Treeboy & Todd: WRTV visits Balanced Harvest Farm

Earlier this week, WTHR's Tim "Treeboy" Bush visited Balanced Harvest Farm to learn about all-natural farming and consumer supporter agriculture (or CSA).
Check out the video "Treeboy: Organic Farming."


Balanced Harvest Farm in Carmel, Indiana, is tilled by Kathleen & Todd Jameson, members of Slow Food Indy's leadership team. Check out the Web site to learn more about their farm and get some great recipes for all the produce that's in season now!

The rains came down and the floods came up...but there's help on the horizon

To help the Midwest farmers and food producers who have suffered such devastating effects from the recent rain and storms, Slow Food USA will use donations to the the Terra Madre Relief Fund.

Like Slow Food USA Board Member Kurt Fries said, "We intend to help get these farmers back to the markets, and get those markets back up and running." Please consider making a donation!

Fifth Annual Slow Food Bloomington Chefs Dinner

Just a reminder – the Fifth Annual Slow Food Bloomington Chefs Dinner is coming up on Sunday, June 22 at 5:30 pm at the Bloomington Convention Center. Dinner is seven delicious courses of local ingredients prepared by the area’s best chefs, with wine pairings and great music. Tickets are $100 per person ($40 of which is tax deductible) and they are available at Bloomingfoods East and West. If you are out of town and need to purchase tickets at the door, contact Barbour, D. Christine at barbour@indiana.edu to reserve tickets with a credit card number.

Participating Chefs are:

Tad DeLay, Limestone Grille

Jeff Finch, Finch’s (formerly Trulli Flatbread)

David Fletcher, BLU Boy Café and Cakery

Greg Hardesty, Elements (Indianapolis)

Regina Mehallick, R bistro (Indianapolis)

Daniel Orr, FARMbloomington,

Rags Rago, Nick’s

Alan Simmerman, Bloomingfoods

Dave Tallent, Restaurant Tallent

Hope to see you there!!!!

Homegrown Indiana Tour Will Visit Local Farms

Only 20 spots are left -- reserve your spot today!

The City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, in collaboration with Slow Food Bloomington, the Local Growers’ Guild and Bloomingfoods Market and Deli, presents the first Homegrown Indiana Farm Tour on Sunday, July 13, 2008.

The Farm Tour will visit two southern Indiana farmers who sell their produce at the City of Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market. Gypsy Ridge Farm in Washington County specializes in a variety of vegetable crops, including zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, sweet corn, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries and peaches. Sun Circle Farm in Paoli, specializing in fall and winter storage crops, is a mixed-power farm emphasizing Belgian draft horse and hand tool use for tillage, cultivation, maintenance and harvest.

The Tour also will make a stop at the Lost River co-op and the Lazy Black Bear in Paoli. Guest chefs Gregg “Rags” Rago of Nick’s English Hut and Jeff Finch from Finch’s will prepare the evening meal featuring produce from the Gypsy Ridge Farm and Sun Circle Farm as well as other local farms.

“The tour will provide an opportunity to connect with growers who sell at the Farmers’ Market,” said Marcia Veldman, Farmers’ Market Coordinator. “Knowing where our food comes from and how it is produced is important. Getting to know the people who produce it is important too. The Homegrown Indiana Farm Tour will help participants understand the lives of some of those who make the Market the special event that it is, while having a good time and learning more about our home-grown food system.”

Registration fee for the Homegrown Indiana Farm Tour is $25 per person. Pre-registration is required by July 7. The Tour bus departs from City Hall at 401 N. Morton St. at 1 p.m. and will return at 9 p.m.

For more information about the Homegrown Indiana Farm Tour, contact Veldman at 349-3738 or via e-mail at veldmanm@bloomington.in.gov or visit the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Web site at www.bloomington.in.gov/parks and click on the Farmers’ Market icon.

Farm to Table dinners to benefit Slow Food Indy delegates to Terra Madre

To help the Terra Madre delegates from Slow Food Indy with the expenses of traveling to Torino, Slow Food Indy is pleased to partner with local chefs and restaurants in a series of Farm to Table dinners. Look for more details to be posted soon and contact slowfoodindy@gmail.com to sign up for email updates on upcoming events.

