There Is No Spoon Episode

These basic utensils are bent to all kinds of applications: cooking, serving, eating, gifting, collecting, and beyond. Anney and Lauren explore the strange history of spoons.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeart Radio. I'm
Annie Reese and I'm more Involve Obama, and today we
have an episode for you about spoons. And let me
tell you, this one goes all over the place, so
so delightful, so many places. I mean, I kind of

(00:30):
knew it was going to be weird going into it,
and then I realized that I had not allotted myself
enough time for all of the weirdness. Like there are
just so many little pockets of weird. Oh yes there are,
and we're going to touch on a lot of them.
But I was shocked by a lot of like, Oh,

(00:53):
I didn't I realized this was such a big deal,
or I didn't realize that this was the whole thing. Spoons. Spoons, man,
mm hmmm, um, well, I believe I've told this story before,
but spoons, specifically plastic spoons, got banned in my high
school because we had a game we played called spoons,

(01:18):
where the goal was to sneak a spoon, a plastic spoon,
onto somebody's person without them realizing Oh okay, okay, and
it got so out of control. One time I came
home and I took off this jacket, and you could
hear the clattering of spirits like spoons in my hood,
spoons in my pocket, spoons in like the little buttonholes.

(01:40):
We had a teacher who was a very prim southern lady. Uh,
and one of our fellow students was able to sneak
a spoon into her ear ring, oh my goodness, into
her collar. She was like, we're putting an into this right,
oh wow. Yeah, And there was so weird. I know,

(02:05):
I don't know how it started. Uh, but there was
a shortage of spoons because this was rampant, like everybody
was doing it. Uh. And you would get like extra
points for if you could get them like in certain
in certain places, like especially near their head, like anything
that was the cream of the crop. I was a
mediocre I was okay, but I was definitely not the

(02:28):
top of the game. All right, all right. I would
love to know if any other listeners like has anything
like this. Again, I don't know how it started. I
have my theories. You know, we certainly we certainly did
not in my high school. That is not something that

(02:49):
we got up to that I'm aware of. Maybe there
was a whole other subculture of spoons. Um. I don't
know subculture. It was why old like you would I remember,
I would go home. I'd like open my lunch box
and just spoon. Uh. This one does have this topic

(03:10):
does have a lot of fun cultural offshoots. Um. I
was just thinking before this of the movie Mimic, which
terrified me. I've watched it since I've been older, and
it's not as scary but when I was a kid. Yeah,
but there's this seame of spoons in there that stuck

(03:31):
with me. We'll say, huh, I do not. I have
not seen that movie in a very long time. If
you're curious, listeners, Mimic is a movie about big cockroaches. Um.
It scared me a lot as a kid. I could
not sleep at night for a while. There's also spoons,

(03:53):
the card game, which I loved playing with my cousins. Um, spoons,
the poem. The poems. I vaguely remember this. I'm sure
someone will right in, but it was in high school
we read about all these poems and spoon bill or something,
um anyway, and then the matrix of course. Uh, the spoon.

(04:15):
There is no spoon, there is no right right. Um. Yeah.
The the other one that came to me off the
top of my head was spoon, which is a reference
to the Tick. If if you have no idea what's
going on? Oh? I played the Tick video game, but
I don't remember. It's his like like like battle cry, ah,

(04:39):
good one, a good battle, very intimidating. Absolutely yeah yeah,
yes uh. And you can see our past episodes on sports,
sporks and chopsticks. Yeah yeah, I um, Annie and I
I thought, oh, man, have we done spoon yet? And checked,

(05:00):
and then suggested the topic, and then Annie proceeded to
check because we got burnt with forks, we did harder
to do it. And then we remembered wait because I
was showing up in my Google searchs that I had
already searched it, and I was like, yeah, yeah, we
had already done it. No fresh, fresh topic, fresh topic,

