Columnist Tamar Haspel on the joy and adventure of firsthand food
It began as a challenge: Could columnist Tamar Haspel and her husband eat one meal a day using food they grew or gathered themselves for an entire year?
Haspel was intrigued by the experiment. Her husband — normally a “why not” guy — was less enthused. It was winter in Cape Cod, after all.
But they embarked on the journey anyway, just a few months after exchanging their condo in Manhattan for a shack on a two-acre lot in Massachusetts. They learned to clam. They built hoop houses. They grew tomatoes — in raised beds, after futile attempts to cultivate their own sandy soil. They took on chickens.
And they learned. They discovered new ways to eat, a new appreciation for food. They found it’s not as hard as the experts often make it out to be.
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This Friday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talked with Haspel about the grand adventure documented in her new book, “To Boldly Grow.” Filled with humor, practical advice and hard-won wisdom, both the book and the conversation will inspire a new respect for what we eat and the soil and resilience that nurture us.
Guest:
Tamar Haspel writes the James Beard Award-winning “Washington Post” column “Unearthed,” which covers the intersection of food and science. Her new book is “To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure and Dinner in Your Own Backyard.”
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