Farm Indiana | November 2016

November 2016

Rural Living & Local Food

Dollars and Change

The Stuckwish family diversifies its farming operation

also inside

Indy High Bines Lynnwood Farm Egg Innovations

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Contents November 2016

Ryan Gettum of Indy High Bines

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6 Stuckwish Family Farms 10 Lynnwood Farm 14 Indy High Bines 20 Egg Innovations 25 Farm Safety Tips 26 Indiana Corn and Soybean

29 Continuing Education 30 From the Field

Columns by growers

Local Food Section 33 Column by Jolene Ketzenberger 34 Old 55 Distillery 36 Food News

Innovation Center

28

38 Chef Q+A: Aaron Butts

Prosperity Ag & Energy Resources

39 Recipe: Curried Squash Bisque

ON THE COVER Ryan Stuckwish of Stuckwish Family Farms. Read more on page 6. Photo by Josh Marshall

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Editor’s Note

Community Made

R

Recently, I attended the Indiana Local Food Summit, a first-of-its-kind event sponsored by Purdue Extension. There, I was able to see many old friends and make some new ones. By the end of the day, I found myself talking to a friend I’ve known for years. She works as an independent consultant with farmers and local food entrepreneurs, and she was praising the work my husband and I have done with our small farm — the accumulation of animals, the creation of our farm store, the events we’ve hosted and will host as the year comes to a close.

I explained to her that business at our rural location has been slow, and it has, quite honestly. Some days our store sees record numbers of customers — like about a dozen or so — and some days there’s no one but me, the breeze, the birds singing my praises (at least that’s what I tell myself they’re singing), and the small seed of doubt that tends to creep into my mind when business is slow.

In the real estate world, “location, location, location” is usually touted as the key to success. And in the farm store world, it’s pretty critical, too, I suspect.

But there’s something else growing on our property that I hadn’t quite seen coming. And it’s something that seems even more important than location.

Our store’s grand opening in July received some media attention.

Slowly, the neighbors have seen the

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

stories. They’ve stumbled across our Facebook page or website. Or maybe it was the giant sign in our front yard that they couldn’t miss. Regardless of how they made their ways to our home, they’ve started stopping in.

Each week, they arrive, at first announcing the closest county road coordinates where they reside.

The conversations inevitably turn a little more lively. We discuss local food, wellness, modern agriculture, livestock, and, usually by the end of their visits, which can last anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours, all involved have made new friends.

Usually, these customers then take to social media, where they post a status update about our farm and their visit.

They recommend us to their friends; they call their family members, who are usually their neighbors, too, and then the following weekend, those friends and family members show up.

I’ve long known this is how a small business grows, but I never imagined myself playing an actual part in it, much less depending on it. Now, when I see the Shop Local signs, which are popping up nearly everywhere, the “Shop Local” concept means something new. Not only does shopping local support our local economy, but it helps to build relationships. It creates community.

This past week our small farm store, among 50 other Indiana businesses, was awarded a Snail of Approval designation

by Slow Food Indy. Each year, the organization honors what it deems the best local, sustainable restaurants, grocers, artisans and farmers in and near Indianapolis with this designation. To be named among some of the city’s most established and renowned businesses was at once humbling and exciting.

The designation, along with our new customers and friends, reminds me to stay our course. Something else my friend Vicki told me at the Indiana Local Food Summit pops into my head anytime I’m feeling down.

As I tried to explain the slow growth in business, she brushed off my reservations. “You’re doing this right,” she observed. “I follow your social media posts. I see what people are saying. These people, your customers, they know your animals’ names.”

We both paused in conversation, leaving a moment to reflect. I understood what she meant.

Community. That’s everything.

YES! This is A monthly publication of AIM Media Indiana, Farm Indiana offers the local news and views of Indiana’s farming world, including features about local families and their farms, agriculture businesses, equipment and technological advances, educational outreach programs and more. Farm Indiana promotes and celebrates Indiana’s rich history and tradition in farming; serves as a conduit of information among growers, producers, farmers, retailers, farming organizations and local food consumers; educates readers about the nutritional, social and financial importance of local food support and consumption; and highlights Indiana local foods and agritourism.

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From left, Lonn, Cheryl, Cruz, Ryan, Kelli and Brandon Stuckwish.

A Family Calling 6

Farm Indiana // November 2016

Stuckwish storefront

Farming has been a way of life for three Jackson County generations

By Marcia Walker Photography by Josh Marshall

S

Stuckwish Family Farms got its start in 1959, when Neal Stuckwish left his full-time job to grow watermelons and cantaloupe in the sandy soil near Starve Hollow Lake in southern Jackson County.

Neal, who was still driving a tractor the year he died at 91, helped with the family’s watermelon harvest. Stuckwish Family Farms is now carried on by his sons, Vernon, 62, and Lonn, 66, along with Neal’s grandson, Ryan, 33.

“It was our father who really started the business,” Vernon says. “We … continue in his tradition.”

Vernon and Ryan take a break from loading winter squash for customers and sit together in the office of the family’s newest venture, a farm market.

Essentially, there are two parts to the Stuckwish farming operation. There is the farm, which involves growing vegetables for the wholesale market and is the primary responsibility of Vernon, with assistance from Ryan. Then there is the retail market, Stuckwish Farm Market, owned and operated by Ryan and his dad, Lonn. The two purchased the market from another farming family earlier this year; it has only been open under the Stuckwish name since July.

Although two separate entities, the three Stuckwishes help one another out as needed. “It’s really very much integrated,” Vernon acknowledges, referring to the two operations.

About 135 acres of the family farm are devoted to growing vegetables; another 70 acres are planted in other crops, including alfalfa, soybeans and corn. Watermelon is still a primary crop; this past season, they grew 60 acres of melons. They also raise sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkins and several varieties of winter squash. “We’ve kind of diversified a little bit,” Ryan explains.

That diversity is key to the farm’s sustainability. Ryan says if they experience a bad year with one crop, hopefully that loss will be offset by other crops that do well.

This year, the wet summer had a negative impact on pumpkins, but it was a good year for watermelons.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

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Brandon, Vernon and Ryan.

“We spread our risk. We never jump in with one crop; that’s how we’ve been able to last,” Ryan says.

The Stuckwishes also have always been willing to try new growing methods and varieties, sometimes successfully, other times not. During the 1990s, a new variety of watermelon was developed; Neal decided to give it a try.

“My dad was probably the first person in the state to grow seedless watermelon,” Vernon says, explaining his father bought the seed directly from the man who developed the variety.

“We keep looking at new and different options to grow,” Ryan adds. “Some don’t work; others we wish we had jumped in feet first.”

They also were among the first 8

Farm Indiana // November 2016

uct at a reasonable price. Vernon serves farmers to grow tomatoes in high tunnels, on the board of directors of the Indiana sometimes called hoop houses. These Vegetable Growers Association. structures are built with heavy plastic “Our big selling point is how we adhere stretched over hoops. The family started to food safety,” Ryan says. “We’ve been with a half-acre and now devote five acres doing it for years, even before it was manto tomatoes. dated. That’s the first Unlike tomatoes thing a customer asks: grown in conven‘Are you food certitional greenhouses, “Our big selling point fied?’” where a growing is how we adhere to For the Stuckwishes, medium is used, the farming is no longer Stuckwishes grow food safety. We’ve a seasonal endeavor. tomatoes in good been doing it for After harvest, which old-fashioned dirt, years, even before it is usually completed the same sandy soil was mandated.” in October, comes characteristic of the —Ryan Stuckwish cleanup. Preparing for area around Starve the tomato crop begins Hollow Lake. Ryan in February. “It’s pretty explains that there much year-round,” Vernon says. are a number of advantages of using high Ryan, who also works as a teacher in tunnels, including protecting the plants Brownstown schools, remembers his first from the elements. Also, they are able job on the farm. He was about 9 or 10, he to plant earlier, as much as three weeks says, and he stapled cardboard boxes that before plants can be grown outdoors. would be used to hold pumpkins, melons They strive for growing a quality prod-

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cantaloupe, sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, winter squash.

Owners/Operators:

Lonn, Vernon and Ryan Stuckwish Five seasonal workers, sometimes more during peak season.

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and squash. These days, his son, 13-yearold Brandon, handles the same task, although Ryan says Brandon helps out in other ways as well.

“We’re dragging him along,” Ryan jokes, adding “he loves the tractor jobs.”

Ryan also has a 2-year-old son, Cruz.

And when he talks about the farm, Ryan discusses the need to look ahead, with an intent to establishing a farming operation that will be handed down to his children.

Ryan and Vernon are Purdue Univer-

sity graduates, but Ryan says a great deal of his farming education came through conversations with his grandfather.

“He (Ryan) learned from the master, you might say,” Vernon adds.

Farming is all Vernon and Ryan have ever wanted to do. On the farm’s website, Ryan explains why he continues what his grandfather started. “I love farming, to work with the earth and get your hands dirty,” he explains. “It’s meaningful. It’s fulfilling.”

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Life

at Lynnwood Farm Nickel family remembers Hamilton County show farm

By C J Woodring

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

PhotoS Provided by Jerry Nickel and the Carmel Clay Historical Society

L

ynnwood Farm once stood as a world-class operation in Hamilton County. Sprawled across more than 600 acres, it served as a breeding farm for horses and hogs, an instructional and research environment for Purdue University, and a sanctuary for families who lived and worked there.

This is one man’s, one family’s, story.

Wilbur Carl “Wib” Nickel was the third of four children born to Charles H. and

D. Webb, Charles Lynn, Charles Nickel and George Nickel in Lynn’s office

Esther Gustafson Nickel in Arenzville, Illinois. His father was a farmer who grew corn, alfalfa and oats. But his primary undertaking was livestock: Berkshire hogs and Polled Shorthorn cattle. And with four children to feed — Wib, Alice, Dorothy and George — life was never easy.

“My grandparents, John and Lulu Nickel, had a farm down the road. They never owned a car or telephone. Neither of our homes had electricity or plumbing,” Wib recalls. “We didn’t have a tractor, so we farmed with mules.”

Wib remembers the family’s Model T, replaced in 1930 by a Model A. He drove by himself at the age of 9, he says. “I had

my first ‘fender bender’ when I was 12.

I cried, but then my grandfather said he would still ride with me.”

