(bright music) - [Jim] We stop in to see how things are shaping up at the St. Louis Zoo's new WildCare Park.

A couple of years away from looking like this, but already new residents are making themselves at home.

- In the next year, we'll get 100 more animals.

By 2026, we should have every animal here for the safari pastures.

- [Jim] This Webster Groves woman was on track for a career in medicine, but ended up an authority on wine.

- Wine is the study of biology, chemistry, geology, geography; all of my favorite sciences, but it's all in one bottle.

- [Jim] It's a farm-to-table story, but in this restaurant, the table's just a few steps away from the farm.

- We can grow 120 pounds of lettuce every single week.

- [Jim] And these scenes were shot during the pandemic.

We find out if this is just old news.

It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(bright music fades) (upbeat blues music) (upbeat blues music continues) (upbeat blues music continues) (upbeat blues music fades) - I'm Ruth Ezell.

You don't have to mark your calendars yet, but you can start thinking about planning your safari for 2027.

But there will be no need to pack or book flights.

You'll be able to just head to the St. Louis Zoo's new 425-acre attraction in North County.

And that's what Jim Kirchherr did to see just how things are coming along.

- [Jim] The sign is up at the WildCare Park, but for now it is a sign of things to come.

The St. Louis Zoo's new major attraction will have visitors mixing with herds of wild animals.

This is what it will look like, but for now a lot of it looks like this.

Sabarras George is overseeing the transformation.

- There's been a lot of work for two or three years just on the landscape, the infrastructure, so underneath the ground.

- [Jim] This had once been the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union property, with buildings, some of which the zoo can use, and a golf course that needed to go.

- These animals can't eat golf-course grass, so we had to strip all the land, get rid of the non-native grass, lay down different soils and plant different grasses for them.

And then next is building fences to keep them in, and then you start erecting the buildings.

- [Jim] Some of the WildCare Park is up and running, not for the public though, but for the first animals who've arrived.

Already there's a herd of endangered Grevy's zebras, Addaxes, Saharan antelopes, have been brought in and they're making themselves at home.

Taking care of them is Martha Fischer's job.

- In the next year we'll get 100 more animals and by 2026 we should have every animal here for the safari pastures to begin the acclimation process.

Because we do want to give them a full year to get to know each other, that'll be a big step for them, to get to know the park, 'cause this will be a new space for every animal that comes here, and then to get used to a vehicle driving through with them will be an important part of that acclimation process as well.

We are creating large living spaces for them, which is really exciting, because then we're able to have very large herds, which is what they would normally have in the wild.

- [Jim] They get to wander around, run around a little bit more.

- They do.

They get to wander around, run around.

They get to graze 24/7 on the wonderful pastures that they're living on.

Better for their welfare.

It keeps them moving.

They aren't sitting in one place and eating their meal.

They're wandering across 10 or 20 acres to eat their meal, and so that's just good all the way around for them.

- And now comes the highlight of our visit, which will pretty much be the highlight of anybody's visit when this place opens up.

Can we go?

- Yes.

Fun day!

But we should see the addax first up on our left.

We have 12 adult addax, one male and 11 adult females.

- [Jim] And they're settled in.

They've been here a while, right?

- They've been here a while.

We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of receiving our first addax.

These animals came from about seven different zoos around the country and have all been carefully paired up to produce the genetically and demographically best offspring for the population.

- [Jim] These addax antelopes are native to the Sahara, which is a place of extreme day and night desert temperatures.

- They're actually incredibly hardy animals.

They do well when it's 110 degrees outside here in Missouri, but they also do really well if it's 15 degrees here in Missouri.

- [Jim] We were fortunate to see one of the addax babies, at first just spotting its ears.

- Yeah, so they do, they are hiders.

They're classified as hiders, which means they hide their babies for two to three weeks right after they're born.

And then, yes, the calves are colored in a way that camouflages them in the natural environment.

Yeah, now the kiddo's gonna get up and probably nurse.

