Charisma and conservation

Ruminants chewing and re-chewing their cud has shaped human civilization. By grace of their unique four-chambered stomach and its microbiome, plant material indigestible to humans is transformed into food for the animal—and by extension, for others. Yet the rumen itself, the chamber of the stomach responsible for this microbial break-down of plant matter, contains a nutritionally-dense slurry known as 'green soup' that has been eaten as a last-minute supplement by herders and hunters around the world. Roberto and I wonder if we can interact with this process in vitro to create new dishes, or to render edible new ingredients. But a question begins to gnaw at us, forcing us to some rumination of our own: When it comes to food traditions, is there a line between surviving and thriving? Or is it less a line than a loop? And what is the value is in trying to translate ephemeral, in-the-field food experiences into dishes in the kitchen?

In this episode, we explore how non-human charisma colours the tension between deliciousness and conservation. Our main story takes us to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic sea, the site of a troubling drama between cod, local fisherman, a lot of worms, and an overpopulation of protected grey seals. But first, we take you back up into Sápmi where, for Sami reindeer herders, the endangered golden eagle is less majestic treasure, more economic hindrance—and even sometimes a vital threat.

The chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus, in latin and Báhkkečátná in Sami language) that grows on birch trees has become a trendy 'superfood' in recent years, often marketed as the mystical Siberian tonic for many ailments. But, in fact, it has also been a traditional medicine used for thousands of years in Sápmi, the territory of the Sami people in northern Scandinavia. While the traditional use of chaga underwent a decline in recent generations, researchers began studying the fungus for its positive health benefits- eventually leading to its 'superfood' status. And now young people have started to take back an interest in chaga: not in pill form, but in harvesting it themselves. In this episode, we hear Sami teacher Laila Spik Skaltje talk about both the uses and cultural meaning of báhkkečátná and Sami journalist Máret Steinfjell shares her perspective on its youth-driven renaissance.

This Short features a conversation with Sami teacher Laila Spik Skaltje and producer Anna Sigrithur on her lived experience with Sami entomophagy, or the practice of eating insects. Her father taught her how to eat the larvae of the Reindeer Warble Fly, a parasite that lives beneath the skin of the reindeer.

The Sami are known as the people of the Sun and Wind; named for the elements that they harness to survive and thrive in a sometimes challenging environment. Sami foods instructor Laila Spik Skaltje talks about the breads of her childhood, which her mother would bake with a diversity of dehydrated forest plants ground into flour. Some of the most interesting of these flours were made from the outer and inner barks of the pine trees that blanket the mountains in Sápmi. In this episode Laila tells us her mother's bread story, and we take a forest walk to learn about the harvesting of pine bark for flours.

We must let them taste by

The Thoughts in the Field series has brought us all over the world. In this last installment, the lab unearths one of Mexico's most sought after delicacies – escamoles – and reflects on the methods and potential of semi-cultivation practices.

Roberto Flore and David Pedersen chat about their experiences and views on hunting. The chef and hunter talk about the perception of hunting in popular culture and describe how their work has influenced each other in the kitchen and in the forest.

Jonas Astrup Pedersen combines three simple ingredients (flour, water, and salt) into an object of great gastronomic complexity: bread. We go back to bread's origins in grain and talk about the microbial and molecular transformations that make bread possible. Voices: Jonas Astrup Pedersen and Per Grupe Music: The Bankrupt! Diaries by Phoenix