Farm Indiana | September 2015

SEPTEMBER 2015

Rural Living & Local Food

Urban Beauty

Cosmic Gardens grows roots on Indy’s east side

ALSO INSIDE

Indy Solar Fischer Farm Flowers Climate Camp

MAY 2015

Rural Living & Local Food

Raising Good Kids Goats and students benefit through FFA

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Four Willows Farm Magnificent Mushrooms The Garden Table

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Rural Living & Local Food

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Contents SEPTEMBER 2015

5 Field Notes Tips and advice

6 Ross’s Yummy Honey 12 Goat Milk Stuff 16 Fischer Farm Flowers 20 John Cardwell 24 Cosmic Gardens 28 Wabash Lumber 32 Indy Solar 36 Soap Makers 40 Tractor Tools Direct

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42 Climate Camp 46 Continuing Education 48 From the Field

Columns by growers

54 Local Food

Love Handle, Scones

ON THE COVER

A recent harvest from Cosmic Gardens.

Photo by Josh Marshall

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Turf Wars

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Ill-fated love affairs. Vicious rivalries. Gang fights. Every day in our yard — where the chickens, goats and alpacas roam — feels a little like watching a production of “West Side Story.”

We recently marked the anniversary of bringing goats and chickens to our small farm. In December, we will celebrate one year with the alpacas. All in all, the year has been filled with lessons learned — some funny; others, not so much.

The most entertaining of these lessons, however, has been learning the varied personalities among our troops and watching each interact with the other.

Daily, the roosters — we have four of them — vie for the affections of the ladies. At first, when the majority of our girls were fresh-faced pullets, the roosters focused their attentions on the laying hens, our 1-year-old ISA Browns. But as the others — the Rhode Island Reds, the Olive Eggers, the Ameraucanas, the Light Brahmas and the Black Jersey Giants — grew, the roosters started branching out. And, like self-respecting women should, the ISA Browns quickly became miffed.

Fights, understandably, ensued. The roosters also have been fighting amongst themselves. And one can hardly blame them, what with so many ladies about.

And then, one day, one of our clumsier and not-so-smart roosters, whom we now call Seymour, tried to mate with one of our French Guineas. Rule No. 1, Seymour: Don’t mess with the guineas.

The guineas as a group — with both males and females — had proven themselves early to be bullies, so they quickly got ousted from the chicken yard. They now live on the other side of the tracks, if you will. But before they went, Seymour tried to have his way with one of the ladies. And after watching her chase him around that yard — determined to make him pay — for nearly five minutes, I belly-laughed for days.

After an impulse purchase at the Johnson County Fair this summer, my husband and I added Jack, a 5-monthold Nubian, to our formerly six-member crew of Nubian/French Alpine and Nigerian dwarf goats. Jack, notably smaller than the others, has had to take his share of hits these past few weeks, too, essentially being “jumped” into his new gang.

And then there are the alpacas: 7-year-old Bacchus who came to us well-known for his need for an attitude adjustment, and sweet 14-year-old Theo, who doesn’t raise an eyebrow or a fuss with my husband and me, but who loves to pick on poor Bacchus. If you’re not first, you’re last, Bacchus.

Sometimes being out in the yard with the critters feels a little like being in high school all over again. Except this time, I’m the cool kid in school. When the animals see me coming, everyone comes running. They’ve learned their lessons well this past year, and so have I. I bring treats.

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

A monthly publication of Home News Enterprises, Farm Indiana offers the local news and views of Indiana’s farming world, including features about local families and their farms, agriculture businesses, equipment and technological advances, educational outreach programs and more. Farm Indiana promotes and celebrates Indiana’s rich history and tradition in farming; serves as a conduit of information among growers, producers, farmers, retailers, farming organizations and local food consumers; educates readers about the nutritional, social and financial importance of local food support and consumption; and highlights Indiana local foods and agritourism.

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FIELD NOTES

BY CATHERINE WHITTIER

Fall Chores »With winter on the horizon, Kim Holden, landscape architect and sales associate for Heartland Growers, suggests taking care to prepare your perennials for the cold weather. Holden recommends using a light layer of leaves to make a winter blanket for plants but says that leaves should be removed if the plants have previously suffered from disease. Also, “if we have a mild winter, pests can winter over in leaves,” she says, by rooting down into the leaves and living there throughout the winter.

If you plan to cut back perennials, it’s best to do it when it’s cold, perhaps after the first frost, she says, in order to avoid borers, who can make their way down into woody stalks. “Perennials should be cut down to 2 to 4 inches above the crown,” Holden adds.

But some annuals, perennials and ornamental grasses with seed heads provide a good food source for birds.

Leave those to cut back in the spring, she suggests.

Heartland Growers supplies wholesale plants to independent garden centers, florists, landscapers and national chain stores throughout the Midwest. Greenhouse tours are available. For more information, visit heartlandgrowers.com.

SUPPLY STORAGE Jeff and Nancy Barnett of Clayton, who have been raising chickens for 15 years, have found a better way to store their poultry supplies. The Barnetts once stored their feed, straw, bedding chips and all the tools and supplies necessary to care for their chickens in the garage, which led to issues with rodents and took up valuable space. In an effort to organize, make daily chores easier and eliminate wasted space and persistent rodents, the Barnetts came up with a clever idea. They purchased a 12-foot covered commercial trailer, which had previously been used to haul midget cars. The trailer was already outfitted with counters, drawers and shelves, which made storing things like winter feeders, heat lamps, tools, straw, bedding chips and feed much easier. “The feeds are kept in the front near the walk-through door,” says Nancy, “and the bedding is in the back near the ramp.

“Most of the equipment that is not in use is placed in Rubbermaid tubs with labels so we don’t have to clean them before using them again,” explains Nancy. “Things are put away clean and dry.”

Jeff and Nancy, who are currently raising approximately 20 chickens, use metal trash cans and large food-safe plastic containers to hold multiple gallons of scratch and feed. “Everything is labeled,” the couple says. The trailer is kept near the coop for easy access for the Barnetts, as well as their neighbors, who care for the chickens when they are away on vacation.

The Barnetts use a trailer for extra storage.

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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David Ross removes honeycomb from the lid of a bee hive.

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

HIVE TALK

A new shop in Franklin creates a buzz

By Ryan Trares Photography by Josh Marshall

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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Bees emerge from the comb cell.

T

THE SWARM OF BEES spilling from the split tree might serve as a signal to stay away for most people. But David Ross has different ideas. Dressed from head to toe in a hood, face netting and protective clothing, he carefully approaches the swarm.

The swarm was found when workers from Duke Energy began cutting down the tree. The company called the Rosses to help safely remove it without killing the bees.

“It’s kind of freaky sometimes with thousands of bees around you all of the time,” Ross says. “But it’s what we love to do.”

Raising honeybees is a family affair for David and his wife, Karen, in Franklin.

They keep their own hives on three properties around Johnson County, established by swarms of bees that David rescued. Karen helps process the honey those hives pro-

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

duce. Sons Brian, 15, and Chris, 12, assist with hive removal, care and education when they attend local farmers markets.

The family’s passion has led to the opening of a downtown Franklin store, Ross’s Yummy Honey, where family members share their love for bees as well as help support other area artisans.

David first became interested in bees and honey about four years ago. Working with Roger Graham, owner of the Morgantownbased Graham’s Bee Works, he learned the basics of tending to a hive.

Karen’s grandfather had also been a beekeeper, though she wasn’t involved with it. But it wasn’t until Brian Ross started working with hives through 4-H, winning ribbons at the county and state fair, that the family decided to start raising bees.

“I really enjoyed learning about and wanted to get it out there how cool bees are, to let people know about it,” Brian says.

When he became involved with band and other school activities at Franklin Community High School, David took over his hives.

The two still work together on weekends and in the evenings checking the bees. The Rosses have hives on their own Franklin property, as well as in fields in Nineveh and Trafalgar.

They try to visit the hives on Sundays and Mondays, when the store is closed, to gauge the health of the bees. Looking for pests such as bee louse and wax moths, they do basic maintenance and correct any problems the insects may be having.

“It’s pretty fun to see all of the bees and see how they’re progressing through

Inset, David and Brian Ross

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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David, left, with son Brian

Ross’s Yummy Honey WHO: David and Karen Ross;

sons Brian, 16, and Chris, 12.

WHERE: Hives established in Franklin, Nineveh and Trafalgar STORE LOCATION: 150 W.

Jefferson St., Franklin

HOURS: 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and

Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

PRODUCTS: Raw honey, flavored honey, creamed honey, honey sticks, bees wax decorations.

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Handcrafted Designs, Handcrafted Jewelry by J, #1 Good Dog, The Spirited Canvas, Rita York, Gary Wildman Woodworking and Carving.

INFORMATION: rosssyummyhoney.com

the season,” Brian says. “You get to watch them grow.”

Over the past year, three of the Rosses’ hives died. The family isn’t sure what killed them, but they theorize that it wasn’t from the harsh winter.

“Every box was still full of honey,” David says. “Usually if they die in the winter, they’ll die from lack of food. But that wasn’t the case here.”

Losing thousands of bees at once isn’t the only thing that stings about beekeeping.

Even with the protective gear and smokers used to calm bees down, getting stung is inevitable. “We’ve had our fair share (of bee stings),” David says. “I don’t think we ever get comfortable getting into the hives, just wondering if we’re suited up tight enough or not.”

David and Brian also work together rescuing and removing bees from properties around the area. One recent job required that the Rosses remove a swarm of bees from a chimney.

David removed chunks of the hive five feet down into the chimney. Eventually,

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artisan products from local producers. they had to smoke all of the bees out and reThe Rosses’ clover and wildflower raw seal the opening of the chimney to keep the honey is not heated above 120 degrees, bees from building a new hive. A tool called maintaining important enzymes that a Bee Vac allows them to suck up the bees they say can help strengthen the immune into a protective chamber so the insects can system. Specialty honey is available in be transported safely. If the beekeepers can flavors ranging from cinidentify the queen, they namon to blueberry to can capture her and the ghost pepper. “I’ve never worker bees will follow. seen anyone with ghost “Karen calls it an “It’s kind of freaky pepper,” David says. “I addiction, because I feel sometimes with thousands grow them (the peppers) bad if I can’t save them,” of bees around you all of myself, crush them up and David says. “We’ll assess the time. But it’s what we infuse them in the honey the situation to see what love to do.” —DAVID ROSS for three weeks.” we could or couldn’t do.”

The family also turns The couple’s youngwax from its hives into est son, Chris, also has Christmas ornaments, lip picked up the family balm and other decorations. hobby. During the grand opening of Ross’s Honey remains a hobby for the family, Yummy Honey in July, he brought in a so the store is only open in the afternoons queen bee taken from one of the hives to and evenings during the week, as well as show off to other kids and help educate throughout the day on Saturday. “We’ve about the lives of the insects. had a good following. I think time will tell The store features raw and specialty honey, whether we can survive opening a store,” as well as homemade jewelry, repurposed David says. furniture, paintings, woodworking and other

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KID FOCUSED 12

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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Jim and PJ Jonas grow their goat milk business with their children in mind

A TYPICAL DAY for the Jonas family begins at 6 a.m. when a voice comes over the home’s intercom system to beckon everyone to report to the kitchen by 6:15 a.m. Once all 10 members have gathered, someone volunteers to lead three minutes of exercise and to read a Bible verse aloud for the group. A discussion of the verse and — because they do live in Indiana — of the weather follows over breakfast. When a plan for the day is made, everyone, even Jade, the youngest at 8, scatters to begin the day’s worth of chores. “Everyone’s crossing paths all day long, but everyone has their own thing that they’re doing,” says PJ Jonas. The family reconvenes 12 hours later for dinner.

With 40 goats to milk twice daily and eight children to feed, PJ and her hus76 S. Lake Road N, Scottsburg band, Jim Jonas, have plenty (812) 752-0622, goatmilkstuff.com to accomplish each day. Not MEMBERS: Jim and PJ Jonas, Brett, 18, Colter, only are they building a fast17, Emery, 15, Fletcher, 13, Greyden, 12, growing business, but they Hewitt, 10, Indigo, 9, and Jade, 8. also are home-schooling PRODUCTS: Bar soaps (scented with essential their children. The family oils or fragrances or unscented), liquid personifies the company tag soaps, laundry soaps, lip balms, lotions, line: “Work Hard. Get Dirty. salves, assorted flavors of caramel candy, Use Good Soap.” caramel tubs, candles and more.

It’s that working hard and getting dirty part that led the family to clean up in the soap-making business. When the children were young — Brett, the oldest, is now 18 — PJ was concerned about the ingredients contained in the commercial soaps Opposite page, top, Jim Jonas. she used to bathe her children. “My wife Below, shelves stacked with different has never met a problem that couldn’t be scents available for purchase at the solved,” Jim says, and so she set out to solve on-site Goat Milk Stuff store.

By Angela Herrmann Photography by Josh Marshall

Goat Milk Stuff

the problem of chemically laden soap — by making her own from goat milk.

A BIG MOVE

In 1995, following Jim and PJ’s wedding, the couple got their first taste of farm life on a small horse farm outside Richmond, Virginia. “PJ really drove the farming idea,” says Jim. By 1996, the first of their eight children had arrived, and Jim was pursuing a career in teaching.

Following his stints as a science teacher in Virginia and then in New Jersey, the family moved to Indiana in 2004, in part, they say, because Indiana is home-school friendly and it offered a much more affordable cost of living. Furthermore, a new middle school had opened in Floyds Knobs, where Jim anticipated working. With seven years’ teaching experience, he expected to be hired immediately.

“We’ll go to Indiana, and the job offers will come in, no problem,” he recalls thinking before the move. “We came out here and didn’t hear anything.”

Meanwhile, PJ focused on the family.

“When you don’t have a house, you don’t have a job, and you don’t have friends, the basis to our life was home-schooling.

Everything revolved around the children,” she says.

So shortly after their arrival in southern Indiana, Jim accepted a job as a trash collector, which unexpectedly allowed for more time with PJ and their children because he wasn’t preparing for classes or

participating in evening meetings with parents. When the teaching job offers finally started coming in, he turned them down.

