- On today's "Fit to Eat," I'll be preparing grilled zucchini and squash boats with fresh fruit, relish, and herb-infused mashed cauliflower.

Our guest is Barrett Higginbotham from the Ecoshed in Jackson.

We're going to check in with our friends of Fertile Ground Farms to learn all about strawberries.

And registered dietician, Rebecca Turner, will share her very own strawberry salad recipe.

It's gonna be a great show, so stay tuned.

(cheerful music) Welcome back to "Fit to Eat."

I'm your host.

Rob Stinson.

Today's guest is from the Ecoshed in Jackson, Barrett Higginbotham.

Good to have you, man.

- Thank you, Rob.

- I can't wait to talk about the Ecoshed.

We got so much going on.

But let me tell you what we're gonna do today.

So this is probably right up your alley.

We've got a lot of different vegetables, so we're gonna have some zucchini and squash that we're gonna grill.

Gonna make them like little boats so they can hold some beautiful fresh fruit.

Then we're gonna also take, and instead of having, and I often mention "this not that".

So instead of mashed potatoes, unhealthy, we're gonna have cauliflower that appears to be mashed potatoes.

That's gonna be the side dish of all of this.

And we got all kinds of fun stuff going on, so anyhow.

But what I'm gonna do, I've got seasonings over here and all I'm gonna do is just throw them in a bowl and then we're gonna turn it over to you.

So I've got onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, all salt-free, black pepper, and some diced up fresh parsley.

And that's gonna end up on top of our zucchini.

But yeah, I tell you what, I've done a little homework and I looked up the Ecoshed and oh, my gosh, you're as crazy as I am.

I go in a lot of different directions.

So talk to me a little bit, though, what actually got you here to Jackson?

I think that's interesting.

- So Rob, I'm originally from the Mississippi Delta, and I left Mississippi for school.

Thought I would never come back, but I did.

And in that time I learned about the Ecoshed, and I came on board early on as it was finishing, to help develop the programming and get the building ready, as we were figuring out what all Ecoshed was gonna look like when it opened, 'cause it's like you said, it's doing a lot of things.

In a general sense, it's an incubator space.

That's an incubator of ideas, of businesses, of culture, and of community.

So the prefix in our name, 'eco' refers to ecosystem.

- Where things are working together, naturally.

- Yeah, exactly.

My background is in architecture, which drew me to the Ecoshed.

I was searching for architecture internships in the area, thinking I might stay a bit longer.

And when I found the Ecoshed, I pretty much made the decision to do so.

I was really excited about just the idea of it and what it could do for the city and the state.

I'm very passionate about seeing really amazing things come out of Mississippi.

I definitely believe in Jackson as a city.

So that's why I was attracted to it.

- Sounds really cool, man.

All I'm gonna do here is kind of-- we're putting now, we use very, very light oil, about a half of a teaspoon is all that's needed here.

And I'm gonna take that and kind of take these and face them down, and just kind of let them sear that way.

They'll sear around the edges, and then you'll see I'm gonna kind of steam them, and then turn them over to finish cooking them.

So we're just gonna put them both in there, just like that.

Okay, so that gives us some time now.

So talk a little bit more about the different facets of the Ecoshed.

- Yeah.

So one of our primary functions is a workspace.

So like I mentioned, acting as an ecosystem, we have various workspaces, and it's a shared space.

So the goal is to bring people doing different work together, to share a space and have cross disciplines speaking, getting to know each other, learning about the work that's being done.

We have private spaces and then we have shared spaces, more starter level, say, for the early entrepreneur or remote worker.

- So somebody who really doesn't have a huge money background.

He could come in there and start in kind of the communal area, so to speak.

And then maybe graduate on.

Is that kind of a fair way of saying it?

- Yeah, exactly.

- All I'm gonna do-- This is just water.

We're just gonna pour it kind of underneath some of those, and it'll just help start to steam them.

