tasteMAKERS

Born of an overabundance of mint, Bold Spoon Creamery’s Rachel Burns left a finance career to pursue a passion for ice cream. On her “ice cream farm,” Rachel grows herbs and fruit and welcomes school groups, using the math and science of ice cream to engage young minds. After a visit to the farm, head to the kitchen with Cat Neville to make an ice cream layer cake with red wine-chocolate ganache.

Everything’s better when you collaborate. At Homie Hospitality, two couples work side by side, one running the farm and the other hosting wood-fired feasts made with the bounty that’s grown just outside the kitchen door. Visit this unique diversified farm and then head into the kitchen with Cat Neville to make honey-brined heritage pork porterhouse chops.

Mom, doctor, inventor and now a beekeeper, Dr. Marion Pierson installs apiaries in abandoned urban lots, protecting bees, building community and creating green STEM opportunities for young people through her non-profit, MO Hives. After buzzing around the hives, head back to host Cat Neville’s kitchen and make fried chicken with hot honey, peanuts and scallions.

Winemakers only have one chance each year to get it right. From bud break to bottling, every step is critical in creating a great vintage. At Dale Hollow Winery, a young couple is focused on making regional wines one harvest at a time in a region that may surprise you: the Ozarks. After visiting the winery, you’ll get in the kitchen with Cat Neville to make wine-poached pears with sugared walnuts.

By looking to the past, the family behind Hildebrand Farms Dairy is ensuring their farm’s future. Four generations work side by side to provide milk and cream bottled right on their own bottling line in reusable, sustainable glass, just like great grandpa. Join Cat Neville on the farm, get in the kitchen to make lasagna with from-scratch Mornay sauce, sausage, red peppers and spinach.

Shrimp is America’s favorite seafood, but most are produced unsustainably. Luckily, there is a rise in aquaculture producing Earth-friendly shrimp close to home. At Triple J Shrimp, Pacific white shrimp are raised sustainably thousands of miles from the ocean. Join Cat Neville for this eye-opening episode and then get into the kitchen as she cooks up Spanish-style chile-garlic shell-on shrimp.