ORIGINS: A Speaker Series
32 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsORIGINS: A Speaker Series aims to elevate the conversation about food, its origins and what we are doing with food and food systems on this planet. The focus for this series is the food of the mid-Atlantic region, centered around Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The series is held within the intimate confines of Artifact Coffee, one of the restaurants owned by Spike and Amy Gjerde and their partner, Corey Polyoka. Spike Gjerde recently received the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic, becoming the first chef from Baltimore to ever win an award from the Foundation. Artifact is located at 1500 Union Avenue in Baltimore (artifactcoffee.com) . Their restaurants also include Woodberry Kitchen (woodberrykitchen.com) and Parts and Labor (partsandlabor.com), all of which are deeply and unwaveringly committed to the relationships they have with the growers, watermen, and producers of the Chesapeake region. We are here to create a community dialogue about local and responsible food systems, the economic impact of doing so, and how we grow, fish, cultivate and work with local ingredients in our day to day lives. The panels feature growers and producers from the Chesapeake region.
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Episodes
Mind of a Chocolate Maker
April 16, 2020 19:28 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBThis evening’s conversation is with Jinji Fraser, the founder and owner of Pure Chocolate by Jinji. Pure Chocolate by Jinji was started by Jinji and her father, Guy, in 2012 with the mission of helping people navigate their own wellness and nutrition. From there, the business took a shape of its own, becoming a vessel for Jinji and her team to create a brand known for pushing the boundaries of chocolate through storied flavors and direct and responsible trading. Today, with a new shop on ...
Bernie Herman
March 29, 2020 15:57 - 1 hour - 71.3 MBOur featured panelist tonight, Bernie Herman, is one of the co-founders of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Foodways. Bernie is the author of the recently published book, A South You Never Ate: Savoring Flavors and Stories from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The book brings together over 100 recorded interviews on the foodways of Virginia's Eastern Shore as part of a larger endeavor undertaken around sustainable economic development through heritage foodways. He is currently working on a sec...
Episode 31: Citrus...Local??? Yes!
January 19, 2020 18:08 - 1 hour - 67.1 MBThis episode of ORIGINS features New Jersey citrus growers Vivek and Seema Malik along with their daughter and baker Simran Malik.The Maliks are self-taught, part-time citrus growers. Citrus is a passion stemming from their love of Japanese cuisine. A chance encounter with yuzu soy sauce at Nobu in NYC, started a journey of discovery and adventure which has led to a greenhouse filled with 16 citrus varieties in Bordentown, New Jersey. In Hindi, “Bhumi” refers to Mother Earth. “Bhumi Growers”...
Episode 30: Is It Now Or Never For Local Farms?
October 15, 2019 20:53 - 1 hour - 80.6 MBThanks for joining us tonight for a very important topic –our local farms. Today we learned that a local institution, Trickling Springs Creamery is closing. Two of our farmers from prior ORIGINS events have ceased operations. While it’s all not doom and gloom, I think this highlights the urgency of this conversation about our local farms. What can we do to keep our farms healthy and economically viable? We’re thrilled to welcome our all-star female panelist tonight. Our first panelist...
Episode 29: Building a Healthy Food Retail Environment: Strategies to Improve Food Insecurity
March 28, 2019 18:03 - 1 hour - 67.6 MBFood insecurity refers to USDA’s measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food-insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all the time. Food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods. According to Feeding America’s Map th...
Episode 28: Medical Marijuana
January 10, 2019 19:00 - 1 hour - 73.2 MBThis episode of ORIGINS features three representatives from the Evermore Cannabis Company located in Baltimore, Maryland. Medical marijuana was legalized in Maryland in 2014 and has been available to the public since December of 2017. This is a discussion of the nascent industry in the state. Our panelists are: Gary Nusinov. Gary is an accomplished horticulturalist and expert with the hands on knowledge required to successfully cultivate cannabis for consistent quality and results in a well...
Episode 27: The Economics of Sourcing and Buying Locally, Part 2
September 27, 2018 18:19 - 1 hour - 72.8 MBThis episode of ORIGINS continues the conversation we started on Thursday, September 20th about the economic impact of buying and sourcing food locally. Last week we heard from Scott Nash, the CEO and Founder of Mom’s Organic Market and Tracy Ward, the Director of a new food hub in Easton called Chesapeake Harvest. We’re continuing our look at the economics of buying and selling locally with two farmers and business owners with different but successful models. Mark Toigo is the farmer/owne...
