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Root Words showcases stories of how food and agriculture connect us with our community and our landscape. Root Words is a collaboration between Vermont Farmers Food Center, Shrewsbury Agricultural Education & Arts Foundation, Shrewsbury Historical Society, WEXP, and many other community members. The project is based in Rutland County, Vermont.
Episodes
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Sugaring in Vermont (Update)
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Monday Mar 21, 2022
As we come out of winter, the energy of spring starts flowing in our forests again. Cold nights and warm days don’t just mean muddy roads, they mean the sap’s flowing again, and it’s sugar season. All over the state folks are boiling in outdoor kettles, homemade evaporators, and sugar houses. In celebration of the season, we’re putting out this Sugaring in Vermont episode from our archive. The episode features a lot of folks from a story gathering we hosted in 2019, including Grace Korzun. Grace passed away this past October, and we’d like to dedicate this episode re-release in her memory. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening.
In this episode we explore the the tree that connects so many of us to place and community, the sugar maple.
This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell, Kara Fitzbeauchamp, and special guest Jessee Lawyer of The Dawnland Kitchen.
Special thanks to Greg Cox, Grace Brigham, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders.
Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you. You can support Root Words by visiting us Online
Monday Dec 06, 2021
Abenaki Land Link Part II: Tribal Gardens, Processing, and Distribution
Monday Dec 06, 2021
Monday Dec 06, 2021
A lot of Abenaki folks as well as community partners are rebuilding Abenaki Foodways- growing, processing, and distributing Abenaki crops.
On this episode we hear from a few Abenaki gardeners, Chief Shirly Hook of the Koas Abenaki and Michael Descoteaux. And later we hear what it takes to get from garden to plate, while we connect with Roland Bluto and Joe Bossen.
The Abenaki Land Link project addresses the overlapping challenges of how to develop contemporary Abenaki foodways inside a western colonized food system while creating food security for a people historically removed from land access. The project also opens opportunities for Abenaki and non- Abenaki folks to partner on solutions to these complex challenges. If you would like to support the Abenaki in their journey towards food sovereignty, you can connect with Zea Luce at NOFA-VT about becoming a Land Link grower, and by keeping an eye out for Abenaki branded products.
This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell
Special thanks to Chief Shirly Hook, Michael Descoteaux, Roland Bluto, and Joe Bossen.
To learn more about the Abenaki Land Link program or to sign up as a grower visit nofavt.org. Learn more about Chief Don Stevens’ food sovereignty work at abenakitribe.org, and to learn more about what Joe Bossen is up to in the kitchen, check out vermontbeancrafters.com.
Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you. You can support Root Words by visiting us Online
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Abenaki Land Link Part I
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Food Sovereignty is basically when a person or a people have agency over their foodways. Many people today do not have this agency, including Vermont’s indigenous communities. We heard from Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan band of the Abenaki in episode 10, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont, about his three pronged approach to creating more food security for Abenaki citizens.
For Abenaki people today, growing and distributing culturally relevant and healthy food is challenging because of the limited access to tribal lands. Chief Don Stevens and others have addressed this difficulty by cultivating partnerships with generous land stewards and organizations like NOFA-VT, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.
In episode 11 we heard about the work of Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi, Abenaki led programs that bridge traditional and contemporary foodways. Many seeds from Seeds of Renewal make it into tribal gardens and Abenaki Land Link gardens across the state, gardens and growers that are coordinated by NOFA-VT.
On this episode we get out to the field and hear about growing Abenaki foods in Vermont, while we connect again with Chief Don Stevens and with Zea Luce of NOFA-VT.
This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.
Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Zea Luce, and all of the Abenaki Land Link growers across the state.
To learn more, check out NOFA-VT’s Agricultural Literacy Week YouTube video on the Abenaki Land Link Project or at NOFAVT.org.
Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you. You can support Root Words by visiting us Online
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Saving seeds from this year's crop for next year is one of the oldest ways that communities have planned for and preserved their future.
Seeds of renewal is adding a modern research component to plan for the future we face today, to build food system resiliency in the changing climate.
On this episode of Root Words, We talk Chief Don Stevens and Morgan Lamphere of Alnobaiwi.
And we’ll hear little about the Abenaki agricultural calendar's new life.
This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.
Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Morgan Lamphere, and the folks at Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi.
Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you. You can support Root Words by visiting us Online
Monday Aug 02, 2021
Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont
Monday Aug 02, 2021
Monday Aug 02, 2021
Vermont officially recognizes 4 Abenaki tribes today. The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, and the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation.
Up until industrialization, and throughout much of the world today, a community’s access to food is tightly woven in with that community’s access to land.
On this episode of Root Words, We talk with Chef Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens.
And we’ll hear little about the Abenaki community’s connection to this land, game animals, and traditional food ways, and we’ll hear how these living traditions have continued to evolve and grow through contemporary times.
This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.
Special thanks to Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens.
Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. You can support Root Words by visiting us Online