March 10, 2021 • 34 mins
Farm-to-table restaurants have been some of our favorites dining establishments. These days, we’re doing less and less dining out, but we’re coming up with exciting new ways to use the harvest from our own gardens and finding new ways to keep the human connection through sharing food alive with garden cooking and cocktail mixing. In this episode, renowned Atlanta mixologist, Keyatta Mincey Parker tells Mango about the origins of her Sip of Paradise community garden for bartenders and how to think about drinking from our garden. Then, Mango talks to Executive Chef Katie Coss from Nashville’s Husk about preserving native southern plants with a seasonal menu.
For more helpful tips on growing your own edible garden, check out the Miracle-Gro Website and learn about everything from growing hot peppers to canning your homegrown food. Your friends at Miracle-Gro are collaboration partners with iHeart Radio for "Humans Growing Stuff."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
A few days ago, the kids told us not to
worry about dinner because they quote got it covered. It's
a phrase that always makes me suspicious, and because I
don't really trust them, I immediately walked into the kitchen
to see what they were doing, and I've got to
say I was genuinely impressed. There was a place card
(00:23):
on the table written in red crayon that said reserved No.
The s was backwards. There were also settings at the
table and handwritten menus at every seat. I was expecting
we might be getting a pile of gummy bears for dinner,
served on four plates, but instead Ruby was barking orders
and played in casadillas, and Henry stood over the range
(00:45):
scrambling eggs. It's the sort of thing my sister and
I used to do for our parents, and it's sweet
to see them make signs for their kids cafe and
hear all about the daily specials. But what's also fun
to see is how much they've picked up from us.
Over the summer. We taught our kids to make some
simple foods, but also we plucked herbs from outside and
(01:08):
made compound butters. We showed them how to throw a
little mint into a sun tea and how to flip
peppers on the grill and tear up some basil and
garlic and toss it in just for a little extra flavor.
These days, kids cafes probably the restaurant we frequent the most,
and while it isn't exactly the farm to table places
that we used to go to, with chefs coming around
(01:29):
with celery ac and ramps and showing off all these
fresh from the garden veggies before they toss them in
some mouth watering dish, those memories have inspired us and
as a family, we've been trying to cook with fresher ingredients.
This week, I found myself looking out at our little
patch of garden getting excited for the possibilities, and in
some ways it makes me feel like a kid again,
(01:51):
because I'm basically playing restaurant too, thinking of what I
can grow to thrill my diners and elevate our meals,
and of course what I can model into our mock
tails from my patrons of all ages. Hey there, I'm
Mongais Particular, co host of Part Time Genius, one of
(02:12):
the founders of Mental Flaws, and this is Humans Growing Stuff,
a collaboration from I Heart Radio and your friends at
Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this the most
human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way,
we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your
plan addiction, and just enough science to make you sound
(02:32):
like an expert. In today's episode, we're learning from the
growers and shakers and the food and drink industry about
how to turn your home cooked meals into a true
garden to table dining experience. We'll hear from one of
the top bartenders in Atlanta about why fresh ingredients from
her community garden are an essential component to her handcrafted cocktails,
and we'll also talk to an executive chef about how
(02:54):
her farm to table restaurant gets super creative with the
gardens seasonal offerings. So why don't we dive in chapter ten,
Garden to Table and Cocktail Shaker A Molly, So, I
heard you have a game from you today. I do.
I am so excited to play this one. It's called
(03:16):
Botanicals Behind the Booze. And what I'm gonna do is,
I'm going to give you an alcohol, a liquor of
some kind. I like the sound of that, and I
want you to try to guess, and some of these
I think are very common knowledge. Some will be easier
than others. And I want you to tell me what
plant that liquor is derived from. Are you ready? Yeah? Okay,
(03:39):
first one, very very easy mescal. I don't I don't
think I know what mescal comes from, or you said,
or am I guessing the alcohol? Is the alcohol? Oh?
I can tell you're not a big drinker, now, yeah,
I'm not sure. So mescal, like to keep ela derives
(04:01):
from the agave plant, Okay. I always think a gove
looks a little bit like alo, like a gross between
alo and a cactus sort of. Yeah, totally, and so
um it utilizes so we also like, I'm sure you've
used like a gave sweeteners and things, and that's what
it is. It's basically they utilized sugars for fermentation and
that's how they get both tequila and mescal. It is
(04:23):
a succulent and it's commonly grown in the southwest region
of the United States and northern Mexico, and that's where
we see most mescal come from. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm
not I'm not. I'm not a big tetcula drinker, but
I wish. I wish i'd gotten that right. I know,
I feel a little guilty now that I said. This
one's easy. You'll get it, don't worry. The next one
(04:45):
is gin jin Uh? Is there juniper engine? Yes? I
don't actually know what jin is, what the main ingredient
is gin is though. So the thing about jin is
it's comprised of almost a dozen different botana close but
the main, most common one that we know is juniper berries.
And it's really interesting is like juniper berries obviously come
(05:07):
from juniper trees, which are drought tolerant and actually are
really helpful with preventing soil erosion, which I did not know.
They always serve gin and tonics in India because it
was that malaria drink, right, like the quine in was
supposed to keep mosquitoes away or help with malaria. I've
read that, Yeah, about like with the tonic water. Yeah,
(05:28):
very interesting. There's a whole history of the gin and
tonic that we could spend an entire episode going into
to be Okay, are you ready for the next one? Yeah, definitely?
All right Vermouth, Um, you're saying all these things that
I know I have in my barb. What m I'm
gonna say grapes. Yeah, so vermuth is a fortified wine.
(05:52):
So it's basically white grape juice that's slightly fermented. And
but the other thing is often is flavored with botanicals
like cameramil or coriander or juniper, a lot like gin um.
Sometimes you might find saffron or wormwood in it. You
can utilize remooth in things like as we know, martini
is very commonly Manhattan's Negrownees. But one of the things
(06:15):
I will say, because I've learned this lesson firsthand, if
you're looking to make a martini, there's a big difference
between sweet vermouth and drivermouth. Yeah. I know there are
probably people out there being like, of course there's a difference.
I learned that less in the hard way. But what
I also like to do is I like to use
sweet vermouth in some of my cooking the same way
(06:37):
that I would use like, uh, kind of a cheap
red wine or cheap port um to kind of sweeten
like sauces or to like saute like mushrooms in it,
like lends a really nice sweetness to it. So sweet
vermouth grape for cooking not good for martinis. Just so
you know, I actually just bought a blood orange form,
which is really really tasty. Yeah, it's it's very different,
(06:59):
but I enjoy it. That sounds Yeah, I'm going to
have to look into that because that sounds amazing. Alright,
those are the botanicals behind the booze. How do you
think you did? How do you feel? Well? I know
I didn't do that well, but I feel like maybe
it's time for a drink. It's five o'clock somewhere for sure,
(07:19):
let's do it. Oh man, I've clearly got some brushing
up to do so. As I mentioned last season, one
of the highlights of our pandemic has been Mocktail Hour,
which we celebrate at five thirty, and my kid Ruby
really got into mixing mocktails. In fact, the drinks are
getting more and more complex. Last week we bashed up
(07:43):
some basil simple syrup to use an a lemonade, and
there was a sparkling leachy drink with orange and modeled ginger.