Episode 26: The Economics of Sourcing and Buying Locally, Part I
September 20, 2018 18:31 - 1 hour - 72.6 MBThe intent behind ORIGINS, a speaker series, was to highlight the farmers, fisherman, producers, and makers behind the local food movement in the Mid-Atlantic region. Spike Gjerde started his first restaurant, Woodberry Kitchen, with a commitment to local growers and producers. He and his team have returned more than $2.1 million annually to the local economy during the last several years. This episode will take a closer look at the economics of the local food system from both a retailer’...
Episode 25: Foraging
June 21, 2018 23:11 - 1 hour - 71 MBThis episode will be on foraging in the mid-Atlantic area and features two longtime foragers, Jeff Long and Tom Mueller. Jeff has been an amateur mycologist for 30 years. He has been foraging mushrooms for 30 years and truffle hunting for almost 8 years now. He is past president of the Mycological Association of Washington, DC and is currently the only living lifetime honorary member of that organization. Jeff also lectures and speaks about mushrooms and truffles at least a couple of time...
Episode 24: Aquaculture: Farming our Fish for the Future
May 17, 2018 23:09 - 1 hour - 67.4 MBThis ORIGINS episode will be about the future of fish farming as well as its current status. Our panel consists of Jillian Fry, TJ Tate, Mark Ely and Jesse Blom. Jillian Fry directs the Seafood, Public Health & Food Systems Project at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. The project aims to increase awareness, expand the relevant evidence base, and advance policy goals in support of a healthy, equitable, and sustainable supply of farmed and wild seafood products. Jillian is a res...
Episode 23: Natural Sweeteners
February 15, 2018 20:54 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBOur discussion tonight will be on natural sweeteners. We are delighted to welcome Joseph and Margaret-Ann Burkholder, who are the owner/farmers of Compass Winds Sorghum, based in Dayton, Virginia, outside of Harrisonberg. Sorghum can be grown either for grain or for crushing into molasses. “Sorghum moved west over the Blue Ridge with the pioneers,” says Joseph. “It was more adaptable to our climate than sugar cane, and it became the first sustainable sweetener of the frontier.” Our other ...
Episode 22: Michael Twitty
January 18, 2018 20:54 - 1 hour - 67.5 MBMichael is a noted culinary and cultural historian and the creator of AFROCULINARIA, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacies. He has been honored by FIRSTWEFEAST.com as one of the twenty greatest food bloggers of all time and named one of the “Fifty People Who Are Changing the South”, by Southern Living magazine and one of the “Five Chetavists to Watch” by TakePart.com. Michael’s work has appeared in EBONY, the GUARDIAN and on NPR. He is also a Smith f...
Episode 21: Coffee: A View from Two Continents
October 19, 2017 22:04 - 1 hour - 63.1 MBTonight’s episode will take a look at coffee, the drink that fuels most us every day. Our panelists are Miguel Mateo, Getu Bekele and Lenore Yerkes. Miguel is the sales and export manager for Manos Campesinas, an umbrella organization that works with 8 grassroots organizations of four different geographic departments: San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu and Sololá. Overall, Manos Campesinas represents 1,073 individual members, all of them small coffee producers. Many, but not all, these...
Episode 20: Let's Have That GMO Conversation! with McKay Jenkins
September 19, 2017 21:55 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBMcKay Jenkins has been writing about people and the natural world for 30 years. His new book is Food Fight: GMOs and the Future of the American Diet (Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2017). He is also the author of ContamiNation (Avery, 2016, previously published in hardcover by Random House as What’s Gotten Into Us), which chronicles his investigation into the myriad synthetic chemicals we encounter in our daily lives, and the growing body of evidence about the harm these chemica...
Episode 18: Too Many Cucumbers – Preserving, Pickling and Fermenting
May 25, 2017 21:25 - 1 hour - 69.1 MBOur panelists include Sarah Gordon and Sheila Fain, owners and founders of Gordy’s Pickle Jar; Meaghan and Shane Carpenter, the owners and founders of Hex Ferments; and Lauren Sandler, the Director of Preservation for Foodshed, Inc. Sarah Gordon and Sheila Fain are the founders of Gordy’s Pickle Jar, the much-loved, small batch pickle company from Washington DC. Founded in 2011, Gordy’s quickly become a DC favorite not only for its delicious product line but also for its commitment to craft...
