Issue No. 8
Winter 2011
Dayton, Ohio s Sassafras Bakery s Where Buffalo Roam Woody Tasch on Slow Money s Local Fibers Sugar Artist Jan Kish s Snowville Creamery
GIFT LOCALLY AT THE NORTH MARKET. The Barrel & Bottle • Better Earth • CaJohn’s Flavor & Fire • Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams North Market Cookware • Pure Imagination Chocolatier • The Source by Wasserstrom and 27 more
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY BY SHOPPING AT THE NORTH MARKET. Visit us for fresh, local, high quality authentic food all year long. www.facebook.com/NorthMarket @NorthMarket
www.northmarket.com 59 Spruce Street
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Downtown Columbus
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(614) 463-9664
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open daily
Departments 4 Letter from the Publisher 6 Letter from the Editor 7 Edible Events 8 Notable Edibles 11 Local and In Season 12 From the Kitchen 16 Worth the Trip 18 Young Palates 21 Edible Traditions 24 A Taste of Home 39 A Home Cook’s Diary 52 Inside Our Local Food Stories 55 In the Garden 58 Behind the Bottle 63 Our Advertisers 64 Last Seed
Features 28 35
Where the Buffalo Roam
11 Black Bean Soup
At Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park and on 20 Ohio ranches, the mighty buffalo stages a comeback
12 Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seed Brittle
By Nancy McKibben
13 Homemade Vanilla Extract
The Beautiful, the Local and the Slow Woody Tasch on Slow Money, soil and poetry
By Marta Madigan
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Life Is Sweet …and, with Jan Kish, it’s savory too
By Joannie Colner D’Andrea
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Recipes
Dairy Revolutionary
13 Goat Cheese in Olive Oil with Mixed Spices & Herbs
14 Cheese Sablés 19 Gigi’s Cinnamon Rolls 23 Wild Rice-Stuffed Cornish Game Hen 25 Traditional Ethiopian Berbere 31 Overnight Marinated Braised Short Ribs
Snowville Creamery has a modest goal: save the world
45 Ice Cream Snowballs
By Eric LeMay Photography by Sarah Warda
53 AJ’s Elderberry Hand Pies ABOUT THE COVER: Photographer Catherine Murray of Photo Kitchen captures a winter nosegay with fresh rosemary from Tricia’s garden, organic thyme from Wayward Seed, wheat from the Wheeler family farm and bittersweet berries from the North Market farmers market. To learn more about Catherine and view her portfolio visit photokitchen.net.
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Letter from the PUBLISHER
If I could use one word to sum up the essence of this issue of Edible Columbus it would be heart. Inside, you will meet some special people that have truly found their path and their calling. Their road may have started later in life, or very early on, because of a job layoff, or after traveling across several continents to make Columbus their home. They all share a sense of purpose that will leave you knowing they are doing what they were meant to do. In our interview with Woody Tasch, we’re reminded of what he writes in his book Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered. That “Part of what is so wonderful about many of these small enterprises is, to borrow the words of Ben Cohen, that they are places where people ‘can bring their hearts and souls with them to work.’” When I think of the many farmers, artisans, chefs and producers who put their heart and soul into growing our food, preparing our food and turning it into wonderful products—I know it’s essential for us all to support these endeavors as they are vital to the unique fabric and flavor of Columbus. This season, when I am not producing tokens of appreciation in my kitchen I will be choosing to spend my money locally, at independent restaurants, at small shops and on things that have been produced in Columbus. Many of these businesses choose to support Edible Columbus by advertising with us, and that is the reason we can bring you complimentary copies of the magazine. Please patronize their businesses and let them know we appreciate them. Wishing you a winter filled with heart,
Tricia Wheeler P.S. Connect with us between issues at ediblecolumbus.com. We have new stories, recipes and events to share! Also, please ‘like’ and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Edible Columbus
@ediblecbus
We’d love to connect with you each day!
edible
COLUMBUS Publisher & Editor in Chief
Tricia Wheeler Editor
Colleen Leonardi Copy Editor
Doug Adrianson Design
Jenna Brucoli Business Development
Shelly Strange Brand Strategist
Sharon Brink Editorial Intern
Claire Hoppens Culinary Intern
Audra Sedluck Contributors
Carole Amber Troy Amber Janine Aquino Joannie Colner D’Andrea Molly Hays Claire Hoppens Eric LeMay Marta Madigan Nancy McKibben Ken Meter Catherine Murray Jessica Opremcak Genevieve Rainer Madeline Scherer Megan Shroy Charmaine Sutton Carole Topalian Tamara Mann Tweel Sarah Warda Kit Yoon Contact Us
P.O. Box 21-8376 Columbus, Ohio 43221 info@ediblecolumbus.com www.ediblecolumbus.com Advertising Inquiries
tricia@ediblecolumbus.com
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Edible Columbus is published quarterly and distributed throughout Central Ohio. Subscription rate is $25 annually. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.
PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
M
y daughter is 5 years old. I often glance at her and wonder about her future. I wonder what she will become, whom she will love and what her world will look like in 20 years when she starts to put together the puzzle pieces that will become her life’s work. What I hope is that her road is long, and that around every corner, up every hill, she has an opportunity to learn, to develop her talents and to be fulfilled by her chosen path.
Give the gift of local this holiday season!
Specialty foods, wine & spirits, and art from more than 160 local artisans.
celebrate local shop the best of Ohio (DVWRQ 7RZQ &HQWHU ‡ www.celebratelocalohio.com Gift baskets available!
Letter from the EDITOR
The Perfect Gift for the Locavore in Your Life!
Like Snow Suppose we did our work like the snow, quietly, quietly, leaving nothing out.
Subscribe Today! Don’t miss a single issue!
—Wendell Berry
I love the poetry of Wendell Berry. His voice rings clear and true, and his leadership within the local food movement is like snow—leaving nothing and no one out.
Support and celebrate our local food community each and every season. Subscribe to Edible Columbus or give a gift subscription to a friend. Subscribe online anytime at ediblecolumbus.com. For more information, email us at info@ediblecolumbus.com or call 614-296-5053.
Winter is a time for restoring the home, letting the land rest, reflecting on the year and spending time with those we love. Our work changes. We leave the fields and farmers markets for a quieter, more contemplative space. We turn inwards, like the earth, and gather our strength for another growing season. It’s with winter in mind that I share Berry’s poem. We decided to bring together three formidable voices in our community and beyond in this issue to address what’s next for the local foods movement: Warren Taylor of Snowville Creamery, Woody Tasch of Slow Money and Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center, who brought us the study “Ohio Food Systems—Farms at the Heart of It All.” Each has a singular, passionate message for why we need to pursue new models, new relationships and, in the words of Berry, as expressed by Tasch in his interview, “We need to have a new kind of imagination.”
I want to become a subscriber of Edible Columbus. I have filled out the form below and am sending it, along with a check in the amount of $25 (for four quarterly issues) payable to Edible Columbus to:
What better time to ignite the imagination than in winter, when fires burn bright and hearts sing in praise of having family and friends near. What better time to consider what it would look like if we did our work like the snow—leaving no farm, farmer, child, school, local restaurant or business, cook or kitchen out of the equation. A poetic aspiration to be sure, making it no less worthy of our humanly pursuits.
edible COLUMBUS
I believe what’s next in our work is building a more robust local food system by creating even closer relationships to inspire more action rooted in integrity, rigor and love. We are on a mission. The links in the movement are strong, but can be made even stronger through one quiet exchange, one compassionate conversation at a time.
With many blessings for a joyous and peaceful 2012,
Colleen Leonardi 6
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Start my subscription with the next issue for Ƒ Spring Ƒ Summer Ƒ Fall Ƒ Winter Gift subscriptions available
PHOTO BY ©SARAH WARDA, SARAHWARDA.COM
We do have something to learn from poetry. For it’s in poetry that we can imagine and innovate, and become heroes of our own lives and the lives of others. What would “a new kind of imagination” look like? I’ll let you cozy up this winter and dream.
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Edible EVENTS
edible Columbus
Winter Cooking Series december
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For details and registration, please visit ediblecolumbus.com
Tabletop Style Tips, Hand-Crafted Cocktails & Hors d’oeuvres 6–7:30pm Do you ever wonder how to mix your grandma’s china and your heirloom pieces with more modern dishware? We are fortunate to have the talented team from The Swanky Abode demonstrate how to build beautiful tablescapes that mix the old and new. They will help you with tips for creating a beautiful setting using everyday objects from around the house. Tricia will cook up small plates of hors d’oeuvres that will be simple to duplicate at any holiday gathering. The gentleman from Watershed Distillery will mix up holiday cocktails for us all to enjoy!
$35 | The MI Homes Demo Kitchen at Easton, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus december
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French Winter Classics Noon–1:30pm & 6–7:30pm Take a break from holiday preparations and enjoy celebrating the wonderful recipes of Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. Grab your loved one or best friend and join us for a delicious lesson in making French onion soup, Beef Bourguignon, haricots verts and apple galette.
$35 | The MI Homes Demo Kitchen at Easton, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus january
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Warm Up with Winter Vegetables Noon–1:30pm & 6–7:30pm We will learn how to make some of my favorite winter vegetarian dishes: Slow-Baked White Beans with Kale, Spiced Quinoa with Roasted Beets and Spicy Yogurt, Potato Chard Gratin and Barley with a medley of mushrooms.
$35 | The MI Homes Demo Kitchen at Easton, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus january
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Beer Tasting and Beer Braising 6–7:30pm Featuring special guests Chef Susie Cork of The Cooking Studio at Shaw’s and Matthew Barbee of Rockmill Brewery. We will be doing a beer tasting of Rockmill’s fabulous Belgian-style brews and Chef Cork will offer her expert tips as we braise beef short ribs and pork shoulder in beer.
$40 | The MI Homes Demo Kitchen at Easton, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus february
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Celebrating Local Cheese Noon–1:30pm & 6–7:30pm We have a rich variety of local cheese makers in our region crafting amazing cheeses. Join our special guest Brian Slater as he shares his story of creating their signature Canal Junction cheese and talks about the artisan cheese movement in Ohio. Our tasting plate will feature all different kinds of cheese crafted throughout Ohio. Tricia will create three cheese-inspired recipes.
$35 | The MI Homes Demo Kitchen at Easton, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus february
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Behind the Scenes at Thurn’s Specialty Meats 6–7:30pm Join us for a rare glimpse into what has made Thurn’s Specialty Meats a Columbus Institution for the past 125 years. Albert Thurn will lead us on a tour of the smokehouse and the prep area where meats are cured and sausage is made. We will sample a variety of meats and learn about the different cuts and cooking tips of the products they produce. Albert will be the chef of our cooking demonstration. For more details about Thurn’s see our online digital magazine, Winter 2010, for our feature on Thurn’s. This would be a perfect Valentine gift for the meat lover in your life!
$35 | Thurn’s Specialty Meats, 530 S. Greenlawn Ave. february
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Second Annual Heirloom Bean Class Noon–1:30pm & 6–7:30pm We are building on the fun we had last year cooking up heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo! This year we will bring in different varieties of heirloom beans and cook up Chile Rellenos with Yellow Indian Beans, Runner Cannellini Salad and several different traditional preparations of bean pots. Your love affair with Rancho Gordo and heirloom beans will start here!
$35 | The MI Homes Demo Kitchen at Easton, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus
Notable EDIBLES
Igloo Letterpress Limited-Edition Poster Nestled in downtown Worthington, Igloo Letterpress brings modern charm to Old World printing practices, using the tools and images owner Allison Chapman inherited from her grandfather to create unique cards, posters, books and gifts.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BASI ITALIA BY KAREN LYNCH
Inspired by the Worthington Farmers Market, Allison created a limited-edition poster adorned with one of her favorite quotes from author and activist Frances Moore Lappé: “Every decision we make about food is a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.”
Christmas Trees at Basi Italia In 2007, Trish Gentile and John Dornback, wifeand-husband team and owners of the beloved Basi Italia, got the beautiful idea into their heads to sell Christmas trees from a local farm at the restaurant during the holidays. Each season, John decorates the patio, turning it into a winter wonderland. They feature a broad range of holiday music, keeping it light-hearted and festive with plenty of trees to choose from. The kitchen whips up kidfriendly hot drinks for the family. And the valets help people tie their tree to the top of their car. Some folks simply drag them home on foot (think When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan dragging her tree home in New York City). You can pick up a tree after 3pm at Basi Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, email trishandjohn@basi-italia.com or call at 614-294-4253.
By Colleen Leonardi
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“The quote is about choices,” Allison says. “It's about empowering people to think about what they purchase and realize that there is a direct link from what we choose to buy to what ultimately succeeds.” The two-color, 8.5- by 11-inch limited-edition poster is available for purchase for $25.00 this winter at Igloo Letterpress, Hills Market, Wholly Craft and the Celebrate Local store at Easton Town Center. Explore Igloo Letterpress and their creations at iglooletterpress.com.
By Claire Hoppens
Betty Rosbottom’s Sunday Roasts Winter is the perfect time of year for slow-cooked meats and vegetables, and admired author Betty Rosbottom is the perfect person to bring us a solid collection of recipes for easy preparation any time of the week. As in her previous cookbook, Sunday Soup, in her new Sunday Roasts Rosbottom shares over 75 staple recipes for your kitchen. Bistro Roast Chicken with Garlic, Onions and Herbs or Lamb Shanks with Dates and Olives offer satisfying solutions for holiday meals. The colorful, crisp photos make the dishes look extra appealing, and with chapters organized by types of meats, then sides and extras, it earns the mark of being an easy yet comprehensive guidebook for slow-cooked meals. Sunday Roasts by Betty Rosbottom, photographs by Susie Cushner (Chronicle Books, 2011, 180 pages, $24.95)
By Colleen Leonardi
“Buy Ohio, Feed Ohio” at the Hills Market Buying locally made gift and grocery items at the Hills Market will have far-reaching impact this winter. The third annual “Buy Ohio, Feed Ohio” program kicked off November 1 and will continue until the end of December. By purchasing products marked with the “Buy Ohio, Feed Ohio” labels, customers can simultaneously support small producers in our community and contribute to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, an integral organization fighting hunger in 20 Central Ohio counties. Participating brands include Crimson Cup Coffee, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Stan Evans Bakery, Gerber Chicken, Silver Bridge Coffee Company and Maramor Chocolates, along with several dozen more. Look for tags indicating which Ohio-made items are included in the program, and keep an eye on the Hills Market’s second location, slated to open in downtown Columbus in spring 2012. thehillsmarket.com.
By Claire Hoppens
Eat Your Books Our new favorite resource for organizing your recipes all in one place is the online search engine Eat Your Books. With a full index of the most popular cookbooks and magazines, you can customize and then conduct an easy online search of your most treasured recipes, plus new finds and old standards. Gift memberships are also available for the holidays. Visit eatyourbooks.com to learn more.
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Local and in SEASON
Vegetables Onions, Parsnips, Potatoes, Winter Squash, Turnips, Cabbage, Carrots
Meat & Dairy Cheese, Milk, Meats
Other Products Maple Syrup, Honey, Local staple crops, such as Shagbark’s Black Turtle Beans and Stone Ground Whole Flours
Black Bean Soup Recipe by Tricia Wheeler This is a hearty, delicious and economical soup for the winter season. It is made even better if you can buy local black beans by Shagbark (see our fall issue online to learn more about Shagbark). Serve Shagbark corn chips on the side. They can be purchased at The Greener Grocer, the Celebrate Local store at Easton Town Center and the Worthington Winter Market.