He recalls the one-room schoolhouse, which accommodated 22 students in Grades 1 through 8, and recounts the time he was rushed to the hospital and treated for a burst appendix, which had become gangrenous. “There were no antibiotics, and I later learned I had been given one chance in 100 to live.”

As for the family’s annual visit to the dentist: “Dad would pay the bill with two hams.”

It was a hard-scrabble life. And in Illinois, as in other states with an agriculturFarm Indiana // November 2016

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al and manufacturing base, it was about to get harder when the Great Depression hit, extinguishing hope like the giant dust storms that swept through the Great Plains, leaving behind only desolation.

“The droughts in 1934 and 1936 were terrible,” Wib says. “Dad would sit on the porch in the evening watching clouds form. But they weren’t clouds; they were dust. Wells went dry, and there were no crops, so there wasn’t any money. For Christmas, we could each select a onedollar toy from the Sears catalog.”

Wib colors his childhood happy, echoing others who grew up during the Depression: “We were poor, but we didn’t know it.”

In 1937 both families lost their farms.

“Luckily, a wealthy Indiana landowner was introduced to Dad at that year’s Illinois State Fair,” Wib says. “He hired Dad to manage cattle and hog operations on his farm. Dad agreed to go if he could bring along his Polled Shorthorn cattle.”

The “wealthy landowner” was Indianapolis businessman and philanthropist Charles Lynn. The farm was Lynnwood.

Farm of the future In 1934, during the height of the Great Depression, Charles Jackson Lynn, vice president of Eli Lilly and Co. and president of the American Shorthorn Association, began acquiring land on Carmel’s east side, amassing more than 600 acres.

Lynnwood Farm was established as a place to breed the very best Polled Shorthorn cattle, Berkshire hogs and Percheron draft horses.

It was the farm of the future, where grateful families exchanged labor for food and lodging, a common practice at the time. Men provided labor; women baked cakes and pies they sold at Floyd’s, one of Carmel’s two small groceries.

The self-sustaining showcase demanded its own blacksmith, along with two full-time painters and three full-time carpenters, who maintained more than 50 buildings and miles of fencing.

Farm facilities included horse barns with hot and cold running water, and cattle barns cooled in summer and heated 12

Farm Indiana // November 2016

Wilbur Nickel hauling manure.

in winter by steam pipes run beneath floors, far surpassing homes in Carmel, many of which still had outhouses.

Hamilton and Marion county schoolchildren visited throughout the year.

Young Future Farmers of America, 4-H judging teams and agriculture students from colleges nationwide viewed the world-class livestock operation before heading to or from the Chicago International Livestock Show.

It was to this innovative and nearly Utopian setting that Charles Nickel and his family arrived in 1937, following a fivehour journey from west-central Illinois.

Twelve-year-old Wib was awestruck.

“It was a very beautiful, very modern farm, with large barns and white posts,” he recalls.

Wib was a 4-H member for 10 years and in 1942 graduated from Carmel High School, one of 32 students. He studied animal husbandry at Purdue University, graduating in 1948, then spent seven years on a Kentucky racehorse farm, overseeing cattle operations.

In 1952 he wed Emily Campbell. The Indianapolis residents have two daughters: Amy Nickel Lippard, who lives next door, and Ann Nickel Schuck, who lives close by.

The decision to leave the Kentucky farm and his agrarian roots was simply for “a better opportunity,” says Wib, who became one of the first sales representatives for Lilly. Employed there for 32 years, he retired in 1986. “I was one of the first salesmen who started it and was very lucky to have that career,” he says.

“He’s the last one standing of the original four,” Lippard says, “and he’s still sharp as a tack.”

Without his Lynnwood Farm background, Wib says, he doubts he would have gone to college.

In 1942, the year Wib graduated from high school, Charles Lynn donated the farm to Purdue University for research, forming the Lynnwood Farm Purdue Research Center. The intent was not only to educate students, but to improve agriculture nationwide.

Cutting-edge field trials such as synchronization — now considered essential for artificial insemination — were developed there, along with no-till farming.

Never intended as a moneymaking proposition — many considered it the founder’s hobby — Lynnwood “operated ... on a high level that disregarded expense,” Lynn once stated. To help support operations, he and his wife donated more than $60,000 to the college between 1942 and his death in 1958.

Lynn also remained involved in overall farm operations, spending several days at the farm each week working closely with general manager Charles Nickel, who managed cattle operations for 30 years until his death in 1967.

A second gener ation of Nickels Wib Nickel’s brother George — who passed away in September at the age of 93 — was tapped to manage Lynnwood’s

show herd of Polled Shorthorns. Ultimately, he showed cattle in most major livestock events in North America, working for 50 years at the farm.

It was the only job his father ever had, says son Jerry Nickel, a second-generation farm resident.

Born in 1953, Jerry became an accomplished showman of Polled Shorthorns and Berkshire hogs. “We all had 4-H projects we were expected to take care of, and I spent a lot of time with show cattle, as a child, helping Dad. I didn’t think of them as chores,” he says.

About 10 families could be accommodated at the farm at one time. Most had a chicken house and a small garden. Jerry says they stayed until their situations changed, sometimes remaining 10 or 20 years. “We also had part-time people in the peak season. But it wasn’t a place for transients,” he notes.

By the time Jerry attended Carmel High School, only about a half-dozen classmates lived at the farm, which had become increasingly mechanized.

Jerry left Lynnwood in 1971 and graduated from Purdue in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in animal science.

After managing a Kentucky farm for a while, he returned to the Hoosier state in 1980 and in 1998 founded Rushvillebased Midwest Ag Finance. In 2015 the company was acquired by Beacon Credit Union, for which Jerry serves as chief strategic officer.

Remembering Lynnwood As tractors gained more widespread use, Purdue sold most of the Percherons and other livestock. They began selling off land in 1982, and by 1988 the farm was all in private hands.

The final sale netted about $4 million, which was put into the Lynnwood Endowment and valued at $13.4 million in 2002.

In April 2012 the Carmel Clay Historical Society presented “Percherons and Purebreds: Lynnwood Farm” as its season-opening exhibit, introducing younger generations to the farm while igniting memories among those who once lived there.

CCHS grants manager Katherine Dill was executive director there at the time.

Dill recalls the exhibit drew a large turnout. “There were people who remembered living there, working there, maybe even building their high school floats there.

“The farm was a huge community in Carmel, probably the biggest employer in the township in the 1940s. So we had all this development and ingenuity in farming in Indiana, and some of the best soil in America. That community is basically all gone, and they were revisiting a time gone by.”

Land on which Lynnwood Farm and its outbuildings once stood is now home to a golf course, a church, the city’s water treatment plant and hundreds of homes.

Few remnants remain: a corncrib, a couple of barns, the farm office.

A lone silo stands at Feldun Purdue Agricultural Center in Lawrence County, where the Indiana Beef Evaluation Program’s Bull Test Station was relocated from Lynnwood in 1989.

As with others who recall halcyon days at Lynnwood, Jerry Nickel is appreciative of the opportunities the farm offered.

“I tell people I didn’t learn about the real world, but with all of the farm, the buildings and places to play, it was a wonderful place to grow up. It was a great training ground to learn how to meet people and develop social skills. And I cherish that.”

Throughout his career, Jerry has served the agricultural community he loves.

He also tends about two dozen Polled Shorthorns on his Connersville farm. “I never left agriculture. I just found a place to stay,” he says.

Even — or especially — in 21st-century America, Jerry considers growing up on a farm a wonderful experience. “The values are still the same, and families still care about one another. Agriculture is still a great place to be.”

Decades earlier, Charles Nickel left Illinois to pursue a new life for his family: A life at Lynnwood Farm. A life still fondly remembered — and missed — by many.

“Oh, yeah. I miss the farm. I’ve always missed the farm. It’s a good life,” Wib Nickel says. “But I had a good career and a good life that I enjoyed. I really did.

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

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High Hopes Between towering 20-foot-tall poles, the thick, leafy vines of hop plants stretch toward the sky.

By Ryan Trares // Photography by josh marshall

14

Farm Indiana // November 2016

Indy High Bines owners Ryan Gettum and K.C. Lewis

Farm Indiana // November 2016

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T

The plants grow on a massive trellis system at Indy High Bines, a southside hops farm. One section of the trellis is dedicated to Cascade hops, giving off the smell of citrus and floral notes. Another supports a Columbus variety with a pungent, dank aroma. The few Cashmere hop plants offer notes of mellow melon.

Each plant will become part of your favorite beer. Central Indiana has supported a growing craft beer scene. Now, area breweries are able to add another layer of depth to their dedication to local beer.

Indy High Bines is part of a movement throughout the state to produce hops, a plant that has a generally bitter taste and is used to balance the malt in beer.

The farm only started growing hops two years ago, but already has a niche following among brewers throughout the state.

“Everyone wants to see everyone else succeed, because the more Indiana hops that gain a foothold with the brewer-

16

Farm Indiana // November 2016

Equipment used to harvest hops.

ies, the more open the breweries will be to use hops from Indiana,” says Ryan Gettum, co-owner of Indy High Bines.

“We’ll help any farmers, invite anyone to come out to see if they want to do this.”

“It literally opens people eyes to what fresh hops — not the 2-year-old pelletized hops you’d get from the West Coast — can do for the quality of the beer,” K.C. Lewis says.

The farm was started by Gettum and Lewis, southside residents who have known each other since they were students at Center Grove High School. Neither had an agriculture background when they started the farm. What they did have was an idea sparked by a History Channel program about beer-making in America they had been watching together.

That spark smoldered, kept alive when a fellow high school friend announced he was going to start growing hops. The idea bounced around between them for a few years, until they saw other Indiana

growers having success with hops and thought they’d try it themselves.

The heavy hitters in the hops game are still the Pacific Northwest states — Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Those three states account for 96 percent of the hops grown in the U.S. Washington grew more Sterling variety of hops this year than all of the varieties grown in Indiana combined.

But more local growers are investing in the crop. In 2015, only 25 acres had been planted throughout Indiana, according to the Hops Growers of America. But this year, Hoosier planted acres doubled, to 50.

“Right now, the hops community is super supportive,” Lewis says. “There’s not really a competition because there’s not enough acres in Indiana. So we can bounce ideas back and forth.”

