KAYTE YOUNG:  From WFIU in Bloomington Indiana I'm Kayte Young and this is Earth Eats.

ANDREA:  I grow tomatoes at my house.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Oh yeah?

ANDREA:  Yeah. My mom is such a good shot. She was shooting cherry tomatoes off their stems.

KAYTE YOUNG:  This week on the show, it's back to school and into the garden. We meet kids at an after school garden club at Benjamin Franklin Elementary in Terre Haute, Indiana. And we drop into a multi age classroom in Bloomington where kids work with a chef to craft a garden-to-table snack for their whole classroom. And later in the show, we'll make a pie that's easier than pie. All that and more is just ahead, so stay with us.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Thanks for listening to Earth Eats, I'm Kayte Young. We're starting the show with a few stories from our partners at Harvest Public Media.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Restoring Oxbow wetlands is gaining momentum in several mid-western states. While it started largely to support an endangered fish, Harvest Public Media's Rachel Kramer reports that they offer other benefits like cleaner water.

RACHEL KRAMER:  Oxbow wetlands are U-shaped remnants of meandering streams and rivers. Research shows oxbows are highly successful at filtering nitrates and other contaminants in water before it flows downstream. They also store flood water. On Jathan Chicoine's farm in central Iowa, restoring this habitat is part of his overall mission to improve the health of his land and water.

JATHAN CHICOINE:  We have a big goal to create as biodiverse of an ecosystem as possible. But we're also really focused on water quality, where we know the water that comes onto our property leaves in better condition.

RACHEL KRAMER:  Chicoine points out a depression next to a creek. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove sediment and restore this old oxbow in the coming weeks. I'm Rachel Kramer, Harvest Public Media.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Scientists at the Salina Kansas based Land Institute have sped up their work to create a commercially viable, perennial grain. Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports for Harvest Public Media.

CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN:  The Land Institute breeds Kernza wheatgrass. Unlike other food and livestock feed grains, farmers don't have to replant Kernza each year. This reduces erosion and increases carbon storage in soil. But, the yield per plant remains small, and the breeding process to change that is slow. Now Salina scientists are using LED lights to trick the plants into blooming twice a year. With faster breeding, scientists predict wheat-like yields by 2040 which would make it viable for more farmers to grow.

CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN:  For Harvest Public Media, I'm Celia Llopis-Jepsen.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Agriculture workers often struggle to find adequate, affordable places to live. That's why the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program to help fund affordable, off-farm worker housing across the country. But as Rae Solomon reports for Harvest Public Media and the Mid-West Newsroom, housing is increasingly out of reach for the very people it's intended to help.

RAE SOLOMON:  A tidy apartment complex sits on the industrial edge of rural Fort Morgan, Colorado. There are solar panels on the roof, a couple of playgrounds for the kids, and a sign out front welcoming you to Sol Naciente, an agricultural labor housing community. It looks like a perfect place for Abdul Aziz Diallo, who's originally from the West African country of Mauritania.

ABDUL AZIZ DIALLO:  [FOREIGN DIALOGUE]

RAE SOLOMON:  Diallo, who speaks several languages including French, says he's been looking for a place to live since last spring. That's when he moved to Fort Morgan for a job at the local meat packing plant.

ABDUL AZIZ DIALLO:  [FOREIGN DIALOGUE]

RAE SOLOMON:  But when he approached Sol Naciente about an open unit, they said he might be an ag worker, but his income was too high.

ABDUL AZIZ DIALLO:  [FOREIGN DIALOGUE]

RAE SOLOMON:  He says apart from Sol Naciente, housing here is in short supply and too expensive. So he's been bouncing around, staying with different friends and acquaintances. And, according to Arturo Alvarado, head of the Community Resources, Housing and Development Corporation, the non-profit that developed and manages Sol Naciente, Diallo's experience is a common one.

ARTURO ALVARADO:  What we're finding in the Fort Morgan area where Sol Naciente is, is that a lot of the agriculture workers are making over the income that qualifies to live in the properties.

