A different type of local

Here is a link to my final regularly scheduled Indy Hub post. I will be keeping this site live at the end of the month. I will also still contribute to the blogs @ Indy Hub and KIB, just not as frequently. Though the experience I describe in my blog isn't a new one this week, it is probably my favorite local experience in Indy.

http://indyhub.org/article.aspx?ItemID=326

Out of Indiana

I am traveling on Monday and Tuesday this week out of state, which creates a new set of issues with being a locavore. Here is a link to the article I posted at KIB.

http://www.kibi.org/blog/out-of-indiana

I am travling for the first time with my hair gel and local deodorant. I hope they survived the trip or else I will be in trouble!

I love Indy

Here is my Indy Hub post from today:

http://indyhub.org/article.aspx?ItemID=323

Cookies & Hair Gel

My cookies from Zinszer Bakery arrived on Wednesday. I bought 4 of each of the following:

• Double chocolate peanut butter fudge
• Sugar cookie with sprinkles
• Snickerdoodle
• Chocolate chip
• White chocolate chip nut
• Butterscotch nut

This was not a good week for my diet (something that has not gone hand in hand with me trying lots of new Indiana things). I found the cookies to be good, not great. My wife loved them. They are a thicker / puffier cookie. When a cookie isn't a chocolate chip cookie, I tend to like them to be think and moist, the Zinszer cookies are quite thick. Of the 6, my favorites were the chocolate chip and sugar cookie with sprinkles. Though they aren't my favorite consistency, the flavors were right on.

I am finally ready to share what I have come up with for hair gel. The hold is incredible, I'm still working on tweaking the application process. All you need is 3 ingredients:

• Water
• Gelatin - I have not yet tried the Vegan substitute, but will
• Oil - I have used Grape Seed Oil

Start by measuring out 2 teaspoons of gelatin and warming up 1 cup of water. To warm the water I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Combine the two and mix well. You can do this with a fork or a whisk, but I choose to do it in my blender. It combines everything better. After everything is combined put in 1 tablespoon of oil and continue blending until everything is combined. Then empty the contents into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate to let it set up.

You have now essentially made hair gel...you have also made jello. At this point you could start using the gel, but I find the application difficult. After the gel has set, I put it back in the blender and add 1 more tablespoon of hair gel and 2 tablespoons of water. I blend again.

For the gel to keep a longer time you should keep it covered in the fridge. I will remove 3 - 4 days worth at a time and keep it at room temperature. After you use it the first time, you will understand why. Before you put the gel in your hair, you need to raise its temperature. To do this you take a chunk of the gel and put it in your hands and rub until it turns to a liquid. This takes longer if the gel is cold. Once the gel has liquefied and / or just turned into very small pieces, you can run it through your hair. If you have small pieces, just work it into your hair well. It will give you a better hold than anything you buy in the store. A little bit will go a long way.

I still need to figure out how to get this into a liquid form so that the bringing it to temperature isn't as difficult, but the hold is great, and so cheap to make it yourself.

...okay, I need to add something. I just had a White Chocolate Chip Nut cookie, it was very good. It had the nice sweet taste that is expected from cookie with white chocolate chips...I kinda want another.

Indiana Cookies

Just a link to my post from KIB tonight. On Tuesday a review of the cookies I receive from Zinszer Bakery!

Mint tea revisited

Whoa...that tea was way too strong. I think I used to much tea relative to the Stevia and Mint. I'm also pretty sure I have no idea what I'm doing with Stevia. I'm going to have to research it before I use it again.