- So that's one way we can incubate small businesses in Jackson, is by removing some of those early-on barriers to starting a business, and make it a lot less intimidating.

You get to be in a space where you can enter a work environment and take yourself more seriously, and then other people will take you seriously.

But there's other components as well.

So the shared co-working space doubles as an event venue.

We love to host cultural events, popups, for-- - So it's a large, relatively large space that's covered too, huh?

- Oh yeah.

It's about 25,000 square feet.

- Oh, wow.

- And so the event venue itself is about 2,500, plus a 5,000 square foot open air courtyard.

So we can have lots of different events.

So if you're a food entrepreneur who is trying to start a catering business out of the kitchen of our building, you can host a popup and expose people.

- So there's an actual commercial kitchen... - [Barrett] Yes.

- that tenants can use?

Now, that to somebody like me, being in the business, would be invaluable.

If I were starting off-- 'cause that doesn't exist anywhere, right?

That doesn't really exist.

- So when we say co-working, we don't just mean the traditional office.

We mean any field of work.

In Mississippi, food entrepreneurship is very popular.

We love good food here.

We love to eat.

And a lot of people are interested in having their food shared with the community.

So we definitely wanted to provide a space for those interested in that.

- I think that's incredible too, because it's a huge upfront cost.

A lot of people don't realize what that is, you know?

And so what a value that would be, you know?

So these are just gonna simmer now on the skin.

We're gonna do more on this, but the key to me with good, fresh-- and we're gonna get into the farming section that you guys have as well, 'cause we're using almost all fresh local vegetables, fresh local fruit.

And I want to get into talking about farmer's markets, maybe little further on, but talk how you've mentioned.

So I think initially the way I looked at it, you have that kind of community area in front.

You even have a coffee shop there for the people to use.

Then the private office space.

Then the event venue.

Talk a little bit about the back area, and then we'll get in more detail about that.

So behind it is, I guess the way to say it.

- The most surprising element of the site is the urban farm.

Sam Humphrey from Fertile Ground Farms and Matt Castile from Wurm Works have established their farming operations on our site.

The owners really encouraged this because it was important to have an urban farm.

It changes the way we think about food, and changes the way we think about the ingredients we use, because you can actually have a connection to the site.

It's in your city limits.

There are other programming happening on the site, so you are exposed to it, even unintentionally.

And it gets people to think more so about how important it is to support their local farmers.

- [Rob] Well, and that's kind of funny you say, even unintentionally, because it's just part of the overall Ecoshed, huh?

- [Barrett] Yes.

- Because I guess the part for me is, as a restaurateur, the ability to have somebody right there as an urban farmer that is focused on what I need, and I know we can talk a little bit more about that, but to be able to bring that out into that environment for me as a professional restaurateur, or to just the person who is really looking to find it at maybe a farmer's market, that's huge.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] That's really cool.

- Absolutely.

- We're coming up here.

I'm gonna keep these, and the fun part of this is, when I do this and push it together, I can see how it's getting tender.

That's telling me that we're heading in the right direction, and we're just gonna keep these cooking the way it is right now.

Well listen, you can go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as more information on what we've been talking about today.

We're gonna take a short break and visit Fertile Ground Farms in Jackson.

Sam Humphrey is gonna tell us about the journey of the strawberry, from seedling to harvest, and eventually to market and even local restaurants.

Take a look.

- With all fruit, you have to get a flower first.

It's flowers, then fruit.

We have 34 beds of strawberries out here.

It's about 3000 plants.

I planted my strawberries in September, October, and November.

And they started producing flowers starting in March.

And so what happens is you have that flower, it then gets pollinated, which then causes the fruit to start to develop.

And the very center of it is what's actually gonna turn into the strawberries.

About 30 days after the flowers start to emerge, then you'll begin to get strawberries.

This would be a good example of the strawberries really starting to get larger, and so to really fill out and get juicy.

And then you can see this one's just starting to get a little bit of color.

