Edible Columbus: Fall 2021 by Edible Columbus

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COLUMBUS THE STORY OF LOCAL FOOD

Member of Edible Communities No. 46 | Fall 2021

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A modern take on the traditional cookbook by Chef Tricia Wheeler A ring of menus, shopping lists, and recipes centered around cooking for those you love 4 nights a week. Learn more about our story and shop at peacefuldinners.com Follow us @peacefuldinners on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest

FALL 2021 | CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS 3

EDITOR’S NOTE

5 #EDIBLECOLUMBUS

EDIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

19 ARTISAN 30 RECIPES 34 DRINK 41

SMALL BITES

FE AT URES 8

THE FARMS OF FALL What a visit to the pumpkin patch can teach us about the food chain By Gary Kiefer | Photography by Reilly Wright

22 RETHINKING HUNGER The second in a series of thought leadership stories from Edible Communities By Joy Manning

36 CARVING OUT A NAME FOR HIMSELF Todd Schriver turns salvaged trees into striking bowls, platters and furniture By Nancy McKibben | Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

C O V ER

Photography by Reilly Wright

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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t my house, the coming of fall is announced each year by the drumbeat of falling acorns hitting my garage roof. Our old oak tree is letting us know that, even if the weather is still warm, summer is over. Nature’s seasonal signs were especially important last year when the normal human signals of the fall season were missing. There were no football games because the season was delayed. No school buses were on the street because classes were online. Signature fall gatherings, from the Columbus Italian Festival to the Circleville Pumpkin Show, had been canceled due to the pandemic. Nature was not deterred, however, so we still had leaves to rake and acorns to sweep up. This year, if life is not quite back to normal, at least we see signs of progress. The Ohio State Fair returned in part after scrubbing the 2020 event. This summer the fair held its agricultural competitions for exhibitors and their families, while remaining closed to the public. For the fall, football, school classes and festivals are back on schedule, even as we proceed with caution. For farmers, the pandemic disrupted suppliers and customers, but the crops kept growing. Last year, some farms cut back on their fall activities for the public and put new safeguards in place. But 2021 is seeing a return to nearly normal here as well. We spent a lot of time visiting farms for this issue of Edible Columbus, and we spoke with families who have been farming for multiple generations. During harvest season, we’re glad to be able to share with you the stories of these families, their farms and their talents—woodcarving included, in one case. As one farmer told me, “Fall is an excellent time for people to see the fruits of our labor—even though they have no clue how much labor it was.”

COLUMBUS PUBLISHER

Franklin County Farm Bureau EDITOR IN CHIEF

Gary Kiefer | gary@ediblecolumbus.com DESIGN + MEDIA MANAGER

Reilly Wright | reilly@ediblecolumbus.com We also introduce you to noted chef and cookbook author Sara Bir, who has been busy figuring out ways to make use of Ohio’s official native fruit, the pawpaw. The Chambers family shares with us how the pandemic brought new customers for their Little Ladies Soft Serve ice cream business, named for their daughters. You’ll meet some of the people helping barley to make a comeback as a grain crop in Ohio. We also discuss what makes a good recipe, and we have some new ones for you to try for fall. I hope this fall you will have a chance to visit one of the many farms in our area. While urban growth has chewed up some former farmland, we still have more than 6,000 farms just in Franklin County and the six surrounding counties. In this harvest season, they offer us an opportunity to connect to our agricultural roots—and to build some memories with those we love.

Doug Adrianson

WEB DESIGNER

Edible Feast

PHOTOGRAPHY

Rachel Joy Barehl | Elli Jo Moehrman Brian Williams | Reilly Wright

WRITERS

Linda Lee Baird | Wynne Everett Nancy McKibben | Malinda Meadows Christina Musgrave | Brian Williams

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#ediblecolumbus Share your edible endeavors with us on Instagram via #ediblecolumbus! Here are a few of our recent favorites... Reilly Wright

From top, left to right: @eatinginthe614 @_bored.rosie_ @dinnerplanswithhan @eatpretty614 @benevolentfareincbus @felicias_food @homeonhallmark @foodaluna @vc_columbus |

Mabel, Lydia, Ida, Will and Flannery Chambers

Sweet Eats Little Ladies Soft Serve brings its creative ice-cream creations to Polaris this fall By Linda Lee Baird | Photography by Elli Jo Moehrman

t takes a leap of faith to buy an old mail truck over the internet, sight unseen, to be the centerpiece of your new family business. Yet that’s exactly what Lydia and Will Chambers did in 2017, when they purchased the truck that would soon start a new life as the anchor of Little Ladies Soft Serve. With toppings including everything from Fruity Pebbles to chopped pretzels to puppy chow, Little Ladies serves sundaes with unforgettable flourishes that bring neighbors to line up around the block.

The birth of a baby, and an idea

While most ice cream trucks generally start packing up for the season around Labor Day, the end of summer 2021 marks a reason for the Chambers to start unpacking—loading supplies and surplus ingredients from the ice cream truck into their new Polaris-area store. There, they will continue selling the whimsical sundaes that have made Little Ladies Soft Serve beloved across the Columbus neighborhoods it has visited regularly since 2018.

There were several practical reasons for starting an ice cream truck. For one thing, the needs were less complex than for other food trucks, which meant they could restore the truck themselves. “I knew that Will, my husband, could build it. And ... it’s not a food truck, so we knew that the build-out would be simple enough, something that he could figure out on his own,” she explains.

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When Lydia and Will’s first daughter was born, Lydia began thinking about careers that would allow the two of them to spend time together while she was young. Lydia had a background in cooking, and a visit to the mobile vendors at the Worthington Farmers Market helped narrow her focus to a food truck. At first, she considered selling donuts and other baked goods. Then, she thought of ice cream and knew she’d found her niche.

Further, as the creator of Little Ladies’ signature sundaes, Lydia realized that the limited functionality of a truck wouldn’t limit her options when it came to making unique desserts. She had a formula worked out for her sundaes: something crunchy, a sauce, and a garnish on top. Those ingredients could be packed and prepared with less fuss than other foods might require. “The prospect of ... making ice cream toppings wasn’t as overwhelming to me as crafting the perfect pastry,” Lydia says. As she planned her sundaes, Lydia’s inspiration came from home—the name Little Ladies was inspired by daughters Mabel, 8, and Ida, 5, each of whom has a sundae named for her.

EDIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

The day she sat in her Central Ohio living room and saw that postal truck for sale in Michigan, she was ready for it. And when she had questions, she knew who to ask: her sister and brother-in-law, who own and operate the King Kone ice cream shop in their hometown of Chardon, Ohio. They offered support and encouragement to the family as they were starting out.

A family business

Lydia and an employee ran the truck for its first two summers. But in March 2020, having recently given birth to her third daughter and facing an uncertain summer as COVID-19 hit the country, Lydia knew she needed someone she trusted to take over the day-to-day operation. Again, she looked to her family. She persuaded her brother and sister-inlaw to come live with them and manage the truck for the season. Will, meanwhile, took on full-time responsibilities for maintaining the truck and soft-serve machine. Staffing problem solved, Lydia still had to contend with the cancellation of most events, which had been the core of the business up until that point. “I saw that all these food trucks were doing neighborhoods; I was, like, ‘OK, I guess that’s what we’re going to try to do,’” Lydia says. She started with a social media post offering to come to neighborhoods by request, and the response was overwhelming. “It was like opening the floodgates!” With people tired of isolating and looking for fun, Little Ladies provided a safe reason to leave the house. The truck was in high demand, often visiting two neighborhoods a day with three-hour stops at each location. “It’s these things that I had no control [of], but because it was outside, people felt more comfortable. All these ways that we didn’t have to adapt that most other places did, which was such a gift.” While last summer’s demand was great for business, it was also difficult to keep up with. When Will found the store for lease—a former rolled ice cream shop that would require minimal conversion work—the same good luck that had brought them to the truck seemed to have returned. The shop will center on the beloved sundaes that put Little Ladies on the map, including the buckeye-themed Aggie and the fruity Essie featuring lemon cornflakes and raspberry. Lydia enjoys creating seasonal combinations, and she’s looking forward to the opportunities the winter holidays will present for new flavors. She’s also looking to expand the regular offerings. First up? The family’s newest little lady, 2-year-old Flannery, will join her sisters on the sundae menu. Little Ladies will open its first storefront this fall at 673 Worthington Road. Visit littleladiessoftserve.com or their Instagram @littleladiessoftserve for more info.