But the funny thing is that as much as we
pull herbs and fruits to use in our drinks, I've
forgotten how the garden can also be used as almost
this extension of the cocktail bar. I mean, what would
a pims CuPy without cucumber and strawberries? And what would
(08:04):
a mohito taste like without that fresh min? I mean,
it really wouldn't be a mohito. But the best part
about a bar garden is it doesn't actually have to
be that big. Just some mint, lavender peppers, maybe a
few edible flowers and you have what you need for
a really impressive cocktail repertoire. To learn more about what
a garden can do for our mixing and shaking, I
(08:27):
called up Kiata Mincy Parker. She's been a bartender at hotels, restaurants,
and and has even worked as a cocktail programmer. Most recently,
she was named a finalist in Bombay Sapphire Jin's Most
Immaginative Bartender competition. And what sets Kiata's work apart from
others is how she infuses fresh ingredients from her sip
of Paradise Garden. It's this community garden that she started.
(08:50):
It's roughly a quarter of an acre in Atlanta, Georgia,
and it's designed to bring together bartenders in a space
where they can grow ingredients and ideas together. Hi, how
are you doing so? Well, and it's so nice to
have you on the phone. You know, I'm so inspired
by this garden that you've started, and I've been watching
(09:12):
the videos which are so lovely, and I think I
saw the eaves pot liquors that recipe that you made
and how it tells the story between your cultures. Would
you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, So I
was a finalist for Bombay Sapphires. I entered the competition
with this cocktail and it is a colla green and
green apple cocktail. That's the base of it, along with
(09:35):
Bombay sapphire achin. But I wanted to tell the story
of me in the relationship between my Southern mother and
my African father. So just emerge of them. And both
of those things grow in both places, but they're just
cooked differently or or eaten or done differently. But I
wanted to marriage to two into myself into a cocktail.
(09:59):
I love that. And and and so what does the colored
green do for the cocktail? And how do you prepare
it for that for that drink? So I have been
choosing them so you can get that fresh shoice and
collars are a little bit bitter, so you have to
be careful with that, huh. And and so what's the
I'm so curious. The name is so great, the pot liquor,
But where does the name come from? And and and
(10:19):
then too, what is the overall like flavor of this drink?
So the name comes from Eve's pot liquor. I was
thinking Adam and Eve with the green apple. And then
how in the South, especially my granddad, the leftover choice
stus in your pot from cooking color greens. It's called
pot liquor. And my granddad would dip his corn bread
in it that it tastes like almost like a salad,
(10:43):
like a boozy salad, because you know, you have you
have an herbolocor in the air, you have your bombay sapphire,
some sidrus, a little bit of sweet, and then you
have the greens from the collars. You almost get a
new mummy taste with it. Collars feel like such an
unusual thing to put in a drink, Like, what are
some of the other unusual ingredients that you've used from
(11:05):
gardens and been inspired by? I remember once I did
a red cabbage cocktail. Red cabbage has ingredient in it
that it's almost like butterfly pea, flour, so it changes
colors when you add asset to it. So I've kind
of playing around with that. Beats, of course, tumoring. Honestly,
anything that you can add sugar too and kind of
(11:26):
make it work you can put into a cocktail. I
think what I like about some of this too, is
it almost makes it feel like the drinking is virtuous,
like like you're you're drinking a salad, so it feels
healthier and something we like to trick you. And so
when you're dreaming up these cocktails, some of your ideas
(11:46):
are a lot of your ideas actually come from dreams, right,
do you actually what do you speak about that for
a second? Yeah, you know, the first time I started
realizing what was happening, I was freaked down. But then
I was like, you know, let me just keep a
little notebook around it on the jot down when I remember,
and usually I'll see the glass and what color it
is and then kind of build from there, just see
(12:08):
what ingredients or what time of year it is, and
just kind of pulled from there a lot of times.
So tell me about this garden that you've started. I've
seen you talk about Paradise Garden as kind of as
a safe space for bartenders. Can you talk about that
and why why do bartenders need a safe space? We
are the hub of everything. Sure, well, things are a
(12:29):
little different now because you know we're in the pandemic.
Before you walk straight to the bar. You met your
party at the bar, you met your friends at the bar.
Everybody gathers at the bar. Just the fact that people
unload on us all the time and we're not really
able to walk away. It's a stationary position. You know,
we're taking on others baggage and it's something although we
(12:50):
choose to do, but it's still something that we need
to start taking care of ourselves. You can go in
there and just sit in that space if that's what
you want to do. You can grow your own food,
you can grow stuff to develop cocktails, you can put
your phone down and you can be in your own place,
into your own thing, and it's just for us. So,
how has Sip of Paradise evolved over the last year
(13:13):
and has it become what you wanted to be? And
has it evolved in other ways to all of the above?
Where a licensed business in the State of Georgia. We're
also a five oh one C three, so we are
full nonprofit. And when people discovered that, they just started
giving and donating and everybody had no problem buying a plot.
That's really cool. And we're working with Currant writers. So
(13:37):
yet more funding so we can have a water irrigation system.
I want to be able to pay my garden director
and my communications director and myself. We're just doing this
because we had time on our hands. You know. My
producer Molly was saying, how we think about like garden
to table cooking, but we rarely think about garden to
(13:59):
table drink, and we should. It doesn't have to be alcohol.
Just know that you can still get nutrition from drinking
something even if it's a little alcohol, and it is fine,
it's okay. What what are some of the under used
(14:20):
herbs and fruit in gardens that belong in cocktails that
you think maybe we should be thinking about. I think
people need to start working with dill um. I also
think they need to start working with pineapple stage more.
Oh and the lemon time. Lemon time is delicious. How
would you use some of those flavors and in drinks
at home? See, dill is an interesting one. So you're
(14:42):
actually gonna have to put thought in using that. The
easy way would be to put it in vodka, vodkas
and neutral spirit. So whatever you put into it is
going to take it. And you said lemon time. Is
that right? Lemon time? It's delicious. I would definitely use
that in some some chin or some rum really rum.
Oh yes, it's funny. I've used lemon time and chopped
(15:03):
it up and with salt and butter and radishes, but
never in drinks. You know. I didn't think about that
either until last year when one of the members planted
in it and I discovered it and she was like, yeah,
I used this with my fish a lot when I
cook fish and I smelled it. I was like, this
is beautiful. Should put this in a drink? You know
what one of the things I saw that you were
(15:24):
gardening or talking about was I think it's she show
leaves as though. Yeah, yeah, somebody gifted us one little
plant of that and it grew so huge. And I
know I used it a lot with tequila. I um
kind of did like a garden sin margarita. So I
used that. I used cement and I used green tea.
It was really good. Yeah that sounds great. So one
(15:47):
of the things my kid and I do a lot
is we we do a mocktail hour, And so I
was curious if we were going to make a mocktail
using some of the things in your garden, what would
you recommend or what could you dream up for? Oh?
I would definitely do some cameramel iced tea because cammel
is a good one. Also lab and their iced tea.
I think a really good base for mocktails is some
(16:10):
kind of lemon and some kind of sparkling water. So
if you infuse your sweet with your herb, I think
you can get more flavors out of it. Don't be
afraid to combine some herbs together. So so what sort
of herb combinations makes sense for drinks? So I like dill,
I like cilantro, and I like ment together really that one? Yes, yes, yes, yes,
(16:34):
the dilan there is surprising, definite thing. It's like this
burst of something that you're not sure what it is,
but it's really good. And I saw your husband has
the same thing my wife has where he doesn't like cilantro.
