edible COLUMBUS | Summer 2018 | Issue No. 33

Complimentary

edible

COLUMBUS ® THE STORY ON LOCAL FOOD

No. 33 | Summer 2018 Member of Edible Communities

SUMMER 2018 | CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS 4

EDITOR’S NOTE

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#EDIBLECOLUMBUS

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HOMEGROWN

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COOK

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KITCHENS

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WELLNESS

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POETRY

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NATION

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YOGA

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GARDEN

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OUTDOORS

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TRAVEL

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ENTREPRENEUR

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HERO

FEATURES 36

MARKET DAYS How Canal Market District is reinvigorating Licking County’s local food economy

By Nicole Rasul, Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

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ANOTHER KIND OF SERVICE Veterans find solid ground to farm and raise families in Ohio

By Julia Flint, Photography by Julian Foglietti

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ROLL OUT THE BOURBON BARREL One of Ohio’s most distinctive cooperages and the man in charge

By Nancy McKibben, Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

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THE HANDS THAT FEED US Why farmworker rights matter and how consumers can take action

By Bryn Bird, Photography by Julian Foglietti

RECIPES 11 12 12

Summer Salad with Jicama Salsa Verde Enchiladas Corn, Green Bean and Tomato Salad

COVER Photography by Julian Foglietti. See story on page 48.

THIS PAGE Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl. See story on page 22.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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Summer is for moments like this. And this is where, I think, the “good food movement” is headed: a humanizing shift where stories prevail over policy and people lead from their heart and their hands. More conversations, like the heated one we had about food justice, are happening around the kitchen table. And after years of printing quotes, statistics, experts’ opinions and predictions about how to build a local food system, I surrender. I’m not willing to pretend I alone know what the future holds. I do know it’s personal, now, and we’re the ones who are becoming, like it or not, the “change we wish to see.”

For this, our “Sustenance” issue, we brought together people who speak on issues that matter deeply to them because this can sustain us. People like Bryn Bird, who speaks to migrant labor and farmworker rights because she knows from experience the critical significance of the issue. And Gale Martin, who invites us into the world of native plants because she grew up on a farm in Ohio and knows the value of the prairies to the ecology of the state. Chefs like Alice Waters, in her letter to a young farmer about why a career in farming is so vital, and local chef Marcus Meacham about how one’s kitchen can be the place to create. We bring you people with stories to tell so as you sit down at your kitchen table you can have a conversation and make the best choices for you and your family.

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COLUMBUS PUBLISHER

Franklin County Farm Bureau EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Colleen Leonardi CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Steve Berk COPY EDITOR

Doug Adrianson DIGITAL & DESIGN EDITOR

This season cook with the foods that sustain us from the hands and hearts of farmers and farmworkers who know the value of exertion, patience and gratitude.

Let melon juice run down your arm at the market, the smell of lavender change your day, fresh lettuces grace your plate and come to know the ecology of home by walking home from dinner with a friend under the stars. Be grateful.

Summer is for this. And this is what I know will shape the future of food: people, sense of place, heart. Here’s to a summer that sustains, one bite and hug at a time.

Eat Well, Love Well, Live Well,

Evan Schlarb EDITORIAL INTERN

Lynn Marie Donegan DESIGN

Melissa Petersen WEB DESIGNER

Edible Feast & Kjeld Petersen PHOTOGRAPHY & ILLUSTRATIONS

Rachel Joy Barehl • Julian Foglietti Maria Khoroshilova • Evan Schlarb Kristen Solecki • Carole Topalian WRITERS

Rick Benjamin • Bryn Bird Anthony Bresnen • Barry Conrad Lynn Marie Donegan • Julia Flint Ken Gordon • Colleen Leonardi Nancy McKibben • Nicole Rasul Polly Rich • Evan Schlarb Stephanie Wapner • Kit Yoon CONTACT US

Colleen Leonardi

Edible Columbus is brought to you

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steve@ediblecolumbus.com Edible Columbus is published quarterly and distributed throughout Central Ohio. Subscription rate is $25 annually. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY © RACHEL JOY BAREHL

ecently, I had one of those meals to remember. I was with family and friends under the moonlight in the place where I grew up. As we ate paella, the conversation led to why we all don’t eat more home-cooked food. We all had different ideas as to the reasons, and it led to an argument over our meringues with orange custard and raspberries. By the end of the evening, we agreed to disagree and hugged each other and took care in making sure we all made it home safely through the starry night.

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

Top: @midwest_foodfest, @foodforfoster, @urbanfarmsofcentralohio Middle: @katyasvegantable, @mykat, @stacysfork Bottom: @thepandamien, @leannevon, @_bboston

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HOMEGROWN

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ith the long, wet spring and the weather shifts each season, we’ve decided we need a new approach to seasonal eating. Look for more of our thoughts on what it means to eat in summer this season at ediblecolumbus.com. For now, here’s a list of what you can find at the farmers markets this summer based on years past. As always, make some time at the market to talk to the farmers and find out what’s growing, and what’s not. Be flexible and learn what’s in abundance from the farmer who grows your food. We also include some people in our community and what they’re expecting from the season of thunderstorms and sunshine. —Colleen Leonardi

What’s in Season Edible Flowers Fruits: Apples; Black, Purple, Red and Fall Raspberries; Everbearing Strawberries; Blackberries; Gooseberries; Peaches; Currants; Grapes; Tomatoes; Cantaloupe; Watermelon Vegetables: Asparagus; Broccoli; Green Peas; Sweet Corn; Bell, Hot and Sweet Peppers; Cucumbers; Eggplant; Carrots; Garlic; Leeks; Okra; Lettuces and Greens; Rhubarb; Potatoes

“On our small farm we grow lavender and mushrooms. The wet spring may have had an impact on our lavender, but I will have to wait until mid to late May to know if there has been any plant loss. The challenge for this year is to manage our farm being open to the public for the first time. We will be open Friday to Sunday, noon until dusk, in June and July. We currently have seven varieties [of lavender] growing and I’m planting two new varieties this year.”—Ken & Cheryl Gordon, Purple Plains Farm

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PHOTO BY CAROLE TOPALIAN

“As members of the beekeeping industry, our season begins with ‘growing our livestock’ in the early spring to numbers in the millions. Each one of our bees will only produce 1/12th teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, so a great many healthy honey bees must be ready to go to work collecting nectar and pollinating crops. Just like all of us in agriculture, we are tied to the weather, and this long, cool spring has slowed production down and may shorten the honey flow. Beyond the weather challenges, our bees face environmental problems that threaten their lives, so we must be ever diligent to maintain the health of our livestock.”—Barry E. Conrad, Conrad Hive and Honey

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COOK

Verano Recipes by Polly Rich • Photography by Evan Schlarb In Partnership with Williams Sonoma

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erano means “summer” in Spanish. And tomatillos are a fruit and a member of the nightshade family, like eggplants and tomatoes. They’re known as Mexico’s “husk tomato” and a staple in Mexican cooking. Tangy, crisp and sticky to the touch (once you remove the husk), they’re not native to Ohio, but La Michoacana, a Mexican market, is a local gem and one of our favorite spots in the city for staples like tomatillos, mangos, Koki’s Tortillas, queso fresco cheese (a Mexican farmers cheese) and more.

For our summer issue, we offer something different so you might travel when you cook: summer salads featuring Ohio’s beloved sweet corn and then jicama, Mexico’s version of a turnip; Salsa Verde Enchiladas with our beloved tomatillos; and for dessert, a sweet taste of our new favorite fruit ever—passion fruit. As common in places like Paraguay as dandelions are here in Ohio, passion fruit packs in the antioxidants and is silky on the soul. Topo Chico mineral water lines our fridge, keeping us fresh and cool while we work. Eat well, love well, live well this summer. —CL

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SUMMER SALAD WITH JICAMA Adapted from Food & Wine

2 navel oranges 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 3 tablespoons olive oil Salt and pepper ¾ pound jicama, thinly sliced (you can buy jicama pre-cut at most markets; we found

Peel the oranges and remove the white pith, cutting in between the membranes.

Separate sections of oranges. Squeeze the leftover orange membrane into a bowl, along with some orange sections, and save for the dressing.

Mix lime juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper into the bowl. Add jicama to the bowl and let it marinate in dressing for 20 minutes, then mix in the sections of oranges, avocado, feta and cilantro, and serve.

ours at Lucky’s) 2 avocados, thinly sliced ⅛ cup chopped cilantro

¾ cup crumbled feta cheese Cilantro for garnish

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Adapted from NY Times Food

CORN, GREEN BEAN AND TOMATO SALAD

Serves approximately 6

Adapted from NY Times Recipes

SALSA VERDE CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

For Chicken 1 roasted chicken

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 small white onion, chopped

5 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Corn kernels cut from 2 ears of corn

Avocado oil (or any high-heat cooking oil you prefer, or butter)

½ pound green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces

Prepare chicken filling. Shred meat from chicken and set aside. Sauté in 1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter chopped onion and garlic until translucent. Add chicken to onions and set aside.

1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half 4 radishes, halved and sliced into half moons 3 tablespoons minced chives

Preheat oven to 375° and make salsa verde.

⅓ cup crumbled queso fresco Salt and pepper

For Salsa Verde 1 pound fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut into ¼-inch quarters

Salt to taste

Make the dressing by combining the lime juice, olive oil and ground cumin.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Steam the ears of corn lightly, cool and cut off kernels. Lightly steam green bean pieces in steamer for about 5 minutes.

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Purée until smooth. Add water, if needed.

Salt to taste and set aside with chicken.

Remove from heat and refresh with cold water. Drain and dry.

For Enchiladas

Place tomatoes, radish, chives, corn kernels and beans in a bowl. Mix in the dressings. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

½ white onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped ½ seeded jalapeño 8 stems cilantro sprigs, chopped

¾ cup canola oil 1 dozen yellow corn tortillas 1½ cups crumbled queso fresco Mexican crema or sour cream Preheat oven to 375°. To prep the tortillas, heat canola oil in small saucepan. Using tongs, place tortillas 1 at a time in hot oil. Tortilla should bubble on contact. Heat tortillas about 10 seconds per side and drain on paper towels.

