Farm Indiana | June 2015

JUNE 2015

Rural Living & Local Food

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Free Range Explore growing opportunities throughout the Hoosier state

ALSO INSIDE

The Colorfield The Chicken Whisperer Big City Farms

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Contents JUNE 2015

16

6 The Colorfield 10 The Chicken

39 Field Notes

16 Big City Farms 20 Snyder Farm 24 Glendale Seed Library 28 Batesville Food Hubs 30 LaGrange County 34 County Fairs 36 Farm to School

50 Local Food

Whisperer

Tips and advice, columns

by growers and continuing education classes

Brooke’s Candy Co.

ON THE COVER

A chicken at The Colorfield.

Photo by Josh Marshall

65 Years of Service, Strength & Integrity

6672 East 650 South | Edinburgh, IN 46124 | 812-526-5574 | 800-284-2676 | kokomograin.com FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 3

EDITOR’S NOTE

A Love Story

W

When my husband and I lived in Indianapolis, our dog, Adelle, loved going outside. Each day, several times a day, we would open the back door, and she would race out into the yard. Giving wild chase to whatever unsuspecting city squirrel she could quickly lock eyes upon, our girl would send dozens of squirrels scampering up into the trees for safety. She never caught up with them, but she didn’t seem to care. Adelle loved her daily routines. The squirrels, one can assume, did not.

And then one day back in 2013, we moved to the country. With a little more property, we believed Adelle’s fun with area critters would only multiply. Instead, the opposite came to be true. On our new land, there were nearly zero squirrels to be found.

4 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

During the first week or two at our new home, Adelle held out hope. She’d run outside, looking left, then right, scanning the property for some movement, some glimpse of life, some shred of a thrill. But instead she only found quiet. Waves of rustling corn. Birds chirping overhead. Bees buzzing. If she was lucky, a chipmunk might be just out of reach.

Eventually, potty breaks became run-ofthe-mill. Adelle would saunter outside, do her business, sniff around for something unsavory to eat or roll around in, and then she’d return to the back door to wait for reentry. Life was not the same.

And then, there were chickens.

We acquired our first baby chicks during the summer of 2014. We added more to our flock this year, and now approximately 30 birds, a combination of guinea fowl, hens and a few roosters, roam our pastures. When the chickens first arrived and Adelle caught sight of them locked away in their own private room, her fascination with poultry was realized. Daily, she’d stand, sit or lie next to the closed door in wait for a glimpse inside at these chirping attractions.

As the chicks grew, we occasionally allowed Adelle into the room with the brooder, and

she would spend hours there, panting under the warmth of the heat lamp, her gaze transfixed on this little baby-chicken world.

Now the hens spend their days freeranging, and the only place Adelle wants to be is outside with them. Indoors, she sits by the window watching for the chickens to come into view. When they inevitably do, she goes wild, barking and begging to be let out once again.

Occasionally we allow her into the yard with the birds, and her Australian shepherd instincts kick in. She locks eyes with a chicken and follows closely behind it, trying to get it, we presume, to go somewhere very important. Then, as quickly as she hones in on one chicken, she gets sidetracked by another apparently wayward bird and follows it around the yard. Adelle never shows aggression and instead her actions only point toward an obsession. She can follow these chickens for hours. She has forgone treats and dinner, and I think she has even forgotten to go potty a few times, just so she could stay with them a little while longer.

Thanks to the chickens, it appears, Adelle has new reason to rise and shine each morning. And, with at least one rooster beginning its birdsong around 5 a.m. each day, who can blame her?

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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FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 5

FIELDS OF

COLOR

For Lisa Alayza, rescuing camelids in need is a beautiful business

BY REBECCA TOWNSEND | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

6 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

Crafts made from Colorfield’s wool. Opposite page, Lisa Alayza

a

AN UNQUENCHABLE PASSION for alpacas, llamas and their camelid cousins has driven Lisa Alayza to travel great distances and to face major logistical challenges to prevent unethical squandering of the animals.

In the spring of 2011, for instance, upon hearing that one of the nation’s finest collections of animals was in forced liquidation, she traveled to Seattle to bid against meat packers to preserve what animals she could. The task required her to find reliable transportation for 120 llamas and alpacas

During an interview at to make the 2,200-mile trip her Shelby County farm, from Washington to Indiana.

8929 W. Road 1100N which she named The The challenge of housing the New Palestine Colorfield, Alayza relayed new arrivals was eased by her (317) 862-1118 accounts of animals being veterinarian, Dr. John Clarke, allowed to freeze to death who had just purchased an for insurance money, old dairy farm, complete with of liquidations to meat buyers, of animal barn and stalls, and allowed the animals sanctuaries in which money earmarked for temporary board until they could all be animal care went instead to feed the greed relocated to forever homes. of human handlers.

And there are even earlier stories. The “These were people who had the best 2008 financial crisis brought with it horror genetics with huge holdings,” Alayza says. stories for many investment-grade herds.

The Colorfield

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 7

Alayza at her farm. Below, Holly Bruce, 17, helps out at The Colorfield.

“We saw what was happening in the U.S. and Canada from the big-picture standpoint; that’s why we started the Lama Reserve.”

With a single “L,” she explained, the word lama covers all camelids, including camels, alpacas, llamas, vicuñas and guanacos. Using volunteer foster farms from New York to the Canadian border on the West Coast, Lama Reserve has been able to relocate large groups of animals, including 58 from Nebraska and 65 from Ohio, in addition to the Seattle animals.

The work of Lama Reserve is inspired

by Southeast Llama Rescue (SLR), a North Carolina-based nonprofit that intervenes on behalf of llamas in trouble. Alayza volunteered with SLR when representatives came 8 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

“We’re improving the density, the coverage and the fineness, and getting lower micron count.

Ironically, people used to say alpacas had better fiber than llamas (which originally were bred as work animals). Now we’re getting llamas that in some cases have better fiber than some of our alpacas.”

—LISA ALAYZA

to Indiana looking for assistance with a group of 28 animals rescued from an abusive situation in Montana.

With dogs and cats, rescues are a response to an overbreeding problem, but with llamas and alpacas, which originated in North America before migrating to South America, Alayza says, “it’s about preserving the genetics we so painstakingly reimported.”

ON THE FARM The herd at The Colorfield generally runs no larger than 50, which includes the temporary residents from the rescue, mostly animals with special needs. Alayza breeds about 20 long-locked suri alpacas and llamas per year, which she markets and

sells through local and regional shows, like the Indiana State Fair, the Hoosier Llama & Alpaca Association Fall Show and the North American Llama Show in Louisville.

She also breeds approximately 20 Angora goats each year.

The 20-acre hardwood grove that covers her New Palestine farm features a colorful understory of apricots, calico, mahogany red, brown, black and silver-coated animals.

Alayza has made her breeding decisions over the years to select for finer fleece and natural color. She says feedback from her artisan customers favors the farm’s colorful fiber offerings.

“The herd is seeing the improvement in the breeding choices in the fiber of the offspring; for me, that is the best measure of success,” Alayza says. “We’ve come so far.

We’re improving the density, the coverage and the fineness, and getting lower micron count. Ironically, people used to say alpacas had better fiber than llamas (which originally were bred as work animals). Now we’re getting llamas that in some cases have better fiber than some of our alpacas.”

The farm’s fiber business also benefits from the addition of the goats, which are producing mohair with an “almost iridescent” luster, she says.

In addition to farm management, Alayza also works as a grant reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a medical interpreter, helping local hospitals and their Spanish-speaking patients communicate.

She grew up riding horses in Indianapolis and attended IUPUI as an English major with a Spanish minor certified in secondary education. Her first job out of school was in California, where she also studied painting and photography at Cal State San Bernardino. Out West, she not only met her husband, Luis, but she also visited a farm where she fell in love with llamas. She vowed that upon her return to Indiana, she would have some of her own.

Ironically, Luis is a native of Peru, where llamas and alpacas are common. To him, Alayza says, “they (llamas) are like donkeys.” And while he does not share her passion for the animals (Luis is a mechanical engineer at KYB Corp. in Franklin), she says that he pitches in to help when needed.

KID-FRIENDLY CREATURES Though stories of spitting llamas are common — and the Southeast Llama Rescue

FIBER ARTS

Her love of the fiber offerings at The Colorfield led Shelby Oertel, a historical interpreter and craftswoman at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, to adopt the farm as a marketing project.

Knitting and crocheting since she was 8 (she added spinning once she started working at Conner Prairie), Oertel gushes over Alayza’s animals and swoons over their fiber contributions to her crafts.

“Each fleece is unique,” she says, turning to Alayza and confessing a special love for the fiber from one of the farm’s animals named Mitzi. Holding up a naturally colored bonnet she created, Oertel adds, “it’s nice not to have harsh dyes next to baby skin.”

Oertel is now helping Alayza develop her farm’s social media presence and has created a shop for the farm’s fiber on Etsy, a popular online marketplace for artisans.

Oertel creates fiber llama dolls to sell online to help support Lama Reserve’s rescue efforts.

“My side is the animal side,” Alayza says, looking at a table spread with examples of Oertel’s handiwork. “I don’t have the time or the talent to do all this.”

But Alayza does have talent.

She holds an art degree from Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. Though the past several years have diverted her attention from her brushes, the name The Colorfield, in part, is a nod to Alayza’s love of color, and the farm’s website, thecolorfield. com, is illustrated with her work. For more information on The Colorfield’s fiber products, visit etsy.com/ people/LamaReserve.

Two types of fiber collected from The Colorfield.

John Colter

specializes in helping animal owners respond to a condition in abused animals known as Berserk Male Syndrome in alpacas — Alayza has been impressed over the years by the camelids’ more sensitive natures. “We have had our livestock since Lauren (her youngest daughter) was born in ’92,” says Alayza, who also has three other children, Luis Jr., Chris and Ricky.

“I always tell people that she (Lauren) was reared by llamas.

“Camelids are so good with children,” she adds. They are, by nature, “very stoic, very quiet animals.” Pointing to a group of animals moving across the pasture, Alayza explains that they always move as a herd; they are unhappy without companions.

With proper care and training, they can be great cross-species diplomats.

Alayza and Lauren worked together to build the local 4-H llama club, training young children to handle the creatures, which are often several times their size.

“We’d travel every weekend to shows across the country; it definitely kept me busy,” says 22-year-old Lauren, now a political science student at IUPUI. In addition to teaching her about responsibility and leadership, working with the 4-H llama program also gave Lauren an affection for teaching. Educating children about how to handle the basics of husbandry and safety can be “daunting,” she explains, “but you can really teach people to connect and care, which is rewarding.”

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The Chicken Whisperer, Andy Schneider, at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds.

10 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

The Chicken Whisperer Andy Schneider shares his top tips for starting your own flock

By Katherine Coplen Photography by Josh Marshall

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 11

A

ANDY SCHNEIDER turned his backyard chicken hobby into a full-time gig through sheer love of hens and hard work. Now he’s not just a hobbyist — he’s the Chicken Whisperer, published author, popular podcast host and touring spokesman for healthy and happy chickens.

And the life of a Chicken Whisperer is a busy one. Schneider’s book, “The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide To Keeping Chickens,” was released a few years ago and is available in feed and hardware stores across the country. He has completed over 1,000 episodes of his podcast “Backyard Poultry with The Chicken Whisperer” in seven years of broadcasting (more than the collected episodes of “MASH,” “Seinfeld” and “Friends,” notes Schneider). And his newest role is as editor-in-chief of a quarterly magazine, Chicken Whisperer’s Magazine, which is about a year old.

“Our goal with that was to try to raise the bar,” he says of the publication via phone. “We weren’t happy with the magazines that were out there.” He says his magazine has true poultry professionals — doctors, veterinarians, Ph.D.s — creating a magazine he wants to be the go-to publication for people who want science-, fact- and study-based information (and no chickens wearing clothes).

“We’re about keeping them healthy and happy with right, good information,” he says.

And as for his own chickens? Well, right now he doesn’t actually have a flock in his own backyard. He sold his last flock while he was on his last speaking tour. (“The more people I can get started with backyard chickens, the better,” he says, of sending off his poultry.)