- [Jim] Two addaxes have been born here already and that's important, because this herd and the Grevy's zebras are endangered, and they are residents of the WildCare Park's Kent Family Conservation area, which is not so much about safaris as it is about survival.

- You know, opening day is three years away, but we are already accomplishing the mission of WildCare Park by breeding these critically endangered species to sustain our zoo populations and to hopefully one day be able to take some of these animals and reintroduce them to the wild.

I think the most numerous of the four species we have would be Grevy's zebra, and there are 2,500 of them left in the wild - [Jim] When it opens in 2027, there will be free admission for St. Louis County residents who voted in 2018 to support the WildCare Park.

Admission for non-county residents has not been set.

Zoo officials say the new attraction will be a big economic boost for this part of North County after it opens, but there's still plenty left to do in the next couple of years: the landscaping, construction, moving in the new animals, getting them used to seeing each other, vehicles, people, and then opening and getting people to come to the far northeast corner of St. Louis County.

- Yeah, and we have planned for that.

Matter of fact, one of the things is we'll have a landmark here.

We'll have a 150-foot elevated tower that you can go up and down.

But this will be a place that's a destination for people.

I don't think we're gonna have any problem with it.

(cheerful music) (music fades) - Now imagine the following scenario.

You go to school and study with a specific career in mind, but life takes a detour.

In the end, you have a very fulfilling life, just not the one you expected.

That's what happened to a woman whose love of science led to becoming an authority on wine.

When fine-dining establishments like Madrina in Webster Groves select bottles for their wine lists, they rely on specialists in the field.

At Madrina, that specialist is Alisha Blackwell-Calvert.

- As far as California Chardonnay, this is what I look for, like elegance, depth, concentration, but still freshness of fruit.

- [Ruth] Blackwell-Calvert is Madrina's beverage director and Advanced Sommelier.

- A sommelier is responsible for wine education for the staff, for curating the wine list, doing inventory, teaching staff, doing wine pairings, tableside for guests during service.

The fun part is getting to interact with the guests, but no one sees the paperwork I do and the hours behind the computer and the research I have to do to find the perfect wines for the wine list, or looking up things that might work for the wine list later down the line.

I have the wines by the bottle organized by Italians and domestics.

- [Ruth] Blackwell-Calvert's career journey started after she earned a bachelor's degree in biology.

Finances caused her to rethink plans to enter medical school and she entered the workforce instead.

Then she discovered she had an affinity for connecting with diners as a server in St. Louis area restaurants.

That put her on an unexpected trajectory.

- I remember when I was a server at P.F.

Chang's, I would hear this term sommelier, or this person is training to be a sommelier.

I'm like, "What is a sommelier?

I have no idea what that is."

But when you hear about the title, you get to taste wine and travel and talk to people about food and wine pairings, I'm like, "I like doing that."

So that helped guide my future.

- [Ruth] The organization Court of Master Sommeliers offers four levels of education and examination programs for people seeking a career in the field of wine and beverage.

Candidates at the Introductory level must have prior experience in a sector of the food and beverage industry.

They're top the Court's wine tasting methods and service standards.

Those who earn a Certified Sommelier diploma have demonstrated wine-tasting abilities, along with knowledge of wine theory, beverage program management, and skills in sales.

Alisha Blackwell-Calvert is an Advanced Sommelier.

Candidates must wait at least one year after reaching the Certified level to prepare for this one.

Blackwell-Calvert credits her mentors in the local food and beverage community for helping her get this far.

- One of the cool things about St. Louis is that the beverage community is very helpful to each other and it's a very small community.

So all of us are hands-on in helping the next young budding sommelier learn the ropes and which path to take, which path is good for you.

- Master Sommelier is the ultimate and most difficult level to attain.

At the time of our interview with Blackwell-Calvert, there were fewer than 300 in the whole world, but she intends to join them.

- Wine is the study of biology, chemistry, geology, geography; all of my favorite sciences, but it's all in one bottle.