To save my tea I made a mint flavored simple syrup. This may be the easiest thing I have done all month and one of the best. I picked 8 leaves of mint and crushed them in my hand. I put them in a pot of water (around 3 cups) with some sugar. I have no idea how much, I just dumped some in. I stirred and cooked over medium heat for about 15 minutes and then let sit for another 15 minutes. When I took a taste, it was like drinking Christmas. I then combined this with my tea from yesterday and now had the mint tea I was looking for. It isn't lo cal anymore (though I didn't use too much sugar, maybe around a half cup)

Afterwards I had some of my mint syrup left over, so I made a mint julep. I through the syrup and some bourbon in a glass with ice. So refreshing. Full disclosure, I used whiskey not bourbon and it came from Tennessee not Indiana. I did just google Indiana Whiskey and it turns out Seagrams has a plant in Lawrenceburg, IN where they make Seagrams 7 Crown and Bulleit Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. I was also amused that the website describing these products is only available in Deutsch.

I also wanted to share a simple recipe I put together for pork burgers tonight. They were fantastic! I usually cook for two, which is the number of burgers this made:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 2 hand fulls of fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 slices of your choice of cheese (I used a low fat cheddar from Swissland Cheese in Berne)

Mince the garlic cloves and cut the basil into small pieces (for the basil I typically ball it up and then do small slices with a knife to make thin ribbons, I then do a few perpendicular cuts in the ribbons to simulate a mince). Mix with the ground pork and make 4 equal size balls.

Flatten each ball into similar sizes patties, they should be pretty thin. Place a slice of cheese on two of the patties. You don't want the cheese to hang over the edge, so trim it down and save the leftover cheese. Place a second patty (that doesn't have cheese on it) on top of the cheese. Press them together. Now you will have some nice warm cheese in your burger. Repeat with the other patty. Cook your burger how ever you like to cook burgers. When you are a minute from being done cooking the patties put your extra cheese on top.

When is a farmer's market a FARMER'S MARKET...

...when you are in Bloomington today.

I went to the mother lode of farmer's markets in the state this morning. Maureen and I got up before 7 AM (like it was a week day!) so that we could pick up our little sister, Frances, to take her to the Bloomington FM, take her on a tour of IU, and go to FARM-Bloomington for lunch.

Bloomington has some rules for its market with one major one. To sell something at the market you must have grown it or raised it. Not someone else grew it, but you are the farmer. Here are the rules. This means that when you are buying something you are getting it from the person who grew it. It also means there aren't pastries (though outside the market a few places like FEAST set up). It also means if you are Local Folks Foods and one of the items in your product comes from off your farm, you can't sell it.

These rules have no impact on the size of the market. It is huge. I'm guessing it is at least twice the size of the Broad Ripple, Carmel, or Noblesville markets. You might even be able to add all 3 up to get to the size of it. And wow are there vegetables there. I think this was a good week. The variety of tomatoes was awesome. There was everything you could think of and more. Here is what we got:

• Chanterelle Mushrooms (they are orange...never had them before, but excited)
• Eggs (Schacht Farms)
• Bratwust (Schacht Farms) - so good!
• Ground Pork (Schacht Farms) - Pork Burgers, here I come!
• Jersey Blueberry Bush (Backyard Berry Plants) - okay with was an impulse but it was only $12. Had I bought a comparable one in Indy at a nursery it would have been $25 - $30 in the spring. This is also a very hearty variety that can survive both a flood and a drought.
• Peaches from Hope Indiana
• Fingerling Potatoes
• New Potatoes
• Brandywine Tomato
• Vine Ripe Beef Steak Tomatoes
• Black Cherry Tomatoes
• Golden Cherry Tomatoes
• Red Bomb tomatoes
• Red Onions
• Flowers (for Frances)
• Strawberry Jam (Heartland Family Farm) Really this is a strawberry sauce. I think calling it a jam is misleading, but it is so good poured on ice cream we had to have it.
• Corn - There were a ton of places selling corn at the market, but this one stand had a huge line. Maureen must have been in line for 20 minutes while Frances and I got her flowers and a few other items)
• Sassafrass root - I am going to use this in making root beer

The first thing I did when I got home is I crushed some tomatoes and diced some tomatoes with the onions and pepper to make salsa (I also grabbed a bunch of cilantro from my garden). Hopefully those will be the last tomatoes I buy for a while. I am now looking forward to dinner tomorrow night: fresh corn, pork burgers, salsa, chips.

