Columnist Tamar Haspel on the joy and adventure of firsthand food

It began as a challenge: Could columnist Tamar Haspel and her husband eat one meal a day using food they grew or gathered themselves for an entire year?

Haspel was intrigued by the experiment. Her husband — normally a “why not” guy — was less enthused. It was winter in Cape Cod, after all.

But they embarked on the journey anyway, just a few months after exchanging their condo in Manhattan for a shack on a two-acre lot in Massachusetts. They learned to clam. They built hoop houses. They grew tomatoes — in raised beds, after futile attempts to cultivate their own sandy soil. They took on chickens.

And they learned. They discovered new ways to eat, a new appreciation for food. They found it’s not as hard as the experts often make it out to be.

This Friday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talked with Haspel about the grand adventure documented in her new book, “To Boldly Grow.” Filled with humor, practical advice and hard-won wisdom, both the book and the conversation will inspire a new respect for what we eat and the soil and resilience that nurture us.

Guest:

• Tamar Haspel writes the James Beard Award-winning “Washington Post” column “Unearthed,” which covers the intersection of food and science. Her new book is “To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure and Dinner in Your Own Backyard.”

To listen to the full conversation, use the audio player above.

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