Visit ediblecolumbus.com for our recipe for Passion Fruit Mousse Cake and more summer recipes.

Assemble tortillas in a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Spread about ¾ cups of salsa verde.

Take a tortilla and add about 1½ tablespoons chicken to tortilla with a teaspoon of salsa verde and roll up. Place seam side down in pan right next to each other. Spoon the remaining salsa verde over the top. Sprinkle with ½ of the cheese.

Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted, about 20 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with remaining cheese and dot with crema. May serve with chopped onion, lime wedge or avocado, if desired.

Family style: Salsa Verde Enchiladas; Summer Salad with Jicama; Corn, Green Bean and Tomato Salad; and Passion Fruit Mousse Cake with passion fruit featured on plate.

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KITCHENS

A Chef’s Palette

By Lynn Marie Donegan • Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

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olumbus chef Marcus Meacham likes to think of his home kitchen as his “lab”—a creative space in which he can experiment with a variety of ingredients and invent fresh, exciting recipes. When comparing cooking in a restaurant to cooking at home, Marcus explains that while work tends to become rote after making the same dish over and over, cooking at home provides plenty of room for creativity in the kitchen.

“When I get home, it’s more about cooking for the discovery of new flavors and just fun items,” he says. Along with his fiancée, Jenna, Marcus loves having their friends over to test out new recipes.

Even Marcus’ dog Kool Heef the Rescue Dog Meacham (whose name reflects the chef ’s love of hip-hop), benefits from Marcus’ creativity. “I cook for my dog,” he says, laughing. “I play up his food— he thinks I’m crazy.”

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Surrounded by cookbooks collected throughout his culinary career, Marcus describes his kitchen as a combination of commercial kitchen and art studio. Featuring artwork by local artists, including Clint Davidson, who designed logos for Marcus’ former steam bun restaurant called Steam, the kitchen also provides a graffiti wall where guests can contribute their artistic abilities.

“When people come over they can just paint and stuff while I’m making food,” says Marcus. An exposed brick wall, two large windows, several speakers and wood floors also add to the artistic vibe of the kitchen.

“I moved from Weinland Park to Bronzeville/OTE with Jenna to stop and smell the roses a bit and cook with a lot more precision and grace in a professionally equipped kitchen,” Marcus says. For Marcus and Jenna, their home kitchen is an escape from the daily grind, “a hideaway from partying too hard and working too much.”

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WELLNESS

The Mindful Kitchen Bringing your heart back into eating

By Kit Yoon • Illustration by Kristen Solecki

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e may love certain foods, but do these foods love us back?

Even though food can never give us any emotions in return, our body’s response to certain foods tells us what kind of relationship we naturally have with what we eat.

Some foods make us feel energized, satisfied, light and vital. Some foods make us feel heavy, bloated, sleepy and even depressed. Some foods are more neutral and don’t seem to impact us physically or emotionally: They simply fuel us and keep us satiated.

Some people have a more sensitive bodily system that will react negatively to certain foods. For instance, people who have tree nut allergies could experience anything from mild irritation in the throat to anaphylactic shock, a life-threatening condition, if they ingest anything in the tree nut category. Lactose-intolerant individuals will experience digestive upset symptoms, again, some more severe than others. There are individuals who experience insomnia or anxiety if they consume caffeine or alcohol too late, or any time, in the day.

People can have food sensitivities without knowing it because they have endured the symptoms for a long time, or they associated the symptoms with other factors in their life. A good example of this would be people with chronic headaches or chronic constipation.

Both of these symptoms might derive from sensitivity to gluten, dairy or sugar.

The question each of us should ask is: What kind of life do I want to live and how do I want my food choices to support my life?

When we start paying more attention to what we eat and how it makes us feel, we become a conscious eater. Being a conscious eater will allow us to feed our body what it truly needs, both physically and emotionally.

Feed the body what it loves.

Pay attention to why you choose what you eat by

● ● ● ●

Being present while eating Eating without any distractions Chewing each bite mindfully Noticing how you feel physically while eating, and after you have finished

Then ask yourself these questions: ● ●

●

What is your body feeling?

How energized or tired are you after eating certain foods or meals?

How is your digestion, elimination six to 12 hours after your meal?

Are you satisfied after you eat?

What emotions came up once the food was finished?

Why don’t we just stop eating foods that don’t serve us? Because change is required.

● ●

But eating foods that we “love” even if they don’t serve our body can result in greater discomfort in the long run. Not only do we suffer physical symptoms from these foods, we can also experience longterm physical and emotional discomfort (weight gain, emotional pain from chronic health issues, etc).

Kit Yoon is a licensed acupuncturist in Ohio and California. She is also a certified Health Coach and Clinical Hypnotist. Kit offers wellness programs that combine tools and techniques to help you find your natural body weight and live your best life. Find out more at bexleyacupuncture.com

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POETRY

Finding the Finer Balance The artful consumption of what’s good for both the heart and soul

By Rick Benjamin • Illustration by Kristen Solecki

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hat’s good for the soul isn’t always good for the body, but the soul needs what it needs. In summer, when dining moves outdoors, so many of us become well-nourished, somewhere deep in us, by food that simultaneously compromises the very health of our hearts: blood pressure and cholesterol levels driven up, arteries made harder by salt- and fat-enhanced foods made with love and longing cooked or baked straight into them.

It is hard to resist or reject anything about which we feel so deeply, that can make our hearts sing with such pleasure: barbecue and collard greens, sweet potato pie, grits, everything made hot with grease, macaroni and cheese, catfish, cobbler, gumbo and black-eyed peas. So, also, what’s good for the soul may not be good for the soul.

Poetry also feeds the soul, and the soul cannot do without it. It rubs raw, simmers and marinates long past the point of denial or forgetfulness; its directness or even obfuscation on the tongue goes straight to the heart of things and won’t let go. All artists know that some of the content or raw materials that routinely fuel their work can also do them short-term harm: Their ingredients and inquiries require balancing a

kind of reckless abandon to and accommodation of myriad curiosities and questions with more pragmatic and sustainable impulses—with a respect for the laws of gravity, for instance, and pragmatism, together with all of the (sometimes equally lovely) responsibilities and domestic or familiar imperatives that keep us fully steeped and tethered to this life.

As both a poet and someone who loves to cook, I have learned, in time, to balance my sense of adventure with a certain discipline and precision: a sauce, caramelized with sugary pears, good vinegar and Zinfandel and pan juices (see: grease), like certain combinations of words and thoughts, can only go so far. It is possible to go over the edge, to burn or burn out. The poet and the creative cook in me know this.

When it comes to writing poetry made from that old and particular recipe that combines praise and pain and longing, love and loss—that singular combination of hard, beaten-down blues and brilliant lightness—no one does it quite as well as Kevin Young. He is the executive chef of words: They trip off his tongue delectably; their taste is sure, to be savored, lingering long after the reading or first hearing. His

poems simmer so sweetly, even as they carry deft, daring, even dangerous strokes.

I am thinking of his “Ode to Kitchen Grease,” a seductive-sounding death knell to what we both want and shouldn’t have: Once we were close.

Once we let you hold our children, cook up whatever you wanted—& cook you sure could! You put your foot in it, made food stick to our ribs…

Even at the beginning of the poem you can hear the wariness: what once was essential is also not so good for you. As he’s gotten older, the poet realizes, the grease he was once both nourished and nurtured by has become a “grey grandfather,” a “bent elder” which has become “too much upkeep/& high pressure,” one that has, in fact, “sent many,” a favorite mother-in-law included, “to an early grave.” But Young can’t help himself: His propensity toward word-play also pays tribute: The rest of the poem registers the soul’s strong longing for what might leave it over-satiated:

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Still, some mornings you drop by, uncool, right after breakfast bacon’s been made— sniffing around the kitchen & already asking, What’s for dinner? & I sure wish you’d stay.

“The great ones know how to cook from the heart and to put something of their hearts into every dish, no matter how humble or even unhealthy.”

I love the duplicity of the poet’s language here, as it registers what’s tantalizing and tasty and deeply troubling in the same breath: pan drippings (“drop by”), heat (“uncool”) the singular smell that lingers long after certain good meals somehow still clings to the very walls (“sniffing around the kitchen”) and arteries of our beings.

Grease is like that casual neighbor you let in but also know is up to no good, who does not have your best interests at heart.

Praise gods of myriad and healthier cooking oils, he no longer means to stay, but the longing for what he has to offer still lingers after he is gone. Just because one’s better off without “home cooking” doesn’t mean it’s not missed.

Many years ago the writer, anthologist and connoisseur of food Molly O’Neill wrote a piece about how making magnificent meat loaf or good garlic mashed potatoes were the marks of a good cook, and how one could certainly tell the difference between such simple dishes made with love or made without it. She was trying to make a point about the difference, also, between truly distinguished chefs and merely good ones: The great ones know how to cook from the heart and to put something of their hearts into every dish, no matter how humble or even unhealthy.

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I am prepared to argue, along with Kevin Young, that such soul-touching food is also, in moderation of course, good for us. Here he is, again, in his “Ode to Grits:” …You must know I love you by the way I like you plain, maybe buttered up a bit.

Salty, you keep me on my toes, let me believe, this once, in purity…

Since I’ve just had grits, yesterday, at Lucille’s Creole Café, here in Boulder, Colorado, where I have been visiting my son, I can testify, with clarity, to their charms.

And I can also speak to the chef ’s sure touch when it came to sprinkling in the love, because, well, I could taste it.

Most of us find the balance: lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, good grains and proteins, judiciously added sugars and salts.

And we know that the occasional inviting in of food for the soul won’t hurt us. Like the reckless and finely tuned energy of love, like edgy and fully grounded poetry, like a long and languorous summer of grilling and picnics and barbecues, this also keeps us alive and all the happier for being so.

