Flora, Fauna and Foodways

Presented by Nancy Webster, Archivist
Highland Park Historical Society

Podcast

Recipes recorded orally by Native Americans and written by local pioneer settlers demonstrate sustenance and diet using native flora and fauna.  Using exclusively 19th century or earlier resources, an exhibit and presentation of these natural and cultivated food sources were created‌.  The images of the Jesse Lowe Smith Image Collection’s documentation of flora and fauna provided the inspiration to explore diverse natural food sources being documented. Continue reading

Chinese Cuisine in America: Stories, Struggles and Successes

Tour lead by Soo Lon Moy,
Former President

Highlighting the struggles, resiliency, and entrepreneurial spirit of Chinese Americans, the exhibition chronicles the complex and often conflicting nature of Chinese Americans in America tying in its immigration history to the popularization of Chinese cuisine from chop suey to dim sum to spicy hotpot. Continue reading

Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir

Presented by Chef Iliana Regan
Podcast

As Regan explores the ancient landscape of Michigan’s boreal forest, her stories of the land, its creatures, and its dazzling profusion of plant and vegetable life are interspersed with efforts to make a home and a business of an inn that’s suddenly, as of their first full season there in 2020, empty of guests due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She discovers where the wild blueberry bushes bear tiny fruit, where to gather wood sorrel, and where and when the land’s different mushroom species appear—even as surrounding parcels of land are suddenly and violently decimated by logging crews that obliterate plant life and drive away the area’s birds. Continue reading

Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites

Presented by Monica Eng and David Hammond

Podcast

Chicago food shows its true depth in classic dishes conceived in the kitchens of immigrant innovators, neighborhood entrepreneurs, and mom-and-pop visionaries.

Monica Eng and David Hammond draw on decades of exploring the city’s food landscape to serve up thirty can’t-miss eats found in all corners of Chicago.

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The Multiple Heritages of Irish Soda Bread

Presented by Lucy Long, PhD

Podcast

Links to Recipes:
Ballymaloe Traditional Brown Soda Bread
Ballymaloe White Soda Bread

Soda bread, a quick bread using baking soda as the primary rising agent, is closely associated in the U.S. with Ireland. Its history and meanings, however, are much more complicated—and tasty—than the sweet loaf with raisins that is usually found around St Patrick’s Day in March. Continue reading