Who Knew a Bacon, Jalapeño, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Could Be Good? Patachou Does.

I just ate the most bizarre sandwich in recent memory. Looking to recuperate from New Year's Eve, we strolled up to Cafe Patachou to remedy the situation.  As we approached, I saw a window advertisement for a new sandwich, named the 'Full Bellied Pig' or the 'Patachou Foundation' sandwich as it was referred to when I it arrived to our table.  Our server's reaction to my order was enough to know that I'd made a good decision.  Twice, she told me that she was so excited for me.

She was excited because of the unique sandwich, but also because of the related non-profit foundation the proceeds from the sale of the sandwich support.  The Patachou Foundation was formed in 2013 with the primary goal of feeding children affected by homelessness. A laudable cause, for sure.

The sandwich ingredients themselves aren't unusual.  Ample layers of peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread surround the plenty of bacon and thick cut slices of fresh jalapeños.   Yes, there's a bit of heat to this sandwich, but the PB&J cools things down a bit.  The couple glasses of water also helped.  The sandwich also benefits from the classic sweet and salty combination created by the jelly and bacon.

I've never felt compelled to write about a sandwich before. But this Full Bellied Pig was a really unique experience.  It was a surprisingly delicious experience.  I hope it becomes a mainstay on their menu and I hope you try it.

Think Kit Dec. 20th - My 2013 Top Ten Indianapolis Restaurant / Dining Experiences

Revolucion in Fountain Square - now with bonus
Tiki bar in the rear.

I'm a pretty non-judgmental restaurant diner.  While my list of top ten Indianapolis restaurant dining experiences is filled with foodie level establishments, I'm known for eating White Castle, truck stop 'food', and damn near everything at the State Fair.  So for those of you that feel this is a privileged, food elitist's top ten list, yes you're right but know that my life isn't always pricey farm-to-table grub or food served on comically small plates.  Well, enough with the identity crisis, let's bring on the list. 

1. Bluebeard | It's a random assortment of dishes and I'm not joking when I say that there hasn't been a single tiny plate that I haven't licked clean.
2. Black Market | A 'farm to table' styled restaurant.  The starters are pretty good and when I haven't had the daily special, I've eaten the duck and the pork chop - both are excellent.  and have a pickle as a pre-appetizer appetizer.
3. Bakersfield | I've found that I really like the limited menu restaurants. To me, it means you're focusing on a few items to perfection.  This is a taco and liquor joint and man is it great.  They make their own margaritas from scratch.  I don't exactly know what a 'from scratch' margarita is, but you really can taste the difference.
4. Cafe Patachou | Our Patachou is on 49th/Penn and we always walk or ride our bikes, which is helpful because I'm a huge fan of their broken yolk sandwiches. I can't speak to their lunch menu as we only dine there for breakfast.
5. Taste | Another breakfast/brunch joint in the neighborhood.  I've had the truffle egg toast more than any other item on the menu.  Plus, their smoothies are pretty good.
6. Siam Square | Standard issue Thai cuisine in Fountain Square.  I run up and down the menu and I haven't ever really been let down.
7. Good Morning Mamas | The only bad part about Good Morning Mamas is that I'm not a huge fan of their coffee. Their Loco Mocos are good. The '1940s' comes with fried spam.  Don't judge it before you've tried it.  Also, their eggs Benedict is top notch.  
8. India Garden | We eat Indian food like it's going out of style.  Vegetable malai kafta with a side of garlic naan is my go-to dish. 
9. La Piedad | The most inexpensive, consistently delicious mexican food in the city.  It's low key without a hint of 'pinkies up' while you eat.
10. La Revolucion | Me and the Rev have a really good relationship together.  I recommend this place to as many people as possible. I take my out of town guests there and it never disappoints.  While technically more a bar than a restaurant, they serve four different tacos and I've only had the beef and the pork varieties.  If you're going out in Fountain Square, get started here.

Think Kit Dec. 10th - This Meat Sack Needs More Homemade Smoothies

The carrot and spinach aren't much
to look at, but boy are they healthy!

Good habits are hard to come by.  So, it's logical that today's Think Kit prompt challenges us to discuss a habit formed this year that we want to maintain.  Like my back, my diet is an aspect of my health that has made me feel like somewhat of a failure.  Don't get me wrong, I've done a decent job about regulating my fast and junk food habits.  I've worked diet soda down to minimal consumption levels. Plus, I'm about a 65% vegetarian.  Another adjustment I've made to my diet is reducing my bread intake. Overall I think I'm doing well, given that I'm a few pounds over weight and that I don't exercise that much. However there is one aspect of my diet that bothers me.  