The couple eventually bought a house in Scott County, and they set about paying off their mortgage quickly. “We could not have done what we did with Goat Milk Stuff had we not done that,” PJ says. “We put every single penny we had toward paying off the mortgage. We lived incredibly below our means.”

That meant making soap, growing and canning produce, and raising chickens for their eggs. And dabbling in a small home business by selling homemade soap at craft shows.

One early key to the growth of their business, according to PJ, was not the sales but the samples. “Everyone who came by (her table at the craft shows) got a sample and a business card,” says PJ. “A week after the show, I started hearing from people who had gotten the sample.” People wanted to know how they could buy more soap.

Their company, Goat Milk Stuff, was officially launched in 2008. Early sales were driven by customers who claimed the goat milk soap healed their eczema.

“My children didn’t have eczema,” says PJ. “People with eczema would get the soap, and it would work for them, and they would tell everyone they knew. That was really responsible for the initial growth of the business and bringing Jim on full time.”

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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Clockwise, The Goat Milk Stuff store.

A goat’s hoof prints stamped into the production building concrete.

The Jonas family. The O Magazine story hangs in the Goat Milk Stuff store. Goat Milk Stuff stock ready for international shipping.

“Work Hard.

Get Dirty.

Use Good Soap.”

Jim began full time with Goat Milk Stuff in 2009. With the entire family pitching in, the work has paid off. Their herd of milk goats has expanded from two in 2008 to 40.

Twenty-five new goat kids, born this year, soon will be incorporated into the milking herd. PJ says they’ve tried working with several breeds, but have focused on raising Alpine dairy goats, a breed originating from the French Alps that is known for its heavy milk production.

“We love our Alpines; they’re big girls, good milkers,” says PJ.

FAST COMPANY

Although Web sales were slow at first, by 2010, Internet sales surpassed craft show sales. The family has leaned on a social media presence to market the farm, including using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube. And media attention 14

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

FAMILY PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Goat Milk Stuff shipping and packaging area contains every product the company makes.

• • • •

Organic Supplements Non-GMO Grains Roasted Corn Fresh, Full Fat Bean Meal

Poultry-Layer 17% .................. $18.81 50# Poultry-Broiler 19%................ $18.28 50# Swine-Grower 16% ................. $16.02 50# Swin -Sow 16%......................... $16.84 50# Goat-Lactating/Starter 16%..... $18.59 50# Goat-Grower 14% ................... $18.07 50# Bee -Grower 15% .................... $15.67 50# Dairy......................................{Call for Pricing} Full Fat Bean Meal ................. $349.50 1000# Shelled, Roasted Corn ............ $12.48 50# Oats ............................................. $13.92 50# from Midwest network television affiliates to O, the Oprah Magazine have expanded Goat Milk Stuff’s marketing exposure.

Along with virtual expansion, the farm itself is growing. The farm site, which was just an empty field when they bought it, is now home to a new house and three red-and-white outbuildings: two 6,000-square-foot operational buildings and a 3,000-square-foot goat barn and hayloft. The first building, where the retail store is located, houses the soap-making and distribution area, as well as the newly approved commercial kitchen and Goat Milk Stuff offices.

Retail sales and tours are starting to take off, and food items are next on the family’s production goals. Caramels are already in production, an idea spearheaded by 15-year-old Emery.

“I had no idea it would be so hard to

break into the food market,” says PJ. “You have to build a commercial kitchen. We are approved now for candies, and we’re working toward approval for cheese.”

The second building will allow for a milk parlor and cheese and yogurt production facilities. With the herd growing to 65 goats averaging two gallons of milk a day, the family hopes to launch the new milk parlor by the spring. The milking, which is currently done by 12-year-old Greyden, will then be completed by machines.

As the family’s work evolves and grows with the business, the kids — the human kids that is — are key to its future success.

They are involved at every level of the business, and their schooling is integrated into their work.

“We’ve raised them all to be thinkers and leaders,” says PJ. “If they want to try something, we give them free rein to try it.”

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BY CATHERINE WHITTIER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

A Wonderful Place Nearly 35 years ago, Ed and Jeanie Fischer planted the first seeds of a dream

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

Ed and Jeanie Fischer with son, Lance, and granddaughter, Lucy, 10. Opposite page, Lucy swings over a creek on the farm.

I

It was 1981 when Ed Fischer surveyed the 85-acre farm he and his wife, Jeanie Fischer, had just purchased. Neither he, at 40, nor Jeanie, at 36, had any farming experience. Yet, there he stood, the new owner of a farm he had long hoped for, wondering what to do with the soybean crop that was growing nearly to the doorstep of his family’s new home.

He looked to the sky and asked aloud: “Lord, what do we do now?”

Ed Fischer’s dream of farming began when he was 6 years old. It was then that his father, B. Lee Fischer, first took him for an overnight stay at a farm in Alamo. “We went out to the hen house and we got eggs, and that’s what we had for breakfast,” he says. Then “we went fishing and we caught fish out of the creek, and that was our lunch.

After lunch, we went squirrel hunting, and that was our dinner. And I said: ‘This (farm life) is for me.’”

But it wasn’t until the late 1970s that Ed and his wife decided to purchase a farm. Ed, who had been in the banking business since 1965, faced a corporate relocation out of state. He and Jeanie were not

interested in taking their three children away from their hometown, nor would they consider Jeanie leaving her job at Eli Lilly and Co. After some discussion of possibilities, Jeanie agreed to the purchase of a farm, and the search began. Over the course of the next two years, Ed and Jeanie drove nearly 7,000 miles, with their three children in tow, looking for that special place.

“We decided we wanted to have somewhere around 100 acres, we wanted to have some tillable ground, but we also wanted to have something we could really enjoy instead of just work at,” says Ed. The couple found one farm, but the purchase fell through. Then, one Sunday, “there was a little, tiny ad” in the newspaper that read ‘Picture postcard farm for sale in Johnson County,’” Ed remembers. As he described the farm’s location to Jeanie, he was surprised to find that she knew exactly where it was. Each time they had driven past the farm, she told him, she had quietly wished it would come up for sale.

Ed made a promise to buy the farm for Jeanie. “There was something about this place; when we walked in, we felt like we were at home,” he recalls.

The farm is located along South State Road 135 in Johnson County.

Its previous owners warned the Fischers about the heavy traffic the property would see during fall months when tourists begin making their annual visits to the small Brown County town of Nashville. “‘You can’t get out of your driveway. Traffic is coming both ways.

There’s never a break,’” Ed remembers being told. “I’ve always felt every problem is an

opportunity, so I said, ‘If there’s that much traffic here, we’ve got to take advantage of it.’” Inspired by their friends in Bargersville who grew mums for fundraisers, the Fischers decided to sell mums to travelers on their way to Nashville.

In 1982, the Fischers ordered their first 1,200 mum starts. “We borrowed an old tomato transplanter from a guy Jeanie worked with,” Ed says, and the Fischer family went to work. Jeanie and daughter, Lori, then age 11, were on the tomato setter, and Lance, 8, and Lyndsey, 6, followed behind, straightening plants as they went. “Well, we killed over 300 mums before the next day, basically, because we didn’t know what we were doing.”

But eventually the couple did learn how to grow mums, in spite of several factors (Ed stayed busy with a full-time job in the banking field, and Jeanie remained at Eli Lilly) that seemed stacked against them.

“We were doing most everything on a Sunday, because we both worked and we had no choice,” Ed says. “Saturday was the big day to do other things around here, wash, shop and everything else.”

Their determination led to their success.

Because mums mature in the first part of September, from Labor Day on, Ed researched how to delay the bloom of their plants.

“We wanted our mums to be in bloom just as the peak traffic was coming by, and we hit it right on the head,” he says. In one weekend, the Fischers sold 800 mums.

Fifteen years later, the family was planting up to 4,500 mum starts each fall, but 1997 turned pivotal for the Fischers. The couple’s children had all grown and left, FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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The Fischer family farm. Below, a dinnerplate hibiscus growing on the farm. Right, an arrangement for sale at Fischer Farm Flowers.

Fischer Farm Flowers 2916 S. State Road 135, Franklin, (317) 422-8686

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

and the operation seemed to be too much work for just Ed and Jeanie. They planted 4,000 mum starts, but the ground that year was continually wet and the air too cool.

The plants, they say, began to rot.

Eventually the crop failed, which led the couple into “the best fall Jeanie and I had in 15 years,” Ed says. “We actually went to Brown County and saw some things instead of selling mums.” The year marked the end to the mum business, just in time for the Fischer grandchildren to begin entering the picture.

After Jeanie retired from Eli Lilly in 2001, the couple decided to begin a flower business again, this time with cut flowers.

Jeanie began ordering seeds, combining old favorite annuals and perennials with unique blooms to create stunning bouquets.

“They (the grandchildren) love to come here for a number of reasons, but the fact is — the lay of the land, the things you can see in nature here, the history that goes with it — it’s just a wonderful place.”

—ED FISCHER

Initially, customers would pull into the driveway to choose individual flowers out of buckets. “They were like 50 cents a stem,” recalls Ed. But many customers wanted the sample bouquets Jeanie had arranged in Mason jars. They soon began to sell flower bouquets in jars, as well as the individual flowers. Jeanie also has been called upon to supply floral arrangements for rehearsal dinners, as well as other events.

“For the last several years, our granddaughter, Lucy, has helped with the flowers,” says Jeanie. Lucy stays with her grandparents Monday through Friday throughout the summer, and she “loves working with the customers,” Jeanie says.

“She jumps up and races out the door when someone pulls in the driveway.”

Doug Grant, of Morgantown, says stop-

See O

ur

D E L E D EMO blic!

R To The Pu Y L W NE om Open ro Show

The greenhouse used for flower starts during cooler months.

ping by Fischer Farm is one of his “favorite things of summer,” not just to pick up flowers, but also to visit with the Fischers in their driveway.

Rest for Ed and Jeanie comes after the first frost, but “even then, everything needs to be pulled out and cleaned up,” she says.

“It’s very time-consuming and very physical,” though enjoyable.

At one time, Jeanie was planting flowers in 18 50-foot beds. She has reduced the number of flower beds to nine. In addition to her flower gardens, she maintains a large vegetable garden, as well as multiple flower beds and plantings in other locations on the property, throughout the growing season. “I need to cut back,” she admits.

“It’s just the two of us,” says Ed, now 73, who has also narrowed the scope of his

work over the years. For many years, in addition to a full-time job, Ed raised cattle and sheep and farmed 45 of the family’s 85 acres. He no longer raises livestock and now works with a local family who farms the property. “They provide the equipment, do the work, and I provide the land and pay the taxes,” Ed explains.

No matter the future, the Fischers love their farm. “We have had absolutely no regrets. This was the best environment to raise kids in,” Ed says. “Our 10-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, is telling me all the time, ‘Grandpa, don’t ever sell the farm,’ because she loves it. They (the grandchildren) love to come here for a number of reasons, but the fact is — the lay of the land, the things you can see in nature here, the history that goes with it — it’s just a wonderful place.”

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19

John Cardwell stands on the road where he grew up. Below, his “The Good Road Home” sits on the tractor he spent hours operating in his youth.

THE

GOOD ROAD John Cardwell brings his past back to life through poems and stories

By Catherine Whittier | Photography by Josh Marshall

20

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

J

JOHN CARDWELL, A QUIET MAN with soft lines around his eyes, dips his buttered toast in hot coffee and stops for a moment to recollect his years. From farm boy to farm advocate, as well as champion of the elderly and disabled, Cardwell recently published his first book, titled “The Good Road Home, A Collection of Poems and Short Stories.” The book is a brew of truth, fiction, history and humor, which invites readers to experience rural life — the hard work, the simple joys, the struggles and the passing of time — through characters and settings that have colored his life experiences.

Cardwell grew up on a Tipton County farm that has been in his family for seven generations. As he shares about the history of the farm, he speaks not only of the size and age of the trees there, but also of the history of the county, the elevation of the land and the interesting people who once lived there. He has fond memories of his early childhood and describes his parents, John and Harriet Cardwell, as “remarkably kind, good-hearted people.”

As a child, Cardwell knew that his family didn’t have the money that other people had. “It was a small farm, and my parents were trying to support seven kids, plus my dad’s mom,” he says. “At times, when we went to church, there were 10 people crowded into the old Chevy.”

Maude Shuck, Cardwell’s paternal grandmother, who lived in his family’s home as he grew up, fell ill in 1960. “I’m not sure what her diagnosis would be today, but she went from being this tough lady to being a tough, crazy lady,” he recalls.

Eventually, Cardwell’s parents were forced to move Shuck into a long-term care facility. These experiences “left a huge impression on me,” he says. “It seemed like a

Cardwell points to his second-grade class photo (second row down from top, second photo from left).

perfect world turned upside down. My dad never really recovered. That kind of crashed and burned his health.”

During this time, Cardwell was the only child still living at home who was available to help his father. “From fifth grade on (through his junior year in high school), I was thrust into being the primary caregiver for Shorthorn cattle that ranged from 60 to 90 head,” he says.

The hours were long, the work was hard and Cardwell did very poorly in school. “I was dead tired,” he recalls.

His father also struggled financially during those years, and Cardwell watched him suffer rejection and ridicule when he reached out for help from a local lender.

Because the family could not afford hay and feed, 11 head of cattle died. “When you witness that, and you’re like 13 or 14, it stays in

your head,” he says.

At the end of his junior year in high school, the last of the cows were sold.

He then helped his father grow corn and soybeans before the land was cash rented to the farmer next door in 1975.

Cardwell writes in his book about the subsequent years and the evenings he spent playing Scrabble, drinking iced tea and talking about family history with his parents.

MAKING IT PERSONAL “The Good Road Home” is laced with personal vignettes, scenes that Cardwell says gave him the “emotional edge” to listen with empathy and act with passion when the first of many struggling farmers was ushered into his office during the fall of 1982. He was the only employee working FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

21

at the Citizens Action Coalition who had a background in farming, so he was naturally chosen to discuss the issues surrounding impending foreclosures with farmers.

