community through food [replay]
October 13, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MB“Food connects to…for me personally, it’s something that I connect with in ways that are hard to describe at times. Perhaps because I’ve been away from my family, from India, and America has become my home. But, when a place becomes your home, I think we still keep the things that mean a lot. And I think food is one of the ways–you know? It’s beautiful memories, nostalgia…” This week on the show, we’re in the kitchen with Kashika Singh. She teaches Hindi and Urdu languages at Indi...
Ice cream and cluster bombs: present and future foodways in Ukraine
October 06, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MB“After the peace, whenever that comes, we will have land that will have to stay out of production for years because it is so heavily mined or full of cluster bomblets.” This week on the show we talk with geographer Elizabeth Cullen Dunn about the current food landscape in Ukraine. We discuss what the future may hold for farmers and food producers in the region as the war with Russia drags on and as land policy shifts in Ukraine at the start of the new year. We also talk about ice...
A political immigrant from Russia finds comfort in an Estonian garden
September 29, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB“ And she brought two jars of lilacs, like [a] drink made of lilacs. She brought also cups and everybody could try it. It was really something like a miracle for me because I have never thought that it could be drunk in this way.” This week on the show, a story about a community garden in Tallinn, Estonia. We talk with Jerry Mercury, a political immigrant from Russia whose encounter with the garden was transformative. And later in the show we have a recipe for quick, garden-fresh...
Jessica Wilson talks about what we get wrong when we focus on weight [replay]
September 22, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“Speaking directly to Black women and wanting Black women to know that their bodies are not the problem. The way that our bodies are treated and problematized and pathologized, we’re often taught that it’s our fault, that it’s our problem to fix or we just need to love our bodies out of societal oppression.” This week on the show a conversation with dietitian and author Jessica Wilson about her book, It’s Always Been Ours: Rewriting the Story of Black Women’s Bodies She’s challe...
Alicia Kennedy considers the cultural history of vegetarian cuisine
September 15, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.6 MB“I just wanted to provide context for folks because I do think that the conversation around plant-based food for the last eight years or so has been pushed toward a more corporate, vertical, lab meat, impossible burgers, beyond burgers, meat substitutes that act like meat and look like meat and has gotten really far away from whole foods and vegetables and legumes and how nice it is to just eat some beans sometimes.” This week on the show we talk with food writer Alicia Kennedy abo...
The farm bill isn’t just about farming [replay]
September 08, 2023 04:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“In terms of what is being discussed right now, I would say the $1.2 trillion dollar elephant in the room is SNAP. And so, the 2023 Farm Bill is estimated to be the most expensive farm bill in US history, over the course of 10 years worth of outlays.” This week on the show we’re talking about the importance of the upcoming Farm Bill. Our guest is Shellye Suttles, agriculture economist at the O’Neill School for Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.
Make time for coffee
September 01, 2023 12:10 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“The goal with the collective is to bridge that gap–so then there is a lot more equity and a lot more opportunity. Because these coffees are incredible and most of the time when they’re coming from people of marginalized identities, those people are ensuring that they’re honoring the farmers as well–and so the farmers are then getting equitable pay. And so it’s creating that throughout the supply chain.” This week on the show we’re talking coffee with Korie Griggs. She’s with the ...
A beehive contains multitudes
August 25, 2023 12:07 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MB“So, I like to say that bees are just like us. So bees have a society, and they live in a built environment, [they have a] little house, just like we have a little house, and they communicate through dance. I don’t know if we communicate through dance, but I think dance is also a thing that humans do…” This week on the show we’re talking with microbiologist Irene Garcia Newton about the beloved honeybee. We learn about the various roles within a hive, and how the diet of a bee dete...
Cakes by Yenni: turning a passion into a business [replay]
August 18, 2023 04:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“She looked at my husband and she was like, ‘Jennifer, translate what I’m about to say’ (she doesn’t speak English). She’s like, ‘Tell Derek that I said to please start a website for you and help you spread the word about your cake business.’ And I was like, ‘Grandma, I don’t really know who’s gonna buy a cake from me.’” This week we’re talking with Jennifer Whitely, owner of Cakes by Yenni. She walks us through the assembly and decoration of her strawberry cake with strawberry bu...
Take them outside
August 11, 2023 04:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB“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.” This week on the show, it’s back to school part two. We talk with high school students and educators about what their school gardens mean...
Back-to-school with farm-to-fork
August 04, 2023 04:00 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MB“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 design...