from the good earth
AT TRADERS POINT CREAMERY, FARM-TO-TABLE IS A WAY OF LIFE By Shawndra Miller Photography by Kelley Jordan Heneveld
The soil that supported the meal might be the last thing on most people’s minds when they sit down to dinner. But thanks to the burgeoning farm-to-table movement, a growing number of Indy residents are reconnecting with the land in a deeper way—through the food they eat. Nowhere is this connection more accessible than at Zionsville’s Traders Point Creamery, the first organic dairy farm in the state specializing in grass-fed products. “Farm-to-table is about reconnecting people who are not spending their day-to-day life on a farm with the source of their food,” says Todd Jameson of Slow Food Indy and Balanced Harvest Farm. The Creamery, he says, is a terrific place to experience firsthand what a family-owned, sustainably farmed operation looks like—and to taste the fruits of the land. Given the pace of modern life, it can be a revelation when people first drive down the lane to Traders Point Creamery and step out of their cars to find a working farm just minutes from the traffic of the city. At the creamery, the cows that give the milk are a stone’s throw from the restaurant serving the award-winning artisan cheeses made from that milk, as well as the farm’s grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and eggs. Not to mention the luscious ice cream and yogurt. The weekly yearround farmers’ market—the only one in the state—is in view of the working garden that provides much of the produce for the restaurant. Those hungry for more are invited to take a walking tour of the farm, watch the cows being milked, or schedule a guided nature hike on the 320-acre grounds. The owners of the organic farm, Fritz and Jane Kunz, make summer guests welcome on the spacious deck during Friday night Green Markets, where there’s always a band playing and an enticing dinner of local fare on offer. In the shadow of the 1800s barns that make up the Creamery’s primary structures—all moved from sites in Bluffton and Geneva, Indiana—patrons leave the hustle of the week behind. Jane Kunz is likely to be found purchasing items for her own family’s table from the market’s many local farmers and artisans, in between greeting guests and old friends. Her husband is a gregarious sort, always eager to bend an ear about the perks of eating food originating from an actual farm instead of a factory. “They say you are what you eat?” he might quip, looking out over the green pasture dotted with Brown Swiss cows, all intent on munching. “You are what they ate.” And what they ate, he might say, is sunshine.
Clockwise from top left: Take a cue from our farm-to-table dinner at Traders Point Creamery and try this sliced steak with a spicy herb pesto over panzanella salad (recipe on page 16); signpost; baby Brown Swiss Cow; the Kunz family, (left to right) Fritz, Knubbe, Kammen, Carey, and Jane; Panna Cotta with Blackberries and Basil (recipe on page 17)
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edible indy
Summer 2011