Gettum and Lewis had to start with

Photography Submitted by K.C. Lewis

Farm Indiana // November 2016

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Post-harvest at Indy High Bines.

“Right now, the hops community is super supportive.

There’s not really a competition because there’s not enough acres in Indiana. So we can bounce ideas back and forth.”

— K.C. LEWIS

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

the basics of hops growing, learning about varieties, how to diversify their plantings and trellis design to hold the climbing vines. Initially, they put about 10 plants in Gettum’s front yard.

“People thought I was putting up a (goal post) for my kids — two posts and a wire between them,” Gettum says.

That first crop turned out to be a small-scale success. The two started looking for property with which to start Indy High Bines. With both living on the south side around Bluff Road, they found the area’s heritage in greenhouses, orchards and other plants advantageous.

“It’s that German greenhouse soil there.

We have a nice sandy loam, that drains re-

ally well,” Gettum says. “Our plants were able to root deep immediately.”

In the summer of 2014, they finalized the purchase of the property, created their logo and formed their company.

That winter, they spent hours in the cold and snow erecting the nearly 20-foot-tall poles and wiring that would constitute the farm’s trellis system.

Hops grow on vines, so the trellis system is necessary to give the plants someplace to thrive.

As they got started, it became important to lean on local agricultural experts to make sure they made the right decision. They consulted with another friend from school, Jackson Umbarger,

and his family’s company, Umbarger Show Feeds, to learn about fertilizer, soil analysis and field amendments.

“For a couple of guys who have no ag background, to bounce ideas off of him was great that first year,” Lewis says.

Their first crop started growing in the spring of 2015. They planted Columbus and Cascade varieties that had grown so well in Gettum’s front yard the year before. In addition, they took a chance with more exotic breeds such as Cashmere.

Working with brewers and growers throughout the state, they started looking for customers for their harvest.

MashCraft Brewing Co. in Greenwood used their Cashmere hops for a

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special brew — High P.A., a harvest India pale ale with delicate — not bitter — hops notes.

Their first major success came with Mishawaka’s Evil Czech Brewing Co. Their hops have been used exclusively in Tulip Tree IPA, the brewery’s India pale ale.

An acquaintance in the hops processing business connected the farm with Evil Czech, which did an initial limited brew last year with the hops. The IPA was so successful it was added to the brewery’s regular rotation.

Photography Submitted by K.C. Lewis

This year, the brewery will get 71 percent of the hops harvest Indy High Bines produces — about 500 pounds.

The company is increasing its presence in the local craft beer scene.

Gettum and Lewis have started working with Chilly Water Brewing Co. in Indianapolis. In honor of the state’s bicentennial, Tinman Brewing Co. created Hops and Hominy, a balanced beer with a dank aroma made with Columbus hops from Indy High Bines.

“It’s more of a bitter hop, but it has great heavy aromas,” Gettum says.

“When you smell that beer, it’s like we opened a bag of our hops right there.”

This fall, Taxman will release Harvest, a pale ale made with all-Indiana ingredients, including Indy High Bines hops.

In their original plans, Lewis and Gettum hoped to expand their acreage this fall. But problems with their Cashmere hops plants forced them to put those plans on hold. A sizable investment in a harvester machine, to strip the plants of their hops without having to do it by hand, also contributed to the decision.

“We decided to wait another year, to get our feet underneath of us a little bit,” Gettum says. “We want to prove we can do it, prove we can sell it and prove we can make a good beer. We want to prove we can do what we set out to do.”

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

19

Egg Innovations free-range and pasture-raised hens

Pasture Perfect 20

Farm Indiana // November 2016

John Brunnquell

Egg Innovations helps small farmers enter the poultry business

T

By Shawndra Miller

There’s something soul-satisfying about the sight of chickens strutting about on green grass under an open sky. As Egg Innovations’ founder John Brunnquell puts it, “When you see animals out on pasture, it’s bucolic.”

The Warsaw-based Egg Innovations has more than pretty scenery going for it though, because giving layer hens fresh air and sunshine turns out to be great for production as well. Egg Innovations’ eggs are produced on family farms in Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio.

Each farm follows a prescriptive design and strict standard operating procedures to meet multiple certifications, including Certified Humane by Humane Farm Animal Care, USDA Organic and Non-GMO Project Verified. But the process of getting to this point, where the most stringent of each certifying body’s standards are adopted, was a long and winding route that began long ago.

Wisconsin native Brunnquell grew up on a small farm that included caged egg production, in keeping with common practice.

With full respect for his father and the established way of raising layers, he continued keeping layers in cages when he began his own farm operation. Then 20 years ago he found his way into a cage-free poultry barn.

“I said, ‘No matter what they taught me, no matter what anyone says, you cannot tell me that these birds have a worse quality of life than in cages,’” he recalls. His journey into animal welfare had begun.

For a time, he took incremental steps in that direction, starting with removing all cages from the structures. He added perches and noticed that every single one of the birds perched at night. He installed a scratch area and then set up an outdoor space, opening doors to allow the birds their choice.

“Each time we took another step of animal welfare,” he says, “the birds were healthier, lived longer and laid more eggs. After a while you have that ‘aha’ moment.”

He went on to pursue his Ph.D. in avian ethology — also known as bird behavior — and to create a company devoted to

PhotoS Provided by Egg Innovations

putting the welfare of chickens, people and planet first.

As the first commercial company in the United States to go 100 percent cage-free, then 100 percent free range, Egg Innovations has become a leader in humane poultry husbandry. Now about 30 percent of its farm partners go beyond free range, allowing their Hyline and Centurion birds access to pasture 365 days a year.

“What we now understand is the good Lord designed each animal … to have certain native behaviors,” he says, “and that animal’s just hard-wired to that behavior.” In the case of chickens, they

naturally want to scratch, dust bathe, perch, nest, forage and socialize. Egg Innovations chicken farms are set up to encourage these activities because happy hens are productive hens.

“If we design a building that allows these behaviors,” says Brunnquell, “we see an amazing transformation in the animals’ behavior and performance.” His barns hold 20,000 chickens with designated areas for scratching and nesting, and of course the all-important outdoor access. The company takes a “cookie cutter approach” to building, eschewing remodels in favor of new construction to ensure all standards are met.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

21

An Egg Innovations employee at the Owenton, Kentucky, free-range and pasture-raised farm

It’s a formula that seems to be working. One of Egg Innovations’ free-range producers set the national production record in 2015. The Wisconsin operation was first in the nation over all categories — caged, cage-free, free-range and pastured.

The distinction between free-range and pastured plays out like this: Freerange hens have seasonal access to the outdoors (when temperatures rise above 32 degrees). In practice, this means that the farmer opens the barn doors at 33 degrees throughout the winter. Outside, Egg Innovations’ free range hens typically have 22 square feet per bird in an 22

Farm Indiana // November 2016

11-acre pasture. Some legacy barns are set in pastures that allow the minimum Certified Humane requirement of 2 square feet per bird, but all new contracts allow for 22, according to Brunnquell.

Pastured hens, on the other hand, are allowed access to a 50-acre pasture 365 days a year “short of a tornado,” he explains. Farm partners with this setup are located in Kentucky, where winters are milder.

Though he still keeps his office on the Wisconsin homestead that his grandfather began farming in 1913, he finds Indiana to be a stronger poultry state for the company’s headquarters. With

Purdue’s excellent ag program, Indiana offers a stellar pipeline for veterinarians and new young graduates. Of the 60 contract farmers across the Midwest, 40 are located in Indiana, ranging from Nappanee in the west to Fort Wayne in the east, and about 100 miles south of Fort Wayne near the state line.

A key reason for relocating to northern Indiana was the region’s large Amish population. Amish farmers are familiar with the contract production model of farming. Egg Innovations owns the feed mill and egg grading facility, and raises chicks to provide to its farms. While retaining ownership of the poultry, the

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“Our ideal farmer has no prior poultry knowledge,” he says. That way, they come into the contract with no bad habits or preconceived notions, and they’re more open to the training and inspections that go along with farming for Egg Innovations.

Brunnquell says his company has two passions — improving animal welfare and nurturing the next generation of farmers working medium-sized operations. “I had the luxury of founding this business to put those social values in the company,” he says. “We write the longest contracts and pay the highest rates in the industry.”

In keeping with the company’s pledge to put the welfare of not only chickens, but people and planet first, its farmers make a sustainable income that can support a family on a small amount of acreage.

And the efficiency of streamlined processes and standardized barn designs helps the consumer as well — offering a choice of quality, ethically raised product at an affordable price. Egg Innovations’ consumer brand, Blue Sky Family Farms, is available at Kroger and Marsh for

about $4 a dozen for free range, or $5 a dozen for pastured eggs.

Egg Innovations bills itself as a family farm business, and that’s what Brunnquell looks for in new contracts. “We want this to be a family enterprise,” he says. “If you’ve got a big farm of 4,000 acres … and you want to diversify, maybe you already have hogs, we’re not too interested.” He’s more excited to sign young farmers just starting out on family farms. “What we find is that when it’s a family operation, they pay more attention to the animals.”

Lonnie Yoder’s LaGrange-area farm involves the entire family in its Egg Innovations enterprise, which he started nine years ago. When his 10-year contract is up, he plans to renew. Having grown up on a chicken farm raising broilers, Yoder wanted his children to learn the responsibility that comes with caring for livestock. He and his wife’s own brood numbers nine, ranging in age from 4 to 19.

All the children, including the preschoolers, take part in the enterprise.

“They’re out there helping,” he says of the youngest children. “We hand pick all

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the eggs. They might gather a half case or so.” It takes the family about 45 minutes, morning and evening, to complete the chores.

Egg Innovations provides the Yoders with steady income that isn’t dependent on his woodworking employment. “If I get sick or something and can’t go to work,” he says, “the income keeps going.

The chicken farm’s really what makes my payment and pays my taxes.”

He also keeps five Angus beef cows, “but they’re mostly just to keep the weeds down,” he says, though he does make a little money selling their calves in the spring.

Yoder says the company differs from other setups in its concern for the chickens’ welfare. For example, some opera-

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

tions switch the barn lights on as early as 1:30 a.m. to allow a 4 a.m. egg gathering schedule. But at Egg Innovations, “they don’t want us to light them up early,” he says. “They have us light them up at the same time as it gets light outside. They want the birds to live just as natural as we can get it.”

