Our property happens to sit on the highest point in Marion County, overlooking a holler that flows with Fishback Creek and peppered with any tree you can imagine. This time of year is glorious with the golden yellow leaves, the burning bush reds and oftentimes the sunset colors of our maple trees. Every year I learn more about our property and how to gather what it offers us to preserve for the coming months and into the spring.
We harvest our rose petals and hibiscus flowers to make tea, our sherbet-colored zinnias for their seeds, our sunflowers to eat some seeds now and replant the rest in the spring. Sometimes we get lost in the day-to-day and forget about what our land gives to us. This issue, themed “Gather and Reap,” is about taking the time to gather what the summer has given to us so we can reap the rewards during the cold months and into the spring. It is about creating a cycle of sustainability and taking in the possibilities and bounty Mother Nature can provide. Compiling this issue has brought a tremendous amount of learning about Indiana ingredients right at our fingertips, learning about the reinvention of our restaurant community and about the next generation of farming.
edible INDY
PUBLISHER
Rubenstein Hills LLC
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Jennifer Rubenstein
jennifer@edibleindy.com
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Jeff Rubenstein
MANAGING EDITOR
Francine Spiering
COPY EDITOR
Doug Adrianson
Sit with us a while and perhaps make yourself a cup of hibiscus and rose petal tea.
Hoosier Hugs, g
Jennifer Rubenstein, Editor in Chief
From the Editor
Fall may be my favorite season. It’s when the forest is at its best—especially up north, where I am now. I love the earthy smells, the invigorating fresh air. The autumnal colors are such a natural moment of Zen. Even when fallen, the leaves provide comfort as they cushion walkers’ feet on forest trails. And it smells of mushrooms so strongly that I find myself scouring the forest floor in search of edible fungi treasures.
But while others emerge from the same woods with baskets full of wild edibles, I often end up with nothing but a case of forager envy. It makes for moments of proud happiness when I do find that beautiful bolete or manage to get to the sumac bush in time, before others have clipped off all the crimson-red clusters. I am learning, every day.
In Texas, where I used to live, fall holds a different promise. The worst of the suffocating summer heat is gone and ahead stretches a season full of colorful bounty: citrus galore, sweet ripe persimmons, local pecans shaken fresh off the tree and shelled on site. Skies are brilliant blue, days are sunny and warm and nights are balmy and inviting for al fresco dining.
What is your fall like?
Warmest,
Francine Spiering, Managing Editor
DESIGN
Cheryl Koehler
SALES
jennifer@edibleindy.com
CONTACT US
Have a story you’d like to see featured? Send us your ideas. editor@edibleindy.com
EDIBLE INDY PO Box 155 Zionsville, IN 46077 p. 260.438.9148
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EDIBLE INDY PO Box 155 Zionsville, IN 46077 p. 260.438.9148
Over the past eight years we have grown Edible Indy in ways that have championed and nourished the local food movement in Central Indiana. We have not only developed a print publication making an impact on people’s lives, but we have created a print, digital and social media company that has allowed Edible Indy to truly work with connecting our community both with our consumers and businesses throughout the state and beyond.
We are looking for new hands and hearts to carry on, elevate and grow the business in new and exciting ways. As we grow older, situations shift, priorities change and it is now the time for us to find someone ambitious and excited to step into the ownership of this successful and growing publication.
If you are interested in learning more about Edible Indy or stepping into the ownership role, please reach out to us. Email Jennifer Rubenstein at jennifer@edibleindy.com.
Thank you for all the years you have spent with us,
Jennifer & Jeff Rubenstein
SOCIAL BUTTERFLIES
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Celebrate edible goodness through the lens of our community by tagging us on all of your culinary journeys. You might find us reveling in your photos here or @edibleindy. Cheers to your next Foodgram adventure!
HOAGIES & HOPS
Authentic Hoagies and Cheesesteaks They aren’t sandwiches or subs. They are Hoagies!
4155 Boulevard Pl., Indianapolis (All Ages) 719 Virginia Ave., Indianapolis (21 & Over) HoagiesandHops.com
GLOBAL BITES IN BLOOMINGTON
Hoosier town offers tasty treats from Brazil, Jamaica and beyond words: Madalyn Norman
Bloomington, Indiana, is teeming with one-of-a-kind eats from around the world just waiting to be discovered by Hoosiers. This town that John Mellencamp famously called “small” has become a melting pot of diverse people and flavors. From Brazilian fusion pops to authentic Jamaican jerk chicken, Bloomington has enough variety to make anyone’s mouth water. This fall, gather your friends and take a culinary world tour of these different, delicious delights in the home of the Hoosiers.
Rasta Pops
During a walk in the park one summer’s day, Iuri Santos got a sweet idea inspired by his home country of Brazil. There, vendors walk around on hot days selling popsicles out of an icebox strapped around their neck. Santos wanted to do the same thing right here in Indiana. Today, Santos and his wife, Linda, own the Rasta Pops pushcart, selling their Brazilian fusion popsicles all over Bloomington from May to September.
Although they serve classic American flavors such as strawberry lemonade, Rasta Pops encourages customers to try their more unique ones, such as honey-ginger lemonade, Santos’ personal favorite. Additionally, the company partners with other local businesses to highlight flavors unique to Bloomington in their pops. Try the local Hopscotch Coffee Thai espresso pops or the MeSorrel Jamaican Tea pop, made from local Dreamers Delight tea.
Moreover, Rasta Pops prides itself on using organic products wherever possible and local produce when available. The couple uses biodegradable packaging and composts food scraps from the manufacturing process.
The Rasta Pops pushcart can usually be found May to September at Bloomington’s Food Truck Fridays and on Saturdays at the People’s Co-Op Market. For additional information on where to find them, check out Rasta Pops on social media.
RastaPops.com
Facebook @RastaPopsIcePops
Instagram @Rasta_Pops
Top Shotta Jerk Chicken Truck
When Taneisha Henline moved to the U.S. from Jamaica, she began to miss the flavorful cooking from her home. That’s why in 2018 she opened Top Shotta Jerk Chicken Truck as an homage to her Jamaican roots and ancestors. Wanting to emulate the street vendors of her home country, Henline decided on a food truck with a pull-behind smoker grill. On offer is a variety of meals including jerk chicken tacos and Henline’s favorite, the “Jerk Chicken Dinnah,” which comes with rice and “peas” (beans), one chicken breast, your choice of chicken leg or thigh, Shotta-Slaw and “Jamaican Pear” (avocado). Jerk is a Jamaican style of cooking in which meat is marinated with a wet or dry traditional spice mix and cooked slowly on the grill. But to Henline, it is a way of life.
“It’s not only how you cook the food, there’s a history behind it,” Henline says. “My ancestors fought for the right to jerk chicken.”
Top Shotta Jerk Chicken truck stops in different locations around Bloomington, so the best way to find them is by checking their Facebook page, according to Henline.
Facebook @TopShottaJerk
Instagram @yaadfood
Carson’s BBQ
Growing up, Jeff Carson learned the secrets of good barbecue from his mother, Gladys May. Today, Carson owns the Bloomington favorite Carson’s BBQ and catering, serving up “down-home” classics. Carson doesn’t have one specific style but takes inspiration from both Southern and Midwestern BBQ. He has everything from ribs and brisket to barbecue chicken and pulled pork to catfish. But if you had to pick one item that stands above the rest, it would be the award-winning St. Louis ribs.
Carson’s process is one of time and skill. First, they marinate the meat for 24 hours, using a special rub of eight spices. Then they smoke the meats for four to 16 hours in their custom grills made by Thornton’s Welding of Bloomington. The result is barbecued meat that they say is so tender, it falls right off the bone.
Carson opened his first restaurant in Terre Haute, called Chanaghan’s Corner before eventually moving to Bloomington to settle down with his wife, Tammy. Today, the husband-and-wife team works hard to run the restaurant, food truck pop-ups and catering events. Check out Carson’s permanent location or stop by one of their pop-ups on Thursday and Saturdays, locations listed on their monthly calendar.
3878 W. 3rd St. | Bloomington, IN CarsonsBBQ.com
Dreamers Delight
Dreamers Delight’s MeSorel Jamaican tea is another unique Bloomington provision. Begun by IU chemistry professor Michael Edwards, the local company combines the founder’s chemistry background with inspiration from a drink popular in his native Jamaica to create a unique health drink.