His first meeting with a struggling farmer lasted for hours, he says, and it marked the beginning of Cardwell’s involvement in the fight to save farms during the farm crisis of the 1980s. “Most of those farmers had no idea what I had gone through as a kid,

A message from Bob Poynter Right, Cardwell with his sisters, Wanda Dudding and Norma Alderfer. Above, their childhood home.

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but I was able to emotionally understand what they were going through,” he recalls.

Cardwell started the Indiana Rural Organizing Project, which was run out of CAC. Its purpose was to help farmers find ways to make farms economically viable again. He crafted legislation that passed in the 1988 General Assembly and led to the establishment of a publicly funded legal and financial counseling program for family farmers in Indiana. Cardwell is quick to deflect praise for this accomplishment, naming all the people who worked as allies in the cause.

Through the program, “we ended up teaching thousands of farmers around the state how not to get into foreclosure, how to get their records together, figure out what they actually owed and figure out how to calculate long-term interest,” Cardwell says.

“Farmers were getting in trouble because they were getting bad legal advice — not corrupt legal advice — just bad legal advice.”

In the early years, Cardwell’s work on the farm campaign came after his primary

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duties as community organizer and economic policy specialist with CAC, where he worked on behalf of senior citizens and those with disabilities.

The hours were long, but any progress achieved was deeply satisfying to him.

He was also motivated by sadness as he watched farmers lose everything they had in the bitter struggle for survival.

A suicide hotline was implemented as part of the farm program. “We lost many farmers in the ’80s to suicide,” he recalls. He understood that kind of hopelessness. He understood a family’s connection to their farm, the hard work and risk involved, the suffering that happens when times are tough, the trials faced while dealing with illness and aging, and the joy that runs like a current through it all.

In December 2014, Cardwell, now 64, retired from his position as executive director of The Generations Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for seniors and those with disabilities, which he founded in 2001.

He does not discuss all that he has achieved on behalf of Indiana citizens.

“John is a very humble man,” says Jolinda Buchanan, farm organizer who worked under Cardwell and later stepped into his shoes as director of the farm program with CAC. “It is John’s work on agricultural issues that not only brought Farm Aid to Indiana, but had Farm Aid continually funding the work we were doing to help small- to medium-size farmers in the state.”

Cardwell and his wife, Nancy Griffin, were honored by the Indiana Senate in February for his work on public policy issues. While he is no longer fighting on

Cardwell’s brother-in-law, Larry Alderfer (on tractor), restored the tractor that John grew up driving on the family farm.

the front lines with regard to creating public policy, his passion for agricultural issues remains strong. “Farming is truly one of the most important things that we do because we’ve got to have food,” he says. “I get really frustrated at politicians who cavalierly deal with ag issues because we have fewer and fewer farmers responsible for larger and larger acreage.”

Post-retirement, Cardwell continues to serve on the board of The Generation Project, and he is busy writing, creatively pondering the state of things through the lenses of his experience. His colorful poems and short stories are cathartic and allow him to take readers back in time as he sketches the people and places of his rural central Indiana home, capturing both history and enduring truths about life. Through his writing, he is able to process the behavior of his abrasive, hard-working grandmother and the suffering of his depressed father and to remember the cattle, the fields and the trees that still captivate his heart.

Cardwell and his wife currently live in the Fort Benjamin Harrison area of Indianapolis, though they contemplate building a cabinsize second home on their Tipton County farm. As he takes his last sip of coffee, he recollects the work he has done. “Sometimes when you do something in life that’s really cool, it’s not until afterward that you realize how really cool it was.”

For more information about “The Good Road Home, A Collection of Poems and Short Stories,” email jcardwell2@comcast.net.

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23

In the Stars Jessica Edwards and Abby Dyke turn their passions into a thriving urban farm

BY SHAWNDRA MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

24

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

ONE DAY

last winter, before Cosmic Gardens even existed, its founders sat indoors dreaming of farming. Having met when both worked at Pogue’s Run Grocer, Jessica Edwards and Abby Dyke discovered shared passions for art, food and plants.

The friends bonded over a mutual wish to be outdoors as much as possible. “We were always enclosed, always behind windows,” Dyke says. “We both just wanted to be outside so bad.”

Fittingly, this conversation is taking place outdoors, as the two stand under a light drizzle in the middle of lavishly productive garden plots.

“When we’re inside, we feel like we’re wasting our time,” Edwards explains.

Dyke picks an early strawberry and divides it in half to share. A few feet away, peas twine up a trellis, and a stonebordered lettuce bed soaks up the rain. Wide rows of rich black dirt support plants ranging from purple peacock broccoli to white acorn squash. Honeybees sallying forth from two hives in the back of the lot find a wildly diverse range of food in the quarter-acre space.

Munching the fruit, Dyke remembers, “She asked me what I truly wanted, and I was like, ‘I want to grow things.’”

So they made a plan, and a new urban farming initiative was born. Cosmic Gardens encompasses several near-eastside Indy lots, including each of their yards. Here at Dyke’s property, which she rents with her boyfriend, it’s her second year of converting her lawn into a haven for plants and bees. Their favored practice is to set cardboard right on the grass and heap high-quality soil called “Mark’s Mix,” sourced from Indiana Mulch and Stone, on top of that base. They eschew chemical inputs, preferring to support the plants with quality soil. They use natural pest control methods like hand picking and companion planting.

It’s clearly an approach that works: A few months into the growing season, there’s something green everywhere you look, and it isn’t grass.

“We don’t want to use resources for mowing,” Edwards explains.

Abby Dyke

A big part of the young women’s mission is to revitalize the neighborhood, where weedy lots and empty houses are a common sight. With the aid of each of their boyfriends and other helpers, they’ve begun farming two vacant lots through the city’s urban garden licensing program.

“A lot of our volunteers have been kids of the neighborhood, so far,” says Dyke. “They are the curious ones willing to come up to talk to strangers.” When the children ask if they can help, the women immediately find a job that suits them, whether it’s moving dirt, planting, transplanting or watering.

“I have a little girl named Allie who comes and waters, and although she can only carry the can a quarter full, it’s still helpful, and she’s really sweet,” Edwards says.

At some point during high harvest time, Cosmic Gardens may run a more formal kids club. Working with children fits with their secondary goal of getting people to grow more of their own food because youths can lead the way at home and into the future.

Bending down to tug an errant weed, Edwards reports on something she’s read: “No matter what,” she says, “if a kid is given some kind of garden mentoring at some point in his life, even just for the smallest bit, no matter how long it takes, that kid will come back to gardening at some point.”

Another way Cosmic Gardens supports home gardeners is through the build-a-garden project. Before the growing season even begins, the duo takes orders from would-be gardeners interested in receiving plant starts. Edwards and Dyke plant and tend the seedlings with care, using only rainwater or filtered city water for irrigation.

They offer medicinal herb starts as well as strawberries and garden vegetables. Nearly all are heirloom varieties.

A gardener’s preorder payment buys more than seeds; it funds the farm’s building materials, soil, light bulbs and other supplies.

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

25

Above, Jessica Edwards. Right, Cosmic beans grown at Cosmic Gardens.

26

Since May, Cosmic Gardens also runs a small CSA. Subscribers benefit from their farming throughout the season, and each week they also receive a “forager’s find” such as morel mushrooms, ramps or lambs quarters.

Cosmic Gardens also offers surplus seedlings and produce at the weekly Beech Grove Farmers Market on Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

To meet them is to understand farming as a calling and a spiritual pursuit. They named their farm in deference to the cosmos, which has a deeper influence on plants than most people realize.

“We call ourselves Cosmic Gardens because we practice biodynamic farming,” says Dyke. “So we try our absolute hardest to consult the stars before we actually plant, because we are knowledgeable that the moon is the water magnet. The moon draws water from the earth.” She explains that the moon’s location in a particular constellation determines optimum planting and harvesting times.

Rather than the traditional Farmer’s Almanac, biodynamic farmers consult the Stella Natura Calendar to guide

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

their endeavors. “We refer to it on a daily basis,” says Dyke. “We plant by it, harvest by it, transplant by it.”

They are also conscious of the microbiology of the soil, in keeping with biodynamic practices. That’s why they don’t touch the plants with city water without first filtering it: Chlorinated water kills healthy soil bacteria.

Though there’s a steep learning curve to the art and science of biodynamics, Cosmic Gardens’ plantings respond to this level of attention. Exhibit A: flourishing tomato and pepper plants, transplanted on a “root day” to give maximum support to the root system. (The calendar enumerates specific days that are best for roots, flowers, fruits and leaves.)

“It would be really awesome if we could one day have a school where we actually teach other people about this,” says Dyke. “So far we’re just stumbling through the dark on our own, using the stars as our guide.”

Dyke is not a newcomer to growing things, however.

Childhood summers spent helping her mother in a large kitchen garden laid the foundation for today’s vocation, even though she rejected everything about gardening and plants as a rebellious teen. “I hate plants!” she says she declared at 18. When she woke up one day in her 20s and wanted to put in her own garden, she took a bit of a stealth approach.

“Last year I got starts from Amy Matthews (of South Circle Farm),” she says, “and when I picked them up, I told her, ‘Please don’t tell my mom.’” The warning was unnecessary, since Matthews doesn’t even know her mother. But Dyke felt the need to proceed cautiously in breaking the news to her mother.

How did her mother take it? She was “flabbergasted,” Dyke says, remembering when her mother finally saw her efforts. “She was like, ‘You grew all of these?’ … I sort of snuck up behind her and (said), ‘Look, Mom, look what you taught me!’”

For her part, the 21-year-old Edwards grew up on military bases with zero exposure to agriculture. In art school, however, she once canned lawn mower clippings for a class project. Her quirky critique of Americans’ turf grass obsession didn’t make much sense to her classmates.

“My boyfriend had spent all day mowing,” she recalls, “so I canned it up and presented it on a shelf, all these jars of canned grass. My class was so confused. I was like, ‘You know mowing is kind of like harvesting. You don’t get it?

A home at Cosmic Gardens.

Below, several plants grow inside repurposed gutters.

John Colter I canned all this grass, if you want to eat it.

I mean you spend so much time growing it, seeding it, watering it. … What are you getting out of it?’”

In other words, “Grow Food, Not Lawns,” a movement these urban farmers have heartily embraced.

Their mission resonates with many, and in a short time they’ve gained a core group of volunteers to help with physical labor and behind-the-scenes tasks. Their support system includes a grant writer/social media expert and an architect interested in water catchment projects.

The grant writer, Annika Larsen, is a journalism student who happened to see one of Edwards’ Instagram posts about

the farm. She leapt at the chance to help with a cause that’s dear to her heart. “I love the draw to bring local food to people and places that might not have access to it in abundance,” she says. “I love how it connects the community to good food.”

Her first task was to get Cosmic Gardens a tax ID number to enable grant applications. Now she’s pursuing grants for seasonextending hoop houses to allow the farm to continue to work year-round.

Though Cosmic Gardens has capped the number of lots for this year, the women hope to expand in future seasons. One of the vacant lots is located on an entire block of empty houses, and they’d love to stretch the boundaries of their farm to these adjacent properties and perhaps even purchase one of the houses to serve as a home base.

Their dream is to have enough volunteer help to farm numerous locations and potentially hand off the farming to the immediate neighbors at some point.

Noting there’s no shortage of nearby available properties, Edwards says, “We feel like we’ve got a giant coloring book, and we’re just going to start, page by page.”

For more information, visit cosmicgardens.farm.

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27

ROOM — and — BOARD

a

Wabash Lumber clients clamor for reclaimed wood

By CJ Woodring Photography by Josh Marshall 28

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

AT THE AGE OF 29, Aaron Hübner is living his dream. It’s a dream that began when he was a teenager, continued following his discharge from the military and came true July 4, 2013, the day of his first sale.

“That was my independence day,” says Hübner, owner of Lafayette-based Wabash Lumber LLC. Wabash Lumber is not your father’s lumberyard: The wood sold on-site is reclaimed and recycled from Hoosier barns and often milled into unique furniture. In addition, Hübner ships “genuine reclaimed wood planks” directly to the consumer’s door through his Plank|Wood website (plankwood.co).

Reclaiming, it seems, is in Hübner’s DNA. “When I was a child, growing up here, my parents bought, fixed up and sold historic

generation to leave it,” he recalls. “So I had homes,” he says. “What they call ‘flipping’ a romantic dream that I could’ve been a today. I used to help them and learned many farmer. I’d always talk about having an old skills that serve me today. barn and building a house next to it, and “Also, my grandfather retired from farmthe guy I was working with said he’d ing and bought a sawmill, more as a heard that barns were being taken retirement hobby than anything,” down and people were buying he adds. “I spent summers and the wood. winter vacations helping him “That was my first insaw boards.”

Wabash Lumber troduction to the process,” As a 14-year-old high 1611 Schuyler Ave., he says. “At the time, that school student, Hübner Lafayette, (765) 314-3255 seemed crazy to me: Who worked a part-time job or wabashlumber.com would want old barn wood? alongside a Purdue UniSo now I’m the one recycling versity student, transporting it, and even though I didn’t end pianos from Lafayette to various up farming, I am still doing somenortheast Indiana locations. As the thing agriculturally related.” young men rode, they talked about the Stationed in Seattle with the Navy, and barns they passed. then in San Diego with his then-future wife, “Dad grew up on a farm and was the first

Aaron Gangluff

Aaron Hübner

Brianne Ziegman, Hübner saw restaurants and bars that used reclaimed wood and recalled those Hoosier barns. “I knew Indiana was filled with beautiful old agricultural and rural buildings that needed a new life, and that I wanted to reclaim them,” he says. “So it’s pretty much been a lifelong dream.”

Now married with children — 3-year-old Henry and 7-month-old Charlie — Hübner travels highways and byways within 30 miles or so of Lafayette to buy wood. But unlike some operators, such as Barnwood Builders from the DIY Network on television, razing barns isn’t really his thing.

