Farm Indiana | May 2016

MAY 2016

Rural Living & Local Food

Tastes of Spring Fresh ideas to celebrate the season

ALSO

Blue Barn Shrimp // Brambleberry Farm // Capriole Farm // The Garden Park

A monthly publication of AIM Media Indiana, 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.

PUBLISHER Chuck Wells EDITOR Sherri Lynn Dugger CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Cissy Bowman, Liz Brownlee, Katherine Coplen, Katie Glick, Cheryl Carter Jones, Jim Mayfield, Shawndra Miller, Rebecca Townsend, Twinkle VanWinkle, Catherine Whittier COPY EDITOR Katharine Smith SENIOR GRAPHIC ARTIST Margo Wininger ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Amanda Waltz ADVERTISING DESIGN

Emma Ault, Dondra Brown, Tonya Cassidy, John Cole, Ashley Curry, Julie Daiker, Cassie Doles, Josh Meyer, Desiree Poteete, Tina Ray, Robert Wilson PHOTOGRAPHER Josh Marshall IMAGE TECHNICIAN Matt Quebe

©2016 by AIM Media Indiana.

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

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Contents MAY 2016

Laura Karr

5 Field Notes

32 Local Food

6 The Garden Park 12 Brambleberry Farm 16 Capriole Farm 20 KG Acres 24 Forest Park FFA 28 Blue Barn Shrimp

34 From the Field

Columns by growers

Tips and advice

20

Henry Social Club

39 Continuing Education ON THE COVER

See recipe on page 33.

Photo by Twinkle VanWinkle

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

3

EDITOR’S NOTE

Local News

I

I write this editor’s note after experiencing seven straight days of perfect weather here in Indiana. The sun has been shining, and because of it, all has seemed right in this world. My optimism inevitably rises with the temperatures each year, and it’s no wonder.

With spring’s arrival, my husband and I figuratively wake from our winter slumber and jump into projects for our home and farm. First on the list this year is turning our garage into a farm store. (My husband asked me today if I actually wanted to open a farm store or if this store idea was instead a ruse just to get the garage re-roofed and re-sided. My answer: “I want to open a farm store, and I want to get the garage re-roofed and re-sided.” No lie.)

Once the garage is gussied up and ready to go, we’re signing on to be a pickup site for two online food aggregators (hoosierharvestmarket. com and farmersmarket.com), and it gives me great joy to help connect our state’s farmers and food providers with the growing numbers of hungry Hoosiers. We live in a rural area with notably low access to healthy and locally grown food. The nearest grocery store sits more than 10 miles from our town, and my husband and I are both excited to offer our neighbors easier access to good food.

Building these connections is a large part of what we try to do with Farm Indiana each month, and it remains a personal mission for

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

me in nearly every aspect of my life. I want to celebrate those modern-day pioneers around us who are taking creative and thoughtful approaches to food production in an everchanging agricultural landscape — people like permaculture growers Darren and Espri BenderBeauregard of Orange County’s Brambleberry Farm, Judy Schad of Capriole Farm and Jason and Joanna Hahn at Blue Barn Shrimp, all of whom you will see profiled in this issue.

It’s an exciting time for locally grown food in Indiana. “Local food,” now considered the fastest-growing section in big-box grocery stores, is regularly touted on restaurant menus, is sought-after at farmers markets and is prized as the darling of our dinner plates. This good news trickles down to each of us involved in the local food scene, whether we’re growers, processors, distributors or consumers. The focus in Indiana, and increasingly around the world, is on growing nutritious and greattasting food and getting it into the hands of those who need it, each and every one of us.

Bon appétit.

FIELD NOTES

BY CATHERINE WHITTIER

G

An Early Start

GRANT PERSHING of Blue Hour Farm in Bloomington begins prepping his no-till beds for spring and summer succession planting in March each year. First, he takes out his winter crops, then he uses a propane flame weeder to address weeds in the beds. Next, he fertilizes with an organic fertilizer and follows with a 1- to 2-inch layer of organic compost derived from a mixture of composted horse manure and spent grain from a local brewery. He then plants within a week.

“I like to use a lot of transplants,” says Pershing, who prefers to get ahead by starting his seeds indoors in cell packs under lights. After many years of farming on In March, Pershing his 3½-acre organic inspects the lettuce farm, he favors his bed at Blue Hour Farm. back by using a Hatfield Transplanter, which allows him to plant seedlings while standing. He repeats the use of organic fertilizer and compost throughout the season.

Pershing uses a broadfork to manually break up the soil, unless he has a cover crop to till into the bed. In that case, he will till lightly on the surface with a walkbehind tractor, which is lighter on the ground and causes less compaction than a traditional tractor. “The implements do pretty much anything at a fraction of the cost of a real tractor,” he says.

Through Blue Hour Farm, Pershing offers a small community supported agriculture program and sells to grocery stores and restaurants and at Bloomington’s summer and winter farmers markets. For more information, call (812) 361-8921.

»

BASEMENT DWELLERS EACH YEAR, Andy Vasquez of JNJ Organic Farm in Kouts grows 36,000 seedlings in two greenhouses that he built in the basement of his home. Each greenhouse has two shelving units, (each 8 feet tall with three to four shelves) that were constructed using 2-by-4 lumber.

The shelving units are placed parallel to one another with room for a walkway in between, which serve as the inside of the greenhouse.

Three of the outside walls, as well as the top of the shelving units, are covered with material (Vasquez uses foil-faced bubble wrap), leaving a doorway on one end. Each greenhouse is covered again with plastic sheeting.

Above each individual shelf hangs a fullspectrum fluorescent light, which can be adjusted up and down over the plants as they grow. The lights must be very close to seedlings as they break ground, says Vasquez, or plants will grow long and spindly as they reach for the light.

Early in February, he plants seeds in 512-count, ¼-inch commercial seedling trays.

He then heats the greenhouse area to 80 degrees using an inexpensive 1,500-watt electric heater, which can be found at most home improvement stores, he explains. The electric heater adds an additional $50 to $80 to his electric bill during the coldest months, but is a great savings over the many hundreds it would cost to heat an outdoor greenhouse. Within approximately

seven days, many of his seedlings sprout.

Since excessive moisture can spell trouble when starting seeds and raising healthy seedlings, Vasquez recommends that cell trays be allowed to drink water from the bottom, rather than get sprayed or watered from the top. Simply place trays in an inch or less of water in a shallow plastic storage bin and allow to soak for about one hour.

If basement growers experience a build-up of moisture that causes mold to grow on plants or dirt, Vasquez recommends spraying plants with chamomile tea (after it has cooled down), twice daily, for three days, to eradicate the problem.

“There’s no need to buy 4-inch pots to transplant seedlings,” suggests Vasquez.

Growers can recycle water bottles by cutting them just at the top of the cylinder and using them for pots, he explains.

The basement greenhouses cost him somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 when he built them 10 years ago. That total included the cost of the wood, insulation, plastic sheeting, lights, heater and trays for both structures.

JNJ Organic Farm sells produce and eggs at various farmers markets and also sells community supported agriculture shares to customers who pick up their products at the JNJ Organic Farm. For more information, call (219) 669-7862.

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

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Jeremy Park

A Fair Trade 6

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

Park’s daughters, Anna Marie and Judith, transplant starters into pots.

How a trip to a farm auction changed Jeremy Park’s life forever

BY CATHERINE WHITTIER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

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Anna Marie helps carry wood for her dad to the wood-burning stove.

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IN 1992, JEREMY PARK’S dad invited him along on a trip to Dinky’s Auction Center in Daviess County, an area known for its large Amish community. Jeremy, then a sophomore at Indian Creek High School in Trafalgar, purchased two weanling draft horses that he and his friends would later hitch to a makeshift sled for winter fun.

Two years later, Jeremy and his friends, now high school seniors, were eager for a more versatile ride. They decided that a horse and buggy would be the way to go. The young men were serious enough about their unusual idea to hop in the truck and head to Daviess County where Jeremy was sure they would find what they were looking for. They happened upon a garage sale and hit the jackpot; he purchased a new horse, buggy and harness.

After returning home, he began to exchange letters with the man who sold him his horse. Before long Jeremy, now a student at Purdue University, started spending his weekends, and later, every other week during the summer, learning and working on the farm where he’d purchased his buggy horse.

The Garden Park These regular visits changed 17963 U.S. 231, Loogootee, (812) 295-9056 the course of Jeremy’s life. He resolved to one day live among the Amish, to use his resources in cooperation with others and to raise his future family in the Amish tradition. In 1999, approximately one year after he graduated from Purdue with a degree in ag finance, Jeremy moved into a small house in the Amish community. “Mom and Dad brought me down here with that old horse we bought during high school,” he says. “I had her and that old buggy.”

After Jeremy arrived in Martin County, he took several jobs, including the role of fourth- through eighth-grade teacher in a local school. He also began the process of joining the church, and he met Miriam Wagler, the young woman who would become his wife, at one of the youth sing-along 8

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

gatherings in the Amish community.

