Celebrating the Abundance of Local Foods, Season by Season Fall 2011 • Number 2
A Turkey so Good, You’ll Never Guess Where It Came From Taking It Outside: Schools Grow Future Foodies and Gardeners
In Season Fall 2011
Fruit Apples, Grapes, Pears, Watermelon, Persimmons Vegetables — Beans, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Collards, Eggplant, Garlic, Leeks, Lettuce, Lima Beans, Mushrooms, Onions, Parsnips, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Radishes, Spinach, Winter Squash, Turnips, Zucchini. Herbs — Dill, Parsley
5Okra, Chicken and Tomato Stew 9Corn Chowder
13Caramel Apples
18Trashcan Turkey
19Mustard-Glazed Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
20Cranberry-Basil Bread Pudding
21Green Beans
23Sugar Cream
26240sweet’s S’mores Recipes
36Canning: Tomato Juice and Whole Tomatoes 40Lemon-Garlic Zucchini Pasta
hoosier Thoughts edible Indy
Publisher Edible Indy, LLC
Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves’ change in color is beautiful, the weather is just about perfect almost every day and the season always seems to bring me together with my family and friends. Whether that be to watch a football game, sit around a fire or to enjoy that last cookout, I love how fall is full of sharing delicious food with great company!
The season also happens to include my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving! No other holiday is as devoted to sharing delicious food with great company. I love not only the food served at my family’s table, I also love hearing about others’ Thanksgiving traditions.
Helen and Cathy
My turkey day tradition has changed over the past decade, but when I was growing up my extended family’s Thanksgiving feast was frequently hosted by my mom—cooking our favorite side dishes, and a turkey for 40-plus people. Others would bring their signature dishes to share, and we would sit at several elegantly decorated tables and eat until we became stuffed. And since my family had hosted, we got all the leftovers, which really is the best part of Thanksgiving. Nothing beats that late-night snack of a turkey sandwich with a side of mashed potatoes and stuffing!
My mom has since passed the torch of hosting, but she still lends her culinary expertise in cooking the turkey or a beloved side dish. And now, my husband and I get to experience each other’s traditions as we take turns spending the holiday with our respective clans. Even though our traditions, and the food prepared, are different (except for the turkey, of course) I have come to realize it is all about sharing traditions, and being thankful for all that we have!
In this issue you will read about “Trashcan Turkey”—tradition that has grown into something bigger than a family’s way to cook their Thanksgiving bird. I hope this story inspires you to continue and pass down your own traditions, or to create new ones—and remember to enjoy your turkey day!
Edible Indy sends out a special THANK YOU to all our supporters, advertisers and subscribers! The feedback we received after the launch of our first issue was overwhelming, and greatly appreciated!
P.S.: Please join us for our official launch party Friday, October 28th, 7pm at the Simply Sweet Shoppe in Carmel. Additional info will be available through Facebook and Twitter.
President Cathy Bayse
Editor-in-Chief Helen Workman
Managing Editor Erica Sagon
Copy Editor Doug Adrianson
Designer Melissa Petersen
Web Design Mary Ogle
Contributors
Audrey Barron • Kira Bennett
Jill Ditmire • Marcia Ellett
Kristin Hess • Joan Jacobs
Christopher Lloyd • Andie Marshall
Shawndra Miller • Erica Sagon
Photography
Stacy Able • Kelley Jordan Heneveld
Christina Richey • Erica Sagon
Carole Topalian • Helen Workman
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Edible Indy publishes quarterly by Edible Indy, LLC. All rights reserved. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring Subscription $32 annually. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher © 2011. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions. If, however, an error has escaped our attention, please notify us and accept our sincere apologies.
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notable edibles
Pick a plate of pickled ... whatevers
Black Market’s pickle plate is the Mass Ave restaurant’s version of a charcuterie plate or cheese board, featuring the likes of picked ramps, Swiss chard stems and an egg— with a dollop of peanut butter. Photo by Erica Sagon
With its rustic, industrial décor, a menu that sources from local farms and two communal tables to encourage mingling among diners, Black Market seems like just the place you’d find a charcuterie plate or cheese board.
But this Mass Ave newcomer is turning heads with a little snack that isn’t found at other Indy restaurants: a pickle plate.
Consider it a $5 wakeup call to your taste buds before the main course, says Micah Frank, Black Market’s chef and co-owner with Ed Rudisell. The pickle plate is sweet and sour, and most of the time, it doesn’t even have pickles in the traditional sense.
You might find ramps that have been pickled with Asian influence, quick-pickled Swiss chard stems and an Indian spice pickled egg. The plate is finished with a dollop of homemade peanut butter, a nod to the memorable PB-and-pickle sandwiches that Frank’s grandma made when he was a kid.
“We’re trying to show people that pickling is very versatile,” Frank says. “You can pickle almost anything, from beef tongue to cucumbers.”
The house-made plate changes with what’s on hand—and what might otherwise be thrown out, like Swiss chard stems.
The rest of Black Market’s menu features seasonal, from-scratch cooking. It’s a place where the kitchen “isn’t living off recipes,” Frank says. Picture the likes of pork schnitzel, ale-steamed mussels and grilled flatiron steak. Duck from Maple Leaf Farms and produce from Big City Farms are among the bevy of locally sourced ingredients.
Details: Black Market, 922 Massachusetts Ave.; 317-822-6757; blackmarketindy.net
—Erica Sagon
notable edibles
To-do list: Going Local Week
Sunday
Brunch—Eggs from neighbor’s chickens, Bjava coffee, homemade jam on toast
Supper—Pizza on the grill: local cheeses, garden-fresh tomatoes and basil; Huber Winery’s Starlight Red wine and W. H. Harrison Governor’s Reserve bourbon
Monday
Lunch—BLTs with homemade mayo
Supper—Asti Pepper Bruschetta*, grilled chicken and cipollini onions, Mallow Run’s rhubarb wine
Tuesday
Lunch—Panini with homemade pesto, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella
Supper—Okra, Chicken and Tomato Stew*, brown rice, local beer
Wednesday
Lunch—Outing to City Market, food truck fare
Supper—Frittata with onions, zucchini, local cheeses
Thursday
Lunch—Goose the Market sandwich
Supper—Sam’s Meatloaf*, Sweet Potato Oven Fries*, OvenRoasted New Potatoes with Rosemary*, local barbecue sauce
Friday
Lunch—Traders Point Creamery cottage cheese, Asian pears
Dinner—Wine tasting at New Day Meadery, followed by Mass Ave Wine Shoppe’s Cow Pie pizza
Saturday
Lunch—Egg salad pita
Dinner—Grilled leg of lamb from Lawson Farms, roasted beet salad with Fair Oaks Farms’ bleu cheese, Robert’s Rustic Garlic Bread*, Hoosier Negroni (Heartland Distillers’ Prohibition gin, campari and sweet vermouth over ice with orange wedge garnish)
Going Local Week, Indianapolis’ celebration of local food, returns Sept. 4–10, and with no central event we’re free to celebrate however we want, wherever we want. Shop farmers’ markets, dine at restaurants that source locally, cook at home with ingredients from the area and pour a glass of Indy wine after work.
With such endless possibilities, we wondered how the event’s founder and super locavore, Victoria Wesseler, would spend Going Local Week.
“Going Local Week for us is really no different than any other week of the year,” says Wesseler, who grows most of her own fruits and veggies. “We usually eat at least one, two or three local foods at every meal.”
But what’s routine for Wesseler is inspiration for the rest of us. Here’s a day-by-day preview of what (and where) Wesseler will be eating during Going Local Week. Recipes for dishes marked with an asterisk (*) can be found on Wesseler’s blog, www.goinglocal-info.com.
—Shawndra Miller
Asti Pepper
Bruschetta
By Victoria Wesseler
Makes 4 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling on the bread
4 Asti peppers, seeds removed, cut into ½inch-wide strips*
1 cipollini onion, cut into ¼-inch slices
3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced, plus two large whole cloves, cut in half, for the bread
4 slices Italian bread, 1 inch thick Salt and pepper
1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the peppers and cipollini. Sauté, stirring often, until they are just softened but not browned.
3. Add the garlic slices and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside while you toast the bread.
5. Grill or toast the bread and rub each slice on one side with the cut half of a garlic clove. Discard the cloves after using them.
6. Place the bread, garlic-rubbed side up, on a serving plate, drizzle with the olive oil and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper.
7. Divide the pepper mixture evenly among the 4 bread slices and serve immediately.
*Note: Red bell peppers can be used in place of the Asti peppers.
Okra, Chicken and Tomato Stew
By Victoria Wesseler
Makes 4 servings
10 cups cold water
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
8 cups okra pods, fresh or frozen, ends removed and cut into ½-inch rounds*
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 boneless and skinless chicken breast halves
1 cup white onion, thinly sliced
1½ cups chicken broth, preferably homemade
4 cups canned diced tomatoes with juice, preferably homemade canned tomatoes
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups of hot white or brown rice
1. Put the water, lemon juice and ½ teaspoon salt into a large bowl and add the fresh or thawed frozen okra. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for an hour.
2. Remove the pods, letting the liquid drain from them back into the bowl. Discard the liquid in the bowl.
3. Put the drained pods in a large strainer and rinse them under cold running water.
4. Place the drained and rinsed pods on several layers of paper towel or a lint-free cotton kitchen towel and pat them dry.
5. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
6. Add the chicken breasts and brown them on each side, about 4–5 minutes per side. Remove the chicken from the pan and place it on a plate.
7. Add the onion to the pan and sauté until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
8. Add the okra to the onions and sauté for 5 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent burning.
9. Add the broth, tomatoes, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to the onion/okra mixture and bring to a boil.
10. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes.
11. Add the chicken breasts to the pan. Spoon some of the okra mixture over the chicken breasts to cover them.
12. Cover the pan and gently simmer the stew for 20–30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon over the hot white rice and serve immediately.
*Note: You can use frozen okra in place of fresh okra. If using frozen okra, thaw and drain it before adding it to the lemon/water mixture.
notable edibles
An American rum, born in Indiana
Indiana’s first sorghum rum is hitting store shelves this fall, and it’s no Captain Morgan.
Called Sorghum, this spirit is reviving an all-but-forgotten crop and turning heads to Indiana’s craft distilling scene. It sources sorghum cane syrup collected from small farms in southern Indiana and is made in small batches at Heartland Distillers, the Indianapolis company that makes Indiana Vodka, Prohibition Gin and other spirits.
Sorghum comes in two varieties: a white rum that is set to debut in September and a bourbon-barrel-aged dark rum that will follow in October. The aged rum matures in used oak barrels for eight weeks, which gives the spirit its darker color and imparts additional flavor, including vanilla and toasty notes. The white rum is not aged and has a lighter flavor.
Sorghum comes from Colglazier and Hobson Distilling Company, which is an offshoot of Heartland Distillers. Stuart Hobson is Heartland’s founder and distiller, and Matt Colglazier is Hobson’s Bloomington-based business partner who came up with the idea to use sorghum cane syrup.
Rum is traditionally made from sugarcane, and this new spirit is a departure from the tropically flavored varieties out there.