“We’ve only taken down six barns in two years,” he says. “We’re more focused on getting products out of these things — salvaging barns that are in disrepair — so we go through guys who just do teardowns

and buy truckloads of wood from them. My interest lies in the construction of things, not the deconstruction.”

Unlike crews that scour the countryside in search of material — they’re called harvesters in the industry — Hübner works with just a few men. “I deal with a select couple of guys I get my material from, and they tell me what’s coming up and what kind of wood we can expect to get,” he says. “I try to get wood from Indiana, but sometimes we get into northern Kentucky, especially for oak timber.

“We recycle it by selling the lumber and also mill lumber into wall paneling and build furniture out of it.”

In addition to barns, corn cribs and old metal tool sheds have provided material for recycling. “People will take out the nails

and sell them as recycled materials,” Hübner says. “But for what we’re doing, we’re basically looking at hardwood siding on barns. That’s our best product and what we specialize in.”

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW Repurposed wood has been the darling of interior designers for several years, as today’s builders adopt the mantra “recycle, repurpose and reclaim.” A hot trend in both residential and commercial endeavors, reclaimed wood is très chic in upscale interiors, offering rustic beauty in walls, ceiling beams and flooring and for accessories that include tables, headboards and fireplace mantels.

Because wood variations naturally weather differently, pieces take on unique

personalities of their own. It’s a mix-andmatch melange: mellow wood lending a rugged nuance to woodsy decor — think lake cabins and ski lodges — while also creating a counterpoint to pristine shabby chic whitescapes.

In short, reclaimed wood adds character, while also enhancing the character of those who choose to recycle one of Earth’s increasingly endangered natural resources.

Hübner recognizes he’s in the right place at the right time.

“There are people from out of state buying wood from Hoosier barns,” he says. “Barns on the East Coast are pretty much gone, so they’re reaching into the Heartland. Some of the reclaimed wood goes to California and Montana. That’s where the demand is. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to sell it FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

29

Wabash Lumber staff from left, Joe Cook, Steffan Eller, Aaron Hübner, Erica Wise, Aaron Gangluff

here in Indiana; there wouldn’t have been any demand.”

A combination of factors has increased availability of the rural structures that once dotted Hoosier landscapes like game pieces tossed by an unseen hand. It’s a loss of cultural heritage that preservationists and purists disdain; however, the reality remains that, for many growers, barns have outlived their usefulness.

Huge, modern machinery most often doesn’t fit into a historic barn, defined as one built before 1950. Hence, if the owner refurbishes it, insurance rates increase for a structure that’s not being used. “The cost becomes prohibitive,” Hübner says, “plus, owners need to paint it all the time or else re-side it with metal. It becomes a matter of practicality, and some farmers would rather put up a pole barn in its place.”

30

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

Tommy Kleckner gets it. As director of Indiana Landmarks’ Terre Haute-based Western Regional Office, he receives ongoing calls from owners who say they have an old barn and ask if he knows anyone who could use the wood.

“Our role is the preservation of historic barns and to encourage owners to keep the wonderful structures standing,” he says. “I always say that if you want to see Indiana’s ancient forest, you need only step inside a timber frame barn and look at the beautiful framing and old-world craftsmanship.

“Having said that, I can appreciate the reclamation and reuse of the lumber if preservation isn’t a viable option.

“When a barn is in very poor condition or has been modified heavily, and the owner no longer wants to retain it, I sometimes try to put the owner in touch

with someone who may have an interest, to ensure the timber isn’t burned on-site or hauled off to a landfill,” Kleckner adds.

THE ART OF THE HARVEST Hübner says his operation differs from those of others. “Several in the state are just selling materials,” he says. “One guy in Kokomo tears them down himself, pressure washes the wood and sells it. Another guy has a local crew, and they go around looking for barns.

“Our guy basically works out of his truck. He’ll work one area and visit local diners and talk to residents, and find out what’s available, then hire local labor and maybe do four or five barns at a time.

“A lot of farmers tear down the barns and de-nail them and then try to sell directly to us. Then we take it a step further

and not only sell the wood, but perform custom millworking on it.”

Millworking has led to the creation of rustic interior finishes with a weathered and natural charm. Admitting he hasn’t seen anything truly unique, Hübner says customers most often request accent walls or wine cabinets to be made from the wood. He says he approaches fabrication from a creative perspective, using one-ofa-kind pieces of lumber and working with the shape of the wood, letting the wood dictate what it wants to be.

“I see how the pieces are weathered ... sometimes without the grain,” he explains.

“There are a lot of interesting tones and colors. Some companies sell simulated wood that looks old, but the real thing is always distinguishable.”

Hübner says he gets about 30 calls a

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week from folks seeking information about having their barn taken down.

“I ask them what year it was built and what kind of lumber it is. I always have my ears to the ground when they call about something a little bit out of the norm. I have home builders I know need certain things, and then I tell them what we can pay.”

As for what they can pay, it seems most sellers believe they’re going to find a pot of gold at the end of the “Antiques Roadshow” rainbow.

“Yes, you have something of value,” Hubner says to them. “But don’t expect your next European vacation to be paid for by selling and destructing your barn. If it’s really great and wonderful, then ask for a prime price.

But overall, think about the actual

work involved, the danger involved for deconstructors who wonder if they’re going to step through the roof at any minute, and put yourself in their place when you’re selling.”

Wabash Lumber also offers custom metalworking and fabrication, so it shouldn’t be a far leap to produce a small line of industrial vibe metal furniture, which Hübner is hoping to add to his bucket list of career achievements.

“I was just a 20-year-old guy with no education, but knew I wanted to do this,” he reflects. “I began with a ladder, chain saw and a pickup truck. But I’d love to go beyond just being a smalltime Indiana guy and have maybe 20, 30 employees.

“So who knows? We’ll see where this takes us.”

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31

Sun Rise Southside Indianapolis solar facilities underscore central Indiana’s increasing interest in renewable energy

BY JON SHOULDERS // PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

32

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

I

Solar power enters the electric grid at the north end of the farm on Southport Road. Opposite, top, an overview of the Southport Road solar farm and, below, a close-up of the solar cells.

INDIANA LAND IS certainly used for growing a wide variety of products — corn, soybeans, and livestock, to name just a few.

However, three plots of land on the southside of Indianapolis are currently devoted to producing a somewhat less common commodity — solar energy.

In southern Marion County, three solar panel facilities sitting on more than 280 total acres of flat forest land and farmland were put into service in late 2013 and currently generate up to 28.6 megawatts of combined electricity, roughly enough to power more than 7,000 homes. Sunlight absorbed by each facility’s panels, which are constructed on a fixed-axis system, is converted into direct current (DC) electricity through a system known as photovoltaics. The DC power is eventually transferred into alternate current (AC) electricity form for consumption by Indy businesses and residences.

Known as Indy Solar I, Indy Solar II (these two sites combine for 155 acres and are located in Franklin Township) and Indy Solar III (which spans 134 acres and is located in Decatur Township), the facilities were acquired by Virginia-based Dominion, one of the country’s biggest energy producers, in the summer of 2013 from Minnesota-based Sunrise Energy Ventures after construction began. Dominion has solar facilities established in Connecticut and Georgia as well, with additional solar projects in the works in Tennessee, California and Utah among others. Amec Foster Wheeler, an international construction and engineering firm with global headquarters in London and a local branch in Indianapolis, was contracted to build the panels and serves as the operations and maintenance provider for all three sites.

Eric McMillan, manager of renewable energy at Dominion, says that while solar energy has become slightly more cost effective as the technology for building and maintaining the panels improves, the logistics of such projects remain complex. “There are many pieces that have to come together in order to bring a solar facility to life,” he says. “You need to secure interconnection rights, a power purchase agreement, land rights, perform environmental studies, et cetera. With each of these development items, there is a timeline and schedule, which must be managed in order to have a successful project.”

Dominion is selling the power generated by the facilities to Indianapolis Power & Light Co. through three separate 15-year contracts known as power purchase agreements. McMillan says determining which specific IPL customers are receiving solar power is impossible since the power generated from the panels is transferred to IPL’s power grid. “Generally speaking, once FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

33

Eric McMillan’s work truck and the roads he uses to inspect and perform maintenance on the solar panels.

A pyranometer is used to measure broadband solar irradiance on a planar surface. Right, McMillan can see the current power output as well as the history of output on a computer.

electrons flow onto the grid, they mix with other electrons from all facilities connected to the same portion of the grid,” he says. “Therefore, the energy that end-use customers receive is undifferentiated as to source. Since the power from our facilities is sold to IPL and distributed onto the IPL system, the power from the panels cannot be directly traceable to a particular home.”

Although solar power provides clear environmental benefits, such as reduced air pollution and decreased dependence on nonrenewable energy sources like coal, oil 34

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

and natural gas, McMillan adds that certain factors inherent to solar panel facilities can be perceived as problematic, namely the possibility of glare from the panels affecting nearby residences or businesses, as well as the large amount of land typically needed for utility-based solar operations built for generating large amounts of electricity. “Large-scale solar projects do take up significant land space,” he says. “With the most up-to-date technology, you still need approximately six to eight acres per megawatt depending on panel orienta-

tion. Glare can be a factor, particularly near airports. Many times, developers are required to do extensive glare studies and orient panels to avoid or minimize glare if a solar installation is to be located at or near an airport.”

The southside installations are just a few of several solar facilities that have been brought to life throughout central Indiana in just the last five years, including a nine-megawatt solar farm completed in July 2014 next to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the world’s largest airport-

based solar farm at Indianapolis International Airport, which spans more than 150 combined acres and received a 2015 Indianapolis Sustainability Award from the city of Indianapolis in June. The owners of both projects have power purchase agreements in place with IPL. In August 2014, the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development began a partnership with Sustainable Catalyst Partners, an Indianapolis-based sustainability planning and consulting firm, to incentivize local businesses and commu-

Eric McMillan

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nity organizations to undertake solar energy projects in the territories serviced by electric utility company Indiana Michigan Power, including Muncie, Fort Wayne and South Bend. Thirteen applicants for the program, which is called Solar Uniting Neighbors, were announced in July as the recipients of a total of $328,165 in grant money, as well as logistical support, for small-scale solar projects. Grant recipients include the Muncie Public Library, First Unitarian Church of South Bend and the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department.

“There’s a lot of possibility with solar since you can go as small as you want, for a single home for example, or as big as you want, and you can have them on roofs where people don’t see them,” says John Haselden, principal engineer at IPL. “So the flexibility is there versus something like wind turbines, which have to be located in very rural areas. There’s still a ways to go with the technology and the efficiency, but the economics of solar are getting a little better.”

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The stories of Hoosier artists, producers, merchants and entrepreneurs

Good, Clean Fun Regional soap makers have good scents STORY BY NICK RASSI

In early America, people crafted soap by hand using lye from fire cinders, fat from farm animals and wildflowers or wild herbs. The process was messy and imprecise. Today, soap making has advanced, but one thing remains: Hoosier ingenuity. Some regional artisans have embraced the timeless craft and advanced its classic processes, giving Indiana a standout market for handmade soaps.

36

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

Daniels Creek Farm »Rose Brown of Peru happened into the business of soap making while seeking a remedy for her son’s illness. Her oldest child, Curtis, had been struggling to digest cow’s milk. Worried, Brown sought a solution. After a suggestion came from a friend to use goat’s milk as a substitute for cow’s milk, Brown and her husband, John, third-generation farmers, adopted and began milking dairy goats nine years ago. Soon the family had 27 goats on their farm.

The goat’s milk eased her son’s health issues, but the Brown family, drawing five gallons from each milking session, soon found themselves with too much milk on their hands. Brown began making soap.

Over the years, she has perfected her soap and essential oil combinations, and she now has a collection of many popular scents, like Ocean Breeze, Lavender and Orchard Rose. She has nabbed a spot on the Indiana Artisan list, a designation bestowed to craftspeople who create high-quality, Indiana-based goods.

You can find Daniels Creek Farm soaps around Indiana, including at Bear Hollow Wood Carvers in French Lick; Amboy Market in Amboy; Harvest Moon Foods in Rochester; The Herb Shop in Wabash; and at state parks, including Turkey Run, Brown County and the Potawatomi Inn. For more information, visit danielscreekfarm.com.

Sudsy Selections Daniels Creek Farm soaps start with a base of goat’s milk and vegetable oils.

Naturally smooth and simple, Brown’s unscented bars often sell out first.

Another popular scent, which sells well at any market, is lavender, she says.

PHOTOS SUBMITTED

GENERAL FACTS ABOUT AGRICULTURE Twenty-two million American workers produce, process, sell and trade the nation’s food and fiber. But only 4.6 million of those people live on the farms-slightly less than 2 percent of the total U.S. population.

Consumers spend $547 billion for food originating on U.S. farms and ranches. Of each dollar spent on food, the farmer’s share is approximately 23 cents. The rest are for costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution.

On average, every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, around $6 million in U.S. agricultural products--grains, oilseeds, cotton, meats, vegetables, snack foods, etc., will be consigned for shipment for export to foreign markets.

It all means more jobs and higher wages across the nation. U.S. agricultural exports generate more than $100 billion annually in business activity throughout the U.S. economy and provide jobs for nearly 1 million workers.

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Herbal Art »When he moved to Indiana from North Carolina, Brian Paffen had trouble adapting to the Midwest’s harsh winters and hard water. He also didn’t know of anyone else making organic soaps in the state, so nearly 10 years ago, Paffen embarked on a mission to create superior body care products. Since then, he has developed his own process of crafting soap, using a hybrid of hot and cold press techniques, and creating a shea butter and honey-based formula for his soaps. Paffen describes both his soap base and all of his projects as “mellowly uplifting” that provide a mix of “relaxation and invigoration.” For more information, visit herbalartonline.com.

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The scents of Paffen’s Wine-n-Thyme collection are extracted from various wine grapes to give the bars real wine fragrances. The non-alcoholic soaps feature merlot, Champagne, chardonnay and mimosa fragrances.

He has also begun production on a lemon poppy bar with lemon essential oils and exfoliating poppy seeds.