The other fun thing I made today an iced mint tea. It is currently cooling so I am hoping it will be good. Here was my recipe:

• 6 tablespoons of fresh loose leaf earl grey tea (courtesy of Harvest Cafe)
• 1 quart (4 cups) of filtered water
• 2 handfuls of mint from the garden
• 1 handful of stevia from the garden

After bruising the mint and stevia with a wooden spoon I mixed in the tea in a stainless steel pot. I added the water and cooked over medium heat (no lid) until the temp got to 190 degrees (about 10 minutes). I let steep for 2 minutes and then poured through a milter sieve. At that point I would have put in a quart of ice, but I was out...so I just put it in the fridge and am now waiting for it to cool. Smelled good.

I think Frances liked IU. I loved walking the campus even though it was hot and the meal at FARM was of course incredible. I had a bacon and egg pizza. The only disappointment was I thought if anyone could find an Indiana Soda, it would have been them...hence the sassafrass.

One last thought. My comments on Indiana Soda reminded me of a very disappointing experience this week. Since the beginning of the month I have gone to Cafe Patachou to get coffee five or six times. They have such good coffee and are known as a place that features local ingredients. I only assumed the coffee was local. I learned they get it from Louisville. There is of course nothing wrong with that...it is great coffee, but sad because I will no longer be partaking in their coffee for the rest of the month.

Tonight Maureen and I are headed with some friends to a middle eastern festival. Hopefully I find some locally made stuff there...if not I am still kinda full from the pizza.

Community Supported Agriculture

Here is a link to today's post on Indy Hub's webiste:

http://www.indyhub.org/article.aspx?ItemID=320

In the final paragraph I talk about the lightning that struck Kelly Funk as she was working in the fields at Seldom Seen Farms. She is going to have a long recovery. To help pay for the medical costs Slow Foods Indy is going to do a lobster bake (and no they are not Indiana lobsters). Here is a link to tickets and more information. I assume Seldon Seen Farms will still be at the Bloomington and Broad Ripple markets this week...it would be a great week to buy stuff from them.

Water

Okay, this is a very random post, but one of the things I have missed this month is a variety of beverages. I have the beer and wine covered, but there is no Indiana soda manufacturer that distributes bottles and I think I gave away my sun tea jar a few years ago. This morning, before I left for work, I grabbed my aluminum water bottle and walked out to my garden. I grabbed a few mint leaves, rosemary leaves, and stevia leaves and threw them in the bottle. It is a nice combo...though I'm not sure I am getting any sweetness from the stevia...I definitely taste the rosemary and mint.

Pasta

As far as locavore things go it was a pretty tame day. No great trips to the market, nothing blooming in my garden. The one thing I did do today was stop by Nicole Taylor's Pasta & Market to pick up some fresh pasta and a pesto sauce. It was all so good. It also reminded me that I need to start making Pesto to help combat the Basil that is taking over my garden. I also hope that I made my final variation on the hair gel tonight. The ingredients aren't changing, just the order of operations in putting them together. Still trying to get a smoother finish.

Garden

I have uploaded some pictures of my garden:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2844403&id=6846068&l=bfd1299558

I also took a picture of my all Indiana dinner from tonight. When I got home I didn't know what I wanted, but after looking through the fridge I decided on:

Brat with kraut and mustard + a 1 egg omelet with fresh corn, garlic, peppers, and cheese, all cooked in butter from Berne. It was complimented very well by the Hoosier Honey Wheat beer from Bee Creek Brewery in Brazil, Indiana.

I also wanted to share something fun and Indiana I made last night. It started with a trip on Sunday to the Irvington Farmer's Market. It wasn't the largest market I've been to, but it had the most sense of community. Once a month Irvington hosts a market in Ellenberger Park. There were the vendors you would expect, but live music and a lot of community outreach (state agencies, political candidates, Irvington associations).

