Elspeth Hay

Chestnuts are common snack food in Europe—you find them roasting on every street corner in the fall. But in the U.S., they're rare. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth talks with Falmouth farmer Carrie Richter about her own locally grown chestnuts.

Find out more about chestnuts and many ways to prepare them, along with information about the American Chestnut Society, at Elspeth's blog, Diary of a Locavore.

Today, I'd like to let my grandmother do the storytelling. A while back, when she moved into an assisted living apartment, she stopped cooking. 

Local gardens are overflowing with green beans this time of year. Most are short and snappy. But Victoria Pecoraro is growing two unusual varieties—Orient Wonder and Red Noodle—both of which measure over a foot long! This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with her about how she started growing these Asian yard-long beans and how she likes to eat them.

Did you know that you can make white wine out of red grapes? I had no idea until I was at the farmers' market in Falmouth, talking with Will Becker of Westport Rivers Winery. 

Here's a list of some of the grapes grown by local vineyards—there are seven within the 30 miles from Newport to New Bedford, not to mention one in Truro and one in northeastern Connecticut!—also, a little bit about where they come from, and more about the history of the French grape varietals Will Becker mentioned.

Shishitos are suddenly showing up at markets and restaurants and dinner parties all over Cape Cod and the country. According to DMA solutions—a marketing firm for produce companies that actually studies these things—from 2010 to 2014, the popularity of shishito peppers on restaurant menus grew over 400 percent, putting the peppers just behind kale as the nation’s trendiest produce. 

Beets are just coming into season. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Abby Miner and Caleb Lemieux of Crooked Farm in Orleans about beet varieties, beet recipes, and a little known fact about beet seeds. 

You can find a recipe for a beet pizza sauce, or as we're calling it "beet-za" sauce, on Elspeth's blog about food, Diary of a Locavore. 

This LFR is a rebroadcast. It aired originally August 1, 2013.

When it comes to fish, most New Englanders keep the fillets and toss the rest. But that's not the case in every culture. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with a Jamaican cook in Wellfleet about a traditional stew made with local bluefish heads. 

Two years ago, Brewster farmer Ron Backer learned about a specialty chili powder called Piment d'Espelette. He decided to grow the peppers and make the spice himself. This week on The Local Food Report, Backer takes Elspeth Hay through the process of making this French spice from pepper to powder. 

Ever wanted to plant an herb garden, but don't know where to start? This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Peter Fossel of Swan River Farm in Dennisport about planning an herb garden.

Most cooks have heard of broccoli rabe. But what about other rabe varieties? This week on The Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with growers at the Orleans Farmers' Market about this spring delicacy from the Brassica family.

Watercress was introduced to North America hundreds of years ago by European settlers. This week on theLocal Food Report, Elspeth Hay goes foraging for the edible aquatic green in the Herring River in Wellfleet.

You can find a recipe for watercress salad on Elspeth's blog, Diary of a Locavore. 

We've all heard of grafting grape and apple plants. But tomatoes? This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Orleans gardener Joe Leghorn about his quest for the perfect tomato. This year he grafted 96 disease resistant tomato rootstock plants with tomato seedlings grown for their fruit qualities.

Today, most people throw away the skeletons and innards of our fish. But in Ancient Rome, these parts weren't trash—they were food. This week on The Local Food Report, Elspeth talks with a chef from Wellfleet who's using the fermented skeletons and innards of small, oily local fish to make a popular sauce from Roman times.