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Sudsy Selections Frye’s solid shampoos and conditioners have a loyal Etsy following, and her soaps come in a variety of vibrant colors and scents, such as Thai Coconut, Grapefruit Lemongrass and Patchouli Lovers.

Get Lathered »Pharmacist Rhonda Frye started making soap as a hobby to keep her mind engaged. Once she understood the scientific processes behind soap making, she says she began exploring the artistic aspect of soap crafting in search of the most aesthetically pleasing results. She enjoys the challenge and complications of the delicate balance of oils and chemicals. “A large part of the draw (to soap making) is finding the right combination of oils to give the soaps the creamy texture that doesn’t dry out the skin,” she says.

With her products’ rising popularity, Frye has had trouble keeping up with the production demands, but she gets by with a little help from her friends, who assist her when the balance is too difficult. Despite the increasing demand for her products, Frye plans to keep her production on a small scale. She currently sells her products on Etsy, at Homespun Modern Handmade and Twisted Sisters in Indianapolis, Gather in Bloomington and The Sterling Butterfly in Martinsville. For more information, visit etsy.com/shop/GetLathered.

Curat Romania »Curat Romania handcrafted soaps started as a dream, a literal dream. Deep in the throes of REM sleep, Indianapolisbased makeup artist and hairstylist Misty Al-Eryani found herself in the kitchen of her late aunt, a soap maker from Tennessee. In the dream, Al-Eryani’s aunt told her to make soap to get through a difficult financial time. Not one to ignore advice, Al-Eryani founded her soap company, Curat Romania, in 2010.

Inspired by her Romanian friends’ aura of independence, Al-Eryani gave her fledgling company the Romanian name (“curat” is soap in the Romanian language) and endeavored to design her 38

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

soaps for people with independent spirits.

She initially sold her soaps at First Friday events in Indianapolis, where they were well-received.

“Every soap would sell out quickly,” AlEryani says. As her finances were aligning and the soaps continued to sell, she was featured in the local media.

As her products’ popularity grew, she began creating new lines. One of her favorite collections is Vodka Star, based entirely on vodka, which uses alcohol instead of water as a base. “Nobody else in the world makes soap with no water, just vodka,” says Al-Eryani. For more information, visit curatclean.bigcartel.com.

Sudsy Selections Shifting her focus to the south, Al-Eryani has concocted “The Big Chief,” “an ode to the Mardi Gras Indianans,” she says, that’s made with bourbon and scents of tobacco, wood and smoke.

“Voodoo Queen,” another from the line, uses red wine, blackberries, rose and vanilla. The third, “4 p.m. at Café Du Monde” is made with coffee liqueur and smells of coffee and pastries.

Body Eclectic Skin Care »Indianapolis-based soap maker Jess Walton became interested in plants and herbs as a young girl, when she recalls picking weeds to identify and categorize from the side of the road.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, she apprenticed with an herbalist and began collecting books and encyclopedias about different plant and herb species soon after.

Walton sees her craft as a marriage of art, science and magic, all combined in her double-milled soaps. She wants her soaps to inspire a “return to your own divine temple,” she says, and she lovingly describes her soaps as a practice of “celebrating your inside, your outside (and) emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally taking care of yourself.”

Building on her love for plants and the body, Walton hopes to take this celebration further by opening an apothecary in Indianapolis. For now, though, she is entirely mobile, selling her wares at farmers markets, including the Noblesville and Irvington farmers markets, throughout the week and weekends. For more information, visit bodyeclecticskincare.com.

Sudsy Selections Check out Body Eclectic’s line of soaps dedicated to healing. One, Ganesh, features the Indian herbs holy basil and Indian lilac. Maia, another healing soap, is designed to help eliminate acne and treat sensitive skin.

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Soapy Soap Co. »Soap Co. founders Mohammed Mahdi and Anthony Duncan created their first product out of a simple necessity: They were out of soap. The Bloomington-based pair looked up a recipe and made a batch of soap, finding that they enjoyed the process.

Faced with an excess, they sent a portion of their creation to their friends.

Encouraged by the positive feedback, they began designing new recipes.

“When we take on a project, we dive in and submerge ourselves in all the available information: online resources, YouTube videos, rented books,” Mahdi says. Looking for a path less traveled in the soap world, the pair ditched the animal products in their soaps, opting instead to use sunflower oil.

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Sudsy Selections The Power Bubble, a rosemary mint bar, is a favorite of both its creators and their customers that, Mahdi says, lathers “beautifully.”

The Soapy Soap creators recently developed a lip balm line that accompanies their soaps, also based in sunflower seed oil wax.

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Tractor Tools Direct provides equipment better suited to small farmers

BY JIM MAYFIELD

40

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

SOMETIMES THE ONLY way to fix a really big problem is by conjuring the smallest solution possible.

For example, ever try working a 10-acre plot with a New Holland T9? At over 600 horsepower, the T9 is shod with 10 acres of tire rubber alone. So what is the small farmer — one with only 30 acres in crops — to do?

It’s not a rhetorical question. The USDA’s latest 2012 Census of Agriculture shows the number of middle-size farms declined nationally between 2007 and 2012, with the numbers of large-scale and very small-scale operations holding steady.

In Indiana, the census reports some 20,000 farms are built on between 10 and 49 acres, followed relatively closely by operations ranging between 50 to 179 acres.

Pat Goodwin mows with a drum mower. Opposite page, Goodwin’s wife, Marti, bales hay with a mini-round baler.

Then the bottom drops out.

“The middle is going away,” said Pat Goodwin, who’s learned to grow hay and raise sheep on a 28-acre western Indiana farm that has been in his wife Marti’s family for generations.

Goodwin is also founder and president of Tractor Tools Direct (TTD), a Terre Haute-based supplier of compact tractors, implements and supplies that finds itself positioned nicely for a nationally expanding farm equipment niche market.

“This isn’t toy equipment; it’s just small equipment,” Goodwin said.

TTD imports compact, tight-turning, 38-horsepower tractors and matched-tosize hay balers, rakes, mowers, tedders and other implements directly from manufacturers in northern Italy, where small farms

and hilly terrain mandate appropriately sized equipment, then ships nationally to small farms, land managers and foresters throughout America.

A Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology graduate, civil engineer and former city engineer for Terre Haute, Goodwin still scratches his head a bit about how he made the transition from engineer to implement distributor.

“If you told me 20 years ago that I would be selling farm equipment, I don’t think I would have believed you,” he said.

Like many good things, the whole affair started innocuously enough with little foreshadowing of what was to come. Though engineering was his day job, being married to his high school sweetheart who also happens to be a bona fide farm girl from the PHOTOS SUBMITTED

ground up kept Goodwin out on the land after office hours.

When his father-in-law’s health began to fail, Goodwin assumed more responsibility for the small family farm, especially maintaining the operation’s aging equipment. The more he worked at it, the more he decided some new gear was in order.

“I had a compact (tractor) I really liked, so I started looking for some equipment for it,” he said. “Good luck. It doesn’t exist.”

Seems American implement manufacturers make only the really big stuff.

He finally found an importer of a Japanese line and was told if he purchased two items, he could become a dealer. What the heck, he thought. Maybe selling an implement here and there could be a “fun little side hobby.” A rudimentary website was launched, “and to my surprise, the business started growing,” he said.

By 2010, TTD was ordering Italian-made equipment by the 40-foot container load, and in 2013, the decision was made to go full time with the business. The company saw a 50 percent growth in sales last year, and it anticipates similar performance this year.

The vast majority of TTD’s sales are Internet-based, with customers placing orders from all corners of the country. Most of the transactions occur via email and phone.

“Ninety percent of the time we never meet our customers in person,” Goodwin said.

“The Northeast and the Northwest are key areas for us, but first of all it has to be good hay country,” Goodwin said. “We also sell a lot near the loops around metropolitan areas like Boise, Idaho; St. Louis, Missouri; or Columbus, Ohio.” The metro areas are homes for what the USDA calls “noncommercial” farmers, those whose farm work is not their primary occupations.

A lot of part-time and first-time farmers with small spreads wind up calling TTD and becoming customers.

Being a rookie was something Colorado hay farmer George Lombardi didn’t mind a few years ago, but he knew he had a lot to learn. Speaking from his Brighton home 30 minutes northeast of Denver, Lombardi said TTD’s knowledge base and inventory got his farm from a dream to reality.

“I didn’t know squat,” said the former computer industry executive who decided in 2008 he ought to do something with the 15 acres he purchased in 2000. He decided hay would be a good way to put the land to use.

“I had a lot of questions and issues being the new guy on the block, and Pat and his team talked to me,” Lombardi said. “No issue was too small. They bent over backwards for me.”

When he first started implement shopping, Lombardi knew he was looking in the wrong places for the wrong iron. “There was just all this monstrous equipment,” he said, most of which wouldn’t even fit on his farm, let alone work it.

A few Internet queries pulled up TTD on Lombardi’s computer, and a back-40-full of questions later, he owned a baler, rake and other equipment that would suit the thirdgeneration Italian corporate exec-turned Colorado hay farmer’s needs precisely.

The fact that he was buying Italian-made equipment was a bonus. “I’ve come a long way,” Lombardi said. “I owe most of it to my good friend, Pat.” Today, TTD operates from a converted lumber yard and warehouse that gives the company 44,000 square feet to handle the logistics of off-loading semi-containers of equipment and implements, assembling them and readying the inventory for shipment.

Among the advantages of compact equipment is the ability to store it inside away from the elements, and the company works hard to maintain its full line to fill orders quickly.

“For hay, when you need equipment, you need it immediately,” Goodwin said. “We pride ourselves in having things in stock and shipping virtually within a day.”

Though business has brought the Goodwins and their family off the farm and back to the city, selling equipment to farmers like themselves maintains a connection to the family’s agricultural heritage and roots.

“It’s a good way to stay connected to the family farm,” Goodwin said. “It’s a good reason to keep it. Maybe we can be 100year owners.” For more information, visit tractortoolsdirect.com.

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FARM TO SCHOOL

WE CONNECT THE DOTS

Campers staff a booth at WARMfest.

O

CLIMATE CAMP An immersion in local foods, low-impact living

BY JIM POYSER

42

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

OVER THE PAST YEAR or so, my position at Earth Charter Indiana and working with youths has evolved into regular immersive gatherings we call Climate Camp.

The official mission is to combine climate stewardship with civic leadership, empowering youths, from 8 to 18 (and beyond), to make their voices heard.

In Indiana, let’s be clear: Climate stewardship and civic leadership are in need of a big boost. To pick out just one vector among many, the percentage of adult voters in Indiana actually voting is the worst in the nation. I don’t think anyone would disagree that young people in their early to mid-teens must begin thinking about the impact they can have on a legislative and policy level.

Environmental issues will significantly matter to these young people’s lives as we face increasingly severe weather due to climate change. So the environment is a perfect platform to engage youths in stewardship and democracy. After all, since

It isn’t the easiest thing to feed a couple dozen kids a vegan meal. Especially if they are used to a meat-based diet. But we connect the dots in our presentations and workshops with them. We are not in the business of telling people to not eat meat, but we do point out the contribution of animal agriculture on climate change.

Of course, how animals are raised makes a big difference. So much so that at a recent Climate Camp, many campers did eat meat, because it was meat raised responsibly on the very farm where we were holding our camp: Prairie Winds Nature Farm in Lakeville (just south of South Bend), thanks to the farmer, Charlotte Wolfe.

Reducing meat is not so much the issue for me, personally. The carbon footprint of cheese is more than the carbon footprint of chicken, and cheese is … well, cheese is the spice of life from my perspective. Still, when one awakens to the reality of the science about climate change, one has to do something, whether it’s to stop a carbonintensive behavior or at least slow it down.

And that’s what we hope our campers get out of the experience of Climate Camp: awaken to the extreme weather events that lie ahead for them, no matter where they live on the planet, and the skills to be better stewards of their environment.

We also strive to connect a different more commonplace set of dots for these young people: food miles. At Prairie Winds Nature Farm, we ate so local, we ate directly from the farm. At our most recent

the science of climate change is settled (see sidebar), our youths will be assessing major life decisions within the context of these challenges: How do they live? Should they leave the state? For whom should they vote? Should they have children?

And when it comes to our Climate Camps and the fundamental focus: How should they eat?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but kids eat a lot. I’ve raised a few kids of my own, and I swear they have hollow limbs to sequester this food. My children are grown now, but I am around young people plenty because of these camps, and feeding them is a major operation. We can’t just send somebody to go pick up a bucket of fried chicken or a big bag of hamburgers and call ourselves Climate Camp.

We need to be mindful of our consumption Cooking dinner on choices. Walk the walk, Day 1 of camp. talk the talk and bite off what we can chew.

PHOTOS BY JIM POYSER

HOST YOUR OWN CLIMATE CAMP Campers learning how to use public transportation.

camp in Indianapolis at the Peace Learning Center, we enjoyed food provided by Tyler Gough at Indy Urban Acres. On one of our field trips we visited Gough and his farm so our youths could see exactly where that food was grown.

We took Indianapolis’ bus system, IndyGo, to get to that farm so they could connect that dot as well and understand the concept of food miles. Mass transit

reduces the carbon pollution associated with driving cars, so it’s a double win for the environment.

On that IndyGo day we also visited Fall Creek Gardens in the Mapleton Fall Creek neighborhood just north of downtown Indianapolis. This is an exemplary community garden and a key piece of the puzzle as Mapleton Fall Creek vies for LEED certification as an entire neighborhood.

We also took a tour of Paramount School of Excellence on the southeast side of Indianapolis. Paramount is a kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school with a vibrant farm on its grounds that includes chickens, bees and goats, along with various types of vegetables and flowers. It’s a kind of paradise, actually, when you realize how much the students at Paramount are learning about (CONTINUED PAGE 44)

INDIANA GROWN » A press conference in July officially launched Indiana Grown, a statewide effort to promote locally grown food from Hoosier farmers large and small. Speakers at the press conference included Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann and Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and chairman of the Indiana Grown Commission. About 90 percent of food purchased by Hoosier consumers comes from outside the state, and reducing these exports by just 10 percent would amount to an additional $1 billion in revenue. Check out the Indiana Grown website (indianagrown.org) to view a list of Indiana Grown producers, find recipes using Hoosier goods and more.