The one thing I struggle with is my recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables.  You can look it up, but I read somewhere that only around 30 percent of adults eat their recommended dose of vegis and fruits.  How is it that three to five servings a day of fruits and vegetables could be so difficult?  I'm not a picky eater in any way, shape or form.  I've grown to consider a salad an acceptable main dish at either lunch or dinner.  Nonetheless, when I started tracking my actual consumption I was a little dismayed. So, I made a conscious effort this year to make the home made smoothie a habitual daily routine.

I don't deviate that much from my formula:

-2-3 of the following fruits: Bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple

-spinach

-carrot

-flax seed

-Agave nectar (when I'm not using pineapple nor banana) 

I take these whole fruits and vegis and toss them into a blender.  By themselves, they make for a thick nutritive mix.  So, I add some ice and water, and you've got a greenish-brownish glass of nutritious yum.  The family and I toast glasses of homemade smoothies most mornings and are a couple of servings closer to that seemingly less elusive nutritional goal.  I plan to continue this habit into 2014 and beyond.  I would love to hear if you've got a preferred recipe that I could incorporate.

Think Kit Dec. 2 - Polling my People on Their Grocery Shopping Habits

image via www.kimberlysnyder.net

Day two and I'm prompted to conduct a poll.  So, I asked my friends online:

When you grocery shop, what foods' labels do you look at the most? What do you look for?

I'm a self-made food systems aficionado.  American health and wellness is a vast, complex system of cultural, economic, and physiological variables.  I'm not academically trained in the field but I do like to read and write about it. It's all very fascinating to me.  One such aspect is how we negotiate what makes it into our shopping carts when we're at the grocery.  I fully realize that the sample of people in this very unofficial poll  is not geographically nor socioeconomically diverse. But that's not necessarily a bad thing in this particular conversation.  What I wanted to know was what information the savvy grocery shoppers in my life prioritized while in the aisle. The response was great! Thirty of my friends responded throughout the course of the day on Facebook and here's what they had to say.

Items examined included packaged/processed foods, yogurt, frozen food, and cereal.


What was examined in my respondents included:

Criteria                                           Number of references
Sodium..........................................................11
Sugar.............................................................7
Calories.........................................................7
The first 3 ingredients listed..........................6
Organic.........................................................6
Non-GMO....................................................4
Ingredients you can pronounce.....................3
Carbs.............................................................2
Aspartame.....................................................2
Fiber..............................................................2
Fat.................................................................2
Price..............................................................2
Dyes..............................................................1
High Fructose Corn Syrup............................1


Regarding the specific findings, I was not surprised to see processed foods and cereal mentioned as much as they were.  I did think it was interesting to see sodium rank where it did and high fructose corn syrup so low.  It was also interesting to see GMO food land where it did.

Someone did mention that they were 'quick shoppers'.  I think many of us are, whether we realize it or not.  Perhaps that's why both 'ingredients you can pronounce' and 'the first three ingredients' were common criteria mentioned.  The former, I suppose, is meant to exclude aspartame, galactose, and butylated hydroxyanisole from your cart.  The latter as ingredients are listed in order of the percentage content of the item. I have read that those two perspectives make for somewhat reliable rules if you're in a hurry.

Again, thanks to those who responded!

Food Transparency - It Must Be More Than a Portlandia Skit

Surely there are idealistic topics in our culture that transcend the political spectrum, no?  There must be aspects of our society that are populist and meaningful that I can write about that won't disgruntle half of the country?  Yes, there must be something most of us can agree on. Something rooted in the American ideal of liberty and choice, something we all believe in (because when it comes down to it, we're all little libertarian by it's base definition).  Since I like to reflect on food, how about we talk food transparency? Surely that's got the social impact without too much ideological division. Though I already see the potential pitfalls with my agricultural brethren.  

I want us to know what we're eating and the story it tells.  I'm certainly not alone in thinking that we should know it's voyage to our mouths before we send it back to the earth from whence it came.  I'm not asking for everyone to fall in line to one perspective or another.  I take the likely naive position that knowledge is power.  Transparency is knowledge is power is liberty is what it means to be American, at least in my idealistic eyes.  Knowing where the food in my grocery came from and how it was produced might not change my behavior today. But I'll at least take a moment and understand its different steps in its journey to my mouth, however pleasant or unpleasant.  And pleasantness is definitely a relative concept. 