The couple married in 2001, and one of the first things they did was plant mums on a patch of the 180 acres Miriam’s family owns along U.S. 231. As a boy, Jeremy had gone with his father to help their neighbors at Fischer Farm Flowers, which was located across from his childhood home on State Road 135 near Trafalgar. He remembered that the Fischers sold thousands of mums to travelers on their way to see fall colors in Brown County, and he saw the same potential

for sales along U.S. 231, which serves as a thoroughfare for Crane Naval facility employees.

Jeremy and Miriam started with 500 mum plants. They now grow approximately 3,500 each season from their home-based greenhouse business, The Garden Park. There, friends and family routinely gather on Saturday mornings.

“People just kind of congregate, mingle and talk,” says Jeremy. The Parks sell bedding plants, flowers, seeds, pumpkins and more, and they also do a fair

amount of trading with neighbors, offering labor and other goods in exchange for help with their farm business. These handshake-brokered deals help to build relationships both within the local community and beyond it.

The Garden Park is not just a retail store and greenhouse; it’s an integral part of the Park family’s small farm life, and that life — free from the pull of technology and outside influence, a life where work is done within the context of family and community — represents the ideals that first attracted Jeremy to the Amish lifestyle when he was a young man.

A TEAM EFFORT

Park’s son, Daniel, 13, gives a ride to his cousin. Left: Park loads wood and coal into the furnace to keep the plants warm.

After first planting mums, Jeremy and Miriam soon began thinking about how they could expand their business. The couple owned six of the Waglers’ 180

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Park waters plants in the greenhouse.

Below, from left, Caleb, 5. Park’s dad, Joe, visits his son and helps on the farm.

peratures in the greenhouses and adjusts the boiler and opens and closes the roof and sides as needed. Last year, the Parks added a third greenhouse, trading labor with a nearby orchard owner to build it.

Beginning in January, Jeremy and Miriam plant seeds in trays in their home kitchen, warmed by heat generated from the wood stove. Once the seedlings are up, the trays are moved to the sunroom, where they grow until big enough to transplant. Transplanting takes place in the workshop around a large table, where Miriam and family members and regular customers all lend a hand.

For some customers, stopping by the farm to help is just as satisfying as coming by to shop. “It’s like stepping into a different time, where there is no pressure or stress,” says Jackie Riley, who happened upon The Garden Park about five years ago while doing business at a nearby cabinet shop. Jackie now regularly makes the 45-minute drive from her home in Bloomington, not only to buy her flowers, but also to help in the workshop.

“I told Miriam I would be there every day if I lived closer. It’s like therapy,” says Jackie, who won’t answer her phone while working at the farm. “It’s away from the

Park gets help preparing for a freeze from his brother and sister-in-law, Aaron and Rebecca Park.

acres, where they had built a house and barn, and they began to think about building a greenhouse business.

In 2007, with the help of family and the church community, the Parks assembled two 30-by-60-foot greenhouses and built an outbuilding, which serves as home to the retail store, workshop, and storage area for The Garden Park.

Miriam handles the ordering of seeds, plants and supplies, and manages the retail store, while Jeremy supervises the 10

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

greenhouse temperatures and tends to the plants during the growing season.

During non-peak months, he works part time at a nearby cabinet shop.

The greenhouses at The Garden Park are heated with a large wood- and coal-burning boiler, which circulates hot water, via gravity, through a series of pipes that radiate heat. The hot water can be forced to move faster, on very cold days, with the aid of a solar-powered pump. Jeremy keeps watch over the tem-

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Park and Anna Marie prepare propane heaters for the night freeze. Below, from left: Daniel sifts through dirt to fill pots.

Daniel and Caleb collect chicken eggs.

hustle and bustle of my busy life.”

Jeremy and Miriam “got to know several people from over at a church in Mitchell, (and now) about half the church comes here,” he says. “The preacher’s wife loaded up six ladies, and they came over in the church van one day. They brought dinner and transplanted and had a big time. So it’s kind of the atmosphere we get in here. Sometimes it’s more of a gathering place.”

Jeremy’s parents, Joe and Elizabeth Park, frequently come from their home in Trafalgar to visit and lend a hand, especially during the busiest times at The Garden Park. Miriam’s father, Howard Wagler, also helps at the greenhouse

each morning. The Parks have laying hens, two buggy horses, three miniature ponies and three rabbits, which Daniel, their oldest of five children, is learning to raise and sell. The family also keeps a garden and grows hay for their horses on part of the land.

“As far as putting up hay, we don’t have any draft horses, and we don’t have any farm machinery of our own,” Jeremy explains. Miriam’s brother has equipment, which is offered in trade. “We trade a lot in that aspect on everything. That’s just what you do. Down here in this community, and in this lifestyle, you go to the other guy and help, and then he’ll come back and help you.”

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The Bender-Beauregards’ lean-to greenhouse.

A Sustainable Life

H

Permaculture farmers Darren and Espri Bender-Beauregard focus on big-picture goals

By Sherri Lynn Dugger // Photography by Josh Marshall

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

HE GRAFTS TREES, using his Goshen College education in field biology and forestry studies to perfect the growth of nursery stock. She uses her art education (also acquired at Goshen) to craft cooking utensils that she sells in an online store. Together, Darren and Espri Bender-Beauregard run Brambleberry Farm in Orange County, where

they retail perennial fruit, nut and berry varieties, construct eco-friendly kitchenware, manage a 3½-acre pasture for rotating cows, chickens, geese and ducks, and raise a family that includes three growing girls: Viola, 6, and twins, Eleanor and Sylvia, 3.

The couple also has, quite literally, raised their own home. The Bender-Beauregard family resides in a 1,350-square-foot straw bale house that Darren and Espri built, using the plumbing and construction skills Espri picked up while volunteering in a yearlong home repair program in Arizona and the permaculture principles that

Darren gleaned while volunteering for a Community Food Bank the same year.

All in all, Darren, 35, and Espri, 38, have cultivated an existence that speaks to their love of family, food, art and the environment. And life, as they see it, is just as it should be.

A Shared Vision

It wasn’t long after Darren and Espri met and began dating at Goshen College that they discovered they shared a desire to start a permaculture-based farm. Espri had grown up on the property where she and Darren now live, her parents, Ray and Mica Beauregard, having purchased the land many years prior. With time spent in Maryland and Pennsylvania as a young boy, Darren, the son of a Mennonite pastor, has agriculture in his lineage.

His grandfather was a dairy farmer; his mother now runs the family business.

After graduating from college (Espri in 2001; Darren in 2002), the couple put in a volunteer year in Arizona before returning to the family land near Paoli. With a great deal of student loan debt and little else, they purchased a small mobile home to place on the 13 acres Espri’s parents had given them. Then they went to work.

Officially establishing their farm in the fall of 2003, “we both had this dream that requires being rooted in a place,” Darren says. “I wanted to plant fruit trees and berries, but you just can’t do that

Root cellar and cistern combo.

Darren and Espri Bender-Beauregard with their twins, Eleanor and Sylvia, 3, inside their home.

when you’re only somewhere for a year or whatever. She (Espri) always wanted to get dairy goats. We wanted to realize those two dreams.”

Espri acquired Nubian goats, and Darren began planting. Over the years, the couple experimented with several microenterprises. They ran a small communitysupported agriculture program and sold

produce at Orange County’s Orleans Farmers Market. Espri made and sold wood-fired breads and cinnamon rolls for a while. They grazed sheep and raised, butchered and sold hogs. Darren even tried his hand at developing grass-fed beef with a neighboring farmer.

As some enterprises fell away (the goats, the sheep and the hogs are gone for now), others began to take root. Espri developed her kitchen utensil business; she spent the past winter reorganizing her woodworking studio for more efficient production. The couple raises and sells Golden Comet pullets each year, setting aside 10 or so laying hens to help feed their family, and Darren, when he has time, offers consulting services for creating and designing permaculture farms.

Over the years, he also has learned the art of grafting, which involves inserting a section from a tree stem of a certain variety into an existing tree of a different variety. With time, the tissues unify and a branch capable of yielding the tree stem’s variety emerges. Using this method, Darren found he could propagate new plants

quickly, eliminating the need to wait for small saplings to mature into fruit-bearing trees. After using many of the new trees to build up a fruit-bearing forest on their own property, Darren soon began selling leftover plants at the farmers market. His customers loved them. In short order, nursery stock became a major source of the family’s income.

“Our approach to focusing on food and functional plants and offering varieties that do well in our region is a fairly untapped niche market for now,” Darren explains. “There are many small and large nurseries selling bedding plants, ornamental plants and vegetable starts, but very few selling a wide variety of fruit and nut plants.”

The couple now run a by-appointment nursery on their property. Regular customers stop by to get plant starts each year. They also use the visits to pick up pointers about their purchases. “Darren has been someone we could rely upon for advice and hardy nursery stock that we needed to build our perennial beds at Sobremesa Farm,” says Robert Frew, who FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

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Whip-and-Tongue Graft of a ‘Northstar’ Sour Cherry Tree onto Mazzard Rootstock 1. Darren prepares the rootstock by pruning off excess roots.