(05:24):
And I think we should get to our question because
we've got a lot to cover. Absolutely. Spoons. What are they? Well?
A spoon is a type of cutlery piece featuring a
small bowl attached to a handle. They come in pretty

(05:45):
much infinite sizes and shapes of both bowl and handle,
and are used in cooking and eating to stir like
a like a paddle, and to scoop, especially with foods
that are liquid or granular inform um, you know, and
anything that would be fussy or tricksy to pierce with
a fork or knife, or to a to pluck with

(06:06):
chopsticks or tongs. It's like a it's like a bowl
that you don't have to get your hand that close
to the food in order to use. Yeah, m hmm,
that's I mean, it's not like that. That's what it is. Um,
it's a really simple, really applicable tool. UM Cooking spoons

(06:28):
tend to be larger with longer handles, often about a
foot from a tip of bowld a tip of handle,
it's about a third of a meter, commonly made of
durable and heat resistant materials like wood, plastics, ceramics, or
metals like stainless steel. UM. Within the cooking category, you've
also got specialty spoons for like measuring volume, for ladling,
for straining, etcetera. Dining spoons. Table spoons can come in

(06:51):
many specific and specialty forms, but tend to be um
half of that size or less half the size or
less of a cooking spoon, and are most commonly made
of plastics, ceramics, or metals. These can be like a
little fancier, but are still most often durable and inexpensive.
Some specialty shapes include dessert spoons, which are smaller, drink

(07:13):
spoons which are longer, grapefruit spoons which have teeth along
the edge of the bowl. Very dangerous. Um, if you're me, uh,
you're already eating something quite acidic and so like, Oh
you can just there's all kinds of accidents just waiting
to happen. Um soup spoons that have deeper bowls, baby
spoons that are smaller and grippable again, et cetera. Uh,

(07:36):
and serving spoons are kind of a whole subcategory here. Like,
over the course of human history, people have invented just
a lot of types of of scoopy serving wear um
sugar spoons, salt spoons, caviat spoons, um demitas, or espresso spoons.
These are more likely as a whole to be made

(07:57):
with more expensive and more embellished material reels, fancy woods,
precious metals, bone or shell, porcelain, stuff like that. Yeah, wow,
there's so many, there's so many rabbit holes we could
go down, because now I'm curious about table spoons. History
of that measurement. Oh, yeah, yeah. I originally I was

(08:18):
looking into measuring spoons and cups, but it's really I
think it's going to be a sticky, a sticky rereading episode.
So I was kind of like, nil, that's a later.
But also I keep introducing people to the HBO MAC
show Our Flag Means Death with the episode Yes serving

(08:40):
spoon kind of fiasco situation because it's my favorite one,
so I can appreciate it. I've been at the table
before and there's like seventeen spoons and I don't know
what to do. Generally, cheat code is you move from
the outside to the inside. Mm hmm, what's at the top? Oh,

(09:07):
those are for later, Those are for later. Those are lay. Yeah.
During the main courses, it's outside to inside and then
what's up top is usually for later. I can't imagine
the situation I will be in in the near future world.
This will come up. But thank you Lauren, just in case.

(09:29):
To be fair, that is a very a very bird's
eye um concept. I mean, I'm sure and I don't.
I never I'm not polite, I'm a I'm a goblin.
I never invite me to a fancy dinner, didn't you?
And I recently have a long ish conversation about the
difference between goblin and gremlin. At least the goblins is

(09:53):
a nicer Yeah. Yeah, oh goodness, this is what we
talk about listeners in our spare time. Huh um, okay, uh.
There there's also a whole category of spoons. We're still

(10:15):
doing an episode about spoons. Um that that aren't really
meant for eating or cooking with. Um. Collectible spoons, yeah,
and especially perhaps souvenir spoons. These are often on the
small end of dining spoons, around like three to five
inches long, that's about seven to twelve cis. These are um,
typically metal um, often made from or plated with precious

