The Zest

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Season 6 Premiere: Summer Reading and Wine Pairings from Book + Bottle’s Terra Dunham Jul 14, 2022

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For many of us, summer is reading season. Whether you’re indulging in a beach read or delving into something meatier on a plane ride, a good book goes great with a drink.

So to kick off season 6, we're chatting with Terra Dunham, who owns Book + Bottle. It's a combination bookstore/wine bar in downtown St. Petersburg. The shop’s Readers and Drinkers Circle is a quarterly book and wine pairing subscription. So Terra knows just what to drink with a good beach read.

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Coming Soon... Season 6! Jul 07, 2022

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Listen right here or at TheZestPodcast.com.

Season 5 Finale: Food Hacks for Your Next Vacation from Travel Blogger Carrie McLaren Jun 02, 2022

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It's our season 5 finale! After this week, The Zest will go on hiatus for about a month as we work on new episodes—and, let's be honest—do some traveling. We're hoping you'll get a well-deserved summer vacation, too. So we've invited travel guru Carrie McLaren to share her best food-related travel hacks.

Carrie lives in Jacksonville, where she runs the website and social media accounts Carrie On Travel. She specializes in family travel, having been on countless trips with her husband, Robert, and daughters Maggie and Molly, who are 13 and 11. But her advice applies to anyone. Wherever your summer travels take you, Carrie’s tips will help you eat better while saving time, money and stress.

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In Praise of Punch: Justin Gray on Your New Favorite Summertime Sip May 26, 2022

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Summer means graduation season, pool parties and backyard barbecues. In other words… we’re gonna need more drinks! So today we'll hear from Justin Gray, Tampa Bay chapter president of the United States Bartenders' Guild. Justin makes a case for why punch is the perfect beverage for your summer get-together. Justin makes a case for why punch is the perfect beverage for your summer get-together. He explains how punch made its way from India to the rest of the world. You’ll also learn tips for incorporating fresh Florida produce into your punch, how to keep beverages cold without them getting watered down—and the secret to a better nonalcoholic punch.

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Conscious Cuisine: Edible Gardening Tips from Albert Risemberg May 19, 2022

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Albert's small front and backyards are like a modern-day Garden of Eden, lush with fruit and vegetable plants, 10 bee hives for honey and an impressive composting setup. Albert even grows plants to make his own medicines. His sustainability efforts earned him the title of Gulfportian of the Year from the local newspaper, The Gabber.

Today on The Zest, Risemberg shares his journey from "miserable" aircraft mechanic to self-sustaining gardener, composter, beekeeper and yoga instructor. He also offers tips for planting your own edible garden and advice for going green later in life.

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Dharma Southern Kitchen Founder Shaun Noonan on the Plant-Based Food (R)evolution May 12, 2022

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Dharma Southern Kitchen is a plant-based comfort food restaurant chain with locations in Orlando, Sanford and Tampa. Founder Shaun chatted with The Zest's Andrew Lucas about how his Army-brat childhood influenced his career as a chef, the growth of vegan food in mainstream culture and why vegetable-forward options have always had a place at the Southern dinner table.

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Palm Beach County’s Hidden Culinary History Is Full of “Aha” Moments May 05, 2022

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Palm Beach County has a reputation for being swanky: high-end boutiques in Delray Beach, fancy restaurants along Worth Avenue in West Palm and the like.

But Lori J. Durante wanted to showcase a different side of Palm Beach County—one that featured history with an emphasis on the contributions of underrepresented groups.

So in 2004, Lori began conducting bus tours in her hometown of Delray Beach, highlighting the area’s multicultural influences.

“At the conclusion of the tour, the guests would often ask, “Where can we go to eat?” Lori recalls.

So in 2011, she launched Taste History Culinary Tours to showcase the lesser-known culinary histories of Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach and Lantana. To date, more than 10,000 people have embarked on her off-the-beaten-path excursions. Today, Lori offers an abbreviated version of the Taste History bus tour.

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Two USF Professors Offer a Crash Course in American Food History Apr 28, 2022

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In this conversation, Yacovazzi and Irwin share how food helped early Americans shape the country's identity, the role of food during wartime and what food can tell us about America's labor force. We'll also learn the origin of Meatless Monday, why canned food is underrated and which food gets their vote for the most American of all.

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Conscious Cuisine: Husband-and-Wife Master Sommeliers Andrew McNamara and Emily Pickral on How Climate Change Affects Wine Apr 21, 2022

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In our conversation, the Tampa couple share how climate change and the pandemic changed consumers' drinking habits, their favorite local restaurants for wine and advice for aspiring sommeliers.

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Gabrielle E.W. Carter & Dr. LaDonna Butler on Food as Rest & Resistance Apr 14, 2022

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This week, we’re bringing you something a bit different. Collards After Dark is an intimate evening of food and conversation that precedes the annual Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival.

At this year’s event, Dalia facilitated a discussion between Gabrielle E. W. Carter and Dr. LaDonna Butler about the healing power of African-American culinary traditions. We also discussed seed-keeping as a form of resistance, the ritual of drinking potlikker and much more.

Ms. Carter is a cultural preservationist and co-founder of Tall Grass Food Box. It’s a community-supported agriculture model that sources produce from Black farmers in her home state of North Carolina. She also hosts community meals on her family’s homestead in Apex, N.C. You may have seen in the Netflix docuseries High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.

Dr. Butler is founder and executive director of The Well for Life, a St. Petersburg space dedicated to mental wellness and self-care. She’s also a therapist and licensed mental health counselor.

The event was recorded on the evening of Feb. 18, 2022, in the garden of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum in St. Petersburg, before a diverse audience. The evening began with a screening of The Seeds We Keep, Carter’s short film about seed preservation and African-American land ownership.

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