But that's the problem.  Many of us don't know, don't want to make it a priority to find out, or are simply content with the current system.  Given the current state of American wellness, I can't imagine the latter scenario (probably the most common) will remain relevant. There are countless variables in this equation that create this situation and in the spirit of brevity, I'm not going off on that tangent. As a result, understanding your food's journey has been marginalized as an affluent, hipster demand.  Take this example:   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XZUidbcwuc

I appreciate this TEDx Talk as the solution they present is quite literal.  It's a valiant effort, flawed but certainly moving the story toward a shared goal of transparency.  They want to connect farms to restaurants and farmers' markets and ultimately to the consumer.  This is a consumer driven approach toward greater food transparency and it's important.  However I do see two challenges with the crux of this approach.

It's all about hipsters with money

First is the socioeconomic and cultural elitism associated with this mindset. That's an ironic response, I know.  What I mean is this solution is suited for the well to do.  Those with Internet access and the paycheck to eat at farm to table restaurants and the means to eat significant portions of their meals from likely inaccessible farmers' markets.  

Yes, this is me and my family to some degree.  But what about the rest of my grocery shopping and food consumption? And I dare to say that I'm not alone in that this transparency isn't relevant to even half of a typical Midwestern foodie/foodist's (hereafter referred to as foodies) meals.  We buy organic (most of the time) and when we do eat meat, it's from a butcher that promises cageless this and hormone free (some of the time). The speaker's scope is limited to foodies and producers who are already, out of principle, inclined to be transparent with their food.  I'm out of luck if I don't eat from the limited list of farm to table restaurants or buy all of my food from a farmers' market.  

It lacks the logistical scale to feed the masses

This is related to my first point.  I don't see us feasibly dismantling our massive food system in favor of the artisan small scale version that is realtimefarms.com's focus.  And again, I don't want to be critical of the ideas people are bringing to life on this front.  But what concerns me is if people get the great sense of accomplishment for something rather limited in scope.  It's like an urban farm.  Sure, that's cool that you farm an empty lot or two, but what percentage of a household or restaurant's food consumption are you providing, let alone the number of households and restaurants with which you are partnered?  But again, I'm sitting on the sidelines and potentially being overcritical.  These solutions are playing at the margins.


The truth is, we haven't hit the tipping point . Food transparency needs to evolve to include mainstream consumers and "traditional" channels.  This broadens the conversation tremendously and as a result, makes it a much more challenging conversation.  Challenging in that it's confronting the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  A broader conversation is obviously a bigger phenomena that includes powerful players like Big Food, agribusiness, and so forth.  For now, I'll keep this post focused on these efforts by foodies for foodies.  While the mindset of realtimefarms.com (the solution presented in the TEDx talk) sound appealing to this pragmatic food conscious Hoosier, it's scope is too narrow to harbor widespread change that we all ought to consider. We need to ensure that food transparency is not relegated to a certain socioeconomic strata that's oh so elegantly eviscerated by Portlandia:   

Ouch, that stings a little.  more to come.

The Unintended Consequences of Backyard Vegetable Gardening

If you follow us online, you know that we like to garden on our rather tiny property here in Indianapolis.  We've got a strawberry patch that is now in full swing.  We plant a variety of leafy greens, squash, tomatoes, onions, turnips and so on.  We've had chickens for a few years now.  It's been a wonderful exercise for our family.  It helps ensure that our kids won't think that their food is grown on the sun or in a grocery store. Yes, these are responses uttered by city youth attending a food and fitness camp that I was associated with this time last summer. The garden is an invaluable teaching mechanism for these  city kids of ours and a meditative act for parents who both probably belong on a secluded, wooded farm.  But substantively reducing our grocery bill it does not. 

Strawberries and eggs from the yard

Once the feel good times around seeing a tomato ripen or pulling an egg from a nesting box are over, growing a little bit of your own food can really be pretty depressing. If you are an urbanite that thinks about what it would be like if you had to grow your own food in an act of independence or out of necessity, you're going to have a bad time.  It really makes you appreciate the system of producers and distribution in place to ensure access to food, including fresh produce, meats, dairy, and inexpensive food products.  I'm not trying to justify "big food", that comes in a later post.  What I do appreciate is the scale with which our food system feeds our ever expanding population.  It's a critical aspect of food production foodists and organic aficionados sometimes marginalize, in my opinion.  Reform is necessary and it should be practical.

Vegetable gardening forces me to think about the scale of food production that would be needed to feed a substantial community.  In my mind if we want significant change, that is a large swath of the populace eating a sizable amount of healthy food for a significant length of the year, we've got a long way to go. Vegetable gardening makes a poignant statement about the need for more organic farmers, assuming the demand is there.  Despite the fact that our garden/yard really only feeds us a fraction of what we eat, we'll still continue to garden and enjoy what we produce and the experience around it. 