(10:40):
metals like silver, and then embossed and or engraved and
or painted or otherwise decorated with scenes or designs commemorating
an event or location or person or people. Yes, yes, yes, uh,
well what about the nutrition? You know? Okay, usually you

(11:01):
don't eat spoons. But but actually I've got a whole
note later in the history outline about edible spoons, So
I guess proceed with caution. Um. I like that. I
like that. That sounds about right. We do have some
numbers for you. Oh, we do. Um. The cutlery industry

(11:25):
as a whole is worth about a billion dollars a year. UM.
There are a number of spoon related world records. UM.
The world record for most spoons balanced on the face
is thirty one UM that was achieved in Serbia. The

(11:45):
record for most spoons balanced on the body is five um,
which was achieved in Iran just this year. Um. The
photos of this are really spectacular. It looks like this
gentleman has like a little like a little spoon capelet.
It's it's very fetching. Oh, I mean, spoon records being

(12:08):
broken all the time, you know, fantastic, right. Um. The
most expensive spoon in the world sold at auction for dollars.
It's a silver spoon made Circus by Paul Revere Jr. Um. Yes,
the son of that Paul Revere. Paul Revere was a silversmith.

(12:31):
He taught the trade to his son, and his son
is like the most of famous silver smith in American history.
WHOA yeah, okay, Um. And as as we're going to
get into further in the history section, UM, that collectible

(12:51):
spoon market is like a whole thing. Um. And although
most souvenir spoons are worth less than sixty dollars um.
Some go for thousands apparently. Ones with handles that are
shaped like stuff, and ones with them enameled or otherwise
decorated bowls are like fetch the highest prices. They're the

(13:12):
most popular with collectors. Uh. And the collections are wild. Um.
One woman has over a thousand Niagara Falls spoons. The
Lambert Castle Museum in New Jersey is home to the
world's largest collection of spoons, over five thousand, four hundred
of them UM, compiled by a woman by the name

(13:32):
of Bertha Schaeffer Pemple during her travels in the early
to mid nine dreds. Wow, yeah, I want to check
that out. They usually only have like about like twenty
five of them on display at any given time. UM.
But you know, I wonder I wonder if we could
like call him up and be like, hey, you think

(13:55):
we have that cloud? La, what are we going? We
got that good spoon cloud? You know I love it.
I love it, I do want to. I didn't get
to spend as much time as I wanted looking at
these collectible souvenir spoons, so that say on my list

(14:18):
that is definitely UM, like the rabbit hole, the visual
rabbit hole of the week. Yes, absolutely, uh. And it's
fascinating how they came to be such a big phenomenon
at one point, and we're going to get into that
in the history section. Goodness we are, but first we
are going to take a quick break for a word
from our sponsors and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,

(14:47):
thank you. So other than knives, spoons are thought to
be the first utensils humans invented or I don't know
if invented as the right term, but like found things items,
they could you acted in that function. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
After our ancestors figured out stabbing of things, they needed

(15:10):
a tool for scooping of things. Um. And the shape
of the spoon was most likely modeled after the shape
of human hand when it scoops something like water. But
it is ideally more sanitary than actually using your hand. Ideally, Yes.
Tracing the early history of the spoon is tricky, um,

(15:31):
but the fossil record indicates that our Neanderthal relatives may
have used items like shells, chips of wood, or bones
as rudimentary spoons. And it's really interesting the etymology because uh,
you've got some twist and turns in there. But you
can see the roots of some of these. In various languages,
the term for spoon might mean might have been used

(15:53):
for the same word for like a chip, a wood chip,
or something. So sure. Yeah. The oldest known evidence of
spoons that fall under our more modern understanding of them
dates back to ancient Egypt circa one thousand BC. Because
of the materials used to make these spoons, things like
ivory and slate, and because of their designs, often including hieroglyphics,

(16:15):
historians suspect that these spoons might have been used for rituals. However,
wood was often frequently used to make spoons when the
intended use was as an eating utensil. However, the wealthy
and ancient Rome and Greece frequently used spoons made of
bronze and silver, as was the case in Europe up
until the Middle Ages. As far as we know, the