Linda Lee Baird is a Columbus-based freelance writer and educator. Follow her adventures in food, writing and parenting on Instagram at ms_lindalee and at lindaleebaird.com. |

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THE FARMS OF FALL What a visit to the pumpkin patch can teach us about the food chain By Gary Kiefer | Photography by Reilly Wright

f there is a symbol of fall in Ohio, it would have to be the pumpkin. From mid-September through Halloween and all the way to Thanksgiving, the pumpkin delivers the color and the taste we have come to associate with the season.

The pumpkin is a food, of course, used in dishes around the world, including our iconic pumpkin pie. But we see it as a natural work of art as well, even before the carving begins. It has become the cornerstone of our autumn decor. Ohio is among the nation’s top pumpkin-producing states, although the pumpkin is far down the list of the state’s top cash crops. Then again, you’re not likely to take kids to a pick-your-own-soybean patch. When you want to pick a pumpkin, Central Ohio is full of farms that can provide the experience of heading into the field and pulling one off a vine. At some farms, you can take a hayride, meet the resident animals, climb on hay bales and drink some apple cider. And you will have no problem finding more elaborate operations where fun can include playgrounds and rides and even zip lines and paintball. No matter your choice, visiting a farm has become a fall ritual for many people. Edible Columbus visited three local farms to learn how they got started, what crops they raise and why they think it’s important to invite people to the farm at harvest time. Their stories show a wide range of approaches, but a singular desire to have us all better understand where our food comes from and how much work goes into it. |

LOHSTROH FAMILY FARMS

t Lohstroh Family Farms in Mt. Sterling, much of the year is spent doing the hard work of raising corn, soybeans, wheat and hay on their 1,000 acres. In the fall, however, the focus turns to a bit more fun, and it starts with pumpkins. The Lohstroh family has raised pumpkins every year since moving to their current location from Hamilton County in 1989. It was a way to diversify, but there was another important reason for the new crop. “My husband just always liked pumpkins,” says Michelle Lohstroh, who operates the farm with husband George, son Jonathan and his wife, Annie; and daughter Christin Lohstroh Crutchfield. Their children handled pumpkin sales as a way to earn money, but also as a way to learn the family business. “It was a great opportunity for them to learn to work with people and manage things and learn good communication skills,” Michelle says. Beginning in late September and running through October, families arrive at the farm by the carload, drawn by the opportunity to pick their own pumpkins and enjoy other attractions added over the years, such as navigating a corn maze, petting the goats, riding the barrel train and climbing on hay bales. You can buy food, take photos and shop in a store that offers fall decorations, cider, fudge, honey and other locally made products. Visitors may come for the fun, but in the process they also will learn a lot about farm life, where our food comes from and the hard work that goes into it. “We are a working farm and so we highlight our crops and how we grow crops,” Michelle says. “We think the educational component and showing people what a farm is about is important.” The pumpkins play an important role in that. “We’ve had peo-

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Michelle Lohstroh and Christin Lohstroh Crutchfield

Those pumpkins, for example, are grown with the no-till technique, which builds healthier soils and decreases erosion. The Lohstrohs use a cover crop of cereal rye with their pumpkins. “Others are doing that too, we were just in the game pretty early,” she says. Opening to the public in the fall brings extra work, but the family enjoys showing off their farm and what they have produced. “People love the harvest season, when you get to select the fruits and vegetables and crops that have been grown through the year,” Michelle says. “And I think people just enjoy being out in nature. We’re not that far out from the metro area, but far enough that you have a sense of greenery and trees, and we’re right along Deer Creek.”

ple say, ‘Wow, they’re still on the vine.’ They’re attached, yes, and the vines are prickly,” she says. “But our focus is for them to harvest it, for them to see what it’s like, for them to have that experience.” Education is an important part of the family’s mission, so they also have hosted school groups and Ohio State University students as well as other farmers. The farm is a showcase for sustainability and conservation practices, due in part to Michelle’s career at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency offers assistance to farmers and landowners to protect and conserve natural resources. Before retiring, Michelle had a chance to see where her work on conservation and her life on the farm intersected. “I had a place to try some of these things out, and then I could speak from experience. It wasn’t just what I’ve heard or learned from others. We were living it on our farm.”

Last year, the fall activities drew some people who were spurred by the pandemic to buy local. “They were searching for an outside experience, but looking for some local food and to know where it comes from and how it’s raised.” Those people are exactly the type that the Lohstrohs love to host. “We want to be their trusted farmer,” Michelle says. “We want people to have a good time and to learn a little bit in the process.” Lohstroh Family Farms is located at 15632 State Route 56 SE, Mt. Sterling. From Columbus, take I-71 south, exit at State Route 56, drive through Mt. Sterling and the farm is on the right with orange signage and fence. Pick your own pumpkins and other fall fun activities take place on the last weekend in September and Saturdays and Sundays in October from 10am to 5pm. Cost is $8 per person and the cost includes the pumpkin. Concessions on site. Get details at lohstrohfamilyfarms.com or their Facebook page. |

SCHACHT FAMILY FARM

he Schacht family’s farming roots run deep in Franklin County, going back five generations to the 1870s. Today, David and Lisa Schacht farm 285 acres in Canal Winchester, with most of it devoted to grain crops. But more than 15 acres is devoted to a variety of vegetables, including pumpkins. When fall rolls around, they open up the Schacht Farm Market to the public, giving visitors an opportunity to see what the farm has produced. A major draw for many visitors is the sale of “pumpkins of every size, shape and color you can imagine,” Lisa says. You can go into the field and pick your own or choose from a selection of already picked ones. But the market also has multiple types of gourds and squash, as well as Indian corn and cornstalks and bales of straw. “People can come out here and get a really nice array of items to decorate their porch or yard or kitchen table,” she says. They also work with a local orchard to have a large selection of fresh-picked apples and fresh-pressed cider. Beyond those traditional fall offerings, however, the Schachts offer a pick-your-own vegetable selection that is very different from other area farms. It includes snap peas and crowder peas, from the same family as black-eyed peas. There are green beans, planted in July and August to be ready for picking in September. The farm also has red beets and Daikon radishes. The variety of leafy greens is remarkable. You can head into the fields to pick three types of mustard greens as well as collards, turnips, kale and Swiss chard. “You don’t see too many other people doing these crops,” Lisa says. They bring a diverse group of people to the farm, including Bhutanese, Asian and African-American customers who value the greens for cooking. “Our goal is for people to have a traditional authentic farm experience by coming out and picking crops that they can go home and use,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for parents of young children to teach them how their food grows as well as to get something fun like a pumpkin.”

