EIRV 2008-11 - Issue #9

edible

Mt. Vernon’s Local Secrets RevealedLocal Hero Nominations • Farm & Restaurant Recovery

K&K POPCORN: TINY BUTMIGHTy

Celebrating the Abundance of Local Foods, Season by Season Fall 2008Number 9

®

Member of Edible Communities

Iowa River Valley

EDIBLEiowa.COM fall 2008 3

Contentsfall 2008

Features

8 After the RainBy Kristine Kopperud Jepsen

14 A Flood of AspirationsBy Michael Knock

16 The Seed of the Great Spirit:Winona LaDuke and the White Earth LandRecovery Project

23 Tiny But Mighty: Real Iowa PopcornBy Riki Saltzman

24 Squash in the pumpkinpatch By Criss Roberts

26 Paul Willis & Niman RanchPork By Dave Murphy

Departments

4 Grist for the Mill

7 Notable Edibles

10 Behind Closed DoorsLes & Katrina Garner By Rob Cline

13 Buy Fresh Buy LocalBy Mallory Smith

19 Incredible Edibles Mount VernonBy Brian Morelli

21 Market Watch

30 Advertiser Directory

cover By Kurt Michael Friese

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4 fall 2008 EDIBLEiowa.COM

gristfor the mill

Dear Eater,

We love autumn. It’s harvest time, it’s Holiday time, it’sthe best time to gather around the table with the peopleyou love and wonderful local food. Though Mother Na-ture has been tough on Iowa this year, its resilient peoplewill always find a way to coax a crop out of the groundand put a full plate on the table.

All over the state, folks are showing the strength and per-severance it takes to carve out a life on the prairie. Kris-tine Kopperud Jepsen will tell you about the long-termeffects of flooding on the grazing animals of northeastIowa, while Michael Knock shares a story of restaurant re-vival in Cedar Rapids.

Rob Cline and Brian Morelli are both in Mount Vernonthis time around. Rob is there to raid the refrigerator ofCornell College president Les Garner, but Brian will showyou all the must-taste food that’s available to all this quaintlittle town’s residents (and you too, when you visit).

Criss Roberts brings you a story of a simple pumpkin patchin Donnelson that grew from a child’s 4-H project into apopular squash-thermed adventure park complete withcorn mazes and a huge selection of heirloom varieties. Re-member, pumpkins aren’t just for Halloween anymore.

And speaking of heirloom treats, if you haven’t yet hadthe pleasure of enjoying the “tiny but mighty” kernels ofUrbana’s K&K popcorn, then Riki Saltzman has quite atasty surprise for you. As if that weren’t enough, DaveMurphy has the story of Thornton’s Sultan of Swine,Niman Ranch Pork founder Paul Willis.

So pour yourself a glass of local beer or wine, settle back,and enjoy our Harvest & Holiday edition of Edible. Whenyou’re done, please go out and sustain our advertising part-ners, who are supporting local food during tough time.

With Relish,

Kurt & Wendy

edibleiowa river

valleyPUBLISHER

Wendy Wasserman

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFKurt Michael Friese

CONTRIBUTING EDITORCriss Roberts

CONTRIBUTORSAndrew DunhamEugenia E. GrattoBrian HalweilMichael KnockBrian MorelliDave MurphyDenise O’BrienMelissa PetersenMallory Smith

PHOTOGRAPHERSJoy Anderson

Andrew DunhamCarole Topalian

CONTACT USEdible Iowa River Valley22 Riverview Drive NE

Iowa City, Iowa 52240-7973Telephone: [email protected]

CUSTOMER SERVICEEdible Iowa River Valley takes pride inproviding its subscribers with fast,

friendly service.Subscribe • Give a Gift • Buy an Ad

319.321.7935 • [email protected]

Edible Iowa River Valley is published quar-terly by River Valley Press, LLC. All rightsreserved. Subscription rate is $32 annually.Call 319.321.7935 to inquire about adver-tising rates and deadlines or email [email protected]. No part of this publicationmay be used without written permission bythe publisher. ©2008. Every effort is madeto avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions.If, however, an error comes to your attention,please accept our sincere apologies and no-tify us. Thank you.

Photo by Kurt Michael Friese


notable edibles

Kramer’s SalsaSome may think that the only good salsas out there come from the South-west, but since 2000 the folks at Kramer’s Specialty Foods have been mak-ing dynamite salsa in five heat levels from the tiny Mississippi River town ofComanche. The Iowa salsa stands up well enough to have received a 2ndplace prize from Chile Pepper Magazine at their competition in Fort Worth,Texas. Kramer’s also makes an assortment of pepper jellies and a few soupmixes as well.

www.KramerSpecialtyFoods.com

Lucca for LunchWe had an opportunity to enjoy lunch at Basil Prosperi’s Lucca, the hipeatery in Des Moines’ trendy East Village neighborhood that takes its namefrom the owner’s grandfather. While Steve Logsdon’s Tuscan-inspired eateryis best known for two-and-three course prix-fixe dinners for just $25-34,their lunches are a very tasty and even more affordable alternative. Salads,panini, and pasta are all made fresh when you arrive and served quick in achic atmosphere that includes live piano.

Basil Prosperi's Lucca420 East Locust, Des Moines515.243.1115www.LuccaRestaurant.net

Buy Iowa WineOur friends at Muddy Creek Wine in Coralville have found a way to makeit even easier to enjoy great Iowa wines. Through their new website you canchoose wines from among 14 Iowa wineries (and more coming on board allthe time). Mix and match wines from such well-known Iowa wineries asFireside, Wallace, Tassel Ridge, Park Farm and Cedar Ridge to make a greatcase for the Holidays. Or, if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and seeMuddy Creek’s retail store in Coralville.

www.BuyIowaWines.com

Muddy Creek Wine Company100 East Oakdale Boulevard, Coralville319.354.3355www.MuddyCreekWine.com

8 Fall 2008 EDIBLEiowa.COM

After the RainTrickle-down effects of flooding will affect pastures and livestock through winter

By Kristine Kopperud Jepsen

Fall is washing invitingly over our pas-tures these days--the lowly sumac isablaze in the fence rows and the gnarlyoaks' golden leaves shimmy with aban-don to the ground--but the effects ofJune's floods on our region's livestockproduction remain: slumping fencesready for a fast break sometime nextspring when it's least convenient tochase stock, debris hiding in tall grasseswaiting to snarl up a mower, and siltthat derailed a season's worth of plantgrowth and compacted soil structure.But what's got people talking--andspeculating--is the flood's effect ongrain and hay quantity and quality, asit's no secret that winter feed costs are aproducer's make-or-break expense.

First, spring 2008 was already brewinga "perfect storm" of unusual circum-stances. A harsh winter lumbered de-cisively into late April, forcing manyproducers to buy extra hay, when it isat its highest price, or feed out more oftheir reserves than anyone anticipated.Simultaneously, grain prices skyrock-eted, chewing into profitabilitywhether an operation feeds a lot or alittle. When the rain hit in June, itpummeled what seemed to be thecool, wet spring's only redeeming offering: a bumper first crop of hay.

