Earth Eats

“I often say that the only choice we don't have in such a connected world, the only choice we don't have is whether to change the world--because every act we take and don't take is sending out ripples and we'll never know the impact of our choices.”This week on Earth Eats, a conversation with Frances Moore Lappé. She's the acclaimed author of the groundbreaking book, Diet for a Small Planet, which turned 50 years old in 2021. She's co-founder (with her daughter Anna Lappé) of the Small Planet Institute: living democracy, feeding hope. Lappe has continued the work she began a half-century ago, of bringing analysis and insight to the study of our food systems and how they need to change for our own health and for the health of the planet.  

“Many of the farmers talked about the ability to be out in nature with other members of their family and other members of their community and several of them also talked about the benefits of being able to interact with people from other communities.” This week on the show, we talk with geographer Pablo Bose about innovative resettlement projects that help refugees connect with familiar foods from home, through gardening in community with others.

“There's a different time…what I would say–like a lifely, real time, and to be able to have, at least moments, periodically, in our lives, where we're attuned to that. And the attunement sometimes is also really pleasurable. It's like a deeply pleasurable attunement to ourselves--as not apart from, but in fact, in fact, life…as life.”This week on the show, we pick serviceberries with Ross Gay and contemplate abundance, time and connection with loved ones through foraging. Tracy Branam shows off his expansive wild strawberry patch on the banks of a pond. We talk about following a calendar of wild foods, and looking forward to the delights each season brings. 

“You gotta take the phyllo dough, put it down on your station. One person takes the butter, garlic, lemon juice mixture, wipes it down.  And then someone else spoons on the filling, and then they fold it. And then the butter person butters the outside, puts it in the baking tin. And then you gotta immediately start the next dough...”This week on the show, Kayte Young hands the mic to producer Daniella Richardson for one special episode. As host, Daniella talks with friends about the foundational foods that have shaped their lives and their perspectives on human connection.

“I knew that this was gonna be a little bit of an adventure, because I've never done this before. And so, I'm sure I'm gonna make some stupid mistake that your listeners are gonna be laughing at me while I'm doing this.” From WFIU in Bloomington Indiana, this is earth eats and I'm your host Kayte YoungThis week on the show, just in time for the hot pepper harvest, we revisit a story from 2019 about a novice hot sauce maker and one from 2020 about tasting the hottest of the hot peppers. Plus, a piece about lab studying home sourdough starters and a new story from Harvest about. All that just ahead stay with us. 

“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.”This week on the show we visit Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company to learn the particulars of growing for plants for seed. And Violet Baron talks with the owners of Lost Farm Meal Service about growing a business during a pandemic. 

“Cooking came to me a little bit later in life. Holidays in my family were always a really big deal, especially around the meals. The meals were the most important part of the holiday gathering. And I was pretty much the least useful person in the kitchen. It wasn't until–even into my mid twenties, at Thanksgiving time, my mom would be like, ‘Mark, you can take the premade Parkerhouse rolls out of the freezer and put them in the oven. That's all we trust you to do'” This week on the show we join a mother and son in a family tradition that has kept them connected across the miles. Mark Chilla and his mother, Gae, tell the story and share the recipe for an Italian, stuffed, savory pie to celebrate the end of lent in the Catholic Faith.Learn all about it in this week's episode, and try the recipe (below).Music on this EpisodeThe Earth Eats theme music is composed by Erin Tobey and performed by Erin and Matt Tobey.Additional music on this episode from Universal Production Music.Credits:The Earth Eats' team includes: Eoban Binder, Alexis Carvajal, Alex Chambers, Toby Foster, Luann Johnson, Leo Paes, Daniella Richardson, Samantha Shemenaur, Payton Whaley and Harvest Public Media.Earth Eats is produced, engineered and edited by Kayte Young. Our executive producer is Eric Bolstridge.

“I've been mushroom hunting before and you'll kind of squat down and look in between all of the low plants, and then you move to the other side and you look on the other side and all of a sudden you see like four, and they're right there.”This week it's the third installment of our special series, Earth Eats Eats Wild– a nine-part seasonal special all about foraging for wild food. We couldn't wrap up our spring season without a morel hunt–where we share secrets that might help YOU spot a few this year. And we talk with The Forager Chef, Alan Bergo, about  what it's like to eat a pine tree, and we walk through the steps of making spruce tip ice cream. 

“She introduced me to Susan Weed's books, and chickweed is in one of the herbal healing books. And it's talked about as this star-shaped plant that kind of dances–that that's it's energy [laughs].”This week on our special series, Earth Eats Eats Wild, we'll be talking chickweed with Stephanie Solomon, preparing purple deadnettle deviled eggs, harvesting spicebush and ramps in the woods with Jill Vance, and frying up crunchy fritters made with dandelion flowers.