(16:39):
first documented reference of spoons in England took place in
twelve fifty, when the coronation of British kings involved anointing
them with the ceremonial spoon. Also around this time, spoons
of pewter became common for those in the lower classes.
I was reading that spoons were a thing in uh
in Britain that had been brought up with the Romans,

(17:01):
and that like that's kind of the first time. But
I'm not sure how anyway, I don't know. Um. Over
the next century or so, bronze and brass and sheet
tin were also becoming common for the lower classes, but
using your hands was still acceptable and most of Britain
at the time. Um. That would change around the fifteen
hundreds when a few books on table manners were published

(17:21):
in England. Um, and that's when serving and eating spoons,
especially made of silver, came into wide use, especially for
the upper classes. But then uh, moving on down yeah, yes,
And then in England from the fourteen hundreds to the
sixteen hundreds, spoons became somewhat of a status symbol when
so called apostle spoons became christening gifts among the well off,

(17:45):
and fancy spoons, both in design and material, were an
indicator of wealth. In fact, the wealthiest folks often were
gifted with a set of twelve spoons and then later thirteen,
being the so called master spoon. Yeah. This whole thing
led to a tradition of christening spoons with the wealthy

(18:06):
gifting spoons made of silver or gold, while the lurd
classes gifted spoons of copper or brass. The phrase born
with the silver spoon in their mouth, meaning to be
born into a rich and privileged family, is believed to
have come from this practice, though it didn't pop up
in print until much later. And I believe in the
United States first, but that's where they think it comes from.

(18:27):
It was also customary and medieval Europe to have your
initials engraved on a spoon up through like the twentieth century.
UM it was pretty common for people to own and
carry personal cutlery sets, especially when traveling, and so right
engraving your initials on them would have been uh, kind
of a no brainer. Rights Beginning in the eighteen hundreds,

(18:49):
a European fat collecting souvenir spoons absolutely took off, thanks
largely to American tourists who would purchase these spoons with
the names of cities or landmarks they visited and graved
on them. And I have on my grandparents. Uh, they
went to London when I was like on eight or nine,
and they came back and they gave me a spoon.

(19:10):
I think it has bucking and palace on it. I
still have. I tried to find it because I recently
visited my mom and it's it's somewhere about there. I
couldn't find it, but I remember it because I was like,
in this case and it's small. The year old me
didn't get it. Sure yeah, um okay. This the souvenir

(19:32):
spoon thing was part of a bunch of other cultural
moments because the Industrial Revolution brought a whole lot of
advancements in metallurgy UM, including mining and producing silver, molding
and stamping metals, and electric plating, and this really expanded
the availability of silver and other precious metals UM and

(19:54):
at a time when an urban middle class was developing
purchasing power. I I get the idea that because spoons
were this traditional gift, producers and consumers just glommed onto
that UM. Throughout the eighteen hundreds, the silver baby spoon
was also changing due to changing attitudes towards children. Previously,

(20:17):
children had been thought of as just small adults, and
thus these gift spoons for for babies were just small
spoons with like small versions of adult designs. But there
was this movement UM to redefine kids as being like learning,
growing human beings with their own sets of needs. During

(20:39):
the eighteen hundreds, Um, and these baby spoons developed too, um,
becoming redesigned for easier grip and decorated with like mother
goose rhymes and other newfangled children's cultural staples. Um. We've
talked about this some in our Brothers Grim episodes and
uh Lewis Carroll stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

(21:02):
By eighteen eighty nine, souvenir spoons were being produced in
the US, first by Gault and Brothers of Washington d C.
With their offering of a spoon featuring George Washington's profile
in honor of the anniversary of his presidency. Okay, A
Martha Washington spoon became available soon after in year round

(21:23):
about there, one of the most famous souvenir spoons ever designed,
fueled a national obsession with souvenir spoons that endured until
World War One. Okay, so I want you to take
a pause. I want you to guess what you think
this spoon depicted. All right, Okay, got it in mind?