Want to host a Climate Camp?

Charlotte Wolfe’s camp in Lakeville was a great success. She wanted only teenagers at this camp, and I was happy to comply. If you want to host one, I’ll cohost it and bring some youth leaders with me.

Jim Poyser is executive director of Earth Charter Indiana, whose program, Youth Power Indiana, combines climate stewardship with civic leadership. He can be reached at jimpoyser@ earthcharterindiana.org.

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

43

Goat wrangling on Day 3 of camp.

our food system and the need for a local mentality.

For many of our campers, wrangling the goats back into their pen at Paramount was a true highlight of the week.

Paramount’s annual TURN Festival on Sept. 12 will be a celebration of that connection of kids to food to community.

This free event will be held at Paramount School (3020 Nowland Ave.) and Brookside Park (3500 Brookside Parkway), Indianapolis, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

I believe that together we can make enough sweet song to bring others into this church of local, responsibly raised food.

It’s a comfort to know the highest levels of our state government are in support of this general concept, via the recently launched Indiana Grown (see sidebar).

This bodes well for us all, but especially for our youths. The more they know what they are eating and where it comes from, the more informed their decisions will be.

This will result in a healthier population as well as a healthier environment on which we all must rely.

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Climate Change 101 As complex as climate science can be, the fundamentals are a snap.

1 2 »Fossil fuel pollution causes the atmosphere to trap more heat.

Close to 100 percent of climate scientists would maintain that the human footprint is responsible for this. Numerous vectors support this trend toward a warming planet, from rising ocean heat content and inland lake temperature to rising sea levels and decreasing glacier volume.

»Warmer air holds more water vapor. If kids — or adults — blink at me blankly when I say that, I ask them if they’ve taken a hot shower lately, and if so, what did the mirror look like. Foggy, of course: a manifestation of this fact. I ask them what happens to the mirror if they’ve taken a cold shower, and they reply the mirror is relatively clear. I always joke with them about a cold shower, because who does that?

3

»The albedo effect. Kids get this, too. They know that light surfaces reflect light, dark surfaces absorb light. This is why the Arctic ice is in a vortex of melt; the more water exposed by the ice melting, the warmer the water and the more ice melts.

There is nothing natural about the speed at which this Arctic melt is happening. In my lifetime (half a century or so) the Arctic has become 7 degrees warmer on average and the ice thickness has decreased by 40 percent. And the global trend is inescapable: warmer temps, melting ice.

Just in case you were wondering, a recent nationwide poll reported 90 percent of eighth-graders understand this science.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

September’s Educational Opportunities Four big events for beginning farmers highlight the month’s classroom offerings, along with festivals and field days to learn while you explore.

BY KATHERINE COPLEN

SEPT. 2

SEPT. 8

SEPT. 10

Purdue Agronomy Field Day

Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program Tour

Cover Crops Field Day

The first of two beginning farmer programs in September, this Indianapolis-based event will include discussion and a tour of Growing Places Indy. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with fellow farmers during lunch before heading to one of Growing Places Indy’s five micro-farms in Indianapolis to learn about developing an urban farm while building partnerships with businesses and organizations in the community. Registration is free, but required. Time: 9 a.m. Location: 3202 E. 38th St., Indianapolis.

Information: growingplacesindy.org

This field day covers topics including species selection for best nutrient management, nutrient management and how it pays, effective strategies for terminating cover crops, plus plot tours. Time: 3 p.m. Location: State Road 9 700N, Howe.

Information: (260) 499-6334

Topics covered at this field day include integrated pest management, weed issues, crop diseases, crop nutrients and grain storage management.

Private applicators can receive credits to keep their licenses current after the completion of this event. Time: 8 a.m. Location: Purdue Agronomy Center, 4540 U.S. 52W, West Lafayette.

Information: (765) 884-0140

SEPT. 3

Davis Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day Topics covered include seed treatment and pollinator health, agronomic issues in 2015, nozzle selection and new herbicide technologies, corn and soybean herbicide demonstration plots and more. Private applicators can receive credits to keep their licenses current after the completion of this event. Time: 8 a.m. Location: DPAC, 6230 N. State Road 1, Farmland.

Information: (765) 584-2271

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

SEPT. 9

Aromatherapy: Cosmetic and Medicinal Interested in new uses for your flourishing garden of herbs beyond the kitchen? This course on using herbs for cosmetic and medicinal purposes will be led by Herb Society of Indiana member Joyce Miller, owner of Huckleberry Hutch in Rushville. Time: 5:45 p.m.

Location: Clay Township Center, 10701 N. College Ave., Indianapolis. Information: herbsocietyofcentralindiana.org

SEPT. 12

Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day Lace up your running shoes, because your plot tour at this field day will take place while running. The Your Pace Your Race run/walk will take you on a 2 1/2 -mile loop through the agricultural center. Participants can choose to complete one, two or three loops.

Time: 8 a.m. Location: Southern Indiana PAC, 11367 E. Purdue Farm Road, Dubois. Information: (812) 678-4427

SEPT. 12-13

The Johnson County Farm Festival This interactive showcase of modern agriculture, will feature agriculture education booths, tractor and equipment demonstrations, livestock, local food vendors, face painting and a pedal tractor pull. Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Location: Johnson County Fairgrounds, 100 Fairgrounds St., Franklin.

Information: (317) 738-2213 or jccf.org

SEPT. 14

Beginning Farmer Tour: Morning Harvest This multipart farm tour includes breakfast and lunch, with networking, discussion and a farm tour in between.

It’s part of a series of farm tours for beginning farmers and begins at Palmyra United Methodist Church with a discussion on developing a local market for your produce, including marketing your goods. The group will move to Morning Harvest Farm in Hardinsburg (a short drive) to observe farmers Brenda and Keegan Hash’s work with hydroponic systems for their produce. This event is free. Time: 9 a.m. Location: Palmyra United Methodist Church, 14170 Greene St., Palmyra. Information: (765) 496-1930

SEPT. 15-17

ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) Course Attendees of this two-day workshop will complete training in tree biology and mechanics, tree inspection and assessment, risk reporting, data analysis and risk categorization. On the third day, a half-day assessment (including both written and field portions) will be given to attendees. By the completion of this course, attendees will be prepared for the TRAQ assessment needed to become ISA Tree Risk qualification certified. This course is geared for arborists and foresters and hosted by the Indiana Arborist Association.

Location: Holliday Park Nature Center, 6363 Spring Mill Road, Indianapolis.

Information: (765) 494-3625

Farm Indiana highlights classes from the Purdue Extension calendar every month, but there are many more to be found online. Log on to extension.purdue.edu for more information.

SEPT. 16

SEPT. 23-DEC. 2

What “Newbees” Need to Know

Grow Organic Educator Series

Contemplating your own hive but totally new to the beekeeping life?

Master beekeeper Alex Zomcher lectures during this month’s Purdue Extension Bee Lab webinar, which is free, and this month is geared toward new beekeepers. Time: 9 a.m. Location: Online webinar.

Information: ellsworth.2@osu.edu

Get gardening with GOES. During this in-depth 10-week class series you will learn a wide variety of organic gardening skills from area experts and share your horticultural knowledge with the community in this outreach program, which covers topics from soil science to seed saving and much in between. Complete the course and volunteer hours in a number of community projects to be certified as a Grow Organic Educator or just take the course for your own enrichment.

Textbook and comprehensive reference notebook are included in the fee. There are a number of optional Saturday workshops and field trips scheduled.

Class does not meet on Nov. 25. Cosponsored by Bloomingfoods, The Center for Sustainable Living and Hilltop Gardens at Indiana University.

Cost: $125 in-city / $145 non-city.

Location: Hilltop Gardens at Indiana University, 2367 E. 10th St., Bloomington.

Information: bloomington.in.gov/parks

SEPT. 17-18

Purdue Rainscaping Education Program September Workshop This is a great opportunity for an intensive and informative training for anyone interested in creating a rain garden. The workshop is targeted for master gardeners, landscape professionals and agency staff, who will learn how to promote awareness and education in their communities for rainscaping installation and maintenance. The program takes place in five three-hour modules geared for groups. Time: 8 a.m. Location: Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, 4691 Central Ave., Columbus. Information: ag.purdue. edu/extension/rainscaping

SEPT. 22-24

Winter Harvest and Season Extension Ensure a supply of greens and other vegetables throughout the Indiana winter by learning to use growing season extending methods. This workshop will examine different approaches to gardening throughout the year, including the use of coverings to create microclimates, hoophouse and greenhouse design, and modifications for success in any size overwintering garden. Cosponsored by Bloomingfoods, the Center for Sustainable Living and Hilltop Gardens at Indiana University.

Time: 6:30 to 8 p.m. Cost: $16 incity / $18 non-city. Location: Hilltop Gardens at Indiana University, 2367 E. 10th St., Bloomington. Information: bloomington.in.gov/parks

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SEPT. 25

Small Scale Commercial Winemaking During this one-day workshop, beginners looking to get started in the commercial wine and grape growing industry can check out equipment demonstrations, learn some of the basics of wine analysis and tour the Purdue University vineyard. Organizers ask attendees to bring a bottle of wine to share with the group during the provided lunch. Time: 9 a.m. Location: Purdue Meigs Farm, 9101 S. Road 100E, Lafayette. Information: (765) 494-1749

SEPT. 27

National Public Lands Day This is one part education, one part volunteer opportunity, as sites all over the country conduct the largest volunteer event in public lands all year long. Pick a site — say, perhaps Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve — where you’ll spend the day collecting and dispersing seeds, as well as tackling the removal of invasive species. Volunteers there will have the opportunity to participate in a walk through the preserve to learn about its plant diversity. Times and locations vary. Information: publiclandsday.org FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

47

FROM THE FIELD

Fall Planting Favorites While spring has a wonderful excitement about it as plants emerge from the soil and new growth bursts with color, fall planting time seems more peaceful to me. This could be because of the selfimposed pressure I place on myself every spring to do more than one person can do, or maybe it’s because I know the fruits of my fall labors will be realized just around the corner during the coming spring. Here, a list of my top 10 favorites to plant each fall.

BY CHERYL CARTER JONES

1 GARLIC, ONIONS, POTATOES

Most gardeners know that your garlic crop will be larger if you plant it in the fall. I like to plant some onions and potatoes in the fall and some in the spring. Make sure you plant in an area that has good drainage. Drainage is not normally an issue on my farm, but with the overabundance of rain we got this summer, my potatoes were in a pretty wet spot.

Luckily, I planted them late, and I do not think I will have any issues from the water (I peek regularly!). I do know of several people who had potatoes rotting in the ground from all the water, so they had to harvest early.

And do not forget to mark where you did your planting. Mulch will help identify the area, but label the plantings as well.

2 NUT TREES

Nut trees can be planted in the spring or fall.

Be sure to stake them and use a tree guard to keep hungry little rabbits and other pests from nibbling on them during the winter.

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

3 FRUIT TREES

Fruit trees, like nut trees, can be planted either in the spring or fall. Check with your supplier, however, about each specific variety. Whenever possible, I like a plant to get off to a flying start in the space where it will be permanently. Particularly, as it warms, transplantation can be hard on plants.

4 BERRIES Berry bushes can be planted in the fall and then you can begin fertilizing them in the spring to ensure a good and healthy start.

Placing cardboard around them and mulch on top will help keep nasty weeds from growing in the spring and helps to retain moisture in the soil. Cardboard and mulch help nearly every plant.

5 GRASS

Fall is a good time to plant grass both in your yard and also in pastures. This fall, I will be seeding my yard a second time as well as introducing some new grass varieties to my paddocks. Since I want to eventually have grass-fed animals, I want to make sure I have varieties that are drought-tolerant as well as those varieties that love the rain. Equally important is making sure that there is a good nutritional balance available for animals, which to me, also includes dandelions and some other wonderful weeds.

6 DIVISIONS/VOLUNTEERS I have a number of great friends who are willing to share divisions of their plants or volunteer trees that have sprung up on their property over the summer. Not only is it fun to swap plants, but it is also a great way to save money and get a tried-and-true variety.

Flower bulbs need to be divided periodically in order to flourish, and it is always great to see a palette of color across the landscape from daffodils and tulips each spring.

7 CLEARANCE PLANTS

9 PERENNIAL FLOWERS

8 FLOWER BULBS

10COVER CROPS

Plants are expensive, and if you are growing for profit (or even just for your family), it only makes sense to get the best deal possible. At the end of the growing season, you can often find great buys on perennial flowers, shrubs and other plants at local nurseries and through mail order catalogs.

Sometimes they may be showing some signs of the end of the season, but as long as the plants have been well cared for and have been watered well, they will thrive in the spring. If possible, check the root system to make sure all is well. The savings can often be 50 percent or greater. A year ago, I purchased some berry plants that normally sell for $99.99 each for $9.99 at the year-end closeout. I could never get a return on my investment at $99.99, but at $9.99 each, I can make a profit on the berries they produce.

I am addicted to flowers. I have always had tons of flowers at my current home, and it has been important to me to start establishing flowers at my new farm. Bulbs are great; they multiple rapidly and require little care.

Most of them come up early in the spring, which I think is part of why they are favorites for me. The earliest ones always catch your attention. Years ago, I planted around 10,000 daffodils at my current residence, so it is time to divide them. Many will make the venture to my new farm.

Like bulbs, most perennial flowers do not require a ton of work with the exception of roses. For someone who is busy, the fact that these flowers come back on their own each year is a saving grace. I could not have all the flowers I do if I had to replant everything on an annual basis. Perennials cost more upfront, unless you get divisions from a friend, but they save time and money down the line.

If you plant a perennial garden, be sure to give each plant the room it needs to grow and expand over time. I have gotten to the point where I literally draw an area out on the ground when planting to plan for sufficient growing space. Like many people, my natural tendency would be to fit as many in as I possibly could, but then you have overcrowding issues.