I like to harvest the strawberries when they're about here.

They're red all the way around, could get a little bit darker.

The darker it gets, the sweeter it's gonna be.

I really like to let them ripen just as much as possible to get that best taste and flavor.

If you really want to get the sweetest strawberries you can, you wait until the actual seeds on the fruit itself will turn red.

And you only see that if you get a really, really local strawberry.

Because once those seeds turn red, it's gonna be as sweet as possible, but then it's gotta be eaten within just a few days.

I want to have the highest quality, cleanest, best-tasting produce as well as produce that last the longest.

You can easily get two weeks if not a month out of them before they start to go bad.

Whereas the stuff you get at the grocery store, you'd be lucky to get two or three days.

'Cause that two weeks or a month, it was spent on a truck or a boat or plane or something, getting shipped over here, and only got to you at that very, very end of that life.

(cheerful music) I harvest the strawberries directly into the quart or pint containers that they're gonna be sold in.

They're just pretty much pristine and ready to go.

They've really only been given sunshine and love.

We're harvesting Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

The Sunday and Tuesday strawberries go to different restaurants around town.

I really try to focus on restaurants that really care about supporting local farmers and local produce, and will market it and broadcast it as such.

Whether it's in their salads, on their tasting menu, in specific desserts, or putting them in drinks.

They're able to do some really creative things with them.

And so that's one reason I love partnering with them, because I'm just so excited to see somebody using my produce so creatively.

And so whether you're just eating it straight up, or doing something fancy with it, I love to just see people enjoying and eating the produce.

If you can see it growing and then see it being used in a plate, then it's a little bit easier for you to see yourself using it in your own kitchen.

And so I think it's just making those connections are really important.

- Welcome back to "Fit to Eat."

If you're just joining us, Barrett Higginbotham and I are right in the middle of preparing today's recipe.

All right, you ready?

So now we're going fruit.

All right?

We got all kinds of different fruit.

I wanna show people one thing, and I know people are kind of intimidated.

Yes, you can eat the skin.

A lot of people don't like the skin on a kiwi, and it's so pretty.

So this is, again, just a simple spoon, no fancy equipment.

And all I'm doing is just going to dig around the side and literally spoon the fruit out of the kiwi.

And this is probably not the ripest, but you get a beautiful piece that then we in turn have taken and diced.

All right, so one of the things, and you especially being an architect, I thought we should bring up, is the design of the building and how that comes into play.

So why don't you talk on that, and also real quick, farmers markets, guys, go to your farmer's market.

The banana I brought from the farmer's market may not be the prettiest, but I'm gonna peal this and we're gonna look at it when we're done.

But go ahead and talk now.

- One of the most interesting things about Ecoshed, is it's an adaptive reuse project.

It was an old pipe distribution facility, and it's been adapted and reused into what it is today.

So it's a very industrial space.

It's an industrial neighborhood.

But the designers have gutted it and basically redesigned it passively to be more sustainable.

So it's a huge goal of the space to demonstrate sustainability as well.

- [Rob] How cool.

- So the sawtooth roof, it's an iconic roof line.

It captures rainwater and it allows north facing glazing.

So all the sunlight comes from the north, which is, keeps the building cooler and makes the mechanical systems a lot less needed.

- [Rob] How cool.

- Yeah.

- I mean, that's like taking it to a whole different level.

And I think that was something that I wanted to be sure people comprehend because that's a big deal.

By the way, look how beautiful the banana was hiding inside what was not the prettiest skin.

So guys, don't judge a book by its cover when it comes to going to your farmer's markets, trust.

Trust that they've put all that love and attention into the food.

All right, so here we go.

This is so simple.

So we've got diced strawberries and bananas.

Those exact same bananas just already cut.

The kiwi, just like we showed you.

Raspberries.

I mean, we're getting better and better.

And some beautiful fresh chopped parsley.

Then grapefruit juice.

