“America the Bountiful,” the weekly series starring Valley resident Capri Cafaro that explores the nation’s food and agriculture, will present a special episode to salute the semiquincentennial.
The one-hour episode, which will air on PBS Western Reserve on Saturday, July 25, at 3 p.m., will focus on how American colonists declared their food independence from Britain.
As with all episodes of “America the Bountiful,” it is hosted, created and produced by TV personality and cookbook author Capri Cafaro.
The nation this year is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The special episode will highlight the historic foods and drinks that colonists were growing, harvesting, and producing as they became food-independent, a critical factor in their ultimate victory over the British.
In the period leading up to 1776 and continuing through the Revolutionary War, several events led to a drastic change in the foodways, agricultural practices, and eating habits of American colonists. Drawing on Indigenous foraging and hunting traditions and knowledge of the land, colonists brewed patriotic “Liberty Teas,” utilized horses and custom-built sieve floors to process wheat berries, and hunted the abundant small game that sustained both families and soldiers.
By prioritizing self-sufficiency and agricultural ingenuity while minimizing waste, the colonies laid the groundwork for a new nation.
Cafaro, host of the podcast and radio show Eat Your Heartland Out and author of the cookbook United We Eat, and Jesse Roesler travel colonial America’s backroads to uncover these founding food traditions and how colonists were able to declare their food independence from Britain.
“We uncovered a powerful truth making this special: food independence was not just about sustenance, it was a revolutionary act,” said Cafaro. “By exploring the foods and farming traditions of our nation’s founders, we found that the European settlers’ agricultural success depended on enslaved people’s labor, knowledge, and expertise.”
Highlights of the special episode include:
- “The Soup That Won the War”: Pepper Pot Soup was the stew that sustained starving colonial soldiers at Valley Forge in December 1777. Prepared by George Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules Posey, the meal is credited with reviving morale during the Revolutionary War’s most desperate winter.
- From Milk to Cheese – Colonial Ingenuity and Survival: Goats were indispensable to colonial homesteads: their milk could be consumed fresh, but with no refrigeration, it would go rancid within days. Resourceful colonists turned that milk into cheese and extended its life from days to months, ensuring communities could feed themselves through long winters and uncertain times.
ABOUT CAFARO
Cafaro’s “America the Bountiful” explores the regional food traditions of America’s heartland.
Her “Eat Your Heartland Out” podcast and radio show about the intersection of food and culture in the American Midwest is produced by the Heritage Radio Network, and distributed on the Public Radio Exchange. The show has aired on select NPR affiliates across the Midwest and aired on Sirius XM Channel 147/Rural Radio for four years.
Her debut cookbook, United We Eat, features 50 recipes that tell America’s unique story, demonstrating how food can unite and bring people together.
Cafaro, a Hubbard resident, was an Ohio state senator from 2007 to 2016.
Pictured at top: Capri Cafaro is shown with a fisherman in an episode of “America the Bountiful.”