Louisiana Eats

Hosted ByPoppy Tooker

On Louisiana Eats! NOLA food icon Poppy Tooker takes us into Louisiana's wide open fields, deep waters, bustling markets, and busy kitchens. Poppy's people are carrying on the traditions of Louisiana's wholly local but universally celebrated food, from farm to table, and sometimes barroom! Poppy roams the State to find the folks whose inspiration and innovation are taking the abundant wealth of Louisiana's food culture into the future. Let's eat!

Louisiana Eats: Farms from Near and Far – Louisiana Eats – It’s New Orleans

On this week s show, we re looking at farming across the state and North America. We begin on the West Coast, with a tour of Gourmet Mushrooms in Sonoma County, California, where they are mimicking natural growing conditions to cultivate specialty mushrooms indoors. This farm harvests eight different varieties of organic mushrooms for food wholesalers, gourmet grocers, and restaurants all across America. Then, we return to an urban farm in our own backyard. Three years ago, in the shadow of US 90 and the Crescent City Connection, Jordan Bantuelle and his partner, Ian Willson started Southbound Gardens on a keyhole lot almost invisible from the street. We take a tour of their urban farm and its unexpected bounty. Next, we venture up to North Louisiana and visit with Rebecca Krefft, owner of Delta Delivered. Rebecca scours farmers markets in the Shreveport area in search of the best local produce to deliver to Shreveport residents, challenging the idea that healthy food can t be easily accessed. We also spend an evening at Paradigm Gardens, a farm that caters exclusively to chefs. Paradigm hosts a seasonal concert series pairing farm to table cuisine with live music. Finally, we have a chance meeting with a banana farmer from Guatemala. Fernando Garcia owns and operates two banana plantations in a country that is hugely impacted by the banana industry, both economically and culturally. We re betting the farm that you ll learn something new on this week s Louisiana Eats