After 40 years raising vegetables on this farm, the Schachts are also mindful of their working-class community in southeast Franklin County. They don’t feature a lot of amusements, but they also don’t charge any admission fee. “We try to offer that bit of fun and farm experience at a low cost,” Lisa says. “It’s just come and choose the products you want

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to buy and that’s how you support us. And we are still abiding by that and proud of that.” There was a time when the market also was open during the summer for sweet corn and tomatoes, but the couple eventually decided to focus on less perishable crops that required less intensive labor. They are still working yearround, starting with asparagus in spring. They are the largest asparagus growers in Franklin County, but that crop goes almost exclusively to wholesale buyers. They also produce a lot of potatoes, with a lot of those going to a community-supported agriculture business. “Potatoes are another very profitable, very practical crop for us,” Lisa says. The Schachts are well-regarded in the farming community. They are advocates of farmland preservation. They have been honored for their use of sustainable agriculture practices and for their donations of vegetables to local food banks. Lisa is past president of the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association, the first woman to hold that post. She is always glad to see people take an interest in where their food comes from. “I’m a scratch cooker and I always have been, besides growing a lot of my own food and preserving it myself,” she says. An advantage of shopping at a farm market is that you get your food at the source and

Lisa Schacht

soon after it’s been harvested, Lisa says. Eating fresh foods, avoiding processed food and having a lot of variety in your diet will go a long way to keeping you healthy. “Really, all it takes a lot of times is to just get the basic products, the basic commodities, and serve them unadulterated—a steamed green bean, a sliced peach, a good burger on the grill.” That advice is a direct reflection of the Schacht Family Market and its philosophy. “We’re not real flashy,” Lisa says,

“but we always want to provide wholesome quality products that are a good value to our customers.” Schacht Farm Market is at 5950 Shannon Rd. in Canal Winchester. From Columbus, take I-70 east to Brice Road and head south to Shannon Road. Visit the market and pick your own pumpkins and other vegetables daily through the end of October. No admission charge. Get details at schachtfarmmarket.com or on their Facebook page. |

Mark Van Buren

VAN BUREN ACRES

ark Van Buren has been a farmer his whole life, but over the past few years he has developed into quite a showman as well. Van Buren Acres, visible from I-70 near Hebron, has quickly become a popular venue for group events in Licking County, from graduation parties to team banquets in the barn. But when September rolls around, the show begins. You can go there to pick a pumpkin, of course, from among thousands in the field. But you will probably want to stay for the hayrides, jumping pillows, pedal cars, tetherball, barrel train rides, homemade donuts, apple cider slushies and “the world’s corniest putt-putt course.” But wait, there’s more. “We do pig races, three times a day, and that’s fun to watch the kids get excited,’ Mark says. They also have an emu, peacocks, goats, donkeys, sheep and chickens. There are costumed characters, funny signs and round hay bales painted like pumpkins. “We also plant about eight to nine acres of sunflowers and we put photo ops in the sunflowers.” The star of this show, however, is the elaborate 10-acre corn maze. It has a different theme each fall: Pac-Man last year, Apollo 11 the year before. The theme is a closely guarded secret while the work is being done, with neighbors watching and making guesses. “A friend of mine actually put a drone over it last year to see it because I wouldn’t tell him what it was,” Mark says. This year’s maze is the most ambitious project yet, a collaboration with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which sends age-appropriate books every month to children up to 5 years old, free of charge. “So our maze this year is Dolly. It’s a picture of Dolly and a book and a guitar and mountains,” he says. “We’re setting it up so we can raise money for the Imagination Library, and you can also sign your children up for the program.” Van Buren Acres also hosts an annual wine tasting event in the maze to raise money for the Licking County Farm Bureau scholarship program. “We try to give back as much as we can to the community,” Mark says. The Van Buren agritourism operation has grown quickly since its beginning in 2017. Mark was discussing the family farm op-

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eration with his brother, David, who had recently retired from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “We just decided we wanted to do a corn maze and raise some pumpkins and it grew from there.” The brothers had grown up on the 80-acre farm that their parent bought in the 1950s. “I’ve farmed all my life. I’m 54 years old and I’ve probably sat on a tractor since I was 9 or 10,” Mark says. “We always raised corn, soybeans and, when I was younger, we had cattle. I was always involved in 4-H and FFA and those organizations. So was my brother.” Mark’s wife, Catherine Baird, also comes from a farming family in the Pataskala area. The Van Burens continue to plot ways to grow the operations, with additional attractions and a summer arts festival on the drawing board. They will open for two weekends after Thanksgiving for a Christmas-themed event they started last year, complete with Santa and various vendors, all to raise money for the local fire district’s toy drive. They also host various school groups. “Some of the city kids that come here on field trips, they’ve never seen pigs, they’ve never really been close to goats or donkeys,” Mark says. “That’s neat. That’s what we like doing.” The farm is an easy drive from Columbus, just about 15 miles east of the Franklin County line. “I tell other farmers around us, ‘We’re 15 minutes from a million people.’ We encourage

people to visit all the farms around here,” he says. “Get the kids out, get rid of these cell phones and video games and let them go and play like we used to.” Fall is a good time to make that happen as temperatures cool off and the leaves begin to change. Although Van Buren Acres is just beginning its fifth season, they are expecting even more visitors this year. “I just think people want to be outside in the fall, and there’s a trend of people wanting to see where their food is coming from,” he says. They also come for the experience. “If you just want to buy a pumpkin, you can go to Aldi’s and buy a pumpkin,” Mark says. “I tell our farm hands here that if somebody needs help taking pictures, take pictures for them, because we want them to have that memory of coming out to a farm. We’re not selling pumpkins, we’re selling memories.” Van Buren Acres is at 5066 Keller Rd. near Hebron. From Columbus, take I-70 east to exit 122, then go east on Keller Road. Open Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 7pm from Sept. 11 through October. Admission is $9 and includes the corn maze and sunflower field. Season pass available for $25. Learn more at vanburenacres.com or at their Facebook page.

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OUT AND ABOUT Central Ohio has a wide variety of farms offering pumpkins and fall activities. Here are a few others that readers have recommended. Check with the farm for the latest updates before visiting. The Orchard & Company 7255 U.S. 42, just south of Plain City theorchardandcompany.com Open: Saturdays and Sundays from Sept. 11 through October Hours: 11am to 6pm Admission: $12, age 2 and under free

Circle S Farms 9015 London Groveport Rd., 3 miles west of Darbydale circlesfarm.com Open: Daily in October Hours: 9am to 7pm Admission: $10, age 2 and under free

Leeds Farm 8738 Marysville Rd., Ostrander leedsfarm.com Open: Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 18 to Oct. 30, plus Friday, Oct. 16 Hours: 10am to 5pm Admission: $15, age 2 and under free

This operation offers 10 varieties of pick-your-own apples to go with pickyour-own pumpkins, a combination not found at most other farms. The apples came first, says owner Kacie Winn-Skelley, and the family has added attractions each year. They now offer hayrides, jumping pillows, pedal cars, an animal barn, a zip line and more. There’s also a market and café.

Pumpkins and hayrides in the fall have been a staple at Circle S Farms for 40 years, drawing multiple generations of families. Their Fall Fun Days now include corn and sunflower mazes, a fun barn and petting zoo. An on-site café and bakery offer donuts, cookies, apple cider and other treats.

This multi-generation farming family has been open to the public since 1994, offering pre-picked pumpkins of many varieties, as well as activities including hayrides, farm animals, slides and rides, pedal carts, zip lines and pig races. You’ll find various food and drink options, including kettle corn made on site. They ask visitors to purchase tickets in advance through their website.

Everything tastes better when it comes from the farm and is made with love. open for indoor dining, outdoor dining, carryout, and live music in the beer garden!

Local Roots Powell 15 E. Olentangy St. Powell, OH 43065 614-602-8060 www.localrootspowell.com

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A tale of two cooks Pondering whether to abide by or ditch recipes for the holiday season By Malinda Meadows

t is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the holiday season. To be fully together with friends and family after a year that kept us apart is a beautiful thing—but the idea of cooking again for a large gathering can be stressful too, depending on the type of cook you consider yourself.

as descriptors for how a sauce should look) and explanations for why particular steps are important (and therefore should not be skipped)—all of this in an effort to say farewell to uncertainty.