"We lost the majority of our first cutting on our bottom ground--and that'ssignificant because we usually get just short of two-thirds of our yearly totaltonnage from first crop," explains Ryan Herman, who raises grass-finishedAngus beef with his father, Gene, on certified organic ground on northeastIowa's border with Minnesota. The Hermans, who market their beef to dis-tributors of natural, organic, and/or grass-fed meats, normally harvest first-and second-crop hay, while stockpiling third (and sometimes fourth) cut-tings for grazing late in the growing season. "We're expecting the shortage tocome to full realization this winter."

Why does this matter? Well, consider that ribeye steak spends at least twoand half years on hooves, with the animal munching roughly 3.5 percent ofits body weight in fuel a day. On our grass-based farm, that means a singleweaned calf should eat a few round bales all by himself. In an industry try-ing to stomach rising transport and distribution costs besides, a bad yearmakes everyone swallow hard.

Federal assistance came mostly in the form of "emergency haying or grazing"allotments on ground legally committed to the Conservation Reserve Program(CRP), a federal incentive plan that pays farmers not to plant or graze por-tions of their land. In other words, with these emergency allotments, produc-

ers had the option to hay or graze acresthey had in CRP without paying backthe incentives received since their givencontract was issued.

But to avoid penalty, grazing could notbegin until August 1, and haying couldnot take place until after November 1."For many people, those dates would-n't produce enough quality forage tomake it worth it," says John Lawrence,Iowa State Extension livestock econo-mist and director of the Iowa BeefCenter in Ames. By that time, grassesthat haven't been cut earlier in the sea-son are typically overgrown, makingthem less nutritious, not to mentionless tasty. Lawrence hasn't fielded asmany inquiries about flooding mattersas he'd assumed he would, but he doessense that both large-scale and small-scale producers aren't taking much forgranted. "Early on, people scoffed atthe idea of harvesting CRP [acerage],but generally now there's an under-standing that any food source, includ-ing corn stalks, is going to be of somevalue in some market, which helps jus-tify the expense of baling it." he says.

Producers on certified organic landaren't done assessing the flood's toll, either. While it's not likely anyone willlose certification due to flooding, says Bonnie Wideman, executive directorof Midwest Organic Services Association a organic certifying organizationbased in Viroqua, Wisconsin. The certifying agency became entwined inevery layer of assessment, from the definition of "flooding" to the develop-ment of chemical analysis for contamination, in coordination with state lab-oratories.

"The whole thing brought about more collaboration between state organicofficials and certifying agencies," says Wideman. "We learned that there's norealistic way to test for crop-specific contamination unless we account forindividual soil plot composition and test for specific contaminants, many ofwhich break down quickly," she explains. "We just wanted to get peoplethinking about anything uphill or upstream from them that could wash overtheir land without their consent--and it worked. Neighbors started talkingto neighbors, and people felt confident about asking questions."

The Hermans, for example, are experimenting in aerating sodden soils."The sheer weight of water and standing water for the flooding period, Ifear, have negatively affected soil microflora, biology and worm popula-tions," Ryan Herman explains. "I am currently asking around about threedifferent types of tillage [implements] that won't lift the whole soil profile

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[yet] leave a slit in the ground for roots and air. Not sure of the cost yet, butit's pretty important."

Looking forward, Wideman says June's flooding is a blow to our collectiveambivalence. "We've had two 100-year floods within six months," she says inawe, referring to devastating rainstorms that hit in August of 2007 as well."I'm most concerned about the soil that leaves our states for the Gulf of Mex-ico. Should our flood-prone ground even be tilled? Could we work with theidea of more pasture [which better withstands erosion]?" It will pay, she says,to be less swamped next time.

Midwest Organic Services Associationwww.MOSAOrganic.org

Kristine Kopperud Jepsen writes from the field—literally—as half ofGrass Run Farm and a local foods advocate near Dorchester, Iowa. In-spired to tell the story of various curiosities and challenges, Kristine hascontributed to several community-based journals on land and the web.


Behind ClosedDoors

Raiding the Fridge of Cornell College’sFirst Couple

Les & KatrinaGarnerBy Rob Cline

I ate a lot of pizza in college.

I ate it in my dorm room and later in my apartment. I ate it at parties and atmeetings. I ate it late at night and early in the morning (which were occa-sionally the same moment). I ate it take-out, delivery, eat-in—find me apizza and I would eat it.

One setting in which I never consumed the stuff, however, is the college presi-dent’s house. That’s because I didn’t go to Cornell College in Mt. Vernon.

I visited the residence of Cornell President Les Garner and his wife Katrinathe afternoon following one of the eight pizza parties they hosted this yearfor the 383 new students at the college. It’s a tradition that dates back to theGarners’ time at North Carolina Wesleyan College in Raleigh.

“North Carolina Wesleyan is a young school without the traditions of thiscollege,” Katrina explains. “Most of the students had no connection to thepresident or the president’s house.”

Les decided to change that by inviting the students over for pizza. When theGarners came to Cornell in 1994, the pizza parties came along.

Are you imagining a kitchen full of soggy cardboard boxes delivered by a stu-dent who had to work instead of coming to the shindig? Think again.

“I was a caterer before I was a college president’s wife,” Katrina says. “Ididn’t know what I was supposed to do as a college president’s wife, but Iknew I could cook.”

Aided by some students who help dress the pizzas, Katrina serves up herown pies to hungry freshman. She’s equipped with a double convection oventhat the Garners installed in order to facilitate the parties. It sits across thekitchen from the 31-year-old tried and true Kenmore refrigerator I was onhand to investigate.

The sausage on Katrina’s pizzas often comes from Jim and Elly Fink’s CedarValley Farm in Vinton (www.Iowa-Natural-Meats.com). Indeed, the Gar-ners get much of their meat from the certified organic farm.

“Elly will send us an email and say, ‘Here’s what I’ve got. What would youlike?” Les says. Apparently, lightning fast response is the key to getting whatyou want.

“You have to answer the email fast to get the chicken” says Katrina.

“I still haven’t hit the send button fast enough to get the pork chops,” Lesadds.

The Finks deliver their products, often swapping the meat for a check lefton the porch. The Garners have a similar arrangement with Howard Ciha, Ph

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the man who supplies their eggs. Every other Tuesday, Ciha drops off twodozen eggs in exchange for $3 left in an envelope on the porch. Those lovelybrown eggs are part of Les’ breakfast every morning.

The Garners also hold a small share in Abbe Hills Garden, a communitysupported agriculture farm just outside of Mt. Vernon, and produce fromthe farm is a staple of their refrigerator. Operator Laura Krouse had abumper crop of some items this year, including sweet corn so appealing thatKatrina dug into a raw ear in her car on the way home from a pickup, leav-ing the rest of the household one short.