Ingredients 1 pound (450 grams) dried black beans 12 cups water 2 bay leaves ½ cup olive oil 2 large red or green peppers, cored, seeded and diced 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped 8 medium garlic cloves, peeled, smashed and chopped 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 tablespoon chili powder 2 tablespoons salt
Garnishes
PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
Diced fresh jalapeño peppers Sour cream Red onion Fresh cilantro
Directions 1 Soak black beans covered in water for a few hours or overnight, depending on their freshness.
2 Bring black beans, water and bay leaves to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently for 2–3 hours, or until beans are tender. Add more water if necessary to keep beans covered.
3 Meanwhile, sauté the peppers and onions in olive oil until soft. Stir in garlic, cumin, oregano and chili powder and cook for 2 minutes. Stir into beans when they are almost done. Add salt and adjust for seasoning. Cook another 15 minutes. Serve with garnishes. Wine Pairing A very dry, crisp Alsatian Riesling ~Janine Aquino edible COLUMBUS.com
FALL 2011
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By Tricia Wheeler | Photography by Catherine Murray
I have always believed that happiness comes from small everyday pleasures. It is the little things that give meaning to our lives as we go about our busy days. As the holiday season approaches, I look for ways to slow down and spend time in my kitchen creating small tokens of appreciation that come from my heart. Here are some favorite recipes for treats that are perfect to share, or to be enjoyed in your home throughout the season.
Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seed Brittle Adapted from a recipe by Alton Brown Ingredients 1 cup hulled green pumpkin seeds 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, plus additional oil for coating spatula 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 cups sugar 1½ cups water 3 teaspoons kosher salt
Procedure 1 Set a 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat and add oil. Once oil is hot, add the seeds. Sauté the seeds while constantly stirring, until the seeds become slightly brown and crackled, approximately 5 minutes. Transfer seeds to another bowl; add the cinnamon and cayenne and stir to combine.
2 Line a half sheet pan with a silicone baking mat. Heat the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon, until mixture comes to a boil.
3 Stop stirring; cover and cook for 3 minutes. Uncover and cook until the sugar is a light amber color, approximately 30–40 minutes.
4 Remove from heat and stir in the pumpkin seed mixture until just combined. This will greatly reduce the temperature of the sugar, so quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Using an oil-coated spatula, spread candy to about ¼ inch thick. Immediately sprinkle mixture with kosher salt.
5 Cool and break into pieces. Store in an airtight container for 10 days.
Tip: To easily clean sugar mixture from pan, put water into pan and bring to boil.
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Homemade Vanilla Extract Ingredients Pretty bottle with a tight-fitting lid or cork 1–3 fresh vanilla beans Vodka (preferably OYO Honey Bean Vanilla Vodka, middlewestspirits.com)
Procedure 1 Keeping the vanilla bean intact, make two slices to open up the bean. Place the bean in the bottle, 1 bean for smaller bottles, 2–3 beans for larger bottles.
2 Fill with vodka. Store in a dark place for 2–3 weeks. 3 Use this extract in any recipe calling for vanilla. This handcrafted vanilla extract is like a fine wine—it matures nicely with age.
For the Spatula Stamp To personalize gifts from your kitchen, order a custom stamp from invitationbox.com.
Goat Cheese in Olive Oil with Mixed Spices & Herbs Ingredients Shallow jar with tight-fitting lid Fresh goat cheese Good-quality olive oil Peppercorns Dried hot pepper Bay leaf Garlic clove Fresh rosemary
Procedure 1 Slice goat cheese into rounds, or shape into balls. Place in bottom of jar; add herbs and spices; cover with oil. Let marinate at room temperature for 24 hours, then store in the refrigerator. Use in 3–4 days.
2 Remove from the refrigerator 1–2 hours before serving, as oil will set in refrigerator. Use the cheese as an appetizer with toasted baguette; it’s great crumbled on salads or scrambled eggs, or add it to a cheese board.
3 Use leftover oil to sauté vegetables, or make into a salad dressing.
Note: The peppers in the photo are our own dried peppers. My husband grows an extensive pepper garden during the summer. If you dry peppers or herbs from your garden, you can later custom blend them into a seasoning mix. Our blend is named Scotty McHotty after my husband.
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Cheese Sablés Ingredients 2 sticks cold butter, diced ½ cup grated cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan cheese 1½ cups flour 2 egg yolks 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder 1 teaspoon salt Paprika
Prodedure 1 Preheat oven to 350°. 2 In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until smooth and fluffy. Work in cheeses, flour, egg yolks and spices. The dough should be firm enough to shape into a rectangle between pieces of parchment. Cut slices from end of dough, slice in half to form squares, carefully transfer to a parchment-covered baking sheet and sprinkle with paprika.
3 Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until crackers are firm but only beginning to color—do not let them brown.
4 Serve warm or at room temperature. Store crackers in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Note: A great gift to give in an antique dish with a bottle of wine!
Give Gifts for a Reason: Fair Trade, Local, Eco-friendly Now order online & pick up in store! GenerationGreenStore.com 6351 Sawmill Rd Dublin, OH 43017 614-761-2222 Please follow us! @GenGreenStore GenerationGreenStore
At Bleu & Fig, we share your appreciation for all things beautiful, and we understand how much your special occasion means to you.
Seasonally inspired menus and design for your Holiday Entertaining
www.bleuandďŹ g.com bleuandfig@gmail.com
614.348.3328
Worth the TRIP
Dayton, Ohio The old grind, the wild blue yonder and everything in between By Carole Amber | Photography by Troy Amber
Dinner at the Rue Dumaine
With the weather cooling and daylight shrinking, it’s the perfect time to plan a cozy getaway. Just over 60 miles due west from our capital city, Dayton offers a romantic inn, famous chocolate-covered potato chips, exquisite flavors from the bayou, gingerbread decorating classes, millions of holiday lights and plenty of toys. As you begin your itinerary, keep Clifton Mill in mind as a great way to begin or end your trip. Positioned off I-70 east of Dayton, this historic mill is one of the largest water-powered grist mills in the country. In its prime, Clifton Mill was responsible for grinding several pounds of corn, wheat and other grains per hour. This living museum provides an interesting education with views of the millwheel and the Little Miami River, which naturally powers this grain-grinding engine. There are two main attractions at Clifton Mill. The first is the food served from the scratch kitchen overlooking the gorge. Clifton Mill is recognized for its stack of two pancakes featuring house-ground grains. Owner Anthony Satariano is “pretty sure you can’t finish them.” Choose from cornmeal, buckwheat, buttermilk or seasonal gingerbread. The second attraction is the abundance of bright holiday lights. Teeming with over 3.5 million bulbs, this landmark becomes a holiday wonderland from Thanksgiving until the New Year. As you continue on to Dayton, there are many fun-filled activities to build into your trip. Known as the Birthplace of
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Aviation, Dayton is a playground for boys and girls to be wowed by flying machines. Stop by a few of the 45 stops on the Aviation Trail, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, or book a flight on a replica Wright B Flyer. Seeing how Wilbur and Orville Wright changed the world is sure to please. Dorothy Lane Market (DLM) is the next stop on the tour. According to Vice President of Food Services Jack Gridley, “We are a combination of a gourmet market, a conventional grocery and a health food supermarket.” Much more than a grocery store, Dorothy Lane Market is an experience. “Flavor is everything,” says Jack as he describes the proteins with which he stocks the store: “local air-chilled chicken, grass-fed beef and wild seafood.” School of Cooking Director Gayle Burtt gives us the details of a 10-day Sicilian excursion that DLM is currently leading with 15 lucky customers. “Tasting wine directly from the barrel, lunches in the vineyard, local farm dinners and behind-the scenesspecialties are what makes these trips special.” DLM also offers hands-on cooking classes, a gluten-free club and outstanding customer service. Book a mouthwatering cooking class for the whole family such as Let’s Decorate a Gingerbread House or Cookie Exchange or Holiday Brunch to fill your Dayton day. For a late afternoon stroll, downtown Centerville has a charming strip of boutiques, antique stores and galleries. Stock up on holiday presents at Cutie Patooties, Pieces of Style and JoliBoutique. You can stop by native candy maker Ester Price
Clifton Mill 75 Water St., Clifton, OH 45316 cliftonmill.com | 937-767-5501 Legendary Light Display: November 25–January 1, 6–9pm
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force 1100 Spaatz St., Dayton, OH 45431 nationalmuseum.af.mil | 937-255-3286
Aviation Trail aviationtrailinc.org
Dorothy Lane Market 6177 Far Hills Ave., Dayton, OH 45459 dorothylane.com | 937-434-1294 Open 6am–11pm School of Cooking schedule: visit website
Ester Price 269 N. Main St., Centerville, OH 45459 esterprice.com | 937-433-2535 Hours: M–F 9am–6pm, Sa 9am–5:30pm
English Manor Bed & Breakfast 505 E. Linden Ave., Miamisburg, OH 45342 englishmanorbandb.com | 800-676-9456
Rue Dumaine 1061 Miamisburg Centerville Rd., Dayton, OH 45459 ruedumainerestaurant.com Top: Chef Anne Kearney of Rue Dumaine
Bottom: The Dorothy Lane Market
to buy edible gifts such as hand-strung bourbon cherries and caramel pecans. Be sure to try the dark-chocolate-covered potato chips. This bite is truly a taste of Dayton, with locally operated Mike-sells Potato Chip Company chips smothered in Ester Price chocolate.
PHOTOS BY © TROY AMBER, WWW.TLASTUDIO.COM
Our favorite choice for dinner is Rue Dumaine. A relatively new addition to the Dayton landscape, Rue Dumaine is a find. Please do not let the strip-mall location deter you—once you enter the front door you are transported to another place. Chef Anne Kearney is no stranger to distinction. Her record includes “Top Bistro/Casual Chef in America” from Robert Mondavi, “10 Best New Chefs in America” by Food & Wine and “American Express Best Chef: Southeast 2002” from the James Beard Foundation, to name a few. She honed her craft with culinary mentor John Neal and business mentor Emeril Lagasse, and was the proud chef/owner of the acclaimed Peristyle Restaurant in New Orleans for nine years. To Dayton’s delight, she has landed back in her hometown to compose elegant bistro fare at Rue Dumaine (named after the street on which Peristyle sat in New Orleans). Housemade tonic, ginger beer and barrel-aged Manhattans are a delightful way to start the evening. You can expect locally grown ingredients and flavors such as mussels steamed in saffron aioli, traditional steak frites and Chardonnay-braised beef short ribs. Those who are more adventurous can enjoy local venison, or pheasant and winter sweetbreads.
Our pick for the night is a warm winter salad that nourishes the soul from the inside out. Chef Kearney wilts local hoopgrown escarole leaves with applewood-smoked bacon, thinly sliced shallots and a house-made vinaigrette. She serves this with rich roasted beets and homemade torn croutons. This salad soothes. Chef Kearney tells us that “people request it every year.” Any chef who can make a salad stand out as the evening’s top dish is worth the trip. As the day comes to a close, make your way to the English Manor Bed & Breakfast. This Tudor mansion is located on “millionaires row” in Miamisburg, Ohio, and is frequently voted “best holiday decorations” by the local city council. Known for huge multi-course breakfasts and homemade scones, the English Manor Bed & Breakfast is a home away from home. Who knew that so many hidden gems were just over 60 miles from Columbus? If you are in need of some nourishment, bright lights to dazzle your senses or aviation wonders to send your heart soaring, book a holiday trip to Dayton, Ohio.
Carole M. Amber is a foodie and writer who adores whole, fresh and delicious food. Her background includes marketing experience at Nike, creating/selling a gourmet dining company in Chicago and an international MBA. She currently sinks her teeth into a food website called ChopSizzlePop! with her husband Troy. Together they hunt down expert restaurant recommendations and recipes, interviews with chefs like Jacques Pépin and Rick Bayless and behind the scenes footage of age-old food traditions at chopsizzlepop.com.
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Young PALATES
Fruits of the
Family Tree Cinnamon rolls remain a favorite generation after generation By Madeline Scherer | Photography by Catherine Murray
W
intertime makes me smile because we do a lot of baking! One of my very favorites is my greatgrandmother’s (I call her “Gigi”) cinnamon rolls. I love how they have a golden brown color to them. When we pop them in the oven and I start to smell the crispy rolls baking and the smell of cinnamon, it makes me want to eat them all before they even cool down! They are sticky and sweet and we add lots of delicious nuts, giving them a touch of salty flavor and making them one of my favorite desserts of all time.
We don’t use refined sugar in our house, but my Gigi’s cinnamon rolls are an exception to this rule. I first remember making them with her when I was 3 years old. We were at my Grandma’s house, and I stood on a step stool and helped her roll out the dough. Recently, she came into town and I got to bake them with her again. I asked her how this became a tradition. She told me that her mother (my great-great-grandmother!) would Above: Madeline and Gigi
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Rolling up the dough
make all of her own bread (which my mom does!), and she would take part of the bread dough and use it to make the cinnamon rolls. When I asked her if she thought my greatgreat-great-grandmother made them she said, “Chances are she did, because they all made their own bread back then.” This would have been in the 1850s! Gigi says, “You don’t have to have an occasion to make cinnamon rolls.” I agree 100%. After spending the day baking them with my Gigi, I made my mom promise to carry on the tradition in our home. Each week when she bakes bread, she will set aside a portion of the dough for me to roll into this delectable dessert. Now, the smell of cinnamon fills our house on a weekly basis. Bonus! I’m going to start experimenting with the sweeteners we use (Sucanat and raw coconut crystals). But in the meantime, here’s my Gigi’s recipe:
Gigi’s Cinnamon Rolls 1 If you are a baker of bread, take a portion of your bread and add two to three tablespoons sugar to sweeten it. If you aren’t, my Gigi says to use a pre-packaged dough from the store. 2 Roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface. 3 Spread with softened butter. 4 Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon (don’t be shy on the sugar). 5 Sprinkle some chopped walnuts. 6 Roll up the dough and slice into 1-inch rolls. 7 Place in buttered 9- by 13-inch pan—12 rolls to a pan. 8 Cover with towel and let rise until doubled. 9 Bake at 350 F. until lightly browned (15–20 minutes). 10 Let rolls cool and spread icing. Icing Combine a bit of milk, some melted butter and a dash of vanilla. Add powdered sugar until thickened. (My Gigi said she just eyeballs this part.)