RAE SOLOMON:  Sol Naciente was built with federal support in 2016. It's part of the U.S. DA's off-farm labor housing program that funds affordable rentals for very low to moderate income ag workers. That means the federal government dictates who can live there. Tenants have to work in agriculture. They need documentation, and there are strict caps on household income. Alvarado says that's the problem. In practice, those restrictions disqualify most of the local ag workforce the program is designed to help.

ARTURO ALVARADO:  The income restrictions are making it hard for us to fill all the units.

RAE SOLOMON:  It's also hard for local employers. The lack of workforce housing keeps open positions perpetually unfilled. Many have sweetened the deal by raising wages.

ZACK RUTLEDGE:  Farm wages are definitely rising across the nation.

RAE SOLOMON:  Michigan State University ag economist Zack Rutledge says all farm labor housing projects like Sol Naciente are starting to have problems because federal income caps haven't kept up.

ZACK RUTLEDGE:  All of the indications point to wages continuing to go up. I don't think that trend is going to slow down.

RAE SOLOMON:  The U.S. DA did not respond to our inquiries. But we found other off-farm labor housing properties in Colorado and Minnesota that have the same issue. Marty Miller is Executive Director of the non-profit office of rural and farm worker housing in Washington State. He says ag workers in Washington, Oregon, California and Texas are also affected.

MARTY MILLER:  They make too much for the low income housing, but they still can't afford market rate housing.

RAE SOLOMON:  He says, the federal income caps mean housing providers can't fill their empty ag worker units.

MARTY MILLER:  When we're in the middle of a housing crisis, people can't afford places to live. And there can be good quality, available units, but they have a hard time finding someone eligible to live there.

RAE SOLOMON:  Miller wants to see the U.S. DA raise income caps for farm labor housing. Instead, last fall, the ag department gave Sol Naciente a waiver to accept non-farm worker tenants who do meet the income restrictions. That solved their vacancy problem, but it didn't help ag worker Abdul Diallo, who never managed to find a home in Fort Morgan.

ABDUL AZIZ DIALLO:  [FOREIGN DIALOGUE]

RAE SOLOMON:  Diallo says the months of short term, ad-hoc housing have been stressful, and he's at a breaking point. So he's leaving Fort Morgan, quitting the agricultural workforce for a restaurant job in Denver. It won't pay as well as the meat packing gig, but at least he'll be able to find a home. For Harvest Public Media, I'm Rae Solomon.

KAYTE YOUNG:  This story comes from a collaboration between Harvest Public Media and the Mid-West Newsroom.

KAYTE YOUNG:  While it may feel like the peak of summertime, in many communities across the U.S. it's already time for kids to head back to school. As many listeners know, I am a big fan of school gardens. I think every school should have a garden, especially elementary schools. They offer so many built in lessons, and they give students a chance to get outside in all kinds of weather and do something meaningful with their hands.

KAYTE YOUNG:  As more classroom learning time involves working on screens, I think school gardens have an even more important role to play in breaking up the school day and offering kids a breath of fresh air. This week we're revisiting two stories from 2017 and 2018 about gardens in elementary schools. One in Terre Haute, Indiana and one right here in Bloomington. We'll start in Terre Haute.

MALE TEACHER:  We will all get plants. Can you go over to Amy. One, two, Felicity, can you head over to Amy please with Verity and Ella. I know, I see that.

ANDREA:  Benjamin Franklin Elementary School.

KAYTE YOUNG:  And what is your name?

ANDREA:  Andrea. We play at the playground and we grow stuff, like pumpkins, flowers, bok choy, strawberries, fruit and all kinds of veggies.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Andrea is describing garden club. An after school program that Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Terre Haute, Indiana. The kids in Vigo County go back to school this coming week. I thought it would be a good time to revisit a story about their garden club from the spring of 2018. The garden season was just getting started.

MARK MINSTER:  My name is Mark Minster, and I teach at Rose-Hulman. I'm an associate professor of English. I teach in, what's been called the HERE Program, the Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering. This started out of our interest in sustainability, and we wanted projects for our college students. I was in Rochester, New York, they have a program there called Rochester Roots. They get students from RIT to work with students in local elementary schools, in disadvantaged neighborhoods. They work with the kids to build gardens. It's a teaching opportunity for the college students and a learning opportunity for the college students and the elementary school students.