“It was a bad season for okra,” says Les. “We’re North Carolinians and welove okra.” In fact, it was the Garners who suggested that Krouse take upgrowing the vegetable.

Eggplant, arugula, beets, red peppers, tomatoes, onions—Abbe Hills Gar-den is a source of an abundance of produce, but it offers more than that tothe Garners.

“It contributes to our sense of community because we see our friends andour neighbors and it’s great fun,” says Katrina.

It’s quite clear, of course, that the Garners are devoted to local food. Evenwith all the items and resources mentioned above, we’ve barely scratchedsurface of their sources, which include fish from two ponds and pears from atree on a 70-acre farm they own.

“I’m amazed at all the food you can get locally here,” Les says.

Even so, the Garners are also world travelers and their refrigerator includes afew items that have their origins in those journeys.

For example, various oriental sauces are on display in the refrigerator door.

“In 1999, we spent six weeks in Shanghai while I was teaching,” explainsLes, “and came back with a desire to replicate Shanghai cuisine.”

There is also a bottle of rose syrup from a trip to Tuscany. “You might driz-zle it on vanilla ice cream for an interesting flavor,” says Katrina, “or add itto a very plain cake to add a hint of something exotic.”

And that’s the role these items play in the Garner fridge—they are the hint ofsomething exotic in an icebox filled with a panoply of locally produced food.And it just might be worth enrolling at Cornell to get a crack at those pizzas.

Rob Cline is the marketing director for The University of Iowa’s Hancher Au-ditorium. He is also the founding president of the Iowa Cultural Corridor Al-liance and an active freelance writer. He lives in Cedar Rapids with his wifeJenny and his children, Bryan, Jessica and Emily.

“I still haven’t hit the send buttonfast enough

to get the pork chops.”


Buy Fresh Buy LocalAt Mary Jo's County Garden

By Mallory Smith

For many growers, the Buy Fresh Buy Local movement has its roots in thefarm crisis of the 80’s. Such is the case for Gerald Freyenberger of Wayland,just north of Mt. Pleasant. Until 1986 Freyenberger and his wife Mary Jowere running a traditional stock and grain operation on a farm that hadbeen in his family for three generations. It was the era of “get big or getout,” yet the Freyenbergers saw another option: switch to produce and sell itdirectly to consumers. “I added strawberries and it kind of grew from there”is how Gerald begins the story. From a small U-pick berry operation, thefarm has grown to supply 20 CSA shares and enough produce to sell at fivefarmers market per week. Thirty-five crops are listed on the CSA brochureand members are invited to hunt mushrooms, camp, cut firewood and fishthe farm pond--privileges that certainly make Freyenberger’s CSA unique.

When asked about changes and trends in local foods, Freyenberger immedi-ately cites the farmers markets. In 1986, when he and his wife shifted thefocus to produce there were no organized efforts in Henry County and veryfew in surrounding areas. Now there are plentiful. Freyenberger sells Tues-day through Saturday at markets located in Muscatine, Mount Pleasant,Washington and Columbus Junction, none of which existed when thestrawberries were first planted.

Freyenberger is a founding member of the Southeast Iowa chapter of BuyFresh Buy Local. He is a Master Gardener and a former member of IowaNetwork for Sustainable Agriculture (INCA) and the Iowa Fruit and Veg-etable Growers Association.

Gerald Freyenberger FarmMary Jo’s County Garden1508 130th Street, Wayland

319.256.7169

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A Flood ofAspirations

Cedar Rapids Restaurants See a Brighter Future

By Michael KnockPhotos by Kurt Michael Friese

In a disaster that defied description, it is perhaps awhite linen tablecloth that best tells the story of theflood that left hundreds of blocks of Cedar Rapids un-derwater last June.

That tablecloth was laid across a table at Blend restau-rant, in downtown CR on Wednesday, June 11. Likethe rest of the restaurant, it was set and ready for theevening dinner rush.

But dinner never came. Instead, floodwaters from thenearby Cedar River, swollen by a week of heavy rains,forced the evacuation of downtown and led to thegreatest disaster in Cedar Rapids history.

When Andy Deutmeyer, 27, and his business partnerVic Kuper, 27, were able to return to Blend about aweek later, they found a soggy mess. Furniture fromthe front of the restaurant had floated to the back of-fice and an end table was sitting on top of a desk chair.They also found that tablecloth.

Silt from the floodwaters had stained it brown, yeteerily every spot where a piece of the place setting hadbeen was still white and clean. There were ghostly out-lines of plates, salt and pepper shakers, napkins andeven silverware.

“It was surreal,” Kuper said. “The table was still setand the glasses were full of water. It was just weird.”

Many months and hundreds of hours of work later,the downtown restaurant scene is starting to get backon its feet. At press time, Kuper and Deutmeyerhoped to be ready to serve dinner at Blend on Oct. 25,and its next-door neighbor restaurant Zins, are due toreopen this fall. Zins was less than a year old when thefloods hit – having first opened November 9, 2007.

“My business partner really wants us to open on Nov.8,” said Zins co-owner Lee Belfield, 59. “Nov. 9 didn’twork out so well for us.”

The return of both Blend and Zins is good news forthe food scene in downtown Cedar Rapids. That scenewas just beginning to blossom as more and more peo-ple from the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor discov-ered downtown as a great place to enjoy an evening.

The flood changed that. A news story from February2008 listed 37 food vendors in the downtown area. Asof early October—four months after the waters hit—only seven were open.

“One of our best features for visitors, residents andbusinesses in our downtown community was thegrowing variety of food establishment—the majorityunique and locally owned,” said Quinn Pettifer, thedirector of marketing for the downtown district. “Themomentum is still there and given time we will seemany of our restaurant partners back in business.”


But it’s going to be a long way back. Both Zins and Blend sustained heavydamage in the floods. Belfield estimated the damage to Zins at between$250,000 to $350,000. The numbers at Blend are similar. Deutmeyer saidhis restaurant had suffered about $300,000 in damage.

Neither had flood insurance.

“The river is two-and-a-half blocks away and it’s all uphill,” Deutmeyer said.“We’re on the line between the 500-year and the 1,000-year floodplains, sowe didn’t receive a dime (from insurance).”

The damage ranged from kitchen equipment to floors to cabinetry. Carpet-ing had to be ripped out and replaced, as did drywall. Worse yet, Belfieldsaid that all of his records were lost.

“It took us eight weeks to figure out the final payroll,” Belfield said.

Both businesses have put in for assistance from the Small Business Adminis-tration. Still, the paperwork and the bureaucracy have been frustrating.Kuper said Iowa politicians like Gov. Chet Culver and Senators Tom Harkinand Chuck Grassley have helped cut through some of the red tape.

