edible COLUMBUS | Spring 2018 | Issue No. 32

edible

COLUMBUS THE STORY ON LOCAL FOOD

No. 32 | Spring 2018 Member of Edible Communities

Complimentary

®

SPRING 2018 | CONTENTS

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS 4

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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#EDIBLECOLUMBUS

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THE FORAGER’S NOTEBOOK

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LOCAL AND IN SEASON

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EDIBLE OUTDOORS

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FROM THE KITCHEN

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KITCHENS WE LOVE

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EDIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

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YOGA + FOOD

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EDIBLE WELLNESS

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EDIBLE POETRY

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ADVERTISER DIRECTORY

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LOCAL HERO

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WILLOWBEEZ SOULVEG Cultivating a community around vegan and vegetarian soul food in Columbus

By Nicole Rasul, Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

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DANCING COOKS BalletMet on good eats, nutrition and bringing creativity to the kitchen

By Colleen Leonardi, Photography by Courtney Hergesheimer

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MAKING FOOD PHOTOS SING With an eye for beauty, four Columbus-based artists on creatively capturing food

By Nancy McKibben, Photography by Bridget Henry, Maria Khoroshilova, Maria Siriano and Rachel Joy Barehl

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A PLACE IN THE WORLD How 4-H provides endless opportunities for Central Ohio youth

By Callie Wells, Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

RECIPES 14 15 16 29

Asparagus alla Primavera Lemony Quinoa Cakes Chewy Almond Macaroons The Brain-Belly Recipe for Mindful Eating

COVER Painting by © Sharon Teuscher, sharonteuscher.com

THIS PAGE Photo by © Maria Khoroshilova

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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L

ife is full of grief. That’s why I cook and make art. I like to think each issue of Edible Columbus is a work of art.

And while our subject matter is local, sustainable food and farming, there is a tangible beauty to the stories we tell— enough beauty to warrant pause and admiration, as one would a painting, ballet or piano sonata.

PUBLISHER

Franklin County Farm Bureau EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Colleen Leonardi CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Steve Berk COPY EDITORS

Susanna Cantor & Doug Adrianson DIGITAL & DESIGN EDITOR

So, for our ninth year in print we share stories about the relationships between food and art, nature and the soul, as a way to begin the year. We offer an issue to sit down with and cultivate a place in print to be quiet and reflect, as lilacs blossom and American Goldfinches find their way back to Ohio.

There is wisdom among these pages from young and old alike. We’re excited to feature three new departments for the year—one dedicated to the intersections between yoga and food, one to cultivating a “Mindful Kitchen” and “Edible Poetry,” which will feature poems about food each season. We had a blast in the kitchen with BalletMet, and we bow down to Willowbeez Soulveg and the inspiring work they’re practicing with souls and food in Columbus. Our story about

Evan Schlarb EDITORIAL INTERNS

4-H gave me hope during a week when mass shootings of our youth have officially become a horrific normal, a deep grief we, as adults, must come to terms with, if we are to have a next generation.

Lynn Marie Donegan & Hana Estice

The rest I’ll let speak for itself. Let’s begin, then, with art by two local authors and artists—Donn Vickers and Michael J. Rosen.

PHOTOGRAPHY & ILLUSTRATION

May you travel with spring this season.

Eat Well, Love Well, Live Well,

Colleen

Traveling with Spring This year, spring arrived on time.

Daffodils once more, then lilacs,

DESIGN Melissa Petersen WEB DESIGNER

Edible Feast & Kjeld Petersen

Rachel Joy Barehl • Bridget Henry Courtney Hergesheimer Maria Khoroshilova • Michael J. Rosen Maria Siriano • Sharon Teuscher WRITERS

Rick Benjamin • Anthony Bresnen Lynn Marie Donegan • Julia Flint Erika Galentin • Colleen Leonardi Nancy McKibben • Nicole Rasul Polly Rich • Michael J. Rosen Evan Schlarb • Donn Vickers Stephanie Wapner • Callie Wells • Kit Yoon CONTACT US

P.O. Box 21-8376 Columbus, Ohio 43221 info@ediblecolumbus.com ediblecolumbus.com Edible Columbus

@ediblecbus

@ediblecolumbus

flooding the land with fragrance, then fading to allow peonies their day.

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

And so it was from south to north,

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.

across backyards and hillsides, spring advanced its seventeen miles a day scattering buds and blossoms with an abundance that filled the last of winter’s barren places, confirming what made hope seem right.

—by Donn Vickers, with original artwork featured above by Michael J. Rosen

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steve@ediblecolumbus.com

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#ediblecolumbus Share your edible endeavors with us on Instagram via #ediblecolumbus!

Here are a few of our recent favorites... —Evan Schlarb

Top: @thespiffycookie, @alicia.wanders, @joshskitchn Middle: @areyoukitchenme, @jessicakapusta, @acityexplored Bottom: @theleangreenbean, @seminaryhillfarm, @mama_sang71

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A FORAGER’S NOTEBOOK

Spring Tonics Gathering cleavers, chickweed and violet leaf for renewed energy and spirits

By Erika Galentin, MNIMH, RH (AHG), Clinical Herbalist, Sovereignty Herbs Illustrations by Sharon Teuscher

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t has been a brisk morning, steam rising from my morning coffee, as I await the light dusting of frost to melt by the mid-day sun. I have gathered the equipment of the foraging herbalist: my hands and my harvesting basket. I will not have to wander far today to find the tonic herbal allies I am searching for. As only “weeds” do, they grow in perfect abundance on this small acre opening on the edge of the woods where I live. I am fortunate, you see, to live on land free from polluting influences such as road runoff, pesticides or pedestrians and their pets. It is a safe place to grow herbs, and to harvest them in the wild.

In the woods surrounding my home, the ramps are starting to rise and any day now its shady hollows will be carpeted with the leopard-spotted leaves of white and yellow trout lilies, nodding heads of trillium flowers and the blushing of hepaticas. As when emerging from the darkest places, we feel the most alive. This is Ohio’s spring season.

I walk up the hill behind my house and follow the tree line to a patch of cleavers 8

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(Galium aparine) that I have had my eyes on for a few weeks. It has grown tall and juicy, clinging to the various clumps of fescue interspersed with sassafras seedlings and skeletons of last year’s fleabane. This is a wonderful herb for supporting the lymphatic system, a body system that is not only involved in the absorption and distribution of dietary fats, but that which houses our immune response and which filters our blood plasma. Herbalists of old wrote in metaphor of cleavers being the perfect herb to clarify the “waters of the body.” This patch of cleavers will be tinctured fresh in alcohol for clinical use.

I will also be adding some cleavers, which are packed full of minerals, to my infamous “Spring Tonic Vinegar” as well as juicing some and freezing them in ice cube trays to add to morning smoothies. The key here is fresh (no drying for cleavers), for I was taught and have always believed the true benefits of this herb come from its juices.

Harvesting is a breeze. I giggle as I pull from my clothing stalks of the plant that would rather cleave to my sleeves than go into the basket.

My next stop will be one of my production gardens, a dedicated space for medicinal herbs that I rotate in and out after harvesting in the fall. On my way, however, I will be taking a knee for the bright-eyed common blue violet flowers (Viola sororia) and their heart-shaped leaves that have only just started to make a show amongst the brave dandelion flowers. The violet flowers are slightly sweet to the taste and will make such a lovely addition to our dinner salad this evening (they also make a delightful garnish on cakes and pastries).

The real work of the common blue violet harvest, however, will be that of the leaves, as I crawl upon the earth, combing the lawn for the perfect specimens. Violet leaf is one of my most cherished demulcents, a term used by herbalists to indicate an herb’s cooling and moistening nature. Full of complex sugar molecules known to form a gooey, snotty substance called mucilage, I turn to violet leaf to cool and soothe mucous membranes of respiratory systems, which have become hot and irritable with seasonal allergies. Violet leaf helps to “put

LOCAL AND IN SEASON

What to Eat From the Farm Asparagus Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cilantro Collards Kale Microgreens Mustard greens Peas Radishes Rhubarb Spinach Strawberries Swiss chard Turnip greens

out the fire,” so to speak, and like cleavers is best used fresh.

When I arrive at my final harvesting destination, I am greeted by a verdant entanglement of chickweed (Stellaria media) blanketed upon the soil of the garden.

Most handfuls go to the basket, but on occasion I have been known to shove an entire fistful into my mouth, savoring the cucumber-like watery crispness of this incredible edible and medicinal plant. It has a long and trustworthy reputation as an alterative, or “blood-cleanser.” With its cooling, moistening properties, it is often employed by herbalists for manifestations of “excess heat in the blood” as may be interpreted from the presence of inflammation of the joints and the skin.

I prefer to eat as much chickweed in the spring as I can, adding it to my Spring Tonic Vinegar, hummus, pesto and, of course, mounding it atop of spring green salads.

I arrive on my back porch, kicking the mud off my boots before taking them off to enter the house. I separate the herbs, violet leaf

from flower, from long strands of chickweed and cleavers. It has been a spectacular, rejuvenating day. I have been nibbling on this collected bounty every step of the way. I can feel my body and my mind imbibing the lightness, freshness and vitality of these spring herbal allies. I am feeling vital, too, and looking forward to capturing the progress of the spring season with my bare hands and harvesting basket.