This is unsweetened grapefruit juice, so nice and healthy.

And unsweetened, natural, organic apple sauce.

All right?

So I mean, quite an unusual combination, if I might say.

And then all we're gonna do is kind of spoon this through.

So while I'm doing this, 'cause this is really just tedious, where I stir it, let's talk a little bit.

You had mentioned kind of the business incubators and how that kind of takes forward in the business.

And I think part of that actually applies to you, if I'm not mistaken.

Talk a little bit about that as well, Barrett.

- Yeah, so another goal of Ecoshed is to make entrepreneurship accessible.

And although I'm full time at the space, I've managed to launch my own business out of Ecoshed as well.

So if you go there, you'll notice a lot of plants, which are very key in warming up the industrial space that I mentioned.

So I do that as a job now, interior-scaping, providing plants for businesses and residential spaces, as well as floral design.

So love plants, not just in my food, but in general as well.

I think they bring a lot of joy to spaces.

- [Rob] How cool.

- Yeah.

- No, that's really cool that that came out of this whole process of Ecoshed.

- Yeah.

- That's really, really cool.

I think any part of this, when you realize it's an opportunity for people to get started, with kind of virtually just nothing intact, then to grow and to kind of find that, "Hey, I can grow right into this building.

I don't have to look for another location."

It's all there, no matter what phase of development they're at, huh?

- Yeah.

- That's really-- - The goal is to inspire and get people in the community to develop the programming and to see the space and think, "What can I do for them and what can it do for their goals?"

- Yeah.

I think it's really neat.

The other thing I want to touch base on is then getting outside with the farms and all that.

And we definitely will head into that, 'cause one of the things that I think is so unique about that is just looking at the food that we have here.

And urban farming is the future.

There's just no doubt about it.

So listen, what we've got here.

If you take a good look, the last thing I'm adding in is my favorite, anise, fresh anise.

So thank you to those beautiful urban farmers.

I toss that anise in, and people have a misconception about anise.

They're like, "Oh, that's like licorice."

No.

No, come on, time out.

To a degree, it might taste that way, but to me, it has some natural spice, and it has some sweetness.

And it's the perfect, if you would, the little kicker in this fruit salad is gonna be that anise.

It's that cool, that subtle.

And anything that looks that neat, I gotta find a good use for it.

I mean, yeah, I'm like you.

Being in the business of food, and being around it, I always want to find something that's a little out of the ordinary.

So that's the last phase of what goes into this.

And this will be-- You'll see when everybody tastes this, that'll be the one taste that they're not quite sure what it was.

So listen, I know it's tough.

We've got all kinds of items.

You gotta go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat, to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as all the information of what we've been talking about, you can learn more.

We're going to take a quick break and check in with registered dietician Rebecca Turner.

She's got some great tips about using fruits to liven up your everyday salads.

Check it out.

(cheerful music) - Growing up, I didn't appreciate the health benefits of berries.

All I knew was that berries tasted sweet and mom didn't care how many I consumed.

Now as a dietician, I understand that their vibrant colors and their protective skin make them nutrient powerhouses.

You've got blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and even cherries come packed with potent, protective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Now you can get all the benefits of berries by consuming a cup of fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried daily.

Now, one of my favorite ways to get in a serving of berries is to add them to a fresh salad.

Let me show you how to make the best ever strawberry spinach salad.

Now, you're gonna need fresh spinach, or for a twist, a little peppery twist, try a blend of half arugula, half spinach.

Now, while frozen berries can be nutritious, fresh berries work best in this recipe.

So I want you to get the juiciest, ripest strawberries that you can find.

And if strawberries aren't in season, or they're easy for you to find, swap them out, throw in blueberries, raspberries, or even mandarin oranges.

Now, next on the list is toasted pecans, or whatever nut you have on hand.

And if you have a nut allergy, then just try toasted sunflower seeds, or even roasted chickpeas.