Episode 17: Reading, Writing and Arugula: A Look At Local School Farms
March 23, 2017 21:10 - 1 hour - 71.1 MBPanelists: Beth Mathie, Farm Educator, Great Kids Farm Sharon Hood, Director of Roots Farm at McDonogh School Dan Schocor, Executive Director of Green Street Academy Eric Oberlechner, Farm Director, Green Street Academy Eric Oberlechner ran his own Landscaping company for 9 years and managed and worked at a nursery for 7 years He has been at Green Street Academy for 4 years managing the farm and supporting the agriculture class as well as generally filling in wherever needed to support ...
Episode 16: Distilling it Down: Spirits in the Mid-Atlantic
February 24, 2017 21:52 - 1 hour - 67 MBOur four panelists are Janna Howley, Director of Operations, Grow and Fortify: Alex Weiss, Sales Director, Caledonia Spirits; Monica Pearce and Kyle Pfalzer, co-owners and founders of Tenth Ward Distillery. Food, farms and economic development have been Janna Howley’s passions since the early 2000s. Janna is currently the Director of Operations for Grow & Fortify, which manages the Maryland brewers, distillers and wineries associations. In her previous position she worked for the USDA Natio...
Episode 15: 2nd Anniversary of ORIGINS
January 19, 2017 17:30 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBORIGINS is celebrating its 2nd anniversary with a one on one conversation between Chef Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore and Rona Kobell, an environmental reporter. Rona Kobell is a reporter for the Chesapeake Bay Journal. She also was co-producer and co-host with Dan Rodricks of Midday on the Bay, a monthly public affairs show on WYPR in Baltimore that ran for more than five years. She blogs daily and breaks news at www.bayjournal.com and maintains an active Bay Journal presen...
Episode 14: A Look at Local Orchards & Fruit Trees
November 18, 2016 01:45 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBIn this episode of ORIGINS, we take a look at local orchards, orchardists and a cider distillery. Our first panelist is Ben Wenk , the seventh generation partner/manager at Three Springs Fruit Farm based in Aspers, Pennsylvania. Three Springs attends local farmers markets, sells wholesale, and makes Ploughman brand hard cider. The Wenk family's diversified farm grows a little bit of everything but specializes in apples and peaches. Our next panelist is Rob Miller, who together with his wi...
Episode 13: Women Who Farm
October 20, 2016 21:33 - 1 hour - 64.7 MBIn this episode of ORIGINS, we’ll take a closer look at women who have chosen farming as a career and as a way of life. According to the Maryland state census in 2012, there were 2,296 women farm operators in our state – a 20% increase from the 2002 census. We know women have always played important roles on the family farm but increasingly women are turning to farming on their own. Our first farmer is Lisa Wheeler Duff, owner of Oak Spring Farm is a small, diversified farm in Freeland, M...
Episode 12: So...Was It the Chicken or the Egg?
September 08, 2016 21:26 - 1 hour - 75.3 MBThe 12th program in the ORIGINS speaker series features a conversation with 3 local chicken farmers from Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Andrew McClean is the owner of Relief Farms, based in Queen Anne County, Maryland and recently converted his 350 acre chicken operation from conventional to organic and now sells over 900,000 birds to Coleman Organic, a division of Perdue. Beau Ramsburg is the founder and co-owner with his wife, Cat, of Rettland Farms. Beau founded Rettland Farm in G...
Episode 11: The Local Pantry: Oil, Vinegar, and Salt
May 26, 2016 21:17 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBThe 11th program in the ORIGINS series is about locally made items for your pantry – salt, vinegar and cooking oil. All three makers are working in the Chesapeake watershed area. We are pleased to welcome Paige Payne from JQ Dickinson Salt Works. Paige, along with her husband Lewis and sister-in-law Nancy Bruns are 7th generation salt makers. Their brine source is the 400-600 million year old ancient sea, the Iapetus ocean. Sarah Conezio and Isaiah Billington, former pastry chef and chef de ...
Episode 10: The South You Never Ate: Virginia's Eastern Shore
April 28, 2016 21:12 - 1 hour - 63.7 MBThe 10th program in the ORIGINS series features a conversation with Bernie Herman, the department chair and George B. Tindall Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The discussion will focus on the food, foodways and culture of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Herman, along with Tom Gallivan, Mills Wehner and Heather Terry Lusk, founded the ESVA Foodways, LLC. Their collective goal is to create one job for one person so one family doesn’t have to lea...