MARK MINSTER:  It seemed like a nice way to get Rose-Hulman students out into the Terre Haute community to work with others. I want to develop the infrastructure, get the after school program curriculum working so this year is our baseline. Then next year, we work on improvement over that baseline. Then it gets in a position where we can hand it off.

MARK MINSTER:  We are out here Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 25 weeks during the year. They are inside all day, so it's nice to be able to get them outside as much as possible. We have ponchos for the kids so we are okay even if it is raining. We meet for two hours. It would be nice to go longer for people who work until five. But, we don't want to do too much as the kids have been in school all day. I had a teacher say that it's nice after a day of being in school, they can really do some learning. It's a dark way of looking at it, but what's nice is, even though we are tied to Indiana Academic Standards, ours is totally inquiry based. We have things that we want them to learn, but we don't have to do it. They are not tested on any of this.

MARK MINSTER:  If a kid come up with a question, like why is this growing and not that, we can run with that and we can explore that. Whatever comes up, we can follow their questions. To me, that is the foundation of learning for science. It is exploring one of their questions. That's the pay-off for us from Rose-Hulman's side of things, is from the science, technology, engineering and maths side, what do you do with inquiry? Where do those questions come from and what could you do? If you're having problems with your tomatoes, what do you think is causing those problems? Why are they purple? Why are they yellow? Should they be? [LAUGHS] Should the stems be so purple?

MARK MINSTER:  We can research that, we can compare and we can test from the science side of things. When it comes to solving them, what could we do to solve that? That's a little bit of science, but it's also a little bit of engineering. What solutions can we have to this? Do we need new drip, new soil, better lighting, better location? It's problem solving you can eat. [LAUGHS]

MARK MINSTER:  We get to eat some of what we've grown which is really nice. Last fall we harvested corn that we had planted in the Three Sisters garden. We'd mounded it up and did the indigenous style of corn, beans and squash. We made cornbread from the corn that we grew. We grew blue corn, cornmeal corn. And we grew popcorn that we ate the popcorn. We cooked up the beans and we ate pumpkin muffins and pumpkin seeds. So all that stuff got consumed. We try to fold in what we are talking about with what we are eating. This week, for instance, we're talking about potatoes. We have a book that we'll read about potatoes. I've got some hash browns in there that we will eat. Later today they are going to cut seed potatoes. We'll cut them today and we'll plant them on Thursday.

MARK MINSTER:  At this point we are working through the Junior Master Gardener Curriculum. All the kids will be certified Junior Master Gardeners by the time they're done with the program in a couple of weeks. They will get little certificates, we'll have t-shirts and they'll be certified. But it's only ten weeks of the year. In the fall we have our own curriculum that's more designed from a sustainability perspective. We're thinking ecologically in terms of the whole life-cycle of things. We get them to think about inputs and outputs of a system. What goes into, what comes out of a garden? What are all the inputs, what are all the outputs? What are all the various processes in there? That comes true with eating too.

MARK MINSTER:  Looking at the tables right now that are set, all of that food comes from somewhere and it goes somewhere. Before they come in I will get their compost bucket. They know to scrape the food into the compost bucket, they know to put the recycling off to the side and the trash, whatever is left, a little bit of trash goes into the trashcan. But we've got a compost bucket outside the shed that we put together, so the kids help the compost.

KAYTE YOUNG:  One of the great things about Mark's approach is that he doesn't just explain how things work or tell the kids exactly what to do. He let's them experiment and discover on their own. For instance, with the compost, he let them put whatever they wanted into it.

MARK MINSTER:  So the first day they were experimenting with compost, I had some kids put water bottles in there and some kids put plastic wrappers. But that's all part of the process. Some only put food scraps and others put plastic, others put paper. They put their napkins in there.

KAYTE YOUNG:  They'll check back later to see which things decomposed and which ones didn't. Probably a more memorable method than a set of rules of what goes in and what doesn't.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Garden club starts with some free time outside. Kids draw on the sidewalk with chalk, run around in the playground, while some of the adults get snacks ready inside. Today's snack includes hash browns to make the connection to one of the garden activities.

SCHOOL CHILD:  We are having a pretzel, an orange, hash browns, a banana, bread and I have sauce on it. Hash browns taste like hash browns.

KAYTE YOUNG:  What are they made from?