Local programs have also helped. Pettifer said the Cedar Rapids Chamber ofCommerce created an “Adopt a Business” program whereby one businesswas able to help another with fundraising and providing volunteer labor.There are also grant programs from the Small Business and Job RecoveryFund from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation and a newprogram from the Governor’s office called the Jump Start program.

But according to Belfield, Kuper and Deutmeyer, some of the most gratify-ing assistance came from the people of Cedar Rapids who have providedcountless hours of labor helping downtown businesses with clean-up. Infact, all three said that volunteers poured into both Blend and Zins to helpas soon as they could.

“At one point there were 35 people constantly going up and down the stairshelping us clean out the basement,” Deutmeyer said. “I thought it wouldtake two weeks, but it took six hours.”

Some of the volunteers were friends and others were family members. Oth-ers, however, were strangers who just wanted to help.

“A handful were people I’d never met before,” Deutmeyer said. “They justcame out of the woodwork.”

And the business owners have appreciated it.

“As difficult as this flood has been, there have been extraordinary acts of kind-ness for which there is not adequate way to say ‘thank you,’” Belfield said.“‘Thank you’ is something you say when someone holds the door open foryou. There are no words that are adequate for what these people have done.”

Volunteers did not shy away from the worst of the clean-up work. At Zins,Belfield said the nastiest job was emptying out the walk-in cooler that hadbeen underwater and without electricity for nine days.

“It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” Belfield said. “Nobodyshould have to do work like that, yet people just helped out.”

Still, Deutmeyer knows that it is going to take time to get people back inthe habit of coming downtown. Both the Paramount Theatre and TheatreCedar Rapids—which both drew business downtown—are closed and will

be for some time. Other businesses downtown have reopened, but sidewalktraffic remains light. Kuper said it can be a little scary re-opening a restau-rant in a market that no one is sure about. Still, he and Deutmeyer are con-fident that downtown will come back.

“As more and more places come back, the people will come back down-town,” Deutmeyer said. “Nearly everybody is re-opening or working to-wards re-opening. No one has folded or called it quits.”

In fact, some think that the flood has provided the city with the chance toremake its downtown to be even better than it was before.

“This is an opportunity,” Belfield said. “Depending on the decisions wemake we can rebuild it better than it was.”

Deutmeyer agreed.

“It’s exciting to see,” Deutmeyer said. “There’s work going on everywhere,and a lot (of businesses) are coming back with improvements. If you’ve everwanted to take time to change things, now is the time. We just need tomake the best of it.”

Michael Knock is a lifelong Iowan who grew up learning how to cookwhile standing on a kitchen chair at his mother's side. He writes theweekly food column for the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

Blend221 2nd Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids

319.366.3364www.BlendCR.com

Zins227 2nd Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids

319.363.ZINS (9467)www.ZinsRestaurant.com


The Seed of theGreat Spirit:

Winona LaDuke and the White Earth LandRecovery Project

Hidden way back in the north woods, well off the paved roads, on theWhite Earth Reservation around Ponsford, Minnesota is the home ofWinona LaDuke. From her ancestral land she is leading a quiet revolutionto save a way of life.

Though Winona was not born on this land, her father was a member of theMakwa Dodaem, or Bear Clan, of the Mississippi band of the Anishinaabe,or Ojibwe tribe on the White Earth Reservation. Her mother was thedaughter of Polish immigrants, and Winona was born in California, whereher father worked as an actor in Western movies.

Her activism in Native American Rights began while she was attending Har-vard, and her star rose quickly – she was speaking on the subject before theUnited Nations at age 18. By 2000 she was running for Vice President ofthe United States on the Green Party ticket.

Back in 1867 the US Federal Government designated 1300 square miles ofterritory in Northern Minnesota as the White Earth Reservation, settingaside this land for the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) people. One hundred yearslater less than ten percent of the original 837,000 acres of land was in nativehands, having been taken away by land developers or confiscated in tax debtrepayment. In 1989 LaDuke founded The White Earth Land RecoveryProject (WELRP) to get that land back. To date they have placed more than1700 acres of community land in trust for the Ojibwe people, but that isjust the beginning. At this writing they are looking to purchase six acres fora food production facility, and looking into additional land for wind turbineelectrical production.

This land is sacred to the Ojibwe people because of their ancient spiritualconnection to it through the food it provides, which comes from their mi-gration stories in which the Ojibwe were told by the Creator to go to theplace where the Manoomin (which translates roughly to “good berry”)grows on the water. They found that place in the Northern Great Lakes re-gion and lived healthy lives for centuries harvesting the Creator’s gift to thepeople, wild rice.

Though the English term for Manoomin is wild rice, it is actually not rice(Oryza sativa) but rather the seed of an aquatic grass (Zizania palustris) andis related to corn. It has far more protein than rice, which is why it sustainshealth so well.

Until the 1960’s the Anishinaabe had a virtual monopoly on wild rice pro-duction, but that changed when the University of Minnesota figured out a

The Manoomin that grows next to Winona LaDuke’s home inPonsford, Minnesota is just beginning to rise from the surface ofone of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes


way to cultivate it. In 1977 the Law of Unintended Consequences kicked inwhen the state legislature declared wild rice the “Official State Grain,” akind gesture that caused massive amounts of research dollars to pour in.The ironically named “cultivated wild rice,” or paddy rice, became big in-dustry in one of the United States’ biggest grain economies. Prices plum-meted, and the natives on the White Earth Reservation and throughout theregion could fetch no more than twenty-five cents per pound. For a prod-uct that takes days and days of hard physical labor to harvest and parch,such a price was completely debilitating.

WELRP helps native Manoomin harvesters by paying upwards of $1.25 perpound (in 2005) for their hand harvested rice. They parch it in largebatches with that of other tribal members and create markets where it canfetch a fair price. In 2000, Winona and WELRP were honored with theSlow Food Award for Biodiversity. LaDuke says it expanded their thinking.“We didn’t know we were Slow Food people,” she said. So many are anddon’t know it.

Additionally, Slow Food began the very first American Presidium in defenseof hand harvested, hand parched Native American Wild Rice. The purposeof all the Slow Food Presidia is to promote artisan products; to stabilize pro-duction techniques; to establish stringent production standards and, aboveall, to guarantee a viable future for traditional foods (so that we can con-tinue to enjoy them). Slow Food works with the producers to create viablemarkets for their product because if a traditional artisanal food can have aneconomic impact, it can be brought back from the verge of extinction.

This association has broadened their thinking on the White Earth Reserva-tion as well. Now there are Ojibwe farmers raising the Heritage turkeybreeds, and people all over the country and the world recognizing the flavorand importance of real Manoomin.

Today Manoomin faces additional challenges. Researchers at the Depart-ment of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota aremapping the genome of wild rice. This is the initial step to the genetic ma-nipulation of the food and to the patenting of laboratory-created, “im-proved” strains of rice. The long- and short-term implications of this to thehealth of the environment, to the Ojibwe people, and to consumers arecompletely unknown,.