July 14: Chef Neal Brown presents a Farm to Table dinner at his restaurant, L'Explorateur: Look for more info soon!

July 31: Chef Thom England and Ivy Tech culinary students present a Farm to Table dinner at Chateau Thomas Winery. To make reservations, call 317-837-WINE (9463).

August 3: Chef Chris Eley of Goose the Market presents a Farm to Table dinner at Good Life Farms: Look for more info soon!

June 29 Event: Hobbit Gardens Tour

Be sure to save the date for Slow Food Indy's next event. Constance Ferry--a veritable expert on edible and medicinal plants, both cultivated and wild--will lead a grazing tour through her Hobbit Gardens. Constance has been producing organically in Indiana since before "capital O" Organic and leads an engaging tour based on many seasons of hands-on experience. See you soon!

What: Guided Tour & Picnic at Hobbit Gardens When: Sunday, June 29, 3PM

Where: 6213 East C.R. 300 North in Fillmore, Indiana, (about 30 miles west of Indy); for directions and more, check out http://hobbitgardens.hendrickscountyconnection.com/ Those interested in carpooling should contact slowfoodindy@gmail.com.

Cost for the Tour: $5/person for Slow Food USA members; $10/person for non-members; proceeds benefit Hobbit Gardens and Slow Food Indy

RSVP for the Tour: slowfoodindy@gmail.com by Monday, June 23

Food: Herb tea--fresh from Constance's gardens--will be served. Attendees may bring their own picnic or reserve a meal from Goose the Market (www.goosethemarket.com) for $15 each. The meals include a house-smoked chicken sandwich with all-natural, free-range chicken from Gunthorp Farm in Lagrange, Indiana, and the "billion dollar brownie" among other goodies. Vegetarian meals are also available, just let us know when you reserve your meal.

What to bring: Don't forget your picnic blankets and lawn chairs!

Terra Madre Delegates announced: Hoosiers head to Italy!

Every two years, Slow Food hosts Terra Madre, a conference in Torino, Italy, that provides a way for sustainable food producers and farmers to connect and share their practices with others from across the globe.

This fall, more than 20 Hoosiers are headed to bell'Italia for Terra Madre. They include...

Food Producers:
Teresa A. Birtles, Bedford
Jeff Mease, Bloomington
Marcia Veldman, Bloomington
Susan Welsand, Bloomington
Daniel and Melissa Fagerstrom, LaPorte
Debbie Apple, McCordsville
Monique Armstrong, Muncie
Rebekah Fiedler, Rome
Linda Chapman, Spencer

Cooks:
Greg Hardesty, Indianapolis
Neal Brown, Indianapolis
Regina Mehallick, Indianapolis
Aaron K Butts, Fort Wayne
Chris Eley, Indianapolis
Brian Guntz, Indianapolis

Students/Youth:
Amanda C. Taylor, Greenfield
Sara Whitmer, Bloomington
Sarah Almuhairi, Bloomington

Educators:
Thom England, Indianapolis
Eugenia (Genie) Scott, Indianapolis

Taste of Spring: A review of SFI's June 1st event

I had the opportunity to host the Slow Food Indy meeting at the Ivy Tech Hospitality And Culinary Arts (ITHACA) Program on Sunday. It was wonderful to see two rooms full of people who came to taste...lettuce.

As people start to realize where their food comes from, many have gone back to making it a game to find the best farmer with specific produce. It thrills me to go and try the same thing from several different farms and find that there is a vast difference. Things that may not seem like an important part of the meal truly change when you start to analyze them.

It was absolutely mind boggling when I tried the greens from Balanced Harvest and compared them to Organic products from a grocery store and even conventional greens. Balanced Harvest smelled like lettuce. You may think that's not saying much, but have you smelled the lettuce in the store lately?

Other tasters were making comments like “makes me think of mowing the lawn on a summer day” and “smells like spring.” It really made me think. Restaurants put tons of dressing on salads because that lettuce doesn’t taste like anything. We should make dressing to accent the nuance of the greens.

It is wonderful finding out what Central Indiana tastes like.
- Thom England
(photos by Corrie Quinn)

A sign of the times?

During Memorial Day weekend, we drove through this small town in southern Indiana and couldn't help but wonder if the lettering was a sign of the times?