SCHOOL CHILD:  They're made out of hash browns and potatoes.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Hash browns are made out of potatoes.

KAYTE YOUNG:  After their snack is cleaned up, they gather around one of the college students for a story about, you guessed it, potatoes.

COLLEGE STUDENT:  This is two old potatoes and me. Last spring, at my dad's house, I found two old potatoes in the back of the cupboard. They were so old, spouts were growing from their eyes. Gross! I tossed them in the trash. "Wait" dad said, "I think we can grow new potatoes with those. I'll call your grandpa, he'll know." After talking with grandpa, dad and I took the potatoes to the sunniest spot in the garden. We dug, we picked out rocks, we raked the soil smooth.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Then the kids head back outside for some hands-on gardening. They start out transplanting some pepper and tomato seedlings that have outgrown their pots.

MARK MINSTER:  Whose are these? So let's do this first. Before we get any plants, let's get soil.

MARK MINSTER:  This is one of Gabe's. Everyone will have two that you will get to transplant. How do you know this needs a new pot?

SCHOOL CHILD:  The roots.

MARK MINSTER:  Because the roots are sticking all the way out the bottom. Those are like 3 inches sticking out of the bottom. I'm going to use one that Gabe probably won't use. That's a nice looking one. This one is a little bit smaller. It's the runt of the litter. Aw, poor guy. But we don't have to kill it. It might not be one that we choose to do that with. So we're going to very gently peel off the outside. Do you see the roots coming down through the bottom? It's holding together nicely. Then what we will do - your assistance please - first we will have some soil in our new pots and then plop that in there gently, making sure we create plenty of room for that root. After that we will water it. We will end up with two pepper plants. Do you have questions about this?

KAYTE YOUNG:  But it's not all fun and games. Sometimes garden club can get a little chaotic.

SCHOOL CHILD:  This is broke.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I can't scoop it.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Ow, that got in my eye.

KAYTE YOUNG:  It's part of the fun.

MARK MINSTER:  Do you see the roots coming out of the bottom?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah.

KAYTE YOUNG:  The transplanted seedlings will eventually go home with the kids to plant with their families. The garden club program worked with families in the neighborhood to get a raised bed garden plot started at home if they are interested. They set them up with the structure, the soil, the plants and some know how. Amy Cotton is one of the parent volunteers. She talked about what it's meant for her kids to nurture plants at home.

AMY COTTON:  A lot of things the kids have brought home are ready to be transplanted, so we're going to be doing that. They are really excited because they did that, that is something they created. That makes them happy.

MARK MINSTER:  I remember Blake being happy about his beans.

AMY COTTON:  He was ecstatic about his beans, they got so huge. And then the cat ate them, of course. She ate some lettuce we had too. But he was like, mom, you have to take a picture, we have to show it to Mark. They grew about that tall, started falling over and the cat started eating them. For them to get that big, it was a big accomplishment for him and he was stoked.

KAYTE YOUNG:  The last activity for garden club is getting potatoes ready for planting. The kids gather around Mark as he holds up a potato with sprouting eyes. He asks the kids questions about what they observe.

MARK MINSTER:  These are going to be roots, you are absolutely right about that. But this is a little bit different. What do you notice about the very end? Can you see?

SCHOOL CHILD:  It's like one of those squids from Minecraft.

MARK MINSTER:  [LAUGHS] It does.

SCHOOL CHILD:  It's got tentacles.

MARK MINSTER:  On plants, what are the things that open up that look kind of like hands?

SCHOOL CHILD:  A flower.

SCHOOL CHILD:  The leaves.

MARK MINSTER:  These are little potato leaves. All of this is going to go under the ground and turn into potatoes. How is it going to turn into more potatoes? This is all going to be a root, but the potato that we eat is a tuber. How is it going to turn into a tuber? Why do we eat foods like potatoes? What does it give us? Nutrients. It's got sugars and starches which are all the kinds of things that give us energy. It gives the plant energy too. And so those carbohydrates, it's going to take the light from the sun, and what else is it going to breathe in? What else do plants breathe in?

MARK MINSTER:  We breathe in oxygen, and what do we breathe out?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Carbon dioxide.