But that might change soon. When his family is home, Schneider says he’ll start a flock, and then give them out to someone interested in keeping them when he heads out on tour again. He calls it poultry outreach.

“I still get my hands dirty,” he says. “I still get into it, and I still am into it as a hobby, but the outcome is I get to make another family happy with chickens in a coop.”

He also occasionally raises meat birds and donates those as well to “single moms, shut-ins or people on fixed incomes.”

Right now, he’s at the start of another speaking tour with his family in tow, which included a recent stop in Indiana at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds to lecture on bio-security, a topic Schneider says is “near and dear” to him. (He’s the national spokesperson for the USDA-APHIS Bio-Security for Birds Program.)

12 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

THE CHICKEN WHISPERER’S

TIPS FOR A HEALTHY AND HAPPY FLOCK

DO YOUR RESEARCH. “Don’t just jump into it,” he says. “These are live animals, and they depend on you for proper care, feed.” Healthy chickens live eight to 12 years, Schneider says.

Remember this is a commitment, not unlike any other household pet.

UNDERSTAND BIO-SECURITY. “(Bio-security) is something to think about when you’re buying your run, your coop, where you’re going to store your food, things like that.” Understanding bio-security issues helps keep your chickens and your family healthy and disease-free. Schneider says that children under 5, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems shouldn’t handle poultry.

FOCUS ON KEEPING YOUR FLOCK SAFE FROM PREDATORS. Schneider reminds us: Everybody loves chicken, and predators have nothing but time on their hands to figure out how to get to your chickens. “It’s a huge issue, (but) you can absolutely have a run and coop that is (almost) predator-proof. … If it’s done right the first time, predators shouldn’t happen.”

SAVE YOUR PENNIES. So you can do things right the first time, like purchasing a sturdy coop, building a solid run and taking your chickens to the vet when they need it.

KEEP A CONSTANT SUPPLY OF NUTRITIONALLY BALANCED FEED AND FRESH WATER.

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LIMIT TREATS. “It’s amazing how a particular problem is traced back to too many treats. Chickens eat for their energy level, first. So if they eat treats … they’ll get their energy level that they need and won’t eat anything else, so they’re missing their vitamins and minerals.”

Schneider recommends healthy treats make up only 10 percent of your chickens’ intake for the day.

REMEMBER HEAT IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN COLD EVER WILL BE. Schneider is very antiheaters in coops because of one thing: fires. If you have a proper coop with good ventilation and no drafts, your chickens will be fine, he says. “Remember, chickens have been domesticated for about 7,000 years. They do just fine without heaters in their coops.” If you decide to include a heater, make sure you invest in a nice one — refer to Point 4 — that will reduce the risk of fire and heat damage. (Schneider’s favorite is the Sweeter Heater.)

FIND A LOCAL CHICKEN DOC. Reach out to your community and find someone who can properly take care of your chickens, whether that be a local vet, a local ag extension agent or someone at a local university. “You really need to have a plan for what you’re going to do if there’s illness involved,” he explains. Keep things on hand, too, like a chicken first aid kit.

Top, Ruth Beck, 8, sits with her black Australorp. Bottom, Schneider with Rob and Kelly Taylor and their children, Lydia and Malia.

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MAKE A DECISION ABOUT WHAT YOU’LL DO AFTER YOUR CHICKENS STOP LAYING. Egg-laying slows down after three or so years, but chickens live on for many years past that time. Think about what you’ll do with your hens after that time before you invest in them. Besides eggs, Schneider reminds us that chickens are great for insect control, composting and education.

MAKE SURE IT’S LEGAL TO KEEP CHICKENS. There are several tiers of laws that govern whether it’s legal to keep chickens. Check county, city and even your homeowners association.

Investigating ordinances before you get chickens will save you heartache and headache, Schneider says.

And if they’re not allowed, and you’re going to try to change that, be prepared for a long period of lobbying.

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URBAN DEVELOPMENT Big City Farms’ Matthew Jose transforms barren lots into growing gardens

By Ryan Trares Photography by Josh Marshall

O ON LONG MOUNDED rows of black soil, the first shoots of produce have poked their way into the warming air. Bok choy, scallions and Chinese broccoli are the early crops, taking root in the beginning weeks of Indiana’s spring and providing for the first harvest. Later, tomatoes, carrots, strawberries, raspberries and beets will take their place.

Matthew Jose, owner of Big City Farms, says he tries to grow as many types of crops as possible, taking advantage of every available day of the Hoosier growing season.

“Anything from salad greens to onions to cooking greens, beets, carrots, tomatoes,” he explains. “You name it, we probably grow it at some point during the year.”

16 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

Teeming vegetable gardens aren’t uncommon in central Indiana. But the fact that all of the food grows surrounded by urban homes and repurposed industrial buildings, in the shadow of Interstate 70, makes his operation slightly different.

Jose has brought Indiana’s agricultural tradition to a barren, one-acre lot in a downtown Indianapolis neighborhood. His urban farming venture has been providing fresh local vegetables to the downtown area for six years, helping turn neighborhood blights into community boons.

“Visually and ecologically, it’s a good thing to have,” Jose said. “This was just grass six years ago. It’s a better use and more interesting use of it than grass.”

Matthew Jose uses a straddle hoe at Big City Farms.

In the past decade, city farming has become more prevalent. More than 100 community gardens and 15 urban farms have been established inside Indianapolis. “There are places growing fruits and vegetables in Indianapolis, and there’s growing interest in local food production,” says Emily Toner, urban agriculture educator for Purdue Extension Marion County. “Whether that’s for profit or urban homesteading, I don’t know, but there is strong interest.”

One of the first of those was Big City Farms, which took root in 2009. Jose had been working for Purdue Extension Marion County as a specialist on community gardens. In this position, he developed a program turning vacant city lots into places to grow vegetables, working with high school students to grow produce for Indianapolis food pantries.

After a year, the program’s funding situation became unstable, and Jose decided that he would continue an urban farm on his own.

In order to get the operation off the ground, he looked to vacant lots scattered around Indianapolis’ Holy Cross neighborhood. With the housing crisis at its peak, empty lots and abandoned areas were not in demand for redevelopment. “People who owned these lots couldn’t sell or build on them, so they were willing to let me use them on an interim basis,” Jose says. “A lot of the people who owned the lots lived or worked in that neighborhood, so they had connections right away to it. I could approach them directly, which was a lot easier than going to a distant landlord or something.”

Turning vacant urban land into a useful agricultural plot has remained an ongoing challenge. Testing revealed that the site where Jose wanted to plant was clean and free from toxins, but the area offered little to no soil.

He had to lay down 4 to 6 inches of wood chips over the entire surface of the lot, then bring in additional soil, manure, compost and other organic materials to build up the mounded beds.

“All of these beds where I’m growing something is soil that I had to bring in,” Jose explains.

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 17

Over time, he has expanded and consolidated his gardens. His main site is still downtown, with another one-acre farm being developed on the northeast side of Indianapolis.

His reputation in downtown Indianapolis helped facilitate use of the lot on the north side. “I could show them that this is what I do, and they were willing to accommodate me,” he explains.

For the most part, all of the care for the plots falls to Jose. He does most of the planting, the weeding and the harvesting.

One part-time worker helps him with the 18 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

upkeep. “The farm is in a weird situation where it’s too big for one person, but not big enough to have two all of the time,” he says.

“The farm is still evolving,” Jose says.

Work started this spring on a greenhouse, which will offer him a longer growing season. The produce that is raised on Big City Farms is sold through a communitysupported agriculture program. He also sells to local restaurants, such as Bluebeard and Milktooth in the Fountain Square area of Indianapolis.

Over the course of six years, Jose says, he has seen more people support urban

farming and local food, but it’s still not as pervasive here in Indiana as it is in other communities across the country. “Individuals are more excited about it, but it’s still an uphill battle,” he explains. “In other parts of the country they have an amazing culture and self-identification with the farms.”

But the growing presence of operations like Big City Farms is a good thing for Indianapolis overall, Purdue’s Emily Toner says. “These urban farms expand the market for local food, build a healthier food culture, where people want to purchase fresh local food.”

See O

BIG CITY FARMS OWNER:

ur

D E L E D EMO blic!

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

Matthew Jose

WHERE: A one-acre farm in the Holy Cross neighborhood of downtown Indianapolis; a one-acre farm on the northeast side of the city.

A produce operation that grows products like cooking greens, onions, herbs, tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries.

WHAT:

Big City Farms operates a CSA that offers six to eight items from the farm. The cost for the entire 22-week season is $575, with the first session starting June 1.

Pickups are Mondays or Fridays at 907 E. Michigan St., Indianapolis, or Fridays at Wildwood Market, 1015 Virginia Ave.

COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE:

INFORMATION: bigcityfarmsindy.com

IndyGrown Farm Stands

Urban Farm Tour

WHAT: A collection of

An opportunity to visit Big City Farms, South Circle Farm, CUE Farm at Butler University and Growing Places Indy during a single weekend.

When: 2 to 8 p.m., June 6 WHERE: Meet at the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center, 727 N. Oriental St., Indianapolis COST: $30 for the bus tour, $20 for the bicycle tour.

Dinner is included.

TICKETS: IndyGrownTour. eventbrite.com

Indianapolis urban farms selling produce and sharing information about their farms.

WHEN:

» Big City Farms: 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays through Oct. 31; 907 E. Michigan St., Indianapolis » South Circle Farm: 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays through Oct. 31; 2052 S. Meridian St., Indianapolis » CUE Farm at Butler University: 4 to 6 p.m.

Thursdays, June 4 to Oct. 31; closed on July 2; Butler West Campus south from 52nd and Lester streets, Indianapolis » Growing Places Indy: 4 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, June 18 to Sept. 24; 727 N. Oriental St., Indianapolis INFORMATION: IndyGrown.com

WHAT:

4329 North Highway 31, Seymour, IN 47274

812-522-5199

Monday thru Friday 8am to 5pm FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 19

A HISTORIC

HOMESTEAD

Fourth-generation Snyder Farm is a rural oasis on the edge of busy Nashville

BY JEFF TRYON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

20 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

Opposite page, Charles Snyder on his Brown County farm.

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 21

C

harles Snyder of Nashville has something in common with three previous generations of Snyder men. “My grandfather was Charles Louie; my father was Paul Charles,” he says.

Another thing the four men have in common is the ownership of Snyder Farm, which Snyder’s great-grandfather, Charles William Snyder, originally purchased in the 1880s. A picturesque farmstead on the eastern edge of what settlers called “Peaceful Valley,” Snyder Farm received a 2015 Hoosier Homestead Award, which honors Hoosier farms that have contributed to Indiana’s economy and local communities for more than 100 years.

“I’m one of those guys that, we went back and farmed it (the land) with horses for a couple of years, just so I could say that I did it. I raised work horses here for several years, and I plowed with them and raked hay with them.”

—CHARLES SNYDER

“To my knowledge, there’s always been some row cropping and some hay and some livestock (on the farm),” Snyder says.

“When I was a kid here, we had chickens, hogs, cattle and row crops. My grandmother took care of the chickens; my grandfather took care of the hogs — my dad didn’t much care for them — but there have been cattle here as long as I can remember.”

22 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

Growing up on the farm, Snyder learned the value of hard work.

“I’ve always had horses since I was a little kid,” he says. “When you’re big enough to work, you go to work on the place.”

Mechanization was already well established by the time he came into the farm, but Snyder, a lifelong horse lover, wanted the chance to farm the land just the way his grandfather and great-grandfather had done things, with the help of a horse.

“I’m one of those guys that, we went back and farmed it (the land) with horses for a couple of years, just so I could say that I did it,” he says. “I raised work horses here for several years, and I plowed with them and raked hay with them.”

Snyder says the changes in the actual farming operation over his lifetime have not been as dramatic as the changes in the surrounding area. “Everything has gotten bigger and faster.”

Snyder attended the old Nashville High School but was in the first class graduating from Brown County High School in 1961.

“There used to actually be people in town, you knew their kids, you knew their dogs,” he says. “I had a paper route, so I ended up spending a lot of time there, and you knew everybody.