From the Forest* Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) Bedstraw, Cleavers (Galium aparine) Black Raspberry Leaves (Rubus) Chickweed (Stellaria media) Clover (Trifolium pratense) Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) Morel Mushrooms (Morchella) Mustard (Brassica nigra) Plantain (Plantago)

Erika Galentin is a clinical herbalist and an ITEC certified clinical aromatherapist consulting from Sovereignty Herbs, Athens, Ohio. She holds a degree in herbal medicine from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, and Scottish School of Herbal Medicine, Glasgow, UK. She is a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK) and the American Herbalists Guild (USA).

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) Sweet Violet (Viola Odorata) Wild Carrot/Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) Wild Lettuce (Lactuca canadensis) Wild Onion, Ramp (Allium canadense,

Allium tricoccum)

Visit ediblecolumbus.com for Erika’s recipe for her spring tonic vinegar and chickweed and violet leaf hummus.

*Visit ediblecolumbus.com for a full list of native, wild edibles to forage for this spring.

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EDIBLE OUTDOORS

Bee Native Tips to help the endangered rusty patched bumble bee

By Anthony Bresnen

W

hen you think of the word “bee,� you probably think about a fuzzy, fat-bodied creature buzzing about from plant to plant in your backyard. These creatures are not honey bees, but a group of native species referred to as bumble bees.

Bumble bees are very important to our landscape, and provide humans a great service by pollinating native plants and agricultural crops. Like honey bees, bumble bees live in colonies led by a single female, called a queen. The queen overwinters just below the ground, usually under leaf litter, grass or other cover. The queen emerges in the spring, and begins feeding on the nectar of early spring flowers while she looks for a nest site, where she will lay eggs that will become workers for the colony. A bumble bee colony can be as large as 50 individuals by summer. In the late summer and fall, young female queens leave the colony to find overwintering sites and wait for spring.

Unfortunately, bumble bees in Ohio and across the United States have been on the decline in recent decades.

Several species of bumble bees are utilized for the pollination of crops in greenhouses.

But when those bees escape, they interact with wild bumble bees, and can pass on disA rare photo of a rusty patched bumble bee 10

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“Rusty patched bumble bees have only been confirmed in Ohio at a few locations since 2000.”

eases or pests to which native populations have no defense.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE. PHOTO BY © KEITH LOTT, A BIOLOGIST AT THE USFWS.

Land development has also reduced bumble bee numbers by replacing areas of native plants with housing or industry. Typically, as a consequence of development, pesticide use to protect landscaping kills most remaining insects indiscriminately, including native bee species.

taking a bee photo and submitting it to the Ohio Bee Atlas at go.osu.edu/ohiobeeatlas.

This will help researchers get a better idea of bee distribution across Ohio.

Ways to Help Our Bees • •

Finally, changes in climate can influence when certain flowers bloom, which can be disastrous for bees that depend on consist food sources from early spring to late fall.

As a direct result of the threats bees face, in 2017 the rusty patched bumble bee became the first bee listed as state and federally endangered, a result of dramatic declines of this species throughout its range. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, populations have declined 87% in the past 20 years. Historically the bees are found in the eastern United States (including Ohio) and southern Canada, and a lack of confirmed sightings could mean the species is in danger of becoming extinct. Rusty patched bumble bees have only been confirmed in Ohio at a few locations since 2000.

But you can help. This spring and summer, look for bees, especially the rusty patched bumble bee, which can be identified by a reddish patch that is located about halfway down its abdomen. If you can, consider

•

Provide native flowers during all growing seasons (spring, summer and fall).

To help overwintering and nesting queens, leave an area of your yard unmowed and allow leaves to remain on the ground. If this not an option, you can create a small composting area in the corner of your yard to leave grass clippings, leaves or other landscape material for insects to use.

Avoid using pesticides. Use naturefriendly products in spot treatments that will rid you of pests but keep the bees and other pollinators around. Diatomaceous earth, salt sprays and soap water sprays (using pure, natural liquid soaps) can all be used.

Anthony 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.

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FROM THE KITCHEN

Primavera

PHOTO BY CAROLE TOPALIAN

By Polly Rich & Colleen Leonardi • In Partnership with Williams Sonoma

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rimavera means “spring” in Italian. And nothing says spring like asparagus breaking ground with its nimble, soft spear to find sunlight and grow. We offer a primavera that is simple and light and can be modified for the gluten-free among us. We also share a lemony take on quinoa cakes (for gluten-free folks, too). These vegetarian cakes are great because you can make a batch and then store them over the week, reheating as needed and enjoying at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Almond Macaroons pair well with your favorite sorbet (we like mango) and are soft on the palate, and the gluten-free belly. Sensing a theme? Look for more gluten-free vegetarian and vegan recipes this spring at ediblecolumbus.com. Eat well, love well, live well this spring. —CL edible COLUMBUS.com

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ASPARAGUS ALLA PRIMAVERA Adapted from the New York Times, Melissa Clark Serves 4 ¼ pound snap peas, trimmed ends ¾ pound asparagus, trimmed tips (save stalks for another day) 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 shallot, finely chopped 1–2 clove garlic, finely chopped 12 ounces of fettuccine (can substitute gluten-free pasta) ¾ cup Parmesan, grated and room temperature ½ cup plain Skyr Icelandic or Greek yogurt, room temperature 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped 1½ tablespoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped ¾ teaspoon sea salt Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

Heat butter in saucepan. Sauté shallot, snap peas and asparagus tips. Cook about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in garlic for about one more minute. Season with salt and freshly cracked pepper then let cool.

Cook pasta in boiling water, maybe 5–6 minutes until al dente. Can use fresh pasta. Then drain and transfer to a medium bowl and immediately toss with vegetables and herbs. Plate and top with Parmesan, yogurt and a sprig of tarragon. Mangia—a taste of spring!

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA KHOROSHILOVA

Slice snap peas and asparagus tips into ½ inch pieces.

LEMONY QUINOA CAKES Adapted from Super Natural Everyday by Heidi Swanson Serves 3–4

2½ cups cooked white quinoa, room temperature 4 eggs, beaten ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt ½ cup fresh chives, finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped Zest and juice of 1 lemon 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Cook quinoa following directions on package, then let cool to room temperature.

Whisk eggs together and combine with quinoa and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in chives, shallot, lemon zest and juice, cheese and garlic. Add bread crumbs and let sit for 5 minutes.

Form 1-inch thick cakes the size of your palm with quinoa batter. If mixture is too wet to shape, add more bread crumbs, or vice versa if too dry, until desired consistency is achieved.

⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan

Heat olive oil in a nice, heavy skillet. Fry 6 cakes at a time, covering and cooking for about 7–10 minutes per side until nicely browned.

gluten-free)

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy hot or cold.

1 cup bread crumbs (can substitute 1 tablespoon olive oil Salt and pepper to taste

“You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces — just good food from fresh ingredients.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA KHOROSHILOVA

—Julia Child

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CHEWY ALMOND MACAROONS Adapted from Saveur Magazine Makes approximately 12 macaroons

7 ounces almond paste, grated (do not use marzipan)

⅛ cup superfine sugar

Preheat oven to 375°.

Mix the grated almond paste with the sugar and salt. Do not over mix. Adding the liqueur, work the dough into a smooth batter.

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Disaronno liqueur

⅓ cup powdered sugar

Sift the powdered sugar into a separate mixing bowl. Using a tablespoon, scoop out small rounds of the batter and coat with powdered sugar. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet 1-inch apart.

Take the top of the macaroon and pinch it with first finger and thumb to make a little mountain at the center of the cookie.

Let macaroons sit for 20 minutes to dry. Then bake for 10 minutes until lightly brown.

Watch carefully—they burn quickly. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy soon after, or store in airtight container for later to maintain softness.

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KITCHENS WE LOVE

Cook’s Paradise

By Lynn Marie Donegan • Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

“A very modern,

are just great…the people in Ohio in general are wonderful,” she adds.

unique twist on an old classic,” is how Christine Schillinger describes her Columbus, Ohio kitchen. Located in historic German Village, Christine’s brick home was built in the early 1900s, but her gourmet kitchen was designed and remodeled by the previous owner in 2010.

Christine and her husband, Steve, moved to Ohio from California in 2015 and quickly fell in love with German Village.

Featuring gray limestone floor tiles arranged in a herringbone pattern, chic black cabinetry and white marble countertops, this kitchen would certainly be any cook’s paradise. Ample glass-front cabinets not only attractively display dishware, but also make it easy to locate what is needed when cooking.

“It’s a great place to live in the city, definitely,” says Christine, “And the people here

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Christine and Steve are more than happy to share their kitchen with their guests. “We definitely love having people here,” says

Christine. In addition to periodic dinner parties, they host an annual Christmas gathering with their friends, as well as an Easter brunch every year which feeds around fortyfive people. Last year, Christine hosted the German Village House & Garden Show dinner, totaling about twenty people.

“One of the things I love about this house and this neighborhood is just the sense of community that German Village has, and being surrounded by other people who also like to cook helps makes this really a fun kitchen to play in,” she says.

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EDIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

Temple of Juice A life of music leads to a business rooted in simplicity, offering juices a cut above the rest

By Julia Flint • Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

G

reg Gould didn’t plan on starting a raw, organic juice business. He was asked to.

After he and a friend started juicing together in May 2015, he was impressed by how good he felt. He shared his passion for juice with friends, and one asked if he could purchase juice from him.

Greg was reluctant, but agreed. Then he posted on Facebook to see if anyone else was interested.

After receiving a flood of responses in a few hours, Temple of Juice was born.