Is that right? Oh? My gosh, yeshan is in the
percentage that cilantro tastes like soap to him. I know,
(16:54):
and I love cilantro so much. So I saw in
one of the videos you've done that you were sort
of very gently pruning the basil, or there was a
very specific way to do it. So anything that grows,
it's okay to prune. It is growing to be pruned,
and then more will grow from Once you prune with basils,
(17:18):
once they start to get that butt and flower, you
gotta clip equit or the entire plant would get bitter.
It's a subtle bitterness that's really interesting, but it also
helps it grow more, right, isn't there is there a
time that that you can try to prune it, which
I've killed so many basil plants so so I know
nothing about this. I'll take any dips I can get it.
Do not feel bad. It is okay if something that
(17:38):
is it is not a reflection of you. I love that. Yeah,
it's been such a pleasure chatting with you, and I
really want to come visit a cip of Paradise Garden
when I can. I hope you give me the grand
tour and a drink to drink as well. Oh, first
of all, we ever need a reason to have a
cocktail at a sip of paradise, so definitely and will
(18:00):
love giving tour it. I love it wonderful. Thank you
for being here, Thank you so much. I really appreciate
this humans growing stuff. Will be right back after a
short break. So I'm not really a foodie, but for
(18:22):
a very short time, I felt like all of my
friends were. And suddenly we were racing across town to
eat at a strip mall Chinese restaurant because some famous
chef was supposedly working there in disguise. Or we'd linger
a little too long at a club because a woman
was about to come through with these amazing late night
and panadas, or we'd walk up to the third floor
(18:45):
of this place that seemed like a bank, but inside
was actually a secret Korean fried chicken joint. The food
was often cheap and mouth watering and the type of
experience you wanted to tell friends about. But I wasn't
really thinking about ingredients. I was just there for the adventures.
And then some friend made a reservation at this restaurant,
Blue Hill at Stone Barns maybe you've heard of it,
(19:08):
and they booked a seasonal tasting menu and I kind
of went reluctantly. It was on this beautiful estate and
the way that brings you a menu of things grown
on the farm, and ask about any allergies you might
have or any food diversions. And then for a few
hours the chefs just play. They make whatever delights them,
And going in I thought, how can we possibly spend
(19:30):
this much on food? Like my wife and I weren't
making much, no one at the table was, and the
meal basically cost as much as an airplane ticket. But
of course, after course, it was the most incredible experience.
Vegetables I've never tried before, foods I had tried but
had never liked, whips and froths and crispy airy bites
(19:51):
that were utterly transported. It's still one of the meals
I think about the most. Then, if I could take
all my friends there, I would, Yeah. But when I
left the thing I realized wasn't that I wanted to
go out for more fancy meals. It was that I
wanted to cook with better ingredients. We started adjusting our
weekend schedule to hit up the local farmers market, and
(20:13):
I realized what a luxury it is to have a
garden you can raid for fresh foods, and also just
how simple. Some of those flavors can be Like a
little fresh basil with homegrown tomatoes makes for a much
more joyous capraise salad. When you're roasted carrots and fresh
time are grown from your own two hands, it somehow
feels more satisfying. Chef Katie cost knows a lot about
(20:35):
growing flavor combinations. Her menu at Hoskin Nashville, Tennessee does
exactly that. Katie's the executive chef there and splits her
time between the kitchen and the restaurant's garden. Husk operates
under the philosophy of if it's not from the South,
it's not going on the plate, and because of that,
Katie and her team have paid close attention to what
grows locally and have created a menu and practice for rediscovering, cultivating,
(21:00):
and preserving the region's natural gifts. Hey, Katie, are you there. Yes,
I'm here. It's so nice to be chatting with you.
It's so nice to be chatting with you too. So
I've been to Husk a few times and I love it,
and it's really thrilling to have you on the show.
One of the things that keeps coming up whenever we
(21:20):
research you or look of interviews with you or anything.
Is that you seriously love Dolly Parton? Is that true?
That's absolutely true. I have a giant picture of her
in my kitchen. Do you think she gardens? I don't
think she has time. She's a very busy woman. So, um,
back to the reason we're here. Your garden plays such
(21:42):
an important role at Husk and you know, one of
the things I love is that you can see it
from all over the restaurant. But how do you get
your diners to connect with what you grow? Um, we
have a banister where you can look down at all
the tables, and during service, I would send line cooks
out to go pick arnishes and herbs, you know, so
that they really understand that what we're putting on your
(22:04):
plate we are also harvesting from our garden. And I
think it gives the line cookes more perspective to that.
You know, this is a really important part of what
we're coming up with. We are using the garden for
the restaurant and it changes everyone's perspective. I love that
that sort of transparency and visibility. But will you talk
a little bit about how you've elevated the garden. It
(22:26):
sounds like it's grown tremendously in your time there. Yeah,
So what's great about our garden is we really make
use of all of the space and we have a
lot of perennials, which we are so thankful to have. So,
for instance, we always have ground time that comes back
every year. We always have lemon bomb um, we have strawberries,
we have pear trees. And what's great is we also
compost here. Yeah, whenever we don't have our seeds in
(22:50):
the ground, we actually plant clover to turn back into
the sorrel. Whenever we get closer into our spring season.
Right now we aren't able to plant anything, but we
have a massive amount of clover that we're going to
turn right in the soil. That's incredible. So I've read
the host philosophy on produces sourcing from the South, and
we know that much of the menu springs from taking
(23:12):
advantage of the seasonal gems that are available. So so
I imagine that you come up with ideas all the
time about new things to cook. What are some of
those things that are harder to grow but but are
kind of delightful. I would say one, I'm very obsessed
with spicy peppers and peppers kind of in general, they
take time, and they take time if you want them
(23:33):
to be at a certain heat level, if you want
them to grow at a certain rate, that really takes
time and patients, and you have to know that, you know,
peppers are a lot like grapes where they really need
to struggle in order for them to produce that heat
level that you're looking for. So you're not watering them
every day, and you're also making sure that there's you know,
enough sunlights we're watching where you know, we took out
one tree basically just to take care of the garden
(23:56):
because it was shading over the some of our plant beds.
That's really saying. I've never heard or thought of the
fact that pepper's need to struggle to be cultivated correctly.
Oh yeah, absolutely, that's fascinating. And I saw it. There
was an interview where you talked about this pepper I
hadn't heard of, like the habanata. I think, oh yeah,
the habanata. Oh my gosh, you're you're just talking about
(24:16):
the One of the most the best parts of a
pepper for me is that like tropical sensation. And in
your head, you're so trained to think that it's going
to be incredibly spicy that you actually start salivating, and
it's the craziest thing. It is just it is crazy,
and then you eat and then nothing happens, but you
get this amazing tropical like habaner experience without any of
(24:39):
the heat. That's really incredible. It's it's funny because my
um I grew up in a family where my dad
we used to joke that he'd burned off his taste
buds because he loved pepper so much. And anytime you
heard about like a new pepper, like he would like
trying to find it from the Power's market. But my
kids can't take spice, and so I was trying to
figure out how to I feel like this is the
perfect pepper for them. Oh yeah, absolutely, habanat Us it's
(25:00):
great and just the very first one. You just have
to eat it raw and you just have to know
in your head that you can't help it. You're going
to salivate whether you like it or not. You're just
trained to do it. And it's it's incredible. That's really crazy.