We probably mowed half the people in town’s lawns when we were kids.

“You knew everybody.”

Charlie Roush, a retired schoolteacher who is a few years older than Snyder, remembers the remoteness of the farm as well as the traffic congestion before the new State Road 46 was built.

“I remember you had to go up over a hill and across a bridge to get there before they

Top, the original farmhouse that Charles Snyder grew up in. Bottom, from left, Charles Snyder, Ethan Combest, 6, Nolan Combest, 10, Jennifer Combest, Joyce Snyder, Shane Combest.

built the new highway,” he said. “The old road (Old State Road 46) was crowded with traffic. At times, there’d be a backup in traffic from town back past the north gate park entrance.”

Roush, who is a previous Hoosier Homestead Award winner, says the farm’s location on the edge of town has been a boon. “I’ve heard of tourists staying at The Seasons that asked for a room that would look out on the cows,” he explains.

Snyder says the thing that has changed the most is that “town has expanded.”

“Now, we’re actually a farm in the middle of a town; there’s town on all four sides of us,” he says.

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The bucolic scenery of Snyder Farm provides a rural yesteryear backdrop to the eastern edge of Nashville. Patrons of The Seasons Lodge, Salt Creek Inn, The Pine Room Tavern and even residents at Brown County Health and Living Center get to watch the cows and horses in the pasture and the annual rural pageant of growing crops and haying.

Snyder still rises at 5:30 a.m. to feed a

few horses and the family pets, but most of the farming has been hired out to another, younger, local farmer.

He says his favorite times on the farm are mornings and the spring season.

“Getting up in the morning, the stars out, going to the barn to feed,” he says. “I still enjoy that.

“There are a lot of places around the farm where you stop and just say, ‘Wow. It’s pretty here, or quiet or peaceful.’”

Snyder is optimistic that the historic homestead will pass into the next generation.

“We have a daughter who still lives here on the farm, and we’ve got other kids scattered around,” he says.

“We’ve got two grandsons living next door, so that makes six generations that have been here and grown up here. So hopefully, they can have kids here.”

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 23

T N E N A M R O N PE LOAN The Glendale Public Library opens Indy’s first seed library LE R

BY SHAWND RA MIL JOSH MARS HALL PH OTOG RAPH Y BY

24 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

A

t Glendale Public Library on Indianapolis’ northside, there’s a new item available for checkout. Unlike with most of the library’s collection, however, you won’t be charged a late fee for missing a return date. In fact, the return on this library loan is completely optional.

That’s because the newly inaugurated Seed Library offers something living: garden seeds.

Master gardener Jo Ann Klooz originally brought the concept to branch manager Melissa Wooton, who saw its relevance immediately. The duo worked together to bring Indianapolis’ first Seed Library into existence. Now anyone with a library card can “borrow” seeds. Saving (and returning) seeds from the resulting vegetables, herbs and flowers is optional but encouraged.

Wooton, who shepherded the project through funding and permitting, says the

goal is to get people to try their hand at gardening, perhaps starting a tomato or pepper plant from seed for the first time.

“I could see people trying it with a variety of little types of containers in a sunny window,” she says.

The bright yellow cart rests near the checkout desk, next to an aquarium planted with spring greens and heirloom tomatoes under a fluorescent bulb. Seven days a week throughout the growing season, library users will pass this kiosk on their way to the exit. Even if a small percentage actually borrows its wares, the display could seed something new in the minds of non-gardeners.

Klooz hopes so. “It seems like people aren’t really in touch with … the natural world around them, including plants,” she says. She realizes that most people don’t think about where their food comes from. Through the seed library she hopes to sow the notion of reconnecting with food’s origin.

Glendale Library’s traffic is among the top five in Indy’s library system, averaging over 18,000 visits per month. When it opened in 2000, the branch was the country’s first full-service library located in a major shopping mall. Because it is close to several bus lines and open seven days a week, it draws patrons from outside the immediate service area.

Southward of the branch lies a food desert, an area where residents have trouble accessing affordable fresh food.

To Klooz, all these attributes make it the ideal branch to host the IndyPL Seed Library.

Seed borrowers, she says, “will literally con-

nect with the earth, connect with that seed, connect with (the reality) of how a plant grows and what’s required to grow a plant to maturity to produce food. That’s a pretty amazing process, and a lot of folks haven’t had the chance to do that yet.”

It’s a mission that resonates with many in the community. Purdue Extension Master Gardeners enthusiastically embraced the project. Before the library even opened, several master gardeners sorted bulk orders from Territorial Seeds and Johnny’s Selected into small packets.

Jo Ann Klooz Photo submitted

Seven master gardeners now regularly staff the seed library to answer questions and encourage beginner gardeners. They also keep inventory and maintain a seed database, assisting with programming as needed.

Funded by the Indianapolis Public Library Foundation, the seed library offers monthly workshops in collaboration with local organizations like Indy Urban Acres and Fall Creek Gardens Urban Growers Resource Center. Classes cover a range of garden-related topics like seed starting and preserving.

The goal is to support newbie gardeners attracted by the idea of putting seeds in the ground. Library patrons can take a maximum of five packets per visit, up to a total of 15. Each yellow envelope contains FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 25

Above, Melissa Wooton, Glendale Library branch manager. Right, Lisa Conley Stapleton of Growing Places Indy speaks with Anton Braun and his granddaughter, Camille Parrott.

a small number of seeds to allow gardeners to try growing tomatoes, greens, herbs and other edibles.

Borrowers shouldn’t expect the kind of fat seed packet normally sold at garden centers: An envelope of tomato seeds, for example, contains about a half dozen seeds.

Klooz and Wooton emphasize that the seed library stock is not intended as a complete vegetable garden kit. They’d rather go broad than deep in seed distribution, to allow more people the chance to experiment.

“We’re not here to finance your garden,” Klooz says with a laugh. “That’s not the goal. The goal is to try something new and get your interest piqued.”

To Save a Seed

Before starting the project, Klooz read up on the subject and contacted other such facilities. She toured a seed library in Dunedin, Florida, and talked to the organizer of another near Louisville, Kentucky. “Each one has a slightly different approach,” she says.

She hopes to travel more and continue widening her scope of knowledge. She also 26 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

family. And anyone donating seeds to the plans to go to Seed Savers Exchange’s “seed library will be asked to document the prosaving school” in Decorah, Iowa, in prepacess used in harvesting the seeds, so the ration for leading a September workshop master gardeners can vet the donation. on harvesting seeds. The more informaAll of the seeds on offer are heirloom or tion available to patrons, the higher their open-pollinated varieties, so the seed propotential success rate in the garden. duced by the resulting vegetable will yield But even with guidance, saving seeds true to its original strain. can be tricky. That’s Seeds produced by why the seed library has hybrid varieties, on the put some parameters “Maybe 100 people other hand, revert to one around what types of take seeds home, and of the parent varieties. seeds will be accepted What’s more, hybrid this first year — generout of those maybe produce tends not to be ally tomatoes, peppers 50 actually plant the as full-flavored as heirand the bean/pea famseeds. And of those loom or open-pollinated ily. Squash, cucumbers who planted, maybe vegetables. and melons (cucurbits) 25 get a tomato. But “Most hybrids are not on the list. that might be the first have been intention“Those seeds are kind homegrown tomato ally crossed with other of promiscuous,” Klooz they’ve ever tasted.” plants,” Klooz says, “to explains. “So if you —JO ANN KLOOZ bring forth a certain don’t take the right … characteristic — uniforprecautions, you don’t mity of size and shape, really know if one or they’ll hold up better squash has cross polgoing to market.” While more desirable linated with another squash. You (might) from a commercial standpoint, they lack think you have seeds that are going to give what makes the old-time varieties winners you what you’ve harvested that year, and on the dinner plate. you’re mistaken.” “(Heirlooms) were bred for the things most So unless a gardener is what she affecthink about when we eat food: flavor,” she tionately calls a bona fide “seed geek,” she says. “Not physical beauty, not durability.” likely won’t accept seeds from the cucurbit

McKenzie Jordan, 6, and her mom, Mshinda Johnson, receive information at the Glendale Public Library Seed Library. Below, Christine Fox, 7, plants sunflower seeds.

5975 25th Street, Columbus, IN 47203 (812) 376-6838 1512 West Main, Greensburg, IN 47240 (812) 663-2454 100 International Drive, Franklin, IN 46131 (800) 327-5099 Going Local

The day of the grand opening, a rainy Sunday in late April, more than 50 people browse the displays and talk with experts.

Fielding questions are representatives from organizations like Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society; Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District; and Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab. Amy Shelton, who just finished the master gardener program, helped set up and staff the event. Like Klooz, she’s eager to extol the virtues of heirloom and openpollinated seeds, and thrilled with the notion of sharing the wealth. “I love the idea of a seed library,” she says. “This kind of thing is going on all over the country.”

Participants like Lisa Conley Stapleton give a range of reasons for their excitement over the seed library’s opening. There’s the nutritional aspect of homegrown produce, and the desire to network and learn. Perhaps most of all, it’s about going local.

“The closer to the source, the better,” says Stapleton, who just moved to town from Texas two months earlier and was excited to connect with Indy’s burgeoning local food movement. She plans to check out seeds and start gardening.

Klooz knows that some people’s impulse to borrow won’t actually result in food. But that’s OK with her. “Maybe 100 people take seeds home,” she says, “and out of those maybe 50 actually plant the seeds. And of those who planted, maybe 25 get a tomato.”

Let us protect you...

“But that might be the first homegrown tomato they’ve ever tasted,” she says.

“They’re going to find out that nothing tastes like a homegrown tomato.”

They’ll likely also gain a newfound respect and appreciation for people who make agriculture their livelihood.

How will she feel when the first patron returns with seeds saved from plants started with library seeds? “That will be huge,” Klooz admits.

“But I would be every bit as delighted, if not more so, with the person who says, ‘I did not know you could grow a tomato like that. I had no idea tomatoes from my plant would taste like that!’”

For more information, visit imcpl.org/ IndyPL_SeedLibrary/index.php.

...and your farm

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 27

IN NEED OF FOOD

Local specialty crop programs signal the continuing shift in Indiana agriculture

W

By Jim Mayfield

WITH ALL THE FARMS nestled in and spread out across the state, the move to grow, buy and sell locally sourced food continues to gain traction, and southeastern Indiana is home to the latest host of Hoosier farmers positioning themselves to enter the farm-to-table marketplace.

In January, an effort focusing on a five-county region in and around Batesville and the Laughery Valley, a little over 40 miles northwest of Cincinnati off Interstate 74, received a $30,000 grant to fund early development of a program promoting area specialty crops to local institutional buyers, such as schools and hospitals.

Though the state is heavy on corn and soybean production, specialty crops, identified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to include fruits, vegetables, nuts, horticulture and nursery crops, are in short supply despite a solid demand.

Michael Morrow, manager of Hancock County’s Hoosier Harvest Market, the state’s only farmer-owned food hub, is overseeing the grant to the Food and Growers Association of Batesville and drawing an asset map of Ripley, Franklin, Dearborn, Switzerland and Ohio counties to determine how much land is available to grow the crops and who might be willing to commit acres to the cause.

“The FGA saw a need to push this effort in this area,” Morrow said. “The production of specialty crops is not at all where it needs to be to meet the demand.”

“There is definitely an interest here,” said FGA member Claire Whalen. “The hospital (Margaret Mary Community Hospital in Batesville) really wants to have this program, and we’re trying to identify who would be interested in growing more of those kinds of crops.”

Morrow has been scouring the countryside, knocking on doors and holding community meetings in phase one of the three-phase program to mine the area for farmers willing to diversify and perhaps try something new.

Armed with geographic information mapping systems, Morrow has been analyzing suitable plots that have specialty crop potential, and with last year’s corn prices bottoming out at near or below many farmers’ break-even points for the season, one might think it would be easy to convince local growers to branch out.

“We try to explain how a farmer might diversify and not be quite so dependent on one commodity like corn,” Morrow said. “We

28 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

had a good response at the FGA conference in February. There’s not been a lot of resistance, but we are fighting some inertia.”

The numbers are there in terms of acres and growers, locals say, but getting them into the mix will take some nudging.