Rick Benjamin, former state poet laureate of Rhode Island, now teaches poetry, ecology and community engagement at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He enjoys cooking for his family and classes and somehow survived the canned—and frozen—food rage of the 1970s.

NATION

“I always say that farming is at least 85 percent of cooking, because it is taste that will truly wake people up and bring them back to their senses and back to the land.”

—Alice Waters

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e wanted to share Letters to a Young Farmer with you because it’s one of those compilations that comes around every once in a while and is worth noting. With writings from “three dozen esteemed writers, farmers, chefs, activists, and visionaries,” the book chronicles the ups and downs of farming life and asks big questions about how what we eat and how we farm can come together for a future where everyone can thrive.

Read on as Alice Waters shares part of her letter to young farmers, and find the book at your local, independent bookstore this summer. —Colleen Leonardi “Dear young farmer, I want to start by saying “thank you.” Thank you for choosing to be a farmer and for choosing to take care of the planet. Thank you for dedicating yourself to feeding us all. And thank you, too, for being the inspiration for my restaurant—indeed, for my life’s work. You are my partner in change. Forty-four years ago, when I first opened Chez Panisse, I could never have imagined that my restaurant would be anything more than a small neighborhood place for my friends to gather and talk politics.

Fifteen years into the life of the restaurant, we began to feel the need to connect more deeply with a farmer and were looking for a farm of our own. We were incredibly fortunate that Bob Cannard, a gifted farmer, wanted to work with us alone. By committing to buying everything that he grew, we were able to guarantee his livelihood. In turn, he taught us to treasure the land; from him we

learned about real nourishment, about the rhythms not just of the seasons but of the years.

We became extensions of each other—what Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, calls “coproducers.” Petrini also believes that farmers are the “intellectuals of the land.” They have the practical experience and rarefied knowledge to choose just the right seeds for a particular place, to plant them in the most advantageous way, and then to tend the plants and bring them to their perfect moment of ripeness.

This is what taste is all about. And it is taste fundamentally that makes my work irresistible and your work vital. I always say that farming is at least 85 percent of cooking, because it is taste that will truly wake people up and bring them back to their senses and back to the land.”

Alice Waters is a chef, food activist and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. In 1995 she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project. She went on to conceive and help create the Yale Sustainable Food Project at Yale University and the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome. In 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

Excerpt from Letters to a Young Farmer used with permission from Princeton Architectural Press, © 2017.

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YOGA

A Nourishing Practice Relationships between a life in yoga and food

By Evan Schlarb • Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

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any on our team at Edible Columbus find meaning in the practice of yoga. In this issue, we asked Columbus-based yoga practitioner Marina Zahran how her yoga practice and nutritional preferences have informed each other. Here’s what she had to say:

Nutrition and yoga work together beautifully to train the body and mind to identify both gross and subtle imbalances. I look at nutrition and yoga as incredibly powerful tools to take us back to the root cause of dis-ease in the mind and body. Instead of applying a temporary Band-Aid, Ayurvedic nutrition and yoga tease us to dive into the deep end and embrace the Nancy Drew to our individual health mystery.

These complementary practices teach us to listen to the whispers of our mind and body. We live in a society where we often wait until emotions, injuries, injustice, etc. are screaming for attention before we even begin to address them. This is why I adore these two practices. Nutrition (specifically Ayurvedic nutrition) and yoga challenge us to tune in and hush up. They challenge us to identify the unique nature of our self (genetics and physiology), unique nature of any present disruptions (symptoms) and the unique nature of the remedies (yoga, diet, sensory and lifestyle therapies).

To me, education around yoga and nutrition means freedom. Aren’t we sick and tired of being sick and tired? The time to reclaim our health and wellness is now. Educate yourself through resources and personal experiences. We are incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to do so—let’s embrace it. Don’t make the same mistake over and over, then wonder: “Why me?”

My absolute favorite aspect of yoga and Ayurvedic nutrition is that I’ve never felt more aware of my mental and physiological functions.

I can identify a cold 10 days out, and I know just what works for me in order to knock it out of the park.

Nutrition and yoga are not a one-size-fits-all solution. What is ideal for my genealogical makeup is certainly not going to be the same as what works best for you. So, get curious. Ask questions and try everything. Do not be so quick to believe everything you read. Empower yourself to look further, research deeper and inquire for yourself. If you are yearning for guidance and mentorship, be wary of those that claim to know more about your body than you do.

The one thing I can promise: No one knows more about your body than you do.

I keep this close to my heart. Whether drinking a glass of lemon water before diving into your morning coffee, or taking an hour out of your day to do a restorative yoga practice, wellness comes in a plethora of shapes and sizes.

Marina Zahran, BS, is a NAMA-certified Ayurvedic Health Practitioner (completion 2018), RYT500 (completion 2019) and creator of Do Good. Be Well. based in Columbus. Visit her website dogood-bewell.com for yoga and nutrition posts as well as consultation information.

The one thing I can promise: No one knows more about your body than you do.

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Marina Zahran preparing poached pears with red wine, orange peel, beet juice, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cane sugar, fresh mint, marscapone, blackberry, blueberry, strawberry; sprinkling Za’atar onto her salad; and practicing yoga at home. Inspired by one of her grandmothers who told her that you eat with your eyes, Marina enjoys making food look beautiful.

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GARDEN

Natives in Harmony Local nursery creates market for Ohio genotype plants for home gardens and pollinators

By Colleen Leonardi • Photography by Evan Schlarb

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ale Martin loves native plants.

And as pollinators depend on plants and we depend on pollinators, it is safe to also say Gale loves bugs. Standing amidst her greenhouses and garden beds she makes the case for why Ohio genotype plants are so important for, say, the bees that are native to Ohio. On a sunny day filled with birdsong, she describes with a sweet seriousness how mason bees cut little circles in leaves to then stuff in their babies’ nest as an antibiotic.

As a little girl, Gale spent time on her family farm tromping through the woods studying the plants. She always kept a plant pocket guide by her side. Her career, however, led her to a position as the director of the historical society in Marion.

Gale’s work sometimes took her out to study remnants in prairies throughout Ohio. As she traversed these distant flower and grass fields, she noticed unique plants and collected seeds to bring back to her hobby farm to germinate and later grow in her garden.

“Being eaten by a bug is a good thing,” she says.

“I always had a love for plants.”

It’s for her love of bugs and plants that Gale doesn’t relent. She’s on a mission to “keep these plants from disappearing.”

It’s when Dan Grau, her husband and coowner of Natives in Harmony in Marengo, noticed Gale’s seed trays stacked up and

overflowing that he decided to build her a potting shed, which now stands at the center of Gale’s nursery when you visit the farm.

Potting shed led to a hobby greenhouse, which led to another hoop house and a third. With a full year of retirement under her wings, Gale anticipates investing in a larger greenhouse to expand her operation this year. Natives in Harmony started in 2009 yet it’s really in the last few years that Gale has found her stride.

In the beginning she tried farmers markets.

On her first day she stood and talked about why native plants are so important as people walked by. They didn’t get it. Gale left planning to give up. Then Dan advised: “You just have to educate them.”

Right: Gale Martin, co-owner of Natives in Harmony, a nursery in Marengo raising native plants for Ohioans.

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And he was right. If you visit Natives in Harmony, or find Gale at a plant sale near you, you’ll find the plants along with an information sheet for each one that details its habitat, history and how best to grow it.

Gale says it was this addition to her business plan that “changed everything.”

Today, returning customers keep the sheets, creating their own garden pocket guide.

Gale makes her plants accessible to all. Her price point on one plug starts at $3. You can buy a whole tray of plants for under $100. For Gale, having more people with native plants that provide the right pollen and nectar for the right bugs across Ohio is crucial.

“Every state should worry about the plants in their state,” she says.

At Natives in Harmony, Gale has the capability of raising over 400 species of native plants. Prairie thimbleweed. Plantain-leaved pussytoes. Wild columbine. Green dragon.

The list is a plant lover’s dream. This year, she also plans to introduce another 30 to 40. One plant she shows me—American columbo (Frasera caroliniensis)—with its little green sprouts coming up in a seed tray, is a herbaceous plant and a monocarpic perennial, which means it “spends more than a year in a vegetative state before flowering once and then dying.

“The length of the vegetative period can be highly variable between plant species,” says Gale, “from strictly biennial to long-lived monocarpic perennials.”

Similar to unpacking and restoring the past, Gale has to restore the knowledge lost on these plants. Even though she may have a seed, she may have no idea what it is or what it will do. It takes patience, research and dedication on her end to make a true home for the plant. Once Gale knows she can raise it and propagate it for sale, she’ll

put it on the market. She has beds, though, that are simply for trial runs. As I look out over her operation, I tell her she’s running a seed bank and she nods her head in agreement. Her stewardship goes beyond the present into the future of native plants in Ohio.

All Gale’s hard work storing seeds in her pocket is paying off. She works with the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services, which helps manage grassland fields from overgrowth, which leads to a decline in wildlife species. Members of the program plant natives on their property to “enhance the wildlife habitat” and bring pollinators back to the land. CRP now partners directly with Gale, among other nurseries around the state, to provide 23 different species, like purple coneflower and wild bergamot, to land owners throughout Ohio. More and more cities and townships are requesting her native plants, too.

“We’ve got to do something,” she says, “and I’ll move heaven and earth to get there.”

Visit Gale’s nursery at 4652 Township Road 179 in Marengo and shop for plants on Sundays and Mondays from noon to 6pm.

Learn more about Natives in Harmony at nativesinharmony.com, or call or email at 419.688.9800; gale@nativesinharmony.com.

Colleen Leonardi is the editor-in-chief of Edible Columbus and managing editor of Edible Indy. Learn more at colleenleonardi.com.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM DANIEL, ODNR DIVISION OF WILDLIFE

OUTDOORS

Catch of the Day Fishing for yellow perch on Lake Erie this summer

By Tony Bresnen

A fresh catch of yellow perch from Lake Erie, Ohio.