Inside Temple Doors Greg, who is also a musician, describes art as an opportunity to foster a sense of connection among people. Art, whether music or painting or literature, acts as a catalyst to create, in his words, “a shared experience that allows us to connect, to find common space, to see the world in a certain way.”

Food also can serve as such a catalyst, and Temple of Juice is a testament to that. Evidenced in Greg’s conversations with customers, the coaching on which juices will be a good fit and the camaraderie of taking juice “shots,” creating and sustaining connections is a foundation of the business.

Blend and Be Well For Greg, the benefits of juicing were immediate.

“I instantly felt better,” Greg said about his introduction to juicing. “It was an instantaneous response of, ‘This is what my body wants.’”

Temple of Juice blends are not pasteurized, nor are they cold pressed, as is common in commercial juices. Greg discovered that certain produce works best with certain

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juicers and he opted for a more creative approach to his production. Each ingredient is juiced individually and then combined into the final blend. The method, Greg says, is more involved, but the result is a juice that he knows from experience is packed with nutrition and health benefits.

Physically, he says he is healthier, and chronic health problems essentially aren’t an issue anymore.

“It’s a pretty laborious process and we don’t get the yield we would out of an industrial cold press machine. But what I know is that when I drink our juice, I feel better.”

Hippocrates’ “Let thy food be thy medicine” serves as a tagline for Temple of Juice and is a testament to the health benefits Greg has experienced through juicing.

There are three primary blends offered through Temple of Juice: Green, Beet and Carrot. Each blend has a specific niche— green for gut health, beet for energy and carrot for antioxidants (as well as a boost to skin, hair and nails).

Each of the three blends is also divided into three levels. Level one juices are targeted at the novice juicer, designed so that natural sweetness (from apples or carrots for example) is a dominant flavor. The level two and three blends still have that sweetness but incorporate more savory, spicy, powerful flavors into the mix— think ginger, turmeric or cayenne.

“I’ve had chronic skin issues my whole life— psoriasis, eczema, rosacea—and I’ve basically cured all that without any medicine.”

The name, Temple of Juice, is rooted in the idea of the body as a temple, as sacred.

The idea for the name came out of conversations Greg had with a friend on how their spirituality is connected to health.

“When I say spirituality, I mean my connection to my friends and to family and to what I do. It’s really centered in how I treat myself, and how I treat my body.”

You can find Temple of Juice at 260 Market St., Suite B1, New Albany, Ohio 43054; 614-758-7449; templeofjuice.com; facebook.com/templeofjuice; Instagram: @templeofjuice.

Julia is a freelance writer based in Southeast Ohio. She can be reached at julia.m.flint@gmail.com.

Greg understands that the more intense flavors may not work for everyone, at least not at first. To find the right fit for each person, Temple of Juice also offers coaching. This is an option for those who may not know where to begin or who want guidance incorporating juices into their daily routine.

A Personal Path Greg began juicing as a way to take his health into his own hands—an honest and hopeful attempt to feel better. He now is sober for almost three years. He quit eating meat and committed to working out. Mentally, he says he feels sharper.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

What’s Left on the Table How OSU is using technology to reduce what we don’t eat

By Stephanie Wapner

D

r. Brian Roe wants you to bring your phone to dinner.

The Van Buren Professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics has teamed up with one of his doctoral candidates to create a new smartphone app that will use photographs to monitor and measure food wasted in each step of the consumption process. The need for research like this is urgent and timely. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food waste in the United States is estimated at between 30 and 40% of the food supply, an estimated loss of $162 billion and 133 billion pounds of food.

Agriculture is the family business. Brian grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and his father and brother still run the farm, which now grows commercial soy and corn. During his 20 years at The Ohio State University (OSU) he has studied the impact of reformatting food labels and the impact of claims made by supplement manufacturers.

His interdisciplinary work on food waste brings together issues related to business, sustainability, hunger, efficiency and municipal waste.

The app was initially developed as part of a doctoral student’s dissertation research. Danyi Qi was interested in studying food waste but needed more and higher quality data than was available. She and Brian, her advisor, identified a group at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, which had developed an app to monitor food intake. They were successfully measuring gross caloric intake within 4% accuracy. Danyi and Brian saw an opportunity to use similar technology to track food waste. They reached out to their colleagues at Louisiana State who were willing to collaborate.

They applied to OSU for a seed grant, then to the USDA for a grant to create and test the app, which is now in Beta testing and will go into pilot testing in March.

“We developed an app called SmartIntake® to measure food intake based on images of peoples’ food selection and plate waste,” says Corby Martin, professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “With this app, food intake was determined by subtracting plate waste from food selection. The app accurately estimated plate waste, which led to our partnership with Dr. Roe and OSU to build upon our technology and apply it to measuring food waste. We believe that this is a novel method for people to easily know how much food they are wasting.”

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App users upload smartphone pictures to the app, and they are stored on one of Louisiana State’s servers. People rate each photo and measure the amount of food wasted. Users can also add photos of shopping receipts and the waste accumulated during cooking preparation to measure the amount of groceries that go unused, as well as what they discard when they clean out their refrigerators and cabinets.

During the pilot testing phase, researchers will validate the raters’ accuracy; first in a lab setting and then 40 test subjects will use the app at home for four weeks.

Once validated, an app that can track and measure food waste has exciting implications for homes, restaurants and schools. Brian says that by “accumulating data on food that consistently goes to waste, professional chefs and educational dining services operators can adjust ingredients and portions to better meet consumer needs, reducing waste and controlling costs in the process.”

Partnering with Zia Ahmed, senior director of Ohio State’s Dining Services, they are working on a pilot program to photograph students’ trays as they are returned and measure how much and what kinds of food are thrown away.

Brian and Danyi envision a future where households can self-rate their food and even their energy and water waste. Quantitative data on dollars and cents lost may create more of a sense of urgency towards driving sustainable behavior among organizations and individuals.

For more information about Brian’s research and Ohio State’s efforts to alleviate food insecurity, please visit the Food Innovation Center’s website at fic.osu.edu/.

Mark your calendar for a special event in collaboration with Gateway Film Center for their kick-off to GFC's Columbus Documentary Week on April 26 with Wasted! The Story of Food Waste. Visit ediblecolumbus.com for event details.

Stephanie Wapner, Ph.D., studies, teaches and writes about leadership and governance issues in higher education. She and her husband live in Bexley with their two sons.

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YOGA + FOOD

A Nourishing Practice Relationships between a life in yoga and food

By Evan Schlarb Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

M

any on our team at Edible Columbus find meaning in the practice of yoga. In this issue, we asked three Columbus-based yoga practitioners how their yoga practice and nutritional preferences have informed each other. Here’s what they had to say.

“We deserve to find pleasure in food and in our lives.”

Teresa Eigel

Roderick Huelsman

People usually turn to yoga to “fix” something—”I want to touch my toes,” “I want to feel less stressed,” etc. Yet we end up finding out that it’s so much more than we came for.

I began practicing Ashtanga yoga in April of 2015. Six months later I became a vegan. Yoga and veganism are closely connected for me.

Ahimsa or nonviolence is a governing principle in yoga and is the most important principle in veganism.

I practiced sporadically for several years. When I started practicing regularly, I was able to recognize how separate my physical and emotional bodies had become. My true relationship with my body was kind of scary and painful to come face-to-face with. My relationship with food was one of guilt and unworthiness. I tried all the diets and cleanses I could find. I wasn’t even really enjoying what I ate; all I cared about was that it was low in calories.

Yoga encouraged my process of working through all the emotions I had been forcing down. I finally slowed down enough to hear the back-and-forth dialogue that had been there all along when I consumed food. It taught me to just be gentler with myself, more forgiving. I started to actually enjoy cooking and eating.

Today I feel freedom. I am able to see food for its beauty and nourishment for our bodies. We are beautiful just the way we are now, nothing we need to fix. We deserve to find pleasure in food and in our lives.

Teresa Eigel has been a yoga practitioner for 11 years. She is an avid runner and cyclist. Now her “normal” diet consists mostly of fruits and vegetables, and plenty of sweet baked goods. Find her blog at peacelovewholefood.com and on Instagram and Facebook at @peace.love.wholefood.

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I met Taylor Hunt and he invited me to his Shala at Ashtanga Yoga Columbus (AYC). I fell in love with the practice and before long the thought of eating animals became weirder and weirder. When I first declared my veganism I knew that I couldn’t just live off of salad, and I didn’t want to eat a bunch of imitation meats. There was some trial and error in the beginning, but then through the community at AYC I was introduced to Ayurvedic medicine, learned about my dosha and refined my diet through research and listening to my body.

If I can’t convince you through my example to go vegan or to take up a daily Ashtanga practice, I do strongly urge you to reduce your usage of animal products, learn about your Ayurvedic dosha and exercise. These are my boring secrets to balanced and vital life.

Roderick Huelsman of Avery’s Kitchen is an entrepreneur spreading

awareness about how satisfying and healthy plant-based eating can be.

For information about future events follow @averyskitchen012018 on Instagram and Avery’s Plant Based Kitchen on Facebook.

Top left, bottom left and bottom right: Teresa Eigel of Peace Love Whole Food Right top and middle: Roderick Huelsman of Avery’s Kitchen

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Joanie Delph As I gave in to an Ashtanga yoga practice, I noticed that my aches and pains were being replaced by strengthening pain, but in addition, my life was healing in ways I could not have imagined. My happiness was becoming stronger than my unhappiness.