MARK MINSTER:  Carbon dioxide, excellent. Plants breathe in carbon dioxide. They're going to take that carbon dioxide, that light and that energy and turn it into potatoes. So from this one potato, we can get as many as it decides to make. But you know what? We can get more than that because everywhere there is an eye on this potato can be a different potato plant. So before we plant this we need to cut it. There's going to be one potato plant.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Two potato plants.

MARK MINSTER:  Two potato plants. Did you ever do that thing where you say one potato, two potato, three potato, four?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah, that's in the book

SCHOOL CHILD:  Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more.

MARK MINSTER:  Thank you so much.

KAYTE YOUNG:  And so, we've come full circle. The kids are connecting the potato planting lesson with the story they just heard inside. With the aroma of hash browns till lingering in the air, it's almost time to start cleaning up and heading home.

KAYTE YOUNG:  School's back in session at Benjamin Franklin elementary. Chances are the kids in garden club will get to dig up those potatoes they planted in the spring. Maybe they'll cook up some more hash browns for an afternoon snack.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Next up, we visit a multi-age classroom where students make their own snack from food harvested directly from their school garden. Later on in the show we have a recipe for a fun dessert featuring summer fruit. And I promise you, it's even easier than pie. Plus, a story from Harvest Public Media about a resurgence of interest in raw milk. That's all coming up after a short break. Stay with us.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Kayte Young here, this is Earth Eats. And in keeping with our back to school theme this week, we've got another school garden garden story, recorded back in 2017.

KAYTE YOUNG:  We're visiting a unique, multi-age classroom with three teachers and students from Kindergarten to sixth grade. On Thursday afternoons in this classroom, students get to choose an activity from a range of options called invitations. Some of the activities are led by invited guests, some are student led. Anything from origami to great artists to native plants. One of the activities this week is cooking with Erika. Erika Yochum, Chef an owner of local restaurant, Feast is making watermelon smoothies with a group of kids using ingredients from their own school garden.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Do you know where these watermelon came from?

SCHOOL CHILD:  I think our garden. It took five months to grow. It took forever.

KAYTE YOUNG:  They ended up with a total of five fairly good sized watermelons. They planted the watermelon in the spring semester and harvested it last week.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Look at this watermelon you guys grew in your garden!

SCHOOL CHILD:  That one looks really good.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Whoa! This is gorgeous. It smells so good.

KAYTE YOUNG:  They start by prepping the garden fresh watermelon.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Then you guys can all come over here and we will seed them and get them in small pieces.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  I'm going to cut the watermelons in half. You guys are going to scoop out all the yummy stuff and get rid of the seeds.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Okay.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  I think I'll cut them here. Use your spoon to scoop pieces off into your bowl.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Step one is processing the watermelon and then you're going out to the garden?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  We're going to go to the garden and pick the last of the basil and hopefully there is some mint. Then we will blend it with some ice.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Sounds good.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  They are pretty sweet on their own, so I don't know how much honey we need to add.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Someone scoop these seeds that are all right there. You're doing a good job of separating them all.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  There's a lot of seeds in this one.

SCHOOL CHILD:  It's hard to get the watermelon out.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Yochum's daughter, Nienya Williams, is assisting her today, helping the kids scoop the watermelon.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Scrape all of the meat out.

SCHOOL CHILD:  So get the black seeds out?

SCHOOL CHILD:  I need help getting all these seeds out.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Is that the good stuff?

SCHOOL CHILD:  We're kids, we're not professional cookers.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  What did you taste?

SCHOOL CHILD:  We tasted some watermelon, it tasted really good.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Do you know where the watermelon came from?

SCHOOL CHILD:  The garden.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  As soon as you get your watermelon clean we're going to head to the garden and get some mint and basil.

KAYTE YOUNG:  It's time to head out to the garden for a few more ingredients.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Really strong and can carry one of these.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I feel really strong.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Do you feel strong? The whole way there?

SCHOOL CHILD:  I'm a football player.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I play hockey, so I can do this.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I play hockey.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Maybe half-way you can split.

KAYTE YOUNG:  First they drop off the watermelon rinds in the school compost bins.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Which one do we put it in?

SCHOOL CHILD:  This one right here.