Generational Meals

While we still order out often, we've made a conscious effort to try and cook more of our meals.  A few days ago, while preparing a stew for the family, I thought about how I was going about it.  Our meals have a couple points of origin including magazine clippings and google searches.  A good number of the routinely used recipes are family recipes inherited from family and hometowns.  It were these routinely used recipes that got me thinking about creating a lineage of a dish.

Now from a culinary perspective,  our homes have created an interesting blend of food.  It's rural Midwestern meat and potatoes kinds of dishes meets eastern European immigrant. We have a pancake recipe, a recipe for kolache, pirogue, stew, vegetable soup, a bean and rice dish, and a number of other desserts just to name a few.  These are not necessarily award winning dishes that make you cry when you eat them, but they are pretty good.

My mom's oven stew

Lately, I've been less concerned with why people do certain things and more around how they do them.  I'm interested in how I and the people around me create the world in which we live.  From this perspective, a lot of what constitutes your reality, my reality, and everyone else's is somewhat unique.  It's unique because our lives are each made up of specific sets of memories and experiences.  These memories and experiences shape who we are.  Hence, to a point we create our own custom reality.

Maintaining a recipe box with an assortment of recipe cards, scrap pieces of paper, magazine articles, etc. becomes one of these ways food is created in my reality.  It contributes to the reality created when you start cooking many of your own meals.  This reality can push family interaction to the forefront of your time spent preparing meals and that's not a bad thing, if you're doing it right, no?  When we've taken a recipe from our past and made it our own, it triggers memories about places and people.  I remember the old kitchen from the farm house, the yellow and white chairs and the layout of the house before my parents expanded the floor plan.  Or, when I'm making pancakes using my father-in-law's recipe, it evokes memories from my wife of her, as a child, sitting with her sister in the kitchen with their dad preparing breakfast.  It's little mundane memories like this that I enjoy and cherish.  Looking at a recipe card from my mother and eating said recipe in my own kitchen with my own family creates a sense connectedness between past and present.  Essentially re-creating the breakfast dynamic with my kids that my wife and her sister experienced creates additional meaning to the act of making pancakes.

So, go out and make a conscious effort to change your reality around food.  Learn a family dish or meal.  Keep the lineage of your family alive, whatever form it is.  Can't cook or don't have time to cook?  Even better, learn to do this one family or friend dish well.  If it's a recipe from an older family member, be conscious enough to look at it and know if you need to make it healthier.  Regardless, think of a time and place in your past where you ate this meal.  Reflect on who else has eaten this meal in the past.  It can be a fruitful experience. Plus, you'll be eating carry-out one less night a week.

This beauty here is about 30 years old and contains quite a few artery clogging, yet delicious  rural Indiana fare

ThinkKit D18. Or, The One Where I Get All GOB Bluth on ThinkKit

"If money, time or other commitments were no obstacle in 2013, what would you do?" 

If you are under 40 and don't know of the TV show Arrested Development, sorry, we can't be friends.  For those that make the cut, know that I feel like the eldest Bluth in the episode, "switch hitter." I'm using a particular scene from that episode as inspiration for this post.  In this scene, G.O.B. is working for Sitwell and fires off 6 months of (Michael's) ideas in a single meeting. What I have here is a list I've cultivated over the course of time and if I were a smart blogger, I would string all of these ideas out into fifteen blog posts. But no, you're going to get my list of projects and ideas that I would realize should my biggest obstacles disappear - time, space, and self consciousness. 

Food Related Things I would do For My Community

• I read about a grad student who staged a Food Book Fair in Brooklyn last year.  I want to organize one in Indianapolis.  Kind of like Food Con, but with more books, panels, and speakers.
• Another idea I read about awhile back described an interesting distribution model.  I would create a supply chain that would maintain small refrigerators with produce in convenience stores and gas stations in an area food desert. The produce would be locally and regionally sourced as much as possible.  My user experience tendencies kick in with this project as I think that, with emphasis placed on presentation and display, consumers would be drawn to these fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods filled with Frito Lays and Nestle products. 
• I love the idea of a pocket shop for urban farmers. I would start a little shop that focused on gardening, chickens, hydroponics, etc. I would sell supplies and educational material and foster a support network for people looking to get hyper local with their food.
• There's only one Indiana school participating in this farm to school program and I think that's kind of ridiculous.  I'd like to change that.

Personal Food Projects
Again, if time and money were not obstacles, I would focus on a few personal projects like:

• I would have a greenhouse built where I could practice growing food year round.
• I would restart my failed hops experiment.  My vision with this project has always been to grow hops and sell them to an Indiana brewery.  As part of the agreement, I would want the name and marketing for the brew named after my hometown, Dunkirk, IN.  Think "Speedcat IPA."
• I would build an aquaponics system near or in my newly constructed greenhouse.

