Regenerative Baking Dressler Parsons

What would it look like to step outside of the ingredients we’re used to baking with, and to hone in on some officially-labeled underutilized crops? This episode dives into just that with writer and entrepreneur Shreema Mehta (@climatecookery). She has a Masters in Public Policy and Conservation Biology, a background in journalism and PR, and launched a tamarind hot sauce company in 2020 after reading a report on underutilized crops from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Listen in for what it means for something to be labeled an underutilized crop, the realities of starting a small food business, linking environmental science to pop culture and food history, crop databases, universal basic income, foraging in New York City, and so much more.

The overarching question of Season 2 of Regenerative Baking is "What does it look like to bake with place in mind?" And we're kicking it off with Rose McAdoo, a brilliant food artist who takes baking with place in mind to extremes. Splitting her time between Alaska and Antarctica, Rose makes cakes that communicate climate science, often using the bitter wilderness as her pastry kitchen. In this episode, Rose talks to Dressler about her journey from New York wedding cake decorator to the Antartica search-and-rescue team, to Alaska glacier-guiding, to a surprise backwoods Alaska dessert project with Rose Wilde, and much, much more.

This is a thematically-organized summary of the first nine episodes, as told via clips of guests that felt like they were in conversation with each other. The result is a dynamic, conversational episode that names and explores the main themes that emerged throughout the first Regenerative Baking season; growing sweeteners and grains, cover-cropping/soil health, baking with fruit, the realities of farming at hand scale, fermentation in its broadest sense, "loving the solution" and not just "fixing a problem," the complexities of our current food system, some of the effects climate change is already having on agriculture, building community via food, and an in-depth discussion of whole grain baking.

Katie Gourley is a farmer and baker deeply rooted in biodiversity and alternative economies. As one half of La Merenda Farm, she operates a beautiful heirloom bean CSA, and also bakes seasonal whole-grain cakes through her small-scale community baking project, Sweet Clover Baking. Katie also has a Masters in Urban Planning with Distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where her thesis on community seed saving and alternative economies was the recipient of the Harvard Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize. Listen in for a deep dive on seed libraries, sharing economies, biodiversity in baking, zines, farming challenges, and dreams of a more caring world.

Jack Algiere is the Director of Agroecology at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, which is also home to the two-Michelin-starred Blue Hill at Stone Barns. First brought in to design the center’s boldly experimental organic farm in 2004, Jack Algiere warmly recalls his farming history, some of the projects Stone Barns is working on right now, his philosophy around farming, agroecology, and much more.

Rose Wilde is a powerhouse of a pastry chef—she’s a former human rights lawyer turned writer, master food preserver, master gardener, and chef-owner of Red Bread in Los Angeles. She’s also the author of the fabulous new whole-grain baking cookbook, Bread and Roses: 100+ Grain Forward Recipes Featuring Global Ingredients and Botanicals. Listen in for an exploration of human rights and kitchens, developing your own sense of whole grain taste, replacing baking powder with sourdough, cultivating community, and much, much more.