SCHOOL CHILD:  No, no, no.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Okay, everyone stay here for a second. Do you remember what we are going in the garden for?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Mint and basil. Does everyone know what they look like? Let's find them together.

KAYTE YOUNG:  One of the classroom teachers, Kevin Gallagher, is already out in the garden with a group of kids. They're cleaning up the green bean bed.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Yochum is familiar with the garden. She's been helping families and teachers maintain the garden by showing up for work days in the summer.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  There is a little bit of basil back there.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I'll get it.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  There is some mint back there too.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Basil and mint.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Not tomatoes today.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Don't pick this because this isn't mint.

SCHOOL CHILD:  That's lemon balm.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I smell it.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  We can add some ground cherries to our smoothie too if there is some ready. The yellow ones are ready.

KAYTE YOUNG:  What have you got there?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Those are the ground cherries. You can only pick the yellow ones. The green ones are not ripe yet.

KAYTE YOUNG:  What have you got there?

SCHOOL CHILD:  I have some mint and some lemon balm.

KAYTE YOUNG:  What's it smell like?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Mint, it smells like mint. But lemon balm kind of smells like lemon cleaner.

KAYTE YOUNG:  You're not going to put the lemon balm in the smoothie are you?

SCHOOL CHILD:  No we're not.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Good.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Yeah, we have enough mint.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  You picked basil. Good.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Anyone that was making watermelon shakes, let's go back and make them. Ready?

KAYTE YOUNG:  They've got the herbs and ground cherries, now it's back to the classroom.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  You need to get the ground cherries out of their little papery shells. You can peel the ground cherries and throw them in with the watermelons. Just the cherry part, not the paper.

SCHOOL CHILD:  What are these?

SCHOOL CHILD:  They're ground cherries. Want to try one?

SCHOOL CHILD:  I'm allowed to have one?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah, sure.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Can I help pour in the honey?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  You can be the first one. We're going to make a few batches.

KAYTE YOUNG:  When cooking with kids, everyone wants a turn at each and every part of the process.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Laura come here and put some watermelon in. Briana, you can grab five strawberries.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Can I grab some strawberries?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  You can grab some of the herbs. Over here, some of the basil.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Can I put some basil in?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Up to number 32. After she puts a little bit of the watermelon in.

KAYTE YOUNG:  They fill the blender with watermelon, strawberries, ground cherries, mint, basil, honey and ice.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Okay, push that button again.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Can't wait to try it.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Going to be delicious! Can't wait!

KAYTE YOUNG:  Finally they get to try it.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Is it good?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  We'll keep making more.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Mm, so great. That mint really blends in with it.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I want another so badly.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Like it?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Very, very, very much.

KAYTE YOUNG:  So what did you think, did you really like it?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah, I loved it.

SCHOOL CHILD:  It's really, really, really, really, really, really good.

SCHOOL CHILD:  It's really good.

KAYTE YOUNG:  You liked it?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  What was your favorite part of making it?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Going to the garden.

KAYTE YOUNG:  You like going to the garden?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Cooking together allows for great conversation.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I actually thought it was going to be fun.

SCHOOL CHILD:  It looked fun the first few times that we did it.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  It's always fun when we make food, because then you can eat it.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah, that's the fun part.

SCHOOL CHILD:  I loved it when I was a two-year-old, because I would get out a big bowl and put a whole bunch of random things I found in the kitchen in it. Then I would put water and milk in it.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  You made soup?

SCHOOL CHILD:  Did you eat it?

SCHOOL CHILD:  No. I'm not that dumb.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Come on blender, you can do it.

KAYTE YOUNG:  I asked kindergärtner, Phoenix Gordon, if she had done cooking with Erika before.

PHOENIX GORDON:  Yeah.

KAYTE YOUNG:  What do you guys make?

PHOENIX GORDON:  We made some vegetables with some salsa.

KAYTE YOUNG:  You made salsa? Did you get to taste it?

PHOENIX GORDON:  Mm-hmm. It was good.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Erika Yochum started the garden-to-table sessions in the classroom this fall.

