Breaking Bread Together with Leif Routman

The Soft Focus

Leif Routman joins us today to discuss all things food. Leif is a musician, forager, and local food advocate. By day he dips his toes into part-time farming and a little cooking, and by night he makes his living on stage as a bandleader, performer, and composer.

Corinne and Leif discuss the richness of a deep food culture, both in the production and the consumption. Also, Leif’s childhood in the upper-midwest, to his journey to the intermountain west, and the changing landscape in-between. He shares stories around his own journey to local food, foraging, and food advocacy— searching for flavor and quality, and ultimately finding so much more.

This conversation was warm, engaging, and of-the-moment. We know you'll enjoy it.

Covered today:

• Leif’s food background and upbringing
• The sacredness of family dinner
• Analogs between music and food
• Ritualizing food traditions to connect with family and loved ones
• The gradual process of connecting to a local food system through friends and community
• Leif’s college experiences cooking and pursuing quality & flavor
• The freedom and broadening in a “narrowing”
• How Leif developed his land ethic
• The interplay between resilient health and interaction with wild landscapes
• Building up cultural traditions and rituals in the modern age to be better stewards of the landscape
• Celebrating seasons, change, impermanence
• The powerful, yet fragile, nature of the Teton Wilderness
• Leif’s shift-of-consciousness from his experiences foraging and engaging with the wild
• For the love of huckleberries, currants, and mushrooms
• “The Unprejudiced Palate” by Pellegrini
• “The Third Plate” by Barber

If you want to connect with Leif, you can find him and his musical exploits on IG @leifroutman. Be sure to check out his exploits in local sourdough baking and cooking with local foods.

And as always, we’d love to hear from you. Did you love this episode? Did it make you think? Let us know. Reach out via email [e-mail] or on Instagram @latebloomerranch
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See you next time.