2. He snips a piece of scionwood (the

top part of a graft; the variety he’s wanting fruit from) that matches the caliper of the rootstock (the bottom part of a graft; he’s wanting it for rooting quality), seen here as the lighter colored stick on the right.

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

3. He double-checks that the calipers 6. He makes a “tongue” cut on scion. of scion and rootstock match up.

7. The whip-and-tongue graft fit into place.

4. He makes the first cut on the rootstock with a very 8. He tightly wraps the graft union sharp grafting knife. with Parafilm wax tape.

5. He makes equal-angled cuts 9. This is a 1-year-old whip-andon rootstock (foreground) and scion (background).

tongue graft for an apple tree. The “zigzag” scar is still evident but will disappear in two to three years.

met the couple years ago at the Orleans market. “He (Darren) has always been patient and kind.”

With 12 years of experience growing the very plants they sell, Darren and Espri are able to answer most questions their customers have. Teaching others, indeed, is a major focus on the farm.

The couple hosts workshops for beginning farmers, and they regularly take on interns who are eager to help and learn.

Laura Jean Stypka arrived on the farm to intern in the spring of 2010 for what she says would become “an amazing learning experience.” Stypka picked up new ways to prepare garden beds and learned how to graft tree saplings during her time on Brambleberry Farm, but the larger lessons about life are what she is most thankful for today. “The daily tuning into the land, adjusting to the weather, managing the animals and considering the upcoming needs of the plants was effectively a constant meditation on our interconnectedness with and reliance upon nature to provide for and sustain us,” Stypka explains. “The whole experience at Brambleberry made me more aware of my own impact and dependence upon nature. ... Words don’t really express how incredibly grateful I am to Espri and Darren for opening their home, their life and their hearts to me that season.”

A Comfortable Living

Looking back over the last 13 years, neither Darren nor Espri recalls any major pitfalls in their business development.

The biggest challenges involved failed crops and things that just didn’t work out, he says. “We never had anything that really burned us. We always either broke even or just decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Everything was so small scale. We were sort of playing it safe that way.”

Not having a house payment also helped. In 2007, the couple began work on their family home, which they built for approximately $20,000. Harvesting all their lumber and purchasing used doors and windows from a Habitat for Humanity Restore retail outlet, they worked “a

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Main area of their home. Below, Darren Bender-Beauregard.

little over two years to build,” Espri says.

By building their own home, the couple hoped to not only conserve money, but also natural resources.

“The home has straw bale walls on three sides (walls are filled with used agricultural straw, which serves as insulation and a low-cost building material),” she explains. “The south side has a greenhouse that generates solar heat.”

Load-bearing posts and a frame for the home have been salvaged from barns, and there’s also an earthen floor, which is made of the same mix as the plaster and straw walls. To further save on resources, the family lives and farms on 100 percent

harvested rainwater, thanks to a rainwater retention system they installed.

Darren and Espri are quick to salvage other materials from the land for use in their farm projects. A new barn and greenhouse are in the works for this summer, and early this spring he began hauling logs from the forest to the sawmill to be cut into lumber for the structure.

As for the end goal? “I think we’re there,” Darren says. Both he and Espri tout the joys of being home with their girls, building their small family enterprise all the while.

“We’re making a meager income, but we’re out of debt,” he explains. “We’re increasing our income in small increments each year, and we have fewer needs.

People like what we’re doing. Word-ofmouth grows every year, and we have a comfortable living.”

From the beginning, Darren says he and Espri have felt that a farm needs to be sustainable for the farmer, as much as for the animals and the environment. “We have so many friends, a lot of whom have quit after five or 10 years,” he explains.

“Others are crazy because they’re so busy doing so many things. We have always been very clear. We try to do 9-to-5 work. We eat breakfast as a family. We get started around 9 a.m., and we stop around 5:30. We feel strongly about that.”

For more information, visit brambleberryfarm.org or etsy.com/shop/ BrambleberryFarm.

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One of the remaining dairy goats on the farm. Left, the driveway to Capriole Farm.

away from THE HERD

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Judy Schad leads the pack among Indiana’s goat cheese makers

BY REBECCA TOWNSEND

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

RENOWNED CHEESE MAKER Judy Schad admits she once held onto an idyllic notion of kid goats frolicking against a lush spring pasture on her farm. But by 2012, that image had faded, replaced by the less pastoral realities of commercial animal husbandry.

By then, her Capriole Farm dairy herd in Greenville had peaked with 500 goats, and she needed to make a change. It was time to partner with another farm family, who could take over and care for the animals. The move would ensure Schad could protect the supply base for her ever-increasing goat milk demand without having her cheese-making endeavors drowned in a growing sea of breeding, milking and animal health paperwork.

The difficult decision to liquidate the live side of the business was

made easier by the fact that the herd had grown to maximum capacity at Capriole.

To expand any bigger, the milking operation had to have more room.

Though Capriole’s cheese-making endeavors were initially conceived as a form of subsidizing her care of the animals, Schad took her craft seriously from the beginning, and she built it into a legacy.

Among the kitchens receiving Capriole products in May is Churchill Downs, which uses about 50 cases of O’Banon, one of the first cheeses Schad began to

Schad at her desk. Right: Mont St. Francis cheese.

Greg Killary cleans a vat. Left, Piper’s Pyramide cheese.

produce, for the Kentucky Derby. Schad’s take on a classic Banon, a round, fresh cheese wrapped in Woodford Reserve Bourbon-soaked chestnut leaves, won a 2014 first-place award from the American Cheese Society.

Even as she can take comfort in an ever-growing list of accolades for her cheeses, Schad admits to missing her goats, just not the myriad headaches that came with them.

“It was horrible,” she says, recalling the day that her herd was shipped away. “I

did not go out when they loaded.”

She did keep 25 of her oldest goats, animals who’d helped her build her business. “I love the old girls,” she says. “Now I’m down to 5.”

A LONG FIGHT

As she worked to build her operation, Schad recalls rampant elitism exhibited by foodies who refused to consider the merits of American cheese, as well as European connoisseurs whose continental pride prevented them from being per-

suaded that delicious American samples were, in fact, made in America. Schad says she fought against such attitudes for her first 15 years of business.

By working to make cheeses “as great as I could make them, to please myself,” Schad says she was confident that she would please others as well. Now she estimates Capriole uses between 750,000 and 800,000 pounds of milk a year.

Several early adopters are still with her, such as chef Susan Spicer of New Orleans restaurant Bayona, who has taken a Cap-

riole shipment every other week for the past 25 years. Chicago demand remains stalwart, as do customer accounts in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.

“Our market has always been a national market; when we began there was no local market, no farm markets,” she says.

Then, local became chic, so after Capriole’s national clients were in place, Indiana business began to grow.

About five years ago, Indianapolisbased food distributor Piazza Produce began putting together a collection FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

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O’Banon cheese

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Cheesemaker Greg Killary calculates ingredient amounts.

A view of the pasture from the office.

of local foods; now Piazza is among Capriole’s largest customers.

Recalling how Indianapolis was once mostly just a blur on the way to “the backbone” of her business in Chicago, Schad is in awe of the robust new food scene blossoming in Indy, and she is proud to have long-standing relationships with some of the city’s most acclaimed chefs, including Regina Mehallick of R Bistro and Greg Hardesty of Recess/Room Four.

Mehallick built her reputation on a deft understanding and use of the 18

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

bounty from local farms. When it comes to local goat cheese, she cites Schad as an Indiana original.

“She (Schad) was a forward thinker,” Mehallick says, recalling when she first connected with Capriole Farm around 2000. “There was this woman making goat cheese in southern Indiana who wasn’t being featured by any of the local chefs, but was well-known and had won awards in California and Georgia.”

On her R Bistro cheese plates, which would serve a rotating cast of cow, sheep

and goat milk cheeses, “of course I’d use Capriole,” Mehallick says during a chat at the counter of R2GO, her carryout spot in downtown Indianapolis. There, Mehallick sells Capriole chevre logs in her cheese case and keeps them in her kitchen for cooking, appreciating their “distinctive taste” as “light, fresh and creamy.”