Episode 9: Sustainable Seafood in the Chesapeake Watershed
February 18, 2016 22:05 - 1 hour - 82.2 MBThe 9th program in the ORIGINS series is about sustainable seafood. With the Chesapeake Bay at our doorstep, it is important to note that the Chesapeake Bay provides 50 percent of the total blue crab harvest in the United States. Each year, the Maryland seafood industry contributes some $600 million to the State's economy. Besides blue crabs, the Chesapeake Bay is a source for striped bass, oysters,soft clams, flounder, perch, spot, croaker, catfish, sea trout, and bluefish. Our distinguis...
Episode 8: Baking & Local Grains
January 28, 2016 22:00 - 1 hour - 74.6 MBThe 8th program in the ORIGINS series is about sourcing and baking with local whole grains. We are pleased to welcome Heinz Thomet from Next Step Produce in Newburg, who along with his wife Gabrielle, owns a 87 acre organic farm. Heinz grows and mills whole grains including wheat, oats, barley, and rye and is also one of the leading growers of field rice in Maryland. Our featured baker, Russell Trimmer, worked with Heinz for several years and learned as much as he could about whole grains...
Episode 7: A Conversation with Dr. William Woys Weave
November 19, 2015 21:53 - 1 hour - 70.6 MBA conversation with Dr. William Woys Weaver, an international food historian, author, teacher, gardener, and epicure. Dr. Weaver is the founder of the Roughwood Seed Collection, which houses over 4000 heirloom food plants. Dr. Weaver is also the director of the Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism™, located in the historic Lamb Tavern in Devon, Pennsylvania. The Keystone Center is an independent research institute unaffiliated with state or private industry org...
Episode 6: Maryland Cheese - Cow, Sheep & Goat
October 22, 2015 20:48 - 1 hour - 80.7 MBDiscussion about pollinators and honeybees and their critical role in our food production. Panelists include Dr. Dennis van Englesdorp, Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland’s Department of Entomology and an internationally known honeybee epidemiologist; David C. Heisler, farmer and owner of The Comus Market in Comus, Maryland; and Jack Leonard, landscape architect, beekeeper and assistant professor of Morgan State University’s Landscape Architecture Program.
Episode 5: Maryland Cheese - Cow, Sheep & Goat
September 24, 2015 20:35 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBLocal Cheese: Discussion about local Maryland cheese featuring 3 artisanal cheesemakers representing 3 different animal sources — cow, sheep and goat. And the cheese buyer and ACS Certified Cheese Professional from the Baltimore Whole Foods Market. Speakers are Colleen and Michael Histon, owners of Shepherd’s Manor Creamery; Pam Miller, cheesemaker, Charlottetown Farm; Holly Foster, owner and cheesemaker Chapel’s Country Creamery; and Anedina Canzian, Cheesemonger, Whole Foods Market, Baltim...
Episode 4: Drink Local
April 25, 2015 20:26 - 56 minutes - 51.6 MBLocal Beer and Wine: Discussion about the rise of the Maryland wine and beer industry. Speakers include the Director of the Maryland Wineries and now Breweries and Distilleries, a brewer and local hops farmer, a local winery, and a restauranteur focused on serving local beverages.
Episode 3: Farmer to Butcher to Consumer
March 19, 2015 20:17 - 1 hour - 63 MBDiscussion about the economics of producing high quality pork and beef on local farms. Speakers include a butcher, a processor, Heritage pig farmers and the director of a grass-fed beef farm operation.
Episode 2: Maryland Produce
February 19, 2015 21:01 - 1 hour - 65.4 MBLocal Produce: Discussion about local produce and how the Baltimore City School System is incorporating produce into their lunch programs. The Baltimore City Food Policy Director speaks about the work her office is doing regarding food access. Speakers include the Baltimore City Food Policy Director, the owners of one of the largest organic vegetable farms in Maryland, and Baltimore City School System Office of Nutrition employee.
Episode 1: Oysters and Aquaculture
January 22, 2015 20:49 - 1 hour - 67.9 MBOysters: Discussion about oysters, aquaculture and an overview of the industry in the region. Speakers include an award-winning Chesapeake Bay journalist, an aquaculture practitioner, and a bioengineer involved with powering aquaculture machinery.