“It tastes like a rum, but it’s got a lot more flavor packed into it,” Hobson says. Using sorghum “produces a fuller bodied, more earthy flavored rum. There’s no burn when it goes down.”
Sorghum is an old sugar source and one of the earliest cultivated crops, but it fell by the wayside when sugarcane proved to be a cheaper and more productive supply.
Whether you prefer to blend the sorghum rum into a piña colada or drink it straight, raise a glass and toast to this Indiana original. For a store locator, visit www.sorghum.com.
—Erica Sagon
Matt Colglazier, left, and Stuart Hobson, right, make Sorgrhum at Hobson’s Heartland Distillers in Indianapolis.
Sorghum is an old sugar crop that is being used to make Indiana rum. Photos courtesy of Colglazier and Hobson Distilling Company
The crisp autumn weather is a perfect excuse for entertaining friends and family. Spiff up the presentation of your locally sourced appetizers, sides and desserts with these serving dishes made in Indiana.
Clay City Pottery has been making traditional stoneware (pictured below) for six generations. Retailing at $22 and available online at claycitypottery.com, their 10-inch stoneware pie baker is microwave- and dishwasher-safe and perfect for serving up your homemade apple or pumpkin pie.
Serving a hearty chili or garden-grown vegetable stew in these Oak Grove Pottery soup mugs (top photo) is sure to warm your guests’ hearts as well as their hands. These sturdy mugs in autumn shades of green and pecan cost $16 each and can be found at oakgrovepottery.com or the Ferrer Gallery at 62 W. Main St. in Nashville.
Show your Hoosier pride by serving out-of-town guests a cheese and seasonal fruit spread on this state-shaped breadboard, crafted from kiln-dried hard maple by Whetstone Woodenware and available at whetstonewoodenware.com for $15.50.
—Marcia Ellett
Loving Spoonfuls Indiana ears star in corn chowder
By Andie Marshall
Photos by Christina Richey
People frequently ask me to select a favorite soup. Instead of one soup, I name two types: chilies and chowders. Both are incredibly versatile with endless ingredient possibilities. They can be cream- or broth-based, cooked quickly or simmered for hours, and often can be frozen.
Fresh corn chowder is on my mind now as our Hoosier summer effortlessly supplies the key ingredient: abundant and tasty ears.
A friend (and professional cook) once told me that any chowder must have bacon, potatoes and onions. After hearing this, I changed how I prepare chowders. Mine do not always contain pieces of bacon, but the preparation always begins with bacon. Instead of oil and butter, bacon drippings provide the base for cooking the vegetables. The chowder’s flavor is altered by using various types of bacon.
Cutting kernels off the cob can be messy, but there is a method that simultaneously minimizes cleanup and enhances the taste. Place a 15-ounce tin can in the middle of a large bowl. Place the cob on the can and cut down, allowing the kernels to fall into the bowl. Make the first cut about half way through the kernels and the second cut close to the cob. This double cut releases more of the liquid and increases the chowder’s corniness.
Follow Andie’s technique for cutting corn off the cob by propping the ear on a can set inside a large bowl.
Corn Chowder
By Andie Marshall
Makes 8 servings
¼ pound bacon, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 large all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced
2 large ribs celery with tops, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium bay leaf, fresh or dried
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups whole milk
2 cups cream
3 cups cooked corn kernels and liquid*
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1. Heat large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium to high heat.
2. Add chopped bacon and cook until crisp. Remove bacon with slotted spoon; drain thoroughly and set aside.
3. Reduce heat to medium.
4. Add butter, potatoes, celery, onion and red bell pepper to bacon drippings. Cook vegetables until tender, about 15–20 minutes.
5. Add bay leaf, fresh thyme, salt and pepper.
6. Sprinkle vegetables with flour and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.
7. Stir in the chicken stock, milk and cream, stirring constantly. Bring soup to a bubble.
8. Add corn and bacon (saving some for garnish) and stir. Simmer for 15 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper seasoning to your taste. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
Suggested garnishes: crisp bacon, oyster crackers, sliced scallions or green onions.
*Note: About 6 ears of corn will yield 3 cups of kernels and liquid. If you’re starting with raw ears, first boil the whole cobs in water for five minutes, then cool before cutting the kernels from the cobs.
Chicks and the City
By Joan Jacobs
Photos by Christina Richey
Living in the heart of the city, you don’t expect a rooster’s call to alert you to the start of a new day.
But in Indianapolis and elsewhere, city dwellers are reclaiming family food supply systems by raising free-range chickens in their backyards alongside organic gardens.
Among the most ardent local proponents of this nationwide movement is Ginny Roberts, an Eastside resident who works with Purdue Extension and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Inc. Like many who keep city chickens, Roberts says she’s motivated by health, sustainability and eggs that are fresher than she could buy at a store.
Roberts and her husband, Don Horstman, reside in the beautifully restored John Thomas Askren House, the second-oldest home in Marion County, where they keep 10 hens and grow a wide variety of produce on their 10-acre property.
Three years ago, Roberts started by adopting 48 baby chicks from the Purdue Extension, learning to love each peep while embarking on an adventure in urban animal husbandry.
The babies developed into white hens, brown hens and roosters and had free range of the couple’s extensive yard on 16th Street, wandering at will throughout the day and voluntarily returning to their protective coop at dusk.
Roberts emphasized that a great benefit of raising her flock is that their eggs are much more tasty and nutritious than store-bought eggs.
“Once you’ve eaten these eggs, you wouldn’t want to settle for anything less,” she says. One of Roberts’ neighbors was so enamored of the hens’ delicious eggs and nutritious poultry that he followed her lead and now raises his own hens.
Over time, the adopted brood has dwindled to about 10 hens, which Roberts and Horstman consider family pets as well as a healthy source of food. Horstman says the hens’ antics are hilarious, and he enjoys watching how their curiosity gets them into various predicaments.
They are also low-maintenance, requiring just the basics of fresh water, clean air and space to roam. Horstman estimates that he and Roberts spend about $25 per month for food to supplement the birds’ free-range diet, particularly in winter.
As much as she has enjoyed the benefits of raising chickens, Roberts says potential owners should be aware that hens enjoy scratching and digging in the dirt and eating flowers, garden-fresh tomatoes and strawberries. Owners must also protect their chickens from natural predators.
“Once you’ve eaten these eggs, you wouldn’t want to settle for anything less.”
Tips and resources for raising city chickens
•Not sure where to start? Tap in to Nap Town Chickens, a resource for current and prospective city chicken owners. Nap Town Chickens is on Facebook, or contact Andrew Brake at abrake@kibi.org for more info.
•IUPUI’s Community Learning Network offers a class on raising backyard chickens. For info, visit www.cln.iupui.edu. From the main menu, select Continuing Education, then Online Course Catalog, then Green and Sustainability.
•Additional resources are available from Purdue Extension, www.ces.purdue.edu, and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (www.kibi.org), which improves public spaces.
•Start small, keeping your available space in mind.
•Keep start-up costs at a minimum with a simple coop—Don Horstman made his from various scrap materials—plus a feeder and a water dispenser.
Tour de Coops
Don’t miss Tour de Coops, a self-guided biking tour of more than a dozen backyard chicken coops in Indy (cars are welcome, too). The event is put on by Nap Town Chickens, a resource for current and prospective city chicken owners.
When: Sept. 18, 2–5pm
Where: Registration begins at 1pm in the south parking lot of Broad Ripple Park. You’ll be given a map for the self-guided coop tour throughout Broad Ripple, Meridian Kessler, Butler Tarkington and Rocky Ripple neighborhoods.
Cost: $5 donation to benefit Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and IndyCog
A coup keeps Ginny’s hens safe at night; during the day, they roam her large yard.
Ginny Roberts
Apple of our eye 10 ways to make the most of fall’s apple harvest
By Erica Sagon
That first bite of an Indiana apple is a rite of passage each fall. Come to think of it, so are the first slice of homemade apple pie and the first sip of cider. To help you make the most of the season, we’ve rounded up 10 ideas for eating and drinking Indiana apples this fall.
1 Sip cider. Many say that Musgrave Orchard’s apple cider is among the best around, and well worth the hour drive south to see where it’s made and grab a gallon or two that has been pressed the same day. Musgrave is off State Road 37, just north of Bloomington.
Details: 8798 N. Old State Road 37, Bloomington; 812-3395006
2 Pluck them from a tree. U-pick apples are ready now through October, and you don’t have to travel far to fill a bushel yourself. Within a 30-minute drive of downtown Indy, U-pick options include Anderson Orchard outside Mooresville, Tuttle Orchards near Greenfield and Anderson Orchard Pleasant View. From Honeycrisp to Golden Delicious, Gala to Jonathan, the orchards offer a variety to choose from.
Details: Anderson Orchard, 369 E. Greencastle Rd., Mooresville; 317-831-4181; andersonorchards.com. Tuttle Orchards, 5717 N. 300 W., Greenfield; 317-326-2278; tuttleorchards.com. Anderson Orchard Pleasant View, 10721 N. 850 W., Fairland; 317-8614025; andersonorchardpv.com
3 Have an applejack on the rocks. Huber’s Orchard and Winery in southern Indiana grows more apples than any other fruit, and one of the many ways to enjoy the harvest is applejack, a distilled spirit made with Jonathan and Winesap varieties. It’s purely apples—no grain—and the spirit is aged in charred American oak barrels for at least four years before it’s bottled.
Ted Huber, the distiller and seventh-generation owner of this family business, started distilling at age 15 and applejack was his first task. Now, it’s the hottest-selling spirit from Starlight Distillery, the arm of Huber’s that also makes apple brandy. Available at select Indy-area liquor stores and at Huber’s.
Details: 19816 Huber Rd., Starlight; 812-923-9463; huberswinery.com
4 Eat an apple cupcake. Holy Cow Cupcakes in Carmel gathers apples from the nearby farmers’ market to make this seasonal sweet: apple cake topped with apple-cider buttercream and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Owner-baker Karen Sutton zeroes in on tart apple varieties for this flavor.
Details: 61 W. City Center Dr., Carmel; 317-571-1500; holycowcupcakes.com
Photo by Stacy Able
5
Dunk an apple in caramel. Making the coating is as easy as melting down a bag of individually wrapped caramels and two tablespoons of water. Prep the apples by removing the stems, then pierce each apple’s stem end with a wooden craft stick. Dunk each apple in the melted caramel, and place on wax paper to cool. Get a little fancy by rolling the apples in chopped nuts or drizzling them with melted chocolate.
Tuttle Orchards even has a Carmel Apple Festival on Sept. 10. Among other activities, there is a caramel apple-hunt on the farm.
Details: Tuttle Orchards, 5717 N. 300 W., Greenfield; 317-3262278; tuttleorchards.com
6 Chill out with a cider slushie. Yep, you read that right. Head to Simply Sweet Shoppe in Carmel for a slushie made with local apple cider. On days when it’s still warm, this treat hits the spot.