After years of experimentation to perfect her offerings, Schad has distilled Capriole’s selection down to three surface-ripened selections, three aged and two fresh cheeses.

tistics Service, the number of dairy goat The evolution of Capriole’s offerings operations — both in Indiana and the echoes what Schad sees across the landU.S. — has been growing steadily since scape of American cheese. The thousands 1997, the first year staff began tracking of artisanal concoctions are “all replicathem. Back then, of the 15,451 operations of something, put together in new tions counted nationwide, the state had ways,” she says, offering Capriole’s Old 600. By 2007, the number grew to 1,070 Kentucky Tomme as an example. Tomme of 27,481 and, as of 2012, totaled 1,123 de Savoie is a well-known round cheese of 29,570. from the Alps. Old Kentucky, modeled According to a 2016 NASS survey, Inafter Monterey Jack (“one of the first diana had 11,500 dairy goats, steady from American originals,” she says), is also a year earlier. Though the state’s dairy round with a natural rind. Once pressed, goat numbers peaked at 12,700 in 2013, the crust is now thicker. they’ve mostly hovered around their cur“You start with a cheese you like from rent number since 2010. The last nationsomewhere else,” she explains. “But as wide agricultural census, which surveyed you play with it and tweak it, it becomes the farm landscape in something else that is 2012, counted 413,540 your own.” dairy goats in the U.S. At a recent dinner “She (Schad) was Indiana’s herd ranked where her Sofia cheese 11th in the nation at was featured along with a forward thinker.

10,946 animals. several other varieties, There was this woman Getting rid of the she was delighted to find making goat cheese in goats allowed Schad the that its subtle complexisouthern Indiana who time she needed to focus ties made the cheese wasn’t being featured on building her cheese — to her — the most business, and now her interesting selection on by any of the local operation is so successthe plate. chefs, but was wellful that she has arrived “I was happy for two known and had won at another crossroads. days,” she recalls. awards in California “Everything is so laand Georgia.” bor intensive,” she says.

THE INDUSTRY “We still do everything Indiana is not yet at the —REGINA MEHALLICK by hand. Every batch commercial scale of the is ladled by hand into nation’s goat-milking molds. We still use open leaders, though Schad vats so we can see, smell, taste the cheese. believes that growth in the nationwide We haven’t automated as we’ve grown, consumption of goat’s milk could present we just have more people tripping each opportunities for Indiana farmers if they other. We’re really outgrowing this facilare able to pool enough production to ity. I don’t know what comes next.” make it feasible for big co-ops out of WisOverall, Schad says, she runs her consin to make the trip to Indiana. operation from a good foundation. “I’ve “With the hauling costs … there has to got such a great team of people who really be enough milk to run the milk route,” she love what they do.” says. “That’s always been the problem.”

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A DIFFERENT BREED Laura Karr at KG Acres relies on nature to supply her needs

BY SHAWNDRA MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

Opposite page: Laura Karr with Royal Palm turkeys.

Right, 1- to 2-week-old chicks.

O

ON A WINDY SPRING AFTERNOON, Laura Karr scoops a handful of corn from a small metal pail and tosses it on her lawn, where turkeys strut in full regalia, fanning their white-and-black tails. A few guinea fowl hunt for kernels, while a portly rooster jogs across the grass, not to be left out. “That’s my Buckeye roo,” she says.

“See him running and running? That’s Brown Junior. Mr. Brown’s his dad.”

Here at KG Acres just outside of Lebanon, Karr keeps heritage poultry for fun and profit — and for the future. Heritage breeds have come down through the generations as tried-and-true. In an era of industrial-level sameness in the poultry business, Karr is part of a movement to preserve the existence of these rare and often endangered livestock breeds.

“I avoid commercial breeds completely,” she says. “We need to keep the gene pool healthy and well managed and the only way to do that is by … making birds and selling birds.

I’m not a breeder of show-quality birds, but I try to preserve the integrity of the breed as best I can.”

“There’s a huge pool of genetic resources there,” she notes.

One of her favorite breeds is the Buckeye, exemplified by Mr. Brown pecking near her feet. It isn’t just his pea comb (signifying cold tolerance) and shining mahogany plumage that she appreciates. She raises Buckeyes in tribute to Ohio’s Nettie Metcalf, who originated the breed in the late 1800s.

“Buckeyes are the only American breed raised to its standard by a woman,” she says, then clarifies the statement: She doesn’t really believe there was only one such occurrence in the history of American hen husbandry. “Let’s say it’s the only American breed raised by a

woman who got credit for it,” she says with a laugh.

Buckeyes are just one of many heritage birds that range free in Karr’s capacious yard. She lives and farms with her husband, Jim Gifford, on their homestead east of Lebanon. A job transfer brought them from northern California in 1992.

Aside from poultry, they market eggs,

seedlings, produce and honey, and Karr even repurposes feathers into artful pieces for home decor and personal adornment.

But the whole farming operation came about by accident. “We didn’t anticipate becoming a business,” she says.

The farm had its origins in a Christmas gift. A family member gave Gifford a beekeeping kit about 15 years ago. His bees FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

21

Golden Crested Polish chickens. Left, A feather wreath made of guinea fowl, Golden Crested Polish chicken, dark brown Buckeye chicken and Delaware chicken feathers. Inset, Karr with her incubator.

were so successful that the couple wound up with an abundance of honey, so a grower friend suggested taking a farmers market table to sell the excess.

The initials of their last names inspired a name of “KG Bees,” and their honey label whimsically showed a bee dressed like a Russian Cossack.

Then their vegetable gardens produced so heartily that they added that surplus to the table. After that came chickens and more eggs than two people could eat.

“Then all of a sudden,” she says, “we’re a farm.” KG Bees expanded to KG Acres.

Now, a series of cold frames in the driveway enables Karr to offer her gardening customers well-cared-for starter

22

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

seedlings. With the flock trailing her, she opens the lids of a few frames on this chilly spring day and lists some of the plants within: endive, collards, lettuce, kale, mustard, spinach, parsley, lavender, thyme, marsh mallow, nettles, lobelia, oregano, clary sage and hyssop. Soon she will have warmer-weather starts of eggplants, tomatoes and peppers to add to the mix.

Customers appreciate the variety. No Big Boy tomatoes here, but if Amish Paste or other heirlooms are desired, KG Acres likely has it. When it comes to herbs, Karr starts a lot of Ayurveda and other medicinal plants that aren’t generally found at a garden center.

Matt Dinn of Brownsburg, became a customer of Karr’s after meeting her years ago at a summer farmers market.

“Back then there weren’t a whole lot of options and she (Karr) was fantastic about answering all of our questions,” he says. “Once I got to know her more, I appreciate what she’s doing .... we try to make sure to support her because we need more people like her.”

Diversity is her goal when it comes to birds as well. She breeds Royal Palm turkeys, runner ducks, guinea fowl, and several chicken breeds, including the comically bouffanted Golden Crested Polish. For layers she keeps Columbian Wyandotte, Ameraucana, Delaware, Buff Orpington, Barred Rocks and more. A pair of Pilgrim geese round out the flock.

Though for several years she offered free-ranging turkeys by preorder at Thanksgiving, that’s no longer part of the business. The low profit margin and

strenuous work involved made Thanksgiving turkey sales impractical. Instead, she’ll offer them as poults (juveniles) to other farmers and fattens one for her own table.

From a purely aesthetic point of view, her flock is a showstopper. “I love looking out there and seeing all the different colors and shapes and sizes,” she says. And the varied plumage serves her well in creating “featherworks” — wreaths, jewelry, hair clips and the like — out of their feathers.

This unique enterprise gives her an added income stream that helps support her “poultry habit,” as she puts it. Home decor and personal adornment pieces made of feathers have wide appeal, and many people also buy single feathers to put in a vase. “I think it’s something in our genes,” she says. “Just like people collect shells, rocks, plants — it’s the same need. We need to be close to wild things.”

Karr didn’t grow up farming but loved helping her grandparents garden, and she

Karr holds a 2-week-old Indian Runner duck.

always kept pet birds. As an adult, she went into agriculture. With a doctorate in entomology and toxicology, Karr worked for Dow AgroSciences, where Gifford continues to work. She was conducting insecticide research and racking up patents when chronic illness forced her to take medical leave in 2008. When her position was eliminated, her industrial ag career was over.

But as it turned out, that unfortunate turn would end up changing her life for the better.

She found that chronic migraines, allergies, asthma and other health problems all went away after she left her workplace for good. “It made me realize that corporate culture is not for me,” she says. “I’m making a lot less money now, but I’m living clean and feeling good about what I do.”

Once she began working at farmers markets and interacting face-to-face

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“It really opened my eyes to growing organic, which I hadn’t ever thought about when I was in big ag,” she says. “I wasn’t really hostile to it, but it wasn’t in my mindset back then. I’ve learned a lot from my customers.”

Having studied plant-derived substances with insecticidal properties, Karr says she’s always leaned toward the notion that “nature gives us what we need if we just know how to find it and use it.”

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In the Classroom Local FFA chapters

finding

THE TIME

24

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

Clarissa Weyer, Kiersten Haas, Kendra Schipp, Madison Giesler, Morgan Uebelhor, Melissa Mutchman and Noah Fleck stand with a past FFA project — a tree planted in memory of former faculty member Ellen Hendricks.

Annette Applegate works with students in her classroom.

Forest Park chapter members fill their days with FFA

By Catherine Whittier Photography by Josh Marshall

O

ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT tasks for FFA officers at Forest Park Junior-Senior High School in Ferdinand seems simple enough. But coordinating the schedules of the school’s approximately 75 chapter members, most of whom have jobs and participate on one or more athletic teams throughout the school year, is far from easy.