Some would question my choice for my favorite thing to plant in the fall, but each time I plant a cover crop, I know I am making the soil better for the next year. It is my way of thanking the soil for a good year and giving back in hopes of an even better year to come. Cover crops and mulch are also my vengeance on the weeds. Glick Seed in Hartsville is a great source for winter wheat, and if you are looking for a wide variety of cover crops, or do not know what to plant, I highly recommend contacting Jerald Rhodes from White River Ag.

I enjoy the fall, completing one or two last projects for the year, and the satisfaction that comes from knowing in the spring to come I will have once more changed the landscape for the better. Enjoy the last days of summer and start planning your fall. Test and amend your soil, plant cover crops and take some time to enjoy life.

Cheryl Carter Jones is an Indiana farmer and the president of the Local Growers’ Guild, a cooperative of farmers, retailers and community members dedicated to strengthening the local food economy in central and southern Indiana through education, direct support and market connections. For more information on the guild, visit localgrowers.org.

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

49

FROM THE FIELD

If You Plant It, They Will Come

Below left, Monarch eggs. Below right, chrysalis found in the school doorway next to the garden.

BY EVAN DIVINE Franklin County NRCS district conservationist

The first Monarch to emerge.

MOST FOLKS AREN’T aware that pollinating insects and mammals are responsible for bringing us one of every three bites of food that we eat. However Christine Young, a fifth-grade teacher at Brookville Middle School, is trying to change this with her young students. This spring her class, with help from the Franklin County Soil & Water Conservation District and Natural Resources Conservation Service, planted a garden at the school to help promote pollinator habitat and to become an educational tool for the students.

Spence Restoration Nursery in Muncie donated 100 plants to the cause, which included common milkweed, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan and other flowering plants. These native wildflowers will provide nectar for a variety of species of pollinators, such as birds, insects, native bees and honeybees.

On May 20, the garden was planted by the fifth-graders, and it had an immediate impact. Four Monarch butterfly eggs were

the focus of the project for Young, found on the milkweed plants at the beginbut after bouncing ideas off Chris ning of July, and by the middle of July they Fox of the local SWCD, pollinawere all hatched caterpillars feeding on the tor habitat and Monarchs became milkweed. A week later the caterpillars had the “why” for the project. Over the formed their chrysalis, which is the final past 20 years the Monarch populaprocess to become an adult and complete tion has declined 90 percent due their metamorphosis. On July 28, the to factors that include deforestation, land first Monarch butterfly emerged from the use changes and pesticide use, all of which chrysalis, and two days later the other three reduce habitat and the abundance of their butterflies had emerged. host plant, milkweed.

“I never dreamed we would get Monarchs What makes the Monarchs so fascinatthe first year,” says Young on the success of ing, aside from their the garden. “My goal vibrant colors, is their for the project was incredible migration to get the students path from Mexico outside and working, into North America. hands-on creating, They are the only butplanting, thinking terfly known to make about what habitat a two-way migration really is, why it is as birds do. Throughneeded and considout the migration ering how we take Brookville Middle multiple generations that away from the School fifthof Monarchs are natural world when graders planting a pollinator garden. born. Adults during we build and clear the summer generaareas. I wanted this to tions live from two to be a real world, threefive weeks, while the dimensional learning migrating adults in the fall live up to nine experience the students could take with months. Some fly as far as 3,000 miles to them and apply in their own environment.” reach their winter home.

Monarch butterflies were not originally

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Even though the students at BMS were not in school this summer to see the fruits of their labor, they will be able to watch more butterflies emerge this fall, as there are currently two more caterpillars roaming the garden. This year Young will be teaching the fourth-graders at Brookville Elementary School, but she plans to maintain the garden at BMS. “I’d like the garden to become a permanent part of fifth-grade science,” she says. “It’s perfect for the life cycle section of the fifth-grade curriculum, along with math (units of measure), social studies/geography (the migration path), English and language arts (the vocabulary involved, creative writings, explanations, step-by-step instructions). The list is endless.”

While there is still a lot of work to be done to further restore the habitat of our helpful pollinators, Young and her students successfully got the ball rolling at BMS. Along with promoting pollinator habitat conservation, Young is closing the gap between agriculture and consumers by educating students on how their food is produced.

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BY KATIE GLICK

When I was younger, I had a school classroom set up in my parents’ basement where, daily, I pretended to be a teacher.

Before getting on the bus each morning, I would visit my class and tell them that they would have a substitute for the day. I never grew up to become a teacher, but I find myself teaching people about agriculture day in and day out.

At a reception recently, I spoke briefly with a woman who had many questions about agriculture. “I feel like we as consumers are so targeted and given so much information,” she said. “I don’t know what to think anymore.” I handed

have a backyard to see something grow, her my card and told her to email me. “I let alone hear cows each morning. really have so much that could help you For too long, we in agriculture have understand where your food comes from taken our wonderful way of life and our and why we do what we do on our famjobs to provide food to the world for ily farms,” I said. “I want safe, healthy and granted. We forget that many kids think affordable food just like you, and I live on that chocolate milk comes from brown a farm, so let’s talk.” I received an email cows and that brown eggs are better for from her first thing the next morning. you. They think the food at the grocery or I encountered another situation reWal-Mart comes from “the back” instead cently during which I had to defend the of our families’ fields, barns and pastures 4-H program. “How can those kids show of the countryside. those animals and become There is no close to them, then sell them Katie Glick grew up substitute for our and go eat a hamburger or on her family farm lives as farmers bacon?” I was asked. “I think in Martinsville and and advocates for it’s cruel.” After taking a deep now lives with her agriculture. And breath, I explained the 4-H husband on their there is no bigger program, the hard work, our family farm near Columbus. She is a classroom than the understanding of the circle graduate of Purdue one we live in, work of life and providing for othUniversity and has worked in Indiana politics. in and dedicate our ers. I didn’t get through to She now works in the agriculture industry. She lives to — our farms this person, but it made me shares her personal, work, travel and farm life that touch every realize, yet again, that there stories on her blog, Fancy in the Country. person. are many people in this world So for those of who don’t understand our you who are farmers, I urge you to teach. way of life and the lifelong lessons that Educate someone about what you do 4-H teaches our children. day in and day out and find some way Most students will go back to school to apply it to their lives as everyday and not have one lesson about agriculconsumers who don’t live on farms. For ture, even though much of what they those of you who don’t farm, I ask that learn is related to ag, such as science, you learn. Be open to learning about chemistry, math and even history. I have what farmers do and how they care for visited classrooms and taught an agritheir animals and their farm. If you have culture lesson to inner city students who questions, let me know. I’m not leaving had no idea about how to grow a plant or my classroom between the corn and the what cows really looked like. Cows are in cattle anytime soon. my backyard, but these kids don’t even

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51

FROM THE FIELD

THE VIEW AT NIGHTFALL

More Benefits of Rotational Grazing

BY LIZ BROWNLEE

E

EACH DAY THAT our chicks spend in the barn, they produce more manure. By the time they’re big enough to go out onto pasture, we’ve created a sweaty, dirty job for ourselves. If we raised the chickens inside for their entire lives … well, let’s just say that’s a lot of manure.

Last month, we told you about rotational grazing, where we move animals from one part of the pasture to the next every 12 to 48 hours, and why it’s good for our animals and the land. This month, we want to tell you about why rotational grazing is good for us, as farmers, and for our customers.

GOOD FOR THE FARMERS Raising our animals on pasture means less time mucking dirty stalls, less time spreading fertilizer (they spread it for us) and less time putting up hay (they harvest the grass themselves for much of the year).

I’ll be the first to admit it: Rotational grazing does mean other hard work. We spend a lot of time hauling heavy things around our pasture by hand. We move feeders, water tubs, shelters, fences and feed daily. On a hot summer day, rotational grazing can be a recipe for two tired farmers.

But for us, the work is also pleasant and fulfilling. We’re outside in the fresh air. We catch every sunrise and sunset. We save money on gym memberships. We spend time together. We’re near our animals, observing them and learning from them.

We can see that our animals are happy and healthy, which is satisfying.

GOOD FOR OUR CUSTOMERS A woman stopped by market recently and said, “We bought a Thanksgiving turkey from you last year. It was so good. We’re still talking about it.” One of our CSA members told us she had bought some of our bacon and was delighted. “It tasted like I remem-

After years of gaining experience on other farms, Nate Brownlee and his wife, Liz, moved back to Indiana to start their own family farm, which they named Nightfall Farm. Here, they will share stories of the many trials, tribulations, successes and failures in running a family business. For more on Nightfall Farm, visit nightfallfarm.com.

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FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

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ber my dad’s bacon tasting, when he made us Saturday morning breakfasts,” she said.

These are major compliments.

We are aiming to raise good food, and rotational grazing is a big part of why our food tastes good. Simply put, animals that eat a diverse diet taste excellent.

It’s the fat-soluble compounds in meat that create much of the flavor. If an animal eats a few types of food its whole life, the flavor can be bland. But when an animal eats many different types of foods, their meat tastes more complex and rich.

Our pigs are a good example. We use a GMO-free feed with corn, soybeans, oats and minerals. Since we rotate the pigs to fresh pasture every two days, they also forage for a diversity of roots, leaves and seed heads, plus worms, grasshoppers and other insects. Rotational grazing means that the pigs have a low-stress life and a continuous supply of fresh, diverse food, and that translates into delicious pork for our customers.

Rotational grazing is the keystone of our farm. Moving our animals in a dance around the field keeps us happy and our animals happy, keeps us healthy and our animals healthy, and as best as we can tell, our customers are happy, too.

5073 N. State Rd 9, Hope, IN 812-546-2076 duckcreekgardens.com

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Farm IndIana // may 2014

Kristy Kikly plays with her mix of Oberhasli and Nigerian Dwarf goats.

A FAREWELL … FOR NOW

A

BY JESSICA HOOPENGARDNER

AROUND A YEAR AGO, my dad told me about this newspaper, Farm Indiana. Our farm was featured in the May 2014 edition, but even cooler than that, he told me that I could have an opportunity to write for the publication. I could barely believe it. I’ve always loved writing, but I’ve never done it professionally.

He introduced me to Sherri Dugger, the editor, and I told her I would love to write for her. I never expected that I would enjoy myself so much.

The hardest part about writing for Farm Indiana was coming up with unique articles each month.

Sherri wanted me to write about my life on the farm, which sounds like it should be easy, but it’s not.

raising goats and making cheese are all in a day’s work at redbud Farm story By dylan ratzsch photos By josh marshall Farm IndIana // may 2014

I’m, of course, used to my life.

How was I supposed to know what interested people? It’s just my life.

Each month, I would look to see if there was a theme I could use for the month. Kidding happens in the spring. Milking starts in the summer. But often I had already used that theme. I really enjoyed being introspective and looking at my life from a third person view.

I also really enjoyed the writing itself. I would actually sit down for an hour or two and brainstorm the best ideas for the articles. I either would have a million ideas or no ideas. Sometimes it would take me a week to write an article or an entire month to completely

Jessica Hoopengardner, pictured at her family farm, graduated from Eastern Hancock High School in Hancock County. Very involved in 4-H and FFA, Hoopengardner is the vice president of her 4-H club and the president of her FFA chapter. She plans on going to college outside Indiana and majoring in English and biology.

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BELOW: Kikly hand milks a goat. RIGHT: Mike Hoopengardner with his wife, Kristy Kikly, and their daughter, Jessica.

BOTTOM: Cheeses available at Caprini Creamery.

milked, checked, moved and cared for every day.”

The adult goats at Redbud are all female, some with new kids, some still expecting, and even some that are considered retired.

“We have a retirement plan for good milkers,” Kristy says. “It just seems like we owed them some easy years after they worked for us.”

Each animal has a name and is greeted or admonished as the situation demands. “You’ve got to watch yourself out here,” Kristy says, extracting her ponytail from the mouth of a goat poking its head over a pen rail. “They don’t really eat everything, but they use their mouths the way we use our hands, as a tactile sense.”

“You’ve always got to watch them in the pasture,” Mike adds, “anything that blows into their enclosure can be fair game. Scrap paper, plastic bags,

you’ll find it all half eaten if you’re not attentive.”

When asked why they keep llamas, Jessica, now 17, answers like a professional tour guide.

“We actually use the llamas like guard dogs for the goats,” she explains, scratching Tommy Bahama the Llama under his chin. “They have a warning screech, and the goats have learned to run to wherever that sound isn’t. Sometimes they (the llamas) are wrong; we have one that screeched at a cow last week, but with the coyotes and other predators out here, they help keep the goats safe.”

“We spend about a hundred dollars a month on feed for 20 llamas,” Mike interjects. “The loss of one good milking goat could set us back several thousand dollars over the long run. So, do the math.”

“I also show them through 4-H,” adds Jessica, “and we shear them for fiber.”

The solitary alpaca is on the farm “just because I fell in love,” Jessica explains. “They don’t really do much other than grow fiber.”

Over the years, Jessica has learned many

think out and write an article.

This month was especially hard as it’s my last article for Farm Indiana before I go to college.

I spent all of July thinking about what I should write. It was one of the months where I had a million ideas, but none of them seemed Save on MODEL 3016 255 per mOnth right. Finally I realized that there Dutch acres equipment was one aspect of my life I had not shared — writing. Writing has always been a passion of mine, and I now realize that I could actually have a career in writing.

I want to thank Sherri Dugger for giving me this chance to test $

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leven years ago, Mike Hoopengardner, his wife, Kristy Kikly, and their daughter, Jessica, welcomed their first farm animals — two llamas and two goats — onto their five-acre patch of land in Fortville. Today, the family farm — now located in Spiceland — serves as home to approximately 150 goats, 20 llamas, a lone alpaca and an increasingly well-known family business, Caprini Creamery.

The trio walks together toward the creamery, which sits at the heart of their nearly 60-acre operation, which they’ve named Redbud Farm. “We milked about 45 goats regularly last year,” Mike says, “and sold all of the cheese we could make.

Next year that number may be closer to 60.”