How to Follow a Recipe

The first type is the non-recipe-follower, the person who cooks perfectly well without ever glancing at one. Large gatherings? No problem. Complicated holiday meals? No sweat. There’s one in every family—my brother is such—and these people tend to be equally lovable and maybe even slightly annoying to the recipe followers.

The very first time I made boeuf bourguignon, the savory stew didn’t cross anyone’s lips until 11pm. This is because I briefly laid eyes on the recipe to see if I had the ingredients and then threw caution to the wind—thus a three-hour recipe turned into six. This perhaps explains why I’m in the second category of cooks, but thankfully, chef Tamar Adler has specific tips for following recipes.

The second type of cook is one who must follow a recipe to a T, otherwise disaster will ensue. With a heavy sigh (and a bit of sibling begrudgery), this is where I must admit that I belong.

First, she recommends reading the entire recipe, start to finish, several times.

I know I’m not alone in lacking that certain je ne sais quoi in the kitchen, which left me considering the role of recipes when it comes to cooking for a full table of guests, particularly the holiday gatherings. I wondered, what actually makes a good recipe? Are there helpful tips for following one? Most of all, will one sibling be doomed to follow recipes forever, while the other one forever gets the culinary glory? As we ponder these questions, let’s first look at what constitutes a good recipe.

The Anatomy of a Good Recipe

Today, a reader would be hard-pressed to find a recipe book that didn’t include the basics, but this wasn’t always so. By about 1650, it had become common for households to keep “receipt books” of recipes to pass on to their eldest daughters. Vague at best, confusing at worst, these books left much to be desired. Take, for example, this English recipe for herring pie published in 1669: “Put great store of sliced onions, with Currants and Raisins of the sun both above and under the Herrings, and store of butter, and so bake.” Hopefully, the reader knew how much a “great store” quantified, how to properly make a pie crust and had the knowledge that English pies have crust on the top and bottom, as well as how long to bake the pie and at what temperature. Fast forward to the 1800s, and many cooks were fed up with the vagueness. In 1816, Dr. William Kitchner started giving precise measurements for every ingredient in The Cook’s Oracle. Later, Isabella Beeton introduced even more radical ideas in Household Management, including cooking times, number of servings and preparation time, and it was Fannie Merritt Farmer who insisted measurements should be standardized in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Today, a good recipe goes even further. Many include ingredients in multiple weight formats, context clues for timing (such

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Next, consider when to prep your ingredients. If cooking occurs in quick succession, chop and prepare everything before you start. If timing is flexible, there’s no reason you can’t chop as you go. Third, understand the purpose of each ingredient. For example, if an herb is added at the beginning, it plays a role in the meal’s essence, whereas adding it at the end makes it a garnish. And finally, use common sense. If a recipe calls for a cup of chicken and a cup of salt, perhaps it’s best to seek counsel elsewhere.

The Role of Recipes in the Holiday Season

While it may be tempting to use the holidays as a chance to try a new recipe, it’s best to resist the urge and instead cook what you know. When you cook new recipes at a large gathering, you risk spending time scrambling through instructions instead of enjoying time with your guests. Familiarity also helps to build cooking confidence over time—a beautiful irony in which the more you use a recipe, the less you’ll need it. Let’s also consider the possibility that, like my brother, you’re a natural-born cook. To oppose the use of recipes might be to find them constraining, unimaginative, formulaic. But according to food writer MFK Fisher, that’s precisely the point. “A recipe is supposed to be a formula, a means prescribed for producing a desired result, whether that be an atomic weapon, a well-trained Pekingese, or an omelet,” she wrote. Weapons and wooly dogs aside, a formula is exactly what’s necessary for ensuring food gets on the table during the holiday season. Even the most skilled home cook can benefit from the structure of a recipe when 20 guests are due to arrive in only a few hours. So whether you’re the natural cook of the family or not, recipes undoubtedly help the holidays go smoother. As one recipe fan to another, may I suggest pulling out your Dutch oven for boeuf bourguignon if you want to skip the turkey this year? Just make sure to (actually) read the recipe and (definitely) practice it a few times before the big day. This year, the culinary glory just might be yours.

ARTISAN

Pickin’ up pawpaws, put ’em in your recipe

Sara Bir foraging (Photo by Melanie Tienter)

Chef Sara Bir takes the elusive woodsy treat to new levels with her latest cookbook By Wynne Everett

f you love pawpaws—as more and more people do—you probably have discovered the pleasure of enjoying Ohio’s native tropical fruit in its simplest form: fresh, raw and immediately after you’ve foraged one from the woods or trail.

Chef and cookbook author Sara Bir even begins the newly released second edition of her The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook with a passionate argument in favor of eating pawpaws in just this way. “Work the flesh out of the skin. Raise it to your lips and slurp. It will be sweet and creamy and totally new—every pawpaw in the woods is like your fist pawpaw all over again,” Bir says. So, as even Bir asks, if pawpaws are so good plain, why cook with them? For many, including her, the urge to play with a new and exotic ingredient is hard to resist. What other flavors and textures would go well with this? What new dish can highlight the pawpaw’s charms? But also, cooking pawpaws into recipes is one way to make the fruit last beyond its brief late-summer-to-early-fall season. The scarcity and seasonal limitations of pawpaws are part of what make them so magical. We’ve gotten used to being able to shop for most other kinds of fruit all year round, and we’ve lost sight of the notion that they even have seasons. Pawpaws do not allow us this luxury. “We can go to the grocery store and order things online and have whatever we want wherever we are,” Bir says. “That’s an artificial construct.”

PAWPAW LASSI Makes about 2½ cups, to serve 2–4 You have worked hard for your pawpaws and deserve a refreshing reward. Here it is. This is thicker than an Indian lassi, like a lassi–smoothie hybrid. The simple harmony of pawpaw and dairy is employed to full effect here. Instead of yogurt, I prefer thick and rich full-fat buttermilk. I’ve seen this in the store labeled as “country style” or “Bulgarian style.” You can substitute plain yogurt (preferably full-fat). Ingredients 1 cup full-fat buttermilk 1 cup pawpaw pulp ¼ cup cold water 2–3 teaspoons granulated sugar A pinch ground mace, nutmeg or cumin Directions Combine the pawpaw pulp, buttermilk, water and 2 teaspoons of the sugar in a bowl or large glass measuring cup and whisk until combined (you can use a blender instead if you want the texture to be totally smooth). Taste and add more sugar, if needed. You’re aiming for this to be very balanced: sweet, tart, creamy, fruity, all that. If it’s too thick to be pourable, thin it out with a few tablespoons of water at a time. Garnish with a sprinkling of mace, nutmeg or (if you’re feeling edgy) cumin and serve immediately. Refrigerate leftovers up to 1 day.

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Like many pawpaw fans, Bir was enchanted from the first time she encountered a pawpaw on a trail near her home in Marietta. An Ohio native, Bir traveled and then moved back to Ohio in 2014. She had heard of pawpaws but never seen one. Then one day on a hike she spotted something weird on the trail. “I saw this squished thing,” she said. “It smelled like a fruit and it tasted like a fruit. I figured this must be a pawpaw. It was a little like seeing Bigfoot.”