There was more. Out of my yoga journey came an introduction to Ayurveda, which gave me “the food piece.” Considered “the sister to yoga,” Ayurveda taught that most disease starts with poor digestion and how to change these habits. Ayurveda encouraged me to pay attention to what foods I ate when, and to say “Thank you” when cutting a vegetable, appreciating its addition to my life, which could actually empower that food’s effect.

I developed the habit of running to comfort food soon after practice. Months later, those same foods became intolerable.

“Why?” I asked my teacher. “This is very deep work, dear,” she said,

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“and initially we may turn to heavy foods and habits that curb emotions releasing from our yogic work. Later, the yoga starts teaching us what we need and don’t need in creative, various ways that are not always without frustration.”

Of course, she said all with a smile.

Yoga and food cannot be separated, as the true goal of yoga is to unite consciousness with the “self.” If we open to loving, healthful actions, whether we do them all or not, slowly, slowly the new habits might win.

Joanie Delph, Ashtanga yoga teacher and Ayurveda presenter, studies

in India as well as the United States, to provide a well-rounded view of yoga and Ayurveda’s higher offerings in class and workshop format. She also enjoys cooking, food-growing, meditating and researching. Find Joanie on Facebook or email her at: Joanie.d@hotmail.com.

EDIBLE WELLNESS

The Mindful Kitchen New season, new thoughts around food

By Kit Yoon

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f you are reading this, it is likely that you love food. You love eating it, cooking it, reading about it. Food is a wonderful thing.

Yet food can be complicated: it can represent so many things, feelings and triggers.

Some people may have negative associations with certain foods. Perhaps they may have had bad physical reactions to them (food poisoning or food allergies), or have a traumatic experience linked to foods.

Food can be whatever we label it. Food is inanimate and the relationship we have with it is entirely one-directional. Yet for most of us, food is so much more than fuel. We often assign food certain roles and responsibilities.

As we connect our emotions with food, it not only feeds our body, but also our soul.

When making conscious decisions around food and eating, we can sometimes choose to be content with our relationship with food and allow it to fuel our body, mind and spirit in positive ways. It then becomes a satisfying experience, and does not create negative results in our lives.

When we are unconsciously eating, however, we can create challenges around food and end up with negative consequences. From unwanted weight gain to emotional rollercoaster-like feelings of guilt and shame, unconscious eating can be very frustrating.

Unconscious eating is a mindless action. It happens when we are in a hypnotic trancelike state—when we eat without realizing what or how much we are consuming.

During these moments, we are often eating out of emotions. Mindless eating leads to

overeating, which is when we eat more than what the body requires to function.

So if you love food, but also feel that you have a complicated relationship with it, worry not.

There is nothing wrong with you. In fact, you are proving that you are 100% human.

Our brain has evolved to protect us by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. What is happening during emotional eating is nothing more than a built-in coping mechanism to keep us alive because we are distracting ourselves from feeling emotional pain. The challenge is this: overeating can result in another form of pain, namely unhappy mind, unhealthy body and excess weight. Essentially, when we overeat, we are avoiding one kind of pain (perhaps anxiety or sadness) to create another kind of pain (indigestion or weight gain).

cleansing and growth. This is the perfect time to practice mind-body connection and allow mindful seeds to germinate and grow, to start anew, to become the best version of you.

The first “recipe” for this mindful kitchen is a brain-belly connection exercise. This exercise will help you pause and be more present with your food choices so you can enjoy food and realize its positive benefits.

Learn more about Kit Yoon at bexleyacupuncture.com.

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The good news is that the brain also evolved to be able to solve problems. If mindless, overeating is causing you “pain,” oftentimes the brain can find solutions to the problem. And a wonderful way to use the brain’s potential is to activate it toward nourishing the mind-body connection.

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Each season in this column, we will be cooking up thoughts and “recipes” in the mindful kitchen. Our goal: to strengthen our mind-body connection and our relationship with food. This practice will encourage us to enjoy food, allow it to nourish our body and live in a naturally healthy body weight.

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Spring is the perfect time to feed the brain new information and reframe habits and behaviors. The energy of spring is one of

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THE BRAIN-BELLY RECIPE FOR MINDFUL EATING Before you eat, pause and take a breath, and put your attention to your belly.

Feel your literal stomach, which in its healthy size is the size of your fist.

Pause and ask yourself: “Am I physically hungry?”

On the scale of 0–10, 0 being an empty belly and 10 being an overfilled belly, where are you on the scale?

If you are at 5 and above, you will practice the art of pausing and decide to not eat. Eating beyond level 5 is overeating and it will cause negative results (indigestion, physical discomfort, weight gain).

If you are under level 5, assess and see how much food you need to fuel your body.

If you require fuel, enjoy your food, up to the satisfied level, and then you will stop.

Repeat every time there is a question about eating/food.

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Willowbeez Soulveg

Cultivating a community around vegan and vegetarian soul food in Columbus

By Nicole Rasul • Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

“Ivy hates

mushrooms and she don’t rock with curry,” Carnell Willoughby says over a cup of coffee at Upper Cup Coffee Co. on Parsons Avenue.

He is telling me the story of how he transformed his Aunt Ivy’s sautéed cabbage into his own.

Carnell’s curry cabbage, featuring cabbage with green peppers and mushrooms, seasoned with garlic, sea salt and Jamaican curry powder, is a signature dish at Willowbeez Soulveg, a Columbus-based pop-up restaurant and catering operation specializing in vegan and vegetarian soul food owned by Carnell and his brother Malik.

“I didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur,” Carnell says. From a family of eight siblings, the curry cabbage was an instant hit at Willoughby get-togethers, a monumental feat considering Ivy’s celebrated family chef status.

As we talk, the doors of the coffee shop open and close and many a visitor stop to greet Carnell and Malik, who grew up nearby. It was in this space that their first pop-up was held in 2012. Carnell breaks

out into an infectious smile recounting the story of that first culinary dive: When he arrived to set up there was already a line of customers waiting, they sold out of food quickly, and it was the highest-grossing day in the history of the coffee shop.

It’s the same scenario when I stop by The Hills Market Downtown on a recent Friday afternoon during one of Willowbeez’s twice-weekly lunchtime pop-ups in the space. Halfway into their allotted time at the market, they’re mostly sold out, though Carnell has a salad to offer while he fries me up a “Soul Power Roll,” a spring roll filled with quinoa, lentils and mushrooms. He moves smoothly between his work behind the counter and connecting with the crowd. Everyone in the room seems to know him personally.

His nephew, who is working the counter with him, tells me: “Hunter got the last Black Power Slider, if you want to check it out.” He points to a hipster dressed for the office in the corner snacking on a black bean, quinoa and portabella mushroom slider.

Over coffee at Upper Cup, Hunter’s name was also mentioned. A Willowbeez devotee

and now friend, Hunter attends nearly every pop-up that Carnell and Malik offer.

That is the magic of Willowbeez Soulveg.

They sell out more often than not. Meet the charismatic Willoughby brothers once and you’re a convert, supporter and friend.

Their soul food transcends boundaries with a diverse base of followers attracted to plant-based fare rooted in AfricanAmerican cuisine.

The Birth of a Food Entrepreneur One night in 2009 Malik had a life-changing dream. He woke up and called Carnell. The Zen-like brother to his sibling’s creative personality, Malik dreamt of a restaurant serving up the family’s food but in a healthy way that “keeps the pipes clean.”

“On the menu was the curry cabbage,” Malik says. “I had this dream and I knew it could be manifested in power food. It had to be branded: Willow like a tree, bee like a honeybee.” From there Willowbeez Soulveg, a play on the brothers’ last name, was born.

Carnell Willoughby, co-founder and co-owner of Willowbeez Soulveg.

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Weeks and months passed. Carnell drafted menus and hung them on the fridge. He tested recipes in his home kitchen.

Then, one fateful day in 2012, he went to 400 W. Rich St. and discovered the 400 Farmers Market.

“It was in a warehouse and there were trapeze artists and break-dancers and all of this stuff going on,” Carnell says. “People were selling granola. There were farmers with produce. It was just really cool. It was new school mixed with old school.”

Carnell met one of the organizers and she asked him what he could sell. Initially hesitant, Carnell remarked that he just wanted to thank her for the experience. However, the seed had been sown. He paid his $10 weekly fee (at the time, the market was held every Saturday morning), borrowed a table and crockpot, and launched Willowbeez Soulveg with curry cabbage and cornbread. He quickly sold out his first morning at the market.

The Power of Community Willowbeez offers their lunchtime pop-up restaurant at The Hills Market Downtown.

The brothers have also sold their food at various spots in Columbus such as Two Dollar Radio Headquarters and the Hot Times Festival.

Last year, Willowbeez was a food vendor for the Cap City Nights Festival, held several times a year at community centers in traditionally underserved neighborhoods. They have also provided cooking demos at healthy intervention initiatives organized by the city, nonprofits and community groups. This work is at the heart of Willowbeez’s mission.

“We want to transfer the best of our energy to those we serve,” Carnell says. “There are enough businesses in our community that are destructive. We want to wrap our arms around the community through our food.”

Noting that the soul of their plant-based food is love, Malik adds, “It’s a business and we expect a return on our investment, but we also want to make sure we’re doing the right thing so that at the end of the day we can rest well.”

What’s on the horizon for the brothers Willoughby and their plant-based power food?