Details: 30 N. Rangeline Rd., Carmel; 317-818-9866; simplysweetshoppe.com
7 Pair apples and cheese. This is one fantastic food pairing, but often overlooked. Replace the grapes on your cheese board with apples, and you’ll be thrilled with how the crispness of the apples counters the richness of the cheese. Blue cheese with Granny Smith is a classic pairing, but also try brie with Gala, cheddar with Honeycrisp and gouda with Granny Smith.
8 Try apple butter on warm biscuits or muffins. It seems every orchard makes its own version of apple butter, which really isn’t butter at all. It’s a way to preserve apples by cooking them low and slow until they have caramelized and are spreadable. If making it from scratch isn’t an option, pick up a few jars from an orchard to have on hand when you are entertaining or are in need of a lastminute gift.
9 Discover a variety that’s new to you. Go to orchards and farmers’ markets to find apples that are a bit more adventuresome. The Apple Works Orchard, for example, offers Goldrush, a tart variety that can be used for baking, and Orin, a Japanese apple that has a hint of pineapple flavor. Both can be hard to find elsewhere.
Details: 8157 S. 250 W., Trafalgar; 317-878-9317; apple-works.com
10 Find a baking recipe and make it your signature. Edible Indy’s publisher Cathy Bayse is happy to share her recipe for apple cake, which was passed down from her mom. It is quick and easy to prepare, and serves as a coffee cake or dessert cake—it’s wonderful topped with caramel sauce or ice cream.
APPLE CAKE
Recipe courtesy of Cathy Bayse
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups of apples, peeled, diced large and sprinkled with lemon juice to prevent browning (4 to 5 Granny Smiths work best)
2 cups sugar
2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon cardamom
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix eggs and oil together; add the apples and stir to combine.
2. In another bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together.
3. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the apple mixture and stir until just blended.
4. Place mixture in a 9- by 13-inch pan and bake for 1 hour in a 350° oven.
Edible Traditions
A TURKEY SO GOOD, YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHERE IT CAME FROM
By Christopher Lloyd
Photos By Kelley Jordan Heneveld
Every Thanksgiving turkey makes the inevitable journey from showstopping dinner table centerpiece to refrigerated leftovers to sandwich scraps and maybe to soup stock, but always ending in the same place: the household garbage.
In the Indianapolis home of Bob and Beth Groves, though, the turkey starts out in the trashcan.
Trashcan turkey, a decidedly unorthodox cooking method with a small but staunch group of devotees, is how the Groves put the heat to their meat at Thanksgiving for the past 15 years. Every November they cook two 20-plus-pound birds in old-fashioned metal trashcans for their family feast, which averages around 35 very eager eaters.
Using just a steel can, metal stake, aluminum foil and 40 pounds of charcoal, the Groves can cook a massive turkey outdoors in two hours flat—which has the added benefit of freeing up the kitchen for preparation of side dishes.
“It’s moist and it’s tender and it looks great. Everybody just seems to like it better,” Bob says.
Trashcan turkey is familiar to regular attendees of the Sullivan Hardware & Garden TurkeyFest, held each year on the Saturday before
or deep-fried, and the Groves are there to represent the trashcan contingent every year.
WACKY, BUT IT WORKS
Like beer-can chicken and other oddball poultry-cooking methods, trashcan turkey’s origins are murky, lying somewhere between hillbilly legend and improvisational camping technique.
Perhaps hunters who bagged a wild bird wanted to eat it right away, and made do with whatever materials they had in their truck. Or perhaps its inception happened in an RV park, where full-size ovens were lacking. Some say it’s a Creole recipe that started in New Orleans and moved north; others claim it’s an old Boy Scout trick.
It does seem that people of a technical bent are particularly drawn to the method, with its mix of ingenuity and wackiness. That’s how the Groves came across it.
“I’m an engineer, I’m not a cook,” says Bob, 64, who works at Raytheon.
Their son Patrick was studying at the Coast Guard Academy in 1996 when his thermodynamics instructor challenged the class to test
Thanksgiving. It’s a mecca of birds grilled
the method, offering extra-credit points. The Groves decided to give the experiment a try, with another turkey in the oven as a backup.
Their Thanksgiving party overwhelmingly preferred the trashcan bird to the traditional roaster, and they’ve been cooking turkeys that way ever since.
The trashcan is a hit at TurkeyFest, too. Sullivan storeowner Pat Sullivan calls the event a celebration of alternative methods for cooking turkeys, and even with flashier methods like infrared frying on display, the approach adopted by Groves and others feels special.
“Grilling and smoking works well for turkeys, but I still prefer trashcan turkey,” Sullivan says. “There’s nothing better than standing around an 800° trashcan on a crisp Thanksgiving day, enjoying a glass of beer or wine with family and friends.”
HOW IT’S DONE
Because the turkey cooks at such a high temperature—Bob estimates it gets to 600° inside the can—you can’t put any oil or butter or dry herb rubs on the exterior. If you do, it’ll just char into an unrecognizable and icky-tasting crust.
Trashcan turkey may sound intimidating, but the Groves say once you’ve got the method down, it’s the height of simplicity.
The first time you’ll need a new steel trashcan, preferably 30 gallons. Burn off any chemical coating by starting a large fire in it that you let get good and hot. Then clean it out with water and maybe a little vinegar and let dry. (If you’re going to cook any future turkeys, you should set this can aside and not let garbage near it.)
In a fire pit or dirt area, spread some heavy-duty aluminum foil about three feet square. Don’t do it on the lawn because you’ll scorch your grass, and affect the taste of the turkey.
Next you’ll need a steel stake, sharpened on both ends. Poke one end in the ground, and slide the turkey drumsticks-down—”Up from his butt and out through his neck,” Bob says—all the way. If the ground is cold, consider the Groves’ trick of putting some foil-wrapped bricks around the stake for the turkey to rest on.
Lower the trashcan upside-down over the staked bird. Light about six to seven pounds of charcoal. (Bob heats his in a pair of chimney starters before staking his turkey.) When the coals get ashy and hot, spread a single layer on top, across the bottom of the can, and layer the rest on the ground around the perimeter.
Next, pile the remaining unlit coals along the sides of the can, and ... walk away.
That’s all there is to it. There’s nothing else to do until it’s time to remove the can (using thick gloves), unstake the bird and carve it.
NO PEEKING
The heat coming off the can is tremendous—one can feel it from 10 feet away. Toward the end of the cooking time, a loud scintillating sizzle can be heard from underneath.
Resist the temptation to lift the can up and peek, the Groves say, because you’ll lose the built-up heat. It takes exactly two hours to fully cook a 22-pound bird; for smaller sizes you’ll have to experiment to find the right time.
As with cooking any large piece of meat, check it with thermometer inserted into the deepest flesh to ensure that it has reached a safe internal temperature.
Beth Groves mixes up gravy—about a gallon’s worth—using the giblets. But for those who fret about not being able to incorporate the drippings, there is a solution: Try using a Bundt cake pan, with the
turkey staked through the hole, to catch the juices. As with the trashcan, you’ll need to burn off any finish first, and dedicate the pan to turkey duty only.
THE TASTE TEST
All right, you’re thinking, maybe Trashcan Turkey isn’t as crazy as it sounded. But how does it taste?
The flavor is unadorned, but heavenly. Because trashcan turkey is unencumbered by even the barest of seasonings, it’s all about the juicy tenderness of the flesh contrasted with a succulently crispy skin— which, we might add, is nearly impossible to avoid picking at during the carving process.
Since the coals are separated from the turkey by the can, there isn’t a strong smoky flavor. And because the turkey is spitted upside-down, you don’t use a stuffing to imbue it with an herb-y aroma.
The best way to describe it is the truest turkey you’re ever likely to taste. This is one pure bird.
TurkeyFest at Sullivan Hardware and Garden
Curious about the trashcan technique? Watch how Bob Groves gets it done at TurkeyFest at Sullivan Hardware and Garden, held the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Groves joins other Indy residents at the annual event to cook turkeys in a variety of ways—smoked inside a Big Green Egg, grilled, roasted over an open fire and more. Attendees can sample it all, but be prompt—birds this good don’t last long.
TurkeyFest started as part of a WIBC radio show cooking segment in 1997, with Sullivan owner Pat Sullivan filling in for a vacationing host. It moved to the store the next year and has been growing ever since.
When: Saturday, Nov. 19, 9am to about 1pm.
Where: Sullivan Hardware and Garden, 6955 N. Keystone Ave., Indianapolis.
For info: 317-255-9230, www.sullivanhardware.com.
Admission: Free.
If the ground is cold, consider Grove’s trick of putting some foilwrapped bricks around the stake for the turkey to rest on.
CHEAT SHEET FOR TRASHCAN TURKEY
Thinking about trying trashcan turkey this Thanksgiving? Bob and Beth Groves shared their method with us. Snip this out and keep it handy for Turkey Day.
By Bob Groves
3-square-foot piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, plus more for wrapping bricks (optional)
36-inch steel stake, no coating, sharpened on both ends
3 or 4 bricks (optional)
30-gallon galvanized trashcan that has been burned inside to rid it of chemicals
Food thermometer
40 pounds of charcoal 22-pound turkey, washed and seasoned with salt and pepper ONLY
1.Lay the foil on the ground where you intend to cook the turkey. Stick the stake into the ground at the center of the foil. The stake should be far enough in the ground so that the trash can will fit over it snuggly when it is time to cover the turkey.
2.If desired, create a platform for the turkey to rest on by covering bricks in aluminum foil. Set the bricks at the base of the stake.
3.Place the turkey, legs down, on the stake. The stake should run through the cavities of the turkey where you would find the neck and giblets. The turkey should stand upright with the leg ends resting on the foil.
4.Cover the staked turkey with the trashcan.
5.Place one layer of hot coals on the top of the upside down trashcan. In addition, place the remaining hot coals around the bottom of the outside of the can. (Groves heats coals in a chimney starter).
6.Place the remaining unlit coals around the bottom of can.
7.Let the turkey cook for 2 hours without peeking. (In very cold weather, it may take 2 hours 15 minutes cook time.)
8.After 2 hours, uncover the bird and check the thermometer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says to cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165° when measured with a food thermometer.
Greg Hardesty, the man behind the innovative set menus of Recess, offers a recipe for mustardglazed Brussels sprouts with bacon that he promises will convert sprout-haters.
“This dish is guaranteed to make you like Brussels sprouts,” says Hardesty. He theorizes that the vegetable’s unpopularity is mainly due to poorly cooked sprouts, which quickly become discolored and sulfurous when overcooked.
Hardesty recommends this cure: Peel the sprouts until they are the size of ping-pong balls, blanch them until they are bright green and barely tender (about three minutes), and then dunk them in ice water to stop the cooking process before heating them again with the bacon and sauce.
The dish dates back to the 1990s, when Hardesty was working at the Rubicon in San Francisco, and now holds a regular spot in his cooking rotation.
It’s not featured at Hardesty’s own Thanksgiving table, though, since he’s not in charge of the day. He typically attends a pitch-in dinner with friends who thoughtfully agree to give him a break from cooking (he deserves a break more than ever this year, with both Recess and his new neighboring restaurant, Room Four, on his plate; recessindy.com). His usual turkey-day contribution is a cold seafood hors d’oeuvre, such as shrimp cocktail or oysters.
