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What can yerba mate tell us about ourselves and the world around us? [replay]

book cover with yerba mate gord with metal rim and metal straw, steam rising from opening, The Book of Yerba Mate is the title
courtesy of author
/
courtesy of author
Book cover for Christine Folch's 2024 release with Princeton University Press

“Studying food is a way to study how we are connected to the world of life around us. Whatever we think about humans being so cerebral, so intellectual–it really breaks down because we are a part of everything else around us.”

This week on the show we talk with the author of The Book of Yerba Mate, Christina Folch about how one plant can tell us so much about ourselves, and the world around us.

Christine Folch is the Bacca Foundation Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Sciences & Policy at Duke University.

She spoke with Kayte Young about The Book of Yerba Mate: a stimulating history, released in 2024 with Princeton University Press.

And, Earth Eats producer Leo Paes brought his Yerba Mate kit into the WFIU studios for a tasting session.

Kayte Young discovered her passion for growing, cooking, foraging and preserving fresh food when she moved to Bloomington in 2007. With a background in construction, architecture, nutrition education and writing, she brings curiosity and a love of storytelling to a show about all things edible. Kayte raises bees, a small family and a yard full of food in Bloomington’s McDoel Gardens neighborhood.