So when you approached the layout of the garden at Huskar,
are you meagining dishes that you'll be making in a
few months. Oh yeah, Um, I have my commercial cannying license,
(25:22):
and so anything that we grow that's really spectacular in
our garden, I actually am kind of a I hoard
it back and I wait until we're in months like
these where it's like, okay, everybody's got pumpkin and sweet
potatoes and turn ups. What do I have in my
larder that I'm going to use? And I pull out
a jar of you know, tomatoes that we had from
(25:43):
our garden, peppers, a whole source of variety of different things,
and I kind of save those for winter time when
everything's really drab. I I love that. And I think
I've read that you'd really taken over the canning and
pickling at at Huskin sort of grown that. Uh right,
is this that correct? Oh yeah, yeah, it's one of
my favorite things to do. That little pain that the
(26:05):
can makes whenever the lid seals is like placeless to me.
I'm so nervous about canning and pickling things. I mean,
like pickling is less than an issue of canning. I'm
both afraid of it and totally intrigued. Oh it's it's
a lost art. Nobody at a small scale does it anymore?
You know? And I thought it was funny during the pandemic,
everybody got into baking bread and I walked down the
(26:27):
aisle and all the mason jars were there, like all
the candidates, like you know what you should be doing?
Like we went we went into shutdown in March. I
was on Etsy buying ramps and green garlic from like
Wisconsin or something. And I would go to the farmers
room every weekend. That's all I did throughout the whole pandemic.
Is I just can't all summer. You mentioned that husk
is composting and the garden is you know, I assume
(26:49):
actually helping the restaurant reduce its food waste and it's
a footprint by composting food scraps. Can can you speak
to why that's important to you as a chef? Absolutely?
I mean waste not want not. I really anything that
anything that we have that we can go back into
the earth. I mean, why wouldn't you do it? I
do it at my home, Like I don't understand why
(27:10):
restaurants everywhere wouldn't do it. As long as you know
the proper technique and turning it and adding it to soil.
I mean it's it's a great benefit for us. Yeah,
it's amazing. At the start of the pandemic, you know,
New York City stopped composting, and it's crazy how much
more trash you end up with when you're putting your
food scots in the trash rather than in a compost. Then, yeah,
(27:31):
it's very sad. Katie, thank you so much for being here.
It's just so fun to be chatting with you and
to be inspired by all the things you're giving at
your restaurants. So so thank you for coming on the program. Awesome,
thank you for having me. Hey everyone, it's producer Molly A.
Can and I wanted to take a moment to talk
to you about a very important issue. It's the dangerous
(27:55):
of bland, unflavored and unseasoned food. Every time someone becomes
the victim of a meal without any spice or zest,
that's right. And you likely even know someone whose taste
buds have been deprived of flavor. Or maybe you're the
(28:15):
one eating poach salmon with nothing to accompany it steamed
green beans. But all is not lost and helps out there.
And it's called hot sauce, and it's here to take
your food and your mouth to new experiences as you
feel the delicate heat a flavor. Town adding just a
(28:37):
little bit of hot sauce to a dish could be
a major game changer. And with fresh peppers from your garden,
you can make your very own hot sauce and then
you can control the flavor and the heat. And listen,
I hear you. You're not at the bottom of tabasco
sauce in the glove compartment level yet, But trust me
that with a little help from the garden and the
magic affirmentation, you can make the perfect hot sauce that
(28:58):
will enliven any recipe and to light your palate. So
here are a few simple steps to make your own
hot sauce. Number one, pick the perfect pepper. There's an
enormous variety of peppers and each one has a different
level of heat. In fact that there's even a way
to measure them. It's called the Scoville scale. The hot
of the pepper, the more Scullville heat units it gives off.
(29:21):
So a ghost pepper which is really hot maybe around
one million Scullville heat units. But halapenos can be anywhere
from to five thousand. So find out what level of
heat you're comfortable with, and plant those peppers, because, if
we've learned anything from this show, fresh from the garden
always tastes better than the grocery store. Number two, get
(29:42):
creative and think outside the pepper box. While the peppers
are usually the essential part of any hot sauce recipe,
there are many that also incorporate other fruits and vegetables
like pineapple or kiwi, and even more commonly tomato. So
think about what other flavors from your garden you want
to heighten in your hot sauce. And finally, number three,
get familiar with fermentation. Fermentation is the main process of
(30:05):
making hot sauce, so don't start your recipe at lunchtime
and expect it to be ready by dinner. Most hot
sauce recipes recommend that you let those little hotties sit
in a brine for anywhere from one to two weeks,
depending on the temperature at which they're stored. Once you've
waited out the fermentation, drained the brine, and blend your
peppers in a food processor or blender with just a
little bit of that remaining brine, and then you've got
(30:28):
yourself some hot sauce, and you and your food are
forever saved from bland land. This week, I've been thinking
a lot about the pride people get from the gardens,
that joy of tending to the earth and watching things
(30:49):
grow and then actually doing something with it. Homemade gems
and pickles, fresh cucumbers and mint you can toss into
a gin tonic or a salad if you're the type,
And in my head, I feel like I can be
that type of person. I love the way Kiota gets
inspired by the collared greens and bills she grows, and
(31:10):
then figures out how to make delicious drinks from it all.
I love how Katie makes sure that her dinner see
the connection between the yard and the food on their plates,
and that the staff takes so much joy and arguing
over what to grow, and that they get so much
delight from plating those little herbs. This year, I want
to experience some of that, because last year was a disaster.
(31:33):
Our little attempt to grow some radish and let us
in the fall was a total failure. We threw some
seeds in the ground and watered them, but nothing sprouted up.
So I've decided it's about resetting my expectations. This week
I was reading about a man named Andy George who
was determined to make a chicken sandwich from scratch, like
(31:55):
totally from scratch, and he went to this incredible length.
He started a arden for lettuce and tomatoes and onion.
He made pickles by combining the cucumbers from his yard
with all the salt he'd harvested from ocean water. He
made cheese, starting by milking a cow to nearby dairy.
He separated the wheat for his bread, and actually butchered
(32:15):
and plucked a chicken himself at this local poultry farm.
And after six long months of incredible work and spendings
of his own money into his garden and growing all
his food, he filmed himself taking a bite of this
beautiful artisanal chicken sandwich that he'd been waiting for. And
(32:36):
when he bit into it, he looked at the camera
kind of disgruntled and said, not bad. I mean six
months of my life and all I can say is
not fat. He did not look pleased, and he couldn't
actually say anything positive about it. And my sense is
he should have spent a seventh month, maybe making Molly's
(32:58):
Hot sauce to make that an sandwich taste better. But
I was thinking about Andy as I contemplated my own
garden and ambitions. And despite what he says, there really
is something incredibly rewarding when you've cut out the grocery
store and made your food by going straight to the
source of it all. I think this year, if we
end up with a handful of misshapen vegetables, cucumbers that
(33:21):
look like elbows, and let us that only grows the
size of golf balls, no matter how bad it is,
I'll be thrilled because I grew something I could actually eat.
And also, it's about getting creative with what you have.
So I'll bring these garden misfits into my kitchen and
with great enthusiasm say the same thing Andy George did
(33:45):
six months of my life. And all I can say
is not bad, except I'll use an exclamation point at
the end of my sentence. That's it for today's episode.