- [Ruth] Blackwell-Calvert's job has taken her around the world in search of outstanding winemakers.

When we asked if she had a favorite wine-growing region, her answer was Slovenia In Southern Central Europe.

- It's one of those countries that you don't expect them to have fantastic wine in general, but the history of Slovenian wine goes back very far.

The wines are fantastic and the Slovenians are heartwarming people, very generous, very kind.

So that's my favorite region right now.

- [Ruth] And she's a favorite speaker at the annual TEXSOM Conference, the premier beverage and hospitality gathering held in Dallas, Texas.

She also judges at wine competitions.

- I suggest maybe an Italian, like the Barolo is really quite lovely.

- [Ruth] Blackwell-Calvert's work at Madrina made an impression on the highly-regarded publication "Wine Spectator" magazine.

Its Restaurant Awards issue in August of 2024 included Madrina among a group of St. Louis area restaurants given the magazine's Award of Excellence.

The Italian eatery had been in business less than a year.

Madrina co-owner Stanley Browne, a Certified Sommelier, is Blackwell-Calvert's boss.

- I've actually known Alisha back from the days when she was serving at Oceano in Clayton.

And so I've just seen her growth over the years, from server to becoming a wine rep in a couple different companies, and then just seeing her wine journey grow.

And it's been something really special to watch because she's really taken to it and got the education part and learned a lot over the years where she's actually become a force in St. Louis.

- And I'm so appreciative.

Even though, you know, being a doctor would be awesome, getting to travel and taste really amazing wines, some of the best wines in the world, judging wine, it's so rewarding and I get so much out of it.

It's where I'm supposed to be.

- Joining us now to talk about a different kind of science is Dr. Shephali Wulff, Vice President of Quality and Safety for SSM Health System.

Welcome, Dr. Wulff.

Thank you for joining us.

- Thanks for having me on.

- And being a doctor is very awesome.

- Thank you!

- It's very tough to follow the tasting wine and traveling the world segment.

But in all seriousness, everyone is at risk from the flu, especially those that are very young, pregnant women, older adults, those that suffer from chronic disease and illness.

Those are especially more vulnerable.

So what is the forecast this season, in the flu season?

What are we looking at this year?

- Yeah, so we typically take our signals from the Southern Hemisphere, because influenza starts there and then migrates to the north as the climate changes.

And this year as we look at Australia, they had about 344,000 flu cases, which is similar to what they've seen in past years.

About 300,000 the year before.

Mostly influenza A, H3N2, a little bit of influenza B, and so that's what we expect.

We expect this respiratory viral season we should see influenza A, H3N2, plus COVID plus RSV.

- So that's how we decide what vaccinations we're gonna have in our area of the world?

- That starts a little bit earlier, because the vaccine development has to start almost the year before the influenza season.

But we do our planning in terms of, is the healthcare system ready for capacity for patients that might be sick with flu, COVID, or RSV?

And so we take signals from the Southern Hemisphere to help us plan as a healthcare community for what we should expect this viral season.

So you mentioned COVID.

- Mm-hmm.

- COVID doesn't really have a season, does it?

- It doesn't seem to.

We are just flattening the curve from our most recent peak.

There was a lot of COVID activity towards the end of the summer, maybe because people were traveling and as the kids were going back to school.

And in the last couple of weeks, those numbers have declined, and we're mostly seeing right now enterovirus and rhinovirus, which are common cold viruses.

- So who should be getting the flu vaccine this season?

'Cause right now it's October, that's when it starts to ramp up here.

- Yep, so in the next couple of weeks would be a good time to get the flu vaccine.

Anyone over the age of six months is eligible for the vaccine.

As an infectious disease doctor, my bias is that everyone should get the flu vaccine.

But you mentioned it as you started the segment, those who are at extremes of age, those less than five years old, those older than 65, pregnant women, and those with chronic health conditions like COPD, lung disease, diabetes; those are folks that are at particular risk for severe influenza disease and those are people that absolutely should be vaccinated.