Sorrel tea is a Jamaican tea traditionally made with hibiscus flower, ginger and rum. Edwards wanted to remove the alcohol from the original recipe but found that it acted as a preservative. Without alcohol, the tea did not last more than three days. Instead, Edwards, who has a doctorate in physical chemistry, used his knowledge to create a natural preservative of cinnamon, clove and rosemary. What results is a one-of-a-kind, zero-alcohol drink with detoxifying and immunity-boosting properties.
If you thought the rum still sounded pretty good, you aren’t the only one. MeSorrel Jamaican Tea can be combined with a jigger of rum to create a delicious, and somewhat nutritious, island cocktail.
MeSorrel Jamaican Tea can be bought on the Dreamers Delight website or found at Lucky’s Market, Good Earth Natural Food Company, and Bloomingfoods Market & Deli, among other places around Bloomington.
DreamersDelightCo.com
Madalyn Norman grew up in Indianapolis and is a recent graduate from the University of Cincinnati. She has a background in social media and digital marketing, but also enjoys writing about food, lifestyle and culture. Follow Madalyn on Instagram @TheCincyDweller
photography courtesy of featured businesses.
A Virtual Cooking Class Over Coffee
Join us for our last virtual cooking class of 2021
We invite you to join Goods for Cooks and Edible Indy for the last in a series of virtual cooking classes. We’ve created mezze platters, talked of moon milk and prepared poke during our 2021 live classes from home. Our last live, one hour classes will include an experience box curated by Goods for Cooks based around all things coffee with a mindful discussion of how to create intentional rituals for yourself especially going into 2022.
This class + box begins at $75, reserve soon, classes are limited to 15 participants.
CLASS 4 | October 17 5-6pm
NOT JUST ANOTHER CUP OF COFFEE: Learn how to brew a better cup of coffee: From French Presses to Pour Overs (and what the difference is) with special guest Jane Kupersmith founder of Hopscotch Coffee in Bloomington.
This makes a perfect gift, date or an adventure into something noteworthy.
Scan the QR code to learn more or to reserve your spot as they sell out quickly!
Help us celebrate our 25th Anniversary of producing some of Indiana’s finest wines. Visit our Winery, Distillery, and Gift Shop today!
8145 W. Sinclair St. West Baden Springs, IN
INNOVATION IS ON THE MENU
New opportunities for restaurants and chefs to shine words by: Brian Garrido | photography: Torrie Hudson
Ijourney along Indiana Avenue. It’s two miles reach from Mile Square to the new 16 Tech Innovation District, a real-estate development for biosciences, technology, craft-making and, of course, food. At the beginning of the 20th century, the street formed the nucleus of Indianapolis’s burgeoning Black middle-class. It hummed with life, bustling markets, jazz clubs and eateries with names such as Page’s Café, The Coffee Pot and The People’s Restaurant.
Advertisements gave some hints to the dishes served at these establishments but “so much has been lost,” grieves Steve Barrett, Marion County historian for the Indiana Historical Center. “No one seemed to think of collecting [menus] for posterity.” In an email he lists: “The People’s Restaurant advertised as a ‘short order house and chili parlor.’ Lasley’s billed themselves with ‘home cooking.’ Log Cabin offered ‘old Southern-style barbeque’ and The Coffee Pot served ‘salad and sandwiches.’” Black American families thrived along with this beloved shopping neighborhood for
“We knew there should be a program to help people of color accelerate through the restaurant process. I found out some of my chefs were running into issues having access to kitchens or being certified. As an entrepreneur hiring experienced, high-end chefs and building a brand, I knew this was a long-term issue.”
—Jazmine Long, program director for Melon Kitchen
almost a century beginning in the 1850s. Earlier this year, the Terre Haute TribuneStar reported that by 1920 the 10-acre community included “150 single-family homes, 33 restaurants, 26 grocery stores, 16 clothing shops and a black medical practice.”
As a centerpiece, C.J. Walker, the first Black multi-millionaire, opened her cosmetics business creating well-paying jobs, which aided in shaping this area known as the “Indianapolis Harlem.” Now, more than a hundred years have passed, scarred with rampant social injustices, urban blight and civil rights protests, and optimism seems to brew anew with this reinvention.
At the northernmost tip where Fall Creek flows into White Water River lies the campus as mentioned above. When finished, it will have cute single names or acronyms to map out the series of buildings. To a visitor, the project feels like Russian nesting dolls: One prominent location with smaller parts within. Open one, discover another. The purpose of each offers economic security while nurturing future leaders and businesses. Enter HqO. Behind the Brutalist-style architectural entry, guests find similar single-moniker enterprises. The first example, 1776, promoted early in the
Opposite, top photo: Korean bowl and poutine from Korave (left and right); Buffalo chicken tenders with whipped potatoes on a corn muffin topped with gold flakes from FlavorUnit (above). Bottom row: Lance George of FlavorUnit; the Jung brothers, chefs at Korave.
construction, offers a global workspace network used by tech and business disrupters. Locations exist in Philadelphia and Berlin.
Machyne presents the largest and arguably best-equipped maker space and room rentals in Indianapolis. Yesterday, a crafter might want to weld a sculpture. Today, they can produce a ceramic pot, and tomorrow, print a 3D schematic. Finally, we get to AMP, an acronym for Artisan Market Place, making it the second of two food halls to open during the pandemic. (The Garage at Bottleworks District successfully launched in the beginning of 2021.) Out of the three connected edifices it engages the public the most. After all, this is where everyone will eat, drink and, if all goes well, repeat the process daily.
Found in the former Indianapolis Water Company structure, the overall plan doesn’t feature clothing stores or doctors yet. Still, it does offer a cavernous interior allowing for a variety of dining and drinking. Instead of the usual shopping center food court, the architects appropriated recycled shipping containers, thus setting up individual cooking kiosks and a special-events stage. In many ways, it reminds me of an indoor version of the Downtown Container Park in Las Vegas, also a small business incubator built by the late technology entrepreneur Tony Hsieh.
In
August 2020, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York exposed the fragility of proprietorship for people of color: 41% of Black companies shut down, Latinx-owned businesses declined by 32%
and
Asians lost 26% compared to 17% of Caucasian establishments.
I meet Jazmine Long here, the program director for Melon Kitchen, a restaurant accelerator and ghost commissary, launched by the nonprofit BeNimble Foundation. We try and chat at one of the many empty tables in front of the new concept from Turchetti’s Salumeria folks. The 450,000-square-foot space feels vacant, and the music echoes in the vastness. Plus, the smell of baking pepperoni pies wafts past us, a distraction with the opening and closing of oven doors echoing. So, we move closer to the business location, situated in the northernmost corner. Right now, it’s bare, consisting only of an industrial staircase leading to a door and cement walls, a direct result of a broken restaurant supply chain due to the coronavirus. Ironically, many of these start-ups wait for stoves, refrigerators and utensils. Their commercial appliances bob on some faraway ocean in the shipping containers not so different from the ones making up the décor here. Figurative and literal, the cornerstone location promises to be a success of Be Nimble Foundations, a nonprofit funding people of color and LGBTQIA+ enterprises.
According to BeNimble’s website, the 501(c)3 builds minority businesses by “taking a qualitative and quantitative approach” with an intent on training and placement programs. This includes teaching business curriculums that support individuals from marginalized populations and assist in finding money to fund them.
Long, a former paralegal, came to the restaurant industry by producing pop-up dining experiences under her banner Savor317. “I met Kelli N. Johnson, one of the BeNimble project directors, as I was making one of my monthly dinners,” she says. “We met up one day and talked about this
idea. We knew there should be a program to help people of color accelerate through the restaurant process. I found out some of my chefs were running into issues having access to kitchens or being certified. As an entrepreneur hiring experienced, high-end chefs and building a brand, I knew this was a long-term issue.”
From that moment, Melon Kitchen ceased to be a concept and turned into a fledgling small business. Long describes it as “a partnership with 16 Tech: Food entrepreneurs apply. If accepted, they will be entered into a three-month program allowing them to take their test concept to a hopeful moneymaker. We hope that the participant will be prepared to open their idea into a takeout, delivery or full-service brick-and-mortar.” Applicants learn more about running a food company, including finalizing business plans, investor pitching, menu pricing and revenue strategy.
