An excerpt from my interview with Derrick Pratt from the Erie Canal Museum on the intersection of whiskey and the building of the canal, how out of control canalers influenced temperance, the infamous Bloody Valley of Watervilet, and some beef between the canalers and… well… everybody else.

People have been milling flour and baking bread variations for literally millennia. The Erie Canal has been moving wheat since day one. And yet, a few miles from the canal and it was almost impossible to find local wheat on my little food journey.

In this episode of Was Is Could Be: Some history on the industrialization of flour.

I have something of a morbid fascination with canning. Every book or blog post you read makes it sound like a death trap, so the same way that true crime junkies listen to 911 calls or look up crime scene photos, I look up videos of outrageous canning accidents or weird things found in canning jars. I don’t do either of those things in this episode, but still…

In this episode of Was Is Could Be: The importance of canning in the industrial food movement.

My Tiguan can fit exactly one half of a cow and one whole pig, once they've been butchered and frozen. They fit best when they're kept in big plastic totes and are slid in one after another, in two rows of three. I know this is a weird level of specificity, but it's knowledge that was well earned. Because once you buy an entire half of a cow, there's actually a lot to be considered.

In this episode of Was Is Could Be: Surprising facts about meat.

It was a $1.38 worth of tomato seeds that changed my life forever. I don't remember where I got them. I don't remember what brand they were, but I do remember this: those seeds refused to grow. Which got me to thinking: How hard is it to grow food anyways? And how did food start being something from far away, instead of something from right in our own backyards in the first place?

This is Was Is Could Be and on this season: how we get our FOOD.