I was there near the end of the day. This gave me a great chance to talk to the people from Harvest Cafe Coffee. I was already familiar and in love with their coffee. Want a good dark roast, look no further than Black Magic. On this trip I got to talk about their tea. I have been wanting to make a nice sun tea this summer and got from them an Apricot Tea and a Raspberry Herbal Tea. I also picked up an Earl Grey that I am going to use to make a mint tea with the mint and stevia in my garden.

As I was walking through the market I cam across caramels made by jevelyn confections. She was also selling caramel popcorn, but I wanted to make my own! I bought a pack of her caramels and went home. I pulled out of the cabinet some popcorn from Mozingo Farms and popped it on top of my range. As it was finishing up I melted the caramel and drizzled it on top. Another great Indiana treat and so fun to make. If you have only ever made microwave popcorn, here is an easy approach on top of the stove.

Place a heavy bottom pan on top of the stove. Coat the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil and heat on low heat. Place one kernel in the pan and cover the top. Now listen. After the 1 kernel pops you are ready to put in another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of kernels. It will take between 5 to 10 minutes for the first kernel to pop. Place the lid back on top and shake the pot some the kernels all get covered in the oil. Keep cooking on low heat. You will hear the popping start in about 5 minutes. Wait until it slows down and then pour your popcorn into a bowl. You may want to check the popcorn while it pops, but if you take the lid off, be ready for an aerial attack of popping corn!. You can of course melt butter, melt caramels, or just put some salt on top.

Moving off the grid

Here is my post from KIB's website today:

http://www.kibi.org/blog/moving-off-the-grid

Eating Indiana

I feel like this blog is like the bonus material you get on a DVD. Here is today's Indy Hub post, with some bonus coverage: http://www.indyhub.org/article.aspx?ItemID=317

As I briefly mention in the blog, my trip to the Georgetown Market was great. Similar to Whole foods, they indicate where all of their produce comes from. The big difference is they had more Indiana products! I was even able to get dried fruit from Indiana. Though the dried fruit and nuts didn't say where they were from, the very friends store employees were willing to look up the information for me!

After leaving the market, Maureen and I headed to the South Bend Chocolate Company Cafe. We had a nice ice cream snack of Bonnie Doon's (from Mishawaka) ice cream. The purpose of our visit was to pick up a few chocolate bars we could use in baking. I feel this falls into the same category as when I buy coffee from a local roaster. SBCC purchases the cacao beans and processes them up in South Bend. I've been to the factory before. Its a fun tour featuring Mr Cacao Bean!

The other fun purchase this week was at the downtown farmer's market. I purchased a luffa. Yes a luffa, like the things that Bath and Body Works sells, but the real thing. Did you know that a luffa is really a dried out gourd? http://www.luffa.info/luffapictures.htm. Now I have not used one of these in the shower, but they are great in the kitchen. They are my item of choice when cleaning out my All Clad pans. Just drop in some Bar Keepers Friend (an Indiana company) or TraceyClean scouring powder and you are good to go. When you are done you can just throw your luffa into the compost pile!

My experiments have also gone very well with the hair gel. I've mad 7 different variations on my recipe...I'm getting close to being ready to share.

KIB Post, plus bonus coverage

Here is a link to my Tuesday post @ KIB. http://www.kibi.org/blog/finding-indiana-corn

This post will make a bit more sense if you read that first. As I was finishing writing the post I was flipping through my Green Piece Indy savings book (like an entertainment book or zoo book, but with a green theme) and came across crackers from a company called Foods Alive! It said they were at Good Earth, Whole Foods, and the Georgetown Market. Since I was just at Good Earth yesterday, I thought I would try Whole Foods, it is close to where I work. Sadly, they didn't have them, but while I was there I made a different discovery.