One of those chosen from a lengthy list of applicants is Lance George, formerly of the counter service Comida. Had the world not seen a health crisis, his restaurant could have celebrated two years. Unfortunately, it became just one of the city’s many causalities. His new company, FlavorUnit, promises to highlight the same ethnic fusion cuisine as Comida: Mexican and Asian flavors melded with American staples.
“BeNimble has a great reputation,” says George, a 30-year kitchen veteran. “They are doing a lot of wonderful things and supplying opportunities to the community. It’s offering me the prospect to regroup while still being creative. I think this is a perfect chance for my cooking to shine.”
“I’m a little different than the others because I have a little bit of time under my belt,” says the chef, who has garnered praise in local Indianapolis media. He appeared on WTHR and his restaurant was recommended by Indianapolis Monthly. “My restaurant didn’t have a liquor license, so we didn’t see big in-dining crowds. But once folks started coming in and trying our food, they kept coming back with their friends. We started these successful upscale brunches on Saturdays, then Covid-19 came along, and we had to shut things down.”
George continues, “I have always been in the back of the house, cooking. I’ve always had somebody or a family member with whom I worked as the financial person. As an applicant, I have an opportunity to learn more about the financial aspect of owning a business. To take more ownership in what I build.”
Twenty miles away, Chef Jung (“John”) Gyu Kim, coowner of Korave, a popular Korean American stall at Fishers Test Kitchen, echoes a similar and hopeful sentiment. He and his brother, Chef Jung (“Kim”) Min Kim, honed recipes from their birthplace of Seoul melded with tortillas, chips and fries. For example, they serve tacos stuffed with gochu (a spicy paste) pork, mee-chin nachos (galbi meatballs, Monterey Jack and gochujang), and bulgogi (marinated grilled beef) poutine.
“We just signed our lease to open our Korave at Castleton Mall,” John says. “We were able to start as a food truck, and now we hope to become a franchise. And we were able to do it because we started at [Fishers Test Kitchen].”
Kim says their business focused on building a day
A report published in May 2020 by the global management consultancy McKinsey & Company suggests that even during the pandemic the odds are against approval of business loans for minority-owned operations.
The report says 60% of loans sought by white smallbusiness owners are approved, compared to 50% for Hispanic or Latinx and only 29% from Black applicants.
Jazmine Long
BeNimble is a nonprofit working to close the racial wealth gap through technology careers and entrepreneurship. Ghost kitchen and start-up accelerator Melon Kitchen is one of their concepts.
BeNimbleCo.com
The AMP is an artisan marketplace and food hall in the 16 Tech Innovation District, and the home of restaurant accelerator Melon Kitchen.
TheAmpIndy.com
1220 Waterway Blvd., Indianapolis
Fishers Test Kitchen is a restaurant accelerator where you can meet the chefs, try the food and support the local food community.
FishersTestKitchen.com
9713 District North Dr., Suite #1210, Fishers, Indianapolis
Founded in 2016 by Warren Luckett, Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson, Black Restaurant Week is dedicated to celebrating the flavors of African American, African and Caribbean cuisine nationwide.
BlackRestaurantWeek.com
Follow Flavor Unit @IndyComida
Follow Korave Korean BBQ @Korave, Korave.us
business catering to workers. “We made sure we went where there were lots of offices. We also built our following by heading to special events like a marathon and breweries. Most breweries didn’t offer food, so we were able to provide it to their customers.”
Fishers Test Kitchen resides at The Yard at Fishers District. Co-founders John Wechsler and Jolene Ketzenberger opened the restaurant accelerator in February 2020, a month before the global crisis shuttered many shops. In conjunction with the City of Fishers, the venture consists of three booths and The Signature Table, where aspiring food entrepreneurs and culinary experts explore inventive fastcasual dining. The program provides short-term contracts to budding culinary artists who are evolving their tasty ideas with an exploratory dining public. The chefs cycle out, so new cooks get the opportunity to succeed.
Our applicants come in with a much more developed concept than an incubator that’s nurturing ideas,” says Ketzenberger. Aiding in getting capricious diners through the door, the establishment shares a 350-seat, kid-friendly eating area with the award-winning Sun King Brewery and Tap Room. The new-build, master-planned enclave includes a multi-verse of retail, dining and living space.
No one will argue that last year challenged the restaurant and service trades and many other service-oriented institutions. The National Restaurant Association, the lobbying arm for the industry, reported sales of $659 billion (about $2,000 per person in the U.S.), down $240 billion (about $740 per person in the U.S.) from original projected estimates and more than 110,000 locations permanently or temporarily closed. In August 2020, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York exposed the fragility of proprietorship for people of color: 41% of Black companies shut down, Latinx-owned businesses declined by 32%, and Asians lost 26% compared to 17% of Caucasian establishments.
Derek Robinson, marketing director for the Houston-based nonprofit Black Restaurant Week, saw a rise in how many Circle City eateries joined from the debut year in 2019. “We did the best we could to ensure that those who participated were highlighted in 2020,” he says. “Our Indianapolis sophomore event maintained a great turnout. Unfortunately, some businesses which were with us in 2019 did close. There are razor-thin margins for the restaurant industry, and the health crisis didn’t help.”
Robinson mentions more destinations are seeking out his organization wanting to take part in forthcoming events. Positioned in 16 metro areas, he notes that participating eateries seem like community gems such as a bakery, food truck, or even a cocktail bar. He continued, “We have private chefs. We even have those restaurants that are delivery only and exist out of cloud kitchens. We have it all.”
“Ultimately, one major discovery, to our surprise, was that Midwest is a very tight-knit region. Folks traveled from Kansas City to St. Louis to Indianapolis to visit our highlighted list. They wanted to be supportive.” Indeed, the industry sees projected growth from that support.
Importantly for potential Black and Brown proprietors, opening a food business can reap dividends. Ghost kitchens like Melon Kitchen and minority eateries could become the norm rather than the exception. The number of Hispanic-owned restaurant businesses climbed 51% between 2007 and 2012. During that same period, Black-owned eateries leaped 49% and Asian-owned increased 18%. Due to this growth, four restaurants out of 10 are majority-owned by minorities.
At Melon Kitchen and Fishers Test Kitchen, beyond the statistics and numbers, building a successful business rewards itself. As if taking a cue from those who worked Indiana Avenue a hundred years ago, Chef George declares, “Whatever knowledge I can take from different people, I’m going to take. You’re never too old to learn.”
Brian Garrido has written food stories for LA Weekly, Clever Root and DailyMeal.com. He moved to Indy from Los Angeles with two dogs and his partner, Nick. Follow him on Instagram @briangarrido.
An Entry on Unity
Exploring the meaning of “gather and reap”
words: Sophia Craig
With the crisp browns and rich reds falling from the trees, I couldn’t help but wonder what this season means to those who merely mark it off in their calendars.
Does it mean raking the remains of my neighborhood’s branches into a single pile? Should I put down the trash bag and jump in, undoing what I just cleaned? Maybe that’s it, smearing the spotless again and again. It reminded me of an occasion with relatives, one where I would poke every spot of the dog’s fur until it grew uninterested. We were all growing, new and old. There was the cousin’s third baby, the grandmother’s newfound love for watercolor, the uncle’s change of heart for one football team over another.
This is why people call them “family gatherings,” I suppose. It is more than just the individual, but an exploration of unity. Of course, this comes with its challenges, since not every uncle will root for the same side in sports. But I am flexible with the word “family”—after all, friends face similar realities. We all must reap the consequences of our actions in some way or another.
However, I feel that reaping is contextual. It could be a celebration, a reward for one’s earlier doings. These concepts took me years to dissect, for I was too focused on the next month’s empty days. I twirled my spoon, sipped my tea, waiting for the everyday to be meaningful. To be full of stories and sustenance.
Regardless, I now see gatherings as an act of giving and receiving. Whether it be the pecans on the pie or purring of the cat, they represent a continuous cycle of love. To acknowledge the messy, clean, and everything in between this is what it means to gather and reap.