My Experiments in Fiction Writing
These ideas are probably the most likely to be achieved, so long as I can muster the courage to share my amateur writings with the world.  My wife has been the only one to read any of my work and even then, it's only been a small sample as I haven't had time to edit and refine my drafts to a point where I feel comfortable enough to share them even with her.  She's suggested that I release some stories in a serial format here on my blog.  Then, at the conclusion of a story, I would collect the sections/chapters, have them bound, and try to sell a few.  I think it's a novel idea and is likely something I will explore in the coming year.
I would also like to serve as a producer / editor for some super hero comics with strong gender images for both boys and girls.  It's possible, I know it.  I strive to find this sort of material for my daughter, but always wince when I find some fault in the art or story of most work I come across.   

Long Term Projects
I suppose a lot of the above mentioned projects could be considered long term as they would either take a few years to achieve or would be projects without end.  Specifically, I would: 

• Run Walmart out of every small town that I could.  We don't need cheap Chinese imports and I feel we need to foster small rural business development.  This country needs a spirited campaign to disuade people of all socioeconomic stripes to just say no to Walmart.
• Create organic and boutique farm jobs where I grew up (again, Dunkirk, IN and the surrounding areas in Jay county).  I would create, nurture, and maintain a supply chain to Indy or maybe Muncie or Anderson, given the geographic location. 
• I would assemble an exploratory campaign to run for office.

Ambitious much?  Idealistic much?  you bet.  But why not, right?  These obstacles, like everyone else's are just in my head.  Zack de la Rocha creeps, "What better place than here?  What better time than now?  All hell can't stop us now."  Come on self, let's get this started.  

Obviously to accomplish even half of the projects listed here, I would have to bend space and time.  If any of you know how to do this and can teach me, that would be appreciated.  That aside, I'm open to suggestions and advice from anyone on any of these projects.  I wouldn't expect to realize success with any of these projects while in isolation.  I need guidance, expertise, and help.  Find me at jonwillford <at> gmail <dot> com or on twitter @HoosierJonFord.  Until then, I will look for opportunities to accomplish some of these ambitious goals and smash my obstacles into oblivions.  I will also continue to be content with my current kick ass lot in life and bring home the bacon for my unbelievably wonderful family. Now, it's time to go watch some more Arrested Development.

ThinkKit D16: 2012 Found Me Learning About Food And Community

Today, we reflect and write about what we've learned this year.  I for one, have had a successful 2012.  About this time last year, I was winding down my graduate degree and had gotten into the rhythm of allocating a few hours a week to some personal projects.  So, I sought out a couple of different opportunities to keep exploring, learning, and building on my experiences.

I learned a little more about our local food system.  I volunteered for Food Con 3, an event that weaves together food and art.  Sponsored by the Harrison Center for the Arts and Butler University, volunteering for the event allowed me to meet and work with some of the unique food players in our community including aquaponics aficionados, composting services, urban farmers, and a guy with a really unique hydroponics setup.  I also got a chance to learn a little about event planning.  While the rain dampened the turnout, it was still a success and I learned a lot.    

I also gained some exposure to the complexities around childhood obesity.  I, along with a few friends and fellow graduate students at IUPUI, performed ethnographic participant observation at an area summer fitness day camp.  We embedded ourselves with preteen campers and their counselors as they embraced the difficult task of understanding and addressing the campers' obesity.  The stories we collected from the campers were enlightening, to say the least.  I can't speak too much about it as we were working with minors and it is an ongoing academic research project that demands anonymity.  While I only scratched  the surface of understanding this epidermic, I gained greater context and understanding. We are currently writing a research paper and when it is completed, I'll be able to share more detail.  As a nice bonus to this project, I gained more grant writing experience as our group wrote a grant that was accepted and provided funding for the project and the non-profit with which we partnered with.

So, my 2012 was full of new learning opportunities, even things I haven't really discussed in this post.  That is, my day job doing user experience at a corporate web development shop (I'll save that for a future post).  I've got some real momentum and am excited to see what 2013 brings.

Creative Food at the 2012 Indiana Artisan Marketplace

Hey folks, it's been awhile since I've last posted.   I've been trying to get some loose ends tied up with a thesis and some promised web work for StudioAMF.  I've got a few exciting things I'm working on this summer and am looking forward to sharing them with you.  I did take a few moments to write up some of my favorite food vendors at this year's Indiana Artisan Marketplace.  If you're looking for unique and local, value-added food additions to your pantry, consider some of my favorites below.

