The Local Food Report

In Massachusetts there are close to 300 Community Supported Agriculture farms (or CSAs). That's a 95% increase since 2007, ranking Massachusetts sixth overall in the country (Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources,). Rusty Gordon of Ghost Island Farm in West Tisbury is one of those CSA farmers- but he's doing things a little differently.

Amaranth was a key crop for the ancient Aztecs, but fell out of favor after European explorers arrived because of its association with pagan worship. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay learns about a modern day crop of amaranth growing at the home of Truro farmer and educator Stephanie Rein.

People think amaranth is a grain, says Rein, but it’s actually what’s called a pseudo-cereal. It's not in the graminacea, which is the grasses and grains. Instead it's more closely related to a beet or spinach. Amaranth flour is the seed of the plant all ground up.

Ben Chung is obsessed with garlic. He lives in East Orleans with his wife, six kids, and uncle, and he works as a dentist. But when he’s not cleaning teeth, he’s outside working in his garden, where he grows over fifty kinds of garlic.

Many farmers think of parsnips as an underappreciated vegetable—they're sweet, tasty, and they store well. But this week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay learns that growing them isn't as easy as it seems—and that other wild relatives may pose a risk as well.

On the Local Food Report we’re still thinking a lot about why we make this show every week. It turns out a big part of it is love—a love of food and tradition. Today Elspeth Hay and Ali Berlow talk about putting up the harvest, and how their passions for this work have nurtured all kinds of different relationships and ways for honoring the bounty.

The elderberry has long been used in the kitchen as well as in the medicine cabinet. Dried elderberries give all year round in taste; the many things you can cook them with and for their health benefits. Ali Berlow speaks with Holly Bellebuono, an herbalist, educator and author, living in West Tisbury.

Fermenting Ginger Beer can eat up the sugar and leave behind that dry unmistakable tang of ginger. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay heads to Truro to talk with the founders of Farmer Willie's Craft Ginger Beer, Nico Enriquez and Willie Fenichel, about why they got into making fermented beer and how the process works. 

Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made by fermenting vegetables. This week on the Local Food

Report, Elspeth talks with  Holly North of Woods Hole about how she got hooked on kimchi and how she makes it. Holly walks Elspeth through the process of putting together a quick cucumber kimchi and talks about the flavors involved in a perfect dish—everything from garlic to chiles to seafood.

Have you ever heard of a Damson plum? They’re a small subspecies of plum with a long history and a droopy, oblong shape. And according to jam makers Anna and Tyler Keyes of Orleans, they’re worth seeking out.

The Animal Barn is that place where visitors get to experience livestock up close and personal. It's a magical scene with sows nursing their piglets, lambs nursing their ewes. Ali Berlow takes us inside on the last day.

My mother is a profound believer in the power of zucchini. A zucchini patch, she says, is a meal. It can feed a family for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner on the grill. You name the zucchini recipe, she's made it. She has four recipes for zucchini bread alone.

Summer's sweet corn evokes memories and simple deliciousness beyond the familiar grilled or boiled slathered with butter. There's old-fashioned kitchen wisdom in using up the silk and the cobs.

A butter clam is just a juvenile surf clam.

Surf clams are the big, wide clams Cape Cod cooks chop up and use for chowder or clam strips. In Asia people use the tongues for sushi, and lots of beachcombers collect the shells to use as soap dishes or ashtrays. But those are full-grown surf clams and they all come from a wild fishery. 

You’ve probably heard of a huckleberry. But have you ever eaten one? The small, black relatives of the blueberry grow all over the Cape and Islands, and Neil Gadway has been picking them his whole life.

The Animal Barn is that place where visitors get to experience livestock up close and personal. It's a magical scene with sows nursing their piglets, lambs nursing their ewes. Ali Berlow takes us inside on the last day.