Whenever they can, Carnell and Malik try to reinvest in their community. Desserts are often sourced from friends in their neighborhood trying to gain an entry into the catering market. And all of their marketing content is produced by a firm located in King-Lincoln.

With other takes on the cuisine in cities like New York, Chicago and Detroit, Willowbeez is happily riding the national trend. After a local public media video profiling their business was picked up nationally, they were invited to offer pop-ups in Missouri, Texas and Virginia.

Carnell and Malik recognize that their success rests not only in the support of the community but in Columbus’ rich and accessible start-up resources, such as the 400 Farmers Market and the Food Fort, a food incubation space operated by the Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI), where Carnell prepares Willowbeez’s food.

Humbled by the interest, they are focusing on growing locally. In the spring, they plan to launch a pop-up restaurant in a shipping container housed at the corner of Mount Vernon Avenue and 17th Street. The space, which will be open five to six days a week, will have outdoor seating. Also in the works is a plan to permanently house Willowbeez in a new grocery store concept in development in King-Lincoln.

“They are a godsend,” Carnell says in reference to the Food Fort. With licensed commercial kitchens, coolers, dry storage and business resources, the enterprise enables food entrepreneurs to develop a concept without substantial upfront cost.

power foods with high nutritional profiles.

In return, that food is good for the soul.”

They also hope to expose more areas of Columbus to plant-based eating through the low input, yet high impact, pop-up concept. “I want to go to Linden,” Carnell says. “I want to take our food to areas that are forgotten.”

Follow Willowbeez Soulveg on Facebook and Instagram: @WillowbeezSoulveg.

Challenging the Norm Full of power foods like quinoa, lentils and kale, Willowbeez has faced criticism that their soul food doesn’t adhere closely enough to the traditional cuisine.

“Back in the day, you had to use replacements in vegetarian soul food,” Malik says, a vegetarian since the ‘90s. “You had to make sure that you had something that was kind of like chicken and you had to have macaroni and cheese.”

“With what we’re doing some people might say, ‘Man, that’s not soul food. You’re using quinoa.’ But we are interested in serving food that’s good for the body, in particular,

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.

Top left: Malik and Carnell Willoughby of Willowbeez Soulveg.

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Dancing Cooks BalletMet on good eats, nutrition and bringing creativity to the kitchen

By Colleen Leonardi Photography by Courtney Hergesheimer

F

ood is more than fuel, as the saying, “You are what you eat,” suggests. Food is life, your life. So, for our “Food & Art” issue we were really excited to talk with our local ballet company, BalletMet, about what the dancers and choreographers eat for work versus pleasure and if they enjoy, let alone have the time, to cook. Our theory: Perhaps the dancing spirit arises not just because of ballet class every day, or long rehearsals at night, but as a result of what ballet artists savor in between their labors of creation.

From Dancer to Director When we talk, artistic director, Edwaard Liang, is in between travels, having just returned from Milan and on his way to Hong Kong. He shares that he’s on the Whole30 program and that eating in Italy actually wasn’t that bad. His commitment to nutrition and clean eating, however, wasn’t always the case.

Opposite: BalletMet dancer, Jarrett Reimers.

Right: BalletMet artistic director, Edwaard Liang.

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Native to Taiwan and raised in California, Edwaard joined the ranks of New York City Ballet (NYCB) in 1993. The foremost ballet company in America, NYCB didn’t yet offer nutrition classes for the dancers but did encourage healthy eating by having no tolerance for salty snacks and sugary drinks, placing a focus on eating fresh vegetables and protein throughout the day.

Like many beginning dancers, however, Edwaard got away with a lot.

“I was a young man in ballet and I could basically eat whatever I wanted to for a very long time,” he says.

The NYCB aesthetic focuses on very lean, muscular ballet bodies for the company. When Edwaard became a company member he had to eat to keep his form in shape, not just for the aesthetic, but also for the rigorous performance schedule.

“We were doing extremely heavy reps [repertoire], 45 ballets within 14 weeks,” he says. “So, it was about being able to find food that sustained energy all through the day.”

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Now that Edwaard is a choreographer and artistic director at BalletMet his dietary needs are different. And it’s a challenge. Finding time to eat, even have a lunch break, is a constant work in progress, and not dancing all day presents the difficulty of finding time to get enough exercise.

“Most dancers are so used to sweating and exercising all day,” he says. “It was a big change because I went from meeting to rehearsal to meeting, and didn’t have the time to detox in a way where dancers are constantly sweating and getting that way of cleansing their body and resetting their metabolism.”

Eating for Ballet So, what does it take nowadays to eat and be in a ballet company?

Ambre Emory-Maier, director of education at BalletMet and associate director of BalletMet 2, says that nutritional therapies and counseling have come a long way since she started as a dancer and choreographer.

BalletMet’s Jarrett Reimers, Edwaard Liang and director of education and associate director of BalletMet2, Ambre Emory-Maier.

“The availability of clean eating and diet wasn’t truly available, and certainly wasn’t given to me as a dancer in my education,” she says.

Today at BalletMet she works closely with the BalletMet 2 dancers to make sure they are getting proper nutrition for the demands of a life lived on stage.

“We bring in Ohio State University for our trainees, and they do a series of seminars on nutrition and healthy choices and how to eat so you have the right fuel to make it through the day, to keep that lean muscle, to help recover from injuries,” she says. “And we have access to a sports nutritionist and counselors who help the professional and second company dancers do that.”

She says that advances in awareness around local, organic foods and nutrition have “taken a huge step forward in the last 30 years, to everybody’s benefit.” It also allows those with special dietary needs, like vegans, to properly manage what they need to eat to keep their bodies to the necessary proportions and have enough energy for a career in dance.

“I’m working with dancers in BalletMet 2 and they’re very aware of nutrition, a lot of them do practice clean eating,” she says. “They’re more attuned to that.”

A Kitchen Affair We’re standing in the kitchen, eating and talking about everything from Instapots to the new little eater in Clintonville with Ambre, Edwaard and company member, Jarrett Reimers. Jarrett is a naturalborn ballet dancer, but also a natural in the kitchen. When Edwaard asks him where he learned how to cook, he credits his roommate in California, who would launch into the kitchen with no recipe—all instinct—and deliver a delicious meal. It inspired him to use his own creativity when cooking.

Humble in his approach to eating at work (he says he keeps sandwich fixings in the fridge at BalletMet to make a sandwich in between classes and rehearsals), Jarrett also lives for dinner.

“Sometimes, at the end of the day, it’s the thing I’m looking forward to,” he says. “I just can’t wait to start cooking.”

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“Find the happiness in cooking because that’s the only time that you’re going to be making your best and learning the most…”

His style “revolves around saving money, convenience and healthy eating.” He shops for meat or a vegetable on sale and then builds a dish around it. He has a well-stocked spice cabinet because, as he admits, “spices are the spice of life, and some foods need a lot of help.”

This one rule to cooking helps keep Jarrett creating in the kitchen.

“Sometimes limiting your scope is the best way to dig deeper,” he says. “If everything’s available, then you don’t really specialize as much as you could, and for making the best food that you can make and feeling like you did something excellent, you have to focus in.

“It’s the same with dance. If I want to do something very well, I can’t practice everything all week. I have to practice one thing all week to really improve and get that focus,” he says.

Tagging it as an “improvisatory approach” to cooking, Jarrett’s palate wins. Each year BalletMet holds a chili cook-off, and Edwaard tells me Jarrett nearly always takes the prize.

One year collard greens were on sale for 9 cents a bunch.

“I thought that was crazy. I made collard greens every way I could think. For inspiration, I sometimes pick different countries. I think how can I incorporate collard greens into an Indian dish, or a French-style dish, an Italian-style dish, just bring it around the world a little bit,” he says. This approach inspired his Collard Green Curried Chili, the winner that year.

When Edwaard and his partner, John, are home to cook they enjoy making roasted chicken with Brussels sprouts, or a Chilean Sea Bass with Miso Glaze. They love cauliflower rice, and have lately been making fresh stocks with beef or chicken and then creating a fresh chicken soup, or homemade French Onion soup. Edwaard is also first-generation Chinese and makes sushi or Korean at home, citing the amazing food markets throughout the city as sources for his menus.

“You definitely tap into a level of self-expression and artistry that we have in dance, and strangely enough you find it in cooking as well,” says Jarrett. “They’re both really special to me.”

Edwaard echoes the sentiment that cooking is a creative act.

“John and I enjoy the process, whether it’s a big dinner for family, friends, board members, community members. Picking out the menu, deciding on what we’re going to cook and how we’re going to add some flavor to it, having a glass of wine while we cook together; it’s also a time where we get to reflect and catch up on the week and check in with each other, have conversations, listen to music—it’s a perfect way for us to decompress. And it’s a ritual.”

Inspiration beyond the stage for the food lover in us all.

“Find the happiness in cooking because that’s the only time that you’re going to be making your best and learning the most, when you look inward for inspiration,” says Jarrett. “Learn from all the outward sources that you can, and then, most importantly, have a good time.”

Visit ediblecolumbus.com for Edwaard’s favorite restaurant picks in Columbus and Ambre’s local, seasonal eats come springtime.

Colleen Leonardi is editor-in-chief of Edible Columbus and managing editor of Edible Indy in Indianapolis. She received her M.F.A. in Dance from The Ohio State University and credits her experience as a choreographer and dancer as what makes her a good editor. Publishing a magazine is a dance. Find her online at colleenleonardi.com.

