Episodes

George Washington, Rented Pineapples, America’s First Food Flex. What the rich really ate, and who actually made it. What if the Founding Fathers’ dinner table was less about elegance and more about power, performance, and people history forgot? Similar to today's power rooms. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia France continue their America 250 Revolutionary food series by sharing the dinner table with America’s colonial gentry. At first glance, these tables loo...

How did ordinary families feed a revolution when tea was suspicious, water was risky, and coffee was worth stealing? From liberty tea and eight-pound bread to women-led food riots, this is the everyday kitchen rebellion that fed America’s fight for independence. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia France continue their America 250 Revolutionary food series by stepping into the everyday kitchens that helped feed our new nation. After the Boston Tea Party, British...

What did Revolutionary War soldiers eat? Broken supply chains, buggy fire cake, boiled shoe leather, and the allies who ate far better. Episode 93. On paper, Congress promised each man a pound of meat, a pound of bread, peas, beans, milk, and beer or cider every day. In practice, a broken supply chain meant that Continental soldiers often went without, surviving on bug-infested “fire cake,” and at Valley Forge, they were even known to boil shoe leather to make soup! Meanwhile, the French, Spani...

Yogurt Secrets: 7,000 Years of Live Cultures, Instant Pot Homemade Yogurt, and the Grateful Dead’s Benefit That Saved Nancy’s Yogurt This episode of Family Tree Food and Stories explores yogurt’s origins, surprising cultural history, and recipes. From its accidental invention 7,000 years ago when Central Asian herders carried milk in animal-stomach pouches while on horseback to global variations like dahi, labneh, skyr, and Bulgaria’s famous yogurt variety. Hosts Nancy May and Sylvia France sh...

Father's Day gifts feel impossible because Dad says he wants nothing, and that's the lie your brain falls for every single June. Every Father's Day, the dads in our lives pull the same quiet con: "Don't get me anything." This Father's Day episode is our answer to that lie — because we're convinced Dad wants something, he just can't always say what. In 2026, Father's Day lands on June 21st, sharing the date with the summer solstice and National Peaches 'n Cream Day. Three holidays, one long Jun...

Wedding season, and somewhere right now, a panicked best man is googling "how to give a wedding toast." This episode of Family Tree Food & Stories is the #WeddingToast crash course that every best man and maid of honor needs. It’s 6 simple rules for giving a toast people will remember, rather than have to endure. Then, do you know where the word "toast" comes from? It’s about a soggy piece of bread dropped in bad wine. Hosts Nancy May and Sylvia France serve up wedding speech tips, the myth beh...

Generational Food Stories: When Your Mom Was the Worst Cook in America and Your Grandfather Took You to French Restaurants Instead. New foods, new stories, new hosts at our table. Nancy May of Family Tree Food and Stories welcomes guest co-host Sylvia France, while Sylvia Lovely steps back temporarily to focus full-time on Azor Restaurant and Patio in Lexington, Kentucky. Her mother put her on a diet at age five. Her dad did all the cooking. And yet Sylvia France grew up to be the kind of wom...

The History of Penny Candy in America. Discover how penny candy grew from 19th-century sweets into a childhood ritual shaped by corner stores, five-and-dimes, and iconic treats like Necco Wafers and Tootsie Rolls. If you have ever wondered about the history of penny candy or searched for the origins of your favorite childhood sweets, this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories takes you right back to your old neighborhood corner store. Here, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely unwrap the history of Ameri...

What's Pasta Really All About? Ancient Noodles, Busted Myths, Bare Feet & Why 4,000 Years Later Pasta Still Holds a Place on Our Dinner Table. Did you know that it was once common practice to knead pasta dough with your bare feet? That tons of people were tricked into thinking spaghetti grew on trees. And one of America's Founding Fathers smuggled a pasta machine across the Atlantic, then made it even better! This is not the back story you think you know about pasta. In this episode of Family Tr...

The True History of Blue Willow, Noritake, and Spode China: What Your Family's Heirloom Dishes Are Really Worth in 2026 The most recognized china pattern in Western history is built on a fabricated love story, and neuroscientists say your brain is wired to fall for it every time. In Episode 86 of Family Tree Food and Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely trace the invented legend behind Blue Willow china, the pioneer women who abandoned their Noritake and Spode in the Wyoming dust at a place call...

Wooden bowls, hand-cranked egg beaters, and the spoon rack that came back as a Christmas gift. Some of the most loved objects in our kitchens aren't fancy. They're the wooden spoons with burnt edges, the silver ladles passed down by old friends, and the hand-cranked mixer/beater that looks like a bicycle gear shift. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely get into the everyday kitchen gadgets that outlast their owners. A Vermont honeymoon bowl carved with two ...