“We have to work around everybody’s schedule,” says Jevin Jackson, sophomore and chapter sentinel. “We really try to include every single member, and we have a lot of members, for as small of a school as we are, so it’s really hard to get everybody involved.”

Annette Applegate, agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Forest Park, marvels at what her students manage to accomplish. “We have a cheerleader, football players and varsity basketball players as officers,” she says. “We have a

wide range of students that are involved in a lot of things.”

Senior Madison Giesler served as chapter president in 2015. In the fall, she plays volleyball and often practices for her soil judging contests with fellow volleyball players and FFA members Sara Helming and Clarissa Weyer on the bus on the way to games. “It’s crazy, but you have to make time to do things if you really want to do them,” she explains. Giesler also helps to care for goats, chickens, sheep, cows, calves, a pig and a bull on her family’s hobby farm and helps her grandparents on their beef cattle farm as much as possible.

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

25

Klint Luebbehusen, junior and vice president of the chapter, plays football, attends a nearby vocational welding program and completes a wide variety of farm chores on his cousin’s 700-acre crop and 300 sow farm. “At Forest Park, everybody’s involved in something, and it all takes up a lot of time, but I find the time to do stuff with FFA,” he says. “I put it above certain things.”

In spite of their busy schedules, Forest Park FFA members participate in a broad range of contests. “The kids are really amazing — they do well in just about 26

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

anything that they participate in — when they put their mind to it,” says Applegate.

The Forest Park FFA chapter participates in judging and leadership contests, as well as Envirothon, an environmental and natural resources competition. Forest Park took 15 students to the district leadership contest and came home with 17 plaques, representing first, second and third place wins. “Several are advancing to the state contest,” says Applegate.

The local community supports the chapter by participating in the annual member work auction, during which FFA

members are auctioned off to work for the highest bidder. The chapter raised over $5,000 during the event this year.

Students are hired to do a range of activities from spring cleaning to pitching hay.

Forest Park FFA also ranked fourth highest in the state for fruit sales this year, “selling 1,072.5 bushels of fruit,” says Applegate.

As sole teacher and adviser for the Forest Park agriculture program, Applegate relies heavily on partnerships with 4-H coaches, vocational teachers, parents and community organizations to help prepare

students for competition. “You’ve got to pull from your resources,” she says. “You can’t do it without help.”

The students express thanks for the support they receive in several ways. During National FFA Week, the Forest Park chapter hosts an annual teacher appreciation luncheon. “Our staff has been really supportive of the kids,” she explains.

Tragedy has brought Forest Park’s officers and chapter members closer in recent years. “The kids are more like family here,” says Applegate. In 2014, two former Forest Park FFA chapter sentinels passed

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Opposite page, clockwise: Ventilation ducts from the welding booths. Klint Luebbehusen in the welding shop. The greenhouse. A photo of FFA officers in the agriculture office.

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officers and members busy, despite their away within one month of each other. already hectic days. During Dress Up This year, two parents were lost to cancer.

Days, students dress in costumes based “The kids went in their official dress to on the themes decided upon by the FFA the funeral home (on both occasions) to chapter. “We usually have a farmer day, support their friends. They could have a Carhartt day, a career day, and stuff gone with their parents to the funeral, like that. We try to make it ag-related,” but they went together.” says Jackson.

Students turned “There are a lot of one of their National people who particiFFA week tradipate in the Dress tions into a way to Up Days here.” help the grieving The officers agree families. On Hat that the annual Day, the entire “At Forest Park, Tractor Show Day school is invited to is one of the highpay a minimum of everybody’s involved lights of National $1 for the privilege in something, and it FFA Week. “The of being able to wear all takes up a lot of tractor show is like a hat to school. The a holiday for us,” FFA chapter usually time, but I find the says Luebbehusen. donates the proceeds time to do stuff with Up to 40 or more to the local food tractors line the bank. “Well this FFA. I put it above school parking lot. year, they said why certain things.”

“I look forward to don’t we collect the — KLINT LUEBBEHUSEN that day every year, money and give it just for the fun of to the families that driving a tractor in lost their parents to and driving around cancer?” explains town,” he says.

Applegate. The entire “In past years, the student population police would stop rallied around the traffic, and we’d all pull out on the road cause, often giving well beyond what was at the same time and be like a big parade required. going down Main Street.”

The FFA chapter divided the money Small town life has its advantages, between those two families, as well as according to Giesler. “We all know each with a third family whose family member other, and even on weekends, we’ll go do had recently received a cancer diagnosis things together. That helps when we’re and was undergoing treatment. “The kids doing chapter activities because we can really pulled together,” she adds. “The work better together as a community donation was their idea.” and a chapter. I can see that continuing There are plenty of other events throughout our years here.” throughout the year that keep chapter

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Jason Hahn with his wife, Joanna, and her parents, David and Lisa Diykhoff.

Uncharted Waters One Delaware County family tries a new venture with shrimp

BY JIM MAYFIELD

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

The four saltwater pools used to raise the shrimp. Below: A live saltwater shrimp.

DELAWARE COUNTY HAS a number of fame claims: The Minnetrista, Ball State University, the David Owsley Museum of Art, and don’t forget the National Model Aviation Museum for all you Testors glue and enamel aficionados.

And then there’s the shrimp. Clutches and colonies of tiger shrimp by the thousands. Just swimming about south of Muncie, happy as … well … shrimp.

Jason Hahn rises every morning to be about the business of farming his shrimp at Blue Barn Shrimp inside a refitted horse barn just south of State Road 67 along West County Road 400S. Formerly a master television control operator for an Indianapolis broadcasting company, Hahn, wife, Joanna, and their kids decided to break from the city and move closer to Joanna’s parents.

As former 10-year 4-H’ers, growing or producing something in their new life was probably not out of the mix, but bringing post-larval shrimp the size of one’s fingernail to maturity in four 16,000-gallon tanks on their tidy five-acre spread prob-

ably wasn’t the first thing that came to mind.

Joanna’s mother first settled on the idea as a post-retirement activity after reading about shrimp production in a newspaper article, but after some thought the project was passed to Jason and Joanna for the day-to-day operation.

Shrimp are big business. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest numbers from its Southeast Fisheries Science Center show almost 140 million pounds of shrimp are netted in the Gulf alone, generating $432 million in revenue.

And with farmers everywhere looking to add additional income streams to their land and operations, why not throw a few thousand shrimp in a pool and give it a go?

The couple started the transition during the fall of 2013 and began looking for the right spot to settle. They found their blue barn not too far off the main road and made the move.

“You can see the blue barn from (State FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

29

Shrimp being packed on ice for an order. Below, left: Instant Ocean is used to give the water its salinity at 15 parts-per-thousand. Shrimp in the ocean live at around 30 parts-per-thousand. Below, right: A collection cone allows the sediment to settle before it can be measured.

Road) 67, and it ended up being the perfect place,” Joanna said.

Last summer, the Hahns began setting up their operation, a process that can be somewhat tricky and expensive for first-timers. Though it’s not designing an atomic reactor, it helps to have some technical expertise when building a commercial shrimp operation.

“The initial startup cost can be expensive depending on how handy you are,” Jason said.

Fortunately there was plenty of “handy” around to insulate, modernize and equip the blue barn. With help from Jason’s journeyman electrician father-in-law and RDM Aquaculture, the state’s leading shrimp operation in Fowler, the Hahns had their first crop of post-larval small fry in the pools by September.

With the first harvest arriving in time for the holidays and Super Bowl, the big tanks emptied quickly.

“Our first day was so busy I didn’t even eat lunch,” Joanna said. “I loved it.”

Considering there are thousands of shrimp snapping and feeding inside the pools, the operation is noticeably compact. The four soft-sided pools are maintained at a temperature of 80 degrees with a minimal amount of plumbing and equipment.

It’s a zero-exchange closed system, meaning probiotic bacteria are used to break down the waste.

“Our biggest environmental footprint is just what we use to heat the barn,” Jason said.

No antibiotics are used, and nothing goes into the tank except food and bacteria.

Blue Barn’s second harvest is in, and the operation is looking forward to 30

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strong sales and continued growth for the upcoming summer grilling season.

It takes about three months for the shrimp to mature to selling weight, and Hahn staggers his four pools to meet demand.

For one to two pounds of shrimp, customers simply pull into the drive, place their order and watch as Jason hand-dips shrimp for delivery. For larger orders, customers are asked to call ahead to give him time to corral the critters and get them on ice.

Once bagged, Blue Barn’s shrimp are good for three days in the refrigerator, or they can be frozen for up to three months, Joanna said.

Currently, Blue Barn limits sales to retail customers; however, the Hahns aren’t

ruling out commercial sales to restaurants as their business develops.

And for the curious, farm tours are available to see exactly how a shrimp might live and grow so far from the Gulf Stream.