Farming is not all that far removed from Newton’s laws of physics. An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by an external force. There’s a lot of cultural, family and personal tradition in agriculture, and in a business fraught with almost daily risk, it can sometimes be difficult to move an operation off the center line into a different lane.

“There are enough numbers,” said Chris Merkel, who manages the 300-acre Michaela Farm in Oldenburg. “But a lot of these growers are already going to farmers markets and other markets, and they might not be willing to get their feet wet and take a risk on a new market.”

It’s an ironic twist on a situation where small growers have been beating hard to gain entry into sustainable markets for some time. But that’s the nature of the inertia.

Morrow and initial Hoosier Harvest Market organizers saw the same trend at its June 2013 launch in Hancock County, but now entering its third growing season, the market has secured its second round of funding and continues to draw growers, artisans, producers and customers.

That market is one of some 150 food hubs of one variety or another recognized by the USDA that help small and mid-sized farm-

ers manage marketing, aggregation and distribution and provide an entrée into larger markets they might otherwise not have access to.

Hoosier Harvest Market maintains roughly three dozen sellers on its roster distributing to 13 pickup points in Central Indiana, and sales have jumped from $15,000 in its first year to $88,000 in 2014.

“We’re currently projecting $250,000 in sales for 2015,” Morrow said.

Assuming the initial inventory establishes sufficient assets and acres for production, organizers in Batesville hope to begin surveying the project’s finer points over the summer to determine whether there is a sufficient workforce available and what will be required in terms of processing the crops for distribution to the end users.

The latter issue will be significant, Merkel said. Though the local institutional customers such as schools and hospitals are on board in theory, they have neither the time nor the resources to take raw crops from the field and make them ready for the cafeteria.

The area may need a certified kitchen and processing facility to prepare, package and distribute the crops once they’re harvested, Merkel said.

While large-acre corn and soybeans can be combined, augered into a truck trailer and then moved by rail to a distant processing facility, the rules and margins for specialty crop processing are significantly tighter.

Phase 3 of the effort will partner with Matthew John, agriculture program chairman at Ivy Tech, Columbus, to teach farm-

ers not only best practices and how to grow specialty crops, but help them navigate the phalanx of regulations surrounding processing products for safe consumption and make the effort sustainable.

“At the end of the day, we need to educate the farmers,” Morrow said.

Challenges aside, the FGA’s move to bring more regionally grown specialty crops from the ground to local consumers is not a one-off deal as the entire state is beginning to get behind the concept.

The results of an Indiana State Department of Agriculture food hub feasibility study to explore the potential for a statewide network of food hubs to improve marketing and access to specialty crops was expected at the end of May. “There’s little question that food hubs are needed. The issue is: what’s the model?” said David King, ISDA local foods program manager. Though local efforts are blooming as regional initiatives, “it’s going to involve all regions in the state eventually,” he said.

While Morrow and his colleagues at the local and state levels sift and sort the details in any given plan, the bottom line on locally produced Hoosier food seems to be firming up.

“The research has been done twice, and every time we’ve done it, it says we’ve got to have food,” King said.

For more information about the effort or to have a farm asset mapped in the area, contact Michael Morrow at (317) 800-0312 or email him at michael.morrow@hoosierharvestmarket.com.

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FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 29

COUNTY PROFILE

LAGRANG E

CO.

LaGrange, boasting 2,419 farms, was among the top four counties.

“LaGrange County has a rich past of agricultural and food processing activities that have helped shape the county into what we see today,” says Ryne Krock, newly seated president/CEO of the LaGrange County Economic Development Corp. (LCEDC). A county native, Krock is back home again in Indiana after serving four years in a similar capacity in Toledo, Ohio.

“Lord’s Seed, Yoder’s Meat & Cheese, Guggisberg Deutsch Kase Haus Cheese Factory, Snax in Pax, Yoder Popcorn and Arrowhead Popcorn are just a few of the companies located here that contribute to this very important sector,” he says.

“The countless number of individual farming operations is equally important.

There is a healthy balance between our local growing community and those who manufacture, process and package products on the other end.”

» A return to agricultural roots

Leader of the Tract ‘Diversity,’ ‘organic’ are key words in LaGrange County

BY CJ WOODRING PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE LAGRANGE COUNTY CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU AND THE LAGRANGE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.

30 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

LAGRANGE COUNTY

is about as far north as a body can travel in Indiana without setting foot in the Wolverine State. Renowned for its large Amish population, the county is primarily composed of rural farmland, with hilly terrain and several lakes sprinkled in for good measure.

It is use of that farmland — along with Amish growers, product diversity, a host of food processors and, more recently, a transition to organic farming — that has kept LaGrange among the state’s leading ag counties.

According to a 2012 census by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), seven Indiana counties have more than 1,000 farms. All but one of those counties is in northeast Indiana, and all have a significant Amish population.

As of 2002, an estimated 53 percent of the area’s Amish men, under age 65, were working in factories, according to Steven Nolt and Thomas J. Meyers, academics at nearby Goshen College who have written extensively about the Amish.

When the recession hit, eliminating many jobs, those men returned to the land full time, ultimately opting to transition to organic farming.

Keith Gillenwater, Krock’s predecessor, held the position for nearly six years, beginning when the LCEDC was formed in April 2009. He now holds the same position in Wabash County.

Several factors have contributed to the local food processing industry, he says, including access to raw inputs, available sites, a talented workforce, experienced ag lenders “and a regional market and suppliers, with a short hop to a huge national market with transportation access.”

Finally, he says, “LaGrange County has access to the unique asset that is the Amish community, with its smaller farms and growers’ willingness to go through the process of getting certified as organic.”

The result has been an increased output of products and an increased global presence.

“You can sit down in the finest Chicago restaurants and get bison meat from Cook’s

Bison Ranch, or chicken, duck, turkey and pork from Gunthorp Farms. Eggland’s Best eggs, which we buy in the Midwest, likely came from a LaGrange County chicken. The list could go on and on,” Gillenwater says.

In addition, LaGrange County is home to companies that include Honeyville Feed & Farm Supply, a niche market specializing in organic and custom feeds, and recently remodeled and expanded South Milford Grain Co. “Food is recession-proof,” Gillenwater says, “and food processing diversified our economy from traditional industries in the county like automotive suppliers, fabricated metal and recreational vehicles.

“So all in all, it’s an agricultural community. The county produces for the niche ‘foodie market,’ while its larger farms serve the rest of the market. LaGrange County truly does help to feed the world.”

milking the camels and selling products made from the milk.”

In addition, Wisconsin-based Gro Alliance, the nation’s largest independently owned seed corn production company, added a 44,000-square-foot warehouse at its Howe location in 2014, the third consecutive year of expansion at the facility.

But even within a state as renowned for basketball as for bushels of beans, maintaining LaGrange County’s ag industry is no slam dunk.

Engleking says part of the challenge is a high tourism population, much of it centered, ironically, on the Amish community.

“We’ve also got a lot of lakes, so we’re concerned about contamination from farms, and we’re one of the most irrigated counties in the state,” he explains. “So we need to maintain a harmony between LaGrange County constituents.”

» Organic farms

In addition to numbers of farms, according to the USDA report, LaGrange also has more organic farms than any other Indiana county, claiming 52 percent (142) of the state’s 271 certified organic farms.

“Organic farms began cropping up about 10 to 12 years ago, when commodity milk prices were unstable and smaller Amish farmers wanted to ensure more profitability,” Engleking says. “So they sought out information on organics and spoke with CROPP (Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool) Organic Valley reps and found out it would be a good fit if they got enough farmers to come on board.

“It takes three years for a farm to transition to organic. Sixty-four more farms were transitioning in 2012, so we’re pushing 200 now.”

While organic farming may have been

driven by environmentalists and foodies, Amish growers viewed it from a different perspective, he says. “When they went into it, it was pragmatic: It was their way of ensuring economic sustainability,” he explains. “So when you look at the threelegged stool — economic, environmental and social/community — the organic movement hit all three. But the economic leg was the primary driver. And when they were encouraged to switch over, the other two legs also benefited.”

Even as the number of small farms declines nationwide (and the largest get larger), the number of organic farms — fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. farms — continues to increase.

Since 2007 organic farm sales increased 82 percent to more than $3 billion, according to the USDA report. California leads the way, with Florida, Texas and Colorado

» Diversity in growing

LaGrange County has led agricultural initiatives since before 1852, when local growers organized the LaGrange County Agricultural Society. A year later, the county hosted the state’s first ag fair.

In the 1800s county growers produced and handled a wide array of crops and livestock, as recorded in “Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana,” published in 1882 by F.A. Battey & Co., Chicago.

Principal production for LaGrange County in 1880 included milk, harvested wheat, clipped wool and apples.

Crops and produce also included corn, clover, a cornucopia of fruits, wine, sorghum molasses, honey and maple sugar, as well as livestock such as horses, mules, fattened hogs, chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks.

In LaGrange County, that array of products has never changed.

“One of the things I’ve noticed in 20 years (as a Purdue Extension educator) is the absolutely incredible diversity of agricultural production in this county,” says Steve Engleking, extension educator of agriculture and natural resources, and economic and community development.

“We grow hundreds of acres of gladiolas, which ship internationally through Great Lakes Gladiolas in Michigan,” he says. “North of Shipshewana is a farm with about 16 head of camel, and they’re FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 31

LAGRANGE COUNTY

BY THE NUMBERS County number of square miles:

380 FARMLAND

204,092 acres of farmland; 147,420 acres devoted to crop production Number of farms: 2,419 Average farm size: 84 acres Market value for crop/livestock sales:

$262,563,000

joining the ranks of top 10 players.

While organic farming lends itself better to small farms, specialized growers can be larger, Engleking says, citing Dean Foods.

Headquartered in Dallas and one of the nation’s largest milk producers, Dean sells organic milk products under the Horizon brand, which bears the leaping image of Happy the Holstein cow.

» Co-operatively speaking

In 1988 seven farmers formed LaFarge, Wisconsin-based Organic Valley (farmers.coop and organicvalley.coop) as the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool (CROPP), a small organic farming cooperative. Distributing products under the Organic Valley and Organic Prairie labels, 32 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

the co-op reflected 2014 total sales of just under $1 billion.

As the largest dairy cooperative in the United States, CROPP, which now stands for Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools, boasts 1,800 farm family members in more than 35 states, Canada and Australia.

One hundred fifty-four of those farms are in Indiana; 97 are in LaGrange County.

In addition, 15 LaGrange farms will be joining the co-op this year, most transitioning from conventional growing methods to organic.

Rose Smith is CROPP’s pool manager for the Midwest Region, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky. Smith co-manages the sub-region of northern Indiana — specifically, LaGrange County —

STATE PERCENTAGE OF INDIANA MARKET HELD:

52.4% of USDA National

Organic Program certified organic production farms

28.1% of horses and ponies sold (largest in Indiana)

25.4% of broiler sales 19.8% of acres

harvested for potatoes

15.7% of broiler farms 14.7% of cattle and calves sales

and oversees northwest Ohio, where she grew up.

And, she says, organic farm growth continues to expand throughout the Hoosier state.

“Indiana is, by far, growing very rapidly in the number of farms that are converting to organic,” she explains. “And it’s not just in LaGrange County, but organic farms are popping up everywhere, and growing just as quickly, in other parts of the state.”

Smith acknowledges that organic farming is not for everyone.

“It’s really a personal decision and changes from farm to farm. Growers have different motivations, whether it’s because they don’t want to use chemicals, or they’re looking at longevity for the farm and sustainable living for their family and children.

So it all depends upon the producer.”

» Teaching new methods

Considering 32 of Indiana’s 92 counties harbor an Amish community, why hasn’t organic farming blossomed as quickly in other areas? Engleking says it’s because the ag community is very conservative.

“The mindset has always been, ‘What dad did is fine; what granddad did is fine.’

“But some growers are beginning to do organic as they’re seeing their neighbors being more profitable,” he adds. “And

NATIONAL Second-largest producer of ducks in the United States Source: 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture

the Amish up here have a very highly developed social network. They’re not on Facebook or anything, but they have other means of socializing, including the Northern Indiana Grazing Conference (naturesinternational.com), which attracts primarily Amish farmers who look forward to the annual event.”