Sophia Craig is an undergraduate studying English literature and creative writing. Her work has been featured in Purdue University’s literary journal, The Bell Tower. You can find her on LinkedIn.
Opposite: Jason Michael Thomas with his spicebush skewers.
GO WILD IN YOUR PANTRY
Forage local specialties for fun, flavor and health
words: Francine Spiering | photography: Eilzabeth Hanna Studios recipes: Jason Michael Thomas
Talking to a foraging chef passionate about the sweet wild pawpaw he has in the freezer, his stash of lightly roasted mulberry leaf tea that he picked and dried or tangy crimson sumac that he whizzed into a powder—it makes me want to get outdoors and fill my own pantry.
The thrill of reaping wild foods aside, for Chef Jason Michael Thomas foraging is also a significant part of his overall mission to be 100% local in produce and protein. In his kitchen, it’s local spicebush berries, not imported peppercorns, that add pepperiness to his food. And when he needs fresh acidity, he doesn’t turn to lemons. Lemons don’t grow in Indiana. But naturally tart sumac does, and it adds a similarly bright acidity. “Wood sorrel is another great source of acidity,” Jason says. “And so is lemon balm.”
Foraging is an ultimate food adventure. But it’s vital that you know what you’re doing. That is to protect not only yourself and anyone you’re feeding (don’t munch on a hunch), but nature as well. You don’t want to over-forage or deplete a spot, leaving nothing for next season to return.
For Jason, foraging is as normal an activity as grocery shopping is for others. Describing himself as a nerd, he explores the edibility of everything he finds. That includes using spicebush twigs as skewers, or drying nettle seeds that dropped to the bottom of his foraging bag late in the season. “Nettle seeds, you toast them and use like sesame seeds.”
We talk about a few of his favorite wild finds. Mulberry trees, too often seen as a pavement-discoloring nuisance, should be on everybody’s list to shake and gather the fruit. Mulberries produce a deep, dark juice that is full of beneficial nutrients. But did you know mulberry tree leaves are not to be overlooked? “I roast mulberry tree leaves briefly, at a low temperature, to deepen the flavor. Mulberry tea is like matcha,” Jason says. Flavor aside, mulberry leaves are high in fiber, iron and calcium.
Pawpaw, the largest fruit indigenous to the Midwest, is perhaps Jason’s favorite fruit to forage. “It’s magnificent to find a tropical fruit in the Midwest, where winters are so harsh.” He describes pawpaw, also known as the Indiana banana, as “somewhere between a banana, a cherimoya, a mango and a custard apple, sometimes with undertones of guava.” Much like bananas, some people love them green while others claim you should not touch them until they are brown. For Jason? “I prefer them green, when their skin just starts to give under pressure, like an avocado.”
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is a common native bush in Indiana, and in the same family as laurel. It is very giving, as its branches as well as the leaves and berries yield something to use in the kitchen, either as utensil or spice. The berries, once dried, are perfect to use as ground pepper. Like laurel, spicebush leaves add aroma, both fresh and dried. Dried spicebush leaves also make a mean tea. As for the spicebush branches, select the right ones to use as skewers: “Too thick and they tear the ingredients; too thin and they break,” he says.
His own urban farm, Urban Awareness Gardens, is an organic, sustainable, homegrown food lovers’ paradise. Lucky guests sit down for a private dinner that showcases what grows in his gardens as well as in nearby forests and meadows. On any given day the farm will be a hive of activities, from harvesting from the garden to drying, fermenting and preserving foraged wild foods. He makes jams, spice blends, leaf teas, finishing salts and all manner of pickles and preserves that he sells at farmers markets around town and on site.
There’s a sense of achievement in having a pantry stocked with preserves and condiments made from wild foods that you gathered yourself. Bring out your drying racks, clean the jars, make space in the kitchen and let the fun begin.
Find out more or book a farm dinner at JasonMichaelThomas.MyShopify.com. Urban Awareness Gardens, 1637 Central Ave., Indianapolis.
Francine Spiering is a food writer with a passion for travel. She is the author of Houston Cooks as well as the managing editor of Edible Indy and Edible Houston Her personal website is LifeInTheFoodLane.blog. Find her on Instagram @lifeinthefoodlane
From top, left to right: Fresh spicebush berries, wild garlic seeds, dried spicebush berries, dried sumac seeds, ground sumac seeds, goldenrod, dried goldenrod
Trout Poached in Wild Sumac and Mulberry Tea
Lightly roasted mulberry leaves make a delicious tea. Poaching fish in it imparts earthiness and toasty warm notes. Combined with the natural acidity of sumac, this creates a truly unique local dish.
Serves 4
1 cup white wine
1 large onion
1 large carrot
½ fennel bulb
Handful lemon balm or other acidity
Pound fish bones (ask your fishmonger)
4 tablespoons Toasted Mulberry Leaf Tea
4 tablespoons powdered sumac
4 trout or other fish fillets, thinly sliced Salt to taste
Sumac finishing salt (optional)
Put all ingredients except leaf tea and sumac in a large pot, add 2 quarts water and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20–30 minutes. Take out 1 quart and pour into a separate saucepan. Add mulberry leaf tea and sumac and season liquid to taste. This is your poaching liquid. Leave the remaining liquid in the pot to continue to simmer for another 30 minutes (going longer can cause the bones to start to dissolve and make the sauce chalky). This liquid is the basis for a reduction to pour over the fish when serving. To finish, strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a smaller saucepan. Reduce the liquid until desired thickness and flavor is reached. Add salt to the final sauce as desired. Be careful not to over-season the poaching liquid or stock prior to reducing, because as it reduces it may become too salty. To poach the fish: Bring the poaching liquid almost to a boil. Lower the thinly sliced fillets into the liquid to poach for about 30 seconds to a minute, depending on thickness (the fish turns opaque and flakes easily with a fork when it is done). Serve immediately: Divide the poached fish over 4 plates, pour reduction on top. Finish the dish with a touch of sumac finishing salt to add brightness and acidity to the dish.
Spicebush Skewers
Spicebush is used in 3 ways here: Branches become skewers; dried leaves and berries are used as seasoning; and fresh leaves are skewered along with the chicken and vegetables. This recipe uses summer squash, chicken and fresh spicebush leaves, but you can add anything you love to the skewers. Recipes are just guidelines to be used to help you along your cooking journey.
Serves 4
1 pound chicken breast
Dried spicebush leaves, to taste
Dried spicebush berries, to taste
1 medium red onion, diced + 1 red onion for skewers
1 cup white wine
4–6 summer squash, cut into 1½-inch rounds
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Fresh spicebush leaves (or other edible leaves, like basil)
Vegetable oil to drizzle
Marinate the chicken overnight with crushed, dried spicebush leaves, crushed dried spicebush berries, diced red onion and wine. Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes and season with salt.
Season the vegetables with salt and ground and dried spicebush berries, to taste. Add a drizzle of oil (or use an infused oil like wild garlic chive).
And now for the fun part: Skewer vegetables and chicken to taste, making sure to add your freshly foraged spicebush leaves in between. Cook on the grill for 8–10 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked. Serve immediately.
Pawpaw Ice Cream
Tarragon adds a fragrant, bright note to this pawpaw ice cream that is wonderful on its own, and even better scooped on top of dark chocolate cake.
1 quart heavy cream
1½ cups sugar
2 big pinches of salt
5 ounces pawpaw pulp
8 egg yolks
2 tablespoons minced tarragon
Heat cream gently in a thick bottomed pan over medium heat.
Mix sugar, salt, pawpaw purée and egg yolks together in a bowl until incorporated, then stir the hot cream into the mixture a little at a time until smooth. Stir constantly. Once it has cooled down to 170°F, your base is ready for your ice cream maker; proceed following the manufacturer’s directions. I add the tarragon toward the end of the churning when already mostly frozen, so it stays fresh and bright.
The Sharing Table
A Harvest Dinner Experience
Join us for an intimate curated culinary experience under the autumn sky on the stunning Sixpence property celebrating the bounty of the Midwest harvest.
The Sharing Table is an exclusive three course moveable feast. Each course’s setting will be at a remarkable location on the property including the creekside, stunning event barn and fireside under the stars. Signature cocktails and wine will be paired with locally sourced farm forward curated dishes created by Chef Jeremiah Clark (Grace Truck) formerly of the famed French Laundry.