For the Hahns, the move to shrimp farming has been a good one. They’re out in the country but close to family. Jason splits his time feeding the shrimp, minding the pools and watching the kids.

They’re happy campers.

And aside from the occasional “jumper” that vaults the pool walls to an untimely end, the shrimp are doing all right as well.

“They’re happy shrimp,” Joanna said.

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LOCAL FOOD How do your menus work?

Seasonal? Daily?

Chef Q & A with:

Gethin Thomas,

Henry Social Club, Columbus

BY TWINKLE VANWINKLE

Just under 20 years ago, Tim Solso, then president of Cummins Inc. in Columbus, lured Gethin Thomas, a former Michelin-star restaurant chef with time served in Paris and London, away from a cozy gig at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine. Thomas arrived in Columbus and spent his first years in the Midwest serving as executive chef for the diesel engine company, before starting his own catering business.

Around 2011, Thomas began work on creating Henry Social Club, a full-service restaurant and cocktail bar in the architecturally inspired southern Indiana city. Named after Thomas’ favorite poet, Henry Charles Bukowski, Henry Social Club is a culmination of the chef’s zest for creating unique fare and making upscale food accessible.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you got here?

The restaurant business is what I come from. I have been to three culinary schools, one in New York and two in France. I worked off and on in Europe for eight years. … I am in southern Indiana because I was recruited and worked for Cummins Inc. … I think Columbus is a great place to live. I love it. Crime is low; public education is quite good. It’s extremely diverse because the companies in Columbus made diversity part of what they wanted it to be. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood (in Washington, D.C.), and Columbus is all that and more.

32

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

How did Henry Social Club become what it is today?

I acquired the real estate first and then decided what I wanted to do. The building belonged to a friend of mine and was available and downtown. I pieced that together with elements. I wanted to have a big cocktail bar. I wanted an open plan dining room. The location is really close to where my children go to school, so that was a big plus. As far as the menu goes, I didn’t want to do food that kept me up at night. I wanted to do fun, interesting food. It’s a place where if someone wanted pizza and a beer for under $20, they could get it and get out, or if they wanted more, they could get a higher quality, nicer meal. We get fresh fish twice a week, which is pretty rare in the Midwest.

We’ve done menus both ways. Now that it’s spring, the palette starts to grow, so we will offer more options. We will soon go back to a paper menu of which we will be able to, for instance, when ramps are in season, we will be able to say menu item ‘with ramps.’ The same goes for morels, chanterelles and Hen of the Woods. … Also, we serve and prepare with many considerations and in turn ask some simple questions of ourselves, such as: What type of products do we have access to?

What do the customers want?

What is the balance of work in the kitchen?

What are the current trends and eating habits of today?

Who is our clientele?

To get a little deeper, what would you say is your personal philosophy on what you cook and how you cook?

Approachability and balance and a commitment to the care of the ingredients.

We are just one piece in the chain of events.

There is the farmer, there is the driver, there is the cook that prepares and then there is the customer who ultimately eats and pays for it. So the farmers are depending on us, and we are depending on the customer. So it is all interlinked; we have a relationship. I think oftentimes the relationships between the people who produce the food, who make the food and who eat the food are lost. One of the reasons we have an open kitchen concept is so the guest and the chef can see each other and have an open dialogue with one another. So there’s trust in one another.

Some people sit so close, they can have a one-on-one with the chef and ask them what they are doing and what ingredients they are using. Even if you aren’t sitting close, you can see and still have access to the kitchen.

Do you work with any local farmers or farmers markets?

We work with some local farmers whenever we can. My philosophy is I will pay a fair market price for your product, and I will buy it all and you will walk away with a check in your hand. But I hope this message gets out: It’s a business of commerce. The commerce has to be equal to what we can get from a conglomerate. Even though we want to shop locally whenever we can, we’re not going to do it at the cost of our own business. What I found with farmers is that they rarely understand their own competition and don’t know what they should charge because they aren’t always aware of what others are charging for selling similar products. I think more research on their part has to be done.

What are your favorite things to cook?

I really like to work with fish and love to work with the color palette vegetables have to offer. I have always loved fish, the idea of its sustainability. I love to cook it; I find it so delicate. Vegetables really appeal to me on a number of levels, but mostly the color and that you are working with nature. That’s one of the things about this business that I keep drawing back to, that I am in direct contact with nature, and that’s what is most dear to me: maintaining that relationship, when in many other businesses, that link is lost.

For more about Henry Social Club, visit henrysocialclub.com

RECIPE

Vanilla Bean Shortcakes

Makes approximately 12 to 15 shortcakes

2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved

1½ tablespoons baking powder

2 tablespoons Demerara* sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

½ cup unsalted, chilled butter

½ teaspoon peppercorns

¾ cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

1 small vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Rinse strawberries in cold water, drain and let dry completely.

¼ cup Demerara sugar

Once dry, slice in half and place in a large bowl. Quarter larger berries.

3 tablespoons melted butter to brush tops of shortcakes Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine cream with vanilla. For the bean, split it lengthwise using a paring knife. Scrape out the seeds from the inside with the tip of the knife, pushing down from one end to the other, and mix into the cream. If you’re using extract, simply add extract to cream and stir.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and whisk to incorporate well.

Cut in butter and shortening with a pastry fork, pastry cutter or with your fingers.

»

BY TWINKLE VANWINKLE

My love for Indiana strawberries runs deep. Once strawberry hunting season arrives, making strawberry shortcake heads to the top of my to-do list. Don’t be intimidated by making shortcake from scratch. Even though I have a soft spot for the pre-made bright yellow sponge cake, berries and generous amounts of Cool Whip from my childhood, eating homemade strawberry shortcake is by far more satisfying.

What makes a cake short?

The name shortcake comes from adding shortening or butter to the dough to create a moist, tender, biscuit-like pastry. The fibers are literally short in comparison to yeast doughs, where the protein fibers are more elongated. A sibling of a scone or a sweet biscuit, shortcakes are crumbly, rich and perfect for soaking up the jammy liquid of a fresh, strawberry topping. And that’s what I like most about this recipe: the strawberries.

The caramelization of the fruit, sugars and balsamic vinegar creates a deep, layered finish — at once peppery, but subtly sweet with hints of vanilla bean.

PHOTOS BY TWINKLE VAN WINKLE

Makes approximately 2 cups of roasted strawberries

2½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons chilled shortening

Cakewalk

Balsamic Roasted Strawberries

Slowly add in vanilla and cream mixture until dough just comes together.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat out gently with your fingertips until you have a large rectangle about an inch thick.

Use a biscuit cutter or canning ring (or a larger cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many shortcakes as the dough allows. I’d recommend only combining the leftover dough one time to keep it from becoming too tough.

Toss berries in sugar, salt and ground pepper.

Add the balsamic vinegar, toss well and spread evenly on your prepared sheet pan.

Sprinkle peppercorns over berries.

Roast for 12 to 15 minutes, until juices are bubbling but before the strawberries become mushy. It is crucial to watch the berries and remove them from the heat before they lose structure.

You can leave the peppercorns in at the end, or remove, depending on your personal preference. I like the little punch of sweet peppery flavor.

Serve immediately over shortcake, ice cream or whatever you wish. You can store the berries in the fridge for up to two weeks or freeze in an airtight container for three to four months. * Demerara sugar is a light-brown cane sugar that has molasses added for flavor and color. It is a little lighter in texture than brown sugar, but with a larger grit size.

It can be found in most grocery stores.

Quick Whipped Cream 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Place shortcakes on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

¼ cup powdered sugar

Bake for 15 minutes or until browned, removing to serve immediately with berries and whipped cream.

Beat all ingredients on high with a hand or stand mixer until cream doubles in size and stiff peaks are formed. Serve immediately.

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

To serve balsamic roasted strawberries with vanilla bean shortcakes, split baked shortcakes and top with roasted strawberries and whipped cream.

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

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

33

FROM THE FIELD

Better Safe than Sorry

BY CHERYL CARTER JONES

’Tis the season for flooding, tornadoes and the like. No one enjoys thinking about all the what-ifs that could happen in our lives, but it is necessary to prepare if we want to mitigate damage and destruction. While we cannot avoid all disasters, we certainly can implement a few cost-effective measures that will either lower our risks or will help us to be better equipped when something does occur.

»

DISASTER MANAGEMENT CYCLE You have a choice: Do you prepare for what might come or do you take your chances and start putting your plan together after an event occurs? I am the proactive type.

I want to reduce any risk I can, minimize damage and be ready.

This topic may seem like gloom and doom, but of one thing you may be sure: Disasters do happen.

To start, determine the four or five highest risk catastrophes for your property. You cannot prepare for

all kinds of misfortunes, but you can work to reduce your risk for those you deem most likely.

While fire is clearly one of the greatest risks for all of us, flooding, tornadoes, high winds, lightning strikes, landslides and more can occur.

You also want to think about the non-nature-related disasters such as grid failure, terrorist acts, theft, war, economic collapse and health issues.

Most of these are a very minimal risk, but preparing for one often covers another type of disaster as well.