“And you're stepping into–sinking really–into this clay that's surrounding your feet, and there's also some sticks in there, and you know, there's bugs and spiders on the water…”This week on the show we kick off the Eats Wild special series, all about foraging and edible wild plants. Monique Philpot, founder of the forest and folk school Soulcraft Bloomington, takes us out to discover wild food in unexpected places, and shares stories of growing up in two places with different food cultures. We sample treats from feasts prepared by children and by college students, and we talk about what love's got to do with it…with foraging, that is. 

“I had six different people's donations of basil in my dish yesterday, and that's what made it work.” This week on the show, we talk with Heather Craig of the Community Kitchen of Monroe County about cooking for a crowd everyday, improvising in the face of uncertainty, and sourcing ingredients from the community. Plus, stories from Harvest Public Media about rural grocery stores and the effects of the Trump administration USDA cuts on farmers and rural residents. 

“At least a hundred years ago, the last robber barons, we got nice libraries out of it. This one, it's like ‘oh, what is the family using its money for? To gut public education via charter school networks?' It's kind of Machiavellian–it's Machiavellian in a really sad way”This week on the show, I'm talking with Austin Frerick, the author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry. Frerick uncovers the sometimes shocking facts about seven large companies who play an outsized role in our nation's food system. From hog barons to coffee barons, to Indiana's own dairy barons, Fair Oaks farm.

“So if you were a giraffe or an elephant you would go along in your world and you would consume things off of trees. And so we try to mimic, as best we can, what we call browse, which is edible tree material.”This 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. 

“In the first Trump administration, about 350 thousand people from Central America or Mexico were given these H2A visas to come in temporarily with labor contractors. And many of them seem to have overstayed their visas because their labor is needed. We can't pick the crops in this country without them.”This week on the show, we welcome back geographer Elizabeth Cullen Dunn. She is the director of the Center for Refugee Studies at Indiana University and we'll talk with her about how changes in federal policy, especially around immigration affect our food system, including prices at the grocery store.

“Our younger generation, and mainly the girls, have got hearing, and they can hear that high frequency squeals that the vacuum puts off, and man they can just go in the woods and start finding ‘em and you just cut that out put a connector in, put another one in and they can just run through the woods fixin' holes. Older guys that can't hear, you're a strugglin' trying to find ‘em [laughs].”This week on the show we head out to Groundhog Road Maple Farm in Bedford to learn all about the family business that dates back to the 1880s. Ed Miller and his friends and family have modernized the operation in recent years. We'll learn how the syrup gets from the maple tree in the forest to the pancakes on your plate.

“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 about the Color of Coffee Collective. They're working to support equitable access in the world of specialty coffee. She also has a message about slowing down and taking time to smell the coffee. And we have stories from Harvest Public Media about growing a new super fruit in the Midwest, and returning buffalo to Native tribes.

“When the phorid arrive, the ants release a pheromone that tells their nest mates, all the other ants that are in the vicinity, their sisters that are in the vicinity, tells them ‘Careful! The phorid are here! You better go back to your nest or get paralyzed.'”This week on the show, we get to nerd out on insects with Ivette Perfecto who studies biodiversity and agroecology. She's got some wild stories to tell about bugs on coffee plants and the importance of understanding the delicate balance between species.

“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, a conversation with Sarah Mincey and Hannah Gregory of Canopy Bloomington, an organization dedicated to community engagement with the urban forest.  

“Studying food is a way to study how we are connected to the world of life around us. Whatever we think about humans being so cerebral, so intellectual–it really breaks down because we are a part of everything else around us.” This week on the show we talk with the author of The Book of Yerba Mate, Christine Folch about how one plant can tell us so much about ourselves, and the world around us. 

“[It's] the same old narrative that we hear, that it only happens to white folks and white women. And I argue that eating disorders not only don't discriminate, but they target marginalized communities such as women of color.” This week on the show, a conversation with Gloria Lucas, the founder of Nalgona Positivity Pride We'll be talking about her organization's social justice approach to eating disorders that centers the specific needs of Black Indigenous and communities of color and she'll share details about her new eating disorders harm reduction program.

“Filipino food is not really known like that, especially in Indiana, so we wanted to bring something new.”This week on the show, we visit with the owners of Pinoy Garden Cafe. They talk about what it means to them to bring authentic Filipino cuisine to Bloomington, Indiana and they share a recipe for vegetarian lumpia, a Filipino style spring roll that locals can't seem to get enough of. Plus a story from Harvest Public Media about complications for farmers interested in growing hemp.

Have you ever had a hunch about something, tested it out and been shocked by the results? That's what happened to pharmaceutical microbiologist 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.

A man obsessed with making pizza at home shares his secrets and a local home cook shares Clara Kinsey's persimmon pudding recipe.

“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 batch of maple granola for holiday gift giving. All that, plus CHESTNUTS on this special episode of Earth Eats.

“Now, I love food!  Let the people know–let the people in the back know, I–hey, I love food. I plan vacations around the top food spots. So, I love food. But I just don't enjoy cooking”This week on the show we hear the story about a local business, Popcorn Kernels With a Twist. We speak with the owner, Virginia Githiri about what motivates her to run her own food business, since she doesn't really like to cook. 