In the Kitchen With Side dishes that steal the show
By Kira Bennett and Erica Sagon
Photos by Christina Richey
Though the Thanksgiving turkey gets most of the press, side dishes are generally the part of the meal that allow for the most experimentation—and garner the most loyal followers. To liven up your table this year, or perhaps to find a new perennial favorite, sample these dishes by Indianapolis chefs that showcase bold, fresh flavors.
MUSTARD-GLAZED BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH BACON
Recipe by Greg Hardesty of Recess and Room Four
Makes 6 to 8 servings
20–25 Brussels sprouts, halved 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 cup red onions, julienned ¼ cup cooked bacon, chopped 2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup chicken stock
3 heaping tablespoons whole-grain mustard 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon thyme leaves, chopped
1.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch halved Brussels sprouts for approximately 3 minutes, until cooked through but not mushy.
2.Remove Brussels sprouts and place into a bowl of ice water to stop cooking. Drain. The sprouts should be tender and bright green.
3.Melt butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat.
4.Add the onions and cook until soft.
5.Add bacon and sugar; continue cooking for another 30 seconds or until the sugar melts and begins to turn a caramel color.
6.Add the Brussels sprouts and deglaze with the chicken stock. Reduce by half.
7.Add the mustard, vinegar and thyme. Stir to combine. Serve immediately.
Josh Brownell, executive chef at the newly opened 10-01 Food & Drink, offers up his cranberrybasil bread pudding, a twist on traditional stuffing. Made with bread, mirepoix and other seasonings, this dish might seem similar to stuffing. But because it’s custard-based, it’s technically a bread pudding, which keeps the peace in Brownell’s family.
“My father has a pretty world-famous stuffing, so I don’t step on his toes,” says Brownell, executive chef at 10-01 Food & Drink, a new Broad Ripple spot serving updated comfort food (1001fooddrink.com).
“Custard doesn’t have to be sweet; it can be savory,” Brownell explains. His savory version is made with pretzel bread, which Brownell chose for its doughy, challah-like consistency that easily soaks up the custard.
Want to sample it before trying out the recipe at home? The bread pudding is on the menu at 10-01, where it’s served on top of a Maple Leaf Farms duck burger. Brownell says it’s just as delicious with turkey.
For Brownell, the dried cranberries in the recipe are a nostalgic nod to the canned cranberries on the Thanksgiving tables of his youth.
CRANBERRY-BASIL BREAD PUDDING
Recipe by Josh Brownell of 10-01 Food & Drink
Makes 12 servings
4 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 head celery, cleaned and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic
½ tablespoon celery salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup white cooking wine
6 eggs
1 quart heavy cream
2 pounds soft pretzels or pretzel buns, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 cup sun-dried cranberries
3 tablespoons basil, cut chiffonade style
1. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, sauté the carrots, celery and onions. Continue to sauté until the onions become translucent. This is when they have released the unpleasant acids that make you cry.
2. Add the garlic, celery salt and white pepper to the pan. Mix until the vegetables are well coated.
3. Add the wine and deglaze the bottom of pan.
4. Allow the wine to reduce, then remove from heat. Spread the mixture on a plate or tray and allow to cool to room temperature.
5. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs and cream and whisk together until smooth.
6. In another large mixing bowl, combine the cubed bread, cranberries, basil and cooled vegetables.
7. Pour the cream and eggs over the bread mixture and allow to sit for 15 minutes or until the bread has soaked up the liquid.
8. Transfer the mix to a greased 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 25 minutes.
9. Remove the foil top and bake for an additional 5–10 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
10. Allow to cool. Cut into desired portions.
Becky Hostetter, one of the chefs behind the Duos food truck that offers fresh, seasonal food to go, shares a recipe for green beans with hazelnuts that is rich and vegan-friendly. Hostetter and her husband have long been vegetarians and have children who are vegans, so they are accustomed to tweaking traditional Thanksgiving dishes to make them suitable for their family.
This green bean dish accommodates various dietary restrictions without sacrificing taste or resorting to margarine or other artificial substitutes. The hazelnuts in this dish, says Hostetter, “have a rich enough flavor that you don’t miss the butter.”
It’s the kind of simple yet impressive fare that fuels their mobile kitchen called Duos, which appears at various Indy locations at lunchtime (duosindy.com).
When she was growing up in Bloomington, Hostetter used to forage in the wild for hazelnuts. Her old spots no longer yield the haul they once did, but she reminds those who may be lucky enough to find some that hazelnuts must be dried in their shells for several months before they are suitable for eating.
These green beans should be blanched in an uncovered pot until they are bright green and then reheated with the rest of the ingredients before serving. To ease the Thanksgiving Day schedule, the breadcrumbs and nuts can be toasted with the seasonings up to a month ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the freezer. The green beans can be blanched and refrigerated the day before cooking.
GREEN BEANS AND HAZELNUTS
Recipe by Becky Hostetter of Duos food truck
Makes 6 servings
1 pound green beans
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced shallots
½ cup Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or finely ground fresh breadcrumbs ½ cup finely chopped and husked hazelnuts
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Blanch green beans for 6 minutes. Drain very well.
2. Heat oil in a large pan. Add shallots and sauté until soft.
3. Add breadcrumbs, hazelnuts, salt and pepper and sauté until a nice smell arises from the pan, stirring constantly (about 3 minutes).
4. Add green beans and sauté a couple of more minutes until they are heated through.
They Knead to Bake
Shared love of baking turns friends into successful pie partners.
By Marcia Ellett
Photos by Helen Workman
The leaves overhead are fast becoming a natural kaleidoscope of fall colors. Autumn’s cool winds usher in warm thoughts of hearthside sitting, family gatherings and comfort food—and nothing evokes that cozy feeling faster than the heavenly scent of a homemade pie.
“It’s a friendly, happy smell,” says Lesley Bartone, who, along with her friend Julie Komsiski, started Indy’s Upper Crust Artisan Pies earlier this year. They specialize in pies made from scratch with locally grown ingredients as well as seasonal and holiday classics. Though Upper Crust doesn’t have a storefront—yet—its pies are sold at a handful of area restaurants and can be ordered directly from Bartone and Komsiski.
The next-door neighbors in the Meridian-Kessler area initially bonded over their children—they have eight between them, ranging in age from 3 to 12—and discovered they shared a love of baking. Morning walking partners, they would walk and talk about things they wanted to do, and the idea of a pie-baking business just stuck.
“We realized this was going to be a great union of two people who are passionate about baking,” Bartone says.
Both began racking up restaurant and catering experience in their teens, and, Komsiski says, “We felt like we could be really creative with pies.” They delight in experimenting with new ingredients such as maple Greek yogurt or making savory pies with veggies fresh from the garden.
“Plus,” she says, “our kids were a huge motivating factor. We wanted to do something that we knew we could eventually have our children involved in.”
The friends arranged to use the certified kitchen at St. Joan of Arc School, where Bartone works planning and preparing the school lunch menu, and they set about becoming a well-oiled pie-baking machine.
Pie lovers can find Indy’s Upper Crust pies at the Jazz Kitchen, Bebop Pizza Kitchen and Twenty Tap at the intersection of 54th Street and College Avenue, and Goose the Market at 25th and Delaware streets, among other locations. Weekly specials are posted on Facebook and Twitter. To order seasonal pies, including pumpkin, pumpkin pecan, sugar cream and apple, or to request special orders, e-mail indysuppercrust@gmail.com. Slices cost $3 to $4; a whole pie runs about $17, a little more if it’s organic.
Because community and family are important to the Upper Crust women, a neighborhood pie store is definitely in their long-term plan, says Bartone. Eventually, they dream, “It’s going to be that pie store that’s been in the family forever.”
Indy’s Upper Crust pumpkin pie
Owners Julie Komsiski (left) and Lesley Bartone
SUGAR CREAM PIE
Recipe courtesy of Indy’s Upper Crust
Sugar cream is an Indy’s Upper Crust regular seasonal offering. This largely regional pie is a Hoosier favorite.
1½ cups white sugar ¼ cup flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups heavy cream
1 pre-made pie shell
2 teaspoons butter cut into little pieces
1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Add vanilla and heavy cream and whip.
3. Place over double boiler and heat to 160°.
3. Pour mixture into pie shell and add dollops of butter over the top.
4. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes, and then 350° for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.
EASY AS PIE
Bartone and Komsiski offer tips for those trying their own hand at a homemade pie:
•Keep the crust cold in the refrigerator until the last minute. Then roll out the dough to about an 1/8 of an inch on a piece of canvas, sold at bakers supply stores or even at a fabric store. Dust it with flour; the dough will roll out smoothly and won’t stick.
•Always start your pie off on the lowest oven rack at a high temperature. Then move it up to the second rack, cover it and reduce the heat. “Typically, you end up with a nice, golden-brown, crunchy, flaky, buttery, delicious crust,” Bartone says.
•When choosing what to put in your pie, know your region, Bartone says. “When you’re in the fall season, what does it immediately make you think of? You’ve got those real warm spices like nutmeg, cloves and ginger, and you’ve got pumpkins, squash, pears and apples.”
•For fruit pies, always cut your fruit into similar-size pieces so they will cook evenly. For apple pie, the women suggest slicing the apples thin. The slices will layer themselves when you pour them into the crust and give you a denser pie.
•Don’t worry about trying to be perfect. “We like the idea of some fruit bubbling over,” said Komsiski. “When I see that little hint of what’s inside for me, I can’t wait to get inside.”
Will (left) and Nathan Bartone
From the Good Earth It’s a marshmallow world for 240sweet
By Erica Sagon
Photos by Stacy Able
Unless you were in Troop Beverly Hills, you’ve probably never roasted marshmallows like these around a campfire.
These are marshmallows that you never knew existed—jumbo, pillowy puffs in flavors like maple bacon toffee and saffron pistachio and pumpkin pie.
There’s bananas Foster, chai spice, vanilla bean, caramel chocolate chip and dozens more, made in small batches with regional ingredients and flavored in ways that are sometimes familiar and sometimes fancy—for marshmallows, anyway.
These are the marshmallows made by 240sweet, a Columbus company that sells its treats in Indy and elsewhere, and online. Owners Alexa Lemley, the chef, and Samantha Aulick, the sales manager, are life partners who also run a catering business. Their marshmallows have more culinary flair than most, and are often flavored with real food.
Fall brings seasonal flavors the likes of cranberry with white chocolate and—are you ready for this?—turkey with sage dressing. And, yes, Lemley really cooks turkey and uses the juices to flavor the puffs.
The marshmallows are meant to be dunked in hot chocolate or eaten straight from the bag, particularly the varieties that are capped
Alexa Lemley (left) and Samantha Aulick, co-owners of 240sweet, roast marshmallows that Lemly makes in Columbus.