GETTING READY Preparing for the worst does not have to cost a lot of money. There are some simple, cost effective measures that can be implemented. Here is a small sampling of preventive measures: OVERBUILD Just because a building meets code does not guarantee it will withstand a falling tree, a tornado or flood. My ex-husband loved to cut corners on a lot of things, but never in building materials. The rafters in our house were made of 2-by-12 lumber; some people think that to be overkill. One stormy night the floor in our house shook. I started looking around for the source.

A 110-year-old white oak tree fell on our house. We had it cabled years ago, and the last words the contractor said before leaving were, “Well, you’ll never

have to worry about that tree falling on your house.” What was not factored into the equation were the great volumes of rain we had that year; the same year Columbus Regional Hospital flooded. The tree was in a ravine, and the ground simply gave way around the tree with so much rain beneath it.

That tree should have taken out one wing of our house. Instead, it put a hole in the roof and broke one board on one rafter. Not one brick cracked on the side of the house. As I begin construction on my new home, you can bet I will heed the lessons learned from that experience.

ELECTRICAL WIRING I have always had a healthy respect for electricity. I have never had a home burn, and I hope I never have that experience, but when I was young, our barn burned.

Again, building codes set a minimum standard. Building supplies are expensive, but conduit, wiring and a good electrician are not the places to skimp. Be careful not to overlook your electrical system as well.

LANDSCAPE: WATER SOURCES/PLANT SELECTION If you have a building susceptible to fire due to prevailing winds or proximity to something flammable, your landscape can help minimize your risk. Consider locating a pond to stop

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FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

DISASTER CHECKLIST As a final preparation phase, consider putting together a disaster checklist to include the following: Escape Plan If your house burns in the night, does your family have an escape plan? Have you practiced it? Do you have a meeting place away from the house? What about in the event of a tornado? What if your entire family is not together at the time?

Lighting and Heating If a disaster occurs, how will you light your home? How will you heat it in the winter, even for a short period of time? I have designed my property with a small section of a building, suitable to house and care for my family in a disaster. We will use solar for electricity and have a wood-burning stove that we can also cook on, if necessary. Candles or oil lamps also will serve in an emergency.

Shelter and Tools If the unthinkable happens, where will you temporarily live? What tools would you need to start your recovery process, such as a chainsaw or a hammer? Where should you keep these items to increase the likelihood that you will have access to them after a disaster occurs?

Money and Documents Where do you keep your most important documents? Are they in a fire-proof container? What happens if you no longer have access to your checking/savings accounts? Can you get by for a short time? What happens if there

would be a financial collapse? Do you have something with which to barter, such as firewood or a skill?

Food and Water Do you have a storm shelter stocked with water and food supply? Do you have edible plants in your landscape?

Waste Disposal Something as simple as a 5-gallon bucket with a lid can serve as a waste container in an emergency.

Clothing It is not uncommon to think about food and water, but often we do not think about an extra set or two of clothing for emergency purposes. What other clothing might you need in a disaster, such as weather-proof clothing?

Medicines/Medical Care Last, but not least, do you have a listing of all of your medicines?

Do you have a week or two supply ready at all times?

Communications How will you charge cellphones?

How will you let family members know you are all right or if you need something?

Spring is a good time of year to start thinking about all that could happen.

Proactive preparation is like buying an insurance policy. It does not exempt you from catastrophe, but it can immensely mitigate your losses if there is one.

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

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FROM THE FIELD

Farmer Optimism

I

BY KATIE GLICK

IT’S A TOUGH ROAD AT TIMES, this life we live and the work we do. But there is always something to be positive about and grateful for, even during the darkest of days. I recently read that a farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer, and it’s absolutely true.

As a farmer’s daughter and farmer’s wife, I’ve been part of a lot of optimistic rituals in my life — praying, keeping a positive attitude, doing rain dances, learning hard life lessons and praying some more.

In the 1990s, I was devastated when we sold all of our pigs. The market was bad, and we had to invest and concentrate on other areas of the farm. These were lessons in economics taught to me at a young age, I guess you could say, which has helped me in my adult life.

During the flood of 2008, as I watched my dad look out over our flooded fields, I thought all hope was gone. Then he took us home and

36

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

said, “Mother Nature is not very kind because, as Dad would say, “it’s just sometimes, but there isn’t anything part of it.” we can do about it. It’s just part of it.

There are so many people these We are safe up here on the hill with days who lack optimism. It’s not surgood people, food and beer. We will prising with all the political rhetoric, figure it out.” daily negative stories on the news and In 2009, my dad died during more. However, when I sit for just a harvest, and my family still had to go moment and look around me, there is on. The local family farmers brought a lot to be optimistic about. I hear the optimism back to our farm as they calves bawling in the pasture behind arrived with their trucks to fill up our house — a sign of new life. I see loads of grain to take to market. That green, lots of green (finally!) — a sign dark day turned out to be OK, even of a new season. And I am reminded without him. of the positive things in my life, which In the drought of 2012, I experibring me happiness and hope. The openced heartbreak on a daily basis timism is there. We just have to slow when no rain would fall or heat lightdown at times to see it and feel it.

I don’t know where or when I found ning gave me false hope for a storm this quote, but it sits that I would have gladly on my desk as a daily welcomed. I asked my reminder: “The one who husband if he wanted cultivates and lives alto do rain dances like I The one who used to do when I was ways in the optimistic, cultivates and a kid. He gave me “the cheerful, hopeful habit lives always in the look,” if you know what of mind and heart can I mean, but I danced optimistic, cheerful, never fail.” a lot when he wasn’t As our farmers face a hopeful habit of watching. new season ahead, cultimind and heart can vating the land and carAnd today, the comnever fail. modity markets are ing for the crops with posing a threat. Prices little known to them are down, inputs are about what Mother high, there are too Nature may bring, how many regulatory and trade issues that the markets will go or what the crop farmers are dealing with, and it’s all a may look like, they will still try to find dark reality each day as we approach a way to remain optimistic. They have the planting season. to for their livelihoods, their families, For the farmer, planting and harfuture generations and you. vesting are inevitable. No matter what Mother Nature will bring, how the markets will pan out or what obKatie Glick grew up on her family stacles God will lay before them, our farm in Martinsville farmers still have to wake up to face and now lives with the day because there is no other way her husband on or another life they would rather live. their farm near It’s really hard to explain to someColumbus, where they grow corn, soybeans and wheat, raise cattle and have a private one who doesn’t live on a farm that seed company. She is a graduate of Purdue your daily life revolves around the University and has worked in Indiana ground below you, weather, market, politics. She now works in the agriculture crops, animals and daily work. It’s industry within our state. She shares her a constant worry and a constant personal, work, travel and farm life stories on her blog, “Fancy in the Country.” blessing that I don’t take for granted

Certification Debates

BY CISSY BOWMAN

We’re seeing an increase these days in hydroponic and aquaponic farms. Hydroponic operations, rather than depending on soil, grow plants in nutrient-rich water, and aquaponics operations marry aquaculture (or “fish farming”) with the growing of plants in the water used by the fish.

Both methods provide many opportunities for growing food — plants and fish — where there are little or no natural resources available or accessible. They can extend the seasonal availability of locally produced products and offer food that is grown under carefully controlled conditions. But can or should these methods be certified organic or do they just water down the standards?

This question has been pondered since the mid-1990s, when the National Organic Standards board was creating recommendations for the USDA to help shape what is now known as the “Organic Rule” or, technically, Code of Federal Regulations 205. Historically, the concept of certifying such operations has been hotly debated. Many believe that organic production must be soil-based. Others believe that there are plenty of examples of foods that are not raised directly in soil and that, therefore, aquaponics and hydroponics can and should be certified as long as they meet organic standards.

Currently aquaculture, aquaponic and hydroponic operations are being certified by some of the Accredited Organic Certifiers. Organizations that certify these operations must apply the currently existing organic standards to each operation. However, specific organic standards for these hydroponic and aquaponics operations have yet to be established, leaving room for interpretation and inconsistency in how the regulations are applied.