My name is Madeline Scherer and I am almost 10½ years old. I have a big family—seven of us. Mommy, Daddy, me and I have two sisters and two brothers—all younger than me. I am homeschooled—or alternatively schooled, as my mom likes to say. I take classes all over the city! My favorite things to do are practice the piano and violin, read books and go to my Uncle Tom’s farm. I absolutely love to cook and started cooking as soon as I could read recipes, at least that’s what I remember. I make a great guacamole and a pretty good hummus, too. Someday I want to become a farmer and cook all foods from my farm. Madeline Scherer making cinnamon rolls at home
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Ediblee TRADITIONS
Castle in the Clouds Founder’s vision leaves legacy of love in Cedar Falls By Nancy McKibben
ee sides by Hocking Hills State Old Man’s Cave just minutes away, & Spa at Cedar Falls. go recalls surveying the that I had met a truly crazy re was just a little cabin and a a one-lane gravel road, and this na build an inn. And I thought: nt to come to Hocking County?” PHOTOS COURTESY OF ELLEN GRINSFELDER
experienced single woman in her No bank would loan her money. he cabin into a kitchen and dining her consulting business, but every had to pull his crew to work y him again.
sful. She knew exactly what ommitted to seeing it happen. Melody Borchers
Anne's cabin in Hocking Hills
Anne Castle outside her cabin
next day, Ellen asked herself: “With my mother gone, can we continue to succeed?” The answer was a resounding yes. “But we were still undercapitalized,” Ellen says. “There were times we didn’t take a paycheck.” Terry continued as a contractor, and also handled all the Inn’s building and maintenance. Ellen welcomed guests, cleaned and decorated, promoted Hocking Hills tourism and planned the Inn’s expansion. Daughter Sarah and son Ben remember Inn staff who became like family; Christmas decorating parties for the Inn; and lots of practical lessons in running a small business.
“I love meeting people that used to know Gram. The stories are always the same ... that Gram was a little ‘crazy’ when she first started the Inn (all she had was a dream and no money) but that Gram was a truly inspiring woman.”—Sarah Lingo Next year, the Inn and Spa at Cedar Falls celebrates its 25th anniversary with 12 new cottages, five cabins and a spa, all designed and built by Terry. The gourmet restaurant, something that Anne insisted on from the start, continues to attract outside diners as well as Inn guests under Chef Anthony Schulz. The latest endeavor is The Gathering Place, a green-certified corporate retreat with a rooftop garden. “Anne would have been so excited about it,” Terry says. “She loved her flowers and vegetables.” Ellen considers the journey that began with Anne Castle’s dream of an inn. “We’ve learned to live each day to its fullest,” she says. “Our goal is to welcome people and take care of them to the best of our ability—so they leave feeling loved, refreshed, rejuvenated and with smiles on their faces. I have no doubt that my mother is up there, smiling down and proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
The Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls 21190 State Route 374, Logan, OH 43138 800-653-255; innatcedarfalls.com The restaurant is open to outside diners for lunch and dinner. Please phone ahead for dinner reservations.
Nancy McKibben has been writing and eating for years, and is happy to combine those loves with the opportunity to advocate for local food in the pages of Edible Columbus. Her novel The Chaos Protocol was a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for Fiction in 2000, and she was the winner of the Thurber House Essay Contest in 2003. She is also a lyricist and journalist, the mother of six and the wife of one. View her work at leader.com/nancymckibben; contact her at nmckibben@leader.com.
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Wild Rice-Stuffed Cornish Game Hens with Carrots, Turnips and Mushrooms Recipe courtesy of Chef Anthony Schulz Wild Rice
Sauce
½ cup wild rice 1½ cup water 1 tsp kosher salt ½ small onion, diced 1 tablespoon butter
4 garlic cloves ½ stalk celery 2 shallots ½ carrots ½ fennel bulb 1 apple 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 sprig rosemary 2 sprigs thyme 2 sprigs parsley 1 bay leaf 1 cup red wine 6 cups chicken stock
Vegetables 2 carrots 2 turnips 8 button mushrooms
Hens Vegetable oil Kosher salt Pepper 4 Cornish game hens Preheat oven to 375° F
To prepare the rice:
Chef Anthony Schulz on
Sweat the onions with 1 tablespoon butter, then add water and salt, stirring to dissolve. Add rice and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover. After 45 minutes, check rice for doneness—it should be open and al dente. It may need to cook up to 10-15 additional minutes. This step can be done 1-2 days ahead, refrigerating rice until needed.
Local Food
To prepare the sauce: Rough chop first 6 ingredients. Place large pot on high heat and add butter. When butter is melted, add the chopped ingredients and stir to coat with the butter. Let sit for a minute, then reduce heat to medium-high and let vegetables brown. When thoroughly browned, add the red wine and deglaze pan, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula. Let wine reduce to almost nothing, then add the chicken stock and remaining ingredients, and turn heat back to high. Reduce by half, then strain into a clean saucepan and continue to reduce to 2 cups. Remove from heat and set aside.
Executive Chef Anthony Schulz helps Ellen and Terry bring their vision for fresh, local and delicious food to every meal the Inn prepares and shares with its guests. “Now more than ever, people want to know where their food is coming from,” says Schulz. “By sourcing locally, we create a wonderful connection between our providers and our guests. Both of them know how much we care about what we do, and they see it and taste it first-hand.”
To prepare game hens: Rinse and pat dry. (Remove necks from cavity. You can add necks to the sauce while reducing for more flavor.) Season hens with salt and pepper on all sides. Heat a pan (only big enough to fit one hen at a time) over high heat Add 2 tablespoons of oil to pan and heat. Add first hen to pan, breast side down, and turn heat down to medium. When breast turns golden brown, turn over and brown the back. Do the other hens in the same manner so all sides are golden in color. Now, take the prepared wild rice and place 3-4 spoonfuls in the cavities of the hens. Tie butcher's twine around the tail and legs to close cavity. Place hens on jelly roll pan and put in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until internal temperature of legs and rice reach 160° F.
To prepare the vegetables: While hens are baking, rough cut the carrots and turnips into pieces about the size of a nickel. Individually blanch the carrots and turnips in heavily salted boiling water until there is still some resistance left. Remove from boiling water to ice water to stop the cooking, then place on paper towels to dry. For the mushrooms: quarter and sauté over high heat in vegetable oil until browned, then remove to a small plate.
To finish: When hens are done, let rest at room temperature for 8-10 minutes. While they are resting, reheat sauce over medium heat and add the carrots, turnips, and mushrooms. Remove the twine and place the hens on plates. Divide vegetables equally around the hens, and then pour sauce equally over the hens.
For Schulz and his culinary team, the first couple of seasons were a little challenging as they sought out local suppliers for more and more ingredients. But Schulz said that as word has spread of the Inn’s quest for high-quality local products, suppliers are easier to find. “There’s an entire network of people nearby who are so passionate about producing the best-quality ingredients and seeing them used locally,” says Schulz. “We’re working with dozens of locals who supply us with everything from mushrooms, garlic and potatoes to wines, beers and berries. It’s so much fun to develop recipes and work with ingredients that I know have been out of the ground for only 15 minutes.”
By Amy Weirick
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A TASTE of Home
Injera: Ethiopian Bread in a Columbus Bakery By Tamara Mann Tweel and Charmaine Sutton Photography by Jessica Opremcak
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E
ating in Ethiopia is a full-body experience. Past explorers, enamored with the country’s dramatic landscapes, ancient faiths and great legends, describe the delicate hand-washing rituals, the intimate process of being hand-fed stew-soaked injera bread and the concluding aroma of spiced coffee.
Surrounded by Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan, this land of steep mountains, wide savannahs and volcanic lakes sits at the Horn of Africa—a gateway between continents. Here, Orthodox Christianity has flourished since the fourth century and Emperor Menelek I, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, is said to have brought the Ark of the Covenant. The food reflects this storied past: It is regal, varied and steeped in ritual. Due to an influx of over 18,000 Ethiopians to Columbus in the past two decades, it is now possible to fully experience this rich culinary culture. The community, which lives primarily near Whitehall on the east side and Morse Road on the north side, has created a dynamic social network, with Amharic language classes, college boot camps, festivals, restaurants and—most importantly—fabulous mom-and-pop bakeries that specialize in making injera bread.
Injera Injera is the plate, napkin and silverware of Ethiopian cuisine. Meat and vegetable dishes are placed directly on the spongy steamed bread, while other pancake-like loaves are brought to the table to eat with. The bread is made from an ancient and petite grain indigenous to Ethiopia called teff; 150 grains of teff amount to a single kernel of wheat. Not only is teff rich in amino acids, calcium, iron and lycine, but the fermentation process used to create injera enhances the bread’s vitamin and protein content. Injera’s flavor is unmatched—at once sour and tangy, somewhere between sourdough and citrus. The bread also has a unique texture that changes throughout the eating process. It is pliable enough to soak up flavor, strong enough to scoop up food and gentle enough to complement but not overpower the Berbere-spiced Ethiopian stews (see sidebar).
Addisu Bakery Addisu Bakery sits in an inconspicuous shopping mall on an anonymous expanse of South Hamilton Road. Yet when you walk through the door, the world becomes intimate. Ashe Aragie stands at the checkout counter chatting with his costumers. Abezu, his wife, works in the back kitchen, cooking up the bread. Their sons and friends wander in and out to tell stories, pick up a package of fresh injera or purchase a box of Ethiopian beer nuts. This charming specialty store is a delightful addition to Columbus’ growing international food scene.
Where to Shop Addisu Bakery 873 S. Hamilton Rd. Columbus, OH 43213
What to Make Berbere, an assortment of ground herbs and spices, is the backbone of Ethiopian cuisine. The most important ingredient is fenugreek, a sweet and slightly bitter seed. Use berbere as a spice rub for meat or fish, or add to Ethiopian stews such as Doro Wat. Serve with injera from Addisu bakery.
Berbere Ingredients 1 teaspoon ground fenugreek seeds ¼ cup ground cayenne ¼ cup red pepper flakes ¼ cup paprika 1 tablespoons salt ¼ teaspoon ground allspice ¾ teaspoon ground cardamom 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves ½ teaspoon ground coriander ½ teaspoon ground cumin 2 tablespoons onion powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Ingredients 1 In a skillet over medium heat, toast the fenugreek until fragrant, shaking the skillet continuously to avoid scorching. 2 Remove from heat and cool. Grind fenugreek in an electric grinder or with mortar and pestle. Stir in remaining spices. 3 Store the powder in a tightly sealed container. Store in the refrigerator for up to three months.
Abezu and Ashe met in high school in Addis Ababa. She was an ambitious dreamer, ready to make a legacy abroad. He was an electrical engineer with a cautious temperament. After their marriage, Abezu took off to Washington, D.C., to visit her sister and decided to stay. In 1993, at the age of 35, Ashe followed her. “I told her,” he said, “to be together, I have to be here.” In D.C., Ashe worked at car rental agencies as a parking lot attendant and Abezu worked at an Ethiopian restaurant and Au Bon Pain. Left: Injera bread at the Addisu Bakery
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“We had never heard about Ohio,” laughs Ashe. “My wife,” he sighs with a knowing look, “came here first.” Abezu, through the Ethiopian embassy in D.C., heard that in Columbus, Ohio, “one job is good enough to live.” Within two days of arrival, she had found a job as a housekeeper at the Hyatt in Capital Square. Ashe, coming a few weeks later, was equally fortunate, finding work as valet in the City Center mall. When the couple had their two sons, Abezu, ever restless, decided to start her own injera bakery out of her home. The Ethiopian community was growing and she could already pinpoint a number of eager clients. Abezu perfected the recipe and became the first person in Columbus to sell injera directly to grocery stores. The bread takes two days to make. She starts mixing the flour the night before so that the teff has time to ferment and rise. The next day, she wakes up at 5am to finish mixing the ingredients. To cook the injera, she pours a thin layer of batter on an electric crepe griddle and uses a sefed (a thin woven spatula) to flip the pancake after it steams. The injera is ready when the pancake bubbles up and changes color. Abezu only uses teff flour grown in America. In the 1990s a farmer named Wayne Carlson decided to grow teff in Caldwell, Idaho. Carlson had traveled to Ethiopia in the 1970s and became enamored with the grain. When he returned to his native Idaho, he noticed the “geological and climatic similarities of the Snake River region and the East African Rift” and decided to reverse the expected flow of cultural influence. “Rather than exporting ‘development’ practices to Ethiopia, why not take some wisdom from an ancient culture,” he writes. Today, The Teff Company exports its flour to Ethiopian and Eritrean communities across the country. In 2007, after 20 years working multiple jobs in the United States, Abezu got her wish: She became a small business owner. Abezu and Ashe’s adopted son, Nati, helped the couple secure a loan and open their own injera bakery. They called the store Addisu, which means new in Amharic. For the first year, the family kept their day jobs. Abezu even worked a full rotation at an extended care center before coming to the store to prepare the bread. Still, the couple says, it was worth it. “For 11 years [before the store], she didn’t smile,” says Ashe. Now, the family bakes and sells over 500 rounds of injera six days a week to Ethiopian and Eritrean Ohioans across the state. Despite never taking a vacation, Ashe and Abezu are fulfilled. “She fought for 15 years to get the store,” beams Ashe. “She smiles now. She is happy now.”
Tamara Mann Tweel is a freelance writer and PhD candidate in American history at Columbia University. Born and raised in New York City, Tamara comes from a boisterous clan of exploratory eaters with two passions: family and food. She is excited to bring this spirit to Columbus and discover the many world traditions that are being recreated within our city. Her culinary writing has appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, Icons of American Cooking and Museum. Charmaine Sutton is a designer with an obsession for all things food-related. With a background in magazines and architecture, she spends her days honing her skills as a marketer of architecture. As a recent transplant to Columbus, she enjoys exploring town with her husband in search of the perfect bowl of noodles.
Top: Preparing the bread at the Addisu Bakery Bottom: Teff flour at the Addisu Bakery
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Join us for an
Edible Columbus Cooking Class at HOME HOME is proud to be the host for the Edible Cooking Class Series. Come in and look around. See what our higher standards can mean for you. Enjoy our beautiful kitchen; and imagine building one of your own.
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At Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park and on 20 Ohio ranches, the mighty buffalo stages a comeback By Nancy McKibben
T
his tribute to the American bison comes from Buffalo Stampede by Zanesville native Zane Grey, the prolific author of more than 63 novels about the Old West published from 1903 to 1963. Protagonist Tom Doan is an eager buffalo hunter who eventually comes to admire the animal he is pursuing. Realizing that the buffalo will one day vanish before the onslaught of hunters such as he, at the end of the book Tom chooses to become a farmer. The fictional Tom Doan was right, of course, about the fate of the buffalo—or nearly right. Bison once ranged in the tens of millions across the 48 contiguous states, including Ohio’s own prairies. Their population soon gave way before the encroaching settlers, and the last Ohio bison was recorded in 1803, the year of Ohio’s statehood. Relentlessly hunted for their hides and tongues, the bison population dwindled to 1,091 animals nationwide by 1889. Fortunately, a few ranchers had the foresight to establish small captive herds, and from this number—and with the advent in the early 1900s of four federally sponsored bison reserves—the population eventually rebounded.
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Today there are 300,000 bison in North America, most of them privately owned, and a number in national parks. According to Bob Sexten, past president of the Eastern Bison Association and owner of the Ohio Bison Farm in Grove City, there are about 20 bison ranchers in Ohio. The genus and species of the bison are, whimsically, Bison bison, a different species from the true buffalo, which appears only in Africa and Asia. But 400 years of misidentification has rendered the terms bison and buffalo interchangeable in North America.
BUFFALO LOVE Bison are massive, the largest land animal in North America since the close of the Ice Age. With their distinctive humps, heavy heads, wooly manes, long beards and short, thick black horns, “altogether, they present a terrible appearance,” according to the journals of Moravian missionary David Zeisberger in the late 1700s. Bison are quirky. They love to lie in the sun even in the hottest dog days of August. Good swimmers, they enjoy a dip from time to time. In the winter, they face the howling gale head on, well protected by their heavy manes. And who would believe that a bull that weighs 2,000 pounds and is built like an Ohio State fullback could run 35 miles an hour—and then jump a six-foothigh fence? To discourage such antics, bison fences are built high and strong.
PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
“Yet he saw that sweep of buffalo with a marvelous distinctness, with the swift leap of emotion that magnified all his senses. Across the level front of his vision spread a ragged shaggy black wall of heads, humps, hoofs, coming at the speed of buffalo on the stampede. On a hard run! Above swept the dust, blowing as a storm wind from the prairie, and curling like a yellow curtain of smoke, it followed the buffalo out upon the prairie.”
According to Steve Group of the Big Shaggy Buffalo Ranch in Urbana, buffalo have a pecking order. When the ranch purchased a new bull, he says, “The old bull that was displaced hung out by itself in the corner of the pasture for two weeks with his head down, looking depressed.” The bison ranchers with whom I spoke were moved by the bison, which they see as an American icon. “I’ve always had an interest in bison, ever since I was a little kid,” says Group. “Then I started collecting Native American beadwork and the buffalo kept coming up. They were such a huge part of Native American culture.” Buffalo hold the same appeal for Bob Sexten. “I’ve always been fascinated,” he says. “Bison are a part of American history.” And Steve Slifko of Red Run Bison and Horse Farm in Marshallville, the largest in Ohio with 300 head, decided to raise buffalo after watching a National Geographic TV special. Already a successful retired builder, he and his wife had long considered a move to the country, and the notion of breeding bison sealed the deal.
A SELF-SUFFICIENT BEAST In many ways, bison seem the ideal animal to raise. They live outside year-round. With sufficient pasturage, about an acre per animal, they require no additional feed. They mate and calve without the services of a vet. But when bison do need handled—should they need veterinary services or transportation—they do not go quietly. Bison ranchers must invest in a special, elaborate, expensive corral system that safely and humanely restrains the animals. And although Steve and wife, Joey Group, know their animals by sight and speak to them by name and with affection, they do not enter the corral unless they are sitting in a skid loader or on a tractor. As Bob Sexten notes: “I never turn my back on them. They’re wild animals.”
If the rancher doesn’t have sufficient acreage—which is harder to come by in Ohio than out West, where the largest herds roam—feed becomes a concern. Steve Group’s big shaggy buffalo keep him busy making hay from May through October. He also handpicks and grinds the corn that he offers his animals. “Bison won’t over-eat grain the way beef do,” Steve says. “They never founder.”
THE ECONOMICS OF BISON RANCHING The three ranchers with whom I spoke entered the business with the intention of breeding bison. Steve and Joey spent seven years building their fences, buying a corral system and making their place “buffalo-proof ” in preparation for their first herd. Steve Slifko and Bob Sexten also invested in proper corral systems and fencing. All three joined the National Bison Association and/or the Eastern Bison Association and talked to experienced bison ranchers. At the time they became ranchers, bison were both expensive and in demand. Then a number of the smaller bison hobbyists sold their bison and went out of business. At the same time, the buzz about the health benefits of bison meat made it more and more mainstream. Suddenly it made more sense to sell their bison for meat, for which there was an immediate demand, than to breed them when the market for animals was depressed. “It was more than I wanted to take on,” Steve Slifko admits, “with the packaging and the marketing.” But today Red Run Farm butchers a bison about once every three weeks. Bob Sexten sells “as much as I can raise” and Steve Group butchers “about 30 animals per year.” (See sidebar “A Taste of Bison” for information about purchasing bison meat from these farms.) They sell their meat at farmers markets, to restaurants and groceries, and to private customers who come to the ranches.
Steve Group of Big Shaggy Buffalo Ranch
PHOTO BY © CAROLE TOPALIAN
PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
THE SUPER MEAT?
A TASTE OF BISON
A cut of bison is more expensive than a comparable cut of beef, but it is “nutrient dense”—it has proportionately more protein, minerals and fatty acids than beef for its caloric content. It is also high in iron and low in fat and cholesterol. Steve Group places bison meat brochures in the offices of several cardiologists, with their blessing. “They tell their patients it’s the only red meat they can eat.”
Kitchen Little at The North Market serves up a mean bison burger, juicy and delicious, and less fatty than a hamburger. Although bison are considered wild animals, their meat is not strong or gamey and tastes much like prime beef. I had discounted the “nutrient dense” claim as advertising hype, but did notice that I was not hungry again for hours after scarfing down my bison burger.
The National Bison Association opposes the use of growth hormones or stimulants in the production of bison meat, and no rancher that we spoke to uses them. Because buffalo need a large grazing area if they are to be totally grass-fed, ranchers with smaller acreages may supplement with hay and/or corn. A study by Martin Marchello of the University of North Dakota in 2001 found “only small differences” in the nutrient content of the meat of grass- and grain-finished bison with one exception: “Meat from grass-finished bison is higher in polyunsaturated fatty acid concentration, while that from grain-finished animals is higher in monounsaturated fatty acids.”
BACK AGAIN As a child, I heard the sad history of the wholesale slaughter of the American buffalo and was convinced that the bison had indeed been wiped out during pioneer times. It was a happy day when I realized that the buffalo had managed to escape extinction after all, and was alive and well in America.
Recipes for bison meat recommend a lower cooking temperature and shorter cooking time because the meat is less fatty and therefore more easily overcooked. The meat also shrinks much less during cooking for the same reason. Bison meat offers the same cuts as beef, such as roasts, ground meat and steaks, with one bonus: the hump roast. Demand for bison meat has risen in the double digits for the past five years, according to the National Bison Association, a “nonprofit association of producers, processors, marketers and bison enthusiasts.” Consumers are increasingly willing to pay a premium price for a bison meat, which many see as a more sustainable and healthy choice. Still, consider that 40,000– 45,000 bison are slaughtered for meat in the United States each year, compared to the 150,000 beef that are slaughtered in the US each day. At that rate, the entire North American bison population would be consumed in two and a half days! Locally, North Market Poultry and Game carries Steve Slifko’s Red Run bison, selling an entire animal (broken down into steaks, roast, etc.) every three to four weeks. Bob Sexten’s Ohio Bison Farm sells at several local farmers markets, including Clintonville and Easton, while the Big Shaggy Buffalo Ranch supplies meat to restaurants near Urbana, such as Casey’s in Springfield and the Sunrise café in Yellow Springs.
To try a bison burger go to: The animal that nourished the first Americans still lives to nourish us. Buffalo still roam in Ohio, majestic and indomitable—an enduring American icon. See sidebar “A Taste of Bison” for contact information for the three bison ranches in this article. Go to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park (metroparks.net/Bison.aspx) to see bison on the hoof.
Kitchen Little, North Market Poultry and Game 59 Spruce St., Arena District 614-221-7237 | northmarket.com
To purchase bison directly from producers, please contact: Red Run Bison and Horse Farm 9143 Coal Bank Road, Marshallville, OH 44645 Steve Slifko | 330-472-2216 redrunbison.com/home.html 1339 Borror Road, Grove City, OH 43121 Bob Sexten | 614-875-5385 clintonvillefarmersmarket.org/producers.asp; eastonfarmersmarket.org/vendors/vendorprofile/tabid/91/articleid/49/ohio-bison-farm.aspx
Big Shaggy Buffalo Ranch 6569 State Route 55, Urbana, OH 43078 Steve Group | 937-788-2333 bigshaggybuffaloranch.net
Nutritional Comparisons: To learn more about the nutrients found in bison and see a nutritional comparison chart, visit bisoncentral.com/cooking-bison/nutrition-information A bison burger from Kitchen Little
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PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
Ohio Bison Farm
Overnight Marinated Braised Short Ribs PHOTO BY CAROLE TOPALIAN
By Tricia Wheeler You can use either beef or bison short ribs. Serve the short ribs with thick noodles, garlic mashed potatoes or polenta.
Serves 4–6 5 pounds short ribs 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 medium onions, chopped 4 carrots, chopped 3 celery stalks, chopped 8 cloves garlic, roughly sliced 3 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 bottle dry red wine (I like a Cabernet Sauvignon) 4 sprigs thyme 4 sprigs rosemary 2 bay leaves 4–6 cups beef stock Salt and freshly ground pepper
Procedure 1 In a large heavy skillet, heat the oil. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper; place them in the skillet and cook over medium-high heat until browned on all sides—about 15 minutes. Transfer ribs to a shallow container that will hold the ribs in a single layer.
2 Add the onion, celery and garlic to the skillet and cook over low heat, until soft and lightly browned. Add the flour and tomato paste; cook, stirring constantly, until and dark red, 2–3 minutes. Stir in wine, thyme and rosemary and bring to a boil; pour over the short ribs. Cover and refrigerate overnight, turning ribs once.
3 Preheat oven to 350°. Transfer the ribs and marinade to an enameled cast-iron casserole. Add the beef stock and bring to a boil on the stove. Make sure all the meat is covered by liquid. Cover and place in the lower third of the preheated oven.
THE ESSENCE OF BRAISING Winter is a perfect time to make delicious braised dishes. Braising is a process of slow-cooking less tender cuts of meat in order to tenderize, flavor and moisten the meat. It is important to keep meat completely covered in liquid while braising or the uncovered parts will become dry and tough. The key to braising is to cook long and slow. A braise is finished when the meat is very tender and falls off the bones. One of my favorite cuts of meat for braising is short ribs.
4 Cook until short ribs are tender and falling off the bone, between 2 and 3 hours. Transfer short ribs to a platter. Strain sauce, discard herbs and vegetables and skim fat. Put sauce in a pan over medium-low heat and cook for about 15 minutes, until reduced and thickened. If sauce is not quite thick enough, mix 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 2 tablespoons cold water together to make a slurry. Add slurry to sauce and cook for about 5 additional minutes, or until a little thicker. Taste sauce and adjust seasoning. Pour sauce over ribs and serve.
Wine Pairings A bold, spicy Australian Shiraz with hints of black pepper, blackberry and plums A fruity, earthy South African Pinotage, similar to Pinot Noir ~JA
TIPS FOR COOKING BISON PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
PHOTO BY © CATHERINE MURRAY, PHOTOKITCHEN.NET
Ingredients
You can interchange bison and beef in most recipes. Bison meat is very lean, so it is helpful to use a lower temperature and adjust your cooking time so you do not overcook it. For bison burgers, add a small amount of oil or water to the pan, sear the patties on high heat for a minute, then turn the heat down to medium. Flip the burgers just once, and watch them, as they will be done quickly.
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Woody Tasch on Slow Money, soil and poetry by Marta Madigan Slow Money founder, Woody Tasch
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here do your investment dollars go? Woody Tasch, founder and president of Slow Money, envisions where our money could go. Inspired by the Slow Food movement, he has created a strategy embracing more ecological, human and direct approaches toward investing. A former venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Tasch came to the conclusion that there should be room in anyone’s portfolio to patronize smaller, regional enterprises. Focusing on sustainable food and agricultural producers, Tasch thinks we can make return on investment (ROI) on healing broken relationships starting, literally, from the ground up. His blue chip tip: reintroducing organic matter into the soil. He challenges our conventional, past-century way of thinking about money and earth, asking the following three questions: What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live? What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits? What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?
PHOTO BY CAROLE TOPALIAN
Mind-blowing or common sense? Woody Tasch suggests in his answers simple ways to rebalance agriculture. One of his goals is to get a million people to commit 1% of their assets to local food systems within the next 10 years. To “slow” part of your money down, Tasch first invites us to sign the Slow Money Principles—a six-point “reduction” of his book entitled Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money. He also proposes to join the Slow Money national network through which we can learn about investing possibilities showcased at the Slow Money regional and national meetings. Finally, he encourages sustainably minded groups to start their own Slow Money chapters and keep the momentum going locally.
Q: A:
Marta Madigan: What is Slow Money? Is it an investment strategy or a movement? Woody Tasch: It is both. And that is what makes it fun. There are two parts. One is a conversation. You can call it a movement if you want, but I really think of it as a conversation that is emerging nationally about the extent to which our global financial market and our global economy has become disconnected from sense of place, from community and, in our case, we go all the way down to actually the dirt itself, to the land, the life in the soil. And that conversation has lots of ramifications that have become very vibrant in light of the financial volatility of the last several years.
The investment strategy part drops way down to something relatively very simple. We need to take a little of our money and start investing near where we live, in things that we understand, and food being the most important place to start.
Q:
In your book Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered, you stress the fact that soil erosion exceeds soil production. Can we really run out of dirt?
A:
Soil erosion and loss of organic matter in the soil is an environmental challenge of global proportions. And yes, we are losing it. We are losing topsoil to erosion. We are not maintaining organic matter in the soil. If we don’t change the way we are farming and living, we are going to destroy the fertility base that agriculture depends on. The estimates from Worldwatch and other environmental monitors say we are losing somewhere between half a percent to a percent of arable topsoil globally every year.
Q: A:
What is your dirt solution?
The solution is actually, again, very simple. I am not anti-technology. I am just anti-making believe that technology can solve all the problems all by itself, because in addition to new technologies we have to change behaviors. The bottom line is we have to put back organic matter in the soil. Nature is a cycle but we have been acting, in terms of what we take out and how we use it, as if it were a straight line. The good news is that relatively simple changes in farming practices can put us on the right track. This is pretty much what organics edible COLUMBUS.com
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A:
We are focused on direct investing from individuals into small, sustainable, locally placed businesses, where the intent is not to focus on gaining national market share or becoming an international company as quickly as possible. The intent of the enterprises is to serve the local market first. Local and regional first and foremost.
Q: A:
And what is beautiful to you?
I love to talk about the beautiful part because the book that set me on my course was Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher. It was written in the 1970s and I think it is one of the seminal works of the 20th century. Schumacher was an economist for the British Coal Board after WWII. He was the first major industrial economist to raise his hand and say: “I think we are on a collision course with the environment. Unlimited economic growth on a finite planet is, to my thinking, an impossibility.” And he added something equally important: “Increased consumption is not synonymous with improved well-being.” I think it is beautiful because it raises all kinds of questions about quality of life and purpose of life and something that is of greater importance than economic growth or the economy.
Q:
You wrote a poem in which you conclude: “Poetry is the portal/ through which capitalism can return.” What do poetry and capitalism have in common?
A:
Capitalism per se may not be very poetic. But there’s a bit of poetry in Slow Money. Poetry is a way of communicating that forces the mind to slow down. It says as much about what isn’t said as what is. For me all of the arguments in the world, all the facts in the world, just like all the new technologies in the world, won’t get us where we need to go. What we need, if I can borrow some inspiration from Wendell Berry, is a new kind of imagination. We need to rediscover our place in the scheme of things. We need to rediscover awe in the face of nature. By nature, I mean everything from looking up at the night sky to looking down into the soil where there are billions of microorganisms in every gram of soil. This is fundamental to the life that sustains us, yet we almost never pay attention to it. Wendell Berry talks beautifully about how we need a new kind of imagination to reconnect to nature. Poetry is about imagination.
Q: A:
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What is the rate of return for a slow money investment?
There is no one rate of return for a slow money investment. In fact, slow money can even mean philanthropy. It can be low-interest loans. It can be 0% money, the kind of investment that Muhammed Yunus calls for. Or it can be private equity. The point is that we are moving in a new direction, moving towards small food enterprises, not because of arithmetic. We are doing it for many reasons, and perhaps the least of these is the arithmetic. That said,
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Q: A:
Q: A:
How do you entice investors to park their money for a long period of time?