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fter a short, cold and wet spring, most of us are ready to make up for lost time this summer. Road trips, camping and hiking are great ways to live outside these next few months and see more of what Ohio has to offer. Another summer pastime—fishing—can provide you with a delicious, clean and sustainable meal at the end of a fun day spent outside.

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For Ohioans, it is difficult to beat the fishing opportunities that Lake Erie has to offer. Just a two-hour drive from most of Columbus, Lake Erie has 312 miles of coastline to explore. Ohio’s part of Lake Erie, the south shore, boasts numerous coastal communities that are tied to life on the lake, and in turn, the tourism from recreational fishing.

For the anglers who devotedly fish Lake Erie, the walleye is the fish that keeps them faithful. Yet another popular Lake Erie fish, the yellow perch, offers beginning anglers both an enjoyable day of fishing and a flavorful post-fishing meal. A relatively small sport fish, an adult yellow perch typically weighs up to a pound, may not even reach 12 inches in length and isn’t going to put up a fight like a walleye or largemouth bass. For anglers who are just looking to

While you could head to your local grocery store and order a few pounds of perch fillets from the seafood counter, there’s nothing better than catching it yourself, cleaning it and savoring a home-caught meal at the end of the day.

catch some fish, schooling yellow perch provide a memorable fishing experience that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

nities for local communities. City reservoirs in Findlay and Wauseon offer fantastic inland perch fishing located a bit closer to Columbus.

Whether grilled, seared, baked or battered, yellow perch is one of the best-tasting fish found in Ohio. It has a firm but flaky mild white meat that makes it one of the most popular freshwater fish for lovers of “seafood” cuisine. For years, anglers have bragged about the versatility of this fish in the kitchen, with recipes as simple as battered and fried perch to a more-complex perch risotto. While you could head to your local grocery store and order a few pounds of perch fillets from the seafood counter, there’s nothing better than catching it yourself, cleaning it and savoring a home-caught meal at the end of the day.

Many fish found in Ohio, including yellow perch, can help you maintain a healthy, balanced diet. Fish contain many vitamins and minerals, and are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. However, to reduce your potential exposure to pollution and contaminants, the Ohio Department of Health advises most people consume no more than one meal a week of Ohio-caught sport fish.

To plan your next perch fishing and culinary adventure, consider the time of year for your trip. Like several other species of fish that live in Lake Erie, yellow perch move seasonally in response to water temperatures.

In the spring, perch move close to shore to spawn, and can be caught from shore or from piers. While some anglers think that fishing from a boat is the only way to fish Lake Erie, large perch can be caught by shore anglers. In April 2016, the Ohio state-record yellow perch was caught from shore in Lake County, and weighed in at a monstrous 2.86 pounds!

During summer and fall, perch are typically in deeper water located offshore. While you will need to be on a boat to get to big schools of perch during these times of year, you don’t need to own your own boat to make that Lake Erie fishing dream a reality. In Ohio, over 700 charter captains offer trips to catch yellow perch, walleye and other Lake Erie species. Other large vessels, called headboats, offer visitors the chance to take a half-day perch fishing trip with larger groups. Both charterboat and headboat trips are available along Lake Erie’s southern shore from Port Clinton, Marblehead, Sandusky, Cleveland and Conneaut.

Although Lake Erie is definitely the perch capital of Ohio, these fish can also be found in many of Ohio’s inland rivers, lakes and man-made reservoirs. The ODNR Division of Wildlife also stocks yellow perch in northern Ohio lakes and reservoirs to provide more fishing opportu-

So consider going out and catching your own dinner this summer.

There’s nothing fresher than the fish you just caught yourself.

Tony Bresnen is an information writer for the ODNR Division of Wildlife. He writes for Wild Ohio Magazine and other ODNR publications and news releases. Born and raised in Columbus, he is a lifelong Buckeyes fan and enjoys working in his vegetable garden each summer and trying new foods.

Fishing in Ohio Fishing in Ohio is regulated to conserve populations and maintain sustainable harvests. Before you go fishing, make sure you understand size limits, bag limits and basic species identification. All Ohio residents (with a few exceptions) are required to purchase a fishing license before hooking into their dream bass or their dinner of yellow perch. A new license must be purchased annually. Specific regulations may apply for anglers fishing for certain species or fishing on specific lakes, such as Lake Erie. You can learn more about fishing in Ohio on the ODNR Division of Wildlife’s webpage at wildohio.gov.

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TRAVEL

Raising Up the Rust Belt An Ohio town rooted in farms, wildlife and culture offers adventure

By Nicole Rasul

shifts in the region in the mid to late 20th century and their negative impact on downtown Newark. “As a community, we said ‘no.’”

“Community” is a term one might hear over and over again from locals in Newark.

The Ohio gem, which is surrounded by fertile agricultural land, is comprised of a proud collective who recognize the wealth of resources in their land, people and infrastructure.

Opposite, top: River Road Coffeehouse, at 26 N. Park Pl., a great place to park for the afternoon and get work done before you stroll Newark and head to the farmers market. Middle: The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology at 55 S. 1st St. in the former Scheidler Machine Works building, built in 1882. The Works is a Smithsonian affiliate institution and prides itself on “being more than a museum.” Featured here is the glass blowing studio with an artist from Pittsburgh. Bottom: The Louis Sullivan Building (one of only eight banks designed by the American architect).

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ess than an hour’s drive from Columbus down State Route 161 is Newark, Ohio, founded in 1802. Like many Ohio cities, Newark prospered in its early days thanks to industry and convenient transportation via canal and rail. Then, in a familiar story, times changed.

“Like many Midwestern cities we could have become a Rust Belt ghost town,” says Dan Moder, executive director of Explore Licking County, reflecting on economic

Anchored by Courthouse Square, with its ornate, gray-stone Licking County Courthouse built in 1876, downtown Newark is filled with historic buildings, many recently renovated or scheduled for restoration. The city’s Pennsylvania Railway Station, the Licking County Historic Jail and the Louis Sullivan Building (one of only eight banks designed by the American architect) are just a few of the city’s 19th century treasures that are nearby and worth a visit.

“We don’t tear down, we reuse,” says Bryn Bird of Bird’s Haven Farms. A Township trustee, co-founder of the Licking County Local Food Council, founding executive director of Canal Market District and a board member for Explore Licking County, Bryn is an example of how many of Licking County’s millennial generation are sticking

PHOTO COURTESY OF EXPLORE LICKING COUNTY

Walk to It

around and investing their time, money and energy back into the region.

A $5 million renovation of the land between South Park Place and Walnut Street, called the Canal Market District (see story on page 36), provides a series of open-air farm and craft markets that have helped to revitalize commerce in downtown.

Visitors to the Canal Market District should take note of the beautifully crafted murals gracing buildings in the neighborhood. Commissioned by the Gilbert Reese Family Foundation and the Thomas J. Evans Foundation, the murals connect visitors to downtown Newark’s rich history.

“Each mural is either a replica of a historic photo or was created using a compilation of photos, newspapers and other historic memorabilia,” says Jennifer Roberts, administrative director for the foundations that funded the project. “The images of historic storefronts in the alley on South Park Place represent businesses that were located on the Square in the late 1800s and early 1900s.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA KHOROSHILOVA

Nearby sits The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology at 55 S. 1st St. in the former Scheidler Machine Works building built in 1882. The Works is a Smithsonian affiliate institution and prides itself on “being more than a museum.” Offering exhibits on the history of Licking County, interactive displays to engage youth in science and technology, a glass blowing studio and residency program with artists from all over the world offering demonstrations and classes, as well as an art gallery and SciDome planetarium, The Works has something for the entire family.

Experience the Earth The Dawes Arboretum, at 7770 Jacksontown Rd. SE, sits on nearly 2,000 acres.

Open since 1929, the property includes an engaging visitor center, a museum showcasing antiques and memorabilia from the founding family, several formal gardens, as well as numerous ponds, wetlands, meadows and woodlands to roam. Visit the

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Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as a National Historic Landmark, and recently recommended by the U.S. Department of the Interior for addition to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, the Newark Earthworks are the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures on earth.

Built between 100 and 500 A.D. by the Hopewell Culture, the Earthworks are an archeological masterpiece that the Ohio History Connection, its modern-day caretakers, describe as originally “part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory.” Located at 455 Hebron Rd. in nearby Heath, visitors can see three remaining segments of the original ancient site and learn about their history in an onsite museum.

Among the Stars

Eats + Soda

Thirty One West, a live music venue housed in a former dance hall built in 1902, is bringing live music to downtown Newark. Located at 31 W. Church St., the venue includes the Bootlegger Bar, where one can find a craft beer or a specialty cocktail.

Downtown Newark offers a range of locally owned food and beverage choices. One of our favorites is the Market Street Soda Works, open during the Canal Market at 14 E. Market St. The unique store features more than 150 glass-bottled sodas and has several craft sodas on tap, a number of which come from breweries in the region.

The 1,200 seat Midland Theater, at 36 N. Park Pl., offers a variety of local and national arts programming for visitors of all ages. Built in 1928, the building was saved from the wrecking ball in 1992 after standing unused for 14 years.

With so much to do in Newark, an overnight getaway is a definite option.

From hotels to campgrounds, Newark has a diversity of lodging. Additionally, the nearby village of Granville houses several locally run inns and bed and breakfasts, several of which proudly highlight local farms and foods in their kitchens.

Visit explorelc.org to learn more.

A flight of sodas from Market Street Soda Works, including black cherry soda and root beer.

“My wife and I thought it would be fun to open the spot as a community gathering place,” says Tim Argyle, who launched Market Street Soda Works in 2016 with his wife, Liz. The soda shop is a family affair with the Argyles’ teenage children helping to staff the business.

“We are a bar that doesn’t serve alcohol,” Tim says. “Everyone is welcome.”

During the Canal Market season (Tuesdays, 4–7pm, June to September, and Fridays, 4–7pm, May to October), stop by one of the local food trucks that may be parked nearby.