THROW A S’MORES PARTY, 240SWEET STYLE
It’s s’mores season—celebrate! We asked 240sweet owners Alexa Lemley and Samantha Aulick to share creative ways to use their marshmallows in s’mores, and the results were decadent, to say the least. Gather with friends around a backyard fire pit, get the flames flickering and toast away to your desired char and melty-ness. Use a two-pronged skewer or double up on sticks—240sweet marshmallows are bigger than mass-produced puffs, and they need extra support. Here are 240sweet’s s’mores recipes to try:
Frenchie: Nutella puff sandwiched between French lace cookies
Sweet and Salty: Salty caramel puff with a dark chocolate bar, sandwiched between sugar cookies
White Out: Roasted coconut puff with a white chocolate bar, sandwiched between slices of pound cake
Classic S’more: Very vanilla bean puff with Chocolate for the Spirit primal bar, sandwiched between graham crackers
Summer Camp: S’more puff sandwiched between crispy rice treats
Feeling Fall: Pumpkin spice puff sandwiched with a white chocolate bar, sandwiched between oatmeal cookies
Pig Out: Bacon maple toffee puff with a dark chocolate bar, sandwiched between sugar cookies
Note: If a fire pit isn’t a possibility, set up a portable gas burner, like a camping stove, and toast around that. Lemley and Aulick actually cater s’mores stations at events this way, browning bitesize marshmallow pieces over a small gas burner, then rolling them in graham cracker crumbs, chocolate bits, coconut flakes and other sweets for bite-size s’mores.
Think outside the box when roasting s’mores. Try 240sweet’s chocolate chip marshmallow sandwiched between lace cookies.
Jumbo-sized marshmallows made by 240sweet come three to a pack.
with ingredients like mini chocolate chips, making them a self-contained dessert like a cupcake.
This is s’mores season—marshmallows’ time to shine—and Lemley and Aulick know how to take their puffs to the next level around the campfire, too. Graham crackers from the supermarket and Hershey’s chocolate bars are a classic combination, but s’mores done 240sweet style call for French lace cookies, Rice Krispies treats and homemade graham crackers to sandwich the marshmallows.
Like many comfort foods that have been given modern makeovers, 240sweet’s fluffy treats can veer toward decadent or grown-up or unusual, but they’re still marshmallows, a familiar food memory from childhood.
“I think, for the most part, it’s a nostalgia thing,” Lemley says of her gourmet puffs’ popularity.
Most of the main ingredients are sourced within an eight-hour drive of Columbus. The cornstarch is Terre Haute’s Clabber Girl, the corn syrup is from Ohio and the beet sugar comes from southern Michigan. Many flavoring ingredients are local to 240sweet. The lavender in some puffs comes from Lemley’s mom’s backyard in Columbus.
The idea for gourmet marshmallows came about when Lemley and Aulick were looking for ways to market their catering business— Lemley took the helm at her family’s company, Lemley’s Catering, when her parents retired. The couple decided to package homemade marshmallows to hand out as freebies to potential clients.
“And then one day, people wanted to buy them,” Aulick says. Their marshmallow business took off in 2008.
And the name 240sweet? It refers to the 240° temperature that the marshmallow goo—a mixture of sugar, corn syrup and water— reaches during the cooking process before it is mixed with gelatin to firm up.
Now, 240sweet is an Indiana Artisan, a designation given by the state to Indiana producers, of food, art and more, who excel at their craft.
Lemley jokes that their next step is “world domination through marshmallows.” For the short term, that means remodeling their downtown Columbus facility to accommodate tours and add some retail space. They don’t plan to open stand-alone stores, but they will expand their product offerings to include baking ingredients like bourbon sugar, vanilla extract and bourbon syrup.
In the meantime, Lemley and Aulick will keep dreaming up new flavors for their puffs.
“What I do is think of a flavor that I like in other foods, and turn it into a marshmallow. I love tom ka gai soup, so I started making Thai chile marshmallows,” Lemley says. “We’re flavoraholics.”
Details: 240sweet, 1120 Washington St., Columbus; 812-372-9898; 240sweet.com. In Indy, retail locations include Simply Sweet Shoppe (30northrangeline.com), the Indiana State Museum (indianamuseum.org) and Homespun (homespunindy.com). For a full list of retailers or to order online, visit 240sweet.com.
Edible Season
Taking It Outside: Schools Grow Future Foodies and Gardeners
By Shawndra Miller
Photos By Christina Richey
It’s just after 3pm on an early June Friday, and the elementary school courtyard is filling up with energetic kids of varying ages. At the far end of a raised garden bed, pea vines twine up the salvaged box spring that serves as a trellis. In its shadow, a blond girl twirls on one foot in the gravel. Two boys kick a bottle cap between them; other children flip the pages of their new yearbooks.
Irvington Community Elementary School (ICES) is one week away from summer break, and the students are buzzing with springfevered anticipation. But when Jennifer Smith, the eastside charter school’s health teacher, calls the school year’s last meeting of the garden club to order, everyone quiets down.
“Raise your hand if you want to be in the garden club next year,” she says.
Nearly every hand shoots up.
It’s a welcome sight, given the number of youth who have never experienced the flavor burst of a homegrown tomato. The closest many children come is the ketchup on a French fry.
In fact, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Ginny Roberts, who works with many schools to develop garden programs, conducted an informal survey of several Indianapolis Public School middle school classes. Only five children out of some 600 had picked a ripe tomato off the vine. “I was just shocked,” she says.
Rita Franco, a mother of four who has been heavily involved with the ICES garden club, says she knows firsthand how easy it is to fall into
the fast-food trap, given the harried pace of life. That’s why she’s so passionate about the club. All four of her children take part, and she loves giving them the chance to experience what she calls “slower-paced food.”
“My vision is to teach the kids where their food comes from,” she says, adding that all kids need to know the true-blue flavors of food cultivated in their own backyard or schoolyard.
Nurturing the seeds
As the club members get ready to get to work, Smith tells them they can stop by anytime during the summer with their parents and pull a weed or give the plants a drink. With ICES doors opening for the new school year in late July, summer break is short. Smith is counting on this type of ad hoc involvement to keep the garden flourishing until the club resumes with the school year. The built-in reward is the harvest: “If there’s a red tomato, you can pick it and eat it, OK?”
Then the group gets their marching orders for the next half hour: The fifth graders, top of the totem pole here, will bring wheelbarrowloads of bricks—eventually to border new beds—from the far side of the school lot. The first and second graders will tend to the seedlings along the back of the building. Hand tools emerge from backpacks as the kids scatter to their posts. Some attack weeds with gusto, whacking the dirt with garden forks to dislodge young thistles from the soil. The girl on hose duty, predictably, gets soaked. The fifth graders trundle into view, too many hands steering the tilting, overloaded wheelbarrow.
...all kids need to know the true-blue flavors of food cultivated in their own backyard or schoolyard.
being expressed at schools citywide, and across the nation.
From the private Orchard School, where students engage with nature while applying math, art and writing skills, to the Indiana School for the Blind, where a horticulture program opens a window to the world of plants, to Woodbrook Elementary in Carmel, where fifth graders experience history by planting a Colonial vegetable plot, countless schools are bringing their students into the garden.
Here they have the chance to see a seed turn into food, with farreaching impact. At ICES, some of the seedlings begun in late winter were given to participants to plant at home, and many parents report that the children are deeply invested in those backyard gardens. A first grader’s father told Smith that his son persuaded the family to try gardening. The tomatoes and marigolds are clearly the little boy’s jurisdiction.
“He goes out there all the time and plays in his garden,” Smith says.
While the current club membership stands at 32, dozens more want to join. Smith and Franco’s dream is to be able to include everyone who wants to take part—and to create sister gardens at ICES’ companion schools at the junior high and high school level, so the seeds planted in the lives of these youngsters can continue to be nurtured after they leave.
Their eventual wish is to grow enough produce to feed the students, though so far the yield has been limited to nosh-sized, parceled out among club members on the spot. If they do progress to cafeteria-scale
yields, health department regulations might pose an obstacle. Franco says another possibility is to sell the produce at farmers’ markets and use the income to improve school lunches, where whole foods are scarce.
The club joins forces with the school’s wellness group during the winter to focus on nutritional education. And throughout the growing season there’s great potential for garden-based science and math lessons.
Raising food advocates
If club members need a model for what’s possible, they need only look up the road. At the Project School, a K–8 charter school located northeast of downtown, an urban “edible schoolyard” offers a leafy oasis and training ground. Bordering the playground are 15 raised beds, a threestage composting bin, cold frames to extend the garden season, a garden shed and an outdoor classroom. Grants from several sources, coupled with partnerships with allies like Butler University’s Center for Urban Ecology and People for Urban Progress, have allowed the school’s agricultural focus to grow exponentially over the past three years.
Opposite: ICES Garden Club. Front row, left to right: Cameron, Alex, Elise, Erin, Naveah, Delaney, Jaylah, Emily, Aiden, Kylee. Back row, left to right: Ms. Smith, Ms. Jane, Anna, Sydney, Audin, Eli Above left: Aiden (right) and Eli tend to the irrigation. Above, top right: Our ambitious gardener Alex. Above, bottom right: Erin (left) and Naveah share the load.
How you can help
School gardens offer many opportunities for community members to make a difference. Here’s how:
•Check out Global Peace Initiatives (globalpeaceinitiatives.net), an Indy-based nonprofit that mobilizes volunteers to create “Peace Gardens,” many of which are located on school grounds. GPI founder Linda Proffitt notes that helping to plant or maintain a garden can be a rich learning experience. “Getting down and dirty—that’s how you learn.”
•Find out if your neighborhood school has a garden program that could benefit from your time. At Irvington Community Elementary School, for example, garden club leader Jennifer Smith is seeking experienced gardeners to help teach the students and staff about all aspects of growing food.
•Many school gardens are in need of basic supplies and support. If you have seeds, gloves, tools, organic matter or building materials on hand, consider passing them on to a school that could use them.
•Help a school find and apply for grants. (Grants from the Department of Education and State Farm, among others, funded the Project School’s edible schoolyard.)
•Organize or participate in a fundraiser to benefit your community’s school garden program, or give a monetary donation. (ICES has a community rain barrel workshop set for this fall that will raise much-needed funds. See ics-charter.org/elementary for details.)
Tarrey Banks, school leader and fourth grade math teacher, says the school—situated on a reclaimed brownfield—has ambitious plans for more. The coming year should see the development of a half-acre farm in the neglected space behind the school.
In the meantime, the school lunch contract with Aramark has incorporated more fresh produce each year. “Every summer we meet with them and push the envelope a little more. They’ve been very good to work with,” says Banks. The next step, he says, is to incorporate the school-grown produce into the meal plan, perhaps supplementing with food from a local farm.
About 75% of Project School enrollees are at or below the poverty level. The entire student body has interaction with the school garden as an introduction to sustainable food systems.
The students undertake “project-, problem-, place-based learning.” In practice, this means seeking out an issue that’s rooted in the community and designing a project to address it.
This approach that has led the second and third graders to organize a community workshop on—what else?—how to build a raised garden bed. Using funds raised by selling Bloomington-based Nature’s Crossroads seeds, the students made some 30 3x6-foot raised beds and delivered them to area residents. Filling them with soil was the final step, but the students’ involvement doesn’t stop there. The project continues as they track the new gardens, preparing a “capacity map” of the area’s food production.