Envisioning the next 10 to 15 years, when many growers will retire — often with children unwilling to inherit farm duties — Engleking says LaGrange County, as always, will be unique with regard to breaking up farms into smaller ones.

“They’ll buy farms at auction, “English” farms, and divide them into 10- and 20acre tracts and auction them off,” he says.

“Then they’ll go back and decide which tracts to combine and re-bid on those combined tracts.

“So a farm won’t go back to the original owner, but to the Amish, because they still value an agrarian lifestyle even if they’re also working in regional factories. They demand the land to keep the kids close.”

“Across the United States, there is a major push for producing and purchasing produce locally, as well as for organic farming,” Krock says. “We are already excelling in this regard and are positioned well to continue on this track.

“In addition, year-round produce growing facilities are becoming more and more popular, and we are committed to welcoming this industry to our community with open arms.”

And with that being said, LaGrange County also remains on track to continue as leader of the tract.

Online Resources for Organic Growers National Organic Program (NOP) ams.usda.gov Organic Trade Association ota.com Indiana State Department of Agriculture in.gov/isda Ecocert Indiana Certified Organic (ICO). Indiana-based USDA accredited certifier of crops, livestock and processed foods ecocertico.com

Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools (CROPP) farmers.coop OFARM (Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing) ofarm.coop USDA-Economic Research Service ers.usda.gov USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) sare.org SARE grants in Indiana northcentralsare.org/StatePrograms/Indiana

Purdue Agriculture/Organic Agriculture ag.purdue.edu/ extension/smallfarms/Pages/ Organic-Agriculture.aspx

Bulletin “Transitioning to Organic Production” (free download) sare.org/Learning-Center/ Bulletins/Transitioning-to-OrganicProduction

Hoosier Organic Marketing and Education (HOME) localharvest. org/homehoosier-organicmarketing-education-M51669

Resources about Organic Vegetable Production ag.purdue.edu/hla/fruitveg/Pages/ OrganicVegProd.aspx

Midwest Organic Farmers Cooperative (MOFC) midwestorganic.com

ATTRA (National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service) attra.ncat.org

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ALL FOUR GM BRANDS UNDER ONE ROOFTOP FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 33

Sales Sales

Service Service

Fair Enough Kick up your boots — it’s county fair time.

Here, a half-dozen events worth their weight in elephant ears and blue ribbons.

By Catherine Whittier

Hancock County Fair

34 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

PHOTO BY TOM RUSSO

JUNE 9-13

JUNE 19-26

Warren County 4-H Fair

Hancock County 4-H Fair

WILLIAMSPORT, (765) 762-3231

GREENFIELD, (317) 462-1469

Tony Briles, fair board president says that while Warren County is a “small, rural county,” the entire community works together to create a fun and successful event. Highlights of this year’s fair include a hog roast (June 9), the Warren County 4-H queen contest (June 9), a free concert featuring Levi Riggs (June 10) and a Kiddie Tractor Pull (June 13). Numerous 4-H exhibits also will be on display. When it comes to livestock, the swine and cattle exhibits draw the biggest crowds, Briles says.

The Hancock County Fair “is the social event of the year,” says Doug Maxwell, fairground property superintendent.

Popular events include the 4-H Queen Contest (June 20), the Tractor Pull (June 21), the 4-H Llama Costume Contest (June 21) and the Demolition Derby (June 24).

Fairgoers can sample Hancock County sheep producers’ lamb burgers (June 22), the Hancock County pork producers’ pork chops and pork burgers (June 24) and the Hancock County cattlemen’s rib-eyes (June 25). And “everybody comes to get their lemon shake-up,” says Darrin Couch, fair board vice president.

JUNE 20-27

Rush County Fair RUSHVILLE, (765) 932-3211 “The people who are involved in it, the fair board and the 4-H families” are who make the Rush County Fair a success, says John Meyer, fair board president. A couple of this year’s highlights include the popular Demo Derby & Autocross (June 20) and the NTPA Tractor Pull (June 22). Get your fill of hamburgers, elephant ears and soft-serve ice cream on the midway before hitting the 4-H and open class exhibits and livestock shows.

JUNE 20-27

JUNE 19-28

Marion County Fair INDIANAPOLIS, (317) 353-2444 This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Marion County Fair, and organizers are ready to celebrate. On June 23, food concession stands will offer select items for 85 cents each, says Ron Phillips, fair board president. On June 25, anyone born in 1985, with a birthday on 8/5 or 85 years old can enter the fair for free.

Other highlights of this year’s fair include Kids’ Day (June 27) and Robotics Day (June 28), which will give fairgoers of all ages an opportunity to enjoy a “handson experience — learning, playing and engaging with robotics,” Phillips explains.

JUNE 22-27

Wayne County Fair

Miami County 4-H Fair

The 164th Wayne County Fair kicks off with an early morning Hot Air Balloon Launch, followed by a new Family Fun Night, featuring free events and an outdoor movie (June 20). Some other highlights of this year’s fair include a Hoosier State Tractor Pull (June 23), a rodeo (June 25), a Demolition Derby (June 27) and free musical entertainment nightly. The 4-H and open exhibits are also always a highlight, says Sandy House, fair board president.

“We have wonderful 4-H kids in our county,” she says.

The Miami County Fair is an “oldfashioned, hometown county fair,” says Blain Richardson, fair board president.

While there are many attractions that folks enjoy here, the main focus of the event is to celebrate the 4-H program and to showcase “what kids can accomplish when challenged,” Richardson explains.

Other fair highlights include the Pickup Truck and Tractor Pull (June 12 and 13), the Demolition Derby (June 26 and 27) and the Royal Showmanship Contest (June 26). There is also a pizza eating contest (June 23), plus traditional fair food, elephant ears, corn dogs and kids having fun everywhere, Richardson adds.

RICHMOND, (765) 973-9281

PERU, (765) 472-1921

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 35

FARM TO SCHOOL

I

Editor’s note: Each year, the junior high class of Good Shepherd Montessori School in South Bend puts on a student-run academic conference. At the conference, local middle schools and professionals come together to create bonds and further develop an understanding of a certain topic.

This year’s focus was on food and was called In Good Taste. In years past topics have included religion and sustainability.

Above: Eight-year student Kyle Hooks presents his research on food deserts, specifically those in South Bend.

Right: The Academic Conference Committee was led by eighth-year students, from left, Leena Mariani, Julia McKenna and Madison Wilkeson. Here they are joined by Jessica Baron (second from left) from the University of Notre Dame’s John J. Reilly Center, which sponsored the event.

36 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

In Good Taste An academic conference on food

BY JULIA MCKENNA

I SAT AT THE LUNCH TABLE, peanut butter and jelly sandwich in hand, contemplating what year-long project I could create about food. Several options went through my head, ranging from sustainability to culinary arts, but I had trouble picking one. I wanted my project to reflect solid research, create connections and empower students to make a change. I didn’t really feel a connection or passion for any of the ideas I had thought of. How was I supposed to make a change if I wasn’t even sure what to research?

My project idea came to me that night as I was with my friends. I heard one of my peers make a comment about why only women should eat salads. I paused.

That statement was not only offensive to me as a female, but it was also incorrect.

I questioned the group further and found that more than five of my friends agreed that there were certain foods that different genders should and shouldn’t eat. From there, my project began. I started delving further into the topic of gender and food. I found a plethora of information surrounding ideas of gender roles in food marketing, consumption and production. After much research, I began creating a movie to showcase all the things I had found.

It wasn’t until later that I realized I was doing more than just learning about gender and food. On top of my personal project, I was the manager of the student-run academic conference committee. Our job was to plan the conference, from securing a keynote speaker to making sure all the funding was in place. We had several guest speakers come in prior to the conference to further develop our understanding of

the importance of food. Of course, we all eat food, but in the months of research and planning we conducted, it became clear that food is so much more than that.

Presentations from our classmates included subjects such as entomophagy (the practice of eating insects), farmworker rights, vegetarianism, food deserts and food preservation [see sidebar].

Each student was able to pick something he was passionate about to delve deeper into research. Collectively, our class created a set of well-researched presentations to give at the conference.

After long months of preparation, the conference was hosted at our school on May 1. Sara Stewart, the founder of Unity Gardens in South Bend, kicked off the event with the keynote speech, talking about her experience providing healthy, accessible food in different spaces throughout the city. Following her talk, the first set of students gave their presentations. They sparked great conversations among guests as we broke off for our taste testing. We figured a conference about food should at least provide snacks.

When we gathered back together for

IN GOOD TASTE

PRESENTATION TOPICS ENTOMOPHAGY: Entomophagy is the science of eating insects. In this presentation, the two junior high presenters sought to highlight the benefits of eating insects.

Some of their research points included the amount of land that is saved when insects are farmed versus other meats, fat-to-protein ratios in bugs as opposed to beef and chicken, and different ways to prepare each kind of bug. Their presentation emphasized the benefits of eating insects as a sustainable protein source.

FARMWORKER RIGHTS: Farmworkers are the people who pick foods, typically fruit, on large-scale commercial farms. In this presentation, the presenter focused on some of the different injustices against the people who pick food on large-scale farms. Education, living conditions and pay were three major points in the presentation, and discrimination also was a focal point.

the second half, there were more presentations, including my movie, “Gender: the Cultural Story of Food.” After a lunch created by a student as part of his project on malnutrition, we finished the day with Jim Poyser and his Ain’t Too Late game show, which explores the lasting effects of climate change.

The conference was not only hugely successful, but I felt empowered to create change. Not only with my own project, where I had observed certain behaviors and beliefs among my peers and felt determined to learn more about them, but also because of my classmates’ presentations. Their wellresearched calls for change inspired me to take action.

My respect for food and the people who grow it has deepened since the conference. I have been able to teach my family various sustainable food practices, and we now shop locally when we can. With my siblings, I am creating a vegetable garden using compost from our bins at home, and we are also growing herbs in our kitchen windowsill. Cooking fresh dinners is a Junior high teachers Andrew Garvey of Good Shepherd Montessori School and Randy Kelly of Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes compete in Jim Poyser’s “Ain’t Too Late” game show.

8th year student Lucy Barron focused her research on the benefits of homemade food vs. fast food. She offered samples of homemade local, organic chicken nuggets.

favorite pastime in our house, and I love being able to teach my peers about the food that they eat.

Participating in the academic conference has made me see food in a whole different light. Now, as I sit at lunch, slowly eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I at least know that children can do great things and that there is so much more to the world than what you might first observe.

Julia McKenna will enter ninth grade in August.

VEGETARIANISM: In the presentation about vegetarianism, this student first defined what vegetarianism is and then talked about the health benefits that would ensue if just one person were to give up meat. She also stressed the importance of having a balanced diet, whether you are vegetarian or not, and always making sure you have a healthy protein option.

FOOD DESERTS: A food desert is a place where people do not have consistent access to healthy and affordable food options. This often forces them to buy cheaper, processed foods. This student focused on defining food deserts and the struggles that people living in them face. He highlighted some different solutions to providing healthy food for everyone, such as creating and supporting affordable local grocery stores. His research was even presented at a fundraiser for a new healthy-eating store that is soon to open in a South Bend food desert.

FOOD PRESERVATION: Food preservation is the act of storing food to give it a longer shelf life. Typically, this is done through canning, freezing, dehydrating or fermenting. The food is put in an environment in which bacteria that is harmful to human health can’t live. This particular presentation was created as part of a larger curriculum about sustainability by a local farmer. Four students created a set of PowerPoint presentations that could be taken into other schools to teach students about sustainability and where food comes from. They explained that preserving food is a great way to eat locally and seasonally year-round, but still also enjoy a variety of foods.