Of course the Ojibwe have banned GM crops from their land, but that doesnot mean they won’t get there. Pollen carried on the wind or seed blowingoff passing trucks is more than enough to cause damage. If the DNA ofsome future, GM wild rice shows up in the lakes of the White Earth Reser-vation, it could have effects on all the rice on Native land.

An excerpt from the new bookby Edible Iowa River Valley

Editor-in-Chief Kurt MichaelFriese; A Cook’s Journey – Slow

Food in the Heartland,available now at Devotay and

at bookstores everywhere.


Wild Rice Dressing

For as long as I can remember, this dish has been the indicativeflavor and aroma of Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday.It’s the one day in America where everybody really concentrateson being around a table with great food and the people they love.

Winona told me that it’s important to remember, when usingthe hand-parched, truly wild rice, that it cooks much faster thanthe cultivated “paddy rice.” The running joke on the WhiteEarth Reservation goes “How to cook Paddy Rice: Put rice andwater in a pot with a stone and boil. When the stone is soft, therice is almost done.”

1 pound hand-parched, Manoomin wild rice, washed3 cups chicken stock1 pound “breakfast-style” sage pork sausage¼ pound butter2 portobello mushrooms, diced½ onion, minced1 tablespoon parsley, chopped1 stalk celery, diced1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped1 pinch fresh thymeSalt and white pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

Rinse rice thoroughly in 3 changes of hot tap water. Put rice andstock in a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil rice in broth for 20minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, brown sausage in butter until fully cooked. Add re-maining ingredients. Simmer 10 minutes. Mix in the rice.Transfer to a covered casserole. Bake covered at 350° for 20 min-utes, then uncovered to desired consistency – I like it a littlecrunchy on top. Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

LaDuke’s vigilance is stemming the tide in the Ojibwe’s scenic corner of theworld, but much more work must be done. In 2004, she joined with 5000other artisans, farmers, and food producers from 120 nations in Torino, Italyfor an event called Terra Madre: A World Gathering of Food Communities.Terra Madre 2004 was an effort to reverse that, to build a global network ofpeople who were concerned with the long-term viability of their ways of life.An enormous success, Terra Madre met again in 2006, “attentive to envi-ronmental resources, planetary balance, the quality of the finished product,the dignity of workers and the health of consumers, (Terra Madre) will uniteproducers and farmers from all over the world who together represent a dif-ferent and more complex way of understanding the food system.”

Most stories such as Winona LaDuke’s could get lost in the backgroundnoise of the information age, but her relentless pursuit of what is rightfullyhers, rightfully the spirit of the Ojibwe people, must be silenced.

Born and raised in the Heartland, Edible Iowa River Valley editor-in-chiefChef Kurt Michael Friese got his BA in photography at Coe College inCedar Rapids, Iowa before graduating from the New England Culinary In-stitute, where he later was a Chef-Instructor. With more than 25 years ofprofessional foodservice experience, he has been Chef and owner, with hiswife Kim McWane Friese, of the Iowa City restaurant Devotay for 12years. Devotay is a community leader in sustainable cuisine and supportinglocal farmers and food artisans. Recently Kim promoted him to "ChefEmeritus," and he now devotes most of his time to writing about and ad-vocating for sustainable cuisine.


Incredible Edibles

Mount VernonHonest Food on the Lincoln Highway

Story and photos By Brian Morelli

Rising prices at the grocery store don’t really bother three farmers living nearPavelka’s Point at the east edge of Mount Vernon.

Beef, lamb and pork rancher Lois Pavelka, bison rancher Bill Ellison andproduce farmer Eric Menzel of Salt Fork Farms trade amongst themselvesfor most things they grow and need: beef, poultry, pork, spinach, lettuce,carrots, potatoes, apples, eggs, milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheese,etc. But thethreesome is also an anchor for Mt Vernon’s local food scene,selling many ofthese commodities through direct retailing, at local farmers markets and thetown’s restaurants.

Every Thursday, Palvelka is at the Mount Vernon farmers market. Her meatsare also occasionally available at the locally owned, nationally reknowned,Lincoln Café, one of the few restaurants in town that supports local foodproducers. Given its size, about 4,200 people, Mount Vernon is compara-tively progressive and offers decent options for people looking for local edi-bles, from the local coffeeshop Fuel to the faithful Big Creek Co-op

Mount Vernon is a quaint Iowa college town. Residents, students and visi-tors can often be spotted strolling down a traditional main street with a de-cent mix of businesses. The small liberal arts college, Cornell College, has abig impact on the town’s vibrancy,

For farmers like Pavelka, Ellison and Menzel, direct sales options are growingas more people tune into the local food movement. That’s good news for thesethree because it mostly insulates them from market variations dictated by na-tional economic trends. This allows them to sustain a satisfying and slowed-down life on a picturesque and diversified farm. Pavelka’s Point is nearing 200years old and has been passed down through her late husband’s family.

“If small farms are going to survive, we really need to sell a good product di-rectly to the customer,” Pavelka said.

However, Mount Vernon isn’t entirely protected from external factors. Manypeople here are still reeling from the 2008 record floods. Pavelka and Ellison

lost about 100 acres of their 330 acre farm to water, and had to rescue a pen ofnew born piglets one night pulling them from an old barn to high ground.

“We are still in the recovery phase,” Pavelka said.

“We’ve been a month behind since March,” Ellison said. “We had a heavywinter, then too much rain and then the flood.”

John and Kaylene Kroul of Kroul Farms on Highway 1 at the southern edgeof Mount Vernon are also still picking up the pieces from the flood. Waterrose to three feet on some parts of their property.

“We were hit with the flood real bad,” John Kroul said.

Many people in the eastern Iowa area are familiar with the Krouls becausetheir farm is a must-visit during the harvest, particularly around Halloween.A spread of pumpkins decorates the property and a corn maze and hay balemaze and various Halloween ornaments make for a fun afternoon activityfor families. Plus, the Krouls are the proud parents of four-year Iowa Hawk-eye defensive line starter Matt Kroul, and salutes to their son and theHawkeyes are also evident all around.

The Krouls frequently host school field trips and other kid organizations, al-though due to the extra work from the flood, they aren’t leading tours. Groupsare still welcome to come check out the farm on their own. This familyfriendly tradition started about 20 years ago, and its popularity has been in-creasing ever since, Kroul said.

Still, John Kroul is a true blue farmer. He has been working to expand histrade, from livestock to more diversified vegetables, and sell it locally. That’sdue in part to a nudge from Uncle Sam, Kroul said, as the country tries tobecome less reliant on foreign oil. That’s new, and the increased labor is stillsomething they are figuring out. The Krouls have a table at the North Lib-erty farmers market and they sell everything from pumpkins, squash, eggs,to garlic and peppers from a produce stand on their farm.