“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. 

“To know there is an invisible line between the index finger and that barely discernible trio of fruit swaying up in the canopy..”We're honoring the fruits of the forests today, with a pawpaw piece from poet, Ross Gay. Plus, some favorite stories and recipes featuring persimmons. We also hear from Chef Freddie Bitsoie about creating pathways for Native cuisines.

“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 special featuring a dessert that's served with the meal, a side dish that MUST be made correctly, and a daughter attempting to make her mother's flan for the first time. 

“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 determines…well, EVERYTHING. 

“Imagine, we have dinner 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 is a PhD candidate in Education Policy Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. 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 communal baking in her home town in Southeast Turkey.

“There is a beautiful Hindustani saying, ‘Kosa kosa per pani badle, chare kosa per vani,' which means "Every two miles the water changes, and every four the language." So that, in fact, is the geography of taste and terroir in India.”This week on the show, we talk with sociologist Krishnendu Ray about place and food and caste in India and how identity can be defined as much by what you DON'T eat, as by what you DO eat.  And we share a recipe for a home grown hot sauce that cannot be prepared indoors. 

"It really revolves around the environmental justice issues. These operations are popping up in communities of color, where they don't really have a lot of political clout. But these people have fought back."This week on the show a conversation with Sherri Dugger and Craig Watts with Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. We talk about the work they're doing to support people living in rural communities dealing with the consequences of factory farming operations located in their neighborhoods.

Many of the farmers talked about the ability to be out in nature with other members of their family and other members of their community and several of them also talked about the benefits of being able to interact with people from other communities.This week on the show, we talk with geographer Pablo Bose about innovative resettlement projects that help refugees connect with familiar foods from home, through gardening in community with others.

“As you walk through the doors, whether you like to cook or you don't like to cook, you feel welcome, and things are accessible…”“What our vision is, is to make it a better world through breaking bread at the kitchen table, if you will.”  This week on the show, we talk with co-owners of Bloomington's independent, locally-owned kitchen supply store, Goods for Cooks. We hear some of the shop's nearly 50 year history, as it has changed hands, updated, and maintained a commitment to quality goods and face-to-face customer service. Plus a story from Harvest Public Media about a native midwestern fruit that should be way more popular than it currently is. 

“As Greeks, we don't really shop from supermarkets. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who comes from a village and has access to olive trees and olive oil.”On today's show, a conversation with Greek chef and anthropologist Nafsika Papacharalampous. She shares a recipe for Greek comfort food, and talks with me and Ogla Kalentzidou about the role of memory and nostalgia in contemporary Greek cuisine. Plus a story from Harvest Public Media about how prairies might be making a comeback in farm country.

“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 healing.” This week on the show, Tammy Ho, Professor of Gender and Sexuality studies at University of California-Riverside, shares her research about refugees from Burma and their participation in the United States food system. We'll learn about a supermarket sushi mogul, Burmese meatpackers as essential workers, and how a group of refugees saved a failing church by starting a community garden. 

“At least 100 years ago, the last robber barons, we got nice libraries out of it. This one, it's like ‘oh, what is the family using its money for? To gut public education via charter school networks?' It's kind of Machiavellian–it's Machiavellian in a really sad way”This week on the show, I'm talking with Austin Frerick, the author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry. Frerick uncovers the sometimes shocking facts about seven large companies who play an outsized role in our nation's food system. From hog barons to coffee barons, to Indiana's own dairy barons, Fair Oaks farm. 

“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 organizations and coalitions working together for stronger rural economies and robust local food systems. We talk about micro lending, food hubs, farm-to-school programs and more. 

“When you have to make those decisions do you buy the nicest ingredients to make your food, since that's why people are there? Or do you pay your employees two dollars more an hour? Or do you rent the building that's gonna put you in the location that gives you the highest chance of success? I think that in many ways restaurant owners have one of the most complicated business owning ventures that you can think of. They are balancing so many different goals in one space.”Today we're talking with geographer Jennifer Watkins about restaurants–about owners, workers, customers and how precarious the whole industry appears to be in this moment. 

"...one of which is sorghum sudan grass, and if you don't mow that, it gets to be like ten feet tall. And so we had pigs that were  running through there, that reminded us of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park–you know, you can't see the animal, you just see the top of  the plant waving back and forth. And so we were always on safari when we had to go out and do pig chores."This week on the show, we visit Nightfall Farm, a livestock farm in Southern Indiana focused on sustainable agriculture.We talk about perennial pastures, rotational grazing and what farmers can learn when they listen to their animals. 

“Animal agriculture creates more greenhouse gas emissions than all transportation combined. Yet, as individuals we're often told ‘you should take public transportation and ride bikes,' all of which are good things but not very frequently are we told, ‘let's reduce our consumption of animal products, and that will have a tremendous impact on the environment.'This 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.

“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 BodiesShe's challenging us to rethink the politics of body positivity by centering the bodies of Black women in our discussions about food, weight, health and wellness.