A taste  of bourbon with your pancakes?  I'm game.

Food artisans from Indiana and Kentucky descended upon the Indiana State Fairgrounds a few weekends ago (March 31st) for the second annual Indiana Artisan Marketplace.  A three day event, the Marketplace showcased a variety of regional artists that are Indiana Artisan.   Attendees enjoyed potters, painters, and jewelers in addition to experiencing a number of unique and delicious value-added foods and wines.

Brownsburg rising stars Hoosier Mama was on hand to provide samples of their popular and locally sourced bloody Mary and margarita mixes.  Of particular interest were their hot pickled carrots, a tasty alternative to what will always now be a boring celery garnish in your bloody mary.  Another favorite, 240 Sweet are masters at producing surprisingly delicious yet peculiar flavors of gourmet marshmallows and were presenting their Pomegranate Kick marshmallows.  For the more adventurous, 240 Sweet dish up a bacon, maple, and toffee flavored marshmallow.  Yes, bacon and yes, it's great.

The chilies sneak up on you, but it's pleasant

Salsa and sauces were also on display including Screamin’ Mimi’s sweet hot salsa and Crazy Charlie’s award winning salsa.  Attendees purchasing Best Boy’s sauces, which include a Carolina BBQ sauce and a hot chili fudge sauce enjoyed a well crafted product coupled with a philanthropic cause.  One hundred percent of their profits are donated to charity. 
 

There was no shortage of confection food makers among the attending artisans.  The sisters of St. Benedict, hailing from Ferdinand, IN, were on hand again selling almond flavored Almerle cookies as well as Hildegard cookies.  According to their website, the Hildergard cookie counters the aging process and “releases” intelligence.  Given the source, can one really question these skilled bakers at For Heaven’s Sake bakery?  Another returning confection artisan was Persimmon pleasures.  Hailing from Bedford, IN, this bakery uses locally grown persimmons in nearly all of their wares to produce a variety of cookies with a subtle and unique flavor.  The Best Chocolate in Town, offered various truffle flavors, caramels, and buttery toffee.

Abandon your celery, bloody Mary drinkers

Butler Winery, Winzerwald Winery, and Easley winery were not the only food artisan vendors serving alcohol themed wares. Howard’s Creek was on hand with their seventy year old, Kentucky River Valley spicy beer cheese. Burton’s Maplewood Farm presented attendees their unique bourbon infused maple syrup.   

In an attempt to nurture this growing food scene, Indiana Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman used the 2012 Marketplace event to announce her office’s newly minted Indiana Grown marketing campaign.  This program, intended to showcase Indiana food producers, coupled with success of food craftpersons at the Indiana Artisan Marketplace, ensure a bright future for local foodists.

New Year's Resolution: Drink More Lawn Clippings

In this form, only give to your sworn enemy

If you're like me, you drink too much coffee and you are vitamin deficient.  You feel like the thirty two plus ounces of coffee you drink every.single.day is wearing you out.  You might eat well but today's produce and food don't really provide the nutrients they had in the past, whether that be from the genetically oversized food many of us eat or the demand to quickly get crops form field to plate.  Well if you live outside the city and the 'burbs, the answer is probably not far away.  Why not kick it old school and try some natural sources for your vitamins and minerals, the wife suggests. Sounds good to me.  Besides, if there's a zombie apocalypse, how am I going to get my vitamin A and my calcium?    The answer is grass clippings!

This suggested tonic is a hot blend of nettles, red clover, and red raspberry.  The clover and raspberry are often recommended for pregnant women.  I'm doing some gender co-opting with these herbs, I suppose.  Maybe I'll name my tonic the Lawnmower Man.  How patriarchal of me. Anyway, here are some details: 

Nettles | Drinking a hot nettle tea helps keep that urinary tract and kidneys working properly.  Nettles also naturally provide vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium.  Nettles also strengthen adrenal, urinary, lung and kidney function as well as purifying, building and nourishing blood.

Red Clover | Red clover, another plant in my morning cocktail, also has numerous health benefits.  Along with helping pregnancy, osteoporosis, and arthritis, it naturally (again) provides nutrients including calcium, chromium, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, and vitamin C.

Red Raspberry | This herb packs in more vitamin C and A.  It's another herb to aide in things I'll never really experience like pregnancy and osteoporosis,  red raspberry leaves do alleviate with cold and flu symptoms.  Of the three ingredients in my tonic, I'm most likely to find a substitute for red raspberry.  