Directly across from Courthouse Square is River Road Coffeehouse, at 26 N. Park Pl. The business offers a range of hot and iced beverages and on a recent visit we found artisan breads from Granville-based Lucky Cat Bakery and gluten- and nut-free sweets from Columbus’ Cherbourg Bakery in the dessert case.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA KHOROSHILOVA

nonprofit’s website at dawesarb.org to plan a trip based on the flowering schedule of the property’s plant life.

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ENTREPRENEUR

A Sweet Business Jose Torres’ Diamonds brings Mexican paletas to Columbus

By Stephanie Wapner • Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

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ene Flores Cruz arrived in the United States 22 years ago from Oaxaca, Mexico. At 15 years old he was alone in a new country with no family and no experience.

After 17 years as a cook at a chain restaurant in Columbus, his life changed when he accepted a job as a server at Vaccaro’s Mexican Restaurant, one of eight restaurants owned by Jose Torres.

Jose noticed Rene’s work ethic and willingness to learn. Two years later he recruited him as a managing partner for a new project called Diamonds. Rene, now a manager at Diamonds Ice Cream, says that this opportunity represented everything he thought possible when he came to the United States.

“When you are working for someone else, it is hard to advance,” says Rene. “But now, as a partner in this business, I am still working hard but also making more decisions.”

Diamonds was a shift for Jose. It is his first dessert-focused concept, although Diamonds also serves a few traditional Mexican savory dishes, the most popular being elote, hot corn on the cob slathered in lime crema, salty cotija cheese and chile pepper.

Yet the bedrock of Diamonds is the seemingly endless display of fresh fruit salads, ice creams and popsicles called paletas, which translates literally to “short stick.” At one end of the counter are rows of sliced fresh pineapple, melons, berries, guava, papaya, cucumbers, avocados and mangos. These can be served either bionica (with cream) or with chamoy, a spicy-sweet condiment imported from Mexico.

Rene explains that they buy only the freshest and highest-quality fruit available since it is the foundation of most of their products.

For example, although frozen passion fruit purée would be more ef-

ficient and more cost-effective, the flavor and quality simply wasn’t as good as finding the fresh fruit.

All of the ice creams and paletas are made in house. Rene oversees the preparation of at least 20 flavors of ice cream and 70 types of popsicles in a kitchen smaller than most American bedrooms. It contains a single ice cream machine and a small pantry full of imported ingredients such as tamarind and hibiscus.

Jose’s paletas are more luscious than the average popsicle. Diamonds uses a higher-than-average ratio of fresh fruit to sugar, which creates a creamier texture and brighter, more pronounced fruit flavors.

Many paletas include both hand-puréed and chopped whole fruit, all done on site. Flavors range from the familiar, such as strawberry kiwi and blackberries and cream, to more traditional Mexican, such as pine nut and mango chili. On a gray, unseasonably cold day, the strawberries and cream flavor tastes like summer on a stick. For those customers who prefer savory treats, Diamonds also serves pico de gallo and avocado popsicles.

Jose came to the United States from Guadalajara 28 years ago and worked in his brother-in-law’s restaurant for 10 years, learning the business. He relocated to Columbus after visiting a cousin and not only feeling an instant connection with the city, but also seeing an opportunity to expand Mexican cuisine options.

He says that while the Mexican community has grown exponentially since he arrived, he finds work for whoever applies. For those who work hard, he provides many opportunities for growth. His nephew, Sergio Munoz, has worked with his uncle since he was 13. He talks at length about his years of experience working for his uncle.

“Jose has grown a real family business. We work hard but he makes sure we can advance. I waited tables at his restaurants for four years

Diamonds’ paletas, including flavors strawberry kiwi, guanabana, pico de gallo, cucumber chile, coconut, mango + mixed fruit.

Featured here is a mixed fruit with chili paleta.

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Left: Loyal customers Ariadne and her abuela (Laura) enjoy popsicles together and the magic of a blue tongue that follows.

Right: Rene Flores Cruz, one of the managers at Diamonds Ice Cream.

while I got my business and accounting degree at Ohio State, and now I’m back full-time to help grow the business. Jose inspires a lot of loyalty among the staff.”

He recently opened his third location, which is attached to one of his restaurants, making it easy for customers to step next door for dessert after lunch or dinner.

Rene agrees. “Jose helps kids in the Mexican community by giving them their first job and teaching them good customer service skills.

He makes the work enjoyable and teaches them transferable skills that they will use in all their future jobs.”

In Mexico, paletas are sold out of a traveling cart on the street. Jose and Rene plan to add this strategy to their brick-and-mortar stores, and are applying for permits to bring paletas to farmers markets and festivals and continue to introduce one of Mexico’s culinary obsessions to the wider Columbus community.

Jose did not initially think a paletas concept would be successful.

Pausing for a quick frozen treat through the day didn’t seem to be part of American’s cultural cuisine, particularly in a climate that was cold for much of the year. But a nephew insisted that they visit a similar store in Chicago, where it seemed to be working. Jose promised his nephew that if he could get a visa and come to Columbus, he would give it a try, thinking it would take years, if ever, to secure the paperwork. He was dumbfounded when his nephew announced he had his visa and was ready to get started. Jose kept his promise and realized that it was a low-overhead enterprise.

“We don’t need a huge kitchen. The freezer displays and storage are the biggest expense. And we can make 250 paletas in 10 minutes.”

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Diamonds Ice Cream 5461 Bethel Sawmill Center | 614.718.2980 3870 Main St. | Hilliard | 614.971.5490 2285 W. Dublin Granville Rd., Ste. 123 | Worthington | 614.987.7999

Stephanie Wapner, PhD, is a freelance writer and tutor. Her writing explores the connections between food and different forms of communities. Stephanie lives and cooks in Bexley with her husband and two sons.

Eat Drink

Local Guide Finding Ohio-grown goodness to eat and enjoy doesn’t have to involve hours at the stove, or online searching for the right place for dinner. These fine establishments offer locally sourced, seasonally inspired cuisine every day.

The farm-to-table movement in Central Ohio starts with our farmers and growers producing flavorful, beautiful food. They take pride in delivering the best of what they grow and harvest to Columbus markets.

Edible Columbus connects these farmers in the farm-to-table movement with other growers, producers and food artisans to help our local food community prosper.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAQUIB AHMED, KATALINA’S

Our dining guide features restaurants and chefs that work with these farmers and growers to showcase the finest foods of our region. By visiting these establishments, you’re supporting Central Ohio businesses dedicated to local and sustainable sourcing, delicious food and our communities.

JOIN US IN 2018!

You’ll reach our audience of eager readers, eaters, shoppers and drinkers—who are loyal to local—and receive placement in our print and digital “Eat Drink Local” guides. Contact steve@ediblecolumbus.com to learn more.

Ray Ray’s Hog Pit rayrayshogpit.com

Clintonville (food truck) 614-753-1191 • 2619 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio Westerville (walk-up window) 614-329-6654 • 5755 Maxtown Rd., Westerville, Ohio At Land Grant Brewery 614-404-9742 • 424 Town St., Columbus, Ohio We serve authentic barbecue, consistently crafted every time.

It’s our mission. We smoke our meats, low and slow, with a nice coating of dry rub, using our own style. Our friendly and skilled staff is focused on giving you an expertly crafted product and the barbecue experience you crave.

North Market

northmarket.com • 614-463-9664 59 Spruce St., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter We are Central Ohio’s authentic public market. Since 1876 our independent merchants and farmers have loyally served the community and its visitors, delivering personal, personable service every day of the week. We provide an authentic Columbus experience that highlights the diversity and vibrancy of our community.

Katalina’s

katalinascafe.com • 614-294-2233 1105 Pennsylvania Ave., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Live • Love • Local! Katalina has chosen each ingredient to make the most of her mantra: Fresh, homemade food with attitude but no pretense. Local, organic picks make food even more delish!

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Market Days

How Canal Market District is reinvigorating Licking County’s local food economy

By Nicole Rasul • Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

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s we sit in downtown Newark’s stunningly renovated 19th century Pennsylvania Railway Station, Jazz Glastra, the executive director of Canal Market District, glances out the window at a stretch of sidewalk leading to a series of recently crafted open-air market pavilions one block away.

“People have really embraced the market,” Jazz says in reference to Canal Market District’s farm and craft markets held seasonally in the pavilions. “People tell me all the time that this is one of the best things to ever happen to their town.”

Centered on the city’s old canal, where boats once brought goods to market near the thriving train station and in view of the city’s bustling Courthouse Square, Canal Market District prides itself in being “rooted in the county’s history, culture and local bounty.” As Jazz notes, some citizens would argue that the development of the Canal Market District is the crown jewel in downtown Newark’s ongoing renaissance.

A nonprofit, the organization that oversees Canal Market District seeks to improve local food access in Licking County to grow healthy people, neighborhoods and economies. The organization connects the region’s farmers and entrepreneurs to a range of buyers through its market series and food hub, and has been welcomed by record numbers of Licking County residents eager to support growers, artisans and entrepreneurs in their community.

The Foundation The Newark-based Thomas J. Evans Foundation invested $5 million into the renovation of Canal Market District, a dream of J. Gilbert (Gib) Reese, one of the Foundation’s founding trustees.

Market District. He approached public and private partners, advocating for a rejuvenated center of commerce in downtown Newark.

“This was 30 years in the making,” Jennifer says. “The vision came to fruition as a direct result of extraordinary partnerships between many groups in the community.”

Art, Food & Fun Today, Canal Market District’s market series, now in its third season, is bringing to life Gib Reese’s vision of a reinvigorated center of commerce in his hometown.

This year an average of 30 vendors are anticipated at most market events. These entrepreneurs sell locally raised or crafted produce, meat, eggs, dairy products, baked goods and confections, sauces and seasonings, beverages, flora and wellness products. Vendors who specialize in locally made crafts are peppered in each week at the Tuesday farmers markets, and as a showcase at their own series of art markets.

“The Friday market tends to be like a date night,” says Carie Starr of Cherokee Valley Bison Ranch, a vendor. “There’s music and food trucks. People turn out not just for the farmers market but for the community.”

