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First Aired - 08/17/2010 06:30PM
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This week on Why We Cook Erica goes on a quest for local peaches that do not suck, and ponders the morality and practicality of returning fruit from the store whence it came. This week is also a look at figs, and the figs' delicious step-sister, apricots. Tune in to get a firm grasp on the last few weeks of summer and the juicy ripe fruit therein. This episode was sponsored by Edwards of Surry Virginia.
Photo 1: "showing the fig", Photo 2: a good(?) apricot
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Why We Cook Introduction: Sucky Local Peaches (10:54)
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Why We Cook, Erica Wides, Heritage Radio Network, Edwards Ham, picking out the best fruit, fruit has such a huge risk attached to it!, who takes fruit back?, Kramer on Seinfeld, we should all start returning our fruit, fruit revolution, nectarines, A&P, local peaches, local doesn't always mean good, we need a fruit money back guarantee!, the last half of August is full of good fruit, Erica will be a guest on NPR's All Things Considered on August 26th, Last Chance Foods,The Eternal Quest For Apricot Nirvana (9:43)
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apricot nirvana, the apricot is often sucky, Santa Monica Farmers Market, fruit nirvana, don't believe the free samples they give you, seasonality, where are the exceptional apricots?, share your ideas with Erica, leave comments or find her on facebook, the iconic fig, ancient fruit of the Greeks and Romans, first clothing source for humans, Erica recently had a transformative fig experience,All About Figs (10:38)
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ham & figs, deep dark crimson interior of a fig, wine-like flavor, Italian fig tree traditions, Erica has always had fig tree envy of old Italian guys, figs are for adventurous fruit eaters, Wall Mart sells more bananas than any other item in the store, figs are not purely vegetarian fruits, they are slightly carnivorous, smyrna fig, mission fig, figs aren't really a true fruit, fig wasps, pollination cycle of the fig, figs have been seen as a metaphor for femininity, showing the fig, offensive gesture,To comment on this episode click here. There are currently Comments
First Aired - 05/16/2010 12:00PM
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This week on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby's came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.
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The Main Course Introduction (9:11)
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The Main Course, Patrick Martins, Katy Keiffer, Heritage Radio Network, Fairway Market, Angela Miller, Ron Silver, Manny Howard, Patrick just got back from Virginia, Alec Bradford, some cows escaped his farm, Patrick met the state senator of Virginia, Ancient White Park Cattle, mobile slaughter units, sustainable food needs slaughter houses butchers truckers and sales teams, mobile slaughtering unit, cheese mobile, defunct on a farm for 3 years,Angela Miller, Author of "Hay Fever: How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life", (22:16)
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Erica De Mane, Joy Harris, The Miller Agency, Hay Fever: How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life, Consider Barnwell Farm, cheesemaking, Union Square Cafe, Peter Dixon, goat cheese, how did the farm come to life?, they wanted to make pure food for the community, Chris Gray, farmers markets, how has her life as a literary agent influenced her?, she helped writers nurture their careers, farmer has made her a sharper agent, you have to make quick decisions as a farmer, publishing can be very polite, she has learned to be a lot more direct, be positively constructive, make a decision and get on with the work, they enlisted the local inspectors for help, Sullivan County, goats milk cheese, aged goats cheese, Peter has created a product line of four goat cheeses and four cow cheeses, partner farm, Jersey Girls, opting to get your hands dirty, Chester County, cheese mobile, learning regulations, young people who want to set out and farm without financial support could benefit from a mobile unit, to achieve artistry you need to constantly consult, tastings, cheese councils, understanding seasonal components of the milk, monitor the fat, customers want to buy the flavor they got last time, you can get Consider Barnwell anywhere in the northeast, internet sales, American Cheese Society, Anne Saxelby, Saxelby Cheesemongers,Ron Silver, Owner of Bubby's Restaurant Bar-Bakery (9:08)