Our job it not to entice or convince. It is more about giving people permission to do something that they already want to do. How many people will do it? We say in shorthand that one of our goals is to have a million Americans investing 1% of their money in local food systems, within a decade. Both of those numbers are important. It is a lot of people taking a little of their money and starting to put it to work directly in things that they understand, near where they live, starting with food. Can you tell me about the Soil Trust that you plan to launch in 2012?
The idea emerged for a nonprofit fund called the Soil Trust which would allow people to put in as little as $25. It would be a taxdeductible donation but it would be an investment in the sense that those dollars would be aggregated with lots of other small donations and then it would be invested alongside Slow Money investors around the United States. This capital would be used as catalytically as possible—for instance, to provide guarantees and co-investment, alongside Slow Money investing around the country. Think of it as a new kind of foundation, in which all of the assets are used to invest, rather than to generate income that is used as grants. If we are going to build a new food system and a new restorative economy, we are going to need billions upon billions of dollars. Where is this money going to come from? Wall Street? Washington? Foundations? Whatever they can do, it won’t be enough, it won’t be direct enough and there won’t be enough of it. The only place it can come from is from all of us, who have a direct, vested interest in the places where we live. The investment returns of the Soil Trust will come back to the Trust, to be reinvested for the benefit of future generations. It is a very forwardlooking “compost”-oriented form of investing, if you want to use that metaphor. It is all about putting back more than we take out.
Q:
Scott Savage—a Quaker farmer and a publisher of Plain Magazine from Barnesville, Ohio—is one of your heroes. Although we can’t all revoke our driver’s license like he did and move in with the Amish, how can we simplify our lives?
A:
A lot of what Slow Money is about is just saying: “Hey! Don’t let somebody tell you that money has to be so complicated.” It gets complicated when there is layer after layer of intermediation, veils of security laws and the distance between you and what you are investing in is so great that you need legions of experts to tell you where your money is and what it might be doing. In 1900, of every dollar that was spent by a U.S. consumer on food, about 40 cents went to the farmer. The rest went to processors, shippers, retailers, etc. Today, the farmer gets around nine cents. What happened? The system has become so complicated, the distance between the producer and the consumers has become so great, that all the steps between producer and consumer are taking more and more of our money. The quality of our food and the quality of our investing both suffer. So your question has the answer in it. We need to simplify, we need to get closer, we need to get more direct—we need to take back control of some of our money and, in so doing, reshape our food system, our economy and our culture.
PHOTO BY CAROLE TOPALIAN
Q:
Describe the ideal candidate to receive a Slow Money loan. Must this enterprise be small, sustainable, local and beautiful?
we can justify the move on many financial grounds, as a hedge, a diversification, an interesting alternative to the increasingly volatile thing we call the stock market.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SLOW MONEY
is all about. Instead of dumping chemicals on, to try to make up for the fact that we are working in a linear way, you actually farm in a way that is more in keeping with natural cycles, putting organic matter back in the soil.
O SOLE Mio | SPEND LOCAL, SAVE LOCAL, INVEST LOCAL! As Slow Money chapters begin budding throughout the country, SOLE is engaging the conversation in Central Ohio. SOLE, which stands for Support Our Local Economy, is a coalition of locavores, independent businesses and locally bred organizations such as Simply Living, Local Matters, SBB, ECDI and KEMBA. For over a year, they have worked together to keep our dollars circulating in our community. In their ongoing “Think Columbus First” campaign, launched during Comfest this year, Chuck Lynd— interim director of Simply Living and the soul of SOLE— emphasizes the importance of buying local. “For every $100 spent at independent, locally owned and operated businesses, $68 stays in our community,” he says. “The same $100 spent at nonlocal chains retains only $43.” Supporting one neighborhood business helps other local enterprises. “Fresh Connect,” a local food guide published online by Local Matters, lists Columbus restaurants and grocers committed to buying their produce from Central Ohio farms. “We are interested in stronger local economy, even beyond food and farming,” says Todd Mills, director of development and marketing of Local Matters, as well as the organization’s representative at SOLE. “The main thing is just wanting to see more local businesses choosing to support other local businesses with their sourcing and business practices,” he adds. Small Business Beanstalk (SBB), another shining ray of SOLE and a B2B matchmaker, connects local companies to each other as well as to consumers. Serving as a concierge desk for their member businesses, if a coffeeshop needs to print a menu, SBB will match them with one of their printers. Free of charge, SBB also offers “save local” community cards with all kinds of deals and discounts in over 400 businesses all over Columbus. “At The Hills Market, for instance, if you spend $50 or more, you will get 10% off your entire purchase,” says Wolf Starr, the founder of SBB. “With over 100,000 SBB cards out, it is a better way for us to connect as community,” he believes. To keep money where we live, we can also move our savings to a local bank. Kroger Employee Mutual Benefits Association (KEMBA), the largest credit union in Central Ohio, has been providing financial services since 1933. “By banking with KEMBA, all of our profits are shared with you and other members within our local communities,” says Vincent Neal, KEMBA’s business development officer.
takes us to the next level with its new, Slow Money–like, program. Launched in April, “Invest Local Ohio” is a vehicle for corporations and individuals like us, to put our money directly into Central Ohio small businesses. The minimum investment of $1,000 goes to a special fund where ECDI leverages it with at least a double of the invested amount and then makes it available for local entrepreneurs. To receive up to a $100,000 loan, the candidate can but does not have to have lengthy business experience. ECDI offers its services even to complete beginners, giving them a hand with start-up capital and training. Giving money and expertise to help purchase additional equipment for Luna Burger and facilitate in the opening of the Jury Room are just a couple of many success stories at ECDI. “Our goals have always been to help people build assets, become sustainable, create jobs and businesses,” says Steve Fireman, president and general counsel of ECDI. As to the potential of playing the part of a small investor, people like us would receive a 2% to 3% return for our slow-return investment (in three- and five-year terms, respectively) as well as a great opportunity to actively participate in developing our local economy. So why not invest local, Ohio?
Resources for those interested in SOLE and its initiatives: solenow.org s thinkcolumbusfirst.org simplyliving.org s local-matters.org thesbb.com sÈconsiderbiking.org ecdi.org kemba.org sÈmoveyourmoneyproject.org SOLE is a part of a large international network called the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) comprised of over 80 community networks in 30 U.S. states and Canada. For more than a decade, BALLE has been promoting sustainable local economies by catalyzing and connecting independent businesses in North America through workshops, gatherings and webinars. Slow Money is a partner of BALLE’s very popular “Accelerating Community Capital” webinar series. For more details about BALLE, visit livingeconomies.org
Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI), a small business micro-lender and SOLE’s fiscal agent,
Editor’s note: For more information about emerging Slow Money Columbus initiatives, please contact Flippo Ravalico of Food System Bonds at usr@foodsystembonds.us.
Established in 2009, Slow Money plays a catalytic role, connecting investors to local entrepreneurs and money to place. Since its inaugural gathering in Santa Fe, 15,000 people have signed the Slow Money Principles, 2,000 have become members, 11 Slow Money chapters have emerged around the country and nine million “slow” dollars changed hands. And in February 2012, Woody Tasch will attend the Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association 33rd Annual Conference as a keynote speaker and workshop leader. For more information about Slow Money visit slowmoney.org. For more information about OEFFA’s conference, visit oeffa.org.
Marta Madigan is a Polish freelance travel and food writer who, as an editor and contributor, helped begin the Polish edition of National Geographic magazine. Of her many NG stories she covered a variety of food-related topics such as Spanish tapas, French cuisine, Polish Christmas traditions and Sonoma and Napa Valley wines. After she moved from Warsaw to Atlanta, she wrote a chapter on Southern cooking for a collective book on international cuisines published in 2008 in Poland. She has contributed to Edible Columbus since the winter issue of 2010.
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OHIO ECOLOGICAL FOOD AND FARM ASSOCIATION’S 33RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE SOWING THE SEEDS OF OUR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY February 18–19, 2012 | Granville, OH
OHIO'S LARGEST SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND FARM CONFERENCE Featuring: Keynote speakers Woody Tasch, founder and chairman of Slow Money to discuss investing in local food systems, and Andrew Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety to discuss the dangers of genetically engineered food.
More than 70 workshops on gardening, homesteading, cooking, green living, livestock, fracking, and more!
∙ Preconference with Woody Tasch on February 17 ∙ Organic and local meals ∙ Child care and kids’ conference ∙ Trade show ∙ Evening entertainment
To register, or learn more about the conference and OEFFA’s work to support and promote sustainable agriculture, go to www.oeffa.org.
A HOME COOK'S Diary
PHOTO BY CAROLE TOPALIAN
Warm Fuzzies The wild, wonderful world of local fiber By Molly Hays
H
ere’s an odd thing: I rarely eat a tomato without thinking about who grew it, and where. Yet I cast on seven sweaters and countless scarves without ever considering the origins of my wool.
To be fair, I’ve been eating nearly 39 years now, while it’s been barely two since I could tell knit from purl. Still, all it took was scratching the surface of the local fiber scene to realize there’s an entire adventure to be had, here.
When I first set out in search of local yarn—and as a knitter, it was yarn I was after, although Ohio farms offer everything from fleece to felted purses—I literally didn’t know where to begin. I imagined local fiber would be like local food—only, you know, fuzzier. I’d decide to buy local, go to the market and go to town with the worsteds and bulkies. The reality is a bit more complicated. Not to mention innovative, exciting and endlessly interesting.
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Ohio’s Fiber Landscape Ohio’s fiber landscape is rich and diverse, made up of many small, independent farms throughout the state. Each operation is as unique as the individuals who run them, making sweeping generalizations difficult. Some focus on breeding, with fiber as byproduct; others mix food and fiber, diversifying crops and income; still others evolve, starting here, ending there, adapting their mix to meet demand. But as I handled skein after plush, Ohio-grown skein, and talked fiber up and down with yet another enthusiastic farmer, one overriding truth became clear: Local yarn is yarn with a story.
Where to Begin But first, there’s the small matter of finding it. My first major breakthrough came one sunny fall weekend when I attended the annual Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs. Here, I found what I’d been searching after: a wide, woolly assortment of local fibers. Like the ice cream inside Young’s Jersey Dairy next door, there was fiber in every conceivable flavor: llama and sheep, pelts and roving, gorgeous naturals and artisan brights, hand-knit hats and finger puppets. Oh, and yarn, lots of local yarn, typically sold by the farmer who grew it. Which by afternoon’s end taught me truth number two: Local yarn is yarn with a face.
I’m reminded of the emerging fibershed notion, a new-fangled term for an ancient reality. Fibershed refers to fiber produced and processed within a region—think foodshed, substituting wearables for edibles. A strong fibershed depends not just on growers, but also mills that enable farmers to efficiently produce finished yarns.
Age-Old Goods, Modern Marketing It also depends on visionaries like Andrea Wargo, fiber enthusiast and crackerjack community builder. In addition to running Brighton Wool Gatherings at That’ll Do Farms in Grafton, Andrea serves as president of the 3-year-old Ohio Natural Fiber Network. Through farm tours, news sharing and basic branding, the network connects farmers and consumers. For laypeople trying to track down local fiber, the network’s website (see sidebar) is a wonderful jumping-off point. But that’s not all. Wargo is shepherding natural fiber into the 21st century, employing new technology in the service of ancient craft. She moderates Ravelry.com’s Ohio group, providing area knitters a virtual meeting hall. And in a nod to agricultural innovators nationwide, Wargo and That’ll Do are launching Ohio’s first fiber CSA. As in produce-based community-supported agriculture, a fiber CSA member buys pre-season shares in exchange for end-of-season goods. Except in this case, said goods aren’t onions, but skeins. Genius.
Creating Opportunity Actually, two faces is more accurate: one human, one impossibly charming. (No offense, farmers, but your animals steal the show.) If you, like me, are accustomed to choosing yarn based on color, weight, content and feel, prepare to add another consideration. Winsome faces and fuzzy personalities are among local fiber’s more unique features, not to mention greatest perks. I had opportunity to meet Queen of the Meadow and her 28 herd-mates when I paid visit to Pete and Judy Klein of Swisher Creek Farm this past fall. Located in Blacklick, just Northeast of Columbus, Swisher Creek exemplifies the fiber gems hidden in our backyard. To speak with Judy Klein is to witness firsthand the meaning and reach of local fiber. Warm, generous and deeply knowledgeable on all things alpaca, Judy speaks eloquently on quality and community. She describes the importance of skirting, of carefully hand-sorting her fleeces by grade, of sending only premium blanket fleece for spinning, to ensure a strong, even, high-quality yarn. Yarn with a label that not only announces Ohio-Grown but features the grinning mug of the animal who grew it.
Creative marketing aside, there’s no replacing the up-close and in-person. Enter Mary Jane Anderson’s extraordinary elbow grease. Anderson, co-owner of Land of Legends Alpacas, in Licking County, organized Newark’s first Mid-Ohio Fiber Fair last August. Like the aforementioned Wool Gathering, MOFF joins the handful of area fairs that bring fiber lovers and farmer-vendors together. As we spoke last fall, these fairs’ importance became clear. Selling local fiber through local yarn shops often doesn’t pencil out, Mary Jane explained, due to fiber farming’s intrinsic costs. Unlike a carrot, say, yarn requires processing—sorting, cleaning, dyeing, spinning—each adding expenses food doesn’t incur. Retail markups are mostly prohibitive, making direct famer-to-consumer sales the primary channel. Farm shops (all three farms mentioned here have them), online sales and fiber CSAs all figure in, but these regional events are vital in making local fiber viable. Anderson understands this, and took action. This, I’ve learned, is par for the local fiber course, this coming together, this creating. I’m only just beginning to untangle the local fiber story, but this I know for certain: Local yarn is a community experience, traceable to the animal that grew it, bearing the fingerprint of the farmer who handled it, spun from the soil we all call home.
An Ohio Fibershed As our talk turns to processing, it turns also to sustainability, and relationships built up over years. The Kleins send their fiber to a small Ohio mill for spinning, with lovely results that “spoil customers for our yarn.” This is not the result of anonymous purchase orders, but of an evolving understanding between farm and mill. The net effect is not only first-class skeins, but incremental strengthening of the local fiber economy.
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Molly Hays graduated from the University of Washington with two degrees, one Mellon Fellowship and no idea when to buy a melon. Since moving to Ohio in early 2009, Molly and her family of five have been getting to know Columbus one ice cream scoop at a time. Molly writes about food and life at remedialeating.com. Right: Queen of the Meadow, one of Pete and Judy Klein’s 28 alpacas on Swisher Creek Farm in Blacklick
PHOTO BY MOLLY HAYS
The Face(s) of Local Yarn
CENTRAL OHIO FIBER RESOURCES The list below is by no means comprehensive, but is given as a jumping off point for those curious about local fiber. Do you have favorite local fiber resources not found here? Let us know!
Individual Farms with Shops/Yarn for Sale Swisher Creek Farm 3515 Babbitt Rd., Blacklick, OH 43004 614-939-1872 swishercreekfarm@aol.com
Swisher Creek’s farm shop offers a wide variety of Ohio Alpaca products, from roving to natural and dyed yarns, to finished hats, ornaments, scarves and more. Open yearround “by chance or by appointment,” the shop maintains regular weekend holiday hours between Thanksgiving and Christmas, open every Saturday and Sunday, noon–5pm. That’ll Do Farm 34634 State Rte. 303, Grafton, OH 44044 440-821-4104 thatlldofarm.com Farm Shop: sells yarn, roving, art batts, honey and knitting accessories. Open during classes and events, and any time owners are on site. For information on That’ll Do Farm’s 2012 Fiber CSA, contact them via their website or phone number, above.