Lyle Linerode of Lona Belle’s Home Baked Goods has been a vendor at the Friday farmers market since its first season in 2016 and reports that the market has been a tremendous boost for his business.

“I’m at three markets in the area each week. The Canal Market quickly became my best market,” he says.

Serving Food Deserts

“Mr. Reese had a vision of bringing back a marketplace here in downtown Newark,” says Jennifer Roberts, administrative director of the Foundation.

Canal Market District also aims to support Newark’s hungriest citizens. The nonprofit was founded with the goal of improving the community’s access to healthy and fresh local food.

For a number of years, Gib purchased property between South Park Place and Walnut Street, the land mass that now comprises Canal

Jazz and her team conduct a significant amount of outreach to Licking County’s low-income population to make them aware of the edible COLUMBUS.com

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Canal Market District’s farm market series. In particular, they target the neighborhood of South Newark, a food desert within walking distance, located on the opposite side of the train tracks from the renovated railway station.

“We have a couple of vendors who have said that 25% of their weekly sales come from SNAP.”

“We ensure that our low-income neighbors feel welcome at the market and that they have the ability to participate,” Jazz says.

Another pillar of the organization’s operation is its Food Enterprise Hub, which connects Licking County growers with institutional purchasers, such as restaurants, hospitals and schools, to encourage economic development that is centered on local, reliable and highquality food supply chains.

Vendors accept payment through a number of government-funded nutrition programs, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and Women Infant Children (WIC) coupons. During the 2018 season, each market day SNAP-eligible shoppers will receive a $20 match for the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables through the Produce Perks program.

Through funding from the Licking County Health Department, Canal Market District has also sent postcards advertising the Produce Perks match to SNAP-eligible households in Newark and Heath. They also received funding from Newark’s Department of Development to hire a seasonal food access assistant to conduct outreach to benefits-eligible community members.

How Food Hubs Help

Currently in pilot mode for the 2018 growing season, the Hub is partnering with eight local farms and four institutional purchasers to move produce through the region’s food system.

Farmers deliver product to the Hub, located at a kitchen facility shared by The Ohio State University Newark and Central Ohio Technical College (COTC).

“The kitchen is a teaching facility for COTC’s Culinary Science program but they are not there every day of the week or on evenings or weekends,” Jazz explains. “They have equipment and space, like

According to Jazz, this work has paid off.

Above: Murals throughout downtown Newark and Canal Market District. “Each mural is either a replica of a historic photo or was created using a compilation of photos, newspapers and other historic memorabilia,” says Jennifer Roberts, administrative director for the foundations that funded the project. “The images of historic storefronts in the alley on South Park Place represent businesses that were located on the Square in the late 1800s and early 1900s.”

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coolers, that are underutilized and which we are able to access through our partnership.”

The Hub cleans, processes and distributes the produce to institutional buyers. “A lot of what we do focuses on simply aggregating and getting food back out the door. But we are also doing processing, which is somewhat unique for a food hub,” Jazz says.

Nicole Rasul enjoys writing about food history, food culture and profiling our region’s brave producers. She works for The Ohio State University as a program coordinator for the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT). Nicole lives with her family in Clintonville, where they enjoy the farmers market and their backyard garden. Follow her on Twitter @foodierasul or view her writing online at nicolerasul.journoportfolio.com.

Processing is one of the biggest hurdles in bridging the gap between producers and institutions. Kitchens often need food that is prepped for consumption or cooking, such as tomatoes diced, bagged and ready for use after opening.

The Food Enterprise Hub has the potential to transform the region’s local food economy by helping producers expand their operations through the cultivation of a consistent base of buyers of significant scale.

“Farm markets are critical,” Jazz says. “But farmers also need better access to wholesale markets to sell at scale. Through the Food Enterprise Hub we can help both farmers and buyers while growing our regional economy.”

Canal Market District offers a farmers market on Tuesdays (4– 7pm, June to September) and Fridays (4–7pm, May to October); several art and craft markets each year and special events such as a Christmas market. Visit canalmarketdistrict.org to learn more or follow on Facebook and Instagram @canalmarketdistrict.

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Another Kind of Service Veterans find solid ground to farm and raise families in Ohio

By Julia Flint • Photography by Julian Foglietti

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cclaimed chef Lidia Bastianich, speaking about servicemen and -women who have transitioned into agriculture, describes farming as a different kind of service to the country. As American farmers grow older and retire, it takes a certain type of person to work the land. The long hours, unpredictability and physical demands of farming aren’t a fit for everyone. In increasing numbers, however, our nation’s veterans are answering the call.

Thanks to advocacy by the Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), the 2014 Farm Bill designated veterans as a new class of beginning farmer and opened the office of Military Veterans Agricultural Liaison to assist this new group who could help fill the gap left by retiring farmers. Founded in 2008, the Farmer Veteran Coalition today has more than 10,000 members, a large number of them with post-9/11 service. Recognizing that many of those who serve our country come from rural areas, the FVC works to assist these men and women so that they can transition into a career that helps them feel at home when they return.

Part of the Solution Paul Dorrance, owner of Pastured Providence Farmstead, is a member of the Farmer Veteran Coalition and is the recipient of a 2018 grant through the FVC’s Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund. An Air Force reservist and former active-duty pilot, Paul says that planning for his first child started him and his wife, Heather, down a path that led them from an Air Force base in Columbus, Mississippi, to 111 acres of farmland and forest tucked away from the outside world down a long dirt driveway in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Navigating how to best care for Heather and the baby during her pregnancy, the couple started looking seriously at what they were consuming and made the decision to start purchasing organic, nonGMO and local food. They researched everything, weighed pros and cons, and tried to make the best decisions they could based on what they knew and what they valued.

And when Paul was faced with the decision of signing on for eight more years of service and a military pension, or going in a different direction, they did the same. He says choosing the farm wasn’t the better financial decision, but it wasn’t a hard decision to make either.

“We jumped into this place, against pretty much every piece of good advice I’ve ever been given,” Paul says without a hint of regret.

Paul chose Ohio because his two siblings had moved to the state and this allowed him and Heather and their children to be close to family. Five years after his move, Pastured Providence Farmstead raises cows, pigs, sheep, turkeys and chickens using rotational grazing along narrow stretches of green pasture that line the ridgetop behind the farm house. The cows are 100% grass-fed and

grass-finished, a step that Paul explains is necessary to produce a quality steak. The feed that he does use with other animals is nonGMO, supplied by another local farmer. No longer just a consumer, the farm has given Paul a chance to put his beliefs into practice.

“I began to think about essentially putting your money where your mouth is, literally. We eat this way now and we believe in this kind of agriculture. Why wouldn’t we be part of the solution for other folks, and provide others with the meat that we have been seeking for ourselves?”

Farm School Paul takes a new brood of 25 chicks, just a few days old, to their new home in the barn. He shows off their milking cow and her calf, and two orphaned lambs he’s hoping will take to a ewe who lost her twins. The orphans so far are bottle-fed, an investment in time that could be spent on another 50 different chores and has to be weighed that way. It was Heather’s idea, he says, and it seems to be the right choice.

The chickens Paul raises are Freedom Rangers, a hybrid breed commonly raised as meat birds. Paul says ideally, he would keep the entire cycle on the farm, incubating his own eggs each year. But the hybrid variety provides more of the white meat that customers want and expect. Consumer preferences, unfortunately, have been shaped by the same agricultural practices that Paul is intentionally avoiding—reliance on GMO feed and antibiotics, for example— and Paul tries to find that balance between the farm’s ideals and what customers will pay for. It’s a decision Paul is still weighing, and he says he’s watching the birds this year to help him decide.

For others planning to transition into agriculture, the work Paul and Heather have put into their farm for the last five years offers an invaluable learning tool. Hosting a “Farm School” event was always a part of the plan for Pastured Providence (it was attending a similar program that solidified the couple’s own path in farming) but this was the first year Paul felt they were ready.

“I don’t have everything figured out, but I’ve learned a thing or two over the last five years. And I felt, really, like last year and beginning now this year, I’m ready to start investing in other folks and sharing what we’ve learned.”

Sense of Place Four of the 16 participants at the Farm School were veterans. Two of the four had also moved with their families to Ohio to start farming. Dan Davis and Tony Clark jointly run Ohana Farms (ohana is a Hawaiian word for family) near Circleville, Ohio.

The cows are 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, a step that Paul explains is necessary to produce a quality steak.

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Left: Paul Dorrance, owner of Pastured Providence Farmstead, a member of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, the recipient of a 2018 grant through the FVC’s Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund and an Air Force reservist and former active-duty pilot.

Opposite: “You can raise good kids anywhere. You can raise good kids in the military. But for some reason, it seems a lot easier to raise good kids out in the country. I don’t know why that is, but I love it. I love it for them.”

Below: The chickens Paul raises are Freedom Rangers, a hybrid breed commonly raised as meat birds.

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Dan is a member of the Ohio Air National Guard. Like Paul, he was an active-duty pilot with the Air Force. Tony is retired from the Navy, and spends his time taking care of more of the day-to-day farm operations. Both Dan and Tony relocated several times during their military careers, and for Dan and his wife, Tracey, part of the appeal of farming was having a stable home for their children.

“I wanted my kids to have a sense of place,” Dan says, “a little place in the world they could call their own.”

What Tony appreciates about farming is that, like his work as an electronics technician and then chief engineer with the Navy, every day on the farm is something different—plowing fields, repairing machines, building barns, rounding up turkeys, managing beehives.

He also values being able to raise food for his family. “I grew up knowing where food came from,” Tony says, adding that he’s learned in time that it’s no longer common knowledge.

When Dan, Tony and their wives discussed their plans for settling down, they decided to pool their resources and purchased neighboring 15-acre plots. This year the two families are raising a cow and calf, hogs, bees, chickens and turkeys. They planted alfalfa, winter wheat and are trying their hand at growing different kinds of produce. Dan tells me that Ohana is still a hobby farm at this point, but they are hoping to learn as much as they can from Paul and Heather’s experience.