While we wait for the proposed aquaculture standards to be published, the National Organic Program has appointed 16 members to a

oped for non-agricultural use, while our populatask force to explore and make recommendations increase and hunger is on the rise, nontions for hydroponic and aquaponic production soil-based agriculture offers some solutions. It practices and their alignment with USDA orcan be accomplished indoors and year-round, ganic regulations to be written. The task force in old and unused buildings and in urban areas. reports to the National Organic Standards Indoor production can prevent contamination Board. This work is supposed to be finished by with prohibited pesticides. It also can create the end of 2016. Meanwhile the organic comjobs for people who would not be physically munity is abuzz with discussion about the iscapable of performing the tasks necessary for sues and not much is in agreement. soil-based production. The main difference is The case against certification is very much that instead of the soil being used as the mebased in the historical language that has dedium for the delivery of nutrients to the plant, fined what is considered organic. The folks who water is used. originally used the term organic One of the important issues to describe a method of agriculthat organic regulations are supture that did not rely on synthetThe founder and program posed to address is sustainabilic fertilizers and, instead, utilized director of ity. Aquaponics and hydroponics natural methods to improve the Hoosier Organic use 1 to 2 percent of the water soil did not imagine the world Marketing that would be used in a soilin which we live today. The term Education, based system, and everything organic now has been expanded Cissy Bowman leftover from production can be to include more than just prohas been growing food organically composted and given back to duction and, under legal definisince 1973 and on her current farm, Center Valley Organic Farm, our soils. tion, can be applied to handling/ since 1983. For more information The development of specific processing, raising livestock, as on Hoosier Organic Marketing standards for aquaponic and well as a slew of categories that Education, email cvof@earthlink.net hydroponic operations is comdo not have specific standards or call (317) 539-2753. plicated. It is a very different yet, such as producing honey, method of production and raises growing mushrooms and more. many questions. One can hardly read social In fact, honey and mushroom production do not media or news reports today without being necessarily require soil. But do all plants used warned that food may not be safe or desirable. for food? No. By having a USDA organic standard for aquaculEdible aquatic plants that are used by humans ture, aquaponics and hydroponics, we can offer as a food source include wild rice, Chinese water American consumers much better assurance chestnut, watercress and more. Such crops have regarding the production of fish and food. been certified organic in the past without arguThere will be more discussion on this issue at ment — although many feel that at least some upcoming National Organic Standards board soil is involved in their production, even if only meetings. Public comment is welcome now and when the ends of the roots occasionally drag on when the proposed standards are published. the “soil” at the bottom of a body of water.

For updates on any action, visit ams.usda.gov/nop.

In an era where land is being rapidly develFARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

37

FROM THE FIELD

Liz Brownlee’s late father, Lloyd Otte.

THE VIEW AT NIGHTFALL

A FAMILY TRADITION

»

BY LIZ BROWNLEE

My family stopped haying our threeacre “front pasture” when I was about 10 years old. Few farmers wanted to bother with such small hay fields, and we no longer had animals to feed, so we decided to stop farming it. My dad started mowing some of the pasture to turn it into plain old yard. We’d never really had a yard, that is, an open grassy area, in my lifetime. We had lots of trees around the yard — perfect for hide and go seek, for chasing lightning bugs and for climbing, but not ideal for tossing a Frisbee.

This version of a yard seemed novel to me, and I paid attention. One thing that I noticed (that we all noticed) was that my dad’s mowing pattern was highly irregular. He didn’t mow in straight lines.

He was mowing around butterfly bushes, Joe-Pye weed, milkweed and the occasional frog. Over the years, he encouraged wildflowers to take hold by mowing around them, and today the front pasture is a colorful, butterfly-friendly place.

This year, we embark on a project that honors my father, that lets us act out our family’s love of the land and that looks to the future of our farm. Our family is placing 45 acres of cropland into the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP. Some of you may know this as the “set aside” program. In short, this is a government program that pays us to keep land out of annual crop production and, instead,

create habitat for pollinators (like butterflies, bees, and bats).

Why would the government pay for this?

Because pollinators pollinate: They transfer pollen from one flower to another, so that the plant can produce fruit.

From pumpkins to cantaloupes to alfalfa, many of our crops need pollinators in order to grow. In fact, 30 percent of our crops rely on pollinators.

The bad news is that wild pollinator and honeybee populations are significantly down in recent years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided that one thing it can do to ensure our food supply is to create habitat that pollinators need to live.

Our family decided that this is, indeed, a very good idea. It is something my late father would have liked very much. Planting habitat allows us to show our love for the natural world, for wildlife and wildflowers. We are not alone.

This spring, Jennings County farmers will plant over 300 acres in warm season grasses (for birds) and wildflowers (for pollinators), all of which will give the soil a chance to rest and recharge after years of production.

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

For more on Nightfall Farm, visit nightfallfarm.com.

38

FARM INDIANA // MAY 2016

Nate and I are keenly interested in that last part, too. We know that warm season grasses and wildflowers will grow deep roots and support a diverse array of microbial and fungal life. All of this will improve our soil health.

This conservation program lasts for 10 years. After that, we plan to transition this land to pasture (some of the wildflowers will persist). We have people ask us for beef regularly, but we don’t yet have the capital or the pasture to support cattle.

We hope that in 10 years we will be financially ready to raise cattle, and the land will be ready for sustainable production.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

First, we must plant the ground into wildflowers and grasses. If you drive by this spring, you might see us drilling the seeds in. If you stop by next year, it likely won’t look like much. These plants spend their first year establishing roots. By the second or third year, though, you’ll find a diverse mix of grasses, clovers and wildflowers — and pollinators. We’re carrying on a family tradition of encouraging wildlife as part of our working farm, and we couldn’t be more proud.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

CLASS LIST

BY KATHERINE COPLEN

May provides plenty of activities for learners to get outside and dig in the dirt.

MAY 16

MAY 1

Permaculture Plant Swap This sustainability-focused event is great for those looking to take home new yard accoutrements. If you have extra plants, bring some.

All donations will go to a scholarship fund for the Center for Sustainable Living’s 2017 permaculture design course. Time: 11:30 a.m. Location: 245 W. Grimes Lane, Bloomington.

Information: simplycsl.org

MAY 4

From Vineyard to Bottle This Purdue Wine Grape Team spring workshop lasts all day and bounces from Holtkamp Winery to Rettig Hill Winery. Participants will tour both wineries, participate in winemaking 101 fining trials and fining agent preparations, and observe grape varieties of southern Indiana before wrapping up at 5 p.m.

Registration is $50 per person. Time: 9 a.m. Location: Holtkamp Winery, 10868 Woliung Road, New Alsace.

Information: blume@purdue.edu

MAY 7

Johnson County Garden Club’s Saving the Monarchs Garden Celebration XII Johnson County Garden Club and Purdue Master Gardeners will host

the annual Garden Celebration Approximately 1,000 visitors attend this yearly event. Event features guest speakers who will explain planting strategies to attract butterflies.

Approximately 40 plant and gardenrelated vendors are featured during the six-hour Garden Celebration.

Breakfast and lunch will be available for purchase while admission is $2 at the door. Time: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Location: Scott Hall, 250 Fairground St., Johnson County Fairgrounds, Franklin. Information: (317) 736-5609.

MAY 7

BeeTown Bee Club Mark your calendars for the first Thursday of the month if you’re in Bloomington and looking to learn about keeping bees. Time: 7 p.m.

Location: Ivy Tech Campus West Side, Room C126, 1907 Liberty Drive, Bloomington. Information: carolyn.peepall@gmail.com

MAY 14

Good Food Feast This monthly dinner is organized

by KI Ecocenter in support of its Community Controlled Food Initiative.

On the menu: learning, community gatherings and some entertainment, too. Bring a side dish, if you want.

Time: 4 p.m. Location: Kheprw Institute, 3549 Boulevard Place, Indianapolis. Information: kheprw.org

West Central Beekeepers Tippecanoe County’s Extension Office hosts the West Central Beekeepers club, which meets every third Saturday.

Time: 1 p.m. Location: Tippecanoe County Extension Office, 3150 Sagamore Parkway South, Lafayette.

Information: westcentralbeekeeper.com

MAY 19

No-Till Diagnostic Workshop Diagnostic workshops are “valuable for individuals identifying insect, nematode, herbicide, soil fertility and disease problems in corn, soybean forages and small grains,” according to organizers. Workshop participants are given continuing education units for Certified Crop Advisors or continuing certification hours for Indiana Commercial Pesticide Applicators.

Time: 8 a.m. Location: Purdue Crop Diagnostic Training and Research Center, 4540 U.S. 52W, West Lafayette.

Information: lgreen06@purdue.edu

MAY 20

North Central Beekeepers The North Central Beekeepers gather to discuss trends and bee news on the third Wednesday of every month in Carmel. Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Cool Creek Park, 2000 E. 151st St., Carmel. Information: 2queenbeeshoney@gmail.com

MAY 21

Sustainable Community Living The urban garden nonprofit Fall Creek Gardens hosts this discussion featuring Peterson Garden Project founder LaManda Joy, who will discuss organic and sustainable methods, community gardens and more. All funds raised at this event will go toward the renovation of the Fall Creek Gardens building.

Time: 7 p.m. Location: Shortridge High School Caleb Mills Auditorium, 3401 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis.

Information: fallcreekgardens.org

MAY 21

West Central Beekeepers Open Hive Field Day The topic of the day is preventing and catching swarms. Event runs until 1 p.m. Time: 8:30 a.m. Location: The Purdue Bee Lab, 2255 State Road 26, West Lafayette. Information: extension.entm.purdue.edu/beehive

MAY 26

Financial Management Webinar Learn from the comfort of your own couch at this webinar, which features a representative from Farm Credit MidAmerica talking about farm financial management. Time: Noon. Location: online. Information: purdue.webex.com

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