Land of Legends Alpacas 2653 Swans Rd., Newark, OH 43055 localharvest.org/land-of-legends-alpacas-M34257 Farm Shop: open Thursdays, noon–6pm, and by appointment, year-round. Holiday hours: In December, Land of Legends’ Farm Shop will be open Saturdays 10am–6pm and Sundays noon–6pm.
McFarland’s Llama Farm 8000 Old Delaware Rd., Mount Vernon, OH 43050 740-393-2309 mcfarlandsllamafarm.com
Local Yarn Shops The shops below offer classes for knitters of all ability levels. Check their websites or call the store for the current class schedule. Some local fiber, primarily roving and alpaca, may also be on offer. Knitting Temptations knittingtemptations.com
35 S. High St., Dublin, OH 43017 614-734-0618 The Yarn Shop yarnshoponline.com/khxc/
1125 Kenny Centre Mall Columbus, OH 43220-4036 614-457-7836
Visit our website for more resources and a list of local fiber fairs and events.
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And with Jan Kish, it’s savory too By Joannie Colner D’Andrea | Photography by Jessica Opremcak
A
sk Jan Kish how she became one of the premiere sugar artists and she will tell you that she simply never stopped playing with her peas.
“My whole life, I was in the kitchen when I ought to be studying or taking exams,” says Kish. “I played with my peas for too long and this is where I ended up.” Little has changed in the years since Jan Kish has established herself as one of the most sought-after sugar artists and bakers in the world. Whether creating gravity-defying cakes that resemble chandeliers or dreaming up one-of-a-kind savory cakes for clients, Kish has never been afraid to strike out on her own as an artist and an entrepreneur. Kish explains that her Hungarian family’s background and traditions all centered on food. Today, the flavors and aesthetic Kish draws on are a cross-section of her Hungarian background and her travels to England and France. “My mother and grandmother were both bakers,” says Kish. “You could say it’s in my genes.” Kish grew up in Worthington, where she lives and works today. Her travels and studies, however, have taken her all over the world, first studying literature at Oxford University. After earning a BA in English literature, Kish came home to Columbus and looked for jobs teaching literature. When she found the work was not there, she switched gears. Then, Kish made the first of several career changes and went on to become a cardiac catheterization assistant at Ohio State University Hospital. “I would be in surgery all day, then whenever we would get out in the evening, I would roll over and bake,” she recalls. “I would be back in surgery at 6 o’clock the next morning.” Eventually, it became clear that baking was more than just a hobby for Kish, and she used her free time to take courses at Cordon Rose in New York City, Cordon Bleu in Paris and L’Acadamie de Cuisine in Washington, D.C. “You can’t be artistic or creative in surgery, right?” says Kish. “But you could be creative in food.” 42
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Kish balanced her day job as a surgeon’s assistant with her evening pursuits as a caterer for three years. “Finally it was like, ‘OK, you have to make a decision.’ That is when I left the hospital and struck out on my own.” In 1983, Kish left the medical field to pursue baking full time. By then, she had a burgeoning catering business that she was ready to take to the next level. “At the time [in the Columbus catering scene], it was just Ziggy [Allespach], Hubert [Seifert] and myself,” says Kish. “That whole landscape has changed.”
Food as Art From her childhood in a Hungarian-American home to her travels to England and France “in the pursuit of food,” Kish has developed an appreciation for what she calls true flavors. As for her love of French cuisine—well, a love of butter has a lot to do with it. “Put [butter] at the top of the list,” says Kish. Beyond a love for butter, Kish says the French tradition of using pure, true ingredients and processes inspired her. Never one to compromise or cut corners, Kish identified with the French obsession with authenticity of flavor. “It is important to be true to flavor. When you respect real flavor, you get a certain product.” To Kish, this means starting with quality ingredients—the sort of stuff her grandmother used in her baked goods. Eggs, sugar, butter and flour. No substitutes here: “In my kitchen, good enough is never good enough.” Artistry in baking is also about more than creative expression or love of tradition for Kish. It is about precision as well. She credits her time in the medical field with her belief that in art, precision is everything. “If you ask me, art is just an acronym for ‘anal retentive,’” says Kish. “I grew up valuing exactness in everything and my time in surgery only reinforced that.”
She goes to great lengths to ensure perfection in each cake, taking every precaution against environmental variables that compromise quality. On summer days, Kish cranks the AC and crams as many fans into her kitchen as possible— anything to reduce a baker’s worst enemy: humidity. This pursuit of perfection in baking applies to the exterior of her cakes as well as the ingredients. Each cake is a work of art: with drapery folds that rival Botticelli, fields of lilies that would inspire Monet, and sculptural bowls so colorful and glass-like that they could be mistaken for a Chihuly chandelier. “You eat with your eyes first,” says Kish. With that in mind, she devotes immense time to both the flavoring and baking of her cakes, as she does with the intricate designs and décor. “I think of myself as both the builder and the interior designer of a cake,” says Kish.
Custom Cakes Central to Kish’s work is the process of collaborating with her clients. Just as an interior designer meets with clients to get to know their personalities and preferences, Kish first invites clients to her home to discuss what they are looking for and what is possible. This isn’t a wham, bam, pick-your-frosting-from-acatalogue type of meeting. In fact, her offerings usually far exceed her clients’ expectations. “People think they know what they want,” explains Kish. “Then they see what they can get. They usually don’t end up where they started.” Truly, with Kish’s custom cakes, anything is possible. “The only limitations are your imagination.” Kish begins first meetings with new clients by getting to know them. “I like to get an idea of what brought them together and their personalities so that can be reflected in their cake,” says Kish. “Special-event cakes should reflect the people involved.” As Kish gets to know new clients, she shows them examples of past cakes from her volumes of archives. Of course, no consultation would be complete without sampling. Kish’s menu of cakes is long, with seemingly endless permutations of cake and frosting combinations. Popular cakes include Persian Love Cake, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and rose water and slathered with pistachio buttercream; White Swan Cake, with an English lemon curd, raspberry reduction and vanilla buttercream layered between white cake; and Chocolate Chili Cinnamon, chocolate cake spiced with cinnamon and chili pepper, which, rather then warming, lends depth to the chocolate as it bakes out. Again, here the only limitations are in your imagination. Left: Kish's savory cheesecake
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A wedding cake by Kish
This back and forth takes time, but Kish never rushes the process. Some cakes can take months, between clients meetings, sketching and preparation and the sugar artistry itself. Kish expects, even encourages this in-depth collaboration. “People come here because they know they can get custom designs as opposed to going somewhere and choosing from model A, B or C,” says Kish. “Why come here if you’re not going to do something special?” Most cakes begin with sketches and mock-ups or small models. Once Kish nails down a concept and blueprint, she begins the sugar work—sculpting flowers, dragonflies and more. “We start on the sugar work well in advance,” says Kish. “Then at the last minute, we bake the cake and put it all together.”
Roundabout Life Kish’s career has taken many twists and turns, but she maintains that all roads led her to where she is today. Having traveled in Europe with friends many times, Kish uses the common European roadway roundabout as a metaphor. “Roundabouts are great. If you can’t figure out where you are going, you just keep going around the roundabout until you figure it out,” says Kish. “It’s the same way with my life. There are no wrong turns, because every turn has brought me to where I am today.” As for what is next for Jan Kish, she simply says, “I plan on following my talent wherever it takes me.”
Jan’s Savory Cakes With all of the flair and flavor of her sweet cakes and none of the sugar, Jan Kish’s savory cakes are the answer to the prayers of diabetics and non-sweets-lovers alike. Ten years ago, Kish began tinkering with savory cakes as an alternative for customers with diabetes and other dietary restrictions. With her respect for true flavors and ingredients, the thought of using imitation sweeteners never crossed her mind.
For the skeptic, here is a list of Kish’s most popular savory cakes:
Savory Cheesecake Cream cheese, bacon, bleu cheese, onion and herbs. Try it served with red pepper jelly.
Pear and Brie Tart Pork Pie
“When you use sugar substitutes, you can never come close to how good the real butter and sugar can be,” says Kish. “So why not go in a totally different direction and do something that tastes fabulous in its own right?” Thus began the savory cake branch of Kish’s business. Today, word of her outof-this-world savory cakes is spreading. A savory wedding cake is especially appealing to those who want to maintain wedding traditions, without the sugar. “Of course you want to keep the tradition of cutting and serving the wedding cake,” says Kish. “It doesn’t have to be sweet, it can be an appetizer.” A pork pie by Kish
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“Very British,” says Kish.
Brioche and Pâté Tiered Cake “Built just like a layered cake, but with stacked brioche,” says Kish.
Dried Pasta Cake This one is all about the presentation. Dried pasta is built like a layered cake. Instead of cutting the cake, the bride and groom tap the pasta tower with a hammer so it crashes down. The pasta is thrown in a pot of boiling water then served with various sauces.
Ice Cream Snowballs Recipe courtesy of Jan Kish If you love snow as much as I do, a snowball ice cream dessert is the “cat’s pajamas”! Every Christmas I was in heaven when it was time for dessert. The lights were low, the tree was aglow and Mom would carry from the kitchen en individual crystal snowflake plates topped with a coconut-coated ice cream snowball with a pinch of holly and a little red candle burning bright, tucked in the center. We were delighted. What could be better than after having blown out your own little candle, being wonderfully intoxicated with the wafting fragrance of candle smoke? Ahh, yes … all was right with our world. ~JK
Snowball Assembly Have ready Vanilla or coconut ice cream Flaked coconut Little red candle and sprig of fresh holly
Procedure
1 Using an ice cream scooper, make ice cream balls and roll them in coconut. Place on cookie sheet and put in the freezer. 2 If serving individually, insert red candle in center with a leaf or two of holly. (Two people working on this job is better than one. You can move a lot faster!) Jan’s Notes: Snowballs can be made a couple of weeks in advance. But they must be placed in a single layer ayer of an airtight container. Put two layers of plastic film m over the snowballs and then the lid of the container. Make e sure the seal is airtight. Store in a “chest” type freezer where they do not freeze and thaw with the defrost cycle of an upright freezer. Before serving, freeze the dessert plates or fruit bowls that you plan on using. This will help keep the snowballs from melting straight away. Once I used a big crystal punch bowl (silver would work well, too) and filled it with snow and then presented the snowball ice creams on top. Crushed ice would have the same effect.
Joannie Colner D’Andrea credits her passion for flavor to her years working under Jeni Britton Bauer uer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. In her time as a Dairy airy Heiress, Joannie worked as a scooper, a baker, a writer for the marketing team and everything in between. These days, Joannie is in pursuit rsuit of a career in special education. She lives in Columbu Columbus bu us with her husband, Nick, and their houseplants. Most nts. Mos M nights, she rushes home from work to try ou outt a ne new ew recipe with Nick.
Natural, quality meats delivered from our farm to your door! Visit oinkmoocluck.com for home delivery information 614-427-9313 | Johnstown, OH VISIT US AT: Worthington Winter Market (2nd & 4th Saturdays) Granville Winter Market (1st & 3rd Saturdays)
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Snowville Creamery has a modest goal: save the world By Eric LeMay | Photography by Sarah Warda
Pouring milk from Snowville Creamery feels blissful. When you pick up the carton, you’re greeted by a lovely dairymaid who seems to embody the countryside, with its green pastures and rustic fences. She wears a white fluffy bonnet and wholesome dress. At her bosom, she cradles a pitcher, as though she were Mother Earth pouring out the milk of human kindness. Behind her, the sun rises, encircling her with its hopeful glow. This is milk made mythic, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to meet Warren Taylor, owner of Snowville Creamery. The other is the milk itself, which is thick and frothy and delicious. The first time I tried it, I drank a quarter of a gallon, glass after glass. I thought it was a milkshake. How, I wondered, did a small diary nooked in the hills of Southeast Ohio produce milk this good? Who was this man behind the maid? Now, having spent some time with Warren, I see that maid differently: She’s wearing a red bandana around her forehead and raising a revolutionary fist in the air. She’s marching down Independence Avenue, passing out leaflets on the dangers of genetically modified foods and hydraulic fracturing. And she’s smiling, because she’s looking forward to a fight. She’s going to take on huge corporations who want to strip our food of its nutrients and flavor. She supports our local businesses serving our local communities. She wants our kids drinking healthy milk from healthy cows raised on a healthy soil. “Love your food,” she cries. “Love each other.” She wants us to join a revolution. “This isn’t about this,” says Warren. We’re outside, standing on the slope of a hill, looking up at what’s essentially a pole barn. It’s the milk plant that Warren designed from the ground up, and he’s telling me how it takes advantage of gravity: Every time Snowville processes and packages milk, they have to flush the plant’s metal pipes with hot water and cleaner. This happens multiple times and Left: Warren Taylor of Snowville
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generates waste. Thanks to the hill, however, this waste funnels down into a huge tank on the plant’s lower level. But then what? You’ve still got to deal with hundreds of gallons of cleaner-filled wastewater. Turns out that Warren uses cleaners that are different from those used in most dairies. His contain nitrogen and potassium hydroxide. “And you know what those are, don’t you?” he asks. I don’t. I don’t know 1% of what Warren knows about dairy. Luckily, Warren gets a kick out of teaching it. He has a catchy “Isn’t this so cool?” vibe about him, even when he’s describing chemical cleaners. “Fertilizer!” he booms, nodding toward a nearby field where cows graze. In the distance, an unassuming sprinkler spritzes the grass. Gradually, I get it: That’s the wastewater. “Instead of contaminating the water supply,” says Warren, already moving on, “we’re nourishing the soil.” I’m hustling after him, trying to keep up, as I fit this latest information into my growing picture of the plant. So far I’ve learned about
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The genetic makeup of the 260 cows that provide Snowville with their milk. They’re Jersey, Guernsey, Brown Swiss, Milking Shorthorn, Friesian and Holstein, all intermixed by years of cross-breeding. They’re heartier and give healthier milk than the huge Holsteins that are confined on most dairy farms.
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The grazing practices used to feed the herd, which rotates through many different pastures rather than remaining confined to one, so that the cows can rebuild the topsoil instead of depleting it.
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The minimal amount of processing Snowville does to its milk, which leaves the milk’s nutrients and flavor intact rather than pasteurizing and homogenizing them out of existence.
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The eco-friendly and taste-preserving cartons in which Snowville packages its milk. And the delivery schedule—from cow to store in less than 48 hours—that keeps its milk so fresh.
And that’s just what I’ve managed to scribble down, because Warren is now detailing the spatial layout of the plant. Its core, where the raw milk goes from storage tanks to finished cartons, takes up only 600 square feet, which saves space, energy and money. “So what is this about?” I finally get to ask. I can’t imagine putting so much care into creating a milk plant that isn’t about milk. “This,” says Warren, “is about building a canoe. This is about where you go with it and what you do with it.” A canoe seems a bizarre metaphor for a milk plant, but I press on. “What do you want to do with it?” Warren doesn’t hesitate: “Save the world.”