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Making Food Photos Sing

With an eye for beauty, four Columbus-based artists on creatively capturing food

By Nancy McKibben Photography by Bridget Henry, Maria Khoroshilova, Maria Siriano and Rachel Joy Barehl

W

e love our food. We shop for it, we prepare it, we eat it—and we photograph it constantly, as if it were a favorite child.

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But what can we do when our lovingly conceived photo of a juicy bite of steak turns out like an ad for a horror flick?

Women Who Shoot To find out how the professionals turn food into art, we gathered four Edible Columbus food photographers and stylists to talk about their craft. All are self-taught.

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A graduate of The Ohio State University in English, Hilliard native Maria Siriano worked in publishing, freelanced as a copy editor, sold baked goods at local farmers markets and created a food blog. By “perpetually emailing” Faith Durand of thekitchn.com, Maria became a regular contributing photographer for Kitchn, shooting the second edition of Faith's book, Not Your Mother's Casseroles. She now specializes in cookbook photography.

Newark–Columbus–New York City–Columbus. Bridget Henry’s journey was originally as a make-up artist whose food blog and Instagram feed were a side interest, until an admiring client recommended she try food styling. Today, Bridget works mainly as a food prop stylist for large accounts like Oneida and

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small ones like EC. Her mission: help the food “tell a beautiful story” through props and styling.

Born in Moscow (the one in Russia, not Ohio), Maria Khoroshilova graduated with a journalism/graphics degree. She was inspired to become a photographer by the blog of a documentary wedding photographer that “showed moments and emotions—like a crying dad.” She admires “the articles and the quality” of Edible Columbus. “It’s so cool to learn about local food and its impact.”

As the daughter of Columbus restaurant owner Hany Baransi of Nazareth restaurant, Rachel Joy Barehl grew up surrounded by food, but she began her career with wedding photography.

Her first food shoot was a Thanksgiving gathering for thekitchn.com, then website photography for Cara Mangini’s Little Eater Café and a cover photo for her cookbook The Vegetable Butcher. Rachel is drawn to the “fast, real, imperfect nature of photography.”

“Don’t photograph food on plastic. Use textures—glass, wood, ceramic.”

The Thought Behind the Shot Compared to the “too perfect” food photography of the ’60s and ’70s, the four photographers agree, today’s images strive to be authentic and natural.

“I find textures in real life beautiful,” Rachel says. Maria K adds, “I like beautiful-mess photos that are not that perfect. You can see that there’s been a human there.”

Which is not to say that there is no forethought or artifice involved.

Maria S styles and shoots in her studio, and the creative process involves a prodigious amount of organization.

“Avoid rims on plates and use shallow bowls. The angle determines how well you can see the food.”

“I usually shoot recipes,” she says, “so I browse Instagram and Pinterest for similar foods and make a mood board of ideas,” including art direction from the client. After finalizing the shoot’s direction, “I gather my props, pick the surface and lighting and make the recipe.

I mess around with different platings. Then I shoot it.”

TOP: PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA SIRIANO; MIDDLE & BOTTOM: PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIDGET HENRY.

She may perk up a dish with a spritz of water, but “there is so much waste in food styling,” Maria S says. “My philosophy is to keep waste to a minimum, and not make the food I shoot inedible.”

Bridget concentrates on food prop styling. She, too, makes a mood board and considers client preferences, sometimes including the home and make-up trends that she also follows.

“Right now, for example, you see pink and rust and yellow in home colors. So, it’s cool to bring it into the food world with pale pink plates.”

With her food photos, Bridget wants to “tell a story and make it beautiful,” which means she often uses “things I love” from her home.

“I take my marble bowls everywhere,” she says. And she is obsessive about finding “the best radish” and “the most beautiful lemons” for her shots, often spending 30 minutes at the grocery aisle or market stand auditioning her produce.

In contrast, Maria K and Rachel usually work without a studio, often shooting on location at a farm or restaurant.

For Maria K, the shoot is akin to a scavenger hunt.

“I work with what’s there. And if something seems to be missing, I go look for it; I search for something to use as a prop. I might change a edible COLUMBUS.com

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“I work in terms of feeling,” she says. “Food is a very human thing; everybody has to eat. But sometimes food is dull. Then, okay, parsley!” She mimes sprinkling parsley over a recalcitrant dish.

Rachel has learned to capture a wedding’s ephemeral moments, so for food, she also tends to look for a minimal background and good light, and then shoot quickly. “Having met the farmers who grow the food makes photographing food much more meaningful to me.

I want to help businesses succeed, and making good photos will help them.”

She shows me a photo of a shiny purple flower that on closer inspection resolves into a clutch of eggplants arranged in a circle to suggest petals and stamens.

“I also try to make something ordinary, like a vegetable, appear extraordinary. It can be slicing it, making a pattern out of it, shooting super zoomed-in to capture texture and detail. There has to be an element of fun in it.”

Tips From The Pros The top tip: Shoot in natural light when possible.

Additionally:

Lighting In a restaurant, sit near a window. Loosen the light bulb at your table so it’s not shining on your food. Maria K When you shoot, turn off the other lights in your house.

Rachel Use clouds as a natural diffuser of light. Bridget Use a large, white napkin or even an old white bedsheet to diffuse harsh lighting. Maria S

Composition Scoot everything close together. Rachel Use different, natural surfaces like slate, marble, a wooden crate. Bridget Make a space around your food. Maria K

Inspiration & Passion Inspiration? Pinterest, Instagram, “real life”—even the still lifes of the Old Masters get a nod, but all these women sigh in tribute at the mention of cookbooks.

“Have you seen The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book?” Maria S asks. “The photography.”

Bridget agrees enthusiastically. “And Cook Beautiful!” She cradles an imaginary copy. “I was lovingly stroking the pages—it’s so beautiful!”

The take-away from our conversation is that the beating heart of a beautiful food photo lies in the passion of the photographer—that connection with their subject that makes a photo sing, and makes the reader take a second look.

Layer your shot. Put a linen on the table, a bowl to one side, a garnish on the dish. Maria S

Camera type Rachel and colleagues argue that “a good window is more important than the camera you use.” But since we asked: Maria S: Nikon D610. Favorite lenses: Nikon 50mm f/1.4, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Maria K: Nikon D750, D300. Lenses: Nikon 50mm f/1.4, Nikon 35mm f/1.8 Rachel: Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Mark IV. Lense: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Bridget: Leica D-Lux 4 camera for shoots and iPhone X for social media

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.

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Apps VSCO iPhone and Android app: The unanimous choice for editing photos, for its “really good filters” and ease of use. For in-depth editing, Adobe Lightroom.

Artifactuprising.com: Not an app, but a highly recommended website for printing digital photos.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: TOP LEFT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA SIRIANO PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION OF HARVARD COMMON PRESS; TOP MIDDLE & RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL JOY BAREHL; MIDDLE LEFT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA KHOROSHILOVA; MIDDLE RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIDGET HENRY; BOTTOM LEFT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL JOY BAREHL; BOTTOM RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA KHOROSHILOVA.

dish from a square one to a round one, or add something not necessarily in the recipe. For a shot of toast, I had coffee, bread and a bread knife, a tea towel. But the toast still looked lonely on the plate, so I sliced some bananas and added them. And then it was okay.

EDIBLE POETRY

A Poet’s Table The satisfying, gratifying art of savoring

By Michael J. Rosen

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ncreasingly, I value “stillness.” Still here—I’ll take it! Still hopeful. (Beats the alternative.) Spend more time being still, staying still, sitting still and my own quirky notion: seeing still.

Likewise, I increasingly acknowledge that “not now” and “one day, I’m going to…” are synonyms for “never.” And I work toward savoring rather than skipping over, studying rather than surveying. It’s the motto stamped on the coin of my future days.

The momentum of our global culture has increased the availability and delivery of information beyond our capacity to process even a fraction of it, let alone, to think carefully about even a fraction of that. Yet our culture expects responses. Sooner deadlines, instant replies, immediate likes, endless opinions and comments.

Cultivating stillness is a counterbalance. A restorative. Poetry, hiking, yoga, cooking, drawing: These are my tonics.

Yoga sessions often begin with an instructor urging, Leave everything else at the door. Or: Only what’s happening on your mat matters.

I remember similar guidance from teachers of poetry, playwriting or pottery—instead of mat, swap in canvas, page, table, stage, kitchen counter, conversation, dance, etc. The intended invitation: leave aside expectations, presumed proficiencies and predicted limitations.

Bring a mindset of openness—vulnerability, even. In essence, stillness: awareness trained on a given moment so that all it affords won’t be lost on you, but found. (The great poet, W.H. Auden, called this “fixity of attention”—his definition of both love and poetry.)

Seeing stillness is found in most any discipline: composing a haiku or a holiday meal, plotting a piece of choreography or a new landscape plan. Each offers similar expansive opportunities within the constraints or particular challenges intrinsic to the medium, but the underlying tenets are universal: Take the time to gather and collect; time to present what you’ve found; time to experience the entire cycle of gratification.

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For the ever-optimistic… cat, who can’t be hungry, the marble altar where salvation from a pitiless yearning may poise is such a storied climb it might as well be heaven where a prayer or wish’s outcome is always iffy, at least in terms of timing.

Patience is for the damned. It’s purgatory.

Perhaps “polished” is the better term. Make whatever you do shine, so brilliantly that what might have been casual and rough, acquires a crafted, yet unobtrusive, sheen from your time and care. Such a patina—the result of your concentrated attention in one place and time—becomes more than an opaque manifestation of its physical expression and sensory qualities. It turns translucent or even reflective so that those who encounter your creation might glimpse their own reflections, memories or experiences within it. Every form of art is this shared act: complementary contributions by both conceiver and receiver.