KAYTE YOUNG:  What other things have you made with the kids this year?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  We started out making salsa with all the different cherry tomatoes and we put ground cherries in the salsa. We've been putting those in everything. [LAUGHS] They had some nice jalapeños growing in the garden, so we did jalapeño and basil and mint. The next week we made pesto with all the basil and the garlic that was curing in the shed, which was great. This week we did our watermelon shake. I think we're going to do something with pears next week. I don't know what though. Something that doesn't involve an oven. There's green beans too I think, so something with green beans.

KAYTE YOUNG:  How long have you been working with the kids at Templeton?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  About a month now. It's been really fun. They are the most excited sous chefs I've ever had. [LAUGHS]

KAYTE YOUNG:  What inspired you to get involved?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Definitely Alice Waters' visit reestablished the feeling that I already had, that schools should have gardens for their kids to be at least part of, to see the progression of growing things and being a part of it. With the restaurant being across the street it felt like a no-brainer.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Should I put more water in?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Yeah, all the way up to number 32. Who hasn't put anything in the blender yet?

ERIKA YOCHUM:  You've been cutting those, so you're going to do the honey.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  This is just the first time, we're going to run the blender lots of times because we have to make some for everybody.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Can I help pour in ice?

KAYTE YOUNG:  And remember, this multi-age classroom has three teachers and kids from kindergarten to sixth grade. The total number of students is 71. The group wants to offer a sample to each child in the classroom.

SCHOOL CHILD:  Yeah it is 48 so far.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Once the watermelon smoothie is poured into the cups, the kids in the group start distributing to the students in the other rooms who are working on different projects.

ERIKA YOCHUM:  Everyone that made one, you can try it.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Leila Burgess was working on a cat painting in the K through two room, and had this to say about the watermelon smoothie.

LEILA BURGESS:  I thought it was good with the mixtures of mint and honey in it.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Here is sixth grader Ella Pierce.

ELLA PIERCE:  My hands haven't been covered in watermelon until today.

KAYTE YOUNG:  How does it feel?

ELLA PIERCE:  It feels pretty good.

KAYTE YOUNG:  An update on this piece; Chef Erika Yochum organized a fund raising dinner to benefit the school garden. As a result, the teachers had new raised beds built in the garden, which are a lot easier to maintain. The students in the classroom have enjoyed several dishes from the garden already this school year. And, full disclosure, my son used to be a part of this classroom, and I've helped out with this garden. We've got the recipe for watermelon shakes at eartheats.org.

KAYTE YOUNG:  We're back, this is Earth Eats and I'm Kayte Young. As promised, a pie recipe that celebrates whatever summer fruit you have on hand.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Summer is peak fruit pie seasons. I've been making galettes recently. They're a rustic freeform pie, where you skip the pie pan and fold your pie pastry around the fruit filling leaving an open middle. I appreciate their simplicity and the way they maximize crunchy pie crust edges and avoid the dreaded soggy bottoms of juicy fruit pies. I've made strawberry, rhubarb, and last week I made one with a mix of service berries and gooseberries for the filling. It's so easy. Here are the steps.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Make the pie dough in the morning. We have a recipe and instructions for that on eartheats.org. Wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge to chill for several hours. Mix the berries with sugar and maybe some cornstarch. You can mash them, slice them or keep them whole. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Roll out the chilled dough into a rough circle. Transfer it to a baking sheet. Pile the berries and sugar mixture in the middle and fold the edges of the pastry over the circle of fruit, leaving at least half of it exposed. Brush the pastry with milk or cream, sprinkle sugar over it and bake it in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 and bake another 15 or 20 minutes, or until the crust is a deep, golden brown. Allow to cool for 15 minutes or so before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Make two so you can share one with someone who could really use the comfort of pie right now. Find photos and details at eartheats.org.

KAYTE YOUNG:  Raw milk has seen a rise in popularity in recent years. More than 30 states allow it's sale for human consumption in some form, including Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Illinois. A recent outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle has raised new health concerns with consuming the product. Harvest Public Media's Skyler Rossi reports on what that means for people producing and drinking raw milk.

SKYLER ROSSI:  Scott Moser pulls glass jars of raw cows milk from one of the coolers against the wall of a refurbished shuttle bus.

SCOTT MOSER:  Welcome aboard. Need more milk? Let's do it. How are you today?

