The Local Food Report

The Local Food Report takes us to the heart of the local food movement to talk with growers, harvesters, processors, cooks, policymakers and visionaries. The world of food is changing, fast. As people reimagine their relationships to food, creator Elspeth Hay and editor Viki Merrick aim to rebuild our cultural stores of culinary knowledge — and to reconnect us with the people, places, and ideas that feed us. Tips from listeners are always welcome.The Local Food Report airs Thursday at 8:35 AM and 5:45 PM and Saturday at 9:35 AM and is made possible by our Local Food Report sponsors.

A powerful but often overlooked wild berry

I’m walking the back roads of Truro with my friend Nicole Cormier, who works as a dietician and is studying herbalism. We’re looking for something called Aronia which grows dark purple almost black berries.

10-09
04:29

Making kombucha from scratch

Amy Costa of Truro got into fermentation kind of accidentally. She had just stopped working as a bartender but wanted to keep creating drinks and her friend was brewing kombucha from a kit.

10-02
04:33

Grieving Provincetown's Beech trees—and the foods they've long provided

This week on the Local Food Report, grieving the beech trees of Provincetown’s beech forest—and the nuts they’ve long provided.

09-25
04:47

One farmer's love affair with garlic

Carrie Richter of Peach Tree Circle Farm in Falmouth is a self-proclaimed garlic fanatic."It makes every dish better. There's nothing about garlic that I don't like."

09-25
03:41

Hal Minis on why we should all be tending apple trees

In this week's Local Food Report, Hal Minis shares why we should be tending to apple trees.

09-25
04:17

Smoked Tuna Belly: A Delicacy That's Surprisingly Easy

Ken Mason is an avid cook. His son Morgan is a fisherman, and he often shares extra bluefin tuna with Ken. This summer, Ken’s been experimenting with smoking the belly, or Toro, of the tuna.

09-25
04:21

Bitter melon fruits are slowly gaining a following on the Outer Cape

Digree Rai and her son David are farmers in Truro. They emigrated here from Nepal in 2011 and they say there’s one crop that’s common there that almost no one recognizes on the Cape.

09-25
04:15

Smoked Tuna Belly: A Delicacy That's Surprisingly Easy

On this week’s Local Food Report, smoked tuna belly is on the menu.

09-04
04:20

Creating oyster habitat in Wellfleet

Creating oyster habitat in Wellfleet.

08-14
04:20

Wellfleet's connection to the modern banana industry

The bananas were a hit and he ended up building an entire banana industry — starting plantations in Jamaica and shipping the fruit to the United States.

07-31
04:49

Using rosehips like tomatoes

I grew up in farm country, in Maine. Like most of us, I associate food with farms—big cultivated fields, animals grazing in pasture, aquaculture racks in the sea. But recently I’ve been thinking a lot more about wild foods. What would the world look like if more wild places filled our bellies?

07-24
03:19

Black raspberry ice cream, a taste of summer

Have you ever had a black raspberry? Until about ten years ago, I thought they were made up—a way to describe a commercial flavor, like a blue raspberry Jolly Rancher. I know, it’s a little embarrassing.

07-17
04:59

Foraging for black trumpet mushrooms

This week on the Local Food Report, black trumpet mushrooms.

07-10
03:40

The challenge and pleasure of raising sheep

My friend Drew Locke is a seventh-generation farmer in Truro. He’s always trying new things — partly because he’s curious and partly because even though he comes from a long line of farmers, a lot of intergenerational knowledge has been lost in recent decades and he’s focused on relearning the old ways.

07-07
04:46

Restoring the American Chestnut

All over eastern North America right now, chestnut breeders are pollinating tree flowers.

07-07
04:33

The connections between fire and native food plants

Our native forests are full of food. The understories are packed with blueberries and huckleberries and for thousands of years, local overstories have been full of nut trees: hickories and chestnuts and walnuts and oaks.

06-19
04:49

A farmer on Martha’s Vineyard works to fine-tune the relationships between cattle and grass

Mob grazing is a strategy Dan Athearn is working with to try to control what’s growing on this unique stretch of grassland. His family took over managing the land with a group of other local growers and cattle farmers in 2021.

06-12
04:18

A farm family on Martha’s Vineyard reflects on 50 years

When Debbie Athearn’s father bought the 25 acres that started Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown, times were different.

06-05
04:11

The purple color on local quahog shells—and why it might matter for fisheries management

Almost fifty years ago, when Haraldur Sigurdsson first came to the University of Rhode Island from Iceland, he got interested in what makes some clam shells more purple than others.

05-29
04:49

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