Edible readers clearly possess this desire to savor and appreciate. So, I merely encourage you to seek the pleasures of a fuller awareness, a deeper joy in the composition—the seeing still that stretches between an original stimulus and your response. Come to relish that process rather than the fleeting pleasures of just finding and finishing. Relish the not-knowing, wondering and giddiness of multiple approaches. Hold to one moment rather than skip to the next.

I end with a form of grace. A small demonstration of “seeing still” in a form that continually challenges me to think harder, longer and more clearly, even about my mixed emotions; yes, a poem. A poem about my cat, no less, begging. Yet what creature demonstrates more fixity of attention? Be inspired.

Michael J. Rosen has spent half his adult life in Columbus and half in the Appalachian foothills east of the city. The author of some 150 books for readers of all ages, he is also an illustrator and ceramic artist. Books: michaeljrosen.com. Illustrated clayworks: bit.ly/IllustratedClay.

He cannot see if there is fish or cheese that might float down—even a mere morsel— or if the clap and clatter of he who tends the hearth foretells that any promise has been dashed, sacrificed to the infernal disposal that rocks and spatters….and roars with needless gloating.

No matter. Each meal, the cat attends the rug beside my unpredictable feet.

“Trust me,” I say to him on those numerous days when he gazes upward as I cube tofu or spoon some grapefruit marmalade on toast, “Really, you don’t want this.” And yet he stays as if to prove his devotion unwavering.

And so I place a tidbit of this “manna” before his feet. He bows his head and snuffles.

Returning my gaze, now his one and only expression cannot belie his disbelief: This! This is how you reward your faithful?

He backs away, his pure heart betrayed, swearing this will never again come to pass, never, nope, not in a million years… which happens to coincide with the length of a nap.

How else to suffer life’s belittlements than to wake each time with hope’s appetite.

Copyright 2017 by Michael J. Rosen from Every Species of Hope; Georgics, Haiku, and other Poems (Ohio State University Press).

The publisher is happy to offer Edible readers an exclusive 30% discount and free shipping on Michael’s new book of poetry through this link bit.ly/EverySpeciesOfHope. The site also contains a video of the author reading this poem and two others.

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Nourishing Grief How food leavens our losses

By Rick Benjamin

I

was little and a little mystified the first time a line of friends and relatives, acquaintances and possibly also some complete strangers, appeared at my door with casseroles and other versions of comfort food after an early loss. I did not know then, at 7 years old, how disorienting and debilitating the death of a loved one, not to mention other forms of leaving and abandonment, could be, so did not fully appreciate the degree to which we attend to each other’s needs in times of sorrow, knowing that grievers are too empty and bereft to do for themselves. It is not food we need, of course, but rituals of setting the table, heating up those casseroles, even if able to eat only a few forkfuls of them, that nevertheless brings us back to ourselves, reminding us that this is, as Marie Howe says, what the living do.

At the age of 58 I have experienced my share of losses, which is only to say that I share the experience of losing with so many others at this point in my life.

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” Elizabeth Bishop says, in her poem, “One Art,” though of course she knows that it is, that some loss feels like “a disaster,” that we do not live past our losses so much as learn how to live with them.

Meantime, how do you tell your friend who is obsessive-compulsive that she no longer has to make the same quiche every week, that you cannot keep up with her making of your grief something that needs so much continuous feeding? That your freezer is full to brimming with her loving?

Getting back to the rituals and routines of feeding yourself again, to chopping finely, to sautéing and caramelizing, to tending to risotto’s need, for example, to absorb transformations slowly, deliberately, as if to show you the way—these are next and necessary steps in any process of grieving, the ones that most exemplify, perhaps, what Martín Prechtel notes is our indigenous need to also praise what we have lost, to offer up again the most daily, even mundane tasks by way of sustaining ourselves and each other.

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Which is just one reason why I admire so much Jane Hirshfield’s short but nourishing poem, “Da Capo,” because in no time—which is also and obviously its own good time—it offers up the solace of beginning again, of the promise seeded in its very title. After saying that we must take the “used up heart” and toss it way out, as if over water, so that it will show all the widening but waning ripples of what we have lost, Jane also affirms the necessity of taking heart in rituals of tending to ourselves again: Returning home, slice carrots, onions, celery.

Glaze them in oil before adding the lentils, water, the herbs.

Then the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt.

Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat. You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.

Begin again the story of your life.

Perhaps a recipe for moving back into the past we have not, will not ever, quite leave behind. Like other ritual tasks, cooking resonates with other times in our life when we have been bolstered, nourished, fed forward into a less certain future. It is the time-traveling practice that the great Jamaican poet, Mbala, refers to in his poem, “Steam:” … the man strains pasta the cloud of steam shrinks him back to child back to the kitchen on the flats to mama pouring the long long line of steaming chocolate from cup to cup…

How these unpunctuated lines allow the just-finished pasta to take on something of that kindred steam of a still-sweetening past is both lovely and a little mysterious.

Such moments are made of all the life we have lived, of all the lives we have lost. And, sometimes, if we’re lucky that sweeter steam, coming back to us, is all we need to know about going on.

As Naomi Shihab Nye says, “your plate is waiting.”

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.

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A Place in the World How 4-H provides endless opportunities for Central Ohio youth

By Callie Wells • Photography by Maria Khoroshilova

S

omewhere in my parents’ home, in a box of mementos from that time, is an old newspaper clipping of one of my most cherished memories. Three generations of 4-Hers— my grandfather, father and I—at my first 4H project judging at the county fair. That newspaper clipping, although aging and frail, represents the strength of 4-H: continual evolution in the opportunities it offers young people.

A program that helped my grandfather develop the tools he needed for success in the ‘40s did not look the same as it did for my father in the ‘70s, or me in the ‘00s, or my young cousins as we approach 2020. 4-H is a program for more than farm kids and has evolved to include opportunities for young people in rural and urban areas alike.

Let’s look at 4-H opportunities for young people in Franklin County.

Ohio 4-H serves more than 240,000 young people in Ohio with its non-formal educational programming, the core of which is or-

As a member of the K9 Wonder Dogs club, 14-year-old Joshua Ford’s 4-H projects are with his English Springer Spaniel, Candy, in obedience, showmanship and agility. Joshua’s favorite parts of 4-H are, “making new friends and having new experiences.”

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ganized into community clubs, which young people ages 5 to 19 can join. Clubs have been around since the beginning of 4H in the 1900s, but their volunteer-led nature has allowed them to evolve and keep up with changing needs of young people.

Club advisors, often parents and alumni, are trained and go through a seven-step screening process, including fingerprint background checks.

“Finding your community club is the first step in 4-H Involvement,” says Beth Boomershine, 4-H Youth development extension educator in Franklin County.

“There you will work on your projects, do community service activities, project demonstrations, etc. Your community club is your home base for the 4-H experience.”

Franklin County has about 900 members in 40–45 clubs spread across the county, each with a fun name like the 4-H Dream Achievers, Groveport Buttoneers, Hilliard Lucky Live Wires or Whetstone 4-H’ers.

Beth says most of the clubs have members with a wide range of project types, with a few clubs that are specifically for horse projects and a few for dog projects, two of the most popular projects along with chickens and rabbits, all of which are allowed in most Franklin County municipalities.

Clubs typically meet once or twice a month at community centers or members’ homes

Cecilia Dick, an 11-year-old member of the Fantastic Future Club, has learned a lot about responsibility and caring for animals with her rabbit project. She also has chicken and duck projects. Cecilia has learned about her projects, and about herself.

“It has definitely taught me how to use my voice loud and clear in front of others when speaking.”

and are member-driven. The clubs’ elected officers, much like a board, run a business meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order. They then move into speaking demonstrations about their projects, community and service learning projects and have the opportunity to ask questions and prepare for their project judging at the Franklin County Fair. While this general structure of club meetings has existed for a long time, it has allowed clubs to remain relevant and flexible to the needs of their members. It is in these club meetings that the members begin to learn how to assume responsibility for themselves and their club and invest in relationships that often last a lifetime.

Of all my experiences as a 4-H member, club meetings were my favorite. Looking back, it was a unique opportunity to watch and experience these types of activities with a wide age range, much like it is in the real world. As a young member I looked up to

the older members who were officers and running the meetings and then I got to take over as a leader and role model.

“Kids get the opportunity to become caring, contributing citizens who give back to their community, learn about public speaking, do service learning projects and experience being leaders,” Beth says. “Instead of just learning about it, they actually experience it.”

All of these experiences have been shown to cultivate “soft skills” in 4-H members: coaching, leadership, communication, empathy, critical thinking, problem solving, resilience, resourcefulness, decision-making, responsibility and discipline. A study of Michigan 4-H members published in the Journal of Extension, showed that 4-H helped young people develop soft skills, and that those skills aided them in the transition to college. Even Google has published re-

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search that shows that the top seven characteristics of success while working at Google are soft skills, and not the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills they had been emphasizing.

“I learned how valuable it is to show up to an event on time, and how much just a little bit of work can do to one’s opinion of you,” says Jacob Garrett, a 17-year-old member of the Groveport Buttoneers. “4-H has taught me how to take responsibility when I need to, and I carry this with me all the time. At school, at home and in public.”