- Is there anybody that shouldn't?

- No.

- Everybody should be getting a vaccine?

- They should.

If you're six months and older, you're eligible for the vaccine.

And I think most infectious disease doctors would tell you, get the vaccine.

- Do you think that with the COVID vaccine and the way that people were approaching it, the divide with it, has that had an effect on the way that people are approaching the flu vaccine, of "I'm not getting vaccinated anymore"?

- That's a good question.

So as we look at our own healthcare employees who do get both COVID and flu vaccines, we still see vaccine hesitancy with COVID, less so with influenza.

And then interestingly, last year there was an RSV vaccine that was approved for pregnant women to protect their babies from RSV disease.

And we initially were concerned that maybe pregnant women would have some vaccine hesitancy given what we just went through with COVID, and we were wrong.

Pregnant women were really excited to get this vaccine and protect their newborn babies from RSV.

And so my hope is that as we get a little bit further away from the pandemic, we start to see a more reasonable conversation around vaccines and vaccine safety.

- What advice do you have for people to have best practices?

So, you know, I live with some people who, I won't name names, but one of 'em is seven years old who when she gets sick, she breathes directly into my mouth.

- Of course.

- You know, she likes to cuddle and breathe directly into my mouth.

What are some best practices for those of us who live with people like that?

What can we do to protect ourselves?

What are things we should be doing?

- Yeah, I mean, yes- - I think not breathing directly into other people's mouths is at the top of the list.

- Absolutely.

- But what else can we do?

- And I'm smiling.

I mean, I'm also the parent of a seven-year-old, and it's impossible as a parent to not get sick when your kids are sick.

But there are some practical things people can do.

So of course, getting vaccinated will not protect you from getting the virus necessarily, but it will protect you from developing severe symptoms from that virus.

So getting vaccinated is helpful.

Frequent hand-washing is helpful, especially if you're taking care of somebody who's sick.

- Right.

- And then for adults and people where they can actually get tested, if you do develop symptoms of sore throat, cough, fever, get tested for flu and COVID in particular, because those are two viruses where we have treatment available.

- And where should people go?

- There's a number of places you can go.

You can go into any urgent care clinic, any sort of quick clinics that are available through CVS or Walgreens to get tested.

You can go to your doctor's office to get tested.

Most ambulatory clinics where people see their primary care doctor will be able to test.

- All right, any last words?

- No, I don't think so.

- All right.

Get vaccinated?

- Yep, get vaccinated.

Wash your hands.

- All right.

Thank you for joining us.

- Of course, happy to.

Next we have a story about a growing business, that is, one that's in the business of growing a crop and then immediately serving it up to its customers.

Veronica Mohesky takes us to the grove for a new twist on the farm-to-table movement.

- [Veronica] At Neon Greens, the lettuce in your salad is harvested from a farm the same day it ends up on your plate, but it's probably not the type of farm you're imagining.

- We are a part farm, part restaurant, and we are dedicated to building and growing the freshest salad you've ever had in your entire life.

- [Veronica] That's Josh Smith, owner and founder of Neon Greens, which opened in March 2024.

The restaurant is in the Grove neighborhood and has a hydroponic farm that sits right next door.

- What we do is we plant our little plants in these little seedling plugs.

They start germinating and growing and then we move them to essentially an irrigation system.

So they're sitting vertically, they're suspended, and every day we simulate the sun via LED lights.

We simulate the water that they would get normally via groundwater and precipitation, and that's via an irrigation system.

We manage the water, so we make sure that it has ample nutrients as it would in real life.

- [Veronica] And once the greens are harvested, they are sent directly into the restaurant on a conveyor belt.

(bell ringing) Smith says he came up with the Neon Greens concept during the pandemic while he was still living in New York.

- It started with a little tiny hydroponic desktop kit, and I started growing herbs and flowers and lettuces and it was incredible.

I kind of went down a rabbit hole.