Good Kids Sitting with Paul at his dining room table, we talk about the farm while his two girls build with Legos in the next room. His son, Caleb, is at karate. Paul tells a story of the girls tromping off through the fields with the dog a few weeks back. They were far enough away to be on their own, but not out of sight, and Paul describes the feeling of gratitude he experienced watching them. On the farm they learn responsibility, but they have space to roam and time to be kids, and that’s a big reason why this farm is the right decision for the family.

“You can raise good kids anywhere. You can raise good kids in the military. But for some reason, it seems a lot easier to raise good kids out in the country. I don’t know why that is, but I love it. I love it for them.”

Pastured Providence Farmstead Chillicothe, Ohio | pasturedprovidence.com Find Pastured Providence at the Worthington Farmers Market this summer.

Ohana Farms | Circleville, Ohio | facebook.com/ohanafarmsohio Farmer Veteran Coalition | farmvetco.org

Julia Flint is a freelance writer based in Southeast Ohio.

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Roll Out the One of Ohio’s most distinctive cooperages and the man in charge

By Nancy McKibben • Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

I

n the wooded hills of Ohio’s sparsely populated Appalachia lies the small town of Jackson. It is a 2,100 mile journey—and a climate and a culture—away from Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and the birthplace of Alberto Ramirez, production manager of Speyside Bourbon Cooperage in Jackson.

Edible visited Alberto there to learn about bourbon barrels and the man who directs their manufacture.

A Journey in Wine and Spirits Dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt, Alberto exudes a contained energy, as if ready to spring into action wherever he’s needed.

Alberto, 43, came with friends to California in 1993 to “explore and see something different” for a few months. He found work in a winery, “first on the grape side, then on the barrel side,” where he learned from a master cooper the age-old craft of barrel making.

Alberto also fell in love and married in 1995. “Now I was paying bills, I had responsibilities.” He decided to stay in the country and become a citizen.

Growing up in Jalisco, the heart of tequila country, Alberto knew tequila. This job meant that he had to “develop a taste for wine.” He had become assistant production manager at the wine cooperage when parent company Brown-Forman asked him to move to Louisville, Kentucky, in 2006 to work as production manager at their whiskey cooperage.

From left to right: A Speyside worker inspects a barrel stave. Rows of partially built, or “raised” barrels. A worker inserts the staves into a temporary metal ring, part of the barrel-raising process. Alberto Ramirez, production manager at Speyside, opens the door to the steam tunnel, through which the barrels travel on a conveyor belt. The steam makes the staves pliable enough to bend into the familiar barrel shape. A finished barrel has no glue or nails, but is held together by “pressure and perfect joint.”

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Bourbon Barrel

Alberto chuckles. “Then I had to develop a taste for bourbon.”

The Bourbon Barrel When America was young, Kentucky makers distilled bourbon from a fermented mash (mostly corn) and shipped it down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in barrels made of the region’s plentiful white oak.

It aged en route and was decanted into bottles when it reached its destination. Transportation was expensive, so barrels were not shipped back upriver for re-use.

Eventually, distillers realized that using new barrels made the bourbon taste better. Alberto explains: “There’s a science to it, in drying the wood, understanding that it is a container but it’s also a key ingredient to make products—without new barrels you can’t make Kentucky bourbons.” Indeed, he assures us, “100% of bourbon’s color and 60% of its flavor” comes from the barrel itself as the bourbon moves in and out of the wood.

The barrel is “toasted” using indirect heat, Alberto says “to caramelize the sugars in the white oak cells.” Then, a direct flame chars the barrels’ interiors. Historically, charring was a means of sterilizing and neutralizing any lingering flavors from the barrel’s previous contents. In l935, Congress mandated that bourbon be aged in “charred new oak containers.” Today’s distillers value the char for its ability to further extract the flavors of the oak’s tannic acids and vanillins.

From Master to Manager Alberto’s journey continued: 2010, mill manager at the stave mill in Clifton, Tennessee, learning the business side of cooperage; 2013, production manager at Jack Daniel’s Cooperage in Decatur, Alabama; 2015, a move to Shepherdsville, Kentucky, to oversee the building of a new cooperage, this time employed by Speyside, a subsidiary of French company Tonnellerie François Freres.

“But then this facility in Jackson, Ohio, became available, right where the white oak grows, and Speyside decided to move here.” Aledible COLUMBUS.com

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From left to right: One of Speyside’s coopers, trained by Alberto, disassembles a finished barrel that did not pass inspection.

The cooper will repair, reassemble, and retest the barrel. Alberto shows us one of the steel barrel hoops, whose rivet is embossed with an “S” for Speyside; each finished barrel has six hoops. Opposite: The “char” on the inside of the barrel that helps give bourbon its distinctive flavor. The barrels are charred to the customer’s specifications with a mixture of natural gas and air, then the flames are doused with water. By federal law, bourbon must age in barrels made of “charred new oak.”

berto helped design the layout of the state-of-the-art, 250,000square-foot manufacturing floor, and in 2017 he moved to Jackson with his two children to become cooperage production manager.

Alberto remains modest about his achievement. He says that he is responsible for “everything” at the cooperage, but immediately adds: “I don’t believe in titles. What counts is what you bring to the table, what you do for your people.”

A Barrel of Fun Alberto shows us outside, where four separate yards house towering stacks of freshly milled staves (thin pieces of wood that comprise the barrel), enough for a jaw-dropping 114,000 barrels. After six to nine months of air drying, their moisture content drops from around 60% to 30%.

“Quarter-sawn white oak,” Alberto says, “80% of it comes from a mill 20 miles down the road. We dry the wood very slowly. Too much heat damages wood and fractures the fibers. Then it will break when bent.”

Alberto notes that any scrap lumber and sawdust feed the steam boiler that heats the cooperage, making it self-sustaining.

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which spend four to seven weeks undergoing two more drying processes. At 13% moisture content, the staves move to the drystorage area to await their destiny.

Roll Out the Barrel Compared to the lengthy drying process, barrel making is speedy, to the tune of 1,200 barrels per day. Speyside’s manufacturing line has one aim: to automate each step of barrel making, taking it from a craft to a manufacturing process, always emphasizing employee safety.

For example, stave jointing—the measuring, cutting and planing of each unique stave—is completely computerized, requiring a worker only to feed in and inspect the staves.

Next, to use the cooper’s vernacular, a worker “raises a barrel” by inserting staves into a temporary ring, where they bloom out like flower petals.

Following a trip through the 75-foot-long steam tunnel, the barrel’s staves are pliable enough to bend. The barrels are toasted under 12 burners at 1,000-plus degrees to caramelize the oak sugars, then charred, three barrels at a time, in a protective steel cage.

Once torched with natural gas and air, the barrels catch fire and burn to their desired level of char, an average of 35 seconds, before

water extinguishes the flames. The “heads” (top and bottom) are charred separately in the “pizza oven,” then rolled on edge in melted food-grade wax and “seated” or attached to the barrel.

The pre-finished barrel travels through a cooling line and receives its head, bilge and quarter hoops of black steel, each bearing their brand rivet “S” for Speyside. The barrel itself receives no rivets, no nails, no glue.

Alberto often quizzes his staff: “What holds a barrel together?” The right answer: “Pressure and perfect joint.”

The last step: drilling the barrel’s bunghole in the top or side, depending on the customer’s preference. After a leak test, the finished barrels move in lots of 288 to one of nine loading bays for customer pickup.

A cooper, one of several trained by Alberto himself, stands by to disassemble, repair and reassemble the few barrels that fail the leak test.

Old Barrels Never Die . . .

Speyside’s barrels travel the world. In Columbus, Middle West Spirits’ Ryan Lang calls the barrels “second to none,” adding that “the products produced from their barrels and custom char levels are exceptional.”

Speyside BCI now employs 140, and is still hiring for second shift.

“We are definitely helping the community big time economically,” Alberto says. “Our employees have benefits—dental, medical, 401(k)s and”—he launches his punch line—“they get to work with me.”

He is joking, but he knows his workers by name. Looking back, he is happy with his decision to become a U.S. citizen. His daughter Eileen is poised to attend dentistry school. Son Erik dreams of becoming an aeronautical engineer.

“I’ve been blessed,” Alberto says simply. “The opportunity came along, and I was in the right place at the right time.”

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage is located in Jackson, Ohio, about 90 miles south of Columbus. Find out more at speysidebci.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 Kitschy Cat Alphabet, a rhyming alphabet book in postcards. She is also a novelist, poet and lyricist, the mother of six and the wife of one. View her work at nancymckibben.com; contact her at nmckibben@leader.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY © RACHEL JOY BAREHL

Max Lachowyn, the production manager at Waterside Distillery, praises Speyside’s “impeccable customer service” and their production of a “high-quality barrel right here in Ohio from Ohio oak.” Watershed re-uses the barrels for their Bourbon Barrel Gin.

After 35–40 years of service, a barrel may retire to spend its golden years as a planter, or more ignominiously, as a trash container. Hot tip from Alberto: The hoop rivet on a Cracker Barrel planter will likely carry the letter of its cooperage.

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The Hands That Feed Us Why farmworker rights matter and how every consumer can take action

By Bryn Bird • Photography by Julian Foglietti

W

hen Marshall Branstool, owner of Branstool Orchards in Utica, steps behind his market table filled with fresh peaches and ripe apples many are quick to notice his shirt does not have the well-known Branstool Orchards logo but instead reflects the heart of the business. The T-shirt simply reads, “Immigrants Feed America.”

In today’s political climate it may feel surprising to have a business owner make such a bold statement at what feels like a simple Saturday morning outing. To those within the food chain, however, recent focus on immigration policy is a constant reminder of how essential immigrant labor and families are to our agricultural economy.

Marshall wears his shirt to remind customers who is behind their food.

“People need to be aware and know about the work that goes on for operations of our size. We aren’t large enough to be mechanized and we aren’t small enough for just a family to manage. Our immigrant employees pick each peach and apple by hand.”

