Heritage Radio to Raise Funds at Roberta’s This Weekend
- Ulterior Epicure
Back in 2009, the when Heritage Radio Network was launched as an extension of Heritage Food USA’s sustainable food-awareness mission that spring, the “station” was an un-air-conditioned converted shipping container plunked in the backyard of Roberta’s Pizza. There were a few chairs, a set of microphones and headphones, and one sound engineer, Jack Inslee. Often Roberta’s co-founder Brandon Hoy’s dog, Meatball, was found scurrying about inside it, too. There was often a lingering cloud from the room being hot-boxed soon before one entered it. And although the container was sound-proofed, often during recordings, one could hear the footsteps and digging of people standing above it, tending to the garden on its roof.
Today, Heritage Radio Network is a certified 501c3 nonprofit organization, with twenty-five unique podcasts and 24-hour programming. There is now a newly appointed Executive Director, Erin Fairbanks, who sits at her own office a few blocks away at Heritage Foods headquarters implementing ways to better produce and expose them. But the station could still use one thing to keep it going: members. Therefore, this Sunday, Heritage Radio Network is holding a fundraiser party like none before.
Held in the backyard of Roberta’s Pizza, the party includes food prepared by the chefs of Del Posto, Gramercy Tavern, Back Forty West, Inside Park, Roberta’s, and cheese from Saxelby Cheesemongers, charcuterie from the Heritage Meat Shop, and seafood from Fish to Table. Guests can imbibe on cocktails mixed up by Dave Arnold, host of the HRN show “Cooking Matters,” and wines from the California-based Cain Vineyard and Winery. Tickets to the party include a one-year membership to Heritage Radio Network, a tax-deductible charitable donation, with more perks throughout the year from food establishments included.
This night should prove the swankiest event held for the radio network, which has grown up quite a bit in its three and a half years of operating. With a podcast for just about every food theme (cheese, beer, food and art) covering a range of topics in current food issues, such as fair and ethical sourcing in Clay Gordon’s “Straight to the Source” and modern-day agriculture in Erin Fairbanks’ “The Farm Report,” the network has hosted guests like Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, and many more experts in the field.
“HRN is the most important archive after the seed banks in the Colorado Mountains and the Natural History Museums around the country!” boasted Patrick Martins, the station’s founder and President of Heritage Foods USA.
This Sunday’s party should be filled with stimulating conversation as the hosts and donors to the station nosh and talk about all that and more. See (or rather, hear) what happens for when you get twenty-five talk show hosts into one backyard and give them drinks on Sunday.
Purchase tickets to Heritage Radio Network’s fundraiser party at: http://heritageradionetwork.eventbrite.com/