(21:44):
Uh yeah, alright, alright, here we go. Uh. Okay. So,
after a visit to Germany eight nine that involved the
purchase of several unusual souvenir spoons, jeweler Seth F. Low
Return learned to the US and designed one of his
own for his father's company. He described the design as depicting, quote,

(22:07):
the raised figure of a witch, the word Salem, and
the three witch pins of the same size and shape
as those preserved in the courthouse at Salem. Yeah, Salem
which spoon? Okay? Is that what you thought? You think?

(22:28):
I I I assumed something patriotic. Uh I I'm not sure.
I don't know, like a like a famous building, or
like a bell, or like a rock. Maybe I'm not
I know what you mean? This that sounds funny, like
a famous rock. You know? You know? I got you.

(22:50):
Just sounded funny. Now I'm with you. I didn't really
have a specific thing in my patriotic vein. I was
not expecting Salem which spoon? No, I mean, but I
love this. I love that. I love that everyone. I
love that everyone's always been into into spooky stuff. That's great.

(23:13):
That's spooky, spoony stuff. Yes, I did not see that coming.
But Low trademarked the design and went on to sell
several thousand spoons. Um they are they are still being

(23:34):
traded on the collector's market. By the way, they are
worth about a hundred dollars today. Dang okay. Well, this
whole thing led to a massive bump and interest for
these collectible spoons. The souvenir spoons in the kind in
this country. In the US only produced and sold a
handful of them, but in less than two years, hundreds

(23:57):
of designs are being produced across the country, showcase cities,
historical figures, and important events. As part of this books
about collecting these spoons were published, which I love um
and at the Chicago World Fair. This fair really boosted
their profile. According to some sources, more souvenir spoons were

(24:19):
produced for this event than any other in history. An
estimated twenty seven million visitors were exposed to these spoons.
I could really get a sense of like how many
they produced the most. I'm assuming most of them got
taken by these visitors, but I could be a good
handle on that. But that's a lot of people seeing

(24:41):
these spoons, potentially. Yes. At the same time, the US
was in a period of industrialization and experiencing a growth
of wealth, allowing for more spoons to be produced more efficiently.
And for more people to buy them. On top of that,
the silver market collapsed in the early eighteen nineties, making
it more afford well for Americans to buy commemorative silver spoons.

(25:04):
For three decades following this, pretty much every major event
offered a souvenir spoon, but World War One really decimated
the interest in an ability to offer these spoons. Um,
which is just fascinating to me because that's not a
thing that like, other than my grandparents giving me that

(25:24):
one spoon, It's just not something I've been exposed to. Yeah,
I mean, I guess I've I've been I've been in
touristy places in a gift shop and have witnessed a spoon,
But I certainly wasn't like, yes, that's the thing I'm
going to purchase, So I never really paid that much

(25:48):
attention to it. I don't know, I don't know. Yeah. Um,
I feel like the next time that we do, like
an Orlando theme park trip, we need to look out
for this kind of thing. Um. I Also, I feel
like you at theme parks are busy like maximizing the
number of rides that you can go on, and I'm
looking at literally everything and every gift shop going like, hm, hmmm,

(26:10):
do I have a friend who needs this overpriced trinket.
That's why we worked so well together. I'll just text
to you and be like, have you found Do I
need to make my way to a store Like they
have spoons, Annie, and I would understand. Heck. Um anyway, Uh.

(26:37):
With further developments in materials science, and specifically with plastics
around World War Two, UH, plastic spoons were developed in
the UM. By the nineteen fifties, inexpensive, mass produced and
even disposable spoons and other cutlery were being produced. UM.