Branstool Orchards and other U-pick and agritourism farms are often the only intersection a shopper might have with the labor aspect of the food system. For one afternoon a year a family will pile into the car and drive to the countryside to pick a bushel of apples before paying the farmer for their work. Picking fruit for the afternoon feels like the perfect fall day but the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry requires a labor force of millions.

Statistics vary and are hard to collect given the nature of a migrant and seasonal workforce but according to industry associations 2.5 Opposite: Farmworkers at Branstool Orchards heading out into the orchard for a day’s work. This page: Marshall Branstool, owner of Branstool Orchards, with one of the signs he displays at his farm market on the farm.

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million farmworkers are hired annually. This includes those working to harvest fruits and vegetables as well as farmworkers tending to livestock, ranches, nurseries and fisheries. While we may imagine picturesque scenes of fresh fruit being picked from the vine, for these farmworkers work starts in the late winter to plant, prune, thin, mow grass, spray for disease and pests, build trellising, maintain fencing and infrastructure, harvest, grade, wash, pack and deliver product.

These daily tasks begin before the sun fully rises and last until it sets 14 hours later. For most farmworkers these long hours do not pay off as they would in any other industry. While Branstool Orchards ensures their employees are paid time-and-half, the agriculture industry is exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Farmworkers have the lowest annual family income of any U.S. wage workers—averaging $17,000 to $19,000 a year.

Agriculture, by nature, is unreliable and lacks job security. Produce is perishable and needs to be harvested within a small time frame.

Many farmworkers migrate to follow the harvest between Florida’s winter citrus, California’s spring strawberries, the Midwest’s summer sweet corn and the Carolinas’ fall sweet potato harvest. About 13,700 migrant farm workers travel to Ohio each year through H2A visa programs alone for orchard work.

Most consumers are aware of the notion that “Mexicans pick our food” and in a real sense they are correct. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), immigrants account for 73% of all farmworkers and the survey showed up to 75% of those were born in Mexico. The NAWS survey reported 47% of those foreign born are undocumented immigrants, but farmworker justice surveys have shown up to 70% of the workforce goes undocumented. This is a wide range and no matter which survey results one accepts it still leaves a large portion of the workforce vulnerable.

Fruits and vegetables are not the only products that require a large immigrant population. The poultry, dairy and meatpacking industries depend on immigrant labor. More than half of all dairy workers in the U.S. are immigrants, according to a 2015 industry-sponsored study, and farms that employ immigrant labor produce 79% of the nation’s milk with over half of the immigrant labor coming from Mexico. Declining rural populations, increased herd sizes to increase farm income and family members seeking off-farm jobs for health insurance purposes has shifted family dairy farms to hired staff over the last 20 years. Dairy workers account for the highest-paying farm labor jobs.

In Licking County, Stacey Atherton of Shipley’s Dairy Farm simply says, “We do not look at our immigrant labor as cheap labor. In fact, we look at them as dependable and hardworking employees.”

In this competitive labor market, employees make almost double minimum wage and have stayed employed for over a decade on the

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farm. Stacey has worked hard to learn Spanish to create a better work environment for everyone.

Most consumers may assume the nationality of those employed to harvest their food but most are unaware that an estimated 430,000 under-age children are working in the fields. U.S. labor laws provide no minimum age for children working alongside their parent on small farms with their parent’s permission. Children may work for hire on any farm with parental consent from age 12, and there are no legal limits on the hours children can work in agriculture outside of being enrolled in school fulltime. Industry studies have shown 25% of our food picked in the U.S. is by children as young as 6 years old.

For these children, they will go to school and then join their parents in the field through the afternoon and weekends, often working over 40 hours a week. It is a common misconception that these standards are higher for certified organic produce but the certification process does not have any labor conditions incentives. Our country’s desire for the cheapest food possible, competing with imported goods, has led to a human rights crisis in our fields.

For Columbus Rabbi Jessica Shimberg it was an article similar to this in a 2001 Gourmet magazine that opened her eyes to whose hands were picking her food and the privileged role she had held in the food system.

“My mother gave me an annual gift subscription to Gourmet, because we both enjoyed cooking and reading about great restaurants.

One day, I opened the magazine to a stunning article by Barry Estabrook about the tomato industry. There was a picture of brown hands holding green tomatoes with the town of Immokalee, Florida, listed. I stopped to read the article, recalling that our family had taken a day trip to Immokalee for a boat ride and realizing that the impoverished homes we had driven by housed these migrant farmworkers. Here my family was sightseeing while human rights abuses were occurring within miles of our destination.”

The article was one of the first mainstream publications to shine a light on the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).

The CIW is a worker-based human rights organization organizing the farmworker community since 1993, and was reinforced with the creation of a national consumer network in 2000. In 2011, CIW launched the Fair Food Program (FFP), which focuses on a Workerdriven Social Responsibility (WSR) model based on a unique partnership among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and participating retail buyers. Companies such as Taco Bell, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and more have signed on to this agreement to pay one penny more per tomato and purchase from ethically responsible growers. Other firms continue to resist joining the agreement.

As a rabbinical student, Jessica began to consider more about what it meant for her to keep kosher, not just to obey scriptural laws but also as a spiritual practice of blessing those who cultivate and harvest the

Top: At Branstool Orchards. Bottom: At Shipley’s Dairy Farm.

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At Shipley’s Dairy Farm.

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food. Through this introspective learning, Jessica connected with T’ruah, an organization that brings a rabbinic voice and the power of the Jewish community to protecting and advancing human rights in North America. In October 2012, Jessica spent time in Immokalee learning from the CIW and has worked, locally and nationally, as part of T’ruah’s Tomato Rabbis (#tomatorabbis) ever since.

Rabbi Jessica’s work as the spiritual leader of The Little Minyan Kehilah has allowed her to connect and organize with other Central Ohio faith leaders and with the active Ohio State University Farmworker Alliance. The OSU chapter is a part of a national network of students and youth organizing in partnership with the CIW. Students Rachael Birri and Alex Hoey have been organizing with students on campus. Students volunteer to educate, organize, train and demonstrate the plight of the farmworker. Each year students host farmworkers from Immokalee to share their story. The CIW has been fighting for over 20 years, longer than some student organizers have been alive, but the students say they are not disillusioned and instead view the work of the CIW in holding space in a larger movement inspiring and renewing every time they take action together.

The work to create a fair food system involves protesting with your food dollars every day. Simple choices make a difference, such as buying in-season produce, especially avoiding imported and out-ofseason berries. Buy directly from producers where you can ask about farmworker conditions and seek out farmers like Stacey and Marshall who respect their employees and are grateful for their labor. Joining a

CSA program and purchasing meat and dairy products from those who utilize independent meat processing facilities also helps.

As Rabbi Jessica explains, as fellow human beings, we have an obligation to “do our best to ensure the food we put in our mouths is clean, free of human exploitation; if we can know that basic human rights have not been violated—that those who tend the crops weren’t sprayed by pesticides, that they have adequate bathroom and shade access and are free from sexual assault in the fields and other work locations, why would we choose not to? In this way, the food we eat can truly nourish our bodies and our souls.”

To get involved in Central Ohio visit: Ohio For Fair Food and Farmworker Justice on Facebook. And to learn more, Rabbi Jessica recommends reading I’m Not A Tractor: How Florida Farmworkers Took On the Fast Food Giants and Won (2017) by Susan L. Marquis.

The book chronicles how farmworkers have greatly improved their working conditions on farms and more.

Bryn Bird is a farm girl raised on a dirt road outside Granville.

She grew up raising livestock and produce on her family’s farm, Bird’s Haven. She holds a master’s degree in public health from George Washington University and is now empowering the rural lifestyle through her work as Granville Township Trustee and serving on the Board of Directors for the Ohio Ecological Farm and Food Association and the Ohio Farmers Union.

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HERO

Jodi Kushins Urban Farmer

By Colleen Leonardi Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

What have you learned about urban farming over the last five years at Over the Fence Urban Farm?

No two farms in Columbus are alike; we each have a special niche in the landscape.

This is probably true of all farms, but especially in the city. We’re all experimenting with different models for growing in small spaces and developing markets for our products. That said, everyone I know in this game is dedicated to the idea that what we do makes a positive impact on the lives of people who eat what we produce and on the land that we tend.

Why is community and having a community-supported agriculture share so important to the work you do?

I’m interested in how food binds people to one another and to place. I believe that the stories we tell about the food we eat affects how it tastes. I like food seasoned with local and cooperative flavorings. As I eat a salad, I remember my daughter helping me sow the seeds, Nancy helping me transplant the seedlings and Elizabeth watering from the rain barrel filled by last week’s deluge.

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For a long time I wanted to work in a community garden, to grow alongside other people. I explored a few ideas for starting a community garden in Columbus but was ultimately put off by the hurdles required for working on public land. Using privately owned parcels to house a cooperatively maintained farm has allowed me to cut through the red tape to a large extent. In other ways, it challenges me to define Over the Fence as a community endeavor. We share our work more publicly through our blog and Facebook page. I’m always amazed when I see people across the world are following what we’re doing. We’re part of a global community of growers, not just our local one.

Who are some of your local heroes and how have they shaped your mission and values?

I spent my first three years in Columbus as a resident of the Ohio State University.

Once I graduated and decided to stay in town I volunteered as an organizer with The Community Festival (ComFest).

Working alongside the founding members of that organization, I heard stories about

community-driven initiatives born of the Vietnam War protest era, some still in operation today. I learned a lot from attending planning meetings where every voice was given time. My work with ComFest taught me that Columbus is a city where individuals can, and do, make a difference on large and small projects every day.

What do you love about working with the earth come summertime?

I love stepping out my back door to greet the chickens and check on the plants early in the morning, then staying out with them until the sun goes down. I love feeling the sun toasting my skin and the sweat dripping down my face in the hours in between. I love stuffing myself with vineripened tomatoes, listening to the sounds of birds and gathering flowers. I love trying new recipes and sharing the harvest, alongside some ice-cold beers, with friends around the fire pit.

Learn more about Jodi and her urban farm at overthefenceurbanfarm.com.