Caution in the Kitchen

Like most of us, though, she had a hard time finding any recipes for pawpaws. “I decided the world really needed a resource for pawpaw recipes that make sense for that fruit.” Developing recipes for pawpaws, though, is tricky. Along with having a fairly brief season, pawpaws generally must be foraged from pawpaw trees in wooded areas. They have a short shelf life and don’t travel well. And those are just the challenges for acquiring them. Ohio University Professor Robert Brannan is a food scientist, pawpaw expert and president of the National Pawpaw Foundation. “The biggest thing with pawpaw is you start with this liquidy pulp,” Brannan says. Unlike other fruits, cooking it down to reduce pawpaw is not a good idea. The fruit has a compound that, when concentrated, induces vomiting. Scientists believe the compound is part of the pawpaw tree’s defense against predators. But the compound also collects in the fruit. Consuming small quantities usually doesn’t cause a problem. But eating large amounts of pawpaw, or eating dishes that contain concentrated amounts of pawpaw pulp, can bring on unpleasant, nauseating consequences. “It’s a drawback,” Brannan says. It’s one Bir encountered firsthand in developing recipes for her book. Using a tried-and-true banana granola recipe, Bir mashed pawpaws with granola and baked the combination for a long period at a low heat, only to discover that the process had concentrated the nausea-prompting compound. “There was a lot of trial and error,” she says. “And there are a finite amount of recipes for something like this.” Bir left the granola recipe behind, but she went on to develop key lime pawpaw pie, pawpaw salsa, pawpaw banana ketchup and more for her book. Pawpaws pair better with some things than with others, Bir

discovered. They taste good with honey and they go well with dairy, particularly fermented dairy like yogurt, she says. “The way it behaves, the way it ripens, a pawpaw is very much its own thing.”

A Forager’s Treasure

Some good news about working with pawpaws is that they’re nutritious. Much like the fruits they most taste like—bananas and mangoes—pawpaws are a good source of antioxidants and fiber. The skin, which many North Americans discard, is not only also edible but just as nutritious as the pulp. Also, the pulp does not lose its flavor or texture when it is frozen, though it may turn brown through oxidation, like avocadoes or apples. Many cooks work with frozen pawpaw pulp because freezing is a reliable way to preserve the fruit during the relatively brief season. Though some people cultivate pawpaw trees, many cooks, including Bir, forage their fruit. And that foraging starts with scouting some of her favorite pawpaw trees early in the summer, looking to see which have blossoms and developing fruit. “I love spending time outside and that’s a really great pursuit,” she says. In 2015 she self-published the first edition of The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook. “When I sold out of that first edition I had some new recipes,” So she worked with Belt Publishing to produce a second edition, which was released in August, just in time for pawpaw season. As the pawpaw trees begin dropping their green potato-shaped delicacies, you will find Bir among the other pawpaw enthusiasts, out foraging for enough fruit to freeze and experiment with for another year. Pawpaws force us to respect their timetable, to enjoy them when and where we can find them. “They’re elusive,” Bir says. In Ohio, the pawpaw is important enough to have its own festival. The 2021 Ohio Pawpaw Festival takes place Sept. 17–19 at Lake Snowden in Albany, about 10 miles south of Athens. Learn more at ohiopawpawfest.com. Wynne Everett is a Columbus native who grew up eating fruits and vegetables from her grandparents’ farm and beef bought on the hoof at the county fair. She’s now a vegetarian and a veteran journalist whose career has taken her to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Toledo. She has a passion for food stories and can be reached at wynneeverett@gmail.com.

E A T. D R I N K . T H I N K . On the following pages, we bring you the second in a series of thought leadership stories that span topics of sustainability, access to healthy foods and

local communities who are tireless champions in the battle against nutrition insecurity and hunger.

nutrition, restaurant revitalization and regenerative agriculture. These are

Dr. Frank says “the power of one can be huge,” and we could not agree

the values that Edible Communities, as an organization, has been devoted

more. One person, one organization, one community—each purpose driven,

to for the past two decades. Our work lends itself to the singular notion that

can massively impact our food system. We believe that every person should

excellent storytelling has the power to change lives, and that by exploring and

have access to a high-quality diet that is filled with nutritious foods that

elevating important conversations like these, we can effect everlasting change

are raised and grown using sustainable practices. As consumer advocates we

in our communities too.

all play a critical role in reshaping the demand for this, and we all must be

Please join us in supporting the work of our featured subjects—Michel

diligent in advancing this agenda if we are to ensure that no one is left behind.

Nischan, sustainable food advocate and co-founder of Wholesome Wave; and

Tracey Ryder

native food historian and chef, Dr. Lois Ellen Frank—two heroes from our

Co-Founder, Edible Communities

Chef Michel Nischan Photo courtesy of Wholesome Wave

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R ET H I N K I N G H U N G E R Why Feeding Those in Need Must Focus on Nourishment

STORY

Joy Manning

When anyone in a community struggles with food

equality. Communities of color and those living in poverty

insecurity, it’s everybody’s problem. In the United States

in the U.S. got sick from COVID-19 at a rate two to three

alone, an estimated $90 billion in excess healthcare costs

times higher than the rest of the country, according to the

annually are associated with food insecurity, according to

2020 Wholesome Wave impact report. The underlying rea-

research from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation’s study

sons why aren’t specific to the pandemic. “Four of the Top

conducted by researchers affiliated with Harvard’s School

5 drivers of this disparity are obesity, diabetes, hyperten-

of Public Health, Brandeis University and Loyola Univer-

sion and heart disease,” says Nischan. These are all chronic

sity. The social and emotional toll hunger takes on commu-

conditions that can be prevented and often reversed by in-

nities is harder to quantify, but no less deeply felt.

creasing access to nutritious food.

But of course, for those personally experiencing food

Yet, when the foremost experts in hunger talk about

insecurity, the problems are impossible to ignore. For

hunger in terms of food security, it drives a cultural con-

those receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance

versation that leads food banks to be well-stocked, but of-

Program) benefits, getting the most calories for their dollar

ten it’s with ultra-processed food. “It has to be about more

is likely at the forefront of their mind, and sometimes that

than getting meals on the table,” Nischan says.

means families eat more processed foods than they’d like.

To that end, Nischan and Wholesome Wave co-found-

Michel Nischan, a four-time James Beard Award-winning

er Gus Schumacher worked on a SNAP “doubling” pro-

chef and sustainable food movement leader, is working to

gram that makes every $1 a participant spends worth $2

change that. And for Wholesome Wave, the nonprofit he

when they buy produce. What began as a nascent pilot

founded in 2007, it is a primary goal.

program in Columbia, Md., in 2005 has since grown into

Wholesome Wave recently reset its priorities, in fact, and

a federally funded program started by Wholesome Wave

will now squarely focus on nutrition—not food—insecurity.

that helps more than 40 million people eat more greens

The goal is to change the way people think about hunger.

and less instant ramen.

The distinction between food security and nutrition

As part of Nischan’s shift to nutrition security, Whole-

security is a critical one, according to Nischan. Most

some Wave is also ramping up its Produce Prescription

North Americans have access to enough calories to avoid

Program. It’s an umbrella program that partners with lo-

hunger thanks to government programs, food banks and

cal organizations, such as hospitals and health clinics, to

hunger relief organizations. “This makes them technical-

empower doctors to write prescriptions for nutrient-dense

ly ‘food secure,’ but they’re still not getting the nutrition

fruits and vegetables, often local, that patients pick up

they need to be healthy,” says Nischan. “We aren’t solving

weekly, free of charge.

the real problem. “It’s about people having the kind of diet that promotes good health and prevents disease,” he says. It’s also about

“Many people visit the doctor and hear, ‘If you don’t eat better, the next time I see you you’ll have type 2 diabetes,” says Nischan. His next big goal is securing Medicaid and

| 23 Visit ediblecommunities.com for more photos and podcasts

Medicare funding for these programs so they become as common as prescriptions are for drugs. “Your insurance company will pay for a kidney transplant, but not the vegetables that can prevent the disease,” he says. Piloted in 2010, the Produce Prescription Program is ambitious, but peer-reviewed research shows that it works. A 2017 study published in Preventive Medicine Reports showed that participation in the program helped

HUNGER BY THE NUMBERS The problem of food and nutrition insecurity across North America is incalculable, but these sobering statistics show that work still must be done to ensure everyone gets the nourishment they need to live a full life and prevent disease.

bring down participants’ A1C (a number that indicates one’s average blood sugar level). A 2012 study in the journal Public Health Nutrition showed produce prescriptions improve overall well-being.