October 14, 2021
6-8:30pm
Presented by
The Sixpence Wedding & Event Space and Edible Indy
Preserve the Bounty
You don’t need a lot to preserve your foraged bounty for later. In fact, all you need is air, salt, water and time.
AIR
Air drying is a perfect way to preserve leaves, mushrooms and berries galore (including spicebush berries and sumac).
Leave your harvest in a single layer on drying racks until leaves crumble to the touch, and mushrooms and berries look all shriveled and dry. (You can also use a dehydrator or dry on baking sheets in a lowtemperature oven, see Dried Flower Power). Store dried foods in clean jars or other airtight containers, whole or ground into a powder. Build a spice cabinet with your own foraged ground sumac, spicebush berries and wild seeds galore. The dried leaves from stinging nettle, goldenrod (flowers and leaves), mulberry and other plants make delicious herbal teas. Try your hand at making your own blends—that goes for teas as well as spice blends. Or start a collection of finishing salts (see page 48), a mix of sea salt and a ground spice to use in a little sprinkle, right before serving a dish.
SALT & WATER
Lacto-fermentation is a preservation method that uses salt and water. A great example is sauerkraut, being simply shredded cabbage fermented in salt and water. Lacto-fermentation is a go-to for Chef Jason Michael Thomas when it comes to preserving the widest variety of fruits, vegetables, seeds and other things. He shares his lacto-fermenting process:
TIPS:
Use non-iodized salt.
Use spring water. Or filtered. Don’t use tap, because chlorine can affect the process.
The contents (vegetables, fruits, seeds) must be completely submerged to keep them from spoiling.
Stick to a salt ratio of 2.5 percent of the combined weight of vegetables and water needed to submerge them.
STEPS:
Take a sanitized glass jar and weigh it.
Add your vegetables, seeds or bulbs to the jar. Fill the jar the rest of the way with water ensuring, everything is covered, and weigh it again.
Do the math: Subtract the weight of the empty jar from the total weight of the filled jar to calculate the net weight. Add 2.5 percent of the net weight in salt (for instance, if the net weight is 1,000 grams you need to add 25 grams (5 teaspoons) of salt).
To dissolve: Take some water from the jar and add the salt, then add it all back to the jar.
Place a weight (glass, ceramic, smooth stones or even a zip-top bag filled with water that fits in your vessel) and push it down on top of the contents to weigh them down.
Leave it in a cool place and check it every one or two days, removing any scum you see on the top of the water. In five days, you will notice some pleasant tartness and flavor development, but you might prefer to wait two weeks. Put it in the refrigerator after two weeks. It is now ready to eat, but if you prefer a tarter, stronger fermentation, you can leave it for up to four weeks.
Dried Flower Power
When blooms in your garden reach their peak, don’t let them wither. Pick them before they fall to the ground and take the floral bounty into the kitchen to dry. It’s what Jennifer Rubenstein, publisher of Edible Indy, begins late summer and early fall. She collects the seeds to dry for next year’s planting. And she dries flower petals in her oven to create her own flavored salts and teas. Here are some of her tips and tricks.
ROSE AND HIBISCUS
Preheat oven to 250°F (or use a dehydrator, if you have one).
Rose: Separate the petals and spread them in a single layer evenly on a baking sheet.
Hibiscus: Remove the stamen or pistil in the middle of the flower, leaving 4 petals to separate. Spread them in a single layer evenly on a baking sheet.
Dry rose petals in the oven for about 2–3 hours; hibiscus will take about 3–4 hours. Both will turn brownish and flake when they are ready.
To make rose or hibiscus salt: Grind the dried petals (rose or hibiscus) into a powder. Add sea salt (such as Maldon salt flakes) and maintain a 1:4 ratio of powder to salt. Mix and store in a jar. Use it as a finishing touch on any fish, chicken or vegetable dish.
To make tea: Flake rather than grind the petals, keeping bigger flakes. Mix rose and hibiscus or keep each as a separate tea. Simply steep in hot water to make a delicious floral tea.
Herbal teas like hibiscus and rose are naturally caffeine-free, contain antioxidants and help boost overall metabolism.
WILDFLOWER SEEDS
Right before wildflowers start to fall off, head out with brown paper sacks and fill them with wildflower heads. As they get drier and drier, all you need to do is simply fan or comb your fingers through the flowers and the seeds gathered inside the flowers fall out.
SUNFLOWER SEEDS
Collect sunflower heads before they are dried. Spread the heads on baking sheets and place them in a sunny place until they are dried
(several weeks). Once dried, brush your fingers through the middle of the heads to release seeds to plant the following spring.
Store seeds in little paper bags and label them with what seeds they contain. Come next spring, all you need to do is sprinkle them in your garden and wait for fresh new flowers to emerge.
Editor’s Note: All pottery and photography styling is by Gravesco Pottery. GravesCoPottery.com
Indiana-based Huse Culinary restaurant group is known for the iconic downtown Indianapolis St. Elmo Steak House and their culinary masterpiece dishes including their famous shrimp cocktail. They own and operate seven fine-dining restaurants with locations in Fishers and Indianapolis and are committed to providing the best ingredients and service.
St Elmo’s Steak House 127 S. Illinois St. Indianapolis StElmos.com
Harry & Izzy’s
Downtown: 153 S. Illinois St., Indianapolis
Northside: 4050 E. 82nd St., Indianapolis
Airport: 7800 Col. H. Weir Cook
Memorial Dr., Indianapolis HarryAndIzzys.com
1933 Lounge
Downtown: 127 S. Illinois St., Indianapolis
Northside: 9707 District North Dr., Ste. 1120, Fishers 1933Lounge.com
HC Tavern & Bar 9709 E. 116th St., Fishers AtTheHC.com
photograph:
Dave Pluimer
21ST-CENTURY FARMING: IT’S LOCAL
TNow imagine produce with names like Red Russian, Orange Fantasia and Blue Scotch. They range in color from light green to deep maroon with tastes from sweet and buttery to peppery and crunchy. Innovative farming methods are making it possible for greens such as these to be available not only in fancy gourmet markets but ultra-locally, even for consumers in urban food deserts.
New Wave of f
New Wave of Agriculture
words: Julie Yates | illustration: Marisa Randles
words : Julie Yates illustration: Marisa Randles
hink of the lettuce and leafy greens available in a typical grocery store. The usual selection includes sad, limp iceberg and romaine with rust around its edges. Even the packages of baby kale and spinach with spring mix are past their prime; they were probably transported across the country for several days via truck.
“The best thing in the morning is spicy arugula on a bagel spread with cool cream cheese. It’s just a great combination,” proclaims Demario Vitalis, owner and operator of New Age Provision Farms. “We grow many different varieties of herbs and leafy greens. For instance, we have four kinds of basil, three varieties of kale and a lot of lettuces.”
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New Age Provision Farms unassumingly looks like a couple of large shipping containers sitting on the prior site of an Eastside Indianapolis used-car lot. It is actually a thriving produce farm at the forefront of a new brand of agriculture. The operation is an example of vertical farming at its best, fulfilling a long-term goal for Vitalis.
Vertical farming is an umbrella term for several ways of growing crops without traditional farming methods. Since it produces yields without soil, pesticides or the usual fertilizers, it can be found both in urban areas and in remote spaces such as a storage unit in a country barn. Typically, it relies on vertically stacked plant layers flourishing in a controlled environment that monitors temperature, artificial light levels and nutrients.
Vitalis comes from a t t he direct descendent t of t sharec f can Americans from Mississipp w it h agri impos or fa t s I c Farm per sq ua nel g ro and t he system farmers app on env iron inside su it y, and w it h t he learni
Vitalis comes from a long tradition of farming; he is the direct descendent of sharecroppers and enslaved African Americans from Mississippi. He wanted to be involved with agriculture, but that seemed impossible without acreage, or the experience needed to farm. Then he discovered the idea of vertical farming within freight containers.
“I started doing my research,” he says. “There are several companies in the United States that sell shipping-container farms. I chose to work with Freight Farms because of the high yield per square feet using the five-channel growth tower configuration and the advanced technology. The system is especially good for new farmers like myself. I can use an app on my phone to control the environment and nutrient levels inside such as temperature, humidity, pH and EC. It has really helped with the learning curve,” Vitalis explains.