And “natural” adds up to a product that many are willing to pay a premium for — whether they are concerned about animal welfare, GMOs, pesticides, or simply enjoy the flavor of eggs laid by pastured hens.

“Not everyone is focused on animal welfare,” says Brunnquell, “but for those who are, we want to be there for them.”

For more information, visit egginnovations.co.

Farm safety reminders and tips Mayo Clinic News Network (TNS)

During the harvest season, it’s important for those in farming communities to be well-prepared and safe. Long hours, powerful machinery and isolated jobs all make the risk of farmrelated injuries, which can often be fatal, quite high. However, remembering a few dependable safety practices and picking up a new tip or two can help you avoid a serious accident.

Maria Flor, a Mayo Clinic Health System nurse and trauma coordinator, provides these tips for farm safety:

STAY RESTED

Being overtired creates an impaired mental state comparable to intoxication.

Most farmers wouldn’t consider operating their equipment while drunk, but many still work 20-hour days during fall harvest. Don’t sacrifice your well-being for the sake of efficiency.

TAKE BREAKS

It’s important to reset and refocus from time to time.

Take regular breaks to give your body and mind a chance to recuperate.

STAY HYDRATED, AND DON’T SKIP MEALS

Dehydration and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) can be more dangerous than you may realize. Ensure you’re drinking plenty of water and eating consistent, nutritious meals throughout the day.

WORK DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS

The more hours you put in after dark, the greater your risk of injury. Do the bulk of your work while the sun is still up.

CARRY A FIRSTAID KIT WITH A TOURNIQUET

Do you have a first-aid kit with a tourniquet close by in your truck, combine or both? If not, you really should. These tools save lives and limbs. Of injured people who die from blood loss, half die within 30 minutes.

Manage uncontrolled bleeding to the arms and legs with direct pressure and tourniquets.

Manage uncontrolled bleeding to the torso junctional locations (groin, shoulder, armpit and neck) with direct pressure or wound packing. Uncontrolled bleeding from arms and legs, as well as uncontrolled bleeding in the chest and abdomen, which cannot be managed outside a hospital, is the most preventable cause of death in injured patients.

It’s so important to control and stop the bleeding.

FOLLOW BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Respect recommended usage of safety mechanisms and shields on your equipment.

Don’t use shortcuts because they’re more convenient. You’ll end up compromising your safety.

CREATE A PLAN

Employ a safety check-in process for your family and/ or team. Share how long you plan to work and set ongoing check-in times, so someone knows whether you’re OK. If you’re caught in a machine or bleeding in a field without the ability to call for help, things could end up dire.

Harvest season is a memorable time filled with hard work and family tradition. But it can also be a dangerous time if you don’t take the proper precautionary measures. Keep the aforementioned tips in mind to stay safe, healthy and happy on the farm and in the field. Thank you to our farming community for all your hard work and dedication.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

25

High-Tech Harvest The Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center raises the bar for agricultural innovation

By Jon Shoulders

26

Farm Indiana // November 2016

When Brooke Stefancik began her graduate agricultural research at Purdue University at the start of this year’s summer season, her workspace was located in a basement on campus. She and her undergraduate assistants jokingly referred to the area as the “Dungeon.” The space lacked windows and grew unbearably hot as temperatures began to climb. She even brought fans from home in an attempt to create airflow in the space, where she and her team processed research samples of plant varieties.

Eventually Stefancik approached her university adviser, who mentioned that a new research center had been built on campus and inquired about relocating her team. Immediately upon entering the building, her excitement began to grow. “We all kind of felt like kids in a candy store,” Stefancik says of their initial impressions of the building’s laboratory stations. “We had a break room, air conditioning, windows, coolers for our

plants and plenty of room to accomplish our tasks.”

Stefancik is one of many researchers now taking advantage of the cutting-edge technology housed in the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center, which came to fruition this summer as part of the Purdue College of Agriculture’s Plant Sciences initiative. In 2013, university President Mitch Daniels challenged the staff at each of Purdue’s colleges to find innovative ways to improve research quality and help professional researchers and students like Stefancik maximize their experience at the university.

Daniels’ challenge resulted in a broad initiative called Purdue Moves, under which the Plant Sciences initiative has taken shape in the form of the Innovation Center and several other measures, including new faculty positions in field science and plant biology. “(Daniels) wanted to know what we could do to move Purdue forward

and stand out from the rest,” says Julie Hickman, project manager for the Plant Sciences initiative. The College of Agriculture was awarded $20 million for the initiative, and an official dedication ceremony for the $15 million Innovation Center was held in August.

The 25,500-square-foot structure, located on the grounds of Purdue’s 1,400acre Agronomy Center for Research and Education, is the first in the U.S. with the capability to automate phenotyping — the detailed assessment of plant traits like physiology and tolerance. Researchers at the Innovation Center will be able to use the available technology to study the actual genetic makeup of crops and their response to the surrounding environment, with the intent of crossbreeding certain crops to create more robust yields.

“We decided we wanted to pull two things together under one roof — plant and seed analysis, and the ability to add sensors to large equipment out here,” Hickman says. A primary goal of researchers and plant breeders at the facility, through state-of-the-art phenotyping, is to create corn and soybean varieties that can handle drought resistance. “Here PhotoS Provided by Thomas Campbell/ Purdue university

in Indiana the weather changes constantly,” Hickman adds. “One year we get a wet season, and the next year we get a dry season. We need to have plants that will be able to handle that.”

A high-bay area with 25 feet of clearance allows technicians to monitor the sensor features on the Innovation Center’s oversized equipment, which includes a large sprayer chassis equipped with a customized boom arm that holds specialized cameras used to obtain detailed images of corn and soybean plants. “The boom was made by our engineers to hold lidar cameras and other hyperspectral cameras on the front of it when it drives over corn and soybean and sorghum in the field,” Hickman says. “That’s our ground-based phenotyping.”

The graduate students, engineers, professors and industry professionals making use of the facility and surrounding land are by no means limited to earthbound observational research, however. Nine unmanned aerial vehicles stationed at the Innovation Center are registered with the Federal Aviation Administration for approved flight over the Agronomy Center farm to expand field research. “We have 1,400 acres here, and that gives us a lot of space to be able to measure plant canopies with our UAVs,” Hickman says.

The harvesting process for plant breeders working at the Innovation Center is

expedient and time-efficient, thanks to 13 modular threshing and shelling lines that eliminate the need for seeds to be harvested by hand. The convenience doesn’t end there. A collection system takes the leftover crop residue outside the seed processing area to a grinder, while dust-collecting devices draw dust produced from the harvesting process and send it outside the laboratory area as well. A separate lab is devoted to preparing seeds for planting the following season.

“There’s 52 researchers and their grad students that work here at the farm, and we try to work with every single one of them,” says Jason Adams, manager of the Innovation Center. “When we were developing this facility I worked with them, including their technicians, to find out how they would use the facility if we built it. Going into their labs and the threshing areas, we watched how they worked. … When we were ready to outfit the new facility, we took a look at all the equipment and went back to the manufacturers and asked about what they had that was better.”

Adams says researchers and agricultural professionals of all stripes interested in making use of the building’s resources are welcome for guided tours. “There’s a tour hallway where you can see into each one of the rooms, and we’re always trying to encourage researchers to be able to

understand what kind of things that you can learn here,” he says. “As long as you’re working in partnership with Purdue, you’re welcome to use the facility. We have some grants and things like that we’re working on with other industries.”

The building will be available for use year-round and features drying equipment and storage space for down time during winter months. “We know that harvest season is our busiest time when there’s more grad students here available to do the threshing and shelling, so they might harvest in October or November, but they might not get to all the threshing

and shelling until January or February, and that’s OK,” says Adams, adding that small grains and hops have also been examined at the farm in addition to corn, soybeans and sorghum.

After completing her master’s degree Stefancik plans to pursue Ph.D. studies and looks forward to continued use of the Innovation Center to bolster her education. “The students that are able to be trained out here will be the cream of the crop and will be better trained to make advances once they enter into their agriculture-based career,” she says. “The partnership between world-class researchers and high-achieving students will be able to happen more seamlessly due to what this facility has to offer to the faculty and students at Purdue, which allows for better-trained future farmers, plant breeders, (Purdue) Extension educators and any agriculture professional.”

To learn more about the Purdue Moves initiative, including additional details on the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center, visit purdue.edu/purduemoves/ index.html.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

27

Fund Facts

Prosperity Ag & Energy Resources helps farmers and business owners get a leg up in the grant procurement process

By Jon Shoulders

In describing the way Carmelbased Prosperity Ag & Energy Resources assists farmers, small businesses, community developers and trade associations in navigating the often-tedious process of applying for grant money, Christi Southerland, the company’s senior managing partner, puts it matter-of-factly.

“Reading some of those regulations and lengthy grant applications can make you go to sleep very quickly,” Southerland says with a laugh. “That’s what we try and help with, and we really want to help shepherd people through it and make it easy for them. Many people think grants and their eyes kind of glaze over, and they don’t want to hear about it, so we tell them to give us the information and we’ll run with it and keep them up-to-date on the process.”

In 2007, company founder Sarah Aubrey noticed a dearth of awareness of a growing number of federal and state grant opportunities — particularly for projects advancing energy efficiency — and developed Prosperity to help farm and business owners take advantage. Since then, the 28

Farm Indiana // November 2016

company has helped to secure more than 400 grants in 38 states.

Between 2007 and 2014, Prosperity’s primary focus in grant assistance became the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program, a federal grant and loan opportunity for agricultural producers and rural business owners that provides a 25 percent repayment of total costs for energy-efficient upgrades or installations of renewable systems.

Eligible projects include high-efficiency heating or air conditioning systems, lighting replacement, refrigeration and cooling upgrades, or geothermal power systems.

