Today's Main Ingredient: Bring Farm Food to Your Table
A podcast produced by SEEDS of Northeastern Pennsylvania and consists of 15-minute audio programs, focusing on local farms and food businesses one ingredient at a time.
About Today's Main Ingredient
Erma Rombauer, a St. Louis homemaker, wrote one of America’s most beloved cookbooks, “The Joy of Cooking” in 1931. Since 1936, it has been in print continuously, selling an estimated 18 million copies over the decades. Countless people have enjoyed food prepared from scratch thanks to Erma Rombauer.
Now, 90 years later, SEEDS of Northeastern Pennsylvania has created a weekly, 15-minute podcast, “Today’s Main Ingredient: Bringing Farm Food to Your Table,” designed to help home cooks to put the joy back into cooking from scratch and to inspire us all to Buy fresh, Buy local to support local farmers.
In recent years, increasing numbers of health- and taste-conscious eaters have decided they want to know what’s in the food they’re eating and where it comes from. Many have found their answers by turning to local farmers—through farmers’ markets, on-farm stores, roadside farm stands, and box subscriptions (often filled with “the farmer’s choice” of that week’s harvest).
In this podcast series, you will hear the inside story from farmers themselves about how each weekly episode’s featured ingredient is grown or produced. And you will hear from local chefs, caterers, and food entrepreneurs who will demystify what to do with that ingredient once you get it into your kitchen. Finally, a nutritionist will weigh in on that ingredient’s healthy-eating properties.
This series is hosted and edited by Mikki Uzupes and produced by Jane Bollinger. The podcast’s theme music is by Paul Young of the Young Brothers, musicians based in Wayne and Lackawanna Counties.
Follow us through the summer’s growing season and into fall harvest with a new installment of “Today’s Main Ingredient” revealed each week.
You can also listen on Sunday mornings to “Today’s Main Ingredient” on radio on two Honesdale-based radio stations: WDNH (95.3 FM) at 7:05 a.m. and WYCY (105.3 FM) at 7:20 a.m.
Our Podcast is Sponsored in Part By
Thanks also to Fertile Valley and Wolfe Spring Farms for their sponsorship of the BoldGold radio station broadcasts.
Your Hosts
Mikki Uzupes
A childhood transplant from the Bronx NYC, Mikki graduated from Honesdale High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communication from Point Park University in Pittsburgh.
In 2005 while at The News Eagle in Hawley, she won a PA Newspaper Association Award for Beat Reporting. As News Director for Bold Gold Media Group, she hosted a weekly public affairs program called, Wayne Pike Now, which was honored with an Excellence in Broadcasting Award from the PA Association of Broadcasters in 2015.
In 2017, Mikki became Wayne County’s Digital Media Specialist, a position she pursued specifically for the opportunity to work closely with the Wayne Tomorrow! initiative. She also served on the Board of Trustees for the Wayne County Public Library and as liaison to the Wayne Library Alliance.
Carol Kneier MS, RDN, LDN, CDCES
Carol is a registered dietitian, certified diabetes care and education specialist, and currently the Community Health Manager at the Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale PA. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of nutrition and diabetes, and highly enjoys working with the community, providing programs that promote health and wellness.
Our Honored Guests
Marcia Dunsmore
Marcia Dunsmore trained at the Culinary Institute of America (one of its early female graduates), and was the pastry chef at The Settler’s Inn in Hawley PA for many years. Later she was executive chef for the Highlights Foundation in nearby Boyd’s Mills. She currently cooks and bakes at home and seasonally for local farmers markets via her Myrtle Avenue Bakehouse, with husband David and a crew of hard working family friends. Marcia is a culinary artist inspired by the seasons and our bounty of local produce, so new creations rotate into the Bakehouse offerings on a regular basis. Her sourdough breads, cookies, fruit spreads and other seasonal treats are always delicious!
Marcia is the featured chef in Episode 3: Kale and Chard, Episode 8: Garlic, Episode 17: Herbs and Episode 22: Celeriac.
Benjamin Cooper
Benjamin Cooper is the chef at Here & Now Brewing Company in Honesdale PA. Here & Now serves classic pub food, salads, pizza, wings, amazing duck-fat fries, alongside its house-brewed ales, with a focus on sourcing as many ingredients locally as possible. Ben originally moved to NEPA to work on an organic vegetable farm, and his mentally for cooking has never been the same. He says “Watching a carrot grow from seed to fruit over a matter of months truly makes one appreciate the beauty of sustainably grown produce, and I try to carry that with me into the kitchen as I cook.”
Ben is the featured chef in Episode 1: Asparagus and Episode 16: Sweet Corn.
Jane Bollinger
Jane Bollinger is the amazing creator and producer of this podcast, and long-time supporter and activist for the farmers in & around Wayne County, and the foods they grow. She is a past chair of the Wayne County chapter of PASA, prior manager of the Wayne County Farmers’ Market, and current co-chair of the Wayne Tomorrow Agriculture committee. She is also president of the Bethany Library board of trustees and helps to organize their annual farm-to-table fundraiser.
Jane is Mikki’s guest foodie in Episode 10: Kohlrabi where she talks about the personal and community benefits of shopping at your local farmers’ market, and in Episode 20: Carrots.
Stan Bialecki and Amy Bialecki
Stan Bialecki and Amy Bialecki are the owners of Bialecki Farms, in Lakewood PA (northern Wayne County), with over 20 years of farming experience of growing fresh, local vegetables for friends and neighbors. Their children have learned a self sustaining lifestyle growing much of their own meat, eggs, vegetable and milk. The farm operations started with a small, “on your honor” farm stand but can now be found online, at the Hawley and Barryville Farmers’ Markets, and at The Cooperage Market in winter with year round production! They combine traditional growing methods along with modern, hydroponic greenhouses to get the best production from a small plot of land.
Stan is a guest in Episode 13: Zucchini and Summer Squash.
Anita Avvisato
Anita Avvisato is a Wayne County native. She and her husband Dave call Far Away Farms, a 14-acre farm in Cherry Ridge, home. Since retiring from a 20-year stint with a Scranton surgical group, Anita has focused her attention on their extensive gardens, a flock of free-range chickens, and the multiple honeybee yards they tend throughout the county. Far Away Farms’ produce, eggs, and honey are sold to local restaurants and merchants and also at the Wayne County Farmers Market and winter Main Street Market in Honesdale. When not involved with farm work, Anita enjoys reading, sewing, and visiting her children and grandchildren.
Anita is a guest in Episode 10: Kohlrabi.
Lilly Allgood and Andy Curtis
Lily Allgood and Andy Curtis grow vegetables at Journey’s End Farm in Sterling, PA. Lily, originally from Maine, came to vegetable growing through a love of food and cooking, with a background in restaurant cooking and art. Andy grew up on his family’s farm in Sterling, and has had a lifelong interest in growing plants of all kinds. Since 2014 they have been growing vegetables that they sell at the Hawley Farmers Market and through their CSA program. Journey’s End Farm also produces eggs and award-winning maple syrup.
Lily and Andy are guests in Episode 15: Eggplant and Episode 22: Celeriac.