Don't forget no matter what season it is or where
you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources
waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time
(34:08):
on our show, we're gonna talk to the men who
love Plants, Plant Dad's, Plant Daddy's and Miracle Bros. If
you like what you heard, don't forget to rate and
review the show on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to
hear from you. What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable
struggles or growing questions. Tagus in your post or tweet
using the hashtag Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised
(34:31):
if you hear your story featured on an upcoming episode.
Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from I Heart Radio
and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show is written
and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mongy Chatiguler in
partnership with Rhino Vadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hayley Ericson, and Garrett
Shannon of Banter Until next Time, Thanks so much for listening.
A few days ago, the kids told us not to
worry about dinner because they quote got it covered. It's
a phrase that always makes me suspicious, and because I
don't really trust them, I immediately walked into the kitchen
to see what they were doing, and I've got to
say I was genuinely impressed. There was a place card
(00:23):
on the table written in red crayon that said reserved No.
The s was backwards. There were also settings at the
table and handwritten menus at every seat. I was expecting
we might be getting a pile of gummy bears for dinner,
served on four plates, but instead Ruby was barking orders
and played in casadillas, and Henry stood over the range
(00:45):
scrambling eggs. It's the sort of thing my sister and
I used to do for our parents, and it's sweet
to see them make signs for their kids cafe and
hear all about the daily specials. But what's also fun
to see is how much they've picked up from us.
Over the summer. We taught our kids to make some
simple foods, but also we plucked herbs from outside and
(01:08):
made compound butters. We showed them how to throw a
little mint into a sun tea and how to flip
peppers on the grill and tear up some basil and
garlic and toss it in just for a little extra flavor.
These days, kids cafes probably the restaurant we frequent the most,
and while it isn't exactly the farm to table places
that we used to go to, with chefs coming around
(01:29):
with celery ac and ramps and showing off all these
fresh from the garden veggies before they toss them in
some mouth watering dish, those memories have inspired us and
as a family, we've been trying to cook with fresher ingredients.
This week, I found myself looking out at our little
patch of garden getting excited for the possibilities, and in
some ways it makes me feel like a kid again,
(01:51):
because I'm basically playing restaurant too, thinking of what I
can grow to thrill my diners and elevate our meals,
and of course what I can model into our mock
tails from my patrons of all ages. Hey there, I'm
Mongais Particular, co host of Part Time Genius, one of
(02:12):
the founders of Mental Flaws, and this is Humans Growing Stuff,
a collaboration from I Heart Radio and your friends at
Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this the most
human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way,
we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your
plan addiction, and just enough science to make you sound
(02:32):
like an expert. In today's episode, we're learning from the
growers and shakers and the food and drink industry about
how to turn your home cooked meals into a true
garden to table dining experience. We'll hear from one of
the top bartenders in Atlanta about why fresh ingredients from
her community garden are an essential component to her handcrafted cocktails,
and we'll also talk to an executive chef about how
(02:54):
her farm to table restaurant gets super creative with the
gardens seasonal offerings. So why don't we dive in chapter ten,
Garden to Table and Cocktail Shaker A Molly, So, I
heard you have a game from you today. I do.
I am so excited to play this one. It's called
(03:16):
Botanicals Behind the Booze. And what I'm gonna do is,
I'm going to give you an alcohol, a liquor of
some kind. I like the sound of that, and I
want you to try to guess, and some of these
I think are very common knowledge. Some will be easier
than others. And I want you to tell me what
plant that liquor is derived from. Are you ready? Yeah? Okay,
(03:39):
first one, very very easy mescal. I don't I don't
think I know what mescal comes from, or you said,
or am I guessing the alcohol? Is the alcohol? Oh?
I can tell you're not a big drinker, now, yeah,
I'm not sure. So mescal, like to keep ela derives
(04:01):
from the agave plant, Okay. I always think a gove
looks a little bit like alo, like a gross between
alo and a cactus sort of. Yeah, totally, and so
um it utilizes so we also like, I'm sure you've
used like a gave sweeteners and things, and that's what
it is. It's basically they utilized sugars for fermentation and
that's how they get both tequila and mescal. It is
(04:23):
a succulent and it's commonly grown in the southwest region
of the United States and northern Mexico, and that's where
we see most mescal come from. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm
not I'm not. I'm not a big tetcula drinker, but
I wish. I wish i'd gotten that right. I know,
I feel a little guilty now that I said. This
one's easy. You'll get it, don't worry. The next one
(04:45):
is gin jin Uh? Is there juniper engine? Yes? I
don't actually know what jin is, what the main ingredient
is gin is though. So the thing about jin is
it's comprised of almost a dozen different botana close but
the main, most common one that we know is juniper berries.
And it's really interesting is like juniper berries obviously come
(05:07):
from juniper trees, which are drought tolerant and actually are
really helpful with preventing soil erosion, which I did not know.
They always serve gin and tonics in India because it
was that malaria drink, right, like the quine in was
supposed to keep mosquitoes away or help with malaria. I've
read that, Yeah, about like with the tonic water. Yeah,
(05:28):
very interesting. There's a whole history of the gin and
tonic that we could spend an entire episode going into
to be Okay, are you ready for the next one? Yeah, definitely?
All right Vermouth, Um, you're saying all these things that
I know I have in my barb. What m I'm
gonna say grapes. Yeah, so vermuth is a fortified wine.
(05:52):
So it's basically white grape juice that's slightly fermented. And
but the other thing is often is flavored with botanicals
like cameramil or coriander or juniper, a lot like gin um.
Sometimes you might find saffron or wormwood in it. You
can utilize remooth in things like as we know, martini
is very commonly Manhattan's Negrownees. But one of the things
(06:15):
I will say, because I've learned this lesson firsthand, if
you're looking to make a martini, there's a big difference
between sweet vermouth and drivermouth. Yeah. I know there are
probably people out there being like, of course there's a difference.
I learned that less in the hard way. But what
I also like to do is I like to use
sweet vermouth in some of my cooking the same way
(06:37):
that I would use like, uh, kind of a cheap
red wine or cheap port um to kind of sweeten
like sauces or to like saute like mushrooms in it,
like lends a really nice sweetness to it. So sweet
vermouth grape for cooking not good for martinis. Just so
you know, I actually just bought a blood orange form,
which is really really tasty. Yeah, it's it's very different,
(06:59):
but I enjoy it. That sounds Yeah, I'm going to
have to look into that because that sounds amazing. Alright,
those are the botanicals behind the booze. How do you
think you did? How do you feel? Well? I know
I didn't do that well, but I feel like maybe
it's time for a drink. It's five o'clock somewhere for sure,
(07:19):
let's do it. Oh man, I've clearly got some brushing
up to do so. As I mentioned last season, one
of the highlights of our pandemic has been Mocktail Hour,
which we celebrate at five thirty, and my kid Ruby
really got into mixing mocktails. In fact, the drinks are
getting more and more complex. Last week we bashed up
(07:43):
some basil simple syrup to use an a lemonade, and
there was a sparkling leachy drink with orange and modeled ginger.
But the funny thing is that as much as we
pull herbs and fruits to use in our drinks, I've
forgotten how the garden can also be used as almost
this extension of the cocktail bar. I mean, what would
a pims CuPy without cucumber and strawberries? And what would
(08:04):
a mohito taste like without that fresh min? I mean,
it really wouldn't be a mohito. But the best part
about a bar garden is it doesn't actually have to
be that big. Just some mint, lavender peppers, maybe a
few edible flowers and you have what you need for
a really impressive cocktail repertoire. To learn more about what
a garden can do for our mixing and shaking, I
(08:27):
called up Kiata Mincy Parker. She's been a bartender at hotels, restaurants,
and and has even worked as a cocktail programmer. Most recently,
she was named a finalist in Bombay Sapphire Jin's Most
Immaginative Bartender competition. And what sets Kiata's work apart from
others is how she infuses fresh ingredients from her sip
of Paradise Garden. It's this community garden that she started.
