Love & Laughter with LittlePod

Episode 4: “Listen to the Land”, feat. Jamie Raftery, The Holistic Chef

Love & Laughter with LittlePod

Hosts: Janet Sawyer & Sally Sedgman
Guest: Jamie Raftery, The Holistic Chef

Episode description:

Pull up a chair, because our next guest is joining from a farm in the West of Ireland. Jamie Raftery, The Holistic Chef, has been a friend and champion of LittlePod for more than 15 years, ever since Janet turned up at his kitchen in Taunton with a box of vanilla.

Since then he’s swapped cooking in Michelin-star kitchens to cooking for health, gone from butcher to vegan and back to hunting his own venison, and taken over Tanglewood Farm, his family’s land, where he’s planting trees, coppicing hazel and building an educational food studio. Over a plate of his hemp seed muffins, he talks soil, forests, why hemp might be the crop of the future, and why we all need to listen to the land. Sally, meanwhile, would like it on record that she hates vegetables. Challenge accepted.

In this episode:

• Janet and Sally welcome Jamie Raftery, joining from Tanglewood Farm in the West of Ireland (https://holisticchefacademy.com/services/tanglewood-farm-food-studio/)
• They sample the “bake of the episode”: Jamie’s vegan Hemp Seed Muffins, made with LittlePod REAL Vanilla Paste and baked for the studio by chef Peter Gorton. Recipe can be found here: https://holisticchefacademy.com/hemp-seed-muffins/
• How Janet and Jamie first met over a box of vanilla at The Castle in Taunton, 15-plus years ago
• Why Jamie left Michelin-star kitchens to “cook for health”, and what holistic really means to him
• Tanglewood Farm: three generations, native woodland, ten acres of new agroforestry and a storm that changed everything
• From butcher to vegan to deer hunter, and finding balance in how we eat
• Farming through record rain and sudden drought, and what Ireland can learn from hotter countries
• The Wood Wide Web, the 12 inches of soil we all live on, and why food education should be a basic life skill
• Hemp, the superfood that can also build houses and make clothes, so why isn’t more of it grown?
• Jamie’s plans for a food studio, woodland classroom and wood-fired sauna at Tanglewood
• Carrying LittlePod vanilla across four countries this year, coconut and vanilla ice cream included

Mentioned in this episode:

• Holistic Chef Academy – https://holisticchefacademy.com/ / @the_holistic_chef
• Tanglewood Farm & Food Studio – https://holisticchefacademy.com/services/tanglewood-farm-food-studio/
• Hemp Seed Muffins recipe – https://holisticchefacademy.com/hemp-seed-muffins/
• LittlePod Natural Vanilla Paste – https://www.littlepod.co.uk/product/natural-vanilla-paste/
• The Campaign for Real Vanilla – LittlePod’s founding fight against artificial vanilla – https://www.littlepod.co.uk/

Follow along:

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe wherever you listen so you don’t miss one, and if you enjoyed pulling up a chair with Janet, Sally and Jamie, leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps other people find the show. Got a question or a story of your own? We’d love to hear it, bring a friend and come back next time.

Episode 3: “Unexpectedly Vanilla”

Love & Laughter with LittlePod

Host(s): Janet Sawyer
Guest: Peter Gorton, with the LittlePod team

Episode description:

Forget everything you thought you knew about vanilla. To celebrate International Real Vanilla Day, Janet is joined by chef and long-time friend of LittlePod Peter Gorton, along with the wider LittlePod team, to taste their way through dishes from our brand new Unexpectedly Vanilla recipe booklet. From “Toasted Mealworm & Vanilla Cookies” to a “Savoury Pumpkin & Vanilla Tart” every recipe puts real vanilla somewhere you’d never expect to find it, and the team’s reactions are every bit as honest as you’d hope. It’s a celebration of the real thing, a few happy surprises, and proof that vanilla is far more than a baking essential.

Download the recipe booklet HERE

In this episode:

• Janet, Peter and the LittlePod team gather round the table for a very special IRVD tasting
• What International Real Vanilla Day is, and why it matters so much to LittlePod
• The story behind the Unexpectedly Vanilla recipe booklet, and how the recipes came together
• Tasting time: “Toasted Mealworm & Vanilla Cookies”, “Savoury Pumpkin & Vanilla Tart” and “No-Bake Vanilla & Spiced Apple “Toffee” Pot”, and the verdicts from around the table
• Peter’s tips for cooking with real vanilla beyond cakes and custards
• Why real vanilla and artificial vanillin are worlds apart, especially in savoury cooking

Mentioned in this episode:

• Unexpectedly Vanilla IRVD recipes – http://www.littlepod.co.uk/our-recipes
• Peter Gorton – https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-gorton-1474a434/
• The Campaign for Real Vanilla – LittlePod’s founding campaign educating around artificial vs natural vanilla - https://www.littlepod.co.uk/

Follow along:

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe wherever you listen so you don’t miss one, and if you enjoyed pulling up a chair with Janet, Peter and the LittlePod team, leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps other people find the show. Got a question or a story of your own? We’d love to hear it, bring a friend and come back next time.