(26:59):
The development of disposable cutlery coincided with with the growth
of fast food joints in America and and also with
the conspicuous consumption and convenience cultures of nineteen fifties suburbia,
so they really took off. UM. Certainly though other plastic

(27:19):
spoons were meant to be more permanent UM. You know, beautiful, colorful,
durable pieces in shapes and sizes that are easy to
do with molded plastic but would be pretty expensive in
any other medium. UM. And this this included the expanding
category of children's dinnerware, going back to baby spoons again. Um,

(27:39):
though those silver spoon might still be an early gift.
Kids from like the late nineteen hundreds on have often
eaten with a large, lightweight, soft edged, colorful often co
branded um inexpensive plastic wear. Yes. Actually, my younger brother,

(28:01):
whom I was very jealous of when he was born,
he had a super cool Mickey Mouse balloon spoon. I
coveted it, all right, I still remember it. I was
like four years old. I remember the spoon. I think

(28:26):
the only novelty spoon I don't. I don't think I
had any growing up, or if I have, I've forgotten them.
But I do have one. I have like a like
a lightsaber spoon from from when the when the Prequels
came out. Uh. It does not light up. It does
not light up anymore. It certainly does not. I definitely

(28:46):
washed it at some point. Um. But yeah, yeah, um, jealous, jealous.
I guess there's still time for me. Uh. We should
talk about plastic spoons and plastic cutlery in general have
done some massive damage to the planet. Yeah. Um. As

(29:08):
of twenty nineteen, disposable cutlery was a two point six
billion dollar a year business. UM and plastic utensils were
the seventh most collected plastic trash on beaches. Just for example, UM,
more than a hundred million we're being used in the
US every day. UM. They're difficult to recycle, can take

(29:31):
a thousand years to decompose, and many are made with
types of plastic that can release harmful compounds when they're
exposed to heat. So not great. Not great all around,
UM and some some countries and other municipalities have been
working on neither banning them or diminishing their use. France

(29:53):
was the first country to ban plastic cutlery in as
one alternative of and as promised earlier, UM, there is
edible color e made of starchy stuff like corn or
wheat brand UM, and the market for it is growing.
Apparently as UM it was worth more than two point

(30:15):
six million dollars a year UM, with spoons being the
largest segment at about of that market. They are the
easiest to manufacture due to the relatively simple shape. UM.
Some of these are even UM flavored with things like
like black pepper to compliment like like Bland airline food

(30:37):
or what have you. Yeah, I think I've seen these
in the kind of hiking campings. Yea, yeah, and I
we've talked before about another thing I've seen in recent
years when you order delivery. Now there's that option to
be like, please do not send so much. I got it.
Yeah right, I'm meeting this at my house. I have

(30:58):
I think the only I'm the only time I've ever
not gotten it automatically was when I happened to be
helping a dear friend move into her new place and
she did not have a speck of cutlery in there,
and and the like, the like delivery Indian feast that
we ordered had zero zero cutlery. Um. Oh no, there's

(31:25):
a lot of strategic non usage that evening. Oh yes,
nice right right. Um uh. Meanwhile, that this is this
is bouncing around a little bit in the timeline of
the past of twenty years or so twenty thirty years.

(31:46):
But um, but a couple of cultural notes to end
us on so UM the the surreal and or parody
comic book series The tick UM aforementioned UH later a
cartoon later a live action show. UM began as a
comic store newsletter stick in the late eighties. UM and

(32:08):
the Superheroes famous battle cry was first written in issue
number seven originally published and if I might quote so, um,
the Tick and his trusty sidekick Arthur are are sitting
enjoying a meal, and the Tick has a spoon and

(32:28):
he just suddenly goes spoon. Arthur says, are you all right?
I'm fine, Arthur spoon. I like the word. It's got
a nice ring to it. Henceforth, it will be my
battle cry. You're what my battle cry? The cry I
admit just prior to leaping into battle, I'm a grizzled

(32:51):
veteran of superhero battles. Now I need something catchy to
yell out during them, something that will endear me to
the public. Spoon mhm. And yeah. With that that a
battle cry was born. I have to say, if I