I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S :

35 million Americans live in households that struggle with food and nutrition insecurity. 84 percent of households served by Feeding America, a network of food banks, say they buy cheap food instead of fresh food to ensure they’ll have enough to eat. 27.5 percent of households with kids are food and nutrition insecure. 19.1 percent of Black households and 15.6% of Hispanic households experience food and nutrition insecurity. 1 in 19 Americans relies on SNAP benefits.

Image courtesy of Wholesome Wave

This is not to say that Nischan believes Wholesome Wave has all the answers. From the beginning, Wholesome Wave has partnered with local organizations to bring ideas and funding to a collaboration that fits the specific needs of its community. “We don’t want to be the organization that rides into your town with our solution to your problem. Addressing nutrition insecurity is different in every community,” he says. And, as we know, paying attention to those differences is critical to finding solutions. Continued...

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I N CA N A DA :

1 in 8 Canadian households faces food and nutrition insecurity. 1 in 6 Canadian children experiences food and nutrition insecurity. In Ontario, 3,282,514 visits were made to food banks in 2019-2020. Black and Indigenous people are 3 times more likely to be food and nutrition insecure than white people.

edible

Communities

M A R K E T P L AC E

26 edible Communities | |

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Dr. Lois Ellen Frank | Photo by Daphne Hougard

Indigenous communities, for example, live with some of

sauce. “These are ancestral foods that promote wellness,”

the highest rates of food and nutrition insecurity in North

she says. After the training, 32 families received the pre-

America. A study published in 2017 in the Journal of Hunger

pared dish, plus the recipe and the ingredients they’d need

& Environmental Nutrition found that from 2000 to 2010,

to make it themselves. “You think you aren’t teaching that

25% of American Indians and Alaska Natives were consis-

many people, but it’s a ripple effect,” she says. One family

tently food insecure. It’s a daunting statistic.

passes the information to another.

Dr. Lois Ellen Frank is a Santa Fe, N.M.-based chef

This passing of knowledge from one person to the next

and native food historian. She believes that the health and

can help keep food traditions alive. “It takes only one gen-

nutrition security of Indigenous communities (and all

eration for a recipe or a method of agriculture to disappear.”

communities for that matter) can best be served by put-

And preserving these recipes and traditions matters

ting attention and energy into solutions and not focusing

when it comes to solving the problem of food insecurity. A

on the problems. Frank would rather focus on concrete

2019 study published in the journal Food Security suggests

tasks she can do to help. “I’m a big advocate of the power

that tribal communities can achieve increased food secu-

of one person,” she says. She provides culinary training to

rity and better health outcomes if they have greater access

those who cook in community centers and schools to help

to their traditional foods and the ability to hunt, fish and

people reconnect with traditional foodways through native

preserve native foods.

plants and recipes. Recently, she taught cooks in one school to make refried bean enchiladas with corn and zucchini in a red chili

For some, starting a nonprofit organization is a great way to make a difference. But, as Dr. Frank also reminds us, helping just one person can have an impact too. e

| 29 ediblecommunities.com

PUMPKIN PASTA CARBONARA WITH CRISPY SAGE Makes 6 servings

Carbonara gets a fall twist with this Pumpkin Pasta Carbonara with Crispy Sage. Full of savory flavors, this recipe from blogger Christina Musgrave of Tasting with Tina is a guaranteed winner. Don’t skip the crispy sage—it’s the perfect garnish for this dish.

Directions Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to package directions. Before draining, reserve 1 cup of pasta water and set aside. While the pasta is cooking, add pancetta to a large pan on medium heat. Let the pancetta cook until it’s browned and crispy. Remove pancetta from pan, keeping the rendered fat in the pan.

Ingredients 1 pound pasta 4 ounces pancetta 2 eggs 3 egg yolks 1 cup grated parmesan, divided 1 can pumpkin Pinch of salt and pepper 12–15 fresh sage leaves

Quickly-fry the sage in the pan and place on a paper-towel-lined plate. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, yolks, ½ cup of parmesan, pumpkin and salt and pepper. Whisk well. Slowly add some of the pasta water to the egg mixture, about 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking well. This will temper the egg, slowly bring it up to the temperature of the pasta so the egg will not scramble. Make the carbonara sauce by adding about 5 tablespoons of water, 1 at a time, to the egg mixture, making sure all is mixed well.

You can find more of Christina’s recipes at her website (tastingwithtina.com) or on Instagram (@tasting.with. tina) or Facebook (facebook.com/tastingwithtinablog/). 30

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Add pasta back into the pot. Add the carbonara sauce to the pasta, mixing quickly until well combined. If the sauce seems too thick, add 1 tablespoon pasta water at a time. Serve pasta topped with pancetta, crispy sage and remaining ½ cup of parmesan.

RECIPES

RED WINE, CRANBERRY AND BOURBON COCKTAIL Makes 1 cocktail

Laura Lee Pendy of the blog Cuisine & Cocktails celebrates fall with this seasonal Red Wine, Cranberry and Bourbon cocktail. This straightforward beverage is perfect for crisp autumn evenings.

Ingredients 2 ounces bourbon 1 ounce red wine reduction (½ cup dry red wine such as Cabernet, ¼ cup brown sugar) ¼ cup fresh cranberries Ice Directions Add wine and brown sugar to a small saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer for about 5 minutes or until thickened/reduced (but not too thick). Set aside until cool. In a glass or shaker, add bourbon and cranberries. Muddle cranberries into bourbon. Add red wine reduction and ice and stir well. Strain into a fresh glass with ice and serve.

You can find more of Laura’s recipes at the Cuisine & Cocktails website (cuisineandcocktails. com), and on Instagram (@cuisineandcocktails) and Pinterest (pinterest.com/cuisineandcockt).

OHIO NACHOS Makes 8–10 servings

Level up your game-day appetizer with Ohio Nachos! Inspired by the appetizer served at Cap City Fine Diner, this delicious appetizer by Erin Vasicek of The Spiffy Cookie is sure to be a hit. With crunchy chips, alfredo sauce and blue cheese, this dish is perfect for the return of Buckeye football.

Directions In a food processor or blender, combine milk, cream cheese, flour and salt. Process until smooth and set aside.

Ingredients 1 cup 2% milk 1½ ounces reduced-fat cream cheese 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt ½ tablespoon unsalted butter or olive oil 2 garlic cloves, minced ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan, plus more for garnish 1 bag (9.5 ounces) kettle-style potato chips 4 ounces crumbled blue cheese 1 tablespoon chopped chives

Add the milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3–4 minutes until the sauce begins to simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should become thicker.

In a medium-large saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds.

Remove from heat. Stir in parmesan until melted and cover the pan immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes prior to using. It will continue to thicken to desired consistency. On a large plate or serving platter, pile on chips, drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with blue cheese and chives. You can find more of Erin’s recipes at The Spiffy Cookie blog (thespiffycookie.com) or on Instagram (@thespiffycookie) or Facebook (facebook.com/TheSpiffyCookie).

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EASY PUMPKIN DONUT HOLES Makes 4 servings

What’s better in fall than a sweet pumpkin treat? Hannah Lewis of The Beard and the Baker brings us a delicious and easy recipe for Pumpkin Donut Holes. These adorable fritters are perfect with coffee on a chilly fall morning.