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 37

MAY 2015

Rural Living & Local Food

Raising Good Kids Goats and students benefit through FAA

ALSO INSIDE

Four Willows Farm Magnificent Mushrooms The Garden Table

Rural Living & Local Food

38 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

FIELD NOTES

Good Advice

» » »

SORE KNEES got you down? Cortland Carrington of Micro Farms America

(microfarmsamerica.com) in Bloomington suggests the use of “an old boat cushion” in place of a “small and/or undersized garden kneeling pad.” He says the boat cushion can be “dug out of the attic (or) barn or purchased at a yard sale for a dollar or two” and is much more practical to use because it has large strap handles and is easy to pick up with heavy garden gloves. Also, the cushions are thick so you can’t feel rocks and thorns through them. “I’ve used them for years,” Carrington says.

ANDREW BRAKE, founder of Nap Town Chickens and co-owner of Agrarian Urban Homestead & Supply in Indianapolis, says chicken wire isn’t really for use with chickens. Many people who raise chickens begin their journey by constructing a yard or run with chicken wire, otherwise known as poultry netting. Brake explains that not only is chicken wire very hard to work with, but it’s pretty useless when it comes to protection against predators. Raccoons and opossum, he says, can chew right through it. Brake says the best way to build a yard or run is to use 1-by-1 galvanized steel fencing “from top to bottom.” Use of the same material over the roof will protect the chicken from being “picked off by a hawk.” For further information, visit naptownchickens.org or agrarianindy.com.

LARRY HOWARD of Maple Valley Farm

(maplevalley.howardfamilyenterprise. com) in Monroe County purchased his first Austrian scythe last season for trimming and cutting grasses, and he’s been pleased with his investment. The scythe, a long-handled tool with a sleek curved blade, has historically been used to harvest grasses, and Howard hopes to eventually “use it for harvesting small grains Larry Howard planted into perennial pasture,” he says.

Howard admits he’s still very much a novice with the tool, but he has had enough experience to tout its advantages. The user stands upright and “in a very lazy way,” he says, uses a rhythmic swinging motion to cut grass. “What it does is pick up the grass and lay it to the left side of you in a swath just like you would have if you were cutting hay with a tractor,” he explains.

“It really is kind of an art,” says Howard, who has used his scythe “for cutting fresh hand-carried fodder to rabbits and for creating mulch for the garden.” He also uses the tool to trim along the roadside. “You can be kind of selective about what you cut.

It works really great around a fence, and you don’t have to worry about cutting stuff that you don’t want to cut.” —Catherine Whittier

FARM TECH

IT’S IN THE BAG

I

If funds are tight, and building a traditional grain storage structure isn’t in the budget, consider using silo bags, also known as grain bags.

Klein Ileleji, associate professor and grain post-harvest technology expert at Purdue University, says silo bags are an economical option to store grain after harvest. The bags aren’t a new invention, but they’re yet to be used much in the United States. Ileleji says farmers in Argentina and Australia have been using them for several years.

A typical bag is 8 to 12 feet in diameter by 200 feet long.

Made of polyethylene and surrounded by a UV protective coating, these bags can hold 8,000 to 12,000 bushels of grain when filled.

One cost associated with the bags is the loading and unloading equipment, which with the cost of the bags can run up to $50,000, so Ileleji suggests renting the equipment. He also says the first time you use the bags you’ll want to seek advice from someone who has used them before. “It takes some learning to load the bags appropriately,” he says. “It’s also going to take some labor. It would be good to have an experienced crew.”

Once you fill the grain bags, the work isn’t done. Ileleji says it’s important to monitor the bags for rips

Silo bags being filled.

Below, an aeriel view of bags in use.

because ripped bags lead to moisture and mice. Moisture will ruin the yield, and the mice will eat it and contaminate the crop. An ideal storage area protects the bags from moisture, offers a firm floor and may include fencing to keep larger animals out.

You also need to make sure you clean the area completely after you fill the bags.

“Rodents will come when they smell food or see it lying around,” he says. “Cleaning the area is the first step.”

Ileleji says grain bags aren’t very popular right now, but they are a good option if you can commit to monitoring the moisture levels and integrity of the bags. “It’s not a permanent structure, so people need to be vigilant,” he says.

—Garrett Kelly

TIP: If you are interested in using silo bags, contact your crop insurer and ask whether the crop will be covered under your policy.

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 39

FROM THE FIELD THE VIEW AT NIGHTFALL

Time for % 100 % TRACTOR. TRACTOR. Something New? 100 %

I

BY LIZ BROWNLEE

IT’S BEFORE DAYBREAK, but I’m sitting at the dining room table watching videos about shiitake mushrooms. To grow shiitake mushrooms, you drill holes into hardwood logs and then insert shiitake spawn (which comes in sawdust). A lot of farmers use angle grinders to drill the holes, but the tool costs $100, and I can’t

decide if we should spend the money to buy one. A regular drill, which we already own, can do the job. I find a video that shows just how fast and efficient the angle grinder is, and I’m convinced that the tool is worth it.

Watching videos and crunching numbers might not sound like glamorous work, but for a farmer trying to decide whether to try a new enterprise, and how, research is critical. This month’s column is a little window into what we consider when we take on something new. I’ll use shiitakes as an example throughout.

well? Will this be profitable, build the soil or help us reach other long-term goals?

Thankfully, we can draw on a wealth of knowledge about sustainable agriculture from farmers, online resources and trusted organizations to answer our questions.

One critical resource for farmers exploring new ideas is the “enterprise budget.” University Extension and other groups like ATTRA (attra.ncat.org) create these budgets based on farmers’ records. * They include every line item imaginable, from labor costs to supply needs to * income streams.

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a meeting, I ask Nate if he thinks a CSA TAKING THE PLUNGE share should be a half-pound per month, or That brings us to the last part of deciding more. We debate, recalculate and drive on. to start a new enterprise: going for it. All of Other farmers are the most important our research was positive, from customer piece of the assessment puzzle for us. We interest (our CSA members and marketlike learning by goers are interested) to doing, so we hesithe economics (shiitakes tate to try a new have a relatively low We adapt the budget to endeavor without startup cost). We asked firsthand experithe tough questions and fit our scale, calculate ence or a mentor. decided to take the leap. income and expenses We were excited These pictures show us for at least five years, about shiitakes, inoculating our first 100 and then talk through though, so we bolts (logs). You can see a each line item. had to find other short second video of us ways to learn from at work on our website, farmers. We found nightfallfarm.com (look an incredible 50under “Happenings”). page guide that the University of Vermont We’ve already had to work out a few Extension created using help from 30 farmkinks, and I’m sure there are more lessons ers to create a start-to-finish guide on raisahead, but overall the shiitakes are going ing shiitakes. It includes detailed budgets, well. It takes one year before the first crop pictures, diagrams and (best of all) advice of mushrooms, so now we just have to wait from the farmers. to see how well this new idea works.

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FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 41

FROM THE FIELD

TIME TO

slow down

Katie Glick grew up on her family farm in Martinsville and now lives with her husband on their family farm near Columbus. She is a graduate of Purdue University and has worked in Indiana politics. She now works in the agriculture industry. She shares her personal, work, travel and farm life stories on her blog, Fancy in the Country.

» IT’S FINALLY SPRING, and our farmers are in the fields, people are working in their gardens and kids are playing outside. We say “finally” these days like it’s a good thing, like we are trying to speed up time and our lives. But is it always a good thing?

As I was rushing home recently, I got stuck behind a truck actually driving the speed limit. I was mad and wanted to go faster after a long week of travel and meetings. But then I decided to take a deep breath and enjoy my leisurely drive through the country on my way home. I rolled down

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the windows, looked to my right and then to my left at the green fields of wheat and freshly plowed fields. Then I looked up at the clouds that resembled lily pads sprinkled across a sea of blue.

In that moment, I reminded myself to slow down. I had to chuckle because I had just told myself the same thing a week before, “Slow down and take a minute to embrace and give thanks for the blessings around you — the people, experiences and beauty on your right and to the left and up in the sky.”

That same night, I watched the movie “Shawshank Redemption,” and while I was busy doing something else I heard this from the television: “I can’t believe how fast things move on the outside. The world went and got itself in a big hurry.” Then I sat down and stopped doing that thing that seemed to make me feel so busy and rushed.

I think many would agree that we have gotten ourselves in a big hurry and are stuck in the hustle and bustle of each hour of each day. And it’s day after day, finally here and finally there.

When my mom was a little girl, her family lived in town and would pile in their car, and every time they drove through the country, she would turn to her two sisters and say: ”I want to own a plowed field someday.” Eventually she did own a plowed field when she married my dad and became a part of a family farm. When we

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were younger, we used to always give my dad a hard time for always looking out the window at his fields instead of the road as he drove us from the farm to town. He was looking at his blessings while we watched him, not really knowing what he was doing.

When he passed, my mom told a group of young farmers that story from her childhood about her owning those plowed fields.

Those fields were once my dad’s blessings, and they were now my mom’s to care and give thanks for.

So now when I actually think to slow down and look out the window to my right and left, I see those blessings that my farmer and I are surrounded by. Then I look up and give thanks.

So what do you need to take a moment to slow down and appreciate? When you stop for a minute, you can look up to give thanks, too. Finally.

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FROM THE FIELD

Plant for Taste and Nutrition

I

BY CHERYL CARTER JONES

I HAVE BEEN A business consultant for many years, but as I started writing the business plan for my farm, you would have thought I was a novice. I had many questions: Was I focusing on the right things? What was most important? I knew financially that I needed to nail down my plan the first time around because farming is not cheap. No blunders are allowed.

In the end, my beliefs really boiled down to creating a sustainable, earth-friendly lifestyle with a focus on the nutritional value and the taste of the food I raise. My thought was and is that regardless of the nutritional value of food, people will not eat it if it does not taste good as well. Thus, my farm motto is “a joint venture with nature.” I made the commitment, but then hoped validation would follow that my choices were on target.

VALIDATION 1 I attended a permaculture class. Permaculture encompasses all that is important to me. I believe in it so wholeheartedly that I am going to become an instructor so I can share the knowledge with others. There are three core ethics that serve as the foundation of permaculture: earth care (If we nurture the earth — soil, air, water — it in turn will reward us with a bounty; people care (We have to value and care for ourselves); and fair share (giving to others in your community circle). Permaculture is not limited to offering a few green beans to a friend because you are sick of canning them. It also extends to sharing your knowledge, pointing someone in the right direction or giving them a hand when they really need it.

John Ikerd

VALIDATION 2 This year was the third year for the Indiana Small Farm Conference in Danville. It is on my “not to be missed” event short list. As always, I learned a few things, had some terrific interactions with old friends and added a few new friends to my list.

44 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

John Ikerd, professor emeritus of agriculture economics, University of Missouri-Columbia, delivered the keynote address during lunch. (I will confess that not all keynotes capture my full attention.) A few minutes into his talk, I was captivated, latching on to his every word. As he spoke, his passion became evident.

This career professor had the guts and integrity to explain how he reached a point in his life where he knew all that he had studied and all that he taught for years was not the right message, and so he retired.

Ikerd spoke about how U.S. agriculture has been transformed into an industrial bottom-line business. To continue to be in the game, farmers have had no choice but to go bigger. As the farms and the equipment got bigger, farming became a vicious cycle of survival. Bottom line, Ikerd says that industrial agriculture is not sustainable. He believes the future of agriculture rests with the revival of the small, sustainable farm. Bingo.

Here was my second validation.

Now, before I proceed to validation 3, let me take a minute to say I grew up on a conventional farm, so I am not against them. I do believe farmers have been forced to go bigger to survive. I also believe that global warming is real. I have done some high-level consulting with a couple of big acreage farms that would like to convert to more environmentally friendly methods, but they also have to pay the bills. Transition does not happen overnight as a general rule, but there are also some relatively inexpensive things that can be done to reduce the effects of chemicals on our environment, for instance. My point is that I admire and respect all farmers, whether we share the same farming methods or not.

VALIDATION 3 As a member of the Indiana Grown Commission, I have had the honor of getting to know fellow commissioner Pete Eshelman and, in turn, his amazing wife, Alice. Pete and Alice own the national award-winning Joseph Decuis restaurant in Roanoke, along with Pete’s brother, Tim. They are constantly on a quest to provide better quality, more nutritious food and have become great friends with Mark Schatzker,

an award-winning food journalist and author living in Toronto.