Save the world? With milk? The idea sounds absurd, the sort of thing proclaimed by a zealot or a madman. That absurdity isn’t lost on Warren. “I’m hoping to be the Che Guevara of dairy,” he says. And sure enough, on the flipside of his business card, hiding behind that milkmaid, is a smiling Che. There’s also a quote: “The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” Che isn’t Warren’s only guiding spirit; you can add John the Baptist and Neal Cassady. “And what about that milkmaid?” I ask. “That’s not me,” says Warren, throwing a friendly, quit-messing-withme elbow into my chest. “I’m the Hunter S. Thompson of dairy.” Warren grins when he says stuff like this—it’s not every dairyman who compares himself to a Marxist revolutionary, a religious prophet, a psychedelic muse and an antiauthoritarian wild man—but his eyes have an edgy gleam. He’s not joking. He’s got the messianic, near manic glow of a visionary, because he has a vision: This small milk plant in Pomeroy, Ohio, is going to spark an international movement of social justice. But how? That’s a fair question. And when you ask it, you see that Warren also possess the keen intelligence of an engineer. He can make his case coolly and methodically, even when it comes to saving the world: First, take a food as essential to human existence as milk. Then build a dairy plant that provides this food for people in a safe, natural and healthy state. Run that plant in an environmentally sustainable manner. Then integrate that food and that plant into the local community and economy, so that it provides both good jobs and good nourishment for the people it serves. Then make that plant a model, make its design freely available to anyone who wants it, and mentor those who want to emulate it, so that milk plants like Snowville pop up around the country and around the world. And don’t stop with dairy. Let the principles that guide Snowville—sustainability, community, harmony and love—catch on and spread. Let them inform how we grow all of our food, how we run all of our businesses. And show people that this is really possible, right now, by starting with one small milk plant in Pomeroy, Ohio. Save the world. If that sounds like unattainable vision, so be it. Warren pursues it tirelessly. He regularly works 100-hour weeks at the plant, and when he’s not dealing with broken delivery trucks or carton fillers, he’s speaking at universities, community centers and city council meetings about the need for sustainability and the dangers of hydraulic fracturing. He’s traveled to Italy to represent Ohio as part of the worldwide Slow Food Movement. He’s testified at USDA hearings on behalf of small dairies against regulations that unfairly favor mass producers. He’s started initiatives for feeding livestock with grain that isn’t genetically
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One of Warren’s conversational riffs, which range from the principles of entrepreneurship to ‘60s counterculture to recipes for kefir to Zen koans to guerrilla incursion tactics to risqué jokes to the importance of being a good mentor and a conscientious citizen
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Victoria and Warren Taylor and the Snowville crew. They’re aiming to create a business model others can adapt: “We want to do something reproducible,” says Warren.
Don’t be fooled: Snowville’s rustic charms abound, but the creamery also has an industrial design that would impress Swiss watchmakers.
A cow at Snow
One of the happy herd that provides Snowville with its happy-making milk
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modified and worked for more honest and clear labeling of dairy products. He’s helping to create a food distribution center in Columbus, so he and other producers can pool their resources. In essence, he’s working to develop an infrastructure for delivering local food to local people. And yet, amidst all this, he can’t resist riffing on the best way to eat an ice cream sandwich, or the mindset of a martial artist (“You’ve got to expect to get hit”), or how to domesticate a wolf.
“I wouldn’t want to control Warren,” says Victoria Taylor, Warren’s wife and partner. Victoria is the plant’s co-owner and general manager and she’s equally savvy about Snowville’s larger vision. She’ll quietly turn from giving a group of employees shipping instructions to telling you about the omega acids in milk or the effect of herd grazing on the North American landscape. She struck me as the still point of Snowville’s spinning world. After 25 years of marriage, she’s come to a conclusion: “You adapt to Warren.” Sure enough, once you hear about Warren’s family history, you understand that he couldn’t be anyone or anyway else. Warren’s brother is the president of Daisy Brand, the largest sour cream producer in the world, and his father, a renowned dairy taster, worked in the dairy industry for 35 years. Warren got his dairy tech degree from Ohio State University in 1974 and three years later he was working for Safeway, the largest milk processor in the country. He spent three decades as a dairy engineer and consultant for plants that processed up to 300,000 gallons of milk a day. (Snowville, by contrast, processes 60,000 gallons a month.) He knows every facet of the industry. “Cut me and I bleed white,” he’ll say, and you get the sense that dairy and destiny fuse in Warren, that his family made him into who he is. That’s true, but not how you’d think. For me, what most revealed the man behind the milk wasn’t when I heard about Warren’s father the dairyman, but Warren’s father the Navy pilot. During the Second World War, he led the Medical Evacuation Squadron in the Pacific. Warren told me about one of his father’s rescue missions to evacuate sailors who had survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. The ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine after delivering the atomic bombs to an air base on Tinian island. Of the ship’s 1,196 crewmen, only 316 survived. On the way to pick them up, Warren’s father and the pilots of the six other planes who were flying alongside him learned they were heading into a typhoon. Four of the six turned back, but not his father. And he made it. “I realize now, my father didn’t expect to live,” says Warren, his voice going quiet, “but he didn’t turn back.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. Then, like a bull readying for the charge, he digs at the ground with his foot. “That’s what I told the USDA the last time I was in Washington: I’m not turning back.”
Eric LeMay lives in Athens, where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Ohio University, his alma mater. Visit his website for more of his writing on foodie and non-foodie things alike: www.ericlemay.org.
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The Friends of Snowville Creamery Recipe Book Snowville’s new recipe book features recipes from their loyal friends throughout Ohio. A wonderful community compendium of recipes and cooking tips, it makes the perfect gift for Snowville fans. To get your copy, Snowville is offering the recipe book as a gift to those who help crowd finance the costs of a project to bring Snowville Creamery yogurt to market. Visit Snowville Creamery’s website to see how you can help support this initiative and receive the new Friends of Snowville Creamery Recipe Book as their thanks.
snowvillecreamery.com
Immortal Milk Eric LeMay’s book Immortal Milk “does for cheese all that ought to be done for cheese,” in the words of author Adam Gopnik. With engaging, charming stories and a rich knowledge of the history of cheese and its many lives, LeMay’s book is a love letter to one of our favorite foods. A chapter from Immortal Milk was also featured in the Best Food Writing 2011, edited by Holly Hughes.
Inside our Local Food Stories
The Highest Expression of Love AJ Perry of Sassafras Bakery By Genevieve Rainer | Photography by Catherine Murray
I
f you’ve been to the Olde Worthington Farmers Market on any Saturday during the past four summers, you’ve probably seen AJ Perry, proprietress of Sassafras Bakery, cheerily offering up gorgeous handcrafted pastries. Specializing in pies and tarts, cookies, scones and granola bars, AJ bakes up scrumptious treats using local ingredients in clever and delicious ways. While she was introduced to the kitchen at a young age, she took a circuitous route to becoming the professional baker she is today.
AJ grew up on a farm in Vickery, Ohio, where she spent time helping her mother in the kitchen and entering 4-H baking and sewing competitions. Her family had a large garden, and her mother taught her how to freeze and can their fresh produce. She remembers her mother making four loaves of whole-wheat bread from scratch every week. “She had the recipe memorized,” she explains, “and my earliest baking memory is sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on leftover dough.” After several jobs in the food industry and working as a graphic designer, in 2007 AJ put her bakery plan into action, baking on Fridays for the Gahanna farmers market held on Saturday. At that time, AJ was struck by Julia Child’s story: “I had read her biography, and realized I had plenty of time. Julia Child didn’t start cooking until she was in her 30s!” She moved to the
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Olde Worthington Farmers Market the following year, while still freelancing in graphic design, and in 2011 made the transition to running Sassafras Bakery full time. The name Sassafras is meant to convey an attitude that is both sassy and sweet, she explains, as she loves using sweet and savory flavors in her baked goods. Herbs and spices play an important role in her products and seasonal, local produce is equally essential. For AJ, another important part of her business is working with local farmers and food producers. She sources fruits and vegetables from Wayward Seed Farm and Lynd’s Fruit Farm in New Albany, and also picks up anything fresh at the local farmers markets. She buys additional products from local vendors, including Snowville Creamery, Krema Nut Butter, Honey Run Farms and Oink, Moo, Cluck. AJ says she values “being in the community with a local provider, vendor, farmer, or customers. I feel connected to the people I sell to, and know my weekly regulars. I’ve seen dating couples get married and babies grow into young kids.” AJ’s dedication to her craft is clear when you take a bite of any of her baked goods. The savory scones are buttery and rich, flavored with piquant herbs and sharp cheeses. Her piecrusts are perfectly
flaky, and mouthwatering fillings are carefully created to allow the flavors of fresh produce to shine through. She decorates her cream cheese cut-out cookies by hand, using homemade buttercream frosting. And AJ’s attention to detail has been drawing national attention. She was featured in the November issue of Food &
Wine magazine, sharing her recipe for an apple pie based on a recipe handed down from her Aunt. This winter, AJ will continue taking specialty orders and finalizing plans for a permanent storefront. And as we wait for farmers market season to come back around, AJ is delighted to share her recipe for elderberry hand pies with Edible Columbus readers. “What I love about baking is the sensuality of it—the most amazing gift of raw ingredients from the earth, the process of mixing those raw ingredients from scratch with my hands, the fragrant aromas, the visual allure, the layers of flavor and texture on the tongue—it’s all pure pleasure and the highest expression of my love.” Sassafras Bakery sells its products at The Hills Market, Market 65 and the Bexley Coffee Shop as well as the monthly Central Ohio Food Forum. To learn more, visit sassafrasbakery.com.
AJ’s Elderberry Hand Pies “Pies are ALWAYS served at our large extended-family dinners—though the flavors change with the seasons, the one constant is always elderberry pie. Harvested in August, elderberries freeze beautifully to last through the winter and spring. Elderberries have a very distinctive flavor. They are earthy and tart, and are somewhat comparable to blackberries. My dad supplies me with mine, but if you can’t find elderberries, any variety of berry would work well.”
Pâte Brisée 2½ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup cold unsalted butter ¼ cup ice-cold water Procedure
1 Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and work into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender.
2 Make a well in the center, add the water and gently toss with your fingers. Using the palm of your hand, knead the mixture in the bowl until the dough comes together, taking care not to over-work.
3 Divide the dough in half, placing each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly, flattening to disks. Refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days. (Can be frozen up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator.)
Filling Genevieve Rainer: An attorney by day, I spend my free time cooking, baking, gardening, brewing and enjoying Columbus’ expanding food scene. I write the blog Ham Sandwich Indicted, where I share my adventures and document my experiments in the kitchen. I’m passionate about eating local, but also fascinated by the field of molecular gastronomy.
1½ cups elderberries (or berry of your choice) ½ generous cup granulated sugar 2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting 1 pinch salt 1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice Egg wash (one egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons cream) Raw sugar Procedure
1 Preheat oven to 425° with a rack on the bottom shelf. 2 In a large bowl, toss together elderberries, sugar, flour, salt and orange juice. Let macerate while you roll out the crust.
3 Working quickly and deliberately on a lightly floured surface, roll out one dough disk to a 16-inch square. Using a 5-inch round cookie cutter, cut 6 circles. Repeat with second dough disk, combine scraps, re-roll and cut about 4 circles.
4 Place the dough circles on parchment-lined trays. Spoon a tablespoon of elderberry filling in the center of each disk. Brush the egg wash around the rim of half of each circle, then fold each in half to create a half-moon shape. Seal by crimping with your fingers or by using the tines of a fork. Brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash, sprinkle with raw sugar and prick the top of each with a fork to vent.
5 Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust is a deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling and thick. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in a cool, dry place, up to 2 days. Makes 16. Note: Hand pies are so versatile, you could fill them with just about anything, savory or sweet—jam, Nutella or loaded mashed potatoes, to name a few.
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In thee GARDEN
a winter
harvest Greens grow even when it snows by extending the season Story and Photography by Kit Yoon
espite the frigid temperatures and scarce daylight, several Central Ohio small farmers find it possible to extend the growing and harvesting season deep into the cold winter months. With enough sunlight, and the right techniques, they are able to provide customers and local restaurants with fresh local greens, root crops and other coldhardy vegetables during the time when most produce in the stores is shipped in from the faraway, warmer climates.
D
“I read a lot of Eliot Coleman’s work. He convinced me that it is possible to grow vegetables through the winter,” said Steve Adams of Sunny Meadow Flower Farm. Steve and his wife, Gretel, produce mostly flowers during the regular growing season on their 10-acre farm just south of downtown Columbus. In the colder months, they have been experimenting with hardy winter vegetables under unheated greenhouses for the Worthington Winter Market and some local restaurants. “I was honestly surprised at how easy it was to grow spinach in the winter,” Adams said. “The growth slows down significantly when the temperature gets below freezing. But cold-tolerant vegetables will keep going from fall, through winter, into spring without much help.” Known as one of the most influential people in organic farming and winter harvesting, Eliot Coleman is a renowned writer, respected educator and experienced all-season farmer. His farm, aptly named Four Season Farm, sits on the coast of Maine, a rather unlikely locale for successful winter crops. “It’s a misconception that all vegetable crops need summer-like temperatures for best growth,” writes Coleman in his latest book The Winter Harvest Handbook. “As inhospitable as cold temperatures may be for warm-season crops like tomatoes, that is not the case with those vegetables like spinach and lettuce that prefer to grow in the cool seasons… they actually thrive and are sweeter, more tender and more flavorful.” In his book, Coleman covers everything from how all-season European farmers have inspired him with the techniques he uses successfully to grow and harvest winter crops on his farm. Coleman discusses the importance of daylight, and the unheated or minimally heated cover structures that play an important role in extending the season practices.
According to Coleman, Central Ohio has it easier than coastal Maine. He shared with Edible Columbus this information: “Columbus, Ohio, on the 40th parallel of latitude is south of us here [in Maine] on the 44th parallel. Day length is in charge in the winter and you will have more light than we do. Also, your average January temperature is 10º F. warmer than ours; your average depth of frost penetration is only one quarter as deep as we experience here, and you are at least one USDA zone warmer than we are.” Also inspired by Eliot Coleman, Joseph Swain of Swainway Urban Farm is giving the winter harvest technique a try. Besides his famous mushrooms and microgreens, Swain grows a variety of organic vegetables in the intensively cultivated 1/3-acre plot behind his house in Clintonville. Last winter, for the first time, Swain experimented with several cold-tolerant vegetables in the hoop house that he constructed from a kit purchased at a greenhouse supply store. “We ate beautiful winter greens last year. I grew spinach, kale, carrots, chard, green onions and kohlrabi, to see how they each would tolerate the winter under the hoop house,” he recalled. Following Coleman’s advice, Swain built a tunnel frame within his hoop house. Over the frame, he laid one or two layers of greenhouse plastic film. These extra layers created microclimates, which help “transport” the plants at least one or two climate zones further south. “It could be 70° in there when it’s 20° outside,” he said. “As long as the sun is out, the greens can grow really well under a couple layers of protection.” Besides the sunlight, the cover structures and protective layers, another key to successful winter harvest is sufficient, established plant growth in the fall. For the Columbus area, Coleman has this to recommend: “The key is to plant soon enough (I would guess about September 25) so the crop has time to get well established before the day length drops below 10 hours (around November 14 in Columbus). A spinach plant with a well established root system will send up new leaves to replace the ones you harvest from then on right through the winter.” By extending the growing season, small farmers with diverse crops can continue to generate income by selling fresh produce to customers outside of the regular farmers market season. Restaurants that are interested in purchasing locally grown edible COLUMBUS.com
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The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman Eliot Coleman’s recommendations for beginners interested in extending the season practices include three basic components:
Cold-Hardy Vegetables Cold-hardy vegetables tolerate cold temperatures, and are often cultivated outdoors year-round in areas with mild winter climates. The majority of them have far lower light requirements than the warm-season crops. Examples include carrots, spinach, leeks, mâche, radishes, onions and scallions, watercress, beets, turnips, Chinese greens, chard and kale.