Even the more typical class lessons incorporate the edible schoolyard where possible. For example, Banks’ fourth grade math class designed the new half-acre planting space, using reclaimed shipping containers as building material for an indoor/outdoor shelter and raised beds. Applying what they learned about surface area, volume and angles, they worked with scale models of the shipping containers, with a goal of zero waste.
Older students are looking at the big picture, reading Michael Pollan’s seminal book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and watching Food, Inc.
Big City Farms owner Matthew Jose, who has consulted with the Project School and hosted field trips, expects this kind of immersion to have a big payoff. “Even if [the students] don’t garden in 20 years, their
baseline of ecological awareness has been increased… They have some sense of what a healthy environment looks like, and what a healthy city looks like. That knowledge will inform them in later pursuits whether they garden or not.”
And the students get it. Banks tells the story of a 14-year-old boy whose response to Food, Inc. was an aghast “You have got to be kidding me.”
“A lot of people think [teens] are just about playing Xbox, but to see a kid have a visceral reaction to being duped like that… and that leads to action. It’s an inroad to ‘Now you get why we are teaching you to grow food.’” Banks hopes his charges will leave the school as informed consumers and potential local food advocates.
Over at ICES, the impact is already being felt. Franco says her youngsters have gotten in the habit of asking where the food on their plate comes from. “We talk about that all the time now.”
Parent Alicia Añino, whose kindergartener Liani is a garden club member, notices her daughter’s sense of ownership in the family garden, especially for plants started in garden club. “She’s more apt to eat it if it’s from an edible plant she brought home.” Recently, Liani enthusiastically downed a whole-grain pasta dish featuring greens from the garden.
On this late spring day, as the meeting wraps up, club members list what they’ve most enjoyed about gardening. Freckle-faced Eli says his favorite part is digging. Erin favors “putting mulch down,” while Kylie prefers “having fun with the water hose.” Emily says she’s looking forward to picking and eating tomatoes.
Before the group disperses, Smith plucks arugula leaves and mustard greens from the raised bed for an impromptu sampling. All line up for a taste, which prompts a few shudders, a few bemused shrugs, and comments like “It’s so spicy!” and “It’s actually good!” But perhaps the kids’ very willingness to take a nibble speaks loudest of all.
Worth the Trip
My Indiana Adventure Through Food
By Kristin Hess
Photos Provided by Kristin Hess
“So, what do you do for a living?”
It’s a simple question, but my answer seems to be anything but simple.
The short answer: I use food as a way to connect with people around Indiana.
I suppose I could say “I discuss food and spirituality with a 90-year-old woman whose hands show her love of the land. I chat with a pierogi master named Jesús who is willing to brave 100° heat to make his masterpieces. I sample persimmon pudding with a woman who dreams of bigger things for her community.”
The full answer is that I work for Indiana Humanities and travel the state with our Food for Thought program, which was created as a two-year celebration of Indiana food culture. Specifically, I roam across the state with an interactive exhibit about the past, present and future of Indiana food culture. I take the exhibit from town to town, working with the festivals, visitors’ bureaus and libraries that host it to create programs that extend the conversation beyond the exhibit.
The best part of the Food for Thought adventures?
The people. They’ve defined the experience. Here are a few I met:
garden, the animals and the role food has played in her life. When I looked at her hands that had worked the land for nearly 90 years, I felt something powerful; Rachel’s hands told a story. She was this tiny little lady with the strongest hands I’d ever seen. We discussed the intersection of food with spirituality, family and life. Now we’re pen pals.
At Indiana Humanities, we believed from the outset that food could be a catalyst for conversations. And I’ve proved the point, talking with farmers, restaurateurs, foodies and Hoosier families I never would have met any other way. Something else happened, too: Over those plates of local specialties and Hoosier delicacies, I deepened my love for Indiana and the people who live here.
Jesús and Lynethe: For a respected Polish/Slovak chef, Jesús has an unexpected story: He was born in Mexico and cooked his first pierogies upon his arrival to the U.S. about a decade ago. But Jesús doesn’t simply cook at Lynethe’s Deli & Pierogies, the restaurant he owns with his wife in Whiting. He provides much more than food as he goes above and beyond for his customers. After our conversation, Jesús left to cook pierogies in the 104° heat of the Pierogi Festival in Whiting.
Rachel: I stumbled upon Rachel’s beautiful Amish farm one afternoon in Parke County. Ninety-year-old Rachel welcomed me in her home and spent hours telling tales of her
My trip, by the numbers
Miles traveled: 2,822 (Would get you to Seattle, or Acapulco, Mexico)
Indiana counties traveled through: 33
Amount of coffee consumed: at least 570 ounces
Slices of pizza consumed: 27, many from Mother Bear’s Pizza in Bloomington
Time spent driving: 43.5 hours
Number of songs played in the car: 653
Photos taken: 3,978
Don: Once a race-car mechanic and Indy 500 pit crew member, Don Shepherd is a National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee and part of racing royalty. Now out of racing for a quarter century, Don travels to festivals in Indiana and beyond with his wife, Mary, making apple dumplings. People I spoke to at the Whiting Pierogi Fest traveled there just to buy the Shepherds’ creations. Don is an affable guy, and fair-goers can’t help but take part in this chapter of his life.
The youth services librarian at Mitchell Community Public Library, Jacqui facilitated Food for Thought programming for the youth in Mitchell. Over dinner and my first persimmon pudding, she explained her dreams for what Mitchell could be. From forming special bonds with senior citizens to pushing forward technology for the youth, Jacqui’s commitment to community and the role of the library in shaping the future inspires hope.
from left to
Deborah and Tony: This dynamic duo opened a coffeehouse on the Rockville town square to accompany their Old Jail Inn, a jail that has been converted into a hotel. Committed to investing in the local economy through food-centered businesses, Deborah and Tony do more than sell coffee; they lead and inspire fantastic things for their community.
The worst part?
The weather. We’ve set up in the rain, heat and freezing cold. I’ll never forget the time we were trying to stake a tent when the sky turned green and became saturated with lightning. We hid in the back of a (teetering) box truck until the tornado sirens stopped. Phew!
Worst?
Never eat a funnel cake for breakfast on an unbearably hot day.
Biggest lessons?
The shared human condition opens doors. Everyone eats. Everyone has a story. Embracing this shared condition is a platform for growth. I’ve been amazed by folks who sniff me out as an outsider but invite me over for dinner, or to chat among the rows of a hardworked community garden. Differences melt away; likenesses connect us.
nent home. I’ll take on another project at Indiana Humanities.
But it’s hardly an ending.
Best food?
Impossible to name just one thing! Jesús’s pierogies, Don’s apple dumplings, homemade pumpkin ice cream from the Covered Bridge Festival, Amol Indian restaurant in Bloomington, cookies from Fingerhut Bakery in North Judson, sandwiches from Goose the Market in Indianapolis and homemade persimmon pudding from Golden Gables, a restaurant attached to a gas station in Bedford.
Food goes far beyond our taste buds. It adds to the narrative of our lives. There’s a lot more to dinner than the food. Who’s talking? What attributes define that person? What beliefs? It’s a similar story with farmers’ markets and restaurants. Why do these places exist? What is the driving force? How does the food connect the people? In other words, what’s the story at the heart of the food?
It’s a good time to be a Hoosier. Agriculture has been a huge part of our state’s past, but I’ve learned that it also could be the foundation for an exceptional future. From hunger advocates to biotech researchers to urban farmers, people in Indiana are generating a lot of momentum and creativity for the future of food in Indiana and the world.
Lasting impressions?
The traveling Food for Thought program makes its last stop in October, but it will live on digitally, and the exhibit will find a perma-
I set out on this adventure because I’m passionate about food, conversation and embracing the unknown. The journey opened my eyes to a world that constantly buzzes and hums around us—and yet one we often miss or take for granted. From large-scale farms to backyard gardens, from fancy eateries to diners and roadside stands, and from a quick sandwich to home-cooked comfort food, food affects and defines every one of us as humans and as Hoosiers.
As a result, food gives us something to think, read and talk about. At its most basic level, food is a necessity, but when we step back and examine its cultural, personal and emotional qualities, we share our humanity.
So, what I do for a living? I observe, support and champion the power of food to bypass animosity, rejuvenate the spirit, build relationships and instill hope for us as individuals and as members of a community. What’s your role in the conversation?
Indiana Humanities’ Food for Thought exhibit makes its final travels this fall. Catch it at these locations: Aug. 30–Sept. 8: West Lafayette Public Library, West Lafayette Sept. 10–Oct. 2: Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Evansville Learn more: FoodforThoughtIndiana.org, indianahumanities.org
Photos
right: Lynethe (Left) and Jesús (Right) of Lynethe’s Deli & Pierogies; Don Shepard (Left) with Hess enjoying his apple dumpling; Persimmon pudding; Food for Thought exhibit
100 Mile Diet: I Think I Can, I Think I Can
By canning and freezing foods from their garden and nearby farms, this Carmel couple eats local all year long. Here’s how they’ve adapted their grandparents’ ways to modern life.
By Shawndra Miller
Karen Mangia and Thom England go the extra mile for year-round good eating. In fact, they’ll go a hundred miles for good, clean, fair food—but no more.
Mangia, an executive at a technology center, and England, a chef and culinary instructor, adopted the 100-mile diet as a personal challenge three years ago after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The only items they consume from beyond that perimeter are staples like certain flours, olive oil, sugar and coffee (but the coffee beans are locally roasted by Bjava Coffee).
What sets the Carmel couple apart is their commitment through the winter months, when many a local food enthusiast caves to the convenience of out-of-season supermarket produce. Mangia and England
turn to the produce that they canned, pickled, froze or preserved otherwise earlier in the year.
Their desire to eat only foods from within a 100-mile radius has given new depth to their relationship with Mangia’s grandparents, who offered lessons in “putting food by.” Along the way they’ve also cultivated a network of farmers and likeminded people, and occasionally share their culinary adventures on their blog, indychef.blogspot.com.
The couple took the transition to the 100-mile diet in several stages. Before returning to his native Indiana, England owned an inn in upstate New York where a large garden supplied the produce for the restaurant. He’s definitely no stranger to the movement, but on a personal scale, he says, it didn’t happen overnight.
by Christina Richey
“We started out going from eating ‘whatever,’ to being more conscious of where our food came from, to getting into more organic and sustainably grown food, and then next we took this step.”
“We didn’t go straight from eating the traditional American diet… to doing this,” Mangia agrees, noting that there are many ways to take baby steps along the way.
Vine-ripened tomatoes grown outside the back door could be called the gateway drug to full-on locavore ethos. The couple had always grown a few tomato plants as a matter of tradition and tastiness. Their next step was to join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, which gave them weekly infusions of seasonal veggies. “That’s sort of a low-barrier entry,” says Mangia. “You get to know where your food comes from, you get a lot of variety, but it’s not like you’re out in the garden every day having to roll up your sleeves and get in the dirt.”
Finally they were ready take on the 100-mile diet as a year-round endeavor, which meant a crash course in preserving. Throughout the growing season and into the fall, you will find them spending time each week in the kitchen, working through piles of whatever is in season.