“Each container is 40 feet got the first one t in of t 2020 f and of 2021. f T he newer model is what the t company learned y from past models T here are to t he locatio
“Each shipping container is 40 feet long and 10 feet high. I got the first one in August of 2020 and the second one in January of 2021. The newer model is changed because of upgrades from what the company learned from past experience with previous models. There are changes to the location of nutrient dosing tanks, increased air flow and improved lights,” he says.
Winning Over the Challenges
Besides being the first person in Indiana to own a Freight Farms Greenery, Vitalis is also the first African American to purchase a Greenery, he says. In order to make it happen, the Purdue graduate with an MBA from Wayne State University found himself jumping over some hurdles. Although he had creditable experience in business, his first micro-loan application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture was denied by the Farm Service Agency. Instead of giving up, he appealed the decision, and was successful in achieving the loan.
Food can be grown in greenhouses, on vertical farms or as part of edible landscapes.
Later, he found out that each container was required to have its own separate electric meter base, which he was obligated to build. Additionally, two 250-gallon water tanks housed in a shed at the back of the parking lot had to be installed. For Vitalis, the resulting farm is worth the efforts.
“The beauty of hydroponics is growing plants without soil. Needed nutrients of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus are dosed in the water tanks. The system uses two types of hydroponic methods to grow plants. The ebb-and-flow method is used at the seedling tables and the drip system is used for the growth towers. The LED lights shine only blue and red light, and we can control the amount of light intensity. It is estimated to produce the equivalent of seven acres a year. It all comes down to how you use it and what you want to grow,” says Vitalis.
“There are crop cycles going all the time. Each row is staggered. We sell through Market Wagon, Hoosier Harvest Market and the New Age Provision Farms website. Vertical farming provides the solution of providing fresh food to our communities,” he says.
Another Spoke in the Umbrella: Aquaponics
Aquaponics was the answer for Lamar Chupp and his wife, Kristine, who had the desire to farm but access to very little land. This method recirculates purified water that fish have been raised in to nourish produce grown vertically. The Chupps’ farm, Alive! Aquaponics, produces 400 to 500 heads of leafy greens per week that supply area restaurants in Nappanee and Warsaw plus their family variety store, Daily Bread Market in Bremen.
“I first heard about aquaponics when I was a tour guide in Colorado,” says Lamar Chupp. “One night I got in a conversation with some college students. They were talking about how aquaponic systems use 10 percent of the water that traditional soil farming does and that it strikes a perfect balance through the symbiotic relationship of the fish and produce.”
He continues, “I thought I’d really like to try it especially since I only owned four acres of land and didn’t have a lot of room to conventionally farm. I contacted Purdue University for help. Some commercial parts were ordered but most of the operation was built from scratch.”
On one side of the farm there are four fish tanks, each housing Blue Tilapia in different stages of maturity. Water is converted to nitrogen-rich liquid feed before being pumped over to the produce. Planting and harvesting occur every Wednesday in a sixweek cycle. The resulting harvest is red- and green-leaf romaine,
The experience inspired them to develop a hydroponic unit that takes up no more space than a residential dishwasher.
butter lettuce, kale, bok choy, Swiss chard, kale and French crisp. After reaching maturity, the fish end up on the tables of family and friends.
“We need to reinvent agriculture. Our nation is producing food at its full capacity, yet 40 percent of it is thrown away because it spoils before it gets to the consumer. Traditional farming methods use 50 percent of our land, take up 80 percent of our freshwater consumption and are the cause of 70 percent of our water contamination through runoff after the use of fertilizers and pesticides,” he says.
“Our nation grows plenty of food, but it goes bad over time. Produce loses half of its nutritional value in even the first few days after it is picked. Plus, we are reaching our production limits due to diminishing land and water availability. Hydroponics in general, in which nutrientrich water is recycled over plant roots and uses 90 percent less water with no pesticides, is the answer for 21st-century methods,” says Massey.
The GroPod uses aeroponics, a subsystem of hydroponics that uses less water. Growth begins from seed pods that look similar to coffee pods to grow up to 60 plants at a time. An app is used to view plants via a camera. LED lights enable growth, while ultraviolet light kills any bacteria, viruses, fungus or mold that may develop. Only eight gallons of water are used each month on average. The result for the consumer is vitamin-rich leafy greens and produce that remains alive until the moment it is picked.
“Seed pod subscriptions are renewed monthly and can be adjusted to suit an individual’s or family’s needs. Although a GroPod could be installed anywhere in a home, produce is already stored in near-equivalent spaces in the kitchen. Why not utilize it to grow and enjoy superior quality of flavor and nutrition through maximum freshness?”
Enabling Others, Sharing Knowledge
Robert Colangelo, founder and CEO of Green Sense Farms located in Portage and host of the national radio show and podcast “Green Sense,” was an early adopter of vertical farming. He has been dedicated to the environmental industry and started his career working on a wide
variety of environmental research projects at Argonne National Laboratory, moved into engineering consulting (remediating contaminated soil and groundwater at industrial operations) and then started a company to buy, redevelop and sell brownfield properties. Colangelo turned his sights to Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to farm sustainably. In 2010, Green Sense Farms began building what was at that time the largest indoor vertical production farm in Portage to grow and sell leafy greens to grocery store chains and produce companies in northwest Indiana and areas close to the state border.
“A big part of vertical farming is the focus on sustainability,” he says. “In my mind we had to do more than just clean up these brownfield properties and had to stop creating them. By building green projects on the remediated brownfield sites, new operations would have little impact on the soil and water. In vertical farms, more crops can be produced with less impact on the environment. Crops can be grown year-round, free of pesticides, using tap water to mix with fertilizers that can be recirculated. The future of farming will be limited by the availability of arable land and good-quality water. We have to get better at managing these resources in order to feed a growing global population.”
By 2018, Green Sense Farms pivoted its business model and focused on contract research, horticulture consulting and the design and build of CEA farms. Today, the company focuses on providing expertise to a wide range of clients from Fortune 5000 companies interested in conducting research to grow crops indoors to entrepreneurs and investors looking to enter the new emerging CEA market.
“Cracks in the supply chain were exposed during COVID. Prior to COVID, no one really paid attention to the fact that 90 percent of lettuce comes from Salinas, California, in the spring and summer and then Yuma, Arizona, in the fall and winter. Both are drought environments, yet millions of acres of lettuce, which is 90 percent water, is grown there. Then the lettuce is shipped by truck for days across the country. It’s not always as fresh as people want it to be,” says Colangelo.
“People would now like to be closer to their food,” he continues. “Green Sense Farms just launched a new initiative focused on mixed-use agri-centric developments where industries like resorts, hotels and hospitals can create experiential destination centers, focused around food production. Food can be grown in greenhouses, on vertical farms or as part of edible landscapes. For example, hospitals can set up greenhouses or rooftop farms to grow fresh and nutritious produce that can be used in meals to help heal their patients.”
Source for Further Investigation
Six years ago, after multiple decades of participating in the New York real estate brokerage field, Herbert H. Kliegerman became interested in the push to localize and reinvent traditional agriculture. He started a digital
New Age Methods?
The most legendary vertical farm may be the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, constructed more than 2,500 years ago, in which vegetation grew on stacked terraces watered from a pool at the top.
Maya and Aztec farmers in Mexico grew crops on floating farms on Lake Texcoco, taking advantage of nutrients produced by aquatic creatures living beneath.
Ancient farmers in China, Indonesia and Thailand grew rice in paddy fields that were fertilized by wastewater coming from cultivated fish farms.