SKYLER ROSSI:  He greets many of his customers by name as they board one by one, carrying colorful cooler bags and grocery sacks. Scott and his wife, Rachel Moser, own Be Whole Again Farm in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. The operation sells about 700 gallons of raw milk per week. One of their loyal customers is Terra Hoffman. She has been drinking raw milk for more than a decade.

TERRA HOFFMAN:  It's a superior product. That's really what it comes down to. We have followed Scott all over Kansas City. He has so many drop offs.

SKYLER ROSSI:  Customers can't get this milk from a grocery store under Missouri law. Which is why the Mosers and their team make more than 40 weekly stops across the Kansas City area. Raw milk is chilled straight from a cow and doesn't undergo the heating process that pasteurized milk does. Every state has different regulations around how or whether it can be sold. While many of the people drinking raw milk say it's healthier and makes them feel better, most health experts say there are risks to drinking it.

SKYLER ROSSI:  Cornell University dairy foods microbiologist, Nicole Martin, can name a long list of possible pathogens.

NICOLE MARTIN:  We know we can find Listeria and Salmonella, E. Coli, Campylobacter, a variety of different types of bacteria that can make people ill.

SKYLER ROSSI:  Now the emergence of bird flu in dairy cows is raising more concerns. Testing shows that bird flu is present in sick cow's milk. There's no evidence yet that humans can contract the virus through drinking raw milk, but Martin says bird flu in dairy cattle is new, and there are unanswered questions about how the virus can spread.

NICOLE MARTIN:  We don't know enough yet to say there is no risk. Therefore, at this point, there should be increased caution.

SKYLER ROSSI:  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is encouraging states to monitor or even halt the sale of raw milk products. Still, the demand for raw milk is strong. Recent data for market research firm, Nielson IQ found that sales of raw milk have increased despite recent bird flu cases in dairy cows and the FDA's warnings. In Iowa, fourth generation dairy farmer, Jay Shawnboker, says news of the virus caused a slight dip in his raw milk sales in May, but they've since recovered.

SKYLER ROSSI:  With bird flu cases in the state, he says he's monitoring his herd, speaking with his vet each week, and he's increased bio-security measures.

JAY SHAWNBOKER:  The last thing we want to do is give raw milk a bad reputation. We don't want people getting sick from our product. We're doing everything we can to make the product healthy.

SKYLER ROSSI:  In Missouri where there have been no bird flu cases in cows, the Mosers say they are consistently seeing new customers place orders. Rachel Moser says the farm closely tests milk from each quarter of each cow's udder. She says, the farm is her livelihood and her customers are like family. She even names some of her cows after her long time buyers.

RACHEL MOSER:  Most of my customers trust that we are doing everything in our power to keep our product extremely safe, and that we're vigilant and have their best interests at heart.

SKYLER ROSSI:  Moser says many of her customers are more worried about state officials stopping the sale of raw milk than they are about getting sick. I'm Skyler Rossi, Harvest Public Media.

KAYTE YOUNG:  That story comes to you from our partners at Harvest Public Media. A reporting collective covering food and farming in the Midwest and Great Planes. Find more at harvestpublicmedia.org.

KAYTE YOUNG:  That's it for the show this week. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.

KAYTE YOUNG:  If you're craving more Earth Eats in your life, subscribe to our podcast and sign up to receive our newsletter, the Earth Eats Digest. It comes to your inbox about once a month with seasonal thoughts from the mind of your host, Kayte Young, that's me. Plus, a selection of recipes from the Earth Eats archive, notes on recent episodes and more. We've also got recipe videos on our YouTube chanel. Just search for Earth Eats on YouTube, you'll find us.

KAYTE YOUNG:  The Earth Eats team includes; Eoban Binder, Alexis Carverhall, Alex Chambers, Toby Foster, Daniella Richardson, Samantha Schemenaur, Payton Whaley and Harvest Public Media.

Special thanks this week to Mark Minster and everyone at Benjamin Franklin's garden club, Erika Yochum and everyone at Templeton Elementary's multi-age classroom. Earth Eats is produced and edited by me, Kayte Young. Our theme music is composed by Erin Tobey and performed by Erin and Matt Tobey. Additional music on the show comes to us from Universal Production Music. Our executive producer is Eric Bolsteridge.