Their garden plots—tended by England, who jokes that Mangia’s motto is “If you can’t do it in high heels, it’s not worth doing”—have expanded beyond the basic tomatoes and peppers to include peas, spinach, asparagus, cauliflower, potatoes and even berries. They grow their own herbs to dry and freeze for a winter spice cabinet. But much of the produce they “put up” comes not from their own yard, but from local farms, including their CSA. Combining a modest gardening effort with their CSA gives them enough produce for both fresh eating and preserving.
To allow for ample off-season eating, they order additional quantities of certain things when they’re at their peak. From August through mid-September, for example, the duo is likely to be ladling tomatoes in some form into canning jars. “Even between what we grow and our CSA share,” Mangia says, “we like to get more, because we can tomato paste, juice and sauce, and we make salsa. So we order tomato ‘seconds’ from our CSA… They don’t have to be gorgeous. [We]’re just going to smash them anyway.”
The gas grill gets pressed into service as an extra burner during the busy late-summer season, when corn, green beans, tomatoes, chili peppers and okra all clamor for attention. Generally the preserving efforts require a half day or so a week, but from August through mid-September they expect to put in a couple solid days’ work each week. Mangia has been known to shuck corn while on a conference call in her home office to keep up with the onslaught. The couple makes preserving a social thing, sometimes inviting friends to join them. Those who want to learn the art of canning, pickling or freezing produce can pull up a cutting board or take a place at the stove.
Asked if it’s all worth it, she admits there are times where it’s tempting to call the experiment a success and move on. The first winter’s green bean crisis, born of overshooting their legume needs, prompted one such moment. “It was the middle of January and I’m pulling things out of the freezer and going, ‘What am I going to do with green beans again?’ I actually had a dream that I went into the grocery store and bought whatever I wanted and brought it home and cooked it, and it didn’t matter what season it was or where it came from.”
So that’s what she did. A trio of colorful peppers from miles away made their way home to her table. The resulting dish killed any impulse to stray: “It tasted awful.”
“Here’s something that is picked out of season, it’s gassed while being shipped across the country, then it sits in the grocery store till you buy it.” The taste differential might go unnoticed, she says, until you’ve broken the addiction to convenience and eaten only local food for a while.
The difference is dramatic and leads the couple to celebrate each new fruit and vegetable as it comes into season. “That first strawberry,” England says, “is just the best thing in the world. We’ve lost a sense of what that feeling is like because we don’t eat seasonally.”
Then there’s the personal contact with farmers and food producers, which is incredibly enriching. “The thing I like the most is… I know who my food comes from,” he says. “I can go out and talk to the person who’s raised my beef or grown the turnips I would use for my soup. Having that relationship with someone who’s really such an intimate part of your life… It’s like Cheers: You walk into the farmers’ market and everybody knows your name. You feel like family.”
Tips for taking the 100-mile diet in baby steps
Carmel couple Karen Mangia and Thom England live by the 100-mile diet year-round, which means that most foods they eat are grown and produced nearby. In the winter, they rely on food they’ve preserved during the rest of the year. Here’s their advice for embarking on a 100-mile diet:
•Buy berries in season and freeze some in a Ziploc bag for the winter. “Who wants to pay $6 a pint for blueberries in December that are not very fresh and don’t taste that good?” Mangia says.
•Take a family trip to an apple orchard and stock up. “Eat the apple dumpling, buy the cider and ask which apples will keep well—they’ll know—then buy a couple bushels and stick them in the fridge to eat in the winter,” Mangia says.
•Freeze tomatoes and peppers in airtight containers after stemming, coring and cutting in pieces.
•Try recipes from a seasonally based cookbook to help with the occasional “green bean crisis.”
•Patronize restaurants that source their food locally. “Spend your dollars at restaurants that keep that money in the community and support our farmers who are doing good work,” Mangia says.
•Start planning early in the growing season if you want to try it year-round. “If you’re doing it for a full year, you’ve got to start in April,” England says.
Tasty tomatoes year-round
How do you avoid eating tasteless tomatoes during the winter months? Preserve garden-fresh tomatoes from your backyard or CSA now. Find these canning recipes and more at indychef.blogspot.com, the blog that Mangia and England keep.
How to can tomato juice
Note: One bushel of tomatoes yields about 12 quart-size jars of tomato juice.
Supplies: Canning jars, tomatoes, citric acid (or Fruit Fresh, if you can’t find pure citric acid), kosher salt
1.Purchase wide-mouth, quart-size canning jars. Remove rings and lids from jars. Place jars only in the dishwasher and run through a complete cycle to sanitize. Leave them in the dishwasher until you are ready to use them.
2.Wash and dry one bushel of tomatoes. Cut out the stems on the top. Roughly chop tomatoes in large chunks.
3.Place chunks in large pots (avoid aluminum). Bring the pots to a boil, then turn down to medium heat.
4.Continue to stir occasionally until tomatoes break down. There will be a lot more juice in the pot than when you started.
5.Run contents of each pot through a food mill or Squeezo. Place juice back in the pots and bring back to a boil.
6.While juice is coming back up to temperature, remove canning jars from dishwasher. Put 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of citric acid in the bottom of each jar.
7.When tomato juice is hot, quickly ladle it into the awaiting jars (or use a funnel) until you reach the lower lip of the jar.
8.Place the lid on top of the filled jar and screw on the ring. Let the jars rest on the counter for several hours.
9.Once jars are cool, push down on the lid. If it does not spring back, the jars are completely sealed and ready to store.
How to can whole tomatoes
Note: One bushel of tomatoes yields about 16 quart-size jars of whole canned tomatoes.
Supplies: Canning jars, tomatoes, citric acid (or Fruit Fresh, if you can’t find pure citric acid), kosher salt
1.Purchase wide-mouth, quart-size canning jars. Remove rings and lids from jars. Place jars only in the dishwasher and run through a complete cycle to sanitize. Leave them in the dishwasher until you are ready to use them.
2.Wash and dry one bushel of tomatoes. Cut out the stems and core. Cut an “x” in the bottom of each tomato.
3.Bring a large pot of water to a boil (avoid aluminum).
4.Meanwhile, fill a separate large pot, pan or bowl, with ice. Add cold water. Once water comes to a boil, place tomatoes in boiling water several at a time. Boil for 1 to 2 minutes.
5.Quickly remove from boiling water and place in ice water.
6.Remove from ice water and peel the tomatoes. The skins will slide off easily using your hands. Place peeled tomatoes to the side.
7.Turn boiling water down to a gentle simmer.
8.After all tomatoes have been peeled, remove the jars from the dishwasher. Put 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of citric acid in the bottom of each jar.
9.Place tomatoes in each jar, pressing them down until jars are filled to the lower lip. Add the lid, and screw on the ring.
10.Place filled jars in a pot of simmering water. The water should cover the jars and have an additional 1 inch of water on top. Simmer filled jars for 30 minutes.
11.Remove jars from the water, and let them rest on the counter for several hours.
12.Once jars are cool, push down on the lid. If it does not spring back, the jars are completely sealed and ready to store. If they did not seal, return them to the water bath for another 30 minutes.
edible events
Sept. 2: Grill & Swill event at Chef JJ’s Get your chance to sit down with Derek Gray, owner of GrayBull Organic Wines Inc., and discuss all that you want to know about wines, while tasting delicious dishes prepaid to go specifically with each wine, by Chef JJ. www.chefjjs.com
Sept. 2–5: RibAmerica Festival Rib masters from across the country, including Squealers in Indy, gather at Military Park. Free admission until 5pm Sept. 2 and until 2pm Sept 3–5; $7 all other times. Food and drink tickets sold separately. ribamerica.com
Sept. 4–10: Going Local Week This one-week challenge asks Indy residents to eat a locally grown food at each meal. www.goinglocal-info.com
Sept. 8: Canning workshop Learn to preserve fruits and vegetables during this 2½-hour workshop by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. With a $10 donation, take home three antique glass canning jars. kibi.org
Sept. 9 and 10: Indianapolis Greek Fest Enjoy classics like souvlaki and gyros at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Carmel. indygreekfest.org
Sept. 10: Caramel Apple Festival Kick off fall season at Tuttle Orchards. Come enjoy the caramel apple hunt, agrimaze, and apple pie baking contest. www.tuttleorchards.com
Sept. 16–18: Indy’s Irish Fest Irish food by Murphy’s Steakhouse and more is featured at this gathering at Military park. Tickets are $8 in advance, $13 at the gate. Children are free; $10 for students ages 14–18 with ID. indyirishfest.com
Sept. 18: Tour de Coops This self-guided bike tour visits backyard chicken coops in Broad Ripple, Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington and Rocky Ripple neighborhoods. $5 donation; proceeds go to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and IndyCog. Search “Tour de Coops 2011” on Facebook for info.
Sept. 22: GABF Brewers Dinner at Chef JJ’s Come to Chef JJ’s and taste some of the beers that Sun King specifically created with this Colorado event in mind.The GABF in Denver, Colorado is one of the largest events for brewers across the country. www.chefjjs.com
Sept. 24–25: Anderson Orchard Apple Festival This Mooresville orchard’s annual celebration features homemade apple cobbler with ice cream, plus U-pick apples and more. andersonorchard.com
Sept. 30 and Oct. 1: Indianapolis Wine Festival Festivalgoers can learn about new and exciting varieties of wine from the experts and enjoy cooking demonstrations presented by local chefs. Indianapolis restaurants and caterers will sell signature dishes on site. Sept. 30 4-
10pm and Oct. 1 2-8pm, Military Park. $10-$27 in advance, under 21 free with parent. www.indianapoliswinefest.com
Oct. 1, 2, 8, 9: Beasley’s Orchard Heartland Apple Festival Apple goodies, hayrides and a corn maze are among the attractions at this Danville orchard’s festival. beasleys-orchard.com
Oct. 8: Oktoberfest at Traders Point Creamery So dust off your lederhosen and head to Traders Point Creamery October 8th, from noon to 7 p.m. This all day celebration, in the German tradition, offers plenty of tantalizing organic food, beer and wine, and toe-tapping music from 2 great bands including the one and only PolkaBoy, a rollicking 13-piece polka band! There are plenty of activities the kids will enjoy too, like hayrides, a pumpkin patch and face painting! Local Indiana Vendors will be selling their bounty and crafts! www.tpforganics.com/events/
Oct. 8: The Original and Fabulous German Fest German food, beer and culture convene at The Athenaeum. Tickets: $5 in advance, $10 at the door. Kids 12 and under, free. indygermanfestival.com
Oct. 13: Rain garden workshop Learn best practices for controlling storm water on your property in this workshop by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. $10 donation suggested. kibi.org
Oct. 31st: HALLOWEEN!
