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I first tasted milkweed a few years ago. I was at Ceraldi in Wellfleet—a restaurant known for its focus on hyper local ingredients— and I tried the plants’ shoots. They were bright and snappy and so gloriously green-tasting that I wanted to learn more. Co-owner and chef Michael Ceraldi explains what Asclepias syriaca, or Common Milkweed is.

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Podcast: Download

Podcast: Download

This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Peter Fossel of Swan River Farm in Dennisport about how to grow leeks with long, white stems.

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In 2009, Eric Glasgow and his wife retired from city life and bought a defunct dairy farm on Martha’s Vineyard. Ever since, they’ve been learning how to make dairy farming as low waste and low impact as possible.

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In many local gardens, rhubarb is the first plant ready to harvest. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth talks with her mother, Liz Pierson, about their favorite family rhubarb recipes. Favorites include spicy rhubarb chutney to serve with Indian food, a rhubarb custard pie similar to lemon meringue, and a sweet, tender rhubarb cake.

You can find a complete list of the recipes mentioned in this piece on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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In the mid 1800s, Cayuga ducks were one of the most popular meat birds in New England. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Rebecca Gilbert of Native Earth Teaching Farm in Chilmark about why the breed fell out of favor, and why she thinks it’s worth bringing back.

You can learn more about Cayuga ducks on the Slow Food website, as part of their “Ark of Taste.”

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Have you ever had a wintergreen berry? This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay goes on a hunt for the native edible with Donna Eaton of Cedar Spring Herb farm in Harwich. The ivy green leaves and bright, cherry red berries are all over the Cape, and the fruit is especially tasty this time of year.

You can read more on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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Selective breeding is not a new thing in the food world; humans have been selecting for desirable traits in plants and animals for thousands of years. But it is getting more sophisticated. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with a Wellfleet oysterman who’s growing oysters with three sets of chromosomes instead of the normal two.

You can read more about “triploid” oysters on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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n Europe, scallop roe is a delicacy. But Americans haven’t developed a taste for it—yet. In The Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay examines scallop roe, which is packed with omega-3s—good for everyone, and especially important for mamas and babies.

See a video of How to Open a Scallop and find out more about scallop roe on Elspeth’s Blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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Podcast: Download

Podcast: Download

Fish is important for good health, but it can be expensive. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with the fishermen and organizers behind a new program called Fish for Families that’s working to get high quality local seafood to Cape Cod families in need. You can read more about Fish for Families and find out about the groups behind it on their websites:

Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance

The Family Pantry of Cape Cod

And you can see pictures of a dogfish distribution at the Family Pantry on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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Many local farmers have a greenhouse to help extend the growing season. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with a young Brewster farmer who got a grant from the state to build a mobile greenhouse. The structure itself is 25 feet long by 12 feet wide, but it can slide back and forth over two fields 12 feet wide by 50 field long. Lucas Dinwiddie of Halcyon farm will use this system to cover different crops at different times of the year.

You can find plans to build a mobile greenhouse here, and see more pictures of the mobile greenhouse Lucas Dinwiddie built on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

This piece is a rebroadcast. It aired originally on January 9, 2014.

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According to the EPA, Americans throw out 14 percent of the food we buy. And all but 2 percent of that goes into landfills. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Falmouth resident Mary Ryther about her new composting business that’s working to change that.

You can learn more about Mary’s operation and other efforts to cut down on local food waste on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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Gleaning is an ancient practice, as old as the Torah. It means to gather leftover grain or other produce from farm fields after a harvest, and traditionally was a form of charity. In most places, the tradition has died out. But today on Martha’s Vineyard thanks to a program called Island Grown Gleaning, it’s alive and well. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay attends a potato glean with a group of eighth graders from West Tisbury.

You can learn more about Island Grown Gleaning and their parent organization Island Grown Initiative on their website. And you can see more pictures of the kids in action on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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Spelt is an ancient grain—a hybrid of regular bread wheat and another wheat variety called farro or emmer. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with Ed Miller of Wellfleet about a slow-rise spelt bread made with locally grown grain. Read more on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

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The bean to bar chocolate movement is on the rise. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with a young couple in Truro who’ve opened a chocolate factory. She learns about sourcing beans, how the production process works, and what characteristics make for a top notch chocolate bar.

You can find a recipe for a chocolate bundt cake and see photos from Chequessett Chocolate’s factory on Elspeth’s blog, Diary of a Locavore.

This is a rebroadcast. This piece originally aired on April 10, 2014.

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These days, we don’t often interact with the animals we eat. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with three local people about raising, slaughtering, and butchering pigs. She weaves their voices together to bring the animals from life to death and finally to the table.

You can find links to several essays about raising, slaughtering, and butchering pigs on her blog, Diary of a Locavore, along with links to some of the YouTube videos on butchering mentioned in the piece.

This is a rebroadcast. This piece originally aired on December 19th, 2013.

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Three years ago, Elspeth Hay brought home a Meyer lemon tree to keep outside in the summer and in front of a sunny window all winter. This year, it’s bearing fruit for the first time, just in time for the holidays. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth talks with Kim Shkapich of Lola’s Local Food Lab in Wellfleet about her recipe for lemon curd and the science behind it.

You can find Kim’s recipe for lemon curd on Elspeth’s blog, where you can also read more about her tips for adjusting it to your taste and growing your own Meyer lemon tree.