Schatzker was going to be in town for a talk at Huntington University about his new book, “The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor,” and the Eshelmans hosted a meet-the-author dinner. Hearing about the opportunity, Deb Trocha and I jumped in a car and headed north. The food was nothing short of divine, and the conversation was magnificent.

Schatzker’s new book just became available, and when my copy arrives from Amazon, you bet I will read it cover to cover. He based his book on scientific research and concludes natural flavors are disappearing from food, while the science of chemically reproduced flavor is making tremendous advancements. Schatzker further explains that the epidemics of obesity, heart disease and diabetes are being driven by the taste we crave versus the nutrition we need. The solution, he says, is to bring flavor back to real food so our bodies will crave it.

This third validation is clearly the most profound for me. I believe in local food and promoting the local economy. One of the primary reasons for my beliefs is the increased nutritional value and shelf life of local food. When food arrives in

large trucks from long distances, it has been picked early, which is why so much flavor is lost before it arrives on your table. Food needs to fully ripen before being harvested. It needs to immediately be cooled, or nutritional value can be lost. This does not happen in massively large fields.

Bottom line, food is now grown, processed and transported in such a way that taste and nutrition suffer. At the same time, science is now allowing those very flavors lost on the farm to be produced in laboratories.

Schatzker says that while our addiction to flavor is the problem, it is also actually the solution. He predicts a new revolution in agriculture that will allow us to eat healthier while enjoying flavor the way it was intended.

If you are hoping to grow your own food, here is my advice. Do a little research before you purchase plants or seed for your garden. Seek food that balances nutritional value and flavor. If it tastes good, your family will crave it, which is the goal. Then, nurture your soil, which will nurture your plants. It may be tempting to harvest early, but allow your produce to ripen in the garden. The taste difference is amazing. May we all enjoy a balance of sun and rain this growing season and reap the benefits of healthier food.

For more on Ikerd’s speech, visit the Indiana Small Farm Conference website. He also has written a book, “Small Farms Are Real Farms.”

Cheryl Carter Jones is an Indiana farmer and a board member 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.

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FROM THE FIELD

BEEFRIENDLY Longtime landowner establishes a plan for the future of her land

F

BY CISSY BOWMAN

FARMERS FACE tough decisions every day.

Economic and environmental challenges have led, or forced, many folks to sell their land. Development encroaches on and envelops even our best soils. Pesticides, diseases and environmental factors are killing off our pollinators, including honeybees and native bees. There are fewer farmers, yet we are faced with feeding a rapidly growing population. It’s easy to feel there is nothing one person can do to turn this tide.

However, there are people who have stepped forward to plan for the future, who have chosen to take on these challenges as a personal responsibility. One of them is Betty Phelps Refior.

At 93 years old, Refior says she has witnessed firsthand the changes in agricultural practices and their impact on the environment. She is not the type to take things lightly. Her great love and respect for both honeybees and native bees inspired her, and after years of observation and research, she developed a plan to address her concerns that will carry on into the future. Her vision is to ensure that the 128-year-old Phelps family farm, located near Peru, remains in agriculture and that bees will enjoy a newly established pollinator habitat there.

46 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

Betty Phelps Refior with Cissy Bowman

Refior entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI) in July 2013.

The MOU states that Michael Fields intends to obtain organic certification of the farm by October 2017. Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, in addition to seeing that the farm becomes certified organic, is also establishing a pollinator habitat for native bees and honeybees on the property. Through this agreement, Refior’s concern for the bees is well on its way to becoming reality.

Currently, the farmland is in its second year of transitioning into organic production, and organic certification will likely be accomplished ahead of the agreed-upon date.

The 20 acres of woods where the bee sanctuary will be located is also in the process of being certified organic.

In order to make sure that Refior’s vision is realized, the agreement is written to ensure that the land remains in agriculture.

MFAI is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Easement Program, which protects the longterm viability of the nation’s food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands to non-agricultural uses. Additionally, NRCS will be working with MFAI under the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) to assist in the creation of the pollinator habitat for the bees. Native bees and honeybees are responsible for the pollination of at least one-third of the food that we eat.

The importance of the survival of bees cannot be overstated.

Refior’s gift of the Phelps farm to Michael Fields Agricultural Institute reaches further than its 226 Indiana acres. It serves as a model and inspiration for others. Farmers, as they reach an age or situation where they no longer can or no longer wish to farm, have to decide what to do with their land.

For some, selling is the answer. For others, there is a desire to honor the past and the future by providing a legacy. The Phelps farm will serve as a model and educational tool to demonstrate organic agricultural practices and provide a sanctuary habitat for both native bees and honeybees for generations to come.

Such projects involve a great deal of research, thought and planning. Refior’s vigor, enthusiasm and passion have kept her actively involved in the process, making sure her voice is heard as the steps are taken to fulfill her dream. Her love for the soil, the bees and the environment will carry on past her lifetime as an example to all and as an outward sign of her personal dedication.

The world — and the bees — need more Betty Refiors.

The founder and program director of Hoosier Organic Marketing Education, Cissy Bowman has been growing food organically since 1973 and on her current farm, Center Valley Organic Farm, since 1983. For more information on Hoosier Organic Marketing Education, email cvof@ earthlink.net or call (317) 539-2753.

BY JESSICA HOOPENGARDNER

Misconceptions

about

goats

» Flashback to the summer before my sophomore year. I am at a livestock judging camp in Tennessee with some other kids from my school. The University of Tennessee is hosting us, so we get a taste of campus life — dorm rooms, cafeteria food and, most importantly, meeting new people.

Immediately after moving into the dorms for the week, people are introducing themselves. I remember one conversation with a person from Tennessee very vividly. This person asked us if we had any livestock. A friend of mine decided to speak for the group. He would point at one of us and then say what we had. As he came around to me, he said, “Oh, and she doesn’t count because she has dairy goats.” This was not the first time, nor would it be the last time, someone thought that our farm “didn’t count” because we had dairy goats.

I am always shocked about the misconceptions of dairy goats — not only outside the agriculture industry, but inside it, too. I’ve had people ask, “You can really milk goats?” like this is some new concept to the world. But actually, this is a very traditional concept to most of the world — just not in the United States.

Outside of the United States, goats are celebrated, because they are like small cattle. In the U.S., we use cattle for many things: milk, meat, hide and byproducts. In other countries, those four things are also used from goats, which take up less pasture, require less food and also produce less waste. They are smaller, so this means they are easier to handle. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that goats were the first animal to be domesticated, due to their size and versatility.

Yet people are floored when I say that we milk goats. Americans have somehow blocked out the rest of the world when it comes to the versatility of the goat and have focused on cattle instead. I will admit that the goat industry is growing rapidly due to a high demand, but this demand is normally driven by immigrant cultures. I have friends at school who have meat goats and find good profit with them. However, even though they themselves have goats, they still “don’t count” dairy goats.

But dairy goats should and do count.

They have a higher butter fat than cattle, which means we can make more cheese from less milk. A common misconception is that goat milk tastes “goaty,” which Jessica Hoopengardner, picisn’t true if the milk is handled properly. tured at her family farm, is If the milk is handled improperly, then it a senior at Eastern Hancock can develop an earthy, or “goaty,” flavor.

High School in Hancock Despite this, the demand for goat cheese, County. Very involved in 4-H and FFA, Hoopengardmilk and other products still grows. With ner is the vice president of more people from around the world movher 4-H club and the presiing to America, the idea that goats can dent of her FFA chapter. She provide meat and milk is growing. I am plans on going to college excited to see how our business will grow outside Indiana and majorover the years as the United States learns ing in English and biology. that dairy goats do count.

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 47

CONTINUING EDUCATION

On The Schedule Hear that buzzing? It might be the sound of all those hives that are the focus of various bee-centric classes around the state this month. Pay particular attention to the queen bee course at Purdue Bee Lab; it’s a massive once-a-year event. Feeling inspired by the Chicken Whisperer? Organizers at Fall Creek Gardens will catch you up on the ins and outs of starting your own flock of backyard chickens. Need to unwind with a glass of vino after a long day of tending to your chickens and honeybees and prefer to make it yourself? Don’t miss the Winemaker Wednesday series at Blackhawk Winery and Vineyard. You’ll be making your own wine, perhaps enhanced with some homegrown herbs you learned about in the Fall Creek Gardens herb class.

BY KATHERINE COPLEN

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.

48 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

Keeping Backyard Chickens This popular program includes a meet and greet with some local heirloom chicken breeds and a long Q&A session.

Register in advance.

WHEN: 10 a.m., June 7 LOCATION: Fall Creek Gardens, 3018 Central Ave., Indianapolis INFORMATION: fallcreekgardens.org

Planning Outdoor Living for Your Backyard and Herb Gardens Refreshments are provided at this opento-the-public talk about plotting gardens and living space.

WHEN: 5:45 p.m., June 1 LOCATION: Clay Township Center, 10701 N. College Ave., Carmel INFORMATION: herbsocietyofcentralindiana.org

10 O’Clock Beekeepers Amateur and experienced beekeepers from across south central Indiana are welcome at this monthly meeting.

WHEN: 7 p.m., June 8 LOCATION: Brown County Library, 205 Locust Lane, Nashville INFORMATION: 10oclockbeeline. wordpress.com

Early Season Diagnostic Workshop This workshop covers identification of insect, nematode, herbicide and disease problems in corn, soybeans, forages and small grains, plus other factors that influence and impact crop growth. The cost is $110 per person.

WHEN: 8 a.m., June 18 LOCATION: Purdue Agronomy Center for Research and Education, 915 W. State St., West Lafayette INFORMATION: (765) 494-4783

Growing and Cooking with Herbs

Winemaker Wednesday Lab School

This class is taught by master gardener Julie Iverson and geared toward beginners interested in growing herbs for use in the kitchen. The course is $15, which includes a tasting of multiple herb-based recipes.

WHEN: 10 a.m., June 20 LOCATION: Fall Creek Gardens, 3018 Central Ave. INFORMATION: fallcreekgardens.org

Interested in becoming a winemaker?

At this workshop, you’ll learn all about the scientific measurements involved in winemaking, including pH, TA, alcohol and residual sugar. It costs $10 per person to attend, which includes wine tasting and light appetizers.

WHEN: 6 p.m., June 10 LOCATION: Blackhawk Winery and Vineyard, 28153 Ditch Road, Sheridan INFORMATION: (765) 496-3842, jkmerritt@purdue.edu

Tour de Fleur 2015 Garden Walk Visit 12 showy gardens in Evansville and Newburgh during this Garden Walk.

Master gardeners will be on hand at each for any questions you may have. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 day of event.

WHEN: 9 a.m., June 20-21 LOCATION: Master Gardener Display Gardens, 3501 E. Lloyd Expressway, Evansville INFORMATION: (812) 455-4378 or swimga.org/events

Purdue Bee Lab Field Day This event is open to all beekeepers, from amateurs to very experienced keepers. Two sessions of breakout classes, plus research updates and an open Q&A session will take place during the one-day event. It is $25 per person or $40 per family, with lunch included.

WHEN: 8 a.m., June 20 LOCATION: Purdue University Bee Lab, 2255 W. State Road 26, West Lafayette INFORMATION: (317) 432-9578 or indianabeekeeper.com

Metamorphosis in Your Own Backyard At this short workshop, attendees will learn about the monarch life cycle, as well as how to raise and attract them.

The workshops, taught by Extension educator Karen Hinshaw, are free.

WHEN: 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., June 23 LOCATION: Victory Noll Center, 1900 W. Park Drive, Huntington INFORMATION: (260) 358-4826

Pre/Post Harvest Workshop Organized by the Purdue Crop Diagnostic Training & Research Center, this workshop is part of a series of training sessions designed to help identify various problems with corn, soybean, small grain and forage crops.

The cost is $55 per participant.

WHEN: 8 a.m., June 19 LOCATION: Southwest Purdue Ag Center, 4669 Purdue Road, Vincennes INFORMATION: (765) 494-4783

Queen Rearing Short Course This three-day intensive workshop covers what you need to know about queen bees, from hatching, mating, swarming and grafting. It costs $150 per person to attend.