The 9,000-year story of rice, the enslaved Africans whose genius built a fortune, and the US President who smuggled it into the country. But wait, there's more! Believe it or not, half of everyone in the world eats rice every single day, and most of us have a bag sitting of it sitting somewhere in our kitchen pantry. If this is you, we're guessing that you don't know that it also holds over 9,000 years of history and has nearly 120,000 varieties! We didn't! This week on Family Tree Food & Stor...

5,000 Years of Comfort #FoodHistory, British Afternoon @Tea, #SouthernSweetTea & the Rituals That Still Bring Family & Friends Together. Have you ever sat down with your mom or a good friend with absolutely no agenda other than just... being together? Nancy's mom had a word for it: "sharing a cuppa." She and Nancy would drive down to Alice's, their local general store-luncheonette, not because they needed anything, but because that was their girl-time ritual. Their way of making the whole world ...

The food history nobody taught you: pharaohs buried it, a Pope staffed it, Napoleon obsessed over it, and your squeeze bottle is still lying about it. A Pope loved mustard so much that he created a Vatican job, “The Great Mustard Maker,” just to make sure he never ran out. Napoleon loved it so much that he built Dijon's identity around it. And that bright yellow color you've trusted your entire life? That's the color that comes from an entirely different plant! Surprise? In this episode of Fam...

What nobody told you about mayonnaise: the wartime origin, the brand rivalry, and the Hellmann's love story you've held in your hands, and never knew about. You've probably never thought twice about that jar of mayonnaise in your fridge. You open it, you use it, you put it back. But that jar has a story that you likely don’t know, one that starts with a military victory, and with a love story. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely take you inside the intere...

Flour History, Food Science, Kitchen Myths, Food Culture & The Hidden Story Behind Bread, Pasta, and Everyday Ingredients In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely start with a simple question, “what did you eat today?” Then dive into how little we know about even the simplest and most fundamental things in our pantry, which can turn into a fascinating science experiment as well as a lunch essential. We’re talking about flour! Did you know that flour isn’t just...

Bone Deep: Your Grandmother and Mom Really Did Know How to Use Their Kitchen Like a Pharmacy. What does a simple pot of beans simmering on the stove have in common with cutting-edge nutritional science? More than you'd ever expect. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely share how our moms and grandmas instinctively know how to keep our bodies strong enough to handle a heavy workload. In this episode, Sylvia opens up about her own very personal bone health jo...

What if the best meal you’ve ever had… was hiding on the side of the road? And why do the places with no signs, no marketing, and no polish often serve the most unforgettable food? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely explore some of the best meals they've found in diners, drive-ins, and roadside food and snack treasures, where food, family traditions, and personal stories intersect in the most unique places. From small-town stands to grungy stops, these out...

Why do we eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day, when it isn't even Irish? And what do Irish soda bread, cozy village pubs, and the potato famine have to do with the foods we celebrate today? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely dig into the history of St. Patrick’s Day food traditions from authentic Irish village cooking to the Irish-American dishes created through immigration and rich cultural exchange. Why do we associate certain foods and st...

From Monasteries to The Joy of Cooking and Martha Stewart: Why We’re Obsessed with Collecting and Keeping Them How many cookbooks do you own? And here’s the real question… do you actually cook from them? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely trace and share the fascinating history, evolution, and survival of cookbooks in America. You’ll learn why these books have survived wars, depressions, church basements, and even now, the internet. Cookbooks didn’t begi...

Italian Food in America: The Truth About Authenticity, Nonas, and Sunday Sauce. When you're planning which restaurant to go to, you typically don't ask, “Do you want American food?” No, you ask... "How about Italian?” But here’s the twist… much of what we call authentic Italian food isn’t actually from Italy. It's kind of a made-up Italian, American style! In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely unpack the real story behind Italian-American cuisine, how it's...

How a Simple Apron Quietly Shaped Food, Family Power, and Why They Matter More Than Your Grandma's Cookbook. Most people think an apron is just something you tie on before cooking. They’re wrong. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely dig into the why of the apron, which may be the most powerful and misunderstood object in the kitchen—and why its disappearance signals the loss of something far more important than chintz fabric. Long before it became a Hallo...

Romance, aphrodisiac foods, and love stories from the kitchen What if the most romantic Valentine’s Day you’ve ever had didn’t happen in a restaurant—but at your own table? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely dive, fork first, into the sensual, unforgettable Valentine’s foods that create connection, intimacy, and lasting memories—without stress, fancy techniques, or expensive ingredients. It’s about using food as a language of intention, attraction, and ...

Chinese New Year 2026 offers something rare: a second chance to begin again! In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely explore the Year of the Horse and the powerful role food plays in balance, momentum, and renewal in our lives during this Chinese Lunar New Year. Instead of focusing on recipes alone, this episode uncovers the meaning behind Chinese New Year food traditions—why noodles are left unbroken, why dumplings require time and teamwork, why leftovers mat...