Oct. 28: EDIBLE INDY LAUNCH PARTY We invite our readers to celebrate the launch of Edible Indy from 7–9pm at Simply Sweet Shoppe in Carmel, 30 North Rangeline Road. Stop by, say hello and have a few sweets on us! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@EdibleIndy) for details. edibleindy.com
Nov. 17: Harvest Brewers Dinner at Chef JJ’s Enjoy the hearty abundance that nature has to offer at this time of the year. Along with the great seasonal line up that Sun King offers during the cooler months! www.chefjjs.com
Nov. 20: Sullivan Hardware’s TurkeyFest Indy residents gather outdoors at Sullivan Hardware and Garden, 71st and Keystone Ave., to cook turkeys in a variety of ways and hand out samples. Free admission. www.sullivanhardware.com
Nov. 24: THANKSGIVING!
To have your upcoming event listed in Edible Indy, please contact us at info@edibleindy.com.
Liquid Assets Indiana wine and beer to fall in love with
By Jill Ditmire
Photo by Kelley Jordan Heneveld
Thirty microbreweries. Sixty wineries. And more than a dozen fall weekends.
Being a Hoosier, when I do this math it inspires me to go local. And don’t think it has to be chewable or crunchable or be served on a plate if it’s locally produced. In fact, some of the most exciting and innovative examples of Indiana cuisine are in bottles, glasses and growlers.
The craft beer craze continues, and Indianapolis breweries have many seasonal styles to make you “hoppy” in the upcoming months.
Do you know what else is on tap? Wine. New Day Meadery in Fountain Square pumps it up with a selection of fizzy, fruity, fresh mead (honey-based) wines on tap.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” says Brett Canaday, who along with wife Tia Agnew owns and makes mead wine and hard cider at New Day Meadery. “The product is on tap like a brewery, but tastes like wine served at a winery.”
Here’s a look at fall beers, wines and hard ciders made locally that can be sampled and purchased at tasting rooms, sipped in Indy bars and restaurants and found at retailers. For up-to-date availability, check with the producers.
Gold Rush and Johnny Chapman ciders
New Day Meadery’s hard apple ciders are a don’t miss for the season. Gold Rush is crisp, refreshing and dry with aromas of Golden Delicious apple. Meanwhile, Johnny Chapman cider has a bit more body and a sweetness that comes from Indiana sorghum.
Another can’t-miss from New Day is the Free Thinker, a draftstyle blueberry honey wine with delicate and enticing aromas and flavors of wild blueberry. Dry, crisp, with just enough fizzy bubbles to make you go back for a second glass. Details: New Day Meadery, 1102 E. Prospect St., Indianapolis; 888-632-3379; newdaymeadery.com
Autumn rose
This semi-sweet blend of Chambourcin, Cayuga and Vidal Blanc from Columbus’ Simmons Winery is a year-round favorite but perfect for fall foods. This especially great companion for Thanksgiving feasting will complement the juicy moisture of turkey, be it smoked, roasted or fried. The rosé’s subtle sweetness and spice will pair with sweet potatoes done in the marshmallow bake style or roasted and drizzled with Cajun butter. Details: Simmons Winery, 8111 E. 450 N., Columbus; 812-5460091; simmonswinery.com
Rhubarb wine
Mallow Run Winery makes this tart, fresh wine that is a wonderful addition to a pre-game tailgate party. Pair it with fried chicken and potato salad and enjoy an Indiana fall picnic. Details: Mallow Run Winery, 6964 W. Whiteland Rd., Bargersville; 317-422-1556; mallowrun.com
American Chambourcin
Chambourcin is a grape that Easley grows in its vineyards along the Ohio River. The new 2010 American Chambourcin release was aged in oak barrels, adding more depth to this bold, dry red that pairs well with beef and game.Details: Easley Winery, 205 N. College Ave; 317-6364516; easleywinery.com
Flat Jack Ale
Head into Flat12 Bierwerks’ downtown Indy tasting room to taste fall in a glass (or bring it home in a growler). Flat Jack Ale has notes of pumpkin, which we can’t help but crave this time of year. Details: Flat12 Bierwerks, 414 N. Dorman Street, Indianapolis; 317-635-2337; flat12.me
Oktoberfest lager
Upland Brewing Company takes us to Munich via the Midwest with this Bavarian-style lager made from German malts and rare German hops. Sweet and malty, crisp and hoppy, and just right to drink when the weather turns the corner.
In October, keep an eye out for Upland’s Komodo Dragonfly Black India Pale Ale, a dark, bitter beer with a touch of lavender, and Teddy Bear Kisses Imperial Stout, a dark beer made with fair-trade cocoa nibs (try it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the glass). Details: Upland Brewing Company, Indianapolis Tasting Room, 4842 N. College Ave., Indianapolis; 317-602-3931; uplandbeer.com
Rattlesnake IPA
Sun King Brewing rolls out Rattlesnake IPA in October, fresh hop beer with hops from Rattlesnake Hollow Hop Farm in French Lick. Dark-beer lovers will covet late-fall releases like Cowbell Porter and El Gallo Negro, a black IPA. Like apple pie? Try Malus Pi, Sun Kin’s wheat beer infused with local crab apples, cinnamon and oats. Details: Sun King Brewing, 135 N. College Ave., Indianapolis; 317602-3702; sunkingbrewing.com
Advertiser Directory
Our heart felt thanks to all of our advertisers for their support in helping to grow and sustain Edible Indy and our community. Please make a point of supporting these businesses and organizations.
A. Arnold World Class Relocation
5220 West 76th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46268
870.5777 • www.aarnoldmoving.com
Artisano’s Oils and Spices
1101-B E. 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46240 251.4100 • www.artisanosoils.com
Best Chocolate In Town
880 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46204
636.2800 • www.bestchocolateintown.com
Green Clipping www.greenpieceindy.com
Green B.E.A.N Delivery
377.0470 • www.greenbeandelivery.com
Kiss Z Cook
890 E. 116th Street, Ste. 125, Carmel, IN 46032
815.0681 • www.kisszcook.com
New Balance
9893 N. Michigan Rd., Carmel, IN, 46032 • 876.4615 1551 East Stop 12 Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46227 • 889.6715
Mass Ave Wine Shoppe
878 Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46204 972.7966 • www.massavewine.com
The Orchard School
615 West 64th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46260 251.9253 • www.orchard.org
Buy Fresher: Piazza Produce, Inc. 5941 West 82nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46268 872.0101 • www.buyfresher.com
Pogue’s Run Grocer
2828 E. 10th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46201 426.4963 • www.poguesrungrocer.org
Traders Point Creamery
9101 Moore Rd., Zionsville, IN 46077 733.1700 • www.traderspointcreamery.com
Vogel Appliance
2404 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46205 357.1186 • vogelappliance.wordpress.com
Zionsville Chamber of Commerce 135 South Elm Street, Zionsville, IN 46077
873.3836 • www.zionsvillechamber.org
Free Thinker (left) a carbonated blueberry and honey wine and Johnny Chapman hard apple cider (right).
Last Bite
Not your grandma’s pasta
By Audrey Barron
Photo by Christina Richey
Vibrant zucchini and aromatic basil are two of my favorite gems from the garden, and this dish combines them beautifully. What appears at first glance to be spaghetti with cream sauce is actually zucchini topped with lemon-garlic sauce and basil.
Using one of my favorite kitchen tools, the spiral vegetable slicer, I turn zucchini into those long, thin ribbons that mimic pasta. The flakes that look like Parmesan cheese are freshly grated macadamia nuts. The sauce—fresh, lemony and dairy-free—can be created in minutes from a few simple ingredients.
These flavors of summer come alive when prepared with gratitude and without the use of heat. Enzymes and nutrients fuel every inch of your body with Earth’s healing energy.
Not only will zucchini provide cholesterol-lowering fiber, the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory qualities impart the joy of well-being. Meanwhile, the antibacterial properties of basil, the green goddess of herbs, inhibit unwanted bacteria in our bodies.
LEMON-GARLIC ZUCCHINI PASTA
By Audrey Barron Makes 2–4 servings
For the lemon-garlic sauce: ¼ cup macadamia nuts
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
3 small garlic cloves
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons water
For the pasta:
2 large zucchini, peeled and cut in half horizontally 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered 12–15 fresh basil leaves
4 whole macadamia nuts
1.To make the lemon-garlic sauce, add nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt to a blender and process until smooth. Slowly add the water and blend. Set aside.
2.Use a spiral vegetable slicer to create the zucchini noodles. No spiral slicer? Use a simple vegetable peeler on the zucchini instead.
3.Cut your basil into thin strips
4.Pour sauce over zucchini pasta, then sprinkle with tomatoes and basil.
5.Using a microplane or small grater, shave the macadamia nuts over the pasta like you would with Parmesan cheese.
Audrey Barron is an Indianapolis raw food chef and owner of Be Bliss Healing Therapies, providing holistic healing and education. www.beofbliss.com.
farmers’ market directory
Looking for a farmers’ market in your neighborhood? Here’s a sampling of those found in the Indy area.
38th and Meridian Farmers’ Market
Thursdays, 4–6:30pm, through October 3808 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis
Abundant Life Farmers’ Market:
Thursdays, 4-7pm, through Sept. 29 7606 East 82nd Street, Indianapolis www.alcindy.com/ALCfarmersmarket.html
Avon Farmers’ Market
Tuesdays, 4–7pm, through Sept. 13 8244 E. U.S. Highway 36, Avon (Hendricks Regional Health) hendricks.org
Binford Farmers’ Market
Saturday, 9am-noon, through November 19th 62nd and Binford Blvd., Indianapolis www.binfordfarmersmarket.com
Community Farmers’ Market of Owen County
Saturdays, 9am–noon, September-October Courthouse Square, Spencer farmersmarketowencounty.com
Cumberland Farmers’ Market
Saturdays, 8am–noon, through September 11501 E. Washington St., Cumberland www.town.cumberland.in.us
Danville Chamber of Commerce Farmers’ Market
Saturdays, 8am–noon, through Sept. 17 Danville Courthouse Square danville-chamber.org
Farmers’ Market at City Market
Wednesdays, 9:30am–1:30pm, through October Saturdays, 9:30am–1pm, through October 222 E. Market St., Indianapolis indycm.com
Franklin Farmers’ Market Saturdays, 8–11am, through Oct. 1 West Jefferson and South Jackson streets, Franklin discoverdowntownfranklin.com
Greenwood Farmers’ Market Saturdays, 8am–noon, through October 310 S. Meridian St., Greenwood For info, search Greenwood Farmers’ Market on Facebook
Green Market at Traders Point Creamery Fridays, 4–8pm, through October 9101 Moore Road, Zionsville tpforganics.com
Green Market at Traders Point Creamery Saturdays, 9am-noon, November through April 9101 Moore Road, Zionsville tpforganics.com
Harvest Market at the Fairgrounds Saturdays, 8am–noon, through October Wednesdays, 8am–noon, July through October 620 N. Apple St., Greenfield hancockharvestcouncil.com
Indy Winter Farmers’ Market Saturdays, 9am-noon, November 12th through April (Closed Dec. 24th & 31st), Location TBA www.indywinterfarmersmarket.org
Stadium Village Farmers’ Market Tuesdays, 4–7pm, through September 801 S. Meridian St., Indianapolis www.stadiumvillagefarmersmarket.com
Zionsville Farmers’ Market Saturdays, 8-11am, through September At the corner of Main and Hawthrone streets www.zionsvillefarmersmarket.com