(08:50):
It's roughly a quarter of an acre in Atlanta, Georgia,
and it's designed to bring together bartenders in a space
where they can grow ingredients and ideas together. Hi, how
are you doing so? Well, and it's so nice to
have you on the phone. You know, I'm so inspired
by this garden that you've started, and I've been watching
(09:12):
the videos which are so lovely, and I think I
saw the eaves pot liquors that recipe that you made
and how it tells the story between your cultures. Would
you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, So I
was a finalist for Bombay Sapphires. I entered the competition
with this cocktail and it is a colla green and
green apple cocktail. That's the base of it, along with
(09:35):
Bombay sapphire achin. But I wanted to tell the story
of me in the relationship between my Southern mother and
my African father. So just emerge of them. And both
of those things grow in both places, but they're just
cooked differently or or eaten or done differently. But I
wanted to marriage to two into myself into a cocktail.
(09:59):
I love that. And and and so what does the colored
green do for the cocktail? And how do you prepare
it for that for that drink? So I have been
choosing them so you can get that fresh shoice and
collars are a little bit bitter, so you have to
be careful with that, huh. And and so what's the
I'm so curious. The name is so great, the pot liquor,
But where does the name come from? And and and
(10:19):
then too, what is the overall like flavor of this drink?
So the name comes from Eve's pot liquor. I was
thinking Adam and Eve with the green apple. And then
how in the South, especially my granddad, the leftover choice
stus in your pot from cooking color greens. It's called
pot liquor. And my granddad would dip his corn bread
in it that it tastes like almost like a salad,
(10:43):
like a boozy salad, because you know, you have you
have an herbolocor in the air, you have your bombay sapphire,
some sidrus, a little bit of sweet, and then you
have the greens from the collars. You almost get a
new mummy taste with it. Collars feel like such an
unusual thing to put in a drink, Like, what are
some of the other unusual ingredients that you've used from
(11:05):
gardens and been inspired by? I remember once I did
a red cabbage cocktail. Red cabbage has ingredient in it
that it's almost like butterfly pea, flour, so it changes
colors when you add asset to it. So I've kind
of playing around with that. Beats, of course, tumoring. Honestly,
anything that you can add sugar too and kind of
(11:26):
make it work you can put into a cocktail. I
think what I like about some of this too, is
it almost makes it feel like the drinking is virtuous,
like like you're you're drinking a salad, so it feels
healthier and something we like to trick you. And so
when you're dreaming up these cocktails, some of your ideas
(11:46):
are a lot of your ideas actually come from dreams, right,
do you actually what do you speak about that for
a second? Yeah, you know, the first time I started
realizing what was happening, I was freaked down. But then
I was like, you know, let me just keep a
little notebook around it on the jot down when I remember,
and usually I'll see the glass and what color it
is and then kind of build from there, just see
(12:08):
what ingredients or what time of year it is, and
just kind of pulled from there a lot of times.
So tell me about this garden that you've started. I've
seen you talk about Paradise Garden as kind of as
a safe space for bartenders. Can you talk about that
and why why do bartenders need a safe space? We
are the hub of everything. Sure, well, things are a
(12:29):
little different now because you know we're in the pandemic.
Before you walk straight to the bar. You met your
party at the bar, you met your friends at the bar.
Everybody gathers at the bar. Just the fact that people
unload on us all the time and we're not really
able to walk away. It's a stationary position. You know,
we're taking on others baggage and it's something although we
(12:50):
choose to do, but it's still something that we need
to start taking care of ourselves. You can go in
there and just sit in that space if that's what
you want to do. You can grow your own food,
you can grow stuff to develop cocktails, you can put
your phone down and you can be in your own place,
into your own thing, and it's just for us. So,
how has Sip of Paradise evolved over the last year
(13:13):
and has it become what you wanted to be? And
has it evolved in other ways to all of the above?
Where a licensed business in the State of Georgia. We're
also a five oh one C three, so we are
full nonprofit. And when people discovered that, they just started
giving and donating and everybody had no problem buying a plot.
That's really cool. And we're working with Currant writers. So
(13:37):
yet more funding so we can have a water irrigation system.
I want to be able to pay my garden director
and my communications director and myself. We're just doing this
because we had time on our hands. You know. My
producer Molly was saying, how we think about like garden
to table cooking, but we rarely think about garden to
(13:59):
table drink, and we should. It doesn't have to be alcohol.
Just know that you can still get nutrition from drinking
something even if it's a little alcohol, and it is fine,
it's okay. What what are some of the under used
(14:20):
herbs and fruit in gardens that belong in cocktails that
you think maybe we should be thinking about. I think
people need to start working with dill um. I also
think they need to start working with pineapple stage more.
Oh and the lemon time. Lemon time is delicious. How
would you use some of those flavors and in drinks
at home? See, dill is an interesting one. So you're
(14:42):
actually gonna have to put thought in using that. The
easy way would be to put it in vodka, vodkas
and neutral spirit. So whatever you put into it is
going to take it. And you said lemon time. Is
that right? Lemon time? It's delicious. I would definitely use
that in some some chin or some rum really rum.
Oh yes, it's funny. I've used lemon time and chopped
(15:03):
it up and with salt and butter and radishes, but
never in drinks. You know. I didn't think about that
either until last year when one of the members planted
in it and I discovered it and she was like, yeah,
I used this with my fish a lot when I
cook fish and I smelled it. I was like, this
is beautiful. Should put this in a drink? You know
what one of the things I saw that you were
(15:24):
gardening or talking about was I think it's she show
leaves as though. Yeah, yeah, somebody gifted us one little
plant of that and it grew so huge. And I
know I used it a lot with tequila. I um
kind of did like a garden sin margarita. So I
used that. I used cement and I used green tea.
It was really good. Yeah that sounds great. So one
(15:47):
of the things my kid and I do a lot
is we we do a mocktail hour, And so I
was curious if we were going to make a mocktail
using some of the things in your garden, what would
you recommend or what could you dream up for? Oh?
I would definitely do some cameramel iced tea because cammel
is a good one. Also lab and their iced tea.
I think a really good base for mocktails is some
(16:10):
kind of lemon and some kind of sparkling water. So
if you infuse your sweet with your herb, I think
you can get more flavors out of it. Don't be
afraid to combine some herbs together. So so what sort
of herb combinations makes sense for drinks? So I like dill,
I like cilantro, and I like ment together really that one? Yes, yes, yes, yes,
(16:34):
the dilan there is surprising, definite thing. It's like this
burst of something that you're not sure what it is,
but it's really good. And I saw your husband has
the same thing my wife has where he doesn't like cilantro.
Is that right? Oh? My gosh, yeshan is in the
percentage that cilantro tastes like soap to him. I know,
(16:54):
and I love cilantro so much. So I saw in
one of the videos you've done that you were sort
of very gently pruning the basil, or there was a
very specific way to do it. So anything that grows,
it's okay to prune. It is growing to be pruned,
and then more will grow from Once you prune with basils,
(17:18):
once they start to get that butt and flower, you
gotta clip equit or the entire plant would get bitter.