What does this taste like?  It's not bad really.  I follow Mary Poppins advice and drop a spoonful of sugar in my hot blend and I'm on my way to replacing the gallons of coffee I drink in the morning.  hopefully.

Digesting Food Con II @ The Harrison Center

The second annual Harrison Center for the Arts Food Con has been consumed, processed, and has left me energetic.  I love this city.  Over the course of a couple of years, we've witnessed a growing awareness around producing and consuming food in the city.  The popularity of community gardens, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), food trucks, and craft beer seems to be growing at a fervent pace.  Smart move by the Harrison Center for recognizing this and planning a well organized and informative event around the phenomena.   The center's Food Con II built upon the relative success of Food Con I and used their September First Friday to celebrate all things food related.  From my vantage point, here's a quick run down of the evening.

The 'front door' to Food Con II

Truck Farm Indy (that's Mayor Ballard to the left)

The Vendors | The core experience of Food Con II was the tent erected in the Harrison Center's front courtyard.  Your usual suspects were present including local co-op Pogue's Run Grocer, farmer's markets like the 38th Street Farmer's Market (celebrating 11 years of service), the Loft at Trader's Point, and one of Indy's newest urban food projects, Fall Creek Gardens.  A few people were also there showcasing their chicken runs and there was even someone there with goats.  I talked to a guy named Andy Cochran (andycochran437 at gmail.com) selling rain barrels for $80, installation included.   I spent five minutes talking to representatives from the Indiana Beekeeping school that were lobbying hard to get a hive in my backyard.  Stay tuned for that.  It was a decent cross-section of different gardening, food, and urban farming related organizations eager to get the word out for their respective causes.

No, we are not getting a goat

The Food Trucks | I can't talk about Food Con II without taking a moment to comment on the legion of food trucks present.  I wonder what the saturation point is for food trucks in a city like Indianapolis because I think we see it on the horizon. That being said, I see this as a good problem for the city.  I just hope that whomever survives any 'market correction' in the local food truck game still provides (somewhat overpriced) healthy and delicious fare.

Sausage Meatball sandwich - Scratch Truck
Pint of Osiris - Sun King

A lot of food on four wheels

Sun King has a knack for being at the right places in Indy to quench a thirst.  The IMA summer movie series? check.  Victory Field to watch the Indianapolis Indians? check.  Food Con II? check.  The good news was that the crowd ran them dry.  This sends a great message to the fine folks at Sun King Brewery regarding the Harrison Center crowd's demand for their fine craft beer.


The Art | The weak link in Food Con II was, ironically, the art installations.  I get the idea of educating people on the different climate types and the (ever diminishing) bio-diversity on our planet.  However, the themed art installations (in Gallery 1 as well as the gym) missed the mark with a subtle scope misstep.  It only takes a passing glance at the booths and vendors present at Food Con II to understand that this whole thing, this whole movement, is about all things local, local, local.  I would have been happy to see these art galleries give me something about food produced in the Hoosier state or even presented a narrative about Midwest food.

Also, I'll be the first to tell you that the art critic in me is an un-educated, small minded person who asks himself all too often, "That's considered art?"  So I wasn't surprised to see a number of themed pieces evoke such little emotion from me. Now that's not say the various 'wall' art displayed in main gallery was not interesting or did not support the event's theme.  I just walked out of the gym and the main gallery scratching my head and feeling a little underwhelmed.  Oh well, there's always next year.

The Social Construction of Eating | I've been categorized as the 'over-educated' in some of my closest social circles.  As I think about this final section, I can see where they're coming from.  The social construction of eating?  What the hell does that even mean!? In short, the act of consuming food is something that we perform socially.  When we eat, we use family customs, rules set by our particular location, community traditions, and so on.  We use these guidelines to choose what to eat, how we consume it, as well as the 'when' and 'where' of how we eat.

The Harrison Center's new public space is appreciated and well positioned

We create rules for ourselves and allow others to impose rules regarding these who, what, where, and hows.  I enjoy Food Con II as I get to see first hand how a few socio-economic groups think about food and its consumption.  Anecdotally speaking, Food Con II showcases the social construction of eating by predominantly Caucasian males and females with some degree of affluence.  I don't want to negatively spin this event, but if we are to institutionalize healthy eating habits,  these perceived economic barriers must be addressed.