WHEN: June 18-20 LOCATION: Purdue Honey Bee Laboratory, 2255 State Road 26, West Lafayette INFORMATION: kgiven@purdue.edu

83rd Annual Farm Management Tour Farmers and those who provide goods and services to farmers should take note of this annual farm management tour, which visits various high-performing farms to explore their management techniques and operations strategies.

Organizers require registration, but the tour is free.

WHEN: June 23-24 LOCATION: Various locations in Adams and Jay counties INFORMATION: agecon.purdue. edu/commercialag

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LOCAL FOOD

A SWEET

dream

BY CLINT SMITH

For more information, visit brookescandyco.com.

BROOKE SCHMIDT was 12 years old when her family moved to Dana. She can still recall the first time they pulled into town.

“I remember coming across the (railroad) tracks when I was young for the first time thinking, ‘Wow … what a neat town,’” she says. “It had a grocery store, dime store, hardware store, restaurants, craft store, flower shop and more.”

The town isn’t quite what it used to be.

Modern Dana has fewer than 600 residents, she says, and the town lost all its stores “except a post office, tavern, diner (and) pizza place.” It even lost her for a spell.

After graduating from high school, Schmidt moved to Illinois, where she met and married her husband, Doug, and they began raising a family. It wasn’t until 2002 that she returned with her new family and

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50 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

with a sweet dream in tow. “I always wanted to have a business making food,” she explains, “I … loved to play with recipes even as a child.”

And Schmidt wanted to start that business in Dana. “When Brooke’s Candy was started, we decided it was best to have it in Dana because of how the town had gone down,” she explains. “Our mission has and still is to help this town come alive again.”

In 2004, Brooke’s Candy Co. emerged.

The retail shop is housed in Schmidt’s childhood home, a 1900 Colonial-style structure fronted by four pillars. “People love to walk into this house with the original wood floors and staircase in the foyer,” she says. And they also love the shop’s sweet treasures.

Schmidt’s first — and one of her best-selling — recipes was for almond toffee, which was a featured addition to celebrity gift bags at the 2015 Grammy Awards.

Dana Brown (employee); Brooke Schmidt; Dana Vickers (Schmidt’s sister); and Donna Thompson (Schmidt’s mother).

Truffle and brownie bites, gourmet apples, sea salt caramels, turtles, mints and fudge also find their ways onto the shop menu; but it’s her “dry line” of gluten-free mixes, Brooke’s Naturals, that is stirring discussion.

“We are working with Husk (Local Food System) out of Greenfield to bring our gluten- and rice-free mixes to stores across Indiana and the Midwest this year,” Schmidt says. Husk is acting as co-packer, selling Brooke’s Naturals through Farm League, which is “something (Husk) started when they realized that small companies like (mine) will pay to have them help us.”

Some of the gluten-free mixes include Belgian chocolate brownie, chocolate chip cookie, banana bread and chocolate harvest hot cocoa. “We want to be a household name known for good things,” she explains.

And though Schmidt has big ambitions, her motivation is intimately woven to the tightly knit ethos of her rural community.

“Small towns are disappearing, and that is a very sad thing,” she says. “Our mission is the bigger we get, the more we can help bring it back.”

For Schmidt, this approach may be the latest recipe she’s perfecting, a recipe for preservation. “Indiana has a lot of people working hard to achieve the same goal of bringing better food, local food back to our kitchen tables,” she says. “We love being part of it.”

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BERRY LOVE

BourbonStrawberry Sauce

By Twinkle VanWinkle When the smell of summer begins to creep through the morning air, I’m often reminded of sweet things my grandmother created after she’d been out picking strawberries as the sun was just coming up.

Strawberries were part of our summer routine — like catching fish, having cookouts and drinking Kool-Aid — and they still speak to me in a way that no other food can. Whether they become preserves, pies or just piled in a bowl covered in fresh milk and sugar, strawberries are part of what defines summer in Indiana.

But before you begin to create that handed-down recipe from your grandmother or one of your very own, don’t forget to hull your strawberries. This important step might sound tedious and difficult, but it is quite the opposite. Simply put, it takes a quick twist of the wrist with a paring knife or other handy kitchen tool to scoop out the stem and bitter part of the berry. And when looks aren’t important, an ordinary drinking straw does the job quickly. Once you’ve hulled your berries, rinse them and let air dry. Then make something yummy to eat.

PARING KNIFE METHOD:

STRAW METHOD:

OTHER TOOLS:

Cut around the stem as close as you can, holding the blade of the knife at an angle away from the berry. You’ll want to push the tip of the blade in just enough to cut away the pithy core that is directly underneath the stem. Once you’ve cut completely around the stem, you should be able to pop it right out.

Place the berry upside down.

Gently press a drinking straw into the center of the bottom of your berry and push. Make sure to keep the straw straight, pushing through to the other side. As you make your way toward the stem, pull the strawberry away from the cutting board and the core and stem should drop out from the berry.

You can also use a tomato corer, melon baller or the tip of a steel vegetable peeler. With these methods, just press into the berry around the stem and scoop it out. Sometimes if you are overzealous, however, you might get more berry than you intended. Try to keep a steady pace to make sure you aren’t scooping off the entire top of the berry.

Drizzle over homemade ice cream or sweet shortcakes.

3 cups hulled strawberries, rinsed 1 cup water ½ cup local honey 1 teaspoon bourbon ½ teaspoon vanilla extract ½ teaspoon kosher salt » Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly. » Boil for two minutes, then lower temperature and continue to cook for eight minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking to the bottom of the pan. » Let cool and store in refrigerator for up to three weeks. You can also process in sealed jars in a water bath for longer storage or freeze for up to six months.

SCHNEIDER FEED AND SEED

Area Dealer TOM SCHNEIDER

BECK’S HYBRIDS 6767 E. 27th St. Atlanta, IN 46031

(317) 984-3508 (800) 937-2325 (317) 984-3500 FAX www.beckshybrid.com

GARDEN SEED, GRASS SEED, FERTILIZER & MULCH

111 Fourth Street PO Box 770 North Vernon, IN 47265

Store (812) 346-3760 Mobile (812) 592-2252 schneiderfeedandseed@yahoo.com

darlage custom meats Stop In For The Best

pork • beef • t-bones • ribeyes • filets ground beef • pork burgers beef freezer bundles

full retail meat case meat smoking available 5974 E. Schleter Rd., Seymour • 522-1635 • Just off Highway 50 FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 51

LOCAL FOOD

RECIPE

Indiana Dill Bread The Local Eatery and Pub, Westfield

START TO FINISH

3 hours

SERVINGS

18-24 rolls, depending upon size

1 package fast-acting dry yeast ¼ cup warm water 1 green onion 1 cup sour cream 2 tablespoons sugar 1 egg 3 teaspoons dill seed or weed 1 teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons butter, divided 2¼ to 2½ cups flour (after sifting) 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

In a small bowl, add ¼ cup water and heat in a microwave to between 105 to 115 F. Sprinkle yeast into the warm water and gently stir with a fork. Set aside.

but not too dry. Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap and then with a clean towel.

Set the bowl in a warm place until it doubles in volume, about 1 hour.

With a sharp knife, roughly cut onion into chunks and place in a blender jar. Blend on high until smooth, forming a puree. Set aside.

Butter a baking sheet or baking stone and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer using a balloon whisk, whip sour cream for 3 minutes. Remove balloon whisk and replace with beater attachment.

Add yeast mixture, sugar, egg, dill, salt, baking soda, 1 tablespoon green onion puree and 1 tablespoon butter to sour cream and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Set aside.

Sift flour into a large bowl. Gradually add flour, ½ cup at a time to the yeast and egg mixture, stirring well with a large spoon. Be sure to incorporate all of the flour, ½ cup at a time, before adding another ½ cup. The dough should be smooth and elastic,

52 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

When the dough has doubled in volume, remove the plastic wrap and punch the dough down with your fist. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into several balls about the size of a fist. Place the dough balls on the buttered baking sheet, leaving 1 inch of space between. Make sure they do not touch each other. Cover with a damp paper towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove paper towel from dough balls and discard. Place baking sheet on the middle rack and bake 25 minutes.

Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a small bowl in the microwave.

Carefully remove the baking tray from the oven. Brush the top of each roll with butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Return the baking sheet to the oven and let bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack or serve warm.

The recipe on this page can be found in the Hoosier Harvest cookbook, a publication of Farm Indiana. It can be purchased for $24.99 by calling (800) 876-7811 or visiting therepublic.com/cookbook.

Rural Living & Local Food

CLASSIFIEDS Rust-Unger Monuments Since 1865

BOOKKEEPING PAY R O L L & TAX E S Sheri Nichalson • Shannon Wooten Anita Dibble • Susan Fox 240 CALIFORNIA STREET, COLUMBUS | 812-372-9888

Inc. Residential • Agricultural • Industrial Locally Owned-Licensed & Insured

Lot/Property/Boundary Surveys Elevation Certificates • LOMA Applications Pool • Garage • Pole Barn Site Plans Subdivision of Lot/Property Construction Stakeout • Estate Planning Topography Surveys ALTA-Land Title Surveys GPS Surveys

Serving The Community for Over 25 Years 1428 Lafayette Ave • PO Box 1357 • Columbus, IN 47202 812.372.7398 • ergray.com

Custom Built Material Handling Equipment Carts, Racks, Conveyors, Shipping, Containers, Handrails, Ornamental Iron Work

On Site Welding Available Machining (Milling, Drilling, Turning)

www.davidsinc.com

905 S. Gladstone Ave., Columbus, IN

812-376-6870

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 53

Rural Living & Local Food

CLASSIFIEDS

Silgas Fertilgro

We provide the supplies, services, training & expertise necessary to make your farming successful!

1864 W. 550 N. • 812-372-4469

Family Owned Since 1955

780 Repp Drive, Columbus

812-372-6177 Real Estate Farm Machinery Estates Antiques Collectibles Household & Specialty Auctions 812.342.3264 812.523.6664

Mike Mensendiek (CES)

www.auctionsandrealestate.com

Auctioneer/Realtor Certified Estate Specialist Lic# AU08900147

AUCTIONEERS SINCE 1961

Local and family owned, Johnson-Witkemper Insurance wants to invite you to call us for the best in service and competitive insurance programs. Whether it be for Auto, Home, Business, Life or Health Insurance, we promise to do our best for you. www.jwinsurnace.com 305 Washington St., Columbus, IN

812-372-7829

54 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015

TOM LAWSON, OWNER 812-525-4893 or 812-346-3700 www.lawsonauctionservice.com

TOM SMITH GLASS CO.

Commercial • Residential Insulated Glass, Mirror, Window & Screen Repair

FREE ESTIMATES

550 Center Street • Columbus 812-372-2887

Haiderer Homes

CALL US TO PLAN YOUR AUCTION • Household • Antiques • Real Estate • Estate • Farm • Appraisals B. Parker Newsom Jr. 812-372-7134

Daniel E. Boewe 812-378-1901

www.boewe-newsom-auctions.com

Building • Remodeling • Residential • Commercial "The Difference is in the Quality" 1221 Rocky Ford Rd., Columbus

812-372-2674

Storage Solutions For Every Need

Small or

Large See Us on Facebook

Business or Personal Long or Short Term

3128 N. National Rd. Columbus, IN 47201

812-379-4327

739 Repp Court, Columbus • 372-6717

Jane Bowman, ACA, BC-HIS Owner

Email: Jbowmanhearingservice@hotmail.com

website: www.jbowmanhearing.com

Award Winning Estate Wines

SHOWROOM SALES SERVICE FIREPLACES DUCT CLEANING

at 11am y day r e v E O p en for Lunch Handcrafted Beers on Tap Brick Oven Pizza BREWPUB

$14 Pitchers on Sunday $5 Growler Fills on Tuesday Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11am-9pm Friday & Saturday 11am-10pm Like us on Facebook

8111 E. 450 N. Rd. • Columbus • 812-546-0091 www.450northbrewing.com | www.simmonswinery.com

FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015 // 55

Jacobi Sales, Inc.

415 Stevens Way, Seymour, IN 47274 (812) 523-5050 550 Earlywood Dr., Franklin, IN 46131 (317) 738-4440

56 // FARM INDIANA // JUNE 2015