It's a subtle bitterness that's really interesting, but it also
helps it grow more, right, isn't there is there a
time that that you can try to prune it, which
I've killed so many basil plants so so I know
nothing about this. I'll take any dips I can get it.
Do not feel bad. It is okay if something that
(17:38):
is it is not a reflection of you. I love that. Yeah,
it's been such a pleasure chatting with you, and I
really want to come visit a cip of Paradise Garden
when I can. I hope you give me the grand
tour and a drink to drink as well. Oh, first
of all, we ever need a reason to have a
cocktail at a sip of paradise, so definitely and will
(18:00):
love giving tour it. I love it wonderful. Thank you
for being here, Thank you so much. I really appreciate
this humans growing stuff. Will be right back after a
short break. So I'm not really a foodie, but for
(18:22):
a very short time, I felt like all of my
friends were. And suddenly we were racing across town to
eat at a strip mall Chinese restaurant because some famous
chef was supposedly working there in disguise. Or we'd linger
a little too long at a club because a woman
was about to come through with these amazing late night
and panadas, or we'd walk up to the third floor
(18:45):
of this place that seemed like a bank, but inside
was actually a secret Korean fried chicken joint. The food
was often cheap and mouth watering and the type of
experience you wanted to tell friends about. But I wasn't
really thinking about ingredients. I was just there for the adventures.
And then some friend made a reservation at this restaurant,
Blue Hill at Stone Barns maybe you've heard of it,
(19:08):
and they booked a seasonal tasting menu and I kind
of went reluctantly. It was on this beautiful estate and
the way that brings you a menu of things grown
on the farm, and ask about any allergies you might
have or any food diversions. And then for a few
hours the chefs just play. They make whatever delights them,
And going in I thought, how can we possibly spend
(19:30):
this much on food? Like my wife and I weren't
making much, no one at the table was, and the
meal basically cost as much as an airplane ticket. But
of course, after course, it was the most incredible experience.
Vegetables I've never tried before, foods I had tried but
had never liked, whips and froths and crispy airy bites
(19:51):
that were utterly transported. It's still one of the meals
I think about the most. Then, if I could take
all my friends there, I would, Yeah. But when I
left the thing I realized wasn't that I wanted to
go out for more fancy meals. It was that I
wanted to cook with better ingredients. We started adjusting our
weekend schedule to hit up the local farmers market, and
(20:13):
I realized what a luxury it is to have a
garden you can raid for fresh foods, and also just
how simple. Some of those flavors can be Like a
little fresh basil with homegrown tomatoes makes for a much
more joyous capraise salad. When you're roasted carrots and fresh
time are grown from your own two hands, it somehow
feels more satisfying. Chef Katie cost knows a lot about
(20:35):
growing flavor combinations. Her menu at Hoskin Nashville, Tennessee does
exactly that. Katie's the executive chef there and splits her
time between the kitchen and the restaurant's garden. Husk operates
under the philosophy of if it's not from the South,
it's not going on the plate, and because of that,
Katie and her team have paid close attention to what
grows locally and have created a menu and practice for rediscovering, cultivating,
(21:00):
and preserving the region's natural gifts. Hey, Katie, are you there. Yes,
I'm here. It's so nice to be chatting with you.
It's so nice to be chatting with you too. So
I've been to Husk a few times and I love it,
and it's really thrilling to have you on the show.
One of the things that keeps coming up whenever we
(21:20):
research you or look of interviews with you or anything.
Is that you seriously love Dolly Parton? Is that true?
That's absolutely true. I have a giant picture of her
in my kitchen. Do you think she gardens? I don't
think she has time. She's a very busy woman. So, um,
back to the reason we're here. Your garden plays such
(21:42):
an important role at Husk and you know, one of
the things I love is that you can see it
from all over the restaurant. But how do you get
your diners to connect with what you grow? Um, we
have a banister where you can look down at all
the tables, and during service, I would send line cooks
out to go pick arnishes and herbs, you know, so
that they really understand that what we're putting on your
(22:04):
plate we are also harvesting from our garden. And I
think it gives the line cookes more perspective to that.
You know, this is a really important part of what
we're coming up with. We are using the garden for
the restaurant and it changes everyone's perspective. I love that
that sort of transparency and visibility. But will you talk
a little bit about how you've elevated the garden. It
(22:26):
sounds like it's grown tremendously in your time there. Yeah,
So what's great about our garden is we really make
use of all of the space and we have a
lot of perennials, which we are so thankful to have. So,
for instance, we always have ground time that comes back
every year. We always have lemon bomb um, we have strawberries,
we have pear trees. And what's great is we also
compost here. Yeah, whenever we don't have our seeds in
(22:50):
the ground, we actually plant clover to turn back into
the sorrel. Whenever we get closer into our spring season.
Right now we aren't able to plant anything, but we
have a massive amount of clover that we're going to
turn right in the soil. That's incredible. So I've read
the host philosophy on produces sourcing from the South, and
we know that much of the menu springs from taking
(23:12):
advantage of the seasonal gems that are available. So so
I imagine that you come up with ideas all the
time about new things to cook. What are some of
those things that are harder to grow but but are
kind of delightful. I would say one, I'm very obsessed
with spicy peppers and peppers kind of in general, they
take time, and they take time if you want them
(23:33):
to be at a certain heat level, if you want
them to grow at a certain rate, that really takes
time and patients, and you have to know that, you know,
peppers are a lot like grapes where they really need
to struggle in order for them to produce that heat
level that you're looking for. So you're not watering them
every day, and you're also making sure that there's you know,
enough sunlights we're watching where you know, we took out
one tree basically just to take care of the garden
(23:56):
because it was shading over the some of our plant beds.
That's really saying. I've never heard or thought of the
fact that pepper's need to struggle to be cultivated correctly.
Oh yeah, absolutely, that's fascinating. And I saw it. There
was an interview where you talked about this pepper I
hadn't heard of, like the habanata. I think, oh yeah,
the habanata. Oh my gosh, you're you're just talking about
(24:16):
the One of the most the best parts of a
pepper for me is that like tropical sensation. And in
your head, you're so trained to think that it's going
to be incredibly spicy that you actually start salivating, and
it's the craziest thing. It is just it is crazy,
and then you eat and then nothing happens, but you
get this amazing tropical like habaner experience without any of
(24:39):
the heat. That's really incredible. It's it's funny because my
um I grew up in a family where my dad
we used to joke that he'd burned off his taste
buds because he loved pepper so much. And anytime you
heard about like a new pepper, like he would like
trying to find it from the Power's market. But my
kids can't take spice, and so I was trying to
figure out how to I feel like this is the
perfect pepper for them. Oh yeah, absolutely, habanat Us it's
(25:00):
great and just the very first one. You just have
to eat it raw and you just have to know
in your head that you can't help it. You're going
to salivate whether you like it or not. You're just
trained to do it. And it's it's incredible. That's really crazy.
So when you approached the layout of the garden at Huskar,
are you meagining dishes that you'll be making in a
few months. Oh yeah, Um, I have my commercial cannying license,
(25:22):
and so anything that we grow that's really spectacular in
our garden, I actually am kind of a I hoard
it back and I wait until we're in months like
these where it's like, okay, everybody's got pumpkin and sweet
potatoes and turn ups. What do I have in my
larder that I'm going to use? And I pull out
a jar of you know, tomatoes that we had from
(25:43):
our garden, peppers, a whole source of variety of different things,
and I kind of save those for winter time when
everything's really drab. I I love that. And I think
I've read that you'd really taken over the canning and
pickling at at Huskin sort of grown that. Uh right,
is this that correct? Oh yeah, yeah, it's one of
my favorite things to do. That little pain that the
(26:05):
can makes whenever the lid seals is like placeless to me.