Succession Planting This means sowing vegetables more than once during a season to provide for a continual harvest. Coleman suggests that we start sowing a range of cold-hardy crops about a month before average fall frost date and plan to be able to cover them with a cold frame or small hoop structure by a month after the frost date and see what happens. He says, “All the beginners I talk to are fascinated and delighted by the results.”
Protected cultivation “You are going to need some sort of greenhouse, high tunnel, hoop house, etc., over the crops for winter protection. Many gardeners have no experience with such structures. However, a hoop house of bowed pipes covered with a single sheet of plastic is pretty simple to make. (Johnny’s Selected Seeds sells pipe-bending forms.) Remember this will be an unheated greenhouse and can be constructed quite inexpensively. Gardeners just need to take that first step (a great family project) and then keep figuring out how to make the structure better and the crop selection wider.”
produce also benefit from the availability of these fresh ingredients with amazing flavors. “I had the best broccoli in my life one February. And the carrots are so sweet they taste like candy,” said Therese Poston of Naomi’s garden in Sunbury. With several cold growing seasons under her belt, Poston is able to appreciate which crops do well in her high- and low-tunnel cover structures. “The Chinese greens, like tatsoi, do really well in the winter. And the best thing about it is that there are no bugs to worry about.” Even though the rewards of harvesting, selling and eating fresh greens deep into winter are worth the efforts, growing food in such inclement weather does pose unique challenges. “I have to admit that processing during the winter is very challenging,” said Steve Adams. “We don’t have a good place to process the vegetables after harvesting yet. On a really cold day, it’s pretty brutal.” Another challenge has to do with venting the hoop houses on sunny days to prevent over-heating. Farmers have to be constantly aware of the shifts in temperature, amount of sunlight, predictions for snow or ice. They don’t get the well-deserved rest that usually happens soon after the first frost of the season. “It’s hard to take a break, or go away,” admits Gretel Adams. “In the winter, one of us always has to be on the farm to make sure that we are staying on top of the microclimates in these houses.” “When you have crops to care for, you can’t go too far, so all my vacations are rather spontaneous,” said Therese Poston with a slight, knowing chuckle. “But I try to take a break when I can.”
Kit Yoon was born and raised in Thailand. She came to the United States in the late ’80s and has since lived in Boston, Northern California and now Columbus. She is a freelance photographer and writer as well as a trained acupuncturist and reflexologist. She enjoys exploring the unique gems that Central Ohio has to offer and blogs about it at coolcolumbus.blogspot.com. Kit lives in Bexley with her husband and two children.
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Behind the BOTTLE
Winter Wines Chris Dillman shares some of his philosophy on wine and winter’s best picks By Megan Shroy
Without question Chris Dillman is the opposite of a wine snob. Yet, he has passed the Advanced level of the Court of Master Sommeliers certification program, is one of only two Master Sommeliers candidates in Columbus and is arguably one of the most sought-after beverage directors around.
Take sugar, for example—according to Dillman, wine drinkers fear sugary wines. “It all goes back to that fear of being wrong, of ordering the wrong thing, of worrying what you look like,” he said. “I think people believe that amateurs start with really sweet wines, then move to whites, on to reds and then to the really dry wines.” Not true, he says. “A little sugar is not a bad thing.”
“I have the mentality of a Midwesterner—self-deprecating,” said Dillman. “I don’t like talking about myself; I think my work should speak for itself.” And it does. Dillman took his Introductory Sommelier test in 2002 in Annapolis, Maryland, and his Certified Sommelier test in October 2007 in Philadelphia. In 2008, he passed his Advanced Sommelier test at the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State. The Advanced test is the third in a series of four tests, and has a pass rate of around 20%. For the past year, Dillman has been running the wine department at Upper Arlington’s new Giant Eagle Market District. After a career in restaurants, it’s a change he’s adapting to. “Working for Giant Eagle has been unlike anything I’ve ever done. It offers unparalleled flexibility and the opportunity to get really creative with buying. You’d think corporate would dictate what we have to carry, but that’s not the case,” he said. Dillman didn’t grow up around wine and never really intended to make a career out of in. In fact, he holds a degree in entomology from Ohio State University. He went on to work at the Refectory, where he was introduced to fine wines. “Bussing tables at the Refectory was the first time I was exposed to good wine,” he said. “I remember a group ordering a really nice bottle and leaving half of it on the table. The sommelier offered me a taste and that was it….I want to change people’s fear of ordering wine. Don’t be afraid to ask a question. Keep open the door that you might not know what you like. I believe if you don’t like a type of wine, you haven’t had enough of it.” These are things about which he’s helping educate Giant Eagle customers everyday. “I tell everyone I talk to—if you don’t like something I recommend, bring it back,” he said. Dillman doesn’t mind writing off a bottle; he says it builds trust and honesty. “I want people to be experimenting with wine, so to me it’s worth the investment.”
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Take a Selbach–Oster Riesling, for example. This German winery’s products range from around 6–18 grams per liter of sugar. Nothing compared to some of the sodas we drink every day. “A wine like this is sweet, but not sugary sweet. You taste golden apple, pineapple core, sugar cookie, petrol. It’s balanced and the perfect amount of sweetness.” When asked what wines he loves right now, Dillman simply replied that he loves the same things year round. “However, there are things you start to see in the fall and then winter that lend themselves to something unoaked. For example, a Berger Zweigelt handles squashes and starches really well,” he said, referring to a variety of red wine that is popular in Austria but largely unknown in this country. This winter Dillman recommends the Berger Zweigelt (1L) and good Dolcetto and Barbera (see sidebar). With a high acidity, no tannins and no oak, it also lends itself well to sweet earthy cured meets. Perfect for cold winter nights. “For me, a good wine at the table is like a good dinner guest. It needs to be engaging, have something good to say. Yet it shouldn’t dominate, but provide something unique.” The Berger Zweigelt is like that: “a total chameleon.” And Dillman recommends wines from Pat and Connie Allen of United Estates Wines, a Columbus couple who import wines from southern France. Their Domaine de Barroubio Rosé is worth a try, along with the La Font de l’Olivier Carignan Vieille Vignes. And if you don’t know what to serve this winter? “Don’t be too intimated to ask,” he said.
Megan Shroy is a writer, publicist and self-proclaimed “Columbus Guru,” authoring the blog Columbus a la Mode, which covers trendy restaurants, events and hot spots in the capital city. During college she traveled abroad, studying Italian food, wine and culture at the Umbra Institute in Perguia, Italy. Megan earned a B.A. in Communication from Wittenberg and received a double minor in journalism and business management. Since, she has been growing as both a writer and a community activist. She resides in Grandview, Ohio, with her husband, Brent.
Chris Dillman’s
Winter Picks Casteller Cava | $9.99 Traditionally, Cava has been a go-to for inexpensive sparkling wine. However, the low price came at a cost; the wines were often coarse and flabby with an odd wet-dog aroma. But earlier harvesting and cleaner winemaking have changed the game entirely. Casteller’s fruit is sourced from the largest vineyard owner in Penedes. The top 40% of their fruit is used for the Casteller wines; the rest is sold off. It’s crisp, clean and vivacious sparkling wine with nice yeast notes. Terrific on its own but also makes a fine base for mimosas.
2010 Charles Smith Wines Kung-Fu Girl Dry Riesling | $11.99 A book that’s not to be judged by its cover. Single-vineyard dry Riesling from the Ancient Lakes area of Washington State’s Columbia Valley. It features varietal-typical aromas of white peach, quince and white blossom but avoids the one-note tutti-frutti character of too many New World Rieslings. A full, sleek and polished palate with just a couple of grams of sugar to fill out the palate.
2010 Bodegas Abonica Rua Valdeorras | $9.99 Galicia (Spain’s northeastern portion) is a hotbed of dynamic wines and winemakers who are turning heads with native grapes that most have never heard of. Rua is a blend of equal parts Godello, Dona Blanc and Palomino that’s aged in stainless steel. It mixes orchard and stone fruit with more exotic tropical and melon notes. Pungent florality and fine-grained minerality permeate the wine, which manages to be both plump (thanks mostly to the Dona Blanca) yet sleek and mineral-rich (thanks to the Godello). Tough to beat.
2010 Domaine de Barroubio Minervois Rosé | $11.99 Imported by United Estates Wines. Nicely floral and mineral-rich dry rosé. Although rosé is usually considered a summer wine, many of them only start to show their best after a few months and Barroubio’s is just starting to show its best.
2009 Messmer Pinot Noir Trocken $16.99 for one-liter bottle Germany grows a lot of Pinot Noir and they like it, which is why we see very little of it ... and what we see tends to be pretty expensive. That’s just one reason that the one-liter version from Messmer is so attractive. Varietally true aromas of black cherry, red currant and blackberry are accents with smoked meat, iodine and red flower notes. The palate is balanced and silky textured. There’s no oak here and you won’t miss it one bit.
2010 Berger Zweigelt $14.99 for one-liter bottle Zweigelt is the greatest red grape that most people have never heard of. Imagine Zinfandel or Malbec grown in a cool climate. Zweigelt has loads of the ripe bright cherry and berry fruit of Malbec but there’s a tart cherry skin character that adds contrast and keeps it refreshing. Like Zinfandel, Zweigelt has wild herb and low tannin but Zweigelt has tangy acidity ... again, keeps it refreshing and drinkable. Like the Messmer Pinot Noir, the Berger Zweigelt comes in one-liter bottles, which gives an additional glass + per bottle.
By Chris Dillman Visit marketdistrict.com to learn more. edible COLUMBUS.com
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edible ADVERTISERS Please look for a free copy of Edible Columbus each season at the businesses marked with a star. You can also subscribe to the magazine at ediblecolumbus.com.
Angry Baker* 614-947-0976 theangrybakerote.com
Backroom Coffee Roasters* 614-486-8735 backroomcoffeeroasters.com
Bexley Natural Market* 614-252-3951 bexleynaturalmarket.org
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Dental Reflections* 614-459-0011 dentalreflections4kids.com
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Green B.E.A.N. Delivery* 614-352-2845 greenbeandelivery.com
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North Market*
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Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association oeffa.org
The Greener Grocer*
Sweet Thing Gourmet
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The Going Green Store* 740-963-9644 thegoinggreenstore.com
The Gourmet Farm Girl thegourmetfarmgirl.com
The Hills Market* 614-846-3220 thehillsmarket.com
Thurn’s Specialty Meats* 614-443-1449
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Trek Columbus Bicycle Store*
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Snowville Creamery*
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Whole Foods Market* wholefoodsmarket.com
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Clustering Around the Cows: Why food hubs in Ohio may be one way forward By Ken Meter
W
compromising his quality or sustainability, Greg will do whatever it takes to grow with us.” Eley also insists that market employees like to visit the supplying farms to know what the farmer goes through.
I would learn even more when I interviewed Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus. Snowville filters its skim milk into a rich cream base, which Jeni then buys for her Ohioinspired ice creams.
A young farmer in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has formed an investment cluster around himself. Facing land costs of $60,000 per acre due to his proximity to the metro housing market, this farmer was approached by savvy neighbors, all cattle farmers. “They told me there was no way I could make it on my own with these land prices.” So a half dozen of them kicked in $10,000 each, saying, “We don’t want the money back right away, repay us when you can.” That allowed him to launch his own farm with supportive mentors nearby.
Lesson one: Make productive use of what might be waste. Lesson two: Collaborate across firms. Jeni said she works closely with Warren, speaking by phone on a weekly basis. “Snowville starts it all for us with their quality grass-grazed milk. We have been able to refine our recipes because of them. We’ve worked closely with Warren to perfect our production. It is now better than it has ever been. The strong flavors we like require a higher protein content. Snowville’s filtration process provides just that.” Lesson three: Collaboration strengthens resilience. “We can alter our recipes easily,” Jeni added, “because we work closely with the creamery. The flexibility he gives us is so exciting.” Overall, “Our growth is based on Snowville’s growth. We can’t grow unless they are able to grow as well.” Building intentional clusters of businesses like these, where leaders communicate strategically to achieve shared goals rather than simply competing, is changing the economy. This strategy gives us better food, and creates efficiencies we will need for an uncertain future. Similar clustering has been at work for 40 years in Athens, Ohio, where Casa Nueva Restaurant and Crumb’s Bakery began to partner with local farms. ACENet (Appalachian Community Enterprise Network) and its kitchen incubator carry the vision forward, laying the groundwork that helped create a consumer market for grassgrazed milk and gourmet Ohio ice cream. Now, Warren is expanding into new clusters. Snowville now collaborates with Local Matters, a Columbus food bank, and Green B.E.A.N. Delivery (in Columbus and Indianapolis) for joint warehousing and shipping. A similar cluster is forming in Indiana, where Christopher Eley of Goose the Market (Indianapolis) and Greg Gunthorp of Gunthorp Farms (LaGrange) expand production jointly. Gunthorp processes its own animals. Goose then purchases these dressed hogs and cures and smokes them into gourmet hams and sausage. With this collaboration in place, the pair is now starting a new smokehouse business, Smoking Goose. Eley says of Greg Gunthorp, “Aside from
One town of 4,000 in southwest Wisconsin turned a potential economic nightmare into a profound opportunity. Two years ago, a printing and packaging plant in Viroqua was summarily closed by its distant corporate owners. Sue Noble, head of the local economic development association, confronted the CEO of the firm and asked him to sell her the building, by way of repaying the community for its previous investment in the factory. He relented. Now, two years later, the community has won a $2 million EDA grant to refurbish the 100,000-square-foot building. It will house a regional foodprocessing center, including two produce grower/distributors and several small food manufacturers. Detroit’s Eastern Market has launched bold plans to create a food hub surrounding its historic inner-city location. The market already counts 82 full-time businesses clustered near its site, in addition to growers who sell there. A community kitchen is being built, wholesale warehousing/shipping facilities are planned and food processors will be added. The model of all business clusters flourished in Italy, where public policy has for decades realized that if businesses in a small nation like Italy don’t collaborate, they will be decimated by global competition. As one example, in the Milan fashion industry industrial giants send piecework to home-based seamstresses in remote villages. This costs a bit more but creates employment in smaller towns, so people are not forced to move to urban centers. Food hubs like these are emerging all over the United States. These are simply the stories I know the best. In our extractive economy, building clusters of food businesses in Ohio is the best path I can think of for creating more stable and resilient economies.
Ken Meter is the president of Crossroads Resource Center (Minneapolis) and wrote Ohio’s Food Systems: Farms at the Heart of It All, for the University of Toledo (www.crcworks.org/ohfood.pdf).
Photo by © Sarah Warda, www.sarahwarda.com
hen I first met Warren Taylor of Snowville Creamery, he was scooping freshly made pawpaw ice cream from a bicycle-powered freezer during the 2010 Pawpaw festival at Lake Snowden. At the time, I did not realize how Warren’s gesture offered lessons for the future food system of Ohio.