Jim Bloom, farm manager of Indianapolis-based Farm 360, worked with Prosperity in successfully securing a REAP grant to help with the cost of installing approximately 700 LED lights at his indoor produce farm located on the city’s near-eastside. “(Prosperity) has established credibility and networking with those entities like the USDA that ultimately make the decisions on funding,” Bloom says. “Those entities are more

Bloom, who plans to begin installing inclined to take a look at your projects solar panels on the roof of Farm 360 in the because they know they’ve been reviewed second quarter of 2017, expects his facilby an entity that has good outcomes.” ity to be completely energy self-sufficient According to Southerland, the comwithin five years. “The building will look pany hit their stride in 2010 during a completely different in a few years, and we surge of interest in energy efficiency and can’t get there without grants, and that’s upgrades. “Then in 2015 the ag economy where an organization like Christi’s is a took a bit of a hit, and we’ve slowed down godsend for a company like mine,” he says. a little since then, so we took that oppor“As a producer and a grower your time is tunity to pivot a bit and expand our focus better spent doing what you do, even more to help local food producers and nonprofso when your time is limited. Turning the its and even communities,” she says. “A lot grant aspect of it over to the entity that is of farmers sit on community boards, and established, when you have limited time, they want us to come talk to their board. makes sense.”

And we’re still really heavy on REAP and Southerland says widespread lack of the energy efficiency side.” knowledge on available federal, state and Southerland says her company advolocal grant assistance, and the timelines cates the implementation and upgrading involved, make education an imporof energy-efficient systems regardless of tant component of Prosperity’s business whether a land or business owner chooses model — particularly as grants have become to seek a REAP grant to help make those increasingly competitive. “There’s a lot of changes happen. “We tell people if you misinformation out there about grants, and need to replace lighting, insulation, timthere are so many nuances between proers, switches or fans, there are so many grams and different submission times,” she different options, and if you’re going to be says. “Many people don’t realize that a rural replacing that anyways then that’s a good small business can apply, so if they’re a farm opportunity to look at this grant,” she store or if they also have a co-op that they’re says. “We don’t want you to only do updoing, or if there’s a convenience store that grades if you can get a grant because these their brother owns, places are important things for like that can also apply farm operations. You’re for grants.” going to be reducing Prosperity’s seryour energy utility vices remain available usage, and the grant’s to grantees after a grant just kind of the icing on 13277 N. Illinois St., has been secured, should the cake. We’ve done Suite 110, Carmel assistance with ongoing hundreds of applications (855) 783-2388, guidelines and recordand are pretty efficient at prosperityag.com keeping requirements getting them done.”

Year founded: 2007 be desired. “Oftentimes Aubrey left the Services: Assistance for it’s more work for them company earlier this farmers, rural businesses, to get us up to speed year to pursue other community developers on what they’ve done,” opportunities within the and trade associations with grant writing and Southerland says. “But agricultural indusadministration, as well … what we’ll do is mantry, and Southerland as funding research. age timelines, let them currently works with For information on the USDA know about due dates a team of writers and Rural Energy for America coming up, format raw additional subcontracProgram, visit rd.usda. data for them or comtors staying up-to-thegov/programs-services/ municate with the USDA minute on federal and rural-energy-americato make sure everything state grant opportuniprogram-renewable-energyis matching up.” ties and guidelines. systems-energy-efficiency.

Prosperity Ag & Energy Resources

Continuing Education

Farm Schooled

By Katherine Coplen

Nov. 4

Nov. 14

Topics covered at this event include weed management for grapes and berries; managing spotted-wing drosophila and other insects; managing diseases in apples, grapes and peaches; measuring chemicals; and drift watch bee awareness. This event offers PARP credits and is open to 30 attendees. Time: 1 p.m.

Location: Lake County Extension Office, 880 E. 99th Court, Crown Point. Information: (219) 755-3240

This series of webinars from the Local Food program through Purdue Extension covers urban agriculture, farmers market managers and James Farmer presenting on Healthy Food Access Research. Time: 12:30 p.m.

Location: online. Information: jellett@purdue.edu

Fruit Growers Meeting

Nov. 5

Herbal Holidays

This Herb Society of Central Indiana course instructs attendees on how to use materials from nature in a variety of crafts, like table pieces or ornaments. Organizers ask attendees to bring any dried materials they’ve collected throughout the year, which will be integrated into the variety of materials provided. RSVP online. Time: 10 a.m. Location: Garfield Park Conservatory, 2505 Conservatory Drive, Indianapolis.

Information: herbsocietyofcentralindiana.org Nov. 5

PARP Dearborn

Topics covered at this event include cover crop management; termination; nutrient content; no till weed control; resistant weed management; and precision application. Location: Zimmer Tractor, 76590 U.S. 50W, Aurora. Information: (812) 926-1189 Nov. 7

Dressing for the Holidays

Master Gardener Beth Ainsworth speaks on dressing your house for the holidays with dried and fresh greenery and herbs.

Ainsworth has degrees in interior design and certifications in interior accessory design and floral design. Time: 6:45 p.m. Location: Garfield Park Conservatory, 2505 Conservatory Drive, Indianapolis.

Information: herbsocietyofcentralindiana.org

Local Food Lunch Bytes

Nov. 14

Cover Crop Field Day

Topics covered at this event include weed and disease control; cover crop selection; herbicide carryover consideration; reducing herbicide resistance; and plot tours.

Location: Posey County Community Center, Posey Fairgrounds, 111 Harmony Township Road, New Harmony. Information: (812) 838-1331 Nov. 15

Beginning Farmer Northwest Regional Workshop

This program for beginning farmers features several sessions, including a course on the food safety modernization act, regulations for processing and marketing meat, poultry and eggs, and technical and financial resources for beginning farmers. Both novice and more established farmers are welcome; there are two afternoon tracks depending on level of establishment. Time: 9 a.m. Location: Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds Home Economics Building, 1401 Teal Road, Lafayette. Information: (765)494-8490 Nov. 17

Simplifying Your Life Webinar

Nov. 18

How Purdue is Moving Agriculture Forward in Sustainable Ways

Purdue Extension hosts an interactive day of programming that covers soil health, water management, cropping systems and nutrient management. Extension educators, campus specialists and Extension partners will present. Time: 9:30 a.m. Location: Hendricks County Fairgrounds Conference Center, 1900 Main St., Danville. Information: (765) 948-8490 Nov. 18

Conservation Tillage Meeting

Topics covered include sprayer clean-out; pulling out stuck equipment; and pollinator protection. Location: Dearborn Adult Center, 311 W. Tate St., Lawrenceburg. Information: (812) 926-1189 Nov. 19

Beginning Farmer Northeast Regional Workshop

This 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. workshop covers fresh produce food safety and is co-sponsored by Purdue Extension, Indiana AgrAbility and the Local Growers Guild. Sessions include regulations for the processing and marketing of meat, poultry and eggs; technical and financial resources for beginning farmers; beginning aquaponics; and fresh produce food safety. This workshop is free, but registration is required. Time: 9 a.m. Location: Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne Walb Student Union, Classic Ballroom Room 126, 2101 E. Coliseum Blvd., Fort Wayne. Information: (765) 494-8490

Kelsie Muller, Purdue Extension health and human sciences educator in Benton County, discusses ideas on how you can simplify your life. This webinar is free and is sponsored by the Purdue Women in Ag team. Time: Noon.

Location: online. Information: extension.purdue.edu

Farm Indiana // November 2016

29

From the field

Big Ag and Small Farms

by Nick Carter

Words matter. Language affects our thought patterns. And it’s time that we adopt a new language about farming, food and sustainability.

The idea of “small farms” elicits images of picturesque old barns, a ’40s-era Farmall rusting in the field, and a leather-skinned farmer in overalls and a straw hat selling hand-washed eggs off the tailgate of his truck. It’s nostalgic, quaint and heart-warming, but the very image that we conjure betrays a notion we all hold at some level — the notion that this kind of farming is not the way of the future.

Contrast that with a group of bandana-wearing patrons of the local farmers market bantering about “big ag” as they sip their fair trade coffee. The caricatures are painted of chemical-laden fields, noxious animal waste and, of course, the powerful word-picture of a so-called “factory” farm overseen by a foreman in a lab coat rather than the conventional farming garb.

These terms have permeated our dialogue about food and farming, creating a perceived divide over issues that are, in the end, not the real issue.

It’s obvious that size is irrelevant when pickets can arise outside even the smallest CAFO operation, and patrons flock behind celebrities like Joel Salatin, whose farming enterprise today spans thousands of acres. Moreover, “small farms” aren’t small because their goal is to abate growth and retain a paltry farm life. Nor are the leaders in “big ag” encroaching on more and more acres because their goals are measured in size or scope.

30

Farm Indiana // November 2016

Both kinds of farmer, big and small, are doing the same thing: innovating for economic gain at the great capitalist intersection of what the market demands and what resources are at their disposal to provide.

As I have worked in the agriculture industry, I’ve seen more and more that nobody builds their farm — big or small — outside of those market forces. What can I sell? What is in demand? What resources do I have to offer?

On the farm where I was fortunate to have lived my first 18 years, we had just 80 acres and only 54 arable. But my father had a keen ability for animal husbandry, there were barns already built, and he had inherited some fine chore tractors, too. So we finished hogs for a living. Confinement, you ask?

Why yes. But not because of any reason other than the simple fact that there existed no such market for pastured, heritage-breed pork in 1983 in Indiana.

In fact, our farm had adapted slowly from earthen lots, rotated around the farm, toward confinement barns precisely because the market paid no premium at that time for that former production method.

Contrast that to today’s consumer who is increasingly educated about the variations in quality based on animal production methods, and we find different market forces at work. As a result, the long-abandoned finishing barn sits empty while Duroc and Hampshire barrows are rooting in a nearby pasture — nearly all of them already sold on the hoof before they’re even finished.

Neither progression of the farm enterprise had been ideological. And it’s peculiar that one enterprise is associated with “big ag” while another is considered a “small farm,” yet they both exist on the same 80 acres.

That is why I find little benefit in discussing small farms over big ag. Instead, our discussions should turn from indicators of size to indicators of economic freedom. For my part, I’ve taken up the term “diversified agriculture” when describing the vision and passion that I hold for America’s farming future.

Diversified agriculture spans all sizes and geographies. From a business standpoint, the flexibility to change offerings and adapt to market forces, such as falling grain prices and the rising costs of inputs, is something that every farmer — big and small — can appreciate. And from a consumer standpoint, the demand for a diversified food offering in both the supermarket and the farmers market is abundantly evident.

Amid the myriad terms such as “sustainable”

and “local” food, I would argue that what matters most is the ability for a farm to diversify in its pursuit of that still-great capitalist intersection — the cross-hairs of supply and demand.

