Lidia Celebrates America

In rural Pennsylvania, Lidia hosts a celebratory meal for the family and friends she connected with on her journey through America's heartland. Here she makes an Italian Risotto for her guests. A Heartland Holiday Feast is Lidia Bastianich's latest special, in which she travels cross-country meeting Americans with diverse heritages and culinary traditions.

While in Denton, Texas, Lidia spends time with Kate Swan, age 12, who raises pigs and shows them at the State Fair. Kate show's Lidia how to wash brush, and feed the pigs, getting them ready for showing. In her latest special A Heartland Holiday Feast, Lidia Bastianich travels cross-country meeting Americans with diverse heritages and culinary traditions.

Nate Looney and Edgar Hercila work on a farm that they started in the middle of the city. It uses hydroponics to grow microgreens. See how the process works, in this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes.

In this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes, Mark and Denise Beyers make a turkey, and then fresh, homemade ricotta with Lidia. Mark and Denise have a 15-acre ranch where they farm maple trees for syrup, raise turkeys and chickens, and sell both eggs and honey with the help of their growing family.

In this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes, Lidia Bastianich tries whisky shots from Calvin Riggleman's distillery. Riggleman owns an 80-acre expanse, and grows all kinds of fruits and vegetables. He manages a farm stand, travels to farmer’s markets, and makes his own jams, jellies and sauces, as well as several kinds of local moonshine.

In this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes, Matt Smiley discusses how farming can help veterans coming home, the similarities between farming and soldiering, and why farming is so important to him.

In this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes, Alvina Maynard describes how farming gives a person purpose. Alvina raises alpacas, as the owner of River Hill Ranch in Richmond, Kentucky.

In this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes, pig farmers, Jon and Tara Darling make a Porchetta Roll with Lidia. They have dinner outside with family and friends. Jon and Tara farm lambs and hybrid pigs, but also create and serve farm-to-table dinners for local friends and veterans.

At a celebratory dinner, Lidia gives a moving toast to the Homegrown Heroes.

In this clip from Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes, we learn about Kelly Carlisle's journey, from her youth in a crime ridden neighborhood, to the Navy, and now farming. Kelly explains how farming and gardening made her a better person. She has founded Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project, a non-profit urban farm that focuses on serving at-risk youth from kindergarten to 8th grade.

In Homegrown Heroes, Chef Lidia Bastianich looks at veterans who return home and find farming to be a path back to civilian life. Seven poignant veterans’ stories take Lidia from the heart of Appalachia in Loom, W.Va. to Richmond, KY and Anaheim, CA, and prove that farming, beekeeping, and raising livestock can help individuals reconnect in a meaningful way to the community.

Bryan Anderson served two tours of duty in Iraq before he lost both legs and his left hand to an IED. In this clip he and Lidia Bastianich cook a shrimp pasta meal together.