In town, Matt Steigerwald has built his Lincoln Café into one of the most respected and magnetic restau-rants in the region. The chef and owner opened the restaurant in 2001 and later opened a wine bar twodoors down. They serve a fairly traditional lunch with burgers and sandwiches, and get more creative atnight. On the day Edible visited, Steigerwald was testing out a deep fried soft-boiled egg to go with grilledduck, and whipping up a batch of sausage grits.

“Honest food” the front window claims, in part a nod to their location on the (Abraham) Lincoln High-way. Their t-shirts say “Food is Important,” another salvo Lincoln Café lives by. They buy as much locallyas practical and work primarily with David Miller at Pure Prairie Garden. Miller also has coordinated theMount Vernon farmers market for the past five years.

“We like to think of him as our personal farmer,” Steigerwald said, noting they also buy from a handful ofother local producers. “At times, in the summer, 95 percent of the vegetables on the menu are from him.”

Because of the restaurant’s small size, about 12 tables, and always pliable menu, they are not constrained bysome of the difficulties larger restaurants have working with small local growers.

“We work well with small farm operations. It is a person working with a person,” Steigerwald said. “If theysay, “I only have five pounds of potatoes today,” I’ll say, “That’s fine. Can you bring five pounds tomorrow?”

And it’s this camaraderie among farmers, restaurateurs, and others that makes Mt. Vernon worth a visit.

Brian Morelli is a journalist who covers university news for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. A recent Uni-versity of Iowa graduate, Morelli has a major in journalism and minor in political science. Prior to writ-ing, Morelli traveled for several years primarily in the U.S. and Canada, and he cooked professionally atseveral restaurants across the country, most recently at Devotay. He currently resides in Iowa City withhis wife and two children.

In & AroundMt Vernon:

Lincoln Café117 1st Street West, Mount Vernon

319.895.4041www.FoodIsImportant.com

Kroul Farms245 Highway 1 South, Mount Vernon

319.895.8944

Pavelka’s Point710 Ivanhoe Road, Mount Vernon

319.624.2392

Eric Menzel, Salt Fork Farms1038 Vega Road NE, Solon

319-270-3449

Also While You’reThere:

Big Creek Market100 1st Street West, Mount Vernon

319.895.8393www.MyBigCreekMarket.com

Fuel - Coffee, Tea, Antiques103 1st Street East, Mount Vernon

319.895.8429


Market Watch

Iowa's local bounty is available even when frost season begins.Most off-season markets may have sporadic schedules, so always confirm days and places.

Ames Farmers Market2p.m. to 7p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Main StreetDepot

Market Master: Paula, 515.231.5900

Burlington Farmers Market4 to 7 p.m., Thursdays through Nov. 20 at the Port of Burlington

Market Master: Judy Parks, 319.752.6388

Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 21 and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 19 in the 400 block ofLocust Street.

Market Master: Kelly Foss, 515.286.4928

Dubuque Winter Farmers Market9 a.m. to noon Saturdays through April at 11th & Central (The Colts Drumand Bugle Corp Bingo Hall)

Market Master: Amy Weber, 563.599.9858

Iowa City Holiday Markets9 a.m. to 12 noon. Saturday, November 15 and Saturday, December 6Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center Gymnasium

Market Master: Tammy Neumann, 319.356.5210

Mount Vernon Winter Farmers Market11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Nov. 8, Nov. 11, Dec. 13, Dec. 20, Jan 10, Jan. 24, Feb. 7, Feb. 21, March 14,March 28, April 4 and April 18

In the basement of the Mount Vernon City, 213 First Street West

Market Master: Mickey Miller, 319.895.0177

Market Watch is made possible by the generous support ofEverybody’s Whole Foods in Fairfield.


K&K popcorn is available at all Hy-Vee stores,all Dahls in Des Moines, and at Whole Foodsmarkets in the upper Midwest. There's due tobe a shortage for 2008, thanks to the latespring floods. Gene reports, “we will only beselling locally and internet mail order whenthe crop comes in this fall. That's farming!”

Gene MealhowK&K Tiny but Mighty Popcorn3282 62nd Street, Shellsburg

319.436.2119 or 800.330.IOWAwww.KandKPopcorn.com


Tiny But Mighty: Real Iowa PopcornStory and Photos by Riki Saltzman

“What in the world is this stuff?” was Gene Mealhow’s reaction when hefirst encountered K&K popcorn. According to Urbana family farmerRichard Kelty, original owner of the business, his great, great, great-grandfa-ther, Samuel Kelty, settled just northwest of what is now Cedar Rapids inthe 1850s. The family story is that the family stash of popcorn seed cameoriginally from Indian neighbors. Since it is a self-pollinating flint corn, thefamily folklore on this may well be true. The popcorn was shared locally forgenerations but was nearly lost when planting ceased for a few years. WhenRichard Kelty returned home from the army in the mid-1970s, he foundthe last remaining seeds in a fruit jar. He popped some and planted therest—and a new business was born.

While it was tasty, however, the corn did not produce well enough to becommercially viable. So Kelty called upon Gene Mealhow, a professional soilconsultant, to help him reduce his waste and increase his yield. This was inthe early 1990s; the popcorn stalks were falling down and producing only600 lbs per acre.

In the very first year, Kelty remembers that his corn crop "went nuts! Yieldwent from 600 to 1000 lbs. per acre, and he cut the throwaway by 10%. ForMealhow, it was “totally fun to work with Richard.” The two changed some-thing each year—upped population, planted deeper, selected for certaintraits, and planted different seeds. Mealhow, a third-generation conventionalfamily farmer who had turned to organic methods in the 1980s, was fasci-nated by this unique popcorn.

After five or six years, Kelty told Mealhow that he wanted to sell hispopcorn business. Gene, who had tried to find a buyer for Kelty, con-sidered doing it himself, and he and his wife, Lynn, made an offer.Kelty’s typically understated Iowan response: “I was wondering howlong it would take you.”

Since the late 1990s, theMealhows and their sons have been producingK&K Tiny But Mighty Popcorn. What makes K&K popcorn specialare its tiny kernels and hulls, which disintegrate when popped, makingit appealing for those with digestive complaints.The disintegrating hullshave also won the approval of dentists, says Gene Mealhow.

But there are still challenges ahead for this corn. K&K organic is aprized specialty item because producing sufficient organic popcorn isdifficult because of weed control. But rest assured, except for limited useof herbicide on some fields, the regular product is produced without fu-migants, sprays, or pesticides before or after harvest and processing.

This open pollinated corn also has many different genetic traits thatare difficult to isolate. Because it is hard to breed, most people in thepopcorn industry wanted nothing to do with it. It requires Mealhowsignificant time and effort to identify and select the specific, often re-cessive, traits he wants to improve yield as well as the stalks’ ability tostand up. While he could turn to GMO technology, he prefers not todo so.