From that point, I ordered a bunch of industrial farming equipment from Iowa and I had a whole test site in my basement and I started growing everything I could get my hands on.

- [Veronica] He then decided to return to his home city to start the hydroponic farm and restaurant.

- I had ideas for elsewhere in the country that might work, and all signs just started leading back to St. Louis.

I still have family here, and more importantly, there are a lot of quick-serve concepts that exist in this country.

A lot of those concepts have started on the coasts.

I thought it was really important and a unique opportunity to have a concept that is geared towards growth, that we want to grow and and share with more people, have its heart in the Midwest.

- [Veronica] Smith says there's many benefits to using a hydroponic farm, one of them being less crop loss.

- We have the perfect day every day, so we have a lot of sensors and control mechanisms that allow us to maintain the water, the air temperature, the humidity, and make sure that there are no negative fluctuations that would affect the crops.

- [Veronica] This method also uses less water and no pesticides are needed either.

And with just two roughly 400-square-foot farms in the facility, Neon Greens can grow an astonishing amount of lettuce.

- Between these two farms that we have, we can grow 120 pounds of lettuce every single week.

That averages to around three acres worth of produce that we're able to grow.

- [Veronica] Most of the lettuce you would normally eat in the St. Louis region travels for days or even weeks to get here.

According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, about 98% of our nation's lettuce comes from Arizona or California, and the long travel time affects the available nutrients in the greens.

And though they are currently only growing lettuce, Smith says other salad ingredients are locally sourced.

And besides a tasty meal, customers are also welcome to come in for a tour.

- We do tours every two weeks right now.

It's subject to availability and what's happening in the farms, but we love sharing the space with people and giving them a sense of how we grow here, and more than that, how they can grow things like this at home.

Something that also is just incredibly exciting and rewarding is being able to see people look in these farms for the first time and the giant smiles that sort of wipe across their faces.

There's no way to replace the sensation of like being part of growing something; whether it's a community or plants or building a salad together.

There are some really incredible ways to connect with people, and being part of a growing process as part of a group is one of those.

(bell ringing) Off it goes.

- Finally, Jim Kirchherr has a story about the biggest grow light of them all.

- [Jim] It was a bright sunny Sunday, the perfect day for stargazing; well, at least for gazing at that one really close star.

Science Center staff and volunteers turned out that morning to set up outside the planetarium for another Solar Sunday, well equipped with knowledge and telescopes properly equipped for sun-gazing.

- Never directly, only through a proper filter.

That's the filter.

They're basically designed to reject all but 1/100,000 of 1% of the sun's normal brightness.

- [Jim] Pretty much the same thing we were wearing for the eclipse, right?

- [Eric] Exact same material, yep.

- [Sungazer] Can see there.

- [Jim] There are several telescopes with different kinds of filters that allow you to see details like sunspots.

- [Sungazer] Until you get the orange, the orange glow.

- [Sungazer] Done it!

- [Jim] It's informal, it's free.

It attracts folks who are heading into the planetarium or just walking, running, or riding through the park.

- Wow.

- Anytime we do solar observing, people will almost always come out and take a look.

- Put your eye around a little bit.

That's the sun.

- [Jim] I know you've been doing this for a while.

Did you see an uptick after the eclipse?

- In interest in the sun?

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, I would say the interest never died down after 2017.

(crowds cheering) - Now, if you don't see anything, back up from the eyepiece just a little bit and tell me what you see.

- We saw part of the sun.

It was red, and it looks like there's some flames coming out of the sun.

Now that's cool.

- [Jim] In past years, the Science Center had been doing this activity from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but this year decided to just continue.

- That is awesome.

- [Jim] So now the third Sunday of every month will be Solar Sunday at the planetarium.

(calm music) (music fades) - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

We love getting comments and suggestions.

Let us know at NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Ruthie Ezell.

Thanks for joining us.

(upbeat blues music) (upbeat blues music continues) (upbeat blues music continues) (upbeat blues music continues) (music fades) - [Narrator] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.