Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

Hello All, We are back with the Food Literacy Podcast series with a February 2026 episode. We will provide a series of episodes every month until the 2026 holiday season, when we will probably take a hiatus for rejuvenation, travel, etc. Please listen to the episode to hear what's coming up, and check out the show notes for links to previous content on gardening in Chicago for February, in US...

November 2025 Food Literacy podcast post the federal government shutdown in the USA. A host of issues related to food security and sovereignty came to light during the shutdown, including the value of food assistance programs such as SNAP. Check out this episode as we begin addressing many of the issues raised.  As always, I will instruct you to pay attention to the show notes for information rega...

Check out the short October 2025 Food Literacy Podcast. As always, be sure to check out the show notes for resources, including a link to the October 2024 episode . Most of this short episode is related to topics related to food as medicine, whereas the 2024 episode is garden-oriented. A checklist for October garden tasks is included in the show notes. I participated in the interview process for t...

This is a very short episode. If you are looking for gardening information, see the show notes for content regarding ideas for September. We are seeking ideas related to cooking, cooking skills, recipes, and other culinary topics for the next few episodes. Please email me with any ideas you may have. Plantophiles: What to Plant in September, Zone By Zone Knollwood: The Beginner's Guide to Fal...

August offers opportunities to sow seeds for crops that will carry our gardeners into autumn. There will be about 60 days before the first frost date. Check out the video links for crops that will mature before October 15th. Because frost dates are not set in stone, you may even have a longer period. Last year, I harvested some warm-weather crops after November 1, so you never know. Just know ther...

Here is a short 15-minute episode with reminders about what to pay attention to in our gardens in July.  July has arrived and gardening season is in full swing. There are approximately 105 days left in the typical growing season. Of course, if you take some steps to extend the season you may be able to grow crops such as collard greens, kale, etc. in early winter.   Here are some crops you may wan...

Tune in for some general observations about June gardening and seasonal shopping. Also, remember to get some Vitamin N—the N stands for nature . Get outside, get moving, and eat real, whole seasonal fruits and vegetables as the main part of your diet. The summer solstice is almost here in the northern hemisphere, and it is time for one of my favorite foods- watermelon. Make sure you know how to se...

May 2025 Food Literacy Podcast Notes  May is here in Chicago with the typical temperature swings. We had temperatures ranging between 80 and 90 degrees for a couple of days last week, and now, as I write and put the podcast together on May 20th, it is 53 degrees with a blustery wind. The keyword in this era of climate instability is unpredictable.   Rather than being redundant, I  invite you to vi...

Enjoy the April 2025 Food Literacy Podcast! Of significant importance to successful gardening is the number of hours of sunlight available (see the amount of daily sunlight available via your zip code) at this time of year. Now is a good time to start warm weather crop seeds indoors, such as tomatoes, peppers, etc., they should be mature and ready for transplanting after the last frost date (check...

This month's Food Literacy podcast is entirely devoted to gardening. Happy Meteorological Spring, here's to a great gardening season! It is March and the plant and gardening communities are raring to go. In fact, I have distributed thousands of seeds to our partners to begin seedlings and their crop plans.  One site we like is Mind & Soil and their YouTube Channel where they have don...

Please listen to this episode of the Roots Watering Hole podcast with Dr. Christy Garrison Harrison of Southern University. We asked Dr. Harrison to respond to a question we asked of respondents to our collaboration with the Center for Humans and Nature for their Questions for a Resilient Future series. The question is "What can we learn from the soil about our fundamental interconnectedness?...

Introductory podcast for the 2025 season. Tune in for updates about what to expect in 2025. Also, please share topics you would like to see us cover beginning in February 2025. We are looking for guests as we will offer video episodes with content experts in February or March of 2025. Stay tuned for that, in the meantime let us prepare for a healthy and happy gardening and food literacy season! Na...

We are signing out of the Food Literacy Podcast for 2024 and anticipate having a wonderful 2025 with episodes and resources devoted to all things food literacy from gardening to cooking to consumer information and exciting programming being planned for 2025 in Chicago. Stay tuned! December 2024 Food Literacy Podcast Show Notes   Urban Farmer Zone 6 Planting Calendar Guide   Farmers’ Almanac Seed S...

This is a very brief episode of the food literacy podcast so as usual pay attention to the show notes for what we hope is useful information. More importantly, I want to make sure to thank all of the people and organizations I work with throughout the year. The new year is just about 7 weeks away and 39 days away from the winter solstice and the journey of the return of the sun and longer days. Sp...

Hello, listeners to the October 2024 Food Literacy Podcast. Harvest time is upon us but as strange as it may seem it is also time to think about the 2025 gardening season. Get ready for winter and 2025! Here are some resources I hope will inform your decision(s). In doing research for this episode, I came across the Gardenary YouTube channel and an episode that suggested we stop using fertilizers...

Hello Listeners, this is a concise episode devoted to encouraging our listeners to establish a fall vegetable garden Longer episodes will begin in September 2024 where we will discuss myriad food literacy and wellness issues as well as follow up on fall vegetable gardening methods. I am having a hard time believing that it is August but alas it is! But it is fall garden and crop time, personally b...

The Food Literacy podcast resumes after a hiatus. I am better now and returning to the microphone with the July 2024 Food Literacy Podcast. This is probably more accurately described as a shortcast but we will cover some gardening topics for July and a few Food as Medicine items in the show notes. I hope you enjoy the episode! I have commissioned carpenter friends Mike Reynolds and Rudy Taylor to...

Let's get going on the upcoming garden season for 2024! Bill of Health   Food is Medicine Approaches to Address Diet-Related Health Conditions.  Take a look for yourself and study how your food choices may be good for you and the environmental health of the planet. Some cities while not banning meat , want to encourage us to eat more plants and have signed on to the Plant Based Treaty , see i...

 Since discovering the Food Institute website I have spent considerable time reading through the offerings and found the following to share:  Food Institute Food as Medicine Conundrum  https://foodinstitute.com/focus/the-food-as-medicine-conundrum/  No surprise here but the Food Institute shares insight about the causes of the global Type-2 Diabetes pandemic .  The Food Institute research found th...

The Roots Watering Hole podcast series is back after some life issues that kept us from publishing except for our food literacy podcast for several months. We return with a compelling interview with Dr. Gerald that we think you will enjoy, Bio : "Dr. JPB Gerald is an educator and theorist with a day job in non-profit education management and a side hustle trying to dismantle these systems we&...

The Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series returns to full-time regular programming with at least one episode per month in addition to the food literacy podcasts. Listen to the trailer, thank you for listening. Please look for information coming up about supporting our work via Patreon...

It is the beginning of 2024 and we embark upon a new trip around the sun. This is the first episode of the 2024 food literacy podcast and we will be providing a brief overview of what the upcoming season will include. Thank you for listening and may we provide you with a wealth of information for building healthy individuals and communities. In this episode, we give our decidedly grassroots defini...

A wide-ranging conversation about being human and co-creating with Nature/Mother Earth. I think you will enjoy this sonic experience!

This is the final food literacy podcast for 2023. Please listen in and check the show notes for important season-ending information. As is stated in the trailer there is some news on the gardening front that I wanted to mention. There is a recently released USDA Hardiness Zone map. Check out Gardener Scott’s YouTube video about the new USDA Hardiness Zone map , who lives in a similar climate in Co...

November typically marks the end of the growing season for most of us in the Chicago region. However, there are some gardeners who may apply season extension strategies that carry them through the winter. If that is not you do not fret, it is time to close out the 2023 season, get some rest, and begin planning for 2024. We will not cover much at all regarding gardening tasks for November but in th...