Even the oft-touted call to feed a world of 9 billion people must be answered with a viable enterprise that also feeds the farmer and his family.

Policy-making that focuses on any subset of the problem will be problematic at best and, to be frank, has been problematic for decades. After all, it was our policy-makers who first signaled the divide between big and small with the Cold War era mantra of “get big or get out.” The policies that followed — from subsidies, regulations and international trade agreements — did certainly encourage big farming over small. Is it any wonder that those farmers relegated to the term “small farm” have felt a sense of resentment toward what the USDA itself once deemed to be the preferred size and scale of farming?

Even so, if the problem originated with an ill-conceived emphasis on size, the solution is not the reverse. I can go on record saying that “small farms” are not the answer and policies that are being conceived today that defend small against big are short-sighted at best. Instead, I encourage farmers, foodies and policy-makers alike to begin thinking about our current market in terms of diversification.

How has the market, influenced by subsidy and other federal policies, discouraged diversification?

Why do farms specialize not only in grain over livestock, but even just a few select grains or one species of livestock, to such a degree that a few years of low prices can bring a multigenerational farming enterprise to fold? What market forces, as affected by policies, put a farmer in such positions where they cannot make up for grain losses on the egg market, or hedge against livestock losses with a specialty produce crop?

As an entrepreneur, farmer, foodie and concerned citizen I am genuinely asking you these questions and inviting you to respond. Visit foodcaucus.com and send us your comments.

Explore ways that you can get involved in changing policies to focus not on big or small, but on innovative diversity in the agricultural industry.

Nick Carter is an Indiana native, born and raised on a Howard County farm, and co-founder and CEO of FarmersMarket.com.

Katie Glick’s husband and daughter

When They Go

T

by Katie Glick

They go to the farm on a daily basis, not ever really knowing what that day may bring. And we as farm wives see them off, never knowing when they will come home. Farmers leave at all hours of the day and night for various reasons. I’m currently experiencing early morning goodbyes and the late night hellos, and sometimes a repeat of the same greetings late at night when he runs to check on the grain dryer.

However, sometimes when they say goodbye they don’t return. My mom experienced that the day we lost my dad on the farm. And I hope and pray that I never have to endure that heartache as she has. I try to be fully bright-eyed and bushytailed when he leaves in the morning to kiss and say goodbye.

And then I try to be at home awaiting his return with a smile and sometimes a hot meal.

When we were first married, he left in the morning a few times without saying goodbye or giving me a morning kiss, and I was devastated. Let’s be honest: I was probably a little more dramatic than I needed to be, but I could not start my day without that goodbye or that kiss.

In the back of my mind, I am always prepared for it to be our last.

Before the farmer goes to the farm to work the land that he loves and the animals that he cares for, he has to prepare for his day. First up, a check of the weather — always. Next, he makes some morning coffee and maybe some eggs if there is time, because you know, there is no burning daylight, so a few extra minutes of sleep might have cost him his breakfast. And he now knows he can’t skip the last portion of his morning routine — the goodbye.

Before the farmer goes to the farm to collect dirt and cow manure that will end up in my washer, I say a prayer that he and all the farmers will be safe as they work so passionately from the early morning fog until well after sunset. I embrace my dirty kitchen floors and loads of never-ending laundry because if the floors were clean and the laundry was done, he would have only left and never come home.

Sometimes when the farmer leaves now, it’s to take a walk with our baby girl to introduce her to the cows and watch the Indiana sunsets (and to give me a moment of peace and quiet). And while they are gone, I pray that she learns about the goodbyes and hellos of life and that sometimes they are really hard but they make us stronger and more prepared for the next greetings.

No matter how the farmers may leave us or when God decides to take them, when they go there is always a lesson to be learned. Dad always said, “There’s no burnin’ daylight.” And my farmer always says, “It will be OK.” So I guess I’ll survive the early morning goodbyes and pray for the late night hellos because he is always working through the daylight, and he will be OK and will come home.

Katie Glick grew up on her family farm in Martinsville and now lives with her husband on their farm near Columbus, where they grow corn, soybeans and wheat, raise cattle and have a private seed company. She is a graduate of Purdue University and has worked in Indiana politics. She now works in the agriculture industry within our state. She shares her personal, work, travel and farm life stories on her blog, “Fancy in the Country.”

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

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From the field Farmers learning at Richard Wiswall’s farm

» The View at Nightfall

More Than Noble

By Liz Brownlee

Richard Wiswall — known as “The Whiz” — is revered among many small-scale, sustainable farmers. He quite literally wrote the book on how to make your farm business viable financially. A copy of his book, “The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook,” sits on our bookshelf. Flip through and you will find one of the first and clearest explanations of the math and business skills behind sustainable agriculture. So when I had the chance to visit The Whiz’s farm last month, I was ready to learn.

The visit was part of a week of farm tours, put on by Purdue University’s new diversified agriculture team (and funded by a phenomenal grant that they received to equip beginning farmers in Indiana for success). The idea of the trip was to get

For me, right now, that means not a group of beginning Hoosier just time to take a nap on a Sunday farmers together for a week, (though that is nice!), but also a way so that they could get to know to gather with other young farmers — one another and their Extension people who understand each other and educators while they learned who want to have fun together, learn best practices from farms in a together and encourage each other. part of the country where the The week we spent in Maine and local food system is thriving.

Vermont was filled with the camaraThe trip’s planner created a derie I crave. I get a little dose of this schedule that kept us hopping each week at the farmfrom 8 a.m. to 9 ers market, of course, but p.m., but what After years we’re all busy talking with choice did we have? There of gaining experience customers and selling were many high-quality, on other food while we’re there. successful farms to visit farms, Nate As we head into the in Maine and Vermont.

Brownlee and winter, Richard’s comOut of all the comments his wife, Liz, ment keeps bubbling to I heard, one of Richard’s moved back the top of my thoughts. I stood out: “Farming is a to Indiana to start their own family feel confident that what noble profession,” he said farm, which they named Nightfall we’re building here at as we stood in his barn, Farm. Here, they share stories of the many trials, tribulations, successes Nightfall Farm is worthoverlooking his greenhouses and failures in running a family while and exciting. But he and forest. “Noble is good, business. For more on Nightfall was right: We need more but it’s not enough.”

Farm, visit nightfallfarm.com. than just moral conviction I think what Richard and a financially viable meant was that at the end farm. We need community. I am ponderof a hot, sweaty day, or perhaps a Noveming how to create connection among ber one where everything’s gone wrong young farmers throughout the year, to and your fingers hurt from the cold, it’s find the balance I need and want. Thanknot enough to just think what you’re dofully, I’m not alone. Several of the other ing as a small farmer is noble. We have farmers on the trip share this desire, to have businesses that are viable, yes. and we are working together on ideas.

We also have to have some balance beStay tuned to see what we dream up. tween the farm and life that sustains us.

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Farm Indiana // November 2016

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Worth The Effort

S

By Jolene Ketzenberger

Sweaters, boots, peppermint mochas, pumpkin spice lattes. It may be cliché, but I love this time of year. I like the weather, the festive feeling, the sense of anticipation. From Halloween through New Year’s Day, the season offers one holiday after the next, and I like them all.

Now, I know that can sound overwhelming, and I hear you. I’ve been buried in Halloween costume making and holiday baking and school party planning in the past, but as the kids have gotten older, I’ve been able to let go of some of the stress and focus a little more on the fun. And since the season’s holidays are, for the most part, nicely spaced out, you can make plans for pretty much any weekend and find something to celebrate. So it’s not just fall — it’s the celebration season.

It’s also the traveling season, a time of year when some of us plan gettogethers and others plan getaways —

both of which have their appeal. But no matter which you choose, it’s likely going to involve travel, which has always made me wonder: Is it worth it?

The build-up to even a quick trip can be pretty stressful. Juggling schedules is only the first step, but it can often prove so daunting that your get-together or getaway gets canceled before it even gets on the calendar. It can be tough to find time for coffee with friends, let alone a holiday dinner with extended family.

And then there’s the booking and the packing and the planning. Just doing the laundry necessary to get a family ready for a trip is stressful enough, even without all the related questions.

Should we drive or fly? Is it better to book that flight now or hope that fares will drop? Should we stay with family or find a motel? And if you’re the one hosting, well, there’s a whole other level of stress.

turned out, our “what city would you So if you’ve ever been tempted to like to visit” lists both included Quejust forget about the whole thing, bec, and so we saved and schemed and I understand. figured out a way to visit. And even I found myself wondering some though it was only for a long weekend, years ago whether the fun of a famthe experience was worth the time, ily vacation was worth all the work money and effort that it took to make involved in getting ready. The kids it happen. were all pretty young at the time, so So when a getaway got cut short any trip, no matter what length, was earlier this fall, I guess I shouldn’t have going to be stressful. We were traveling been surprised when I found myself by car, and we only had a week, which disappointed. Our plans had changed meant that — after the travel time and due to an illness, but when the crisis all the unpacking and repacking — we passed, I realized how much I had been had maybe four days. looking forward to that little getaway. I Was that enough, I wondered. started planning another trip, shorter Would the fun outweigh the fuss? A this time and not as far away, but still trip is a pretty expensive undertaking, a chance to relax and reconnect. After after all. Would we all just be so cranky all, you can pack a lot that we might as well of memories into just a be crabby at home and few days. save the money? I was But then the So I think about a stay-at-home mom magic of traveling that when it gets to at the time and was handling most of the happened. And we be fall, and family members start making laundry and packing saw things we’d holiday plans. Where and kid wrangling, never seen before will we celebrate and I honestly thought and did things we’d Thanksgiving? When that I might be the one who decided that the never done, which will we have Christeffort wasn’t worth the was pretty awesome. mas? Who’s going to host and who’s going payoff. to travel? As kids and But then the magic cousins get older and of traveling happened. have their own schedules to juggle, And we saw things we’d never seen it becomes more challenging to pin before and did things we’d never done, everyone down and plan a trip. which was pretty awesome. And someBut when it starts to get overtimes we did the exact same things whelming, when I start to wonder if it we’d done on every other trip, and that wouldn’t just be easier to stay home, was pretty awesome, too.

