Heritage Radio Network On Tour

HRN isn't the only food business that grew out of a shipping container. Aaron Koch was living in a treehouse and farming in Hawaii, before he sold his car and bought a shipping container to start a chocolate company. Not just any chocolate company... a DRINKING chocolate company! Why drinking chocolate? Why a shipping container? And what's with the treehouse? Listen to find out!

Sarah Weiner is the founder of the Good Food Awards. She came up in the food world working for the likes of Carlo Petrini at Slow Food in Italy and Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in San Francisco, before deciding the food movement needed its own awards show. Weiner tells Caity the story of how she got into food, and the mark she hopes the Good Food Awards can leave on the world.

Caity and David interview Wendy Testu from Rogue Traders (a farm-fresh frozen tartlette company) and Sue Sturman from Academie Opus Caseus (a cheese travel organization and cheese-making school). They discuss their enterprises and the value of the Good Food Mercantile community, emphasizing the community's commitment to standards, to a way of looking at fresh, artisan food, and to each other as producers and experts of good food.

Heritage Radio hosts Harry Rosenblum and Michael Harlan Turkell team up for "Feast Yr Seen," a GFA mash-up of Feast Your Ears and The Food Seen. They chat about the GFA Mercantile products that stood out to them, the power of labeling, and their vision for increasing diversity (both product and otherwise) in the food industry—where are the black cheesemakers and citrus vinegars?

Angelo Garro, the Sicilian renaissance man known for his role in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, is an accomplished blacksmith, chef, thought leader, and founder of Omnivore seasonings and condiments, inspired by the flavors of his home. He sits with Caity and David to discuss Omnivore and the Renaissance Forge, plus how his friendship with Alice Waters began (catching eels under the Golden Gate Bridge), pasta making with Danny DeVito, and much more.

Emily Friedberg and Jeanlouise Conway became friends while working in International Development. Leaving that life behind, they opened Each Peach Market together, a “Corner Grocery” in Washington DC that sources locally produced goods and has a reknowned made-to-order sandwich counter. Caity and David meet Friedberg and Conway at the GFA Mercantile, and find out why they decided to open Each Peach, what they've gotten out of coming to the Good Food Awards, and how the inauguration has affected their DC food business.

Kathy Gunst is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and resident chef for WBUR's Here and Now. She gives Caity and David a rundown of her search for trends at the GFA Mercantile (infusions!) and shares her hopes for the next four years (including that the White House kitchen garden stays "gold-free").

Alice Waters gives final remarks at the 2017 Good Food Awards – and because she'll "never been on stage without a farmer," she's joined by "The Gangsta Gardner" Ron Finley. Ron Finley is a man who will not sit still and watch a problem take root. Having grown up in the South Los Angeles food prison, Ron is familiar with the area’s lack of fresh produce. He knew what it’s like to drive 45 minutes just to get a fresh tomato.

Sarah Weiner, the founder of the Good Food Awards, is introduced at the ceremony by Heritage Radio Network’s own Patrick Martins. Sarah has worked side-by-side with the sustainable food movement’s founders and visionaries across the globe. At this year’s awards, Sarah speaks about the power and deep importance of community among our food producers.

Allison Hooper of Vermont Creamery gives an acceptance speech as a winner in the Good Food Awards Cheese Category. Vermont Creamery was started by two young visionaries devoted to new and non-traditional agriculture, Allison Hooper and Bob Reese. As a college student, Allison spent a summer traveling in France. She worked on a small family farm in Brittany, earning room and board while learning how to make all of the essentials of what was to become her life passion: cheesemaking.