As I walked through Good Earth's produce area, I noticed every fruit and vegetable said where they were from. Though I only found watercress and basil from Indiana, I was very excited to have that knowledge readily available. If I ever wanted to concentrate my produce on items made in the USA it would be very easy to identify at Whole Foods. They also carry Traders Point Creamery products, which is great. I always like seeing local brands available at a chain. It was an interesting comparison to Marsh, where they had signage promoting their local food, but I only found 3 items in the produce section that were local, and 2 came from Ohio. I am always surprised that the local grocery chains don't carry Indiana corn.

After leaving Whole Foods with my watercress I called the Georgetown Market and they do carry the crackers. Living on the North East side I don't make it over to where the Georgetown Market is very frequently, but I now have reason for a special trip! Tomorrow I am going to try and make the City Market Farmer's Market and potentially Sunking. I also can't believe I haven't been to Goose yet this month, but there is plenty of time.

So many markets, so little time

Between Friday night and Saturday I made it to 4 of the cities markets. Trader's Point, Bindford, Noblesville, and Fishers. There were two exciting discoveries I made at the markets. The first was at Traders Point. I had not yet found a replacement for the California made shampoo that I use, but at Traders Point Flower Child Aromatheraphy had a rosemary shampoo bar. I was a bit skeptical, I had never used a shampoo bar before, but it was incredible. I love the smell (and taste of Rosemary) and it worked great in my hair. If I can just find toothpaste, I will be 100% converted to Indiana products in my bathroom.

The second find was something I certainly wasn't looking for. I had decided on the clothes front I would keep wearing my clothes and not try and replace everything, but if I had to buy something it would need to be made in Indiana. As I was walking the Noblesville market I came across a lady selling mittens and other clothing effects made out of alpaca. Being mid July I certainly didn't need those, but I saw the most beautiful green alpaca scarf. I have a bit of a scarf obsession, so for the incredibly inexpensive price of $20, I bought it! That just helped me on 2 fronts, I needed a green scarf, and I got to buy Indiana clothing!

The best part of the experience with this vendor was, she had a rabbit sitting in her lap that was shedding fur. As she pulled the fur off the rabbit she was spinning it into yard. I had my dog Blake with me, who is quite the shedder himself. She took one look at him and said I could get the most beautiful yarn from him. So for everyone who has mocked me for saving his fur when I brush him...I got some validation (or maybe I'm still crazy). I wish I had this vendors name...but there wasn't a tag on my scarf. Next week I'll go back so I can write it down and share. I have put a picture of Blake in this post so you can see his beautiful fur!

I'm off to golf on an Indiana golf course...with golf balls not made in Indiana. Anyone know where I can find those?

Indy Hub Friday Post Link

Here is a link to my Friday post that was published on Indy Hub's website.

http://www.indyhub.org/article.aspx?ItemID=316

Day 1 - Reality sets in

It took about 4 hours for the reality of this to all sink in. The day started well enough, I had a great local breakfast, used the soap and deodorant that I bought from local producers and then went to brush my teeth. STRIKE 1. Then I went to the bathroom and STRIKE 2, so then I thought I would make a list of everything non Indiana I used today. STRIKE 3 and 4 (I guess that's my first out, 26 more to go).

Toothpaste, toilet paper, a pen, and paper. These are apparently things I need to work on finding a local solution for. Of the four, maybe I'll make my own toothpaste...not sure I'm capable of producing the others.

A few hours later, I settled into my day and starting thinking about lunch. I decided to go out today, but that was no big deal, I was going to Cafe Patachou, a place famous for fresh local ingredients. I studied the menu and read the chicken and eggs were from Indiana and the bread was made in house. Sweet, well on my way, but what about the fruit? I doubt the banana In the fruit salad was grown in Indiana, what about the cheese in the omelet I like so much?

So 4 hours into my day and I have had my reality check. I am going to be a locavore and do the best I can, but I'm also going to have to be reasonable. If I go to a local restaurant known for using local ingredients I can not obsess every single item. I am going to come across things like toilet paper where there is no obvious local answer. In these situations, I'll do my best to go local or at least use an environmentally friendly (e. g. 7th generation toilet paper) alternative.