Episode 2: "Line-Outs and Lamingtons", feat. the Exeter Chiefs

Love & Laughter with LittlePod

Host(s): Janet Sawyer

Guests: Liv McGoverne & Lucy Nye, Exeter Chiefs Women’s Rugy Team

Episode description:

Boots off, kettle on: Janet is joined on the sofa by Lucy Nye and Liv McGoverne from Exeter Chiefs Women. Lucy is Exeter born and bred, a scrum-half who swaps her boots for an RAF uniform as a Flight Lieutenant, while Liv came all the way from Christchurch, New Zealand, to pull on a Chiefs shirt and keep the scoreboard ticking with her boot. Over a plate of lamingtons, they chat about life inside a professional women's squad, what it takes to juggle elite sport with everything else, how LittlePod ended up with its name on the kit, and why a Devon vanilla brand and a Devon rugby club make a rather lovely team. It's warm, it's silly, and there's a fair bit of coconut on the carpet by the end.

In this episode:

• Janet welcomes Liv MGoverne (https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/players/liv-mcgoverne) and Lucy Nye (https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/players/lucy-nye)
• They sample the "bake of the episode": “Vanilla Lamingtons”. Recipe can be found here: https://www.littlepod.co.uk/recipes/vanilla-lamingtons-as-seen-on-the-podcast/
• How LittlePod and Exeter Chiefs teamed up, and the story behind the kit sponsorship
• A glimpse of life inside a pro rugby squad
• Food, fuel and what the players actually eat, “cheat” days included
• Why a Devon vanilla brand and a Devon rugby club make more sense together than you'd think

Mentioned in this episode:

• Exeter Chiefs – @officialexeterchiefs / https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/
• Exeter Chiefs Women - @exechiefswomen / https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/teams/womens
• Lucy Nye - @lucynyee
• Liv McGoverne - @livmcgoverne
• LittlePod x Exeter Chiefs kit sponsorship – https://www.littlepod.co.uk/press-release-littlepod-gets-behind-the-exeter-chiefs-women/
• The Campaign for Real Vanilla – LittlePod's founding fight against artificial vanilla https://www.littlepod.co.uk/

Follow along:

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss one, and if you enjoyed pulling up a chair with Janet and Sally, leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps other people find the show.

Got a question or a story of your own? We'd love to hear it, bring a friend and come back next time.

Episode 1: "Hello, and Welcome to Our Little Podcast!"

Love & Laughter with LittlePod

Hosts: Janet Sawyer & Sally Sedgman

Episode description:

Pull up a chair, pour the tea and cut the cake: Janet and Sally are kicking things off with the very first episode of Love & Laughter with LittlePod, accompanied by a rather delicious Good Housekeeping cake. It's an introduction, to the show and to each other, told the way it would come out over a pot of tea between two old friends. They talk about why this podcast exists now, where LittlePod's wellbeing focus is heading, the Campaign for Real Vanilla that started it all, and a taste of who's joining them on the sofa in weeks to come.

In this episode:

• Janet and Sally settle in and set the scene, china, flowers, cake and all
• They sample the "bake of the week": Good Housekeeping's Strawberry Cream Soda Cake. Recipe can be found here: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a71360046/strawberry-cream-soda-loaf-recipe/
• The story behind the Good Housekeeping partnership and LittlePod's place as a pantry staple
• Why "two friends over tea and cake" felt more honest than a slick, produced show
• Who this podcast is really for, and why it's called Love & Laughter
• LittlePod's shift toward a wellbeing focus, and what that means for them
• A quick look back at the Campaign for Real Vanilla, and the fight against artificial vanillin
• A first look at who's coming up: friends of LittlePod from as close as home and as far as Japan

Mentioned in this episode:

• Good Housekeeping partnership – LittlePod as a Good Housekeeping pantry staple
• The Campaign for Real Vanilla – LittlePod's founding fight against artificial vanilla (https://www.littlepod.co.uk/)

Follow along:

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss one, and if you enjoyed pulling up a chair with Janet and Sally, leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps other people find the show. Got a question or a story of your own? We'd love to hear it, bring a friend and come back next time.