Ingredients 1 (16-ounce) bottle corn oil 2 cups flour 2½ teaspoons baking powder 1/3 cup brown sugar ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1 egg 1 (15-ounce) can of pumpkin (roughly 2 cups) 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream 2 tablespoons butter melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup sugar and pumpkin pie spice, for rolling

Find more of Hannah’s recipes at her blog (thebeardandthebaker.com) and on Instagram (@thebeardandthebaker) and Facebook (facebook.com/TheBeardAndTheBaker).

Directions Fill a stockpot or Dutch oven with corn oil (or another high-heat cooking oil with neutral flavor). Then, affix a candy thermometer to the side. Leave on the stove while you prepare your fritters. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and then place a cooling rack on top for when your fritters are done frying. Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice to a bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, canned pumpkin and heavy cream until combined. Then, add the melted butter and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Pour pumpkin mixture into flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to mix until well combined. Then, go back to your oil and turn stove to medium heat until temperature reaches 365°F. Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, drop the batter into the hot oil and fry for about 3–4 minutes, turning every so often. Careful not to overcrowd the pot, frying about 5–6 fritters at a time. Using a heat-safe slotted spoon, remove fritters from oil and place on cooling rack. Repeat until all fritters are fried. In between batches, roll the pumpkin fritters in sugar/pumpkin pie spice. |

Think brewing is all about hops? Think a grain Two local operations are helping to bring back barley as an Ohio crop Story and photography by Brian Williams

ity the poor little cereal grain. Barley barely registers with the crowds imbibing at Central Ohio craft breweries, while hops pop up in the punny names of brews and breweries across the land. Despite what non-aficionados may think, hops are an added flavoring and preservative rather than a foundation of brewing. Meanwhile, the more significant ingredient of barley is in the name of a single local craft pub—Barley’s Brewing Co., one of the granddaddies. But the grain’s profile may be rising with the growth of two local enterprises that process Ohio-grown barley, wheat and rye for brewers and distillers. Matt Cunningham came home to the Marysville area to farm with his father in 2009, a few years after graduating from Ohio State University, and he brought new ideas with him. While commodity prices for corn and soy are strong now, they are notoriously volatile. Cunningham wanted to seek new markets and diversify the crop rotation at the family’s 2,600-acre Rustic Brew Farm. Barley for brewing seemed a good start.

“There’s a disconnect between the public and farms,” Cunningham says. He views his new crop diversity as a way not only to

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improve his soil, but also to strengthen a local economy that included a strong brewing scene. “It’s super rewarding to know your customers—and seeing their customers enjoying beer or spirits.” Cunningham has also added a small milling operation, producing flour from wheat, barley, rye and oats. For the barley, Cunningham had to first study the crop and the malting process—and invest in huge drums to malt the grain. That’s another part of the Central Ohio brew world. Heritage Equipment in Plain City historically manufactured stainless-steel containers for farms and dairies. Today it also makes and sells them for local craft breweries. The company fabricated the containers Cunningham designed for his malt house. Ryan Lang, co-founder of Middle West Spirits, is working along the same lines with Origin Malt, but at a scale large enough to serve craft brewers and distillers throughout Ohio and into surrounding states. Origin contracts with farmers (he calls them “seedsmen”) within 300 miles of Marysville. They collectively grew 15,000 acres of barley in 2019, and the acreage continues to increase. That’s paltry compared to the 350,000 acres of barley in Ohio

DRINK

Matt Cunningham

Jason McKibben

a century ago, before Prohibition. But it’s a big jump from the 500 acres being grown just five years ago. Ohio once had some of the nation’s largest malting facilities, and Columbus, Cincinnati and other cities were dotted with breweries much larger than micro. But by the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the state had lost not just the acreage and malt houses, but also the malting expertise. In the decades since then, high-quality brewing ingredients have tended to come from abroad. Malting migrated to Canada, and the Pacific Northwest became a haven for hops. Then in 2016, Little Fish Brewing in Athens unveiled a session ale believed to be the first all-Ohio brew in over a century, using Rustic Brew’s first crop of malted barley and Ohio Valley Hops from the Cincinnati area. That was three years after Lang began reaching out to seedsmen and other potential partners who would become part of Origin Malt—and one year before they began producing barley malt. Lang and partners do not have their own malting facility yet, but have a planned site in Marysville. For now, they ship barley from Ohio and nearby states for malting at a Canadian facility, and they send their own maltsters to do the processing. “It’s our customized material for our customers,” he says. Lang’s seedsmen, like Cunningham, grow winter barley, a cover crop that is harvested in June, in time for the same fields to produce a second crop of soybeans. Thus, Cover Crop was an appropriate name for the blonde ale that North High Brewing Co. launched in partnership with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation for its centennial in 2019. North High Brewmaster Jason McKibben says the brew’s malt is half from Origin barley and half from Rustic. He also used

hops from five different Ohio growers. Barley, as a cover crop, increases soil health and decreases nutrient runoff into waterways. McKibben says Ohio brewers use water from rivers and streams to make their beer. “Cleaner water makes better beer,” he says. “And we can improve the water by growing the grain we need for brewing. It completes the circle.” The winter barley has a thicker, tougher husk, which is a malting challenge. The grain has to absorb water, and then germination takes about a week (compared to four days for Upper Midwest and Plains states’ spring barley). But the thicker husks can make more flavorful malts, McKibben says. He also uses Rustic Brew malted wheat for North High’s Honey Wheat lager. What does this mean for the unheralded status of barley? As a professor of chemistry and physics at Ohio State University, Pat Woodward might be interested in the “enzymatic conversion potential” of malted barley. But as the proprietor of Pat’s Pints, a long-running local-brewing blog, he’s focused on the beer. Over the years, he says, “I’ve come to the conclusion that the base malt is the most important part of any beer. If craft lagers continue to rise in popularity, maybe there will be a day when consumers recognize the quality of the base malts. By the way, I think that the quality of local malts—Rustic Brew Farm’s, for example—is much higher than that of local hops.” Find additional information about Rustic Brew Farm at rusticbrewfarm.com and about Origin Malt at originmalt.com. Brian Williams is a Columbus-based freelance writer and agriculture consultant. |

Carving

out a name for himself At Rock Dove Farm, Todd Schriver turns salvaged trees into striking bowls, platters and furniture By Nancy McKibben | Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

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ost of us look at an oak and see a tree.

“When I see a tree,” says 41-year-old salad farmer Todd Schriver, “I see where the different bowls are and what they look like.” Since 2018, Todd been carving wooden bowls made from “dead, dying or dangerous trees”—dangerous trees drop limbs—and selling them at the Worthington and Clintonville farmers markets. While he continues to sell tomatoes, cucumbers and greens, his bowls have become a welcome hedge against the pandemic’s disruption in produce sales to restaurants. Photographer Rachel Joy Barehl and I visited his West Jefferson farm to see Todd in action.

Farming and carving

Todd grew up on his dad’s farm in Bluffton, Indiana, grew hay with his brother to pay for college tuition and started Wayward Seed Farm with Adam Welley in 2006. In 2010, he married wife, Heather, a physical therapist, and bought 23.5 acres in West Jefferson, selling 3.5 acres to Kate Hodges of Foraged & Sown organic produce, and dubbing the rest of the property Rock Dove Farm. Already a hobby furniture maker, Todd was prompted to start making bowls by the availability of ash wood that resulted from the emerald ash borer infestation. “Taking wood to a mill and milling it into boards is expensive,” he explains. “And it takes a long time to dry when it’s thick—a piece 12 inches thick might take 18 years to dry.” But a wooden bowl? “You can shape a bowl wet and then dry it. If it’s 3/8 of an inch thick, it can be dry in 45 days.” His first try at a bowl took two days, and was “an ugly little thing.” But he persevered, and his bowls are now beautiful and sought-after and much more quickly created.