The key to a truly satisfying not-salad salad is to add a touch of creaminess.

I like to use feta, but a goat cheese or mild blue cheese would work too.

Now last but not least, let's add a little red onion, which will give this healthy strawberry salad a friendly bite, and keep it from being too sweet.

Red onion tips, though: soak raw red onions in water first.

This helps preserve the onion's flavor, but it removes that harsh after taste.

Now balsamic and strawberry are divine together.

So grab your favorite brand or whisk some up at home.

Once your salad is assembled, just drizzle, lightly toss, for a fresh salad that is truly fit to eat.

- Welcome back to "Fit to Eat."

I'm here with Barrett Higginbotham from Ecoshed in Jackson.

We're almost done with today's recipe.

All right.

So right now it's gonna get a little interesting.

Hot, hot pan.

All right?

And what I'm gonna do is take some beautiful collard greens.

Let me grab a touch of water here.

And all we're gonna do is kind of quickly flip these.

I like to keep them to where they're really not cooked, but you see how quickly they brown.

And then we're gonna use that as the base on the plate underneath what comes next, which is going to be our cauliflower faux mash potatoes.

All right.

So in here a little touch of oil, just like we said, about a half a teaspoon.

And we're gonna throw our onions and our garlic.

But I wanna show very quickly what I'm putting here.

Some beautiful ground cauliflower.

It's so easy to do.

I don't want people to be intimidated thinking they can't do it.

Little touch more.

All right.

Now we're gonna add in some ground white pepper, some black pepper.

And the fun part about this one, this is skimmed milk.

We're actually gonna add it in, and kind of use it in a way where it is literally deglazing that pan and kind of getting the liquid.

Gonna turn the heat down a little bit and stir this around.

(pan sizzles and clanks) All right.

Now, on the other side, we're gonna add in some fat-free cream cheese, that's just gonna cream into this.

What we're doing about that, let's talk a little bit about the farm.

I'm gonna manipulate all of this while you're doing it.

Talk about the back area, kind of like Sam's area, and how that works within the Ecoshed.

- Yeah.

I love having the farm on site.

It's an amazing thing during the work day, to step outside and get some fresh air and look at the farming operation.

It really invigorates you, and, I think, adds to the productivity.

And in addition to food production, there's also waste management on site.

So Matt Castile with Wurm Works, he takes any food waste from the food lab as well as from the coffee shop, the coffee grounds, as well as from local businesses in the area, and he composts it and creates really healthy, living soil that Sam can then use on his farm.

- Yeah.

It's almost like a loop.

- Yeah.

The goal is a closed loop food system.

- That's awesome.

Now, we're gonna have the fun part here.

Look at that.

How simple that is.

Isn't that incredible?

Putting in that directly on top of those greens.

And I love that whole concept.

- [Barrett] Yeah.

- And then yes, indeed.

We're gonna really liven up our zucchini and our squash.

(spoon clanks) Put some of this all over those little boats.

And I tell you what, this may be one of my absolute favorites because of all the flavors.

Had we used a vegetable stock instead of the cream cheese, this had actually been a vegan dish.

We could have kept the milk and that out.

And I think that's kind of important to note as well for the person who's looking for something like that.

And that basically is what we were looking for.

And I tell you what, awfully interesting what you've brought to light about the Ecoshed.

So I would have to say, it's gotta keep you challenged on a daily basis, huh?

- Definitely.

We're always learning and growing along the way.

- Yeah.

I love the way the dish came out.

I love hearing about the Ecoshed.

To have a facility like that in Jackson is incredible.

It really is.

Well, looks like we're out of time, but I think everything turned out great.

I want to thank Barrett Higginbotham from the Ecoshed in Jackson for joining us today.

If you wanna learn more about anything you've seen in this episode, then head over to mpbonline.org/fittoeat, and don't forget to follow and like our Facebook page.

Until next time, I'm your host, Rob Stinson.

Eat well.

(cheerful music)