Today's Main Ingredient: Bring Farm Food to Your Table

Tim Jaggars is co-owner and farmer at Robinson Family Farm in South Canaan PA. Tim’s great grandfather Charles Robinson was born in 1893 and married his great grandma in 1911. They started Robinson farm, raising and butchering beef. Their son, Daniel Robinson, was born in 1919; who with Great Grandpa was raising beef and lumbering. Daniel later bought the farm and started milking cows until 1983. Grandpa Daniel passed away in 2003. In 2004 Tim and his wife Lisa, along with Tim’s older sister, purchased the farm. Today they raise beef and vegetables on the same ground his Great Grandpa once farmed. You can find them on Saturdays, May through November, at the Newfoundland Farmers’ Market
Highly committed to farming and local community, Tim serves as township supervisor and also as president of the Wayne-Pike Farm Bureau

Tim is a guest in Episode 26: Winter Squash.

Joe Infante grew up in Lake Ariel, PA, and one of his first jobs at age 16 was as a dishwasher there at The Hideout’s Clubhouse. This modest beginning in a professional kitchen inspired him to pursue a career in the food world. After graduating from Western Wayne High School, Joe attended Johnson and Wales University where, in 2017, he received an Associate of Science degree in Culinary Arts. In 2016, as part of his education, he completed an internship with The Settlers Hospitality Group at The Settler’s Inn and at Glass in The Ledges Hotel in Hawley. He has worked in restaurants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and for the past four years, Joe was Chef de Cuisine at The Hideout Clubhouse. In 2021, he decided to take a new step in his career by advancing to Executive Chef at Tick Tocks on Terrace in Honesdale, which has newly reopened as a farm-to-table restaurant. Chef Joe’s new menu highlights local farm and food sources in his dishes.

Joe is the featured chef in Episode 7: Peas and Episode 19: Beets.

Roger Hill is the owner/operator of Treeline Farm in Dyberry Township, PA, and a soil consultant for both home gardeners and commercial farmers including large farming operations like Willow Wisp Organic Farm in Damascus.
Roger began farming in 1981 in southern Ohio using a regenerative farming approach advanced by soil-health proponents Neil Kinsey, Elaine Ingham, and Hugh Courtney. Roger has continued to grow his soil knowledge by following ongoing research into insect and disease resistance in crops through soil mineral balance and the addition of beneficial microorganisms, including how these contribute to nutrient density in vegetables and fruit he grows. Roger is also the manager of O’Neill’s Orchard in Mount Pleasant Township, PA, which follows organic growing methods.
As an active artist with a background in Fine Arts, Roger captures the natural environment and landscapes in oil and watercolor. He has participated in the Wayne County Arts Alliance studio tours and has been featured on The Great Wall of Honesdale.

Roger is a guest in Episode 14: Peppers, Episode 21: Brussels Sprouts and Episodes 23+24: Apples.

Brian Fox of Salem Mountain Farm is a third generation farmer from South Canaan PA. As many teenagers do, Brian dreamed of other things and left the farm to attend college in Washington DC. He stayed for nearly 15 years, working as a graphic designer before returning to the farm of his childhood. In 2001, he shifted the farm’s focus from conventional dairy to growing vegetables and raising rotational grass-fed beef. In 2017 he married Rachael, who joined him on the farm. They have two children, Angus born in 2018 and Agathe in 2019. Together they work the land as a family, with their main goals being to grow amazing vegetables to feed to their community, feed the soil to leave the land better than they found it, and to lay the groundwork for the next generation.

Brian is a guest in Episode 1: Asparagus, Episode 5: Strawberries and Episode 8: Garlic.

Lori Fogg is a coal miner’s daughter, born in 1960 and raised in part of Schuylkill County, PA where local food traditions were influenced by Eastern European immigrants and the Pennsylvania Dutch. She started cooking at age five with her mom and grandmother, whose recipes are among dozens posted on her website www.acoalcrackerinthekitchen.com. The website, which she started in 2010, is a celebration of the foods of her childhood living in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. Prior to that she wrote a blog about anthracite coal miners.
Lori explains that “coalcracker” is an affectionate term for a resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, but particularly of the anthracite coal region from Scranton to the Lehigh Valley to Schuylkill County.
Today, Lori lives in Johnstown in western PA in the bituminous coal region of Pennsylvania.

Lori is a guest in Episode 18: Cabbage.

Gudrun Feigl began growing herbs on her two-acre farm in Mount Pleasant Township, PA not long after she moved to the U.S. from Germany in 2002. By 2009, she had founded Mount Pleasant Herbary and began selling botanical gifts and herbal teas at farmers’ markets and art shows.
Each year in the early spring, Gudrun starts preparing her herb beds. The herbs are clipped several times during the growing season and put on screens to dry in a drying shed. They are then either blended together into teas, ground up for soaps, or used in infusions for herbal salves.
In 2016, Gudrun opened a gift shop on Maude Alley at 1023 Main Street, Honesdale. It features her handcrafted teas, soaps, salves, foot baths and other herbal creations. Today there’s also an outdoor, European-style café that features organic cookies and treats with many vegan- and gluten-free options, a small, healthy lunch menu, and, of course, Gudrun’s herbal teas.

Gudrun is a guest in Episode 17: Herbs.