April 2025 Food Literacy Podcast Artwork

Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

The Roots Watering Hole podcast series is provided through generous support from the Kalliopeia Foundation. Thanks to their support we have begun the journey to share space in elevated wisdom from numerous voices of people who do good in the world in various forms while providing information to our target communities. Roots Watering Hole produces oral narratives for a multitude of purposes. One track is a monthly gardening education and food literacy series co-hosted by Orrin Williams, the Food Systems Coordinator at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Soil Enthusiast Dr. Akilah Martin. The second track is devoted to independent content created by Orrin Williams and Dr. Akilah Martin as co-hosts and individual producers. The independent track focuses on topics related to our ecosystem as a whole, health and wellness, lifestyle, the arts and culture, and humanities. Both tracks will include guests from multiple walks of life, expertise, wisdom, and disciplines. While our focus is centered on BIPOC communities, we believe that all open-minded people interested in our general well-being as a nation and planet Earth will find the content, we produce useful.

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Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

April 2025 Food Literacy Podcast

April 15, 2025 • Orrin Williams • Season 6 • Episode 4

Enjoy the April 2025 Food Literacy Podcast!

Of significant importance to successful gardening is the number of hours of sunlight available (see the amount of daily sunlight available via your zip code) at this time of year. Now is a good time to start warm weather crop seeds indoors, such as tomatoes, peppers, etc., they should be mature and ready for transplanting after the last frost date (check last frost dates, understand there is no way to know precisely when the last frost date will be, the safest bet is late May or the beginning of June.

In these uncertain times, and that is all I will say about that for now, food prices are probably going to continue to rise, and there may be supply chain issues as well. This made me remember the rise and use of victory gardens. Victory gardens provided as much as 40% of the produce consumed during WWII. We may not be able to completely replicate the victory gardens of old, but the point is we may collectively need to grow as much of our produce as possible to reduce food costs, increase our consumption of produce, and even be healthier.

Grow bag container gardening is nothing if not versatile, for example, this video of large-scale grow bag container operations, with the point being we can grow produce at various scales based upon the space available.

Benefits of Gardening:

If you want to start your 2025 garden early, see some crops you may want to consider for April:

Growfully with Jenna

Fox Run Environmental Education Center on Lettuce

The Gardening Channel 10 Crops to Grow in April

MI Gardener: Why Fabric Grow Bags Are Superior

Chicago Grows Food

Grow Bag Vegetable Gardening

Best Vegetables to Grow in a 1-Gallon Bag

Direct Seeded Grow Bags

How to Reuse Old Potting Soil

Documentaries

Food Revolution...

Talking Plants...

Contact: orrinw@uic.edu

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the OCEAN-HP, the CPHP, the CUT, or the RWH podcast series. The material and information presented here are for general information purposes only. While the podcast is about food literacy, we offer no health advice and encourage our listeners to seek guidance from their healthcare providers.

People on this episode

Dr. Akilah Martin

Host

Orrin Williams

Host