(33:16):
heard someone just cry out spoon, it would give my attention.
I don't think i'd feel fear. I think it would
be a general like confused. Yeah, yeah. I I believe
later in the issue, when they are, you know, doing
battle right, that the Ticks scream spoon and uh and

(33:38):
the bad guy is like what and then it gets
like like clotheslined. So I mean confused effective exactly exactly,
and he's not wrong. It's a good word. I like it.
Oh heck UM. Other cultural notes UM, the band spoon
Formed Matrix came out in nine and introduced everyone to

(34:03):
write Spoonboy and the There Is No Spoon UM and
the essay UH The Spoon Theory, written by Christine Miser
and Dino Um was published in two thousand three. And
this is the idea that UM that people with chronic
illnesses UM and other disabilities have like a limited number
of metaphorical spoons at their disposal every day, and every

(34:27):
task that they do requires the use of a spoon.
And sometimes you just run out of spoons, and UM,
there's nothing you can do about it, and you need
to rest to replenish your your spoon supply. M hmm, yeah,
I've heard of that. I'll have to look more into
that one. UM. And then I meant to look this up,

(34:49):
and then I didn't. I forgot. But spooning in terms
of the cuddling between two people who are laying on
their sides. You know, you got your EXPOONI your a
little spoon. UM. Apparently this has been around longer than
I would have guessed. According to a quick search, UM

(35:10):
that this might have started in the seventeenth century. In Wales,
um which involved spooning involved a love spoon and intricately
wooden spoon given by a young suitor to a woman. Um. Yeah,
so again kind of playing on that like this was
when that gifting of spoons was popular. So from there

(35:33):
that might have influenced the terms which was any type
of affectionate our flirtatious behavior and then became kind of
this like nestling playing alongside each other. So interesting. I
thought that was a fairly recent Yeah, I would have
assumed that was very recent. But but huh cool the

(35:56):
so it is like in our more recent terms like
the twentieth century, but it has a long history of
being associated with sort of flirtatious or love activity. Yeah. Yeah,
what a weird episode this one has. I'm telling you,
we have gone all over the place and I really

(36:20):
enjoyed it. Um. It has. It has a lot of
things that I love, A big fat of collecting spoons.
Um that had a surprise home run in there of
the Salem witch trial. Spoon uh, movies and the tick

(36:40):
I haven't thought about a long time. A band which
I'm convinced I've heard at least one song from, but
I can't recall what it is. I think it's likely
I suspect you have I suspect, So I'm gonna look
into it afterwards because I feel like there's one song
in the back of my brain that's like, no, you
used to love this song. I can't remember what it

(37:01):
is again, all in an episode about a fairly simple
your chancel. There you go, there you go. I can't wait. Listeners.
If you've got these spoons, these collectible spoons, you have
to send us pictures notes. We've got to know. Oh,

(37:22):
oh absolutely, I need every collectible Spoons story you've got. Yes, yes,
In the meantime, that's what we had to say about
spoons for now. It is. We do have some listener
mail for you. But first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor. We're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes,

(37:51):
thank you, And we're back with the spons It's like
the cheesy superhero voice. Yes, I can't. I used to
play the Tick video game. I want to know if
anybody else remembers that. Yeah. Cool, that's that's an episode

(38:14):
we should do. The video games inspired by these companies
have put out that inspired by food and food Oh yeah,
Oh man, I don't know if the tick was specifically
trying to sell us spoons, but who knows could have been.
I love that idea. I love so much the idea

(38:36):
of someone being like, all right, you know, you know
what we can really push in the in the children's
children's commerce market, spoons. What can we do for it?
The tick? Obviously it's clear. I like I said, I

(38:58):
wanted my little brother's I still remember it, so yeah, clearly,
clearly this is this is I think you're touching on something.
I said. There's a whole spoon seitegeist out there that
is possibly underdeveloped. That's true, that's true. All right, Kristen wrote,