I'm so nervous about canning and pickling things. I mean,
like pickling is less than an issue of canning. I'm
both afraid of it and totally intrigued. Oh it's it's
a lost art. Nobody at a small scale does it anymore?
You know? And I thought it was funny during the pandemic,
everybody got into baking bread and I walked down the
(26:27):
aisle and all the mason jars were there, like all
the candidates, like you know what you should be doing?
Like we went we went into shutdown in March. I
was on Etsy buying ramps and green garlic from like
Wisconsin or something. And I would go to the farmers
room every weekend. That's all I did throughout the whole pandemic.
Is I just can't all summer. You mentioned that husk
is composting and the garden is you know, I assume
(26:49):
actually helping the restaurant reduce its food waste and it's
a footprint by composting food scraps. Can can you speak
to why that's important to you as a chef? Absolutely?
I mean waste not want not. I really anything that
anything that we have that we can go back into
the earth. I mean, why wouldn't you do it? I
do it at my home, Like I don't understand why
(27:10):
restaurants everywhere wouldn't do it. As long as you know
the proper technique and turning it and adding it to soil.
I mean it's it's a great benefit for us. Yeah,
it's amazing. At the start of the pandemic, you know,
New York City stopped composting, and it's crazy how much
more trash you end up with when you're putting your
food scots in the trash rather than in a compost. Then, yeah,
(27:31):
it's very sad. Katie, thank you so much for being here.
It's just so fun to be chatting with you and
to be inspired by all the things you're giving at
your restaurants. So so thank you for coming on the program. Awesome,
thank you for having me. Hey everyone, it's producer Molly A.
Can and I wanted to take a moment to talk
to you about a very important issue. It's the dangerous
(27:55):
of bland, unflavored and unseasoned food. Every time someone becomes
the victim of a meal without any spice or zest,
that's right. And you likely even know someone whose taste
buds have been deprived of flavor. Or maybe you're the
(28:15):
one eating poach salmon with nothing to accompany it steamed
green beans. But all is not lost and helps out there.
And it's called hot sauce, and it's here to take
your food and your mouth to new experiences as you
feel the delicate heat a flavor. Town adding just a
(28:37):
little bit of hot sauce to a dish could be
a major game changer. And with fresh peppers from your garden,
you can make your very own hot sauce and then
you can control the flavor and the heat. And listen,
I hear you. You're not at the bottom of tabasco
sauce in the glove compartment level yet, But trust me
that with a little help from the garden and the
magic affirmentation, you can make the perfect hot sauce that
(28:58):
will enliven any recipe and to light your palate. So
here are a few simple steps to make your own
hot sauce. Number one, pick the perfect pepper. There's an
enormous variety of peppers and each one has a different
level of heat. In fact that there's even a way
to measure them. It's called the Scoville scale. The hot
of the pepper, the more Scullville heat units it gives off.
(29:21):
So a ghost pepper which is really hot maybe around
one million Scullville heat units. But halapenos can be anywhere
from to five thousand. So find out what level of
heat you're comfortable with, and plant those peppers, because, if
we've learned anything from this show, fresh from the garden
always tastes better than the grocery store. Number two, get
(29:42):
creative and think outside the pepper box. While the peppers
are usually the essential part of any hot sauce recipe,
there are many that also incorporate other fruits and vegetables
like pineapple or kiwi, and even more commonly tomato. So
think about what other flavors from your garden you want
to heighten in your hot sauce. And finally, number three,
get familiar with fermentation. Fermentation is the main process of
(30:05):
making hot sauce, so don't start your recipe at lunchtime
and expect it to be ready by dinner. Most hot
sauce recipes recommend that you let those little hotties sit
in a brine for anywhere from one to two weeks,
depending on the temperature at which they're stored. Once you've
waited out the fermentation, drained the brine, and blend your
peppers in a food processor or blender with just a
little bit of that remaining brine, and then you've got
(30:28):
yourself some hot sauce, and you and your food are
forever saved from bland land. This week, I've been thinking
a lot about the pride people get from the gardens,
that joy of tending to the earth and watching things
(30:49):
grow and then actually doing something with it. Homemade gems
and pickles, fresh cucumbers and mint you can toss into
a gin tonic or a salad if you're the type,
And in my head, I feel like I can be
that type of person. I love the way Kiota gets
inspired by the collared greens and bills she grows, and
(31:10):
then figures out how to make delicious drinks from it all.
I love how Katie makes sure that her dinner see
the connection between the yard and the food on their plates,
and that the staff takes so much joy and arguing
over what to grow, and that they get so much
delight from plating those little herbs. This year, I want
to experience some of that, because last year was a disaster.
(31:33):
Our little attempt to grow some radish and let us
in the fall was a total failure. We threw some
seeds in the ground and watered them, but nothing sprouted up.
So I've decided it's about resetting my expectations. This week
I was reading about a man named Andy George who
was determined to make a chicken sandwich from scratch, like
(31:55):
totally from scratch, and he went to this incredible length.
He started a arden for lettuce and tomatoes and onion.
He made pickles by combining the cucumbers from his yard
with all the salt he'd harvested from ocean water. He
made cheese, starting by milking a cow to nearby dairy.
He separated the wheat for his bread, and actually butchered
(32:15):
and plucked a chicken himself at this local poultry farm.
And after six long months of incredible work and spendings
of his own money into his garden and growing all
his food, he filmed himself taking a bite of this
beautiful artisanal chicken sandwich that he'd been waiting for. And
(32:36):
when he bit into it, he looked at the camera
kind of disgruntled and said, not bad. I mean six
months of my life and all I can say is
not fat. He did not look pleased, and he couldn't
actually say anything positive about it. And my sense is
he should have spent a seventh month, maybe making Molly's
(32:58):
Hot sauce to make that an sandwich taste better. But
I was thinking about Andy as I contemplated my own
garden and ambitions. And despite what he says, there really
is something incredibly rewarding when you've cut out the grocery
store and made your food by going straight to the
source of it all. I think this year, if we
end up with a handful of misshapen vegetables, cucumbers that
(33:21):
look like elbows, and let us that only grows the
size of golf balls, no matter how bad it is,
I'll be thrilled because I grew something I could actually eat.
And also, it's about getting creative with what you have.
So I'll bring these garden misfits into my kitchen and
with great enthusiasm say the same thing Andy George did
(33:45):
six months of my life. And all I can say
is not bad, except I'll use an exclamation point at
the end of my sentence. That's it for today's episode.
Don't forget no matter what season it is or where
you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources
waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time
(34:08):
on our show, we're gonna talk to the men who
love Plants, Plant Dad's, Plant Daddy's and Miracle Bros. If
you like what you heard, don't forget to rate and
review the show on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to
hear from you. What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable
struggles or growing questions. Tagus in your post or tweet
using the hashtag Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised
(34:31):
if you hear your story featured on an upcoming episode.
Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from I Heart Radio
and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show is written
and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mongy Chatiguler in
partnership with Rhino Vadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hayley Ericson, and Garrett
Shannon of Banter Until next Time, Thanks so much for listening.
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