According to Mealhow, “There may be positive factors in geneticengineering but the companies that are involved are proceedingwithout looking at the long term effects. How is it affecting the soil

and the organisms, food quality, food digestibility, and who is regulating it?Just because we can do it, should we put are total future in it? What happensif ten to fifty years down the road we start to have problems and all of ourseed base has been genenetically altered and we have none or little of theoriginal germ plasm left to work with? Around five companies control mostof the germ plasma in the world. If you control the seeds you control thefood. I vote to keep as diverse seed base in a lot of different hands.” A lot oforganic farmers and consumers that feel the same way, and we are involvedin a large effort to conserve and breed seeds in natures way to preserve theseuntouched seeds for the future.

Riki Saltzman has been the Folklife Coordinator for the Iowa Arts Coun-cil/Department of Cultural Affairs since 1995. She received Leopold Cen-ter funding to document place-based foods in Iowa and to create awebsite. Saltzman has researched food and other cultural traditions in thesouth, mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Great Britain. At the Iowa Arts Coun-cil, Saltzman works with communities and individuals on multicultural is-sues, project development, event planning, and presentation of traditionalarts and artists. Saltzman, who obtained her Ph.D. in Anthropology/Folk-lore from the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of public folklorepublications as well as peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals.


Squash in the pumpkin patchBy Criss Roberts

If they had just planted it, filled their acres with twining squash vines,would people have come? Adam Hohl doubts it. He is a true believer in thepower of squash, but even his faith has limits. The magic part — that proba-bly only worked for Cinderella. What the Hohl family sees is a logic behindthe booming squash market.

“I think it started when the restaurants started serving it.” Hohl, who re-turned to his family’s Donnellson farm to grow Kathy’s Pumpkin Patch froma farm stand offering Halloween pumpkins and acorn squash to a squash-themed adventure park.

Acorn squash soup, pumpkin gnocchi and but-ternut squash ravioli are relative newcomers onthe menu boards at some of Iowa’s finer restau-rants, but their appearance is introducing thestaple of winter pantries and fall harvest mealsto a whole new generation. Squash is no longeryour grandmother’s vegetable. Each weekend,the Patch packs the trunks of everyone fromfood-milling young mothers making baby foodto ambitious 20-somethings new to the kitchen.At the same time, older customers are delightedto find varieties they remember from theiryouths as well as hybrids that are sweeter,smaller and less stringy.

The Hohl family has been farming in southeastIowa for five generations. Kathy and Greg Hohlran the farm as a livestock and grain operationfor most of their married life. In 1994, sonAdam grew some pumpkins as a 4-H project,selling them at the roadside table with a jar tocollect payment on the honor system. His sister, Amber, continued the proj-ect. When the kids went to college, the pumpkin project turned back into ahandful of unplanted seeds.

Then in 2004, looking to replace the livestock with something less labor-in-tensive, Kathy planted 5 acres of pumpkins and sold them at the farm stand toeager pie bakers and Jack-o-Lantern carvers. Two years later, Adam returned tothe farm with his wife, Julie, and their son. The row crops gave way to morepumpkins and more gourds. They’ve maxed on subscriptions for their CSA in

two years. Corn mazes and pumpkin carving were added and Julie, a local pri-mary grade teacher, began offering children’s activities. Growing alongside thefun, however, was an ever-increasing variety of squash.

This year was a trial. Where other farms fought rising rivers, the Hohls con-tended with unceasing rain and waterlogged fields. “We had to replant threetimes,” Adam said.

Crops matured later than anticipated, and Kathy wonders if the high mois-ture content will be a factor in the vegetables’ shelf life. But then again, the

latest generation of squash eaters believe in in-stant gratification. They won’t be storing theirsquash in a root cellar until Easter.

Beyond the ButternutEach year, the Patch grows new tendrils, addingvarieties and family activities.

This season’s inventory includes 175 varieties ofsquash and gourds this year, ranging fromwarty pumpkins the size of a child to tiny sin-gle-serving dumpling squash.

Kathy Hohl has no problem picking her fa-vorite squash. She loves the pink bananasquash. “It’s a big ugly thing,” Hohl said,wielding a 30-pounder like a club. It is indeedpink, a pastel melony pink, and it has that ba-nana shape, almost all of it edible. The charmof it, Hohl said, is that it makes perfect sensefor any busy cook.

“You cut it up in slices,” she said, chopping herhand down the squash in inch-wide cross sections. “You scoop out the seeds soyou have a donut, lay them out on a baking sheet to cook, then freeze themuntil your ready to use it.”

“Any recipe that uses pumpkin or squash, you can use this.”

Its close kin, the blue banana squash, isn’t as freezer friendly, but it keepslonger than most varieties in the fridge.

Butternut Squash Soup

6 tablespoons chopped onion4 tablespoons butter6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash3 cups chicken stock½ teaspoons marjoram¼ teaspoon ground black pepper1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, sauté onionuntil tender. Add squash, stock and spices. Boil,the simmer for 20 minutes or until squash is ten-der. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender orfood processor. Return to saucepan and heat. Donot allow to boil.

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For those who demand pumpkins, Kathy’s a fan of the Long Island CheesePumpkin, an heirloom variety with the yellow-gold hue of a good cheddar,hence the Cheese in its name.“It has beautiful flesh,” she said.

For nostalgia, nothing beats the Hubbards. “They’re what our grandparentswould have grown,” Hohl said. A hybrid of those thick-skinned heirloomsare the mini Blue Hubbard or Blue Magic, both smaller and more tender.

Small is a trend in squash — and pumpkins are a member of the squashfamily. So is big. Big and ugly. One of this fall’s biggest sellers is Red WartyThing. “That’s really its name,” Adam said.

Halloween décor is trend driven and the trend is moving toward homely va-rieties with names like Knucklehead and Goosebumps, pumpkins whichlook like they’ve got a fungus growing on their orange or green skin.

While all their produce is technically edible — “We tell people to decoratewith it now and eat it later” — Kathy steers cooks toward other, more sa-vory, selections.

“Our No. 1 question is ‘How do I cook it,’ ” she said. “No. 2 is “How do Iget my kids to eat it?’ ”

She can answer the first question with a handful of recipes and regularlyscheduled cooking demonstrations. That second question, the one about thekids … it’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. Will your kids eat it if you cookit? Or will you cook it if your kids eat it?

Cookies and cakes are always a good place to start. Sneak pureed pumpkininto pancake batter too. Sweet and creamy soups are friendly for the squash-phobic, a malady quickly cured by a visit to Hohl’s.

Criss Roberts, a Chicago native, married into an Iowa farm family. Shelives in Burlington, where she is the former feature editor of the HawkEye, and writes for other publications and websites.

One of this fall’s biggest sellers isRed Warty Thing.

That’s really its name.