I’m reminded that the planning does I came home from that vacation pay off. Memories are made and spirits happy to have discovered that the plusare uplifted. So whether you’re getting es outweighed the minuses, and that together or getting away this holiday even if we only had a few days, those season, whether it’s a day, a weekend or days were enough to make a difference. even longer, enjoy the trip. It is, indeed, We relaxed, hung out, de-stressed and worth the effort. reconnected. It was definitely worth the effort.

I reminded myself of that when my Jolene Ketzenberger covers local sister and I started kicking around food at EatDrinkIndy.com and the idea of a getaway some years ago. hosts Eat Drink Indiana Radio on If you could go anywhere, we asked WFYI-FM and at wfyi.org. Follow each other, where would you go? As it her on Twitter @JKetzenberger.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

33

Local Food

W

Distill Our Hearts

By Jolene Ketzenberger

We all know that when life gives you lemons,

you should find a pitcher and stir up some lemonade. But what do you make when life supplies you with corn?

Bourbon, of course.

That’s the conclusion Fountain County brothers Jason and Aaron Fruits came to when they were looking to start a business. Their family owns Newtown Farm Service, an independent grain elevator operation their grandfather started in 1968. It has grown to include grain processing, feed milling, a fertilizer business and a hardware store, and the grain elevators handle more than 3 million bushels of grain each year.

“We always wanted to do something with corn,” said Aaron. “We had millions of bushels of corn sitting down here.”

The brothers now operate Old 55 Distillery in Newtown, a new branch of the family business that they own with their father and older brother. The distillery is named for the road that’s right outside the door.

“Old 55 is the state road that runs right in front,” Jason said. “It’s beautiful.

You drive it, you go right by the fields where we draw all the grain from to make the spirits that you’re trying.

It’s all things Indiana.”

It seems like a natural now, but a distillery wasn’t the first idea they came up with.

“One of the ideas that we had as a plan was dog food,” said Jason, “because we supply bean meal to a dog food maker in southern Indiana.

The numbers looked good. I remember having this conversation with Aaron, and he was like, ‘Dude, I’m not excited to make dog food.’”

So the two considered other options, said Jason, who recalled his brother’s comment about launching a distillery.

34

Farm Indiana // November 2016

“‘Now, making some spirits,’” he said, “’that sounds kind of cool.’”

That was probably half a dozen years ago, Jason said, and he calls the process of creating a distillery in the middle of nowhere, in tiny Newtown, “an odyssey.”

But it all started with that idea, he said, to take grain that they raised and turn it into whiskey.

“Dad kind of wanted to diversify a little bit,” said Jason. “And we kind of put this whole idea together and brought it to Dad. And we waited for him to laugh us out of the room when we brought him this business plan, which was way more money than we’d ever seen in our lives.

And he didn’t laugh at us.”

That Jason and Aaron were nervous about pitching a distillery idea is understandable, considering that their father, Jeff, is not a drinking man.

“My dad does not drink at all,” Jason said. “Pretty conservative Indiana roots.

He’s never had a sip of beer or liquor in his life. To this day he will not try it. But I love to see that smile on his face when the banker, one of his friends, is like, ‘Oh, it’s really good.’”

To get to that point, though, they had to start with the grain.

“My grandpa has a little piece of land right over in New Richmond,” said Jason, “which is about four or five miles away, and that’s where we do pretty much all of our custom farming for the distilled spirits ourselves. So we farm it out there, we bring it in here, mill it, mash it, fer-

ment it, distill it. We can store it. We do everything here.”

Building on the family business has been key.

“We just have a lot of doors open that other people don’t,” said Jason, “because we have all these logistics of being able to handle the grain, which is our family’s specialty. Now we’re making the family specialty into delicious spirits.”

For the past three years, Jason and Aaron have been distilling their grain into corn whiskey, which is unaged, and making bourbon as well, which is aged in barrels stored in the basement of their processing facility. It’s an unusual building, but it seems uniquely suited for the job.

Old 55 Distillery is housed in a former township school building, or at least part of one.

“Ever since I was a kid, this facility has been falling in on itself,” Jason said. “But my dad bought it in 2009.”

The gym, built in 1941, is all that remains of the former high school.

“My parents and my aunt and uncles went here for a couple of years before all the counties consolidated to Fountain Central High School, which is where I went,” said Jason. “But both of my grandPhotoS By Jolene Ketzenberger

pas played basketball in here, which is super cool.”

That gym, still with original bleachers, is now used for storage. But underneath the gym, in the basement that once housed the cafeteria and the band, home ec and science classrooms, is where barrels of whiskey are aged, which works out especially well, said Jason.

“Because it’s underground,” he said, “it’s temperature-controlled year-round.”

The front half of the building, where the two-story brick school used to be, is the production floor, which holds the impressive 3,000-liter German-made Kothe still, one of the largest craft stills in the country.

“We waited over a year and half for the still to show up from Germany,” Jason said. “It’s the only one like it in the world that we know of. We can literally make any spirit in the world on that still. Anything. We just choose to make bourbon because that’s what I wanted to make.

Once we get a tasting room, in another year we will probably buy another still and get really crazy with just fun stuff here on site.”

They chose such a large still, Jason said, because once they launched, they didn’t want demand to outpace supply.

their dad, taking over operation of the “I wanted to be able to meet producfeed mill, and Jason intended to go to tion,” he said. “We noticed with these law school. But after studying politiother craft distillers that bought the cal science, psychology and philosophy equipment that it was always easy to get at Purdue University, Jason moved to demand, but it wasn’t so easy to create supIndianapolis, worked for an insurance ply, and we didn’t want to fall short in that company and got an MBA. department, so we bought a bigger still.”

So with no distilling background, JaBut they don’t want to get too big, son said, “we kind of had to learn.

Jason said.

We’ve basically been distilling “We made sure we had for three years.” room to expand,” he said.

In 2017, they will be “But at the same time, able to open a tasting I don’t want to be the room at the distillery, next Buffalo Trace.

For more information, where visitors can That’s not what I do. I visit old55distillery.com. try the Old 55 spirits, want to make the very which currently best quality spirit, include corn whiskey, farm to bottle, that I bourbon and a unique possibly can.” sweet corn bourbon, all What makes that easier, grown, distilled, aged and Jason said, is that “we don’t bottled right there in Newtown. have any investors. I don’t have “This is where we grew up,” Jason to keep anybody happy. Well, I have one said. “We’ve spent our whole lives here, investor; he’s my dad. He’s the best invesbasically. If you ever would have told tor in the world because he keeps smiling me I’d be starting a multimillion dollar at me, and he hasn’t killed me yet, so that’s business in Newtown, my hometown, I good. And he doesn’t drink, either, so I would’ve thought you were ludicrous. kind of have complete creative license.”

But here we are. And I wouldn’t change Of course, it took some time to learn it for anything.” the trade. Aaron had been working with Farm Indiana // November 2016

35

FOOD NEWS By Jolene Ketzenberger

Local Food

Greiner’s Sub Shop

Quick Bites

For a state that still has a modest, aww shucks attitude, Indiana has certainly been getting a lot of good press lately.

»

Jonathan Brooks of Milktooth

36

In September, Vogue magazine spotlighted Indianapolis, along with Kansas City and Oklahoma City, saying that “Indianapolis is already known for its Hoosier hospitality, but this highly walkable city is also in the midst of a progressive, creative culinary movement (and already features some firstclass museums and big-city shopping destinations).”

That progressive culinary movement includes the breakfast-and-lunch restaurant Milktooth, located in the busy Fletcher Place neighborhood. Chef/owner Jonathan Brooks has garnered considerable praise for his “fine diner,” where the menu might list such items as a local pear Dutch baby pancake, a bowl of spicy miso soup, jerk chicken wings or a dry-aged Berkshire pork loin chop topped with a sunny sideup egg. Pastry chef Zoe Taylor serves creative sweets such as Indiana sweet corn sugar doughnuts, pistachio key lime croissants and blue barley flour oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

The 2-year-old restaurant caught the attention of national media early on, and Brooks was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new chefs of 2015. Milktooth made Bon Appetit magazine’s list of last year’s top 10 best new restaurants, too.

And earlier this fall, Conde Nast Traveler listed Milktooth among more than 200 of the greatest restaurants around the globe.

Brooks said being included on the list was “an absolute complete and utter surprise.”

He admits to being a little “squeamish” about past accolades, but is becoming more comfortable with the attention.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

“I’m overjoyed for the employees here and so proud of everybody that works at Milktooth,” he said. “I finally feel comfortable embracing that kind of praise instead of pushing it away.”

Milktooth is located at 534 Virginia Ave. in Indianapolis. The eatery doesn’t take reservations, but coffee and pastries are available starting at 7 a.m., and the full menu is available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Monday; Milktooth is closed on Tuesdays.

»

The Cooking Channel will be featuring another Indianapolis restaurant on an upcoming episode of its “Cheap Eats” program. Filming took place in October at Tie Dye Grill for an episode spotlighting the restaurant’s well-known breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Tie Dye Grill is located on Indy’s east side at 1311 N. Shadeland Ave.

»

Greiner’s Sub Shop, a longtime sandwich shop on Indy’s south side, has reopened following a crash last February that destroyed the restaurant and severely injured an employee.

The restaurant was rebuilt, and owner Lisa Moreno Moyer reopened the old-school sub shop in September.

Lines were out the door on opening day; some loyal Greiner’s fans have been coming to the restaurant since it opened in 1969.

“This has been a labor of love,” said Moyer. “We have walked alongside an employee over these many months, and at the same time that she’s trying to rebuild her life, we’ve been trying to rebuild the shop. The reopening of Greiner’s has been a long journey for a lot of people.”

Greiner’s, located at 2126 Shelby St. in Indianapolis, serves lunch and dinner.

»

As Franklin undergoes a massive downtown renovation effort that includes new streets, sidewalks and lights, the downtown food scene continues to grow with craft beer options, barbecue, even a tea house and glutenfree bakery.

Soon it will gain a winery tasting room when New Albany’s River City Winery opens this fall at 25 N.

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Main St. River City’s Brian Alvey said winery owner Gary Humphrey opened the southern Indiana winery in 2007.

The two have talked about joining forces for some time, Alvey said.

A longtime wine aficionado who formerly owned Augustino’s Italian Restaurant on Indy’s south side, Alvey added that he’s looking forward to opening the tasting room in his hometown.