I absolutely love this gymnasium 

That being said, participants at Food Con II celebrated all things local.  We created a space (or market) for hipster, transient food served directly out of a truck.  We emphasized organic food grown as close to our kitchens as possible and thereby shunned the economies of scale present in large chain groceries and big box stores.  That is, we built and reinforced a strong desire to avoid factory farms and the corporatism in the food supply chain.  We held in high regard, the production of food in what's perceived as an economically inefficient production and distribution process.     As alluded to above, what was missing in this social construction of eating was a discussion around local, healthy food option adoption by the poor and the rural lower/middle class. This ought to be a discussion this social group should embrace as it will facilitate the creation of new social circles and relationships amongst neighbors.  It also translates to higher demand for local farmers and producers. I'm still a relative novice at social construction theory but see its utility and appreciate its applied, problem solving nature.  This is a topic I feel compelled to wax poetic about for some time to come.  You have been warned!       

Studio AMF working the crowd outside of Gallery 2

 To sum up the evening, I socialized with a lot of friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and politicians enjoying a wonderful Friday evening in a wonderful city.  It was an inspiring evening and it is exciting to see these events, the people who make it happen, and the people attending all take a moment to think about what they eat, how they eat it, and where their food originates. 

Update: It appears that I was mistaken about the scope of the art installations in the main gallery.  They were referring to different food related social phenomena.  Still, the exhibit's execution was a bit muddled, in my humble opinion.
http://butlerfoodcon.com/biomes.html

Eggs-citing Developments

Well, my day is complete. I've been able to weave some chicken word play into some dialogue AND its only 9 am. I'm writing you here this morning to say that the months of cleaning up chicken shit is starting to pay off. Our hens started laying eggs a week ago and haven't looked back. We're averaging 1-2 eggs per day. So I can kiss good bye the local free range eggs we spent $5 on per week.

To be precise, we're seeing pullet eggs . They are rather small, but the literature tells us that the eggs will grow in size as the hens mature. They are still really tasty. Like the free range eggs at the store, the yolks are brighter.

On a side note related to matter exiting a chicken's body... I must admit, the waste produced by these chickens is a lot easier to clean up than originally thought. Their little hen house gets cleaned frequently and it only takes me five minutes. We let them roam the backyard occasionally and they usually stick to the outer fringe of our yard, under and around the foliage and vegetables. So, their business is directly applied to the soil that needs it when they are free ranging it. hoo-ray, one less thing for me.

Earlier this week, I was on my own for dinner and was able to assemble a pretty tasty dinner comprised of almost all backyard ingredients. How's that for local? As I was basking in the glory of my breakfast-dinner (THE best type of dinner), our eggs, and easy poop pick-up I got to thinking, "if I were self-sustaining, I'd be dead now." Kind of depressing, I know. If we were off on our own and had to produce all of our own food, we would have starved months ago. Now I know that if all of this were for real, we would be out on a larger parcel of land with an approach that consistently yielded something to eat. Nonetheless we don't live like that now, so this backyard chicken adventure has yet another un-intended benefit. I appreciate the food system for its consistent availability. It's kind of appalling the stuff considered food sometimes, but it's always there. I get that, Grocery Manufacturers Association. The challenge as you all know is how to find and maintain a balance between the mass production of food and that of smaller farm operations. Farm policy in this country has to change. We need a new a direction. One that appreciates the consistency and availability of more mass produced foods, but also supports the healthy and sustainable nature of the free range, grass fed, hormone free, organic movement. And the last thing that needs to happen is for these two approaches to food distribution to fall along socio-economic lines. But that's another post for another time. I've got another quick post about a backyard line-up change to draft.

Backyard Chicken Soap Opera

A few Sunday mornings ago, we were woken to the last thing you want to hear when you are trying to raise chickens with dozens and dozens of people living in relative close proximity - a "cockledoodle doo." As it turns out, two of the four chickens we bought were roosters. It was an easy fix, though. We stuffed a rooster into a copy paper box and the other into a cat carrier and returned them from whence they came. Our Craigslist chicken guy offered a chicken for chicken trade, but we opted for just one. So, we're currently at three hens.

This bodes well for our chicken adventure. While the roosters were much more interesting to look at, we just had too many birds for our space. Now, we have three boring old hens. Smaller hens and fewer birds need surprisingly less feed, water, and waste. Plus, we're compliant with city ordinance and you all know we want to be law abiding citizens!

This significant line-up change did destroy our pecking order. As you would guess, our two roosters were battling it out for the number one and two spots. Now, our two O.G. hens have settled in to the top slots. And they are shunning the new hen. We were worried at first. We didn't know if the hens would attack this new addition as they were pretty aggressive towards it. We thought they might starve it out. Luckily after a few days of hazing, they seem to have accepted junior.

No eggs yet. We ought to be seeing them in a month or so. Three chickens laying an egg a day (at their peak), means just under two dozens eggs a week. So, we'll have plenty for us and plenty to throw at cars from behind the bushes at night.