For the consumers of Caprini Creamery’s goat cheeses, this is good news, indeed. Pogue’s Run Grocer in Indianapolis is one of the retail locations that sells Caprini Creamery products, and the store has trouble keeping it on the shelves, says Nate Roberts, general manager.

“Any time we can stock it, it sells well. The price is right, and it’s a very sellable product for us.”

With its spotless floors, gleaming stainless steel and high-tech machinery, the creamery For more looks like a laboratory. “Weinformation pasteurize all onof our cheese, as it’s the only Redbud way we feel sure we’re Farm/ delivering a safe product,” Caprini Kristy explains.

Creamery, Kristy, the master cheesemaker at Caprini, visit www.caprini is also a research scientist creamery.com with Eli Lilly and orCo. www.redbud Mike, a stained-glass artist by trade, specializes llamas.com. in restoring windows in older buildings. His on-site workshop allows him to spend a greater amount of time on the farm, and while they share the daily farm chores, each has distinct roles when it comes lessons, thanks to her family’s business.

Oneto making the cheese. of “the hardest things to learn for me as I got older and more involved was that you had to let some of the animals go,” she says. “You can’t keep them all.”

“That’s one of the first and biggest steps that a lot of hobby farmers considering making the jump have a hard time with,” Mike adds, “going from half a dozen animals with which you have a close bond to 50 that you’re counting on as an asset that sometimes needs to be sold or processed is tough for some people. I’m proud of her for learning that so early on.”

As the trio walks back to the main house, Mike discusses the future of the small farm.

“That Jessica has the opportunity to think about taking over this farm if she chooses is one of the things that makes me so optimistic about farming in Indiana in the future,” he says. “I love that it isn’t just all huge soybean and corn operations going forward, that kids can look at getting 50 to 100 acres and operating a small niche farm.

There’s room for everyone here.” *FI

“Kristy is the scientist,” Mike says with a grin. “I don’t go in the cheese-making room unless there’s heavy lifting to be done. I just do the milking.”

At Caprini, Mike and Kristy are in their element. “People look at me cross-eyed when I say health inspections are fun,” Mike says, “but we have a great relationship with the Board of Health. Kristy designed the building and the laboratory, and they assisted us greatly in the process, so their visits are usually more idea sessions than lists of corrections.

“If you have good procedures and clean facilities, it leads to better health for your animals and a safer product,” he adds. “We’re a perfect example of how the Board of Health can be more education than punishment, which I think is what was intended.”

Mike makes the process sound simple, but the strict health and safety standards practiced here require constant attention to detail and dedication to both the animals and product.

The steps for pasteurization are exacting, cleanliness and correct storage allow for no margin of error, antibiotic testing is required and records of everything must be kept and submitted to regulating agencies.

Kristy makes chevre, a common soft goat cheese, as well as feta and tomme cheeses to sell through the creamery business. “I experiment with some other types as well, and I’ll be attending a master cheesemaker’s seminar in Vermont this year to learn more about working with some different cultures,” she says.

Commitment Issues

The pair discusses the responsibilities of running a working farm. “People ask me where I’m going when I go on vacation,” Kristy says, “I tell them: ‘The barn.’”

From the Lesson Book We asked Mike, Kristy and Jessica the real-time lessons they’ve learned by running redbud Farm. here are their top five: 1) Always close the gate.

2) your education and planning will get you your dream.

3) you can’t keep every animal.

4) No day is ever the same.

5) It (running a farm) is a lot of work.

“It’s a real commitment, not just a neat thing to do when you’re not busy,” Mike adds.

“It’s buying into a lifestyle. If we’re not at work, we’re both here. If we’re not both here, one is here and one is at one of the markets selling our product. We all feel it adds so much value to the product if the consumer is actually buying the cheese from the folks that milk the goats and make the cheese. That’s the difference between a family farm and the big guys.”

“It’s sometimes difficult to explain to people who don’t do this what it’s like,” Kristy says. “You can’t really go places. You can’t just leave town for the weekend. These (the animals) still need to be fed,

The Hoopengardner family farm, Redbud Farm, was featured in the May 2014 issue of Farm Indiana.

This may include farm electronic equipment coverage.

Call today for details.

out one of my passions for Farm Indiana. I have truly enjoyed myself, and I hope to get a chance to write for Farm Indiana again.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you so much for all you’ve contributed to Farm Indiana this past year, Jessica. We’re sad to see you go, but I know you’ll do wonderful things at college in coming years. And the offer still stands—when you’re back on the farm next summer, we’d love to have you writing for us again!

Best wishes, Sherri Dugger

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53

LOCAL FOOD

LIVING IN

PARADISE

T

BY TWINKLE VANWINKLE

Chris Benedyk

Love Handle HOURS: 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday 2829 E. 10th St., Indianapolis, (317) 430-5004, facebook.com/ LoveHandleIndy

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THE MENU AT THE recently opened Indianapolis eatery Love Handle preaches the art of the sandwich. This small plate and sandwich café is much more than just a meal of bread, cheese and meat, however. Owners Chris and Ally Benedyk’s appreciation of local culture and food sets the restaurant apart from the day-today café and is a welcome addition to Indy’s growing East 10th Street corridor.

Chris Benedyk says the idea for Love Handle started on the couple’s honeymoon. After a little rum and sitting through many beach sunsets, the two formed the idea of what paradise ultimately meant for them. “We needed to be doing something totally for ourselves and always in the pursuit of fun and freedom,” says Benedyk.

That’s exactly what they did. “We came home and quit our jobs and moved to Milwaukee to start up Love Handle,” he explains.

In early 2013 their adventure in the restaurant business in Milwaukee began.

Finding the right place wasn’t easy and, at times, seemed hopeless. It was looking a little like their idea would never happen.

Fortunately, says Benedyk, everything started to fall into place.

“We found out that Ally was pregnant with (daughter) Sylvia,” says Benedyk, “and the next day I was just driving around the city thinking to myself, ‘I have to find a place today.’

“I saw a ‘for lease’ sign in this rundown, totally crazy art deco beast of a building and called the number. We got a little deal worked out, and then we really started working,” he recalls.

Extending themselves as much as possible and building a strong following with industry folks, artists and creative people in the area, their dream eventually became real. Love Handle got a foothold in the Milwaukee food scene.

But soon the couple decided they wanted to return to Indiana.

“The move back was sort of based around us wanting to raise our daughter Sylvia in Indiana,” Benedyk says. “We are Indiana people, and we felt like we would ultimately be a stronger family if we made the move back to Indianapolis.”

The Benedyks’ love of Indiana doesn’t just stop at the new restaurant’s doorstep, though. Their food philosophy is strongly held together by supporting locally sourced foods. The Love Handle menu is heavily sprinkled with products from producers from around the state.

Big City Farms, located in Indy, supplies produce. Meats come from Fischer Farms in Jasper and Eli Creek Farms in Connersville, as well as Gunthorp Farms in LaGrange and Smoking Goose Meatery in Indianapolis. “We are so lucky to have that stuff at Love Handle,” says Benedyk. “There is a lot of great stuff coming out of Indiana right now.”

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

Smoking Goose meats on the menu don’t come as a surprise, considering Benedyk’s background. He worked at Goose the Market, the Smoking Goose deli, for about four years, eventually becoming the manager under the tutelage of Chris Eley. “He (Chris Eley) is super dialed in and confident in everything he does with food,” Benedyk says. “I hope just the tiniest of that has rubbed off on me.”

Ally isn’t just a wife in the wings. She’s a powerhouse baker and dessert chef, classically trained in the culinary arts program at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky. She served as a pastry chef at Indianapolis-based Recess.

The menu at Love Handle is designed to be simple, says Benedyk.

Lunch consists of small plates, sandwiches and Ally’s desserts, which change frequently and with the seasons. In-house cured meats and sandwich combinations include homemade tomato jams, pungent cheeses, eclectic sauces and spreads. The attention to detail and flavor combinations the couple has curated for Love Handle are impressive and unique. And each item leads back to their dedication to support local growers.

“We like the products you can get here in the city and surrounding counties because they are well-crafted and carefully tended,” says Benedyk. “The people growing and producing are all good people, too. We see them at bars and restaurants and shows.

This is a community. That’s the whole goal.”

The idea of community also came into play with their choice of location. “The whole idea of food deserts was on our radar as well,” he says. “I would rather put our spot in an area of town where there aren’t a lot of options.”

Love Handle seats about 20 guests, not including the bar.

The dining area is small, cozy and bright. Benedyk says the staff is minimal, including him, Ally and one or two others, with customers placing their orders at the sandwich counter. Food is delivered to customers’ tables by the owners, which adds to the homey feel. These little touches all seem to circle back to the couple’s idea of paradise.

“I love that Love Handle is a sustainable expression,” he says.

“Ally, Sylvia and I can live on this. There is a comfort in knowing that this is our castle, and it can be as weird or as fun as we want it to be.”

Twinkle VanWinkle is an Indianapolis-based food writer and experienced chef with Southern roots. She has more than 23 years of professional cooking under her apron strings and loves to share her unique perspective on food, foodways and culture with others. Needless to say, her family is very well-fed.

RECIPES

Baked Apple and Sage Scones

Romancing the Scone

BY TWINKLE VANWINKLE

Even though I love a summertime kitchen when homegrown tomatoes and herbs are strewn like jewels across my countertop and canning equipment makes a new home on the dining room table, it’s the fall when baking can commence. To me, cool weather means my kitchen will wear its annual dusting of flour and sugar, accented with bowls of apples from local Indiana orchards.

When I talk to many home cooks, I often hear that some of them are intimidated by baking or they think it’s too difficult and time-consuming. In all honesty, it definitely can be. But you don’t have to be a classically trained French pastry chef to make amazing breads, pies or cookies.

All you need are creativity and the ability to follow directions.

I love baking biscuits, but to take advantage of the flavors of the fall season, I suggest mixing things up by making crusty, creamy scones. Scones are delicate, crumbly and rich and meant to be dipped into a cup of hot coffee or tea and smeared with jams or fruit butters. The dough freezes well, and the finished product can be frozen and rewarmed for another time.

Make sure you use the right flour. I recommend pastry flour, which is a low-protein flour and will aid in making your scones softer and flakier. Higher protein flour (like bread flour) is best saved for crusty loaves of sourdough and pasta.

Just like baking pie crust or buttermilk biscuits, make sure to keep ingredients chilled.

I recommend freezing butter beforehand and chopping it up while it is still frozen. The butter will melt a little bit during the mixing process anyway. Keep liquids refrigerated until ready to use. And chilling the mixing bowl will produce even better results.

The reason why keeping things cold is important for better scones (and biscuits in general) is that it helps to ensure that the butter can be distributed evenly through your dough in tiny chunks. Once in the oven, the butter melts and leaves delicious little butter pockets throughout the dough. This is how flaky layers are created.

Probably the most important tip is to refrain from overmixing. Kneading and mixing convert the proteins in the flour to gluten, even with low protein flour like pastry flour. The more kneading, the tougher and chewier your scones will become. Try to stop kneading as soon as the ingredients come together. It may look as if it’s not ready because it isn’t smooth, but a rough-looking dough is really what you want.

Sprinkle flour on a clean, dry surface — cutting board or countertop — and dump your dough out. Pat a little flour around the sides and gently use the heel of your hand to spread the dough out until it is about 1-inch thick. I prefer to use the ring of a canning jar to cut my scones. It makes it easy to press out onto a baking sheet.

Brush the tops of your scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar. This is what makes the tops golden brown and crusty. The extra little bit of cream also helps keep moisture in your scone during baking.

I think my favorite part of baking scones is that they are so versatile. From sweet to savory, scones are multifaceted and can become the vehicle for so many delicious flavor combinations. Fruits and nuts and even garlic and chives can find a home inside a scone’s layers. Drizzled with some red-eye gravy, the baked apple and sage scone here is bound to become a regular this fall.

PHOTOS BY TWINKLE VANWINKLE

2½ cups pastry flour ½ cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon cream of tartar ½ teaspoon sea salt ½ teaspoon crushed cardamom ½ teaspoon crushed black pepper ¾ cup frozen unsalted butter, cut into small pieces ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream ½ cup finely diced fresh sage ½ cup diced baked apples 2 tablespoons heavy cream for brushing on top of scones before baking 2 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling scones before baking DIRECTIONS » Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. » Blend dry ingredients, including spices, in your mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed. Add butter in small batches until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Red-Eye Gravy 5 slices pork belly or 5 slices bacon or 4 ounces diced country ham 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour ½ cup coffee ¼ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon sugar ¼ teaspoon crushed black pepper Crystal hot sauce DIRECTIONS

» Add the ¾ cup cream, mixing on low until just moist. If the dough seems dry, add the extra tablespoons of heavy cream a little at a time until moist.

» Heat a cast iron skillet on mediumhigh. Fry pork belly or bacon or country ham (any of these will do the trick) until crispy. Remove from pan.

» Mix in the apples and sage on the slowest speed until dough just comes together.

» Reduce grease to medium-low and whisk in flour a little at a time to avoid lumpiness.

» Pour out dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead, fewer than 10 turns. Gently pat down your dough with the heels of your palms to about 1-inch thick and cut into shapes of your choice.

» Once the gravy is smooth, slowly begin to pour in coffee. Stir continuously as the brown color darkens. Lower the temperature if needed to keep from burning. Add salt, sugar and pepper and a few (or a lot of) shakes of Crystal hot sauce. You can use a hot sauce of your choice if Crystal is unavailable. Serve immediately.

» Try to keep your fingertips off the dough because the heat from your fingers will melt the butter. » Place your scones onto your pan and brush the tops with the remaining heavy cream, then lightly sprinkle on sugar.

» Split baked apple and sage scones onto a plate and drizzle with red-eye gravy. Garnish with fresh sage leaves and diced chives.

» Bake scones until light brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. » Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to one week or freeze for six months. » To bake apples: Dice and toss in 3 tablespoons of melted butter and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Spread out on a lined and greased baking pan and bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool and set aside to use in recipe.

FARM INDIANA // SEPTEMBER 2015

55

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