Orchards, Farms & Markets
Greystone Farm
Lawrenceburg, Indiana
Beiersdorfer Orchard
Guilford, Indiana
Phillips Berry Patch
New Alsace, Indiana
Salatin’s Orchard
Moores Hill, Indiana
Busse’s Farm
Aurora, Indiana
Lobenstein’s Farm
St. Leon, Indiana
Specialty Spirits
Great Crescent Brewery
Aurora, Indiana
At the Barn Winery
Logan, Indiana
Holtkamp Winery
New Alsace, Indiana
platform, the iGrow Network, that has become an encyclopedia for researchers and those interested in expanding knowledge in the growing shift away from traditional agricultural methods. Its data base includes international articles about a new breed of 21 -century growers, including the Indiana growers mentioned in this article.
platfor Network come an encyclo t hose g ing shift away from met hods a a new w -cent t he g Indiana g t his
“T he COVID pande consciousness about health t K liegerman. “At the same has been a response to clim where most food t in
“The COVID pandemic raised consciousness about healthy food,” says Kliegerman. “At the same time, there has been a response to climate change. California, where most food in the United States is raised, has been affected by drought and fire. Why buy something shipped when people can get something that was raised around the corner? Alternative methods to traditional farming such as those developed by GroPod and Green Sense Farms are here to stay.”
Julie Yates is a freelance writer from Noblesville. She enjoys sharing the stories of individuals who pursue culinary-related experiences. View her travel and cooking experiences on Instagram @YatesYummies.
For more information on the vertical farms mentioned in this article, visit:
New Age Provisions: NewAgeProvisions.com
GroPod: GroPod.io
iGrow Network: iGrow.news
Green Sense Farms: GreenSenseFarms.com
Alive! Aquaponics (no website); call 574.646.2054
COOL CIDER
A modern take on an ancient beverage art
words: Lorrie Wehr
photography: Torrie Hudson
Andréa Homoya, founder of Ash & Elm Cider Co., exudes the confidence and energy of a person with purpose—and a plan. She and her husband, Aaron Homoya, launched their cidery during the summer of 2016, introducing Indianapolis consumers to an ancient craft by making distinctly modern hard ciders.
Less than a decade ago, if you lived in the Indianapolis area and wanted a pint of crisp, dry, hard cider, you were going to have to travel. For the Homoyas, that meant going all the way to Ireland, where a serendipitous stop at a small-town Irish restaurant served a life-changing sip of something different: cider from the farm next door.
“It blew Aaron’s mind,” recalls Andréa. He had been brewing beer and making wine for several years but never had much interest in cider. In the early 2000s, hard ciders were typically mass-produced, super-sweet beverages: alcoholic apple juice. That glass of homecrafted Irish hard cider was a revelation. Dry and sparkling, more like a wine, and with a history, a heritage.
Making alcoholic cider was something to rediscover, something that could be made new again, a market niche no one in the Indianapolis area was chasing. It was a risk, but also an opportunity to do something real, something with substance.
“And I’m a risk-taker,” says Andréa.
Reaping the Rewards
Today you can enjoy Ash & Elm ciders in restaurants and breweries across the city, buy them at eight local farmers markets and order them online. They are showing up on local grocery store shelves, are shipped to customers in 37 states and are eagerly anticipated by over 400 subscribers to their Cider of the Month program. And, of course, in the cidery’s own restaurant and tasting room.
Every cider is crafted from regionally produced fresh-pressed apple juice and real fruit and herbs—locally grown, if possible. Ranging from semi-sweet to very dry, their flagship ciders include the popular Headlong dry-hopped cider, semi-dry Sunset Tart Cherry, and raspberry- and lemon-infused Fleeting Youth, among others. Seasonal and smallbatch ciders, including fall’s Autumntide pumpkin and spice cider, blend creativity with meticulous attention to quality.
“We peel every lemon,” says Andréa. “The cinnamon and star anise, we toast them over a fire. There will be multiple people sitting around, crushing spices.” But the apple never gets lost. “We care a lot about balance. We want everything to play together so you can taste the apple, but you can also taste the cherry, the spices.”
Intention in All Things
That sense of balance is coded into the company’s DNA. Everything from the cider names and label designs to the restaurant decor is carefully considered.
Opposite: Andrea and Aaron Homoya
“I think we’ve made a space for people,” says Andréa. “Before we opened, we talked a lot about how to make our labels, our logo and everything seem like ‘No matter who you are, it’s.’ That’s become part of our culture.”
Their efforts have paid off in customer loyalty, with robust support from the neighborhood, the LGBTQ community and customers across the city, even through the uncertainty of 2020 and the pandemic.
“We sold more cider the first month of the pandemic than we normally do by multiple-fold. People were saying, ‘Tell all your friends, we gotta support Ash & Elm.’ It felt so great, in the middle of such a hard time, to know that your customers were going to show up for you.”
The company has also cultivated strong ties to the surrounding residents and businesses.
“We really like the spotlight we’ve been able to shine on the near east side, that’s important to us as people who live here,” says Andréa, “At least half of our staff lives in this zip code and care a lot about the Near Eastside as well.”
Ash & Elm actively supports the arts in Indianapolis, local nonprofits and efforts to increase agricultural sustainability and conservation of natural resources.
Growing into the Future
Five years of hard-won successes have built a springboard for new opportunities.
Ash & Elm’s new full-service restaurant and tasting room recently took up residence at The Assembly, a mixedspace development located at 1301 E. Washington St. The new site puts them about a mile closer to downtown, where they gain visibility yet stay close to the Eastside neighborhood they love. “They made Model T Fords here a hundred years ago, so it’s a really historic building,” says Andréa. It’s a provenance that aligns well with the company’s efforts to energize local businesses and honor the area’s long-term residents and supporters.
“Our space is twice as big and has a full-service kitchen,” she continues. That expansion gave Chef Tracey Couillard the freedom to create a new, bigger, broader menu that complements Ash & Elm’s award-winning ciders and is built around ingredients sourced from local vendors including Smoking Goose, Amelia’s, the Paramount Schools of Excellence dairy operation and others.
Increasing their presence in local groceries is also a goal for the near future, as well as expanding sales into Kentucky.
“Aaron’s other long-term vision is to have a plot of land that can become our estate cider location,” says Andréa, with their own orchard and the ability to offer limited-edition, commissioned ciders. The couple foresees expanding that property into an event space as well, complete with a farmhouse-style venue and perhaps living space for their family.
For Ash & Elm the humble apple fuels a family with purpose, a business with prospects and a community with the fruits of work well done.
Ash & Elm Cider Co. | The Assembly, 1301 E. Washington St., Indianapolis | AshAndElmCider.com
over three decades of experience in communications and marketing. During that time, the evolution of the local food movement in Indianapolis has provided a constant source of inspiration, confirming her belief that all good things come together over food and drink. Follow Lorrie on Instagram @lorriewehrwrites.
Lorrie Wehr is a writer with
SWEET
CORN FRITTERS
WITH APPLE CIDER DIPPING SAUCE
When you make Chef Tracey Couillard’s delectable crunchy freshcorn fritters, make sure you have a chilled apple cider ready to pour for the perfect pairing.
Serves 4
2 ears sweet corn
2 large eggs
¼ cup milk
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2½ teaspoons baking powder
Using a sharp knife, shave the corn kernels off the cobs into a bowl. With the back of the knife, scrape the milky juice from the cobs into the bowl as well.
Whisk the eggs and milk and the corn together.
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Add dry ingredients to the corn mixture and stir with a spatula to combine into a thick batter.
In a heavy-duty skillet, pour enough oil so it’s about ¾-inch deep. Heat the oil over medium to high heat to 375° F.
When the oil has reached the desired temperature, carefully drop rounded tablespoons of the batter into the oil. The fritters should not touch each other. Cook about 3 minutes, then flip fritters over and cook for another 3 minutes, until the fritters are golden brown. Drain on paper towels or a wire rack.
Serve hot with apple cider dipping sauce.
APPLE CIDER DIPPING SAUCE
Makes about 1 cup
1½ cup dry cider
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce by a third of volume. Serve cold or at room temperature.
EAT. DRINK. THINK.
On the following pages, we bring you the second in a series of thought leadership stories that span topics of sustainability, access to healthy foods and nutrition, restaurant revitalization and regenerative agriculture. These are the values that Edible Communities, as an organization, has been devoted to for the past two decades. Our work lends itself to the singular notion that excellent storytelling has the power to change lives, and that by exploring and elevating important conversations like these, we can effect everlasting change in our communities too.
Please join us in supporting the work of our featured subjects—Michel Nischan, sustainable food advocate and co-founder of Wholesome Wave; and native food historian and chef, Dr. Lois Ellen Frank—two heroes from our
local communities who are tireless champions in the battle against nutrition insecurity and hunger.
