CAI

The Local Food Report

Arts EN ↓ 20 episodes

The Local Food Report takes us to the heart of the local food movement to talk with growers, harvesters, processors, cooks, policymakers and visionaries. The world of food is changing, fast. As people reimagine their relationships to food, creator Elspeth Hay and editor Viki Merrick aim to rebuild our cultural stores of culinary knowledge — and to reconnect us with the people, places, and ideas that feed us. Tips from listeners are always welcome. The Local Food Report airs Thursday at 8:35 AM and 5:45 PM and Saturday at 9:35 AM and is made possible by our Local Food Report sponsors.

Author

CAI

Episodes

Cooking with garlic scapes 09.07.2026 4:45

Garlic scapes are in season at the Truro Farmers Market, and there are so many good ways to cook them.

A feast of royalty, religion, and community 02.07.2026 4:50

A centuries-old Portuguese ritual rich with history, pageantry, and, most definitely, food.

Holding onto rain for food security 25.06.2026 4:15

Landscaping can direct major rainfalls to places where plants can use the water later.

Insects as food 18.06.2026 4:49

An expert makes the case for eating "micro-livestock."

Growing a local food hub 04.06.2026 4:47

The hub offers food from 20 farms in the region.

A fish hatchery in Sandwich among the oldest in the country 28.05.2026 4:09

For more than a hundred years, the state has been stocking ponds all over the Cape and Islands with locally raised trout. Mike Clark of Plymouth helps breed these fish at a series of outdoor pools in Sandwich.

Blueberries and Bumblebees 21.05.2026 4:16

On a Cape Cod blueberry farm, a newly arrived colony of bumblebees takes flight, beginning the careful work that transforms spring flowers into summer fruit.

A beekeeper on Martha’s Vineyard rears his own Queens 07.05.2026 4:45

Last spring, honeybee keeper Tim Colon of Vineyard Haven emailed me a fascinating recording.

Acorns, chestnuts, and hickories 17.04.2026 4:10

We look at acorns, chestnuts, and hickories on the commercial food scene.

A perennial vegetable you probably have in your yard 12.03.2026 4:12

You know hostas? Those broad-leafed, perennial plants landscapers so often put in shady spots, or on the edges between gardens and lawns? Well, it turns out hosta shoots are edible. Really.

A Portuguese chef teaches students to cook local seafood 05.03.2026 4:42

This week on the Local Food Report, a chef in New Bedford teaches students to cook with local seafood.

Restoring native meadows 26.02.2026 4:43

Local Food Report: restoring native meadows

Sourdough discard 19.02.2026 4:49

Sarah Reynolds North talks about how to take care of sourdough starter and what you can do with it.

Chatham Seafood Cooperative connects dots from boat to plate 12.02.2026 4:31

For decades now, we’ve been hearing about the broken nature of our New England seafood industry fisherman Brett Tolley of Harwich explains.

Hickory oil 05.02.2026 4:27

Bitternut hickory trees were one of the most important perennial staple food crops in the eastern U.S. for eight thousand years or more.

How abundant shellfish help create healthy waters 22.01.2026 5:10

Starting in about 2010, many towns on the Cape began trying to increase shellfish populations and credit them for their nitrogen-removal work.

Rediscovering the Chestnut Mining Bee 15.01.2026 4:50

The return of a bee that’s co-evolved with American chestnut trees.

Here we come a wassailing 08.01.2026 4:35

Wassailing has a long and storied history that dates back hundreds of years in the UK.

Turnip latkes from a chef in Orleans 01.01.2026 4:20

It’s that time of year again—we’re deep into storage vegetable season and I’m looking for recipe inspiration.

Tips for pie makers 25.12.2025 4:22

Imagine yourself sitting down to dessert at the end of a holiday feast. What are you looking for in a pie? This is the question a panel of judges in Provincetown asks themselves each year at an event at the Provincetown Commons called Pie Fest.