While 4-H members are learning and developing those soft skills, they are also exploring other hands-on skills and interests through their projects. In the early years, 4H was largely for rural youth, because much more of the population was rural. But as more people moved to cities and suburbs, 4H has shifted to meet the needs of its members. This history has left behind a bit of a stereotype that 4-H is for farm kids to show their pigs and cows, which couldn’t be further from the truth. There are more than 200 different projects available for members to explore, and most members take more than one, and often more than two different projects each year; from aerospace to zoology, fashion to STEM, livestock to cooking and baking and so much more, including the opportunity for Self-Determined Projects.

“I coordinated the Franklin County Farm Bureau animal/educational area at the fair last year,” says Brooke Fleshman, a 15-yearold member of Fantastic Futures. “It was a huge undertaking and came with countless life lessons.”

I have many friends from my time in 4-H I can look at now and see exactly how their projects and the associated life lessons influenced their lives. From my cousin who took many sewing projects and now makes cos-

How to Join Joining 4-H is much easier than it used to be. Beth says they have tried to make it as easy as signing up for soccer online. Visit the 4-H section at franklin.osu.edu.

There you will find a list of clubs with all the information you’ll need to find the best fit or be a part of the continual evolution of 4-H and start your own club.

4-H Walk & Serve: April 7, Franklin County Fairgrounds in Hilliard 4-H clubs have adopted nonprofits and will be coordinating a station to make items needed by each organization; i.e. dog and cat toys, nonperishable food packages, rice sock heating pads. The April 7 event is open to the public for people to join the 4-H members in giving back to the community. Visit franklin.osu.edu/events/4-h-walk-and-serve for more information.

Franklin County, Ohio, and National 4-H Opportunities Beyond Clubs Joining 4-H gives young people the opportunity to explore projects they’re interested in and learn how to be an active participant in their community. As they gain experience in 4-H, even more experiences become possible.

Here is a list of just a few of the state and national opportunities 4-H members can participate in each year beyond club involvement: Franklin County 4-H Camp Franklin County 4-H Poultry Clinic Franklin County 4-H Teen Leaders Council Franklin County 4-H Fashion Board Franklin County Winter Project Fair Franklin County 4-H Officer Training Ohio 4-H Conference Ohio 4-H Leadership Camp Ohio Forestry & Wildlife Conservation Camp Buckeye Leadership Workshop Ohio State Fair Junior Fair Board Citizenship Washington Focus Leadership Washington Focus

tumes for community theater productions in her spare time, to my friend who took rocket projects to the fair and is now a literal rocket scientist at SpaceX—it is very clear the opportunities to explore through 4-H projects help young people discover their place in the world.

Callie Wells is a communications specialist at the Ohio Association of School Business Officials and a freelance writer, video producer and communications strategist. When she's not shooting and editing videos or helping organizations with their social media strategy, she enjoys volunteering with youth programs including 4-H and FFA.

Top: Brooke Fleshman one of the hens from her poultry project.

Middle Left: Jacob Garrett with a robot from his robotics projects.

Middle Right: Beth Boomershine, 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator for Franklin County.

Bottom: Avonna Boysel, a 17-year-old member of the Bit of Luck club, with her horse.

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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 © RACHEL JOY BAREHL

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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local marketplace

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our advertisers Be sure to support our advertisers, as they generously support us! #LoyalToLocal

Abby Feinknopf

Gateway Film Center

Local Roots

abbyf.com • 614-214-9096 afeinknopf@gmail.com Find on Facebook and Instagram

gatewayfilmcenter.org • 614-247-4433 1550 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

localrootspowell.com • 614-602-8060 15 E. Olentangy St., Powell, Ohio Find on Facebook and Instagram

Ag Today

Greater Columbus Arts Council

Oakland Nursery

wqttradio.com/ag-today • 877-609-9445 Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Backroom Coffee Roasters

backroomcoffeeroasters.com • 614-563-9410 3216 S. 3 Bs and K Rd., Galena, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Bexley Natural Market

bexleynaturalmarket.org • 614-252-3951 508 N. Cassady Ave., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Bluescreek Farm Meats & Market

bluescreekfarmmeats.com • 614-504-6605 8120 U.S. Rte. 42, Plain City, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Bonhomie Acres

bonhomieacresmaplesyrup.com • 740-501-4681 7001 Quaker Rd., Fredericktown, Ohio Find on Facebook

Columbus Running Company

columbusrunning.com Locations in Columbus, Dublin, Pickerington and Westerville Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Dutch Creek Winery

dutchcreekwinery.com • 740-818-4699 Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Explore Licking County

explorelc.org • 501-313-3182 5 S. Third St., Newark, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Flowers & Bread

flowersandbread.com • 614-262-5400 3870 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Franklin County Farm Bureau

ofbf.org/counties/franklin/ • 614-876-1274

Franklin County 4-H

franklin.osu.edu/program-areas/4-h-youthdevelopment • 614-866-6900 530 W. Spring St., Suite 275, Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook

gcac.org • 614-224-2606 100 E. Broad St., Suite 2250, Columbus Ohio Find on Facebook and Twitter

Harrison Farm

harrisonfarm13.com • 614-271-0304 5278 Berger Rd., Groveport, Ohio Find on Facebook and Instagram

Heartland Bank

oaklandnursery.com Locations in Columbus, Dublin, Delaware and New Albany Find on Facebook and Instagram

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) oeffa.org 614-421-2022, Ext. 202 Find on Facebook and Twitter

Visit heartland.bank to find a location.

800-697-0049 Find on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn

peachblowpottery.com • 740-548-7224 13262 Hartford Rd., Sunbury, Ohio

The Hive

Rusty River Barn

Peachblow Pottery

thehivemburg.com • 937-834-5234 22 S. Main St., Mechanicsburg, Ohio Find on Facebook and Instagram

4441 Johnstown-Utica Rd. NE, Utica, Ohio 740-398-9598 Find on Facebook

Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT)

Shaw's Restaurant

discovery.osu.edu/focus-areas/infact/ 614-292-5881

shawslancaster.com • 740-654-1842 123 N. Broad St., Lancaster, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

It’s All Natural

Snowville Creamery

itsall-natural.com • 614-476-6159 1360 Cherry Bottom Rd., Gahanna, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

snowvillecreamery.com • 740-698-2340 32623 St. Rte. 143, Pomeroy, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Jackie O’s Brewery

Union Station 1820

jackieos.com • 740-592-9686 25 Campbell St., Athens, Ohio Find on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

visituptown.org/1820 • 937-642-6279 227 E. 5th St., Marysville, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Jorgensen Farm

Weiland's Market

jorgensen-farms.com • 614-855-2697 5851 E. Walnut St., Westerville, Ohio Find on Facebook and Instagram

weilandsmarket.com • 614-267-9878 3600 Indianola Ave., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Kale & Ale Festival

Yellowbird Foodshed

Licking Media Company

Yoga on High

kaleandalefestival.com • 614.285.3935 Dublin, Ohio Find on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

lickingeats.com Granville, Ohio Find on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

yellowbirdfs.com • 419-889-7316 Find on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest

yogaonhigh.com • 614-291-4444 1081 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio Find on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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LOCAL HERO

Kim Webb Artist & Teacher

By Colleen Leonardi • Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

Why are the intersections of food and art, nature and people so inspiring to you? Food and art are catalysts

that bring people together and nature is the glue that binds everything. The spaces in between allow for great possibility, experimentation and investigation. I am interested in ways of dissolving these as categories and building an immersive practice of intention that includes them all, a creative practice of being.

How does the practice of art inform your own practice of living? I believe

the struggles and contemplations of an artist should be applied to all practices. I attempt to exercise the same thoughtfulness and intentional approach of making art in my life. This allows me keep an open mind, think more critically, take risks, see more objectively and find meaning and playfulness in the everyday. Teaching a class, organizing an exhibition, curating a series of conversations, building a community garden, having a dinner party, walking, can all be creative projects. I try to navigate in the unknown as often as I am able and subject myself to vulnerability in order to foster personal growth. Keep it fresh and weird! The medium often shifts and my work usually involves heavy research, creative sourcing of materials and lots of experimentation. I am currently working on some exciting collaborations with Capital City Crossroads Special Improvement District, Columbus College of Art & Design 56

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(CCAD), Hertz Group and COTA that will integrate creative projects into the day-today in downtown Columbus. The spaces, people, activities and experiences will all become the work. Stay tuned…

What food issues are most important to your work right now? Food as med-

ceptions. Much of my inspiration is drawn from chance, the states of things often held together by tension and vulnerability, moments of absurdity. I strive to continue contemplating, experimenting and to inspire others to keep it interesting.

icine, food as alchemy, food as life. Accessibility—everyone deserves real, clean food grown without harmful chemicals. Food brings us together, inspiring discussions and generating new perceptions and understandings. I am building future projects with CCAD’s Sustainability Committee, developing integrations with the cafeteria on food, gardening, composting and unconventional education. This programming will empower students to think about how food matters. Together we will be making collective meals and using this foundation to invite others to participate in community conversations, performances, sharing skills and stories.

What is your mission as an artist and a teacher? It’s the same as my mission as a

human—finding meaning, purpose, truth—playfully, collectively. I think it’s important that art challenges conformities and disrupts the status quo. I’m interested in the unconventional—this can be ways of living, thinking, building and educating. Sometimes this is done through considering spaces and intervening in ways that stimulate a pause, challenge behavior and per-

Learn more about Kim and her work at kimberlymwebb.com.