(39:18):
I was listening to my local International Food Stores podcast
a few months ago. The topic was on local aquaponics company,
root House Equaponics. I would love to learn more on
this topic if included a link to the podcast. If
you ever decided to come to Cincinnati Jungle Gym's, it's
a must stop foodie paradise. What other grocery store is

(39:38):
a podcast studio in the middle of it. Oh that's
so cool. That is cool, and I am fascinated with aquaponics,
so oh yeah, I definitely would love to talk about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, definitely definitely added to our added to our list. Um,

(40:00):
I think there should be podcast studios everywhere. I'm still
really enchanted with that time that I freaked out the
podcasters who were who are working in um that local
Yeah yeah, there's a pizza place in Brooklyn with the
local food station. Oh man, I'm totally forgetting the name
of it right now. Anyway. Yeah, I was like, oh,

(40:20):
I'm going to take pictures of the studio, and they
were like curtain clothes. I was like, oh, sorry, buddies,
I'm here for podcast convention. That's all right, thanks. Um
it was pretty good. It's pretty great. Um who um
Bart wrote, I take my coffee very seriously, so I

(40:42):
really loved your recent instant Coffee episode. For a little context,
this is what my kitchen counter looks like. There's a
regular kettle for tea, a temperature controlled one for coffee
to burg grinders so I can have espresso and regular
beans available at all times, and an array of coffee makers,
including a well war an air press, a well loved
Moka pot, a stainless steel French press I've broken so

(41:04):
many glass ones, and a ceramic filter holder for poor overs.
It probably comes as no surprise that I looked down
my nose at instant coffee for years, but a few
years ago that changed when I discovered flavored, artisanal instant coffees.
No instant coffee can taste as good as a fresh brew,
so I found a small UK company that doesn't fight

(41:25):
that fact, but leans in by adding a dazzling array
of flavors. We always have two jars open at home,
one I pick and one of my hobby picks, and
now that I'm back in the office halftime, I have
a third open in my desk drawer. Right now, I'm
enjoying chocolate orange at work. My home pick is Christmas Pudding,
and my hobbies pick is Turkish Delight, tasty coffee in

(41:46):
seconds that even a coffee snob can love. I love
modern tech. Wow, Yeah, fascinating. I know we didn't touch
too much on the artisanal stuff. We did a little bit,
but this, this is interesting. It sounds delicious. Yeah, because
I I generally looked down my nose at flavored coffees,

(42:09):
but a I like chocolate orange and Turkish Delight are
two of my favorite things, and I kind of want
to try a coffee that taste like those. Yeah. Yeah,
I'm really really intrigued by this. I love this too.
I love the you've got your work coffee home coffee

(42:34):
because I think we can relate. Laura and I have
my fancy coffee, and I like I'm in a hurry coffee,
like I have all these different oh yeah, oh yeah.
I usually like I usually grind my own beans, like
if it's a special occasion, I have other beans that
I might grind, and I might use them in a
French press instead of a pour over. Like my two
roommates both really use the coffee machine, so like if

(42:57):
I'm making coffee for all of us, that's what I use.
It's a whole I do also usually keep like a
tin of like half a Postellos and we're on hand
in case I just really need that likelf like right
to your eyeballs, like kind of yeah, yeah, yeah. I
It's funny because, as I mentioned, I for a long time,

(43:18):
I would just drink I just need a caffeine and
the taste of sort of secondary. I've sort of moved
away from there, but I had a friend who would
come over. She hated the coffee options. I had bought
me a coffee machine, and now I bought my mom
a coffee machine because she doesn't drink coffee, but she

(43:39):
has like packets that have gone like the crystals have clumped.
So I was like, I'm going to buy this, leave
it here, So the circle is complete, the coffee circle.
But yes, um loving hearing all of these coffee thoughts

(43:59):
so good. H well, Thanks to both of those listeners
for writing in. If you would like to write to us,
we would love to hear from you our emails Hello
at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart

(44:21):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagin
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.