Dr. Frank says “the power of one can be huge,” and we could not agree more. One person, one organization, one community—each purpose driven, can massively impact our food system. We believe that every person should have access to a high-quality diet that is filled with nutritious foods that are raised and grown using sustainable practices. As consumer advocates we all play a critical role in reshaping the demand for this, and we all must be diligent in advancing this agenda if we are to ensure that no one is left behind.
Tracey Ryder Co-Founder, Edible Communities
Chef Michel Nischan
Photo courtesy of Wholesome Wave
RETHINKING HUNGER
Why Feeding Those in Need Must Focus on Nourishment
STORY BY Joy Manning
When anyone in a community struggles with food insecurity, it’s everybody’s problem. In the United States alone, an estimated $90 billion in excess healthcare costs annually are associated with food insecurity, according to research from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation’s study conducted by researchers affiliated with Harvard’s School of Public Health, Brandeis University and Loyola University. The social and emotional toll hunger takes on communities is harder to quantify, but no less deeply felt.
But of course, for those personally experiencing food insecurity, the problems are impossible to ignore. For those receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, getting the most calories for their dollar is likely at the forefront of their mind, and sometimes that means families eat more processed foods than they’d like.
Michel Nischan, a four-time James Beard Award-winning chef and sustainable food movement leader, is working to change that. And for Wholesome Wave, the nonprofit he founded in 2007, it is a primary goal.
Wholesome Wave recently reset its priorities, in fact, and will now squarely focus on nutrition—not food—insecurity. The goal is to change the way people think about hunger.
The distinction between food security and nutrition security is a critical one, according to Nischan. Most North Americans have access to enough calories to avoid hunger thanks to government programs, food banks and hunger relief organizations. “This makes them technically ‘food secure,’ but they’re still not getting the nutrition they need to be healthy,” says Nischan. “We aren’t solving the real problem.
“It’s about people having the kind of diet that promotes good health and prevents disease,” he says. It’s also about
equality. Communities of color and those living in poverty in the U.S. got sick from COVID-19 at a rate two to three times higher than the rest of the country, according to the 2020 Wholesome Wave impact report. The underlying reasons why aren’t specific to the pandemic. “Four of the Top 5 drivers of this disparity are obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease,” says Nischan. These are all chronic conditions that can be prevented and often reversed by increasing access to nutritious food.
Yet, when the foremost experts in hunger talk about hunger in terms of food security, it drives a cultural conversation that leads food banks to be well-stocked, but often it’s with ultra-processed food. “It has to be about more than getting meals on the table,” Nischan says.
To that end, Nischan and Wholesome Wave co-founder Gus Schumacher worked on a SNAP “doubling” program that makes every $1 a participant spends worth $2 when they buy produce. What began as a nascent pilot program in Columbia, Md., in 2005 has since grown into a federally funded program started by Wholesome Wave that helps more than 40 million people eat more greens and less instant ramen.
As part of Nischan’s shift to nutrition security, Wholesome Wave is also ramping up its Produce Prescription Program. It’s an umbrella program that partners with local organizations, such as hospitals and health clinics, to empower doctors to write prescriptions for nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, often local, that patients pick up weekly, free of charge.
“Many people visit the doctor and hear, ‘If you don’t eat better, the next time I see you you’ll have type 2 diabetes,” says Nischan. His next big goal is securing Medicaid and
Medicare funding for these programs so they become as common as prescriptions are for drugs. “Your insurance company will pay for a kidney transplant, but not the vegetables that can prevent the disease,” he says.
Piloted in 2010, the Produce Prescription Program is ambitious, but peer-reviewed research shows that it works. A 2017 study published in Preventive Medicine Reports showed that participation in the program helped bring down participants’ A1C (a number that indicates one’s average blood sugar level). A 2012 study in the journal Public Health Nutrition showed produce prescriptions improve overall well-being.
This is not to say that Nischan believes Wholesome Wave has all the answers. From the beginning, Wholesome Wave has partnered with local organizations to bring ideas and funding to a collaboration that fits the specific needs of its community. “We don’t want to be the organization that rides into your town with our solution to your problem. Addressing nutrition insecurity is different in every community,” he says. And, as we know, paying attention to those differences is critical to finding solutions.
HUNGER BY THE NUMBERS
The problem of food and nutrition insecurity across North America is incalculable, but these sobering statistics show that work still must be done to ensure everyone gets the nourishment they need to live a full life and prevent disease.
IN THE UNITED STATES:
35 million Americans live in households that struggle with food and nutrition insecurity.
84 percent of households served by Feeding America, a network of food banks, say they buy cheap food instead of fresh food to ensure they’ll have enough to eat.
27.5 percent of households with kids are food and nutrition insecure.
19.1 percent of Black households and 15.6% of Hispanic households experience food and nutrition insecurity.
1 in 19 Americans relies on SNAP benefits.
IN CANADA:
1 in 8 Canadian households faces food and nutrition insecurity.
1 in 6 Canadian children experiences food and nutrition insecurity.
In Ontario, 3,282,514 visits were made to food banks in 2019-2020.
Black and Indigenous people are 3 times more likely to be food and nutrition insecure than white people.
Image courtesy of Wholesome Wave
Indigenous communities, for example, live with some of the highest rates of food and nutrition insecurity in North America. A study published in 2017 in the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition found that from 2000 to 2010, 25% of American Indians and Alaska Natives were consistently food insecure. It’s a daunting statistic.
Dr. Lois Ellen Frank is a Santa Fe, N.M.-based chef and native food historian. She believes that the health and nutrition security of Indigenous communities (and all communities for that matter) can best be served by putting attention and energy into solutions and not focusing on the problems. Frank would rather focus on concrete tasks she can do to help. “I’m a big advocate of the power of one person,” she says. She provides culinary training to those who cook in community centers and schools to help people reconnect with traditional foodways through native plants and recipes.
Recently, she taught cooks in one school to make refried bean enchiladas with corn and zucchini in a red chili
sauce. “These are ancestral foods that promote wellness,” she says. After the training, 32 families received the prepared dish, plus the recipe and the ingredients they’d need to make it themselves. “You think you aren’t teaching that many people, but it’s a ripple effect,” she says. One family passes the information to another.
This passing of knowledge from one person to the next can help keep food traditions alive. “It takes only one generation for a recipe or a method of agriculture to disappear.”
And preserving these recipes and traditions matters when it comes to solving the problem of food insecurity. A 2019 study published in the journal Food Security suggests that tribal communities can achieve increased food security and better health outcomes if they have greater access to their traditional foods and the ability to hunt, fish and preserve native foods.
For some, starting a nonprofit organization is a great way to make a difference. But, as Dr. Frank also reminds us, helping just one person can have an impact too.
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Dr. Lois Ellen Frank | Photo by Daphne Hougard
A TASTY FINISHING TOUCH
Flavored salts add zing to a dish
recipe and photography: Ashley Swartzendruber, Edible Michiana
Tiny crystals of salt make our food more flavorful with a simple pinch, but magic happens when you infuse those small crystals with a wide range of flavors. Think citrus zest, dried herbs, dried and ground tomato skins or wild foods like sumac that you dried and pulverized. From our friends at Edible Michiana we share a recipe that uses any of the beautiful fresh herbs you have growing.
FRESH HERB SALT
Use any combination of fresh herbs, or pick your favorite, be that basil, rosemary, sage or thyme. Fresh herb salt really shines on roasted chicken, corn on the cob or sliced tomatoes.
1–2 garlic cloves (optional)
2 cups lightly packed herbs
½ cup fine sea salt or fine Himalayan pink salt
Begin chopping the garlic and herbs, add the salt to the cutting board and continue to chop until it’s all finely minced and uniform in texture. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let dry uncovered on the counter overnight. The herbs and garlic should be dry to the touch. To speed up the process, heat the oven to 175°F and put the baking sheet in. Turn off the oven and check back in after a few hours, or when the herbs are dry to the touch. Once the herb salt is completely dry, store in sealed jars in a dark and cool pantry for 1–2 months. The best place to store and avoid possible mold is in the refrigerator. The herb salt will last 4–6 months in the refrigerator in a sealed jar.
