Food with Mark Bittman: Liz Carlisle, Aubrey Streit Krug, and Leah Penniman

The unique complexities of perennial foods—and why you should care.

Published April 29, 2026

The birds have almost been making me nuts lately with their singing. I live on the 14th floor of an apartment building, and we still hear birdsong much of the time during the spring. They seem very happy right now.

It’s a perfect time to have today’s three guests on. Liz Carlisle, who is an associate professor in the environmental studies program at UC Santa Barbara, joined Mark on the podcast back in 2022, along with farmers Mai Nguyen and Latrice Tatsey. Today, we’re bringing Liz back. Her new book is Living Roots: The Promise of Perennial Foods, which she edited with Aubrey Streit Krug, the director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute. Joining the two of them is Leah Penniman, who is an acclaimed activist and farmer; she co-founded Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, is the author of Farming While Black, and contributed an essay in Living Roots. She and Mark have known each other for a good amount of time, and I was thrilled to meet her.  

The topic of perennials and how they can help us, and our environment, was a completely foreign topic to me, and I’m really glad I learned about it. It’s a hopeful topic, and a hopeful conversation, and a great one for this, the last week of April and the lead up to May.

Read an excerpt from Living Roots right here.

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