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Ron Silver, Bubby's Restaurant Bar-Bakery, Japanese love American nostalgia, they love pie, who doesn't love pie?, Admiral Perry, Yokohama, Japanese cuisine is the most refined in the world, amazing detail, French Culinary Institute, looking for sources for good farming in America is a challange, in Japan most of the ingredients are incredible, the concept of commodity farming does not exist there, warehouse farming boom, bento box, nachos, pump your own cheese, they used to be an amazing snack, Howard Cosell, gumbo houses, Louisana, great burger town, pastrami burger, New York City Food Film Festival, George Motz, Hamburger America, celebrating food and recipes, Ron started Bubby's as a pie company in 1990, Ron wanted to be in the Pillsbury bake off, $25,000 prize money,Ron Talks Lard Crust, Good Ingredients & Keeping Prices Down (15:45)
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lard crust, lard butter crust, some pies are not vegetarian safe, where does the fat come from, how are the animals raised, with consumer awareness comes more liberty to cook with better ingredients, Erica De Mane, how did he transition from pie company to restaurant?, Ron would borrow kitchens when nobody else used them, tart shells, Margaret Hess, how do you source great ingredients and keep your menu cheap?, Ron has always tried to make everything from scratch, he tries to keep his prices low and reasonable, under $25, local eggs, cutting out middle men, keeping portions small, Heinz ketchup, organic ketchup, they use sugar instead of corn syrup, tastes like old fashioned ketchup, DArtagnan, Fran Jacobs,Heritage Cooking with Steve Pope: Brining (8:58)
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Steve Pope, heritage chef, brining, non reactive container, glass, porecelin, stay away from aluminun copper and wood, brine slowly works its way into the chicken flesh, gallon of cold water, cup of kosher salt, half a cup of sugar, natural maple flavoring, chopped onions, garlic, celery, typical herbs, thyme, sage, remove from heat and add flavoring, cover with a lid and let it cool completely, keep the right proportions!, turn the temp up at the end to crisp the skin, www.heritagechef.com,Manny Howard, Author of "My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm" (21:11)
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Manny Howard, My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm, Manny has a severed finger from farming, from a table saw, we now think about what we eat more than ever before, local doesn't mean best, Yemen, turning a backyard into a farm, Manny used to write for magazines, it cost $11,000 to transform his backyard into a farm, 800 square feet, 20 x 40, Flatbush, being a farmer is like being a doctor without having a medical degree, collared greens, eggplant, squash, onions, he needed to have animals on the farm for the shock factor and media attention, New York Magazine, mosquitoes, the backyard wasn't even usable before he made a farm, hydroponic equipment, rabbits,Manny Howard Talks More About His Farming Adventure (15:54)
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Roberta's, Fairway Market, Brooklyn Grange, chicken success stories, meat birds, crack ho chicken, industrial fly traps, the crack ho chicken laid an egg and ate it, haters love failure, Manny was very hated, cabbage, arrogance not information propelled Manny, he attacks the job by doing no preparation, a tornado hit Brooklyn and knocked down a tree, Manny mostly ate canned and frozen foods instead of the fresh vegetables he imagined, the chicken coop was a great success, disconnecting himself was worth it, duck fat, his daughter negotiated the ducks freedom, poultry don't care much for humans, they are not the celebrities of the farm world, chickens are local to a forest in Indonesia,How Important is the Locavore Movement? (4:53)
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Ron cares more about quality, he buys sea salt from a guy in Portugal, the sea salt from Maine was not as good, Manny wouldn't wish his experience on his worst enemy, kale, people who shop at farmers markets want their food to look better than food at the grocery store, it doesn't have to look pretty to taste good, the locavore movement is a consumer strategy, nobody is clear about carbon footprint implications, New York state apples are great, why bring them from Washington?, upstate used to be a big dairy region, subsidies,Solving the School Lunch Dilemma (14:11)
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school lunches, no cooking?, procurement contracts need to be changed, staff has no clue, you have to start with infrastrucute, partner public schools with chef, there is sometimes a divide between action and idea, regulation issues, unions, budgets, children end up with 91 cents per meal, if NYU and Columbia bought from small farms it could change things, James Madison University, Virginia Tech, lack of marketers or distributors, people need to learn how to cook, Patrick thinks its crazy to assume people will cook, what type of livestock protection do you need on a farm?, urban solutoins?, next week preview, music by Cherryholmes,To comment on this episode click here. There are currently Comments