“We’re going to do wine tastings at local events,” he explained. “We’re going to be very active in the local community. We’re going to do all the festivals, the farmers markets. Being a guy from Franklin, I always said I wanted to walk to work someday.”

»

It might be hard to say goodbye to warm fall days, but you’ll still find Indiana produce and locally made goods at central Indiana’s winter farmers markets. Plenty of farmers have extended their growing season into the colder months through the use of covered hoop houses, and some innovative growers are raising microgreens in indoor spaces throughout the area.

PhotoS By Jolene Ketzenberger

You’ll find fresh greens, fall root vegetables, apples, meat, dairy, baked goods and other fresh fare at winter markets in a variety of central Indiana communities. Here are some that begin their season in November or operate year-round.

The Indy Winter Farmers Market begins its season Nov. 12. The market runs from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Saturdays at the Circle City Industrial Complex at 1125 E. Brookside Ave. The Carmel Winter Market opens Nov. 19 and runs from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays at the Wilfong Pavilion at Founders Park, 11675 Hazel Dell Parkway.

The Farm to Fork Market at Normandy Farms is a year-round market that operates from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays at the corner of 79th Street and Marsh Road on Indy’s northwest side.

The Arthur M. Glick Jewish Community Center at 6701 Hoover Road in Indianapolis hosts a yearround farmers market that operates from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays.

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CALL 812-379-5600 for details, or email text and photo to classifieds@therepublic.com

Farm Indiana // November 2016

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Local Food use meats that come from local farmers practicing sustainable, humane and thoughtful farming practices. I want to personally know the people who are growing the food we use. I want to be connected to the people who are connected to the land.

Shorten the supply chain.

Hospitality is my passion.

Preparing honest food that has been grown or raised in the right way is my duty to my guests.

Our customers deserve to dine on food that has been raised in accordance with nature, the way food is supposed to be grown.

Chef Q & A with

Aaron Butts From his humble backgrounds working in the fast food pizza business to training with classical chefs, Aaron Butts has cultivated a passion for hospitality and food creation. His name may be familiar as a James Beard-nominated chef and the former executive chef of Joseph Decuis, but he’s best known for his dedication to serving locally sourced Indiana foods, which he now does from his new restaurant, The Golden.

How did you get involved with food?

I started cooking in restaurant kitchens while in high school and never looked back. I fell in love with the culture of the kitchen and found a passion for hospitality that I didn’t know I had.

My first job was at Little Caesars where I worked with a few friends from high school. We were just kids basically running a pizza place; it was awesome.

From there I went to work at Don Hall’s Guesthouse, a familyowned hotel, restaurant, banquet 38

Farm Indiana // November 2016

facility and also a fine dining restaurant. I spent a lot of time watching and learning from the trained chefs that worked in the fine dining restaurant, Mallory’s.

I never went to a formal culinary school; instead I found it better to gain real world experience working in restaurants.

What is your philosophy behind what you serve and prepare?

The food we serve at The Golden has to come from a trusted source; the food has a story that begs to be told. We only

You’ve recently opened The Golden. How did this restaurant come about?

The Golden was an idea hatched by myself and my friend/business partner, Sean Richardson. We both have a love for good food and drinks.

After conversing about the lack of a great cocktail scene in Fort Wayne, we came up with the idea to hold craft cocktail pop-up events. Pop-up dinners are fairly common in bigger cities; a well-known chef would hold a ticketed dinner event in an abandoned warehouse or an art gallery or in some dingy basement studio, kind of an exclusive, one-time-only event.

Mind you, we are chefs not bartenders. We started training ourselves, creating original cocktails, attending a 12-week class on spirits and service, and purchasing all the necessary tools to shake cocktails for our new clientele. We held our first pop-up at a community art gallery, sold out at 120 tickets.

We invited a food truck to serve wood-fired pizzas outside while we were shaking cocktails for over a hundred thirsty patrons.

What a learning experience! It was a successful event, and we continued to hold events for the next couple years, building our brand and a loyal following.

Sean and I began talking

about the idea of turning The Golden into a real restaurant, a permanent home. We were approached by local businessman Tim Ash about a new building he was constructing in downtown Fort Wayne, the Ash Skyline Plaza. He wanted a locally owned restaurant to occupy the corner spot of the muchanticipated building. At first we were hesitant to agree; the space seemed bigger and more grand than what we were envisioning.

We had ideas of a dive bar that served top-notch food and craft cocktails to match. After more talks with Tim, the Ash Building and The Golden seemed to have many things in common that it just made perfect sense to be involved together. As of January 1, 2016, we were building the restaurant of our dreams.

What kind of produce do you use and who are some of your suppliers?

We work closely with Hawkins Family Farm and Fox Trail Farm. The produce list is extensive. We have been getting the usual suspects: tomatoes, squash, corn, beans, eggplant, onions, potatoes and greens. … Other than ordering citrus fruits for cocktails, we use all local produce.

What types of food do you serve?

Our menu changes every day, literally. That’s the beauty of it.

What’s on the menu is not only fresh, but it’s also a fresh idea.

Some items have been on the menu since opening: agavecitrus chicken wings, pimiento cheese and the ever-popular McGolden (two beef patties, beer cheese, Dijonnaise on a freshly baked honey bun). We will typically have some cut of dry-aged steak on the menu from either Seven Sons Farm or Wood Farms, along with chicken or duck from Hawkins Farm and Gunthorp Farms.

What kind of relationship do you like to have with your farmers/suppliers?

We speak to our farmers on a weekly basis. We visit with them early in the year to plan out what the restaurant will need for the upcoming season. We urge them to grow unique vegetables so we can create unique dishes. We support them, not only financially but by spreading the word about what they are doing. If people are informed about these farms, then they will seek out restaurants that use their products.

What about your experience and past has brought you to where you are?

My passion is first and foremost, hospitality. I wanted to create a comfortable space that is inviting to everyone. I want to serve food that is creative and a little different from the norm. There are enough normal restaurants in the Fort; we want to offer something different, something special. I’ve spent many years working to get to the point I am today. The timing was just right for me to strike out on my own.

What does slow food mean to you?

Slow food means a couple things to me. Literally, eating slow, enjoying the company you’re with and savoring the food and wine. Thinking about how that wine got to your glass will make you appreciate it so much more. Great food takes time and patience; it starts with a seed and months later it ends up on your plate. Don’t just inhale it; savor it. Slow food also means preserving tradition and celebrating culture. So many varieties of vegetables and fruits have been lost over time. It’s nice to see these heirloom breeds coming back to the table.

The Golden

898 Harrison St., Fort Wayne, (260) 710-8368, goldenfw.com

Recipe

Curried Squash Bisque Makes 6-8 servings

4 cups acorn squash, peeled and diced 2 cups apples, peeled and diced 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced 4 large cloves of garlic 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 12 ounce can coconut milk (with the fat) 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons curry powder ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground cardamom 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon black pepper 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon red chili flakes for garnish ½ cup Greek yogurt

»Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. »Peel and dice apples and onions and toss with olive oil. »Cut acorn squash in half, then scoop out the seeds and stringy part and throw in the trash. Slice into half moon slices and toss in olive oil with garlic, apples and onions. »Roast all on parchment-lined baking sheet for 20 to 25 minutes, or until squash and apples start to caramelize and brown. »Stir gently on pan once or twice during roasting to keep from sticking to the pan too much and to make sure everything gets nice and browned.

Remove from oven and scrape the softened squash out of the rind. Place in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot with the apples, garlic and onions.

»

Soup’s On

By Twinkle VanWinkle

There’s nothing better than cuddling up with a warm bowl of soup. As much as I enjoy a chunky chili or stew, a creamy bowl of bisque is the best comfort on a chilly afternoon. The roasting part of the process really brings out the depth of the flavors, intensifying the sweetness by drawing out the sugars. Garlic becomes softer and richer, the onions become less acidic and the squash and apples caramelize slightly.

This recipe adds a touch of exotic flavor, similar to the trendy pumpkin spice that so many go wild for when fall arrives. Curry and cardamom transform what could be a pedestrian flavor combination into a delicate and sophisticated soup experience.

Twinkle VanWinkle is an Indianapolis-based food writer and experienced chef with Southern roots. She has more than 23 years of professional cooking under her apron strings and loves to share her unique perspective on food, foodways and culture with others. Needless to say, her family is very well-fed.

PhotoS by Twinkle VanWinkle

»Stir in coconut milk and stock, then bring to a boil before lowering heat and cooking on medium for about 20 minutes. »Add turmeric, cumin, curry, cinnamon and cardamom. Stir in the spices, then turn down to medium low and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. Add salt and pepper and stir, cooking about 5 more minutes. »Let soup cool, then blend with an immersion blender or in a food processor until you have a smooth mixture, with no lumps. »Drizzle the olive oil in while blending or processing. If you still have chunks, press through a fine strainer or food mill for a silky, smooth texture. »Warm back up to serve and garnish with red pepper flakes and 1 or 2 healthy dollops of yogurt stirred in. »Store leftovers in the refrigerator up to one week and in an airtight container in the freezer for 3 to 4 months.

Tips for better, creamier pureed soups: Don’t blend all the liquids and solids together at once, when you have cooked down your soup. Save some liquid to the side so you can thin it if needed. Slowly add liquid as desired to get the right thickness. If you blend everything at once, you risk thinning it out too much.

When using a food processor, expect to have a few chunks. You will probably have to press your bisque through a strainer a few times for the creamiest outcome.

A lot of recipes say to add the oil or cream (in this recipe, there is added oil at the end). The best way to ensure a smoother emulsion is to add that last bit of oil, or cream, during the blending.

Farm Indiana // November 2016

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SEE US TODAY! JACOBI SALES, INC. 415 STEVENS WAY SEYMOUR, IN 47274 812-523-5050

SEYMOUR, IN SEYMOUR, IN47274 47274 812-523-5050 812-523-5050 SEE US TODAY!

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CNH Capital and Case IH are registered trademarks of CNH America LLC. www.caseih.com

CNH Capital and Case IH are registered trademarks of CNH America LLC. www.c CNH Capital and Case IH are registered trademarks of CNH America LLC. www.caseih.com

CNH Capital and Case IH are registered trademarks of CNH America LLC. www.caseih.com CNH Capital and Case IH are registered trademarks of CNH America LLC. www.caseih.com

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