Power carving

Do not picture Todd chipping away at a large piece of wood with a small knife. He is a power carver, a job that requires power tools and protective gear and generates noise and sawdust in abundance. His workshop is a no-frills standalone built of recycled windows, doors and scrap lumber, filled with the tools of his trade and a huge pile of logs. Todd first gives us a primer on wood. “Trees are 30 to 45% water, a bundle of straws that shrink as they dry. If the ends dry faster than the middle, then the wood can crack and split.” Some splits Todd can incorporate into the design, filling the crack with colored resin, but because the wood dries radially, bowls become longer and narrower and distort in shape. Bark—desirable for the “live edge” that customers like—can pop off. To counter these problems, Todd carves green wood into roughly the finished shape, then packs the damp sawdust into the bowl’s interior to encourage it to dry slowly. It goes into a labeled paper grocery bag and Todd checks its moisture content periodically, finishing the bowl after it dries. White oak is “the hardest to carve, but the most beautiful when it’s done.” Todd also favors black walnut, ash, maple, honey locust, sweet gum, burr oak, box elder, holly, birdseye maple, and cherry. But not mulberry or osage wood: “Too abrasive—they dull my tools.”

FALL 2021

From branch to bowl

To make a bowl, Todd first saws a log in half using a band saw, then cuts vertical slices called blanks into rough bowl shapes. For a live edge, the bark-covered side is ground away to make the inside of the bowl, leaving a bark-covered lip. His tool of choice for power carving is the angle grinder, which is akin to a small, hand-held chainsaw. “These tools are really dangerous,” Todd says, citing several stomach-turning examples of angle grinders run amok. But he has become an expert. “From log to unsanded blank, I can do 10 a day.” The carving takes an hour or less. A truckload of wood lasts a month. Todd dons earplugs, as do we, then adds a respirator and gloves. He bends over the jawhorse (a steel sawhorse with a vise) where he has clamped the blank, and begins shaping the outside of the bowl with the angle grinder. We are happy to have the earplugs. Sawdust flies like snow, settling on Todd’s arms, his jeans, his shirt and drifting gently over every item in his workshop. Although he sweeps up two garbage cans of sawdust daily, to be later composted for his vegetable garden, the shop is impossibly dusty. Even Reggie the dog sports sawdust accents on his black coat. To carve out the inside of the bowl, Todd first marks the carving depth by drilling two holes into the bark with a radial drill press. Again, sawdust flies as he uses progressively finer-toothed grinders to grind away most of the bark and the bowl’s inside. The roughly carved end product is then packed with sawdust, bagged and shelved to dry for 45 to 60 days. The penultimate step, sanding, “is a tremendously difficult thing to do well” mostly because it is time-consuming, requiring an hour or more of work, first with a three-inch disc sander, then by hand. Finally, Todd finishes the bowl with mineral oil and local beeswax “from Isaac Barnes at Honeyrun Farm,” another market vendor.

A bowl market

Today Todd sells largely from inventory, while also doing custom work—for example, a 40-inch sink basin made of white oak, then heavily epoxied to be waterproof, and a live-edge black walnut coffee table. Todd also sells online and, surprisingly, on Twitter. “I post about four pictures showing the story of a particular bowl. I think people enjoy seeing something positive on Twitter.”

The uncarved blank.

Carving the outside of the bowl.

Carving the inside of the bowl.

The roughly carved bowl.

Packing the bowl with sawdust.

A large black walnut bowl. The ripples in the grain are a result of movement between branch and tree trunk. |

With two sons—Henry, 2, and George, 4—as well as a 14-year-old foster son, a farm employee and Reggie the dog for Todd and his wife to support, Todd is always looking for ways to improve his bottom line. Recent innovations include microwave drying for smaller bowls and a magnetic live-edge wooden knife strip. Todd continues to refine his craft, but plans to keep growing his salad vegetables, too. “I like doing both. Four hours a day in the garden, five in the shop.” And, he adds, with three boys at home, “My most important job is being a dad.” Find Todd’s bowls at the Rock Dove Farm stall at the Worthington and Clintonville farmers markets. Contact Todd at 614-738-1050; farmer@rockdovevegetables.com. Nancy McKibben is happy to combine her loves of eating and writing with the opportunity to advocate for sustainable agriculture in the pages of Edible Columbus. Her latest project is Yucatecan Lullaby, a bilingual (English and Spanish) children’s picture book. She is also a novelist, poet and lyricist, the mother of six and wife of one. View her work at nancymckibben.com; contact her at nmckibben@leader.com.

FALL 2021

small bites

A helping of news and updates from the Edible world

Follow the Wine Trail

ollowing in the footsteps of the very successful Columbus Ale Trail, a group of 22 Central Ohio wineries has launched the Central Ohio Wine Country Passport Trail to encourage people to explore their operations. You can pick up a passport at any participating winery and collect stamps along the trail. Visiting at least half of the wineries gets you a prize, and those who fill up their passports by the May 2022 deadline will be entered in a grand prize drawing. Several of the wineries have food service in their tasting rooms, and some have special events from live music to yoga. You can even stay overnight at Wishmaker House winery in Bellville, which also operates a bed and breakfast. You also will find meads, hard ciders and local beers at various stops on the trail. The trail has stops from Newark on the east to Urbana on the west and from near Mansfield on the north to Circleville on the south. All are within about a one-hour drive from Columbus. The passport includes suggested day trips that group together several of the wineries in any direction. Find a map of the wineries and details about the program at centralohiowine.com.

‘Top Chef ’ update

hen we last met Avishar Barua in the Spring 2021 issue, the Service Bar chef was set to compete on the latest season of Bravo’s “Top Chef” show, set in Portland, Oregon. He finished that competition in the middle of the pack as the seventh chef eliminated among the 15 who started. He was cheered by fellow chefs as he did a cartwheel for his exit. But he also departed with $10,000 after winning a dessert challenge with his frozen Buckeye Bonbon, a tribute to his home state incorporating peanut butter, graham cracker, brown butter and chocolate flavors. Back in Columbus, Service Bar has remained closed for dining and

ended its carryout service on June 30. The restaurant, located in the Middle West Spirits distillery, is currently undergoing renovation, with no opening date announced yet. Meanwhile, fans have been entertained by Barua’s postings on Instagram—follow @avishar—where the chef has been posting recipes, videos and photos from his adventure. In one post, he described his process: “My recipe usually consists of ½ part something personal, one part inspiration, two parts nostalgia and smiles, three parts deliciousness, and four times the amount of work that is deemed necessary.”

The Bar at Echo Spirits

lot has changed since we introduced you to Echo Spirts Distilling in our Spring 2020 issue. Founders Joe Bidinger and Nikhil Sharoff had taken over the old Four String Brewing space in Grandview, released a white rum as their first product and were ready to open an on-site cocktail bar. Then the pandemic threw up a roadblock, and they had to pivot to making hand sanitizer and running “Stay Home Club” online cocktail classes. As restrictions eased, however, they got back on track with their plan. They opened The Bar at Echo Spirits in December, added a patio, brought in food trucks, started hosting live music in the

summer and partnered with Natalie’s Grandview for pizza nights. The bar has become a destination for those in search of good times and interesting cocktails. The distillery side of the business also has been busy, launching a rye whiskey and then its genever, a malt whiskey. Most recently, they released a pineapple rum, relying on the folks at Simple Times Mixers who provide the flesh and bark of pineapples left over from their juicing process. Bidinger and Sharoff have pledged that $1 from every bottle sold will go to charities that support service industry workers. |

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