Kathy's Pumpkin Patch1977 Highway 2, Donnellson

319.470.1558 • www.KathysPumpkinPatch.com


Paul Willis &Niman Ranch Pork

An Edible Icon

By Dave MurphyPhotos by Kurt Michael Friese

It may be true that pigs can’t fly, but if you’ve ever tasted Niman Ranch porkyou’d sure think these pigs had wings. From top chefs across the country toyour average backyard barbeque, pork lovers have consistently voted withtheir forks in agreement that Niman Ranch pork is “the best tasting meat inthe world” as their company’s modest slogan claims.

Whether it’s a pork chop, their famous Applewood Smoked Bacon, or thecompany’s unique specialty products—such as their Andouille, Apple &Gouda or Chorizo sausages, Niman Ranch has found a recipe for makingcarnivores’ mouths water while tempting a growing number of vegetariansaway from their endive and radicchio salads.

For Iowans worried that some slick Californian (where the Niman Ranch’sparent company is headquartered) is about to take claim of producing theworld’s finest tasting pork there’s nothing to worry about.

The Niman Ranch Pork Company was founded here in Iowa, by Thorntonfarmer Paul Willis, who has taken his passion for raising pork with the high-est intergrity. The company does not allow hormones or sub-therapetic an-tibiotics, uses vegetarian feed, and is the only meat company to be certifiedhumanely raised by the Animal Welfare Institute. Willis has turned Nimaninto a national brand known for its sustainable, family farm mission.

Since starting the company in 1998, Willis has recruited over 600 familyfarmers from across 12 states in the Midwest to help form the foundation ofthe enterprise. Iowans can be proud that not only does its founder hail fromIowa, but nearly 40% of the Niman Ranch hog farmers also call Iowa home.

For the many people fortunate enough to travel to the Willis’ farm, located100 miles north of Des Moines just off I-35, one of the best sights to see arethe Willis’ pigs roaming happily across the pasture, with the littlest ones,weaned at six weeks, running like kids on a playground.

Even better is the chance to walk through the listening to him talk about hispigs and why they mean so much to him.

Walking among the hogs in Willis’ fields has become a time-honored tradi-tion for many of the nation’s top chefs, environmentalists, foodies, politi-cians and the hundreds of people who just stop by because they love NimanRanch pork and want to see where it all started.

Regulars include visits of executives and chefs from some of Iowa’s, and thenations’ best restaurants. In addition, during the political season, politiciansand their staffs all made a pilgrimage to the famous hog farm, includingHoward Dean and Dennis Kucinich. During the most recent Iowa caucusseason, Chris Dodd and a regular round of Obama staffers kept comingback for freshly grilled pork. For all their supposed political differences, onething they all agreed upon was that they thought Willis’ lovely wife Phyllis,who bakes her famous pie crusts with lard rather than butter to bring outthat special flavor, makes the best apple pie they had ever tasted.

For the majority of these people though, the most memorable thing is awalk with Willis through their fields where they learn firsthand about howfarming, the environment and animal welfare go hand in hand.


“It’s not just about money,” he mused, who has been raising hogs on thisfarm since he was a child. “These pigs have a right to a decent life. We try toprovide them that and in the end we believe a happy pig makes a better tast-ing pig.”

As we walk through the field, the pigs, in all shapes, colors and sizes comeup to us to check us out. After a few minutes we are surrounded by dozensof curious pigs, gazing up at us, some sniffing or even nibbling at our shoesor jeans and gently poking us with their snouts as if looking for some signof where we have come from.

Unlike their unfortunate cousins found around the state, Niman Ranchhogs aren’t raised in confinement feedlots, which have become the standardway to raise hogs and most farm animals in the United States, from broilerand egg laying chickens to dairy cattle.

Today in Iowa, which raises the most pigs in the nation — slaughteringsome 36 million in 2007 alone according to recent USDA figures — mostpigs are raised in factory-like warehouse buildings that house anywhere be-tween 1,000 to more than 10,000 hogs under one roof.

Rather than allowing the animals outdoors, hogs in confinement are kept intemperature controlled buildings, with automated feed and water, andforced to stand on slatted concrete floors over a massive pit where theirwaste collects for six months at a time before it’s emptied on nearby fields as“fertilizer.”

While many farmers across Iowa adopted this factory farm model for raisinghogs, Willis refused to go along.

Instead, he started a quiet revolution by raising his pigs outdoors as theyhad been for hundreds of years, in what is now ironically called “the tradi-tional manner” or “old fashion way” of raising hogs.

Willis shrugs his shoulders and laughs when he sums up his pig philosophyand the secret of his success, which he says boils down to: “Let pigs be pigs.”

Walking past a sow with a young litter of piglets, Willis stops and looks outacross his field to talk about why how way he raises his pigs and the envi-ronment forms a symbiotic relationship between the animal, the farmer, na-ture and, in the end, those who eat the final product.

“To me the environment is about the land, the air and the water. The morenatural the system you work with, the better it is for the animal, the envi-ronment and ultimately the consumer,” says Willis. “Working with nature ismuch better than trying to use chemicals and engineering to manufactureprotein.”

While many of his fellow hog farmers started calling themselves pork pro-ducers in the 1990s and began putting up million dollar confinement sys-tems and locking their animals permanently indoors, Willis continued torefine his animal husbandry practices, started using non-GMO feed andbegan looking for a market to sell his free range hogs.

In 1995 Willis met Bill Niman, who founded Niman Ranch in 1969 fromhis cattle ranch in Bolinas, California, and Willis sent a few freshly slaugh-tered hogs out West to see how they would fare.


After sending a batches of hogs out to California, in-cluding supplying Alice Water’s Chez Penisse in SanFrancisco every week for a number of years, Willisfounded the Niman Ranch Pork Company in 1998. Inless than a decade, that company has become synony-mous with the finest quality in taste, sustainability andits lifeblood — the family farmer.

Each year the company holds the annual Niman RanchFarmer Appreciation Dinner, which honors its familyfarmers for their efforts and flies in some of the nation’stop chefs to create an entire six-course meal entirely outof pork, including a desert that regularly features can-died bacon.

For those fortunate to attend, this is a night, describedby many, as a time when pigs take flight.

Dave Murphy is a sixth generation Iowan and an ad-vocate for sustainable agriculture. When not roamingthe Iowa countryside, he spends his time in DesMoines, Okoboji, and Clear Lake.

Where to FindNiman Ranch In Iowa

Niman Ranch pork is available at many area retailers, such as New Pioneer Co-op andthe Bread Garden Market in Iowa City, and Gateway Market in Des Moines. Fortheir online store, visit their website at www.NimanRanch.com.

ZINS


Advertiser DirectoryEdible Iowa River Valley is brought to you by these advertising partners. These partners

support Iowa’s best local and artisanal foods and carry Edible Iowa River Valley.

AMESChocolaterie Stam230 Main St.

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EIRV 2008-11 - Issue #9

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Transcript of EIRV 2008-11 - Issue #9