Springfield Locavore

Epiphany Farms to Open Farm-to-Fork Restaurant in Bloomington

I just stumbled upon Epiphany Farms in Downs, IL (about 70 miles northeast of Springfield, 10 miles southeast of Bloomington). Next year they will be opening a "farm to fork" restaurant in Bloomington, where the food from the farm will be served. Here's some info from their web site:

Combining their culinary and hospitality educations and vast restaurant experiences, the members of Epiphany Farms Enterprise are enacting the “Farm to Fork” concept by producing hundreds of varieties of vegetables and herbs alongside grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, pigs, turkeys, ducks, hens, and eggs that will be on the ever-changing, seasonal menus of their restaurant, to be opened in Bloomington, IL, in 2011.

Sounds nice!

In addition to visiting their web site and reading the Epiphany Farms blog, you might want to read these newspaper articles:

• Food at new restaurant will go from farm to fork (Bloomington Pantagraph)
• Epiphany or bust (Chicago Tribune)

(The article in the Chicago Tribune is longer and more detailed.)

Day 3 - Back to Work

Today was my first day of eating local on a normal work schedule.

Breakfast

We were a bit late getting up this morning, but I still managed to make cheese omelets, using local eggs (from Bear Creek Farm & Ranch in Palmer) and local colby cheese (from Ropp Jersey Cheese in Normal).

Lunch

For lunch, I had leftover macaroni & cheese and a salad. Again, the macaroni was non-local, but the cheese was local colby cheese (from Ropp Jersey Cheese in Normal). The salad was mesclun mix and waldmans dark green lettuce (both from Oak Tree Organics in Ashland), with non-local dressing. For dessert I had strawberries from our garden, as well as a non-local orange.

Dawn, on the other hand, picked up Lando from preschool and then went on a shopping trip, so they had a very non-local lunch at Target!

Dinner

For dinner we had non-local pasta with our Brandywine pasta sauce from last year's garden, as well as more of the salad of mesclun mix and waldmans dark green lettuce (both from Oak Tree Organics in Ashland), with non-local dressing. I finished up with non-local ice cream. (Hey, it was Ben & Jerry's!)

If you're thinking, "This is sounding awful repetitive", you're right. Early in the season, variety is a bit limited. Don't worry, it gets better!

Another weekend, another trip out of town with plenty of non-local food!

Last weekend we went to Bristol, Wisconsin (just north of the Illinois/Wisconsin border) to the Bristol Renaissance Faire! We love going to renfaires, and this one is a great one! It runs every weekend from just after July 4 through Labor Day. We were unable to go last year, since we were busy buying a house and moving, so we were really looking forward to this year's event! Two days of knights, bellydancers, wenches, rogues, musicians, jugglers, comics, games, shopping, and food! Lots of food, none of it local!

When we started this locavore thing and agreed that there would be a "social exemption" for trips, visits from family, and gatherings with friends, I hadn't realized how common those things would be for us! Since May 20, we've been on 3 trips out of town, had visits from relatives on 2 occasions, and attended 2 picnics!

I think we're done for awhile, although we'll probably do a trip to St. Louis sometime this summer.

One difference this year was that we had a laptop with us. The availability of free WiFi meant that I could access email and even check on the blog from the comfort of our hotel room. Nice! I didn't actually update the blog, mind you -- much too tired to do that -- but at least I could confirm that it was there!

Okay, that's it for the trip update. We now return you to your regularly scheduled locavore updates!

Here are some possible topics for future posts:

• Local milk from Kilgus Farmstead
• Kids Day at the Farm with Slow Food Springfield
• CSA updates
• garden update (first tomatoes!)
• local butter from the Vincent Family Farm
• faux local
• locavore skeptics
• cooking chicken
• Colorado sweetcorn
• homemade ice cream

I've no shortage of topics. I just need to do the writing!

The Locavore and Luca Pizza

Last week I discussed how being a locavore helps me lose weight. This morning I weighed 238.3, a loss of another 2 pounds over the last week! Can I maintain that weight loss as we start another week?

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (eggs, milk, butter -- all local)
• Lunch: Corn on the cob, broccoli, nectarine (all local)
• Dinner: Umm...

Dinner: Luca Pizza

Dawn was tired of sweetcorn, and I didn't mind saving what sweetcorn was left for tomorrow's lunch. We hadn't been out to eat for awhile, so we decided to do so. I was in the mood for pizza, but our favorite pizza place, Bellacino's, recently closed under mysterious circumstances. (Translation: They didn't tell us why!) Besides, Bellacino's is a chain, and if we're not going to eat local, maybe we should at least buy local.

So we decided to try Luca Pizza. They used to be located in White Oaks Mall, but are now located across the street. So how were they? Here's my mini-review!

Menu: They have a fairly large variety of items on their menu (pizzas, calzones, pastas, subs, etc).

Service: Helpful and reasonably fast.

Atmosphere: Plain. Nothing to entertain a 4-year-old, unfortunately. There was a TV on. Whether that's a plus or a minus depends upon your point of view. It was tuned for Fox News. Your opinion of that will also vary! For me, it was a definite minus. There was some airhead Republican spouting off about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and... Oh! Err... sorry. Where was I?

Food: The food wasn't anything special. Dawn had the fettuccine alfredo, while I had a sausage & pepperoni pizza. In both cases, the food was "eh". Definitely not bad, mind you! Just nothing that blew us away. It was also surprisingly expensive. I suspect he might have figured up the total wrong, but I didn't double-check his math.

Oh, and I did say that I had "a pizza", not "a slice of pizza". They do sell pizza by the slice, but I wasn't thinking clearly and ordered a 10" pizza. That's their smallest size, but still....

I suspect I won't still weigh 238.3 in the morning!

Days 13 through 29 - Getting Caught Up

I'm back! It's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted here. I'm sorry! (Stupid Sims 3!)

My last post was about May 31, the 12th day of going locavore. Today is the 29th day. So what have we been doing for the last 17 days?

Local Foods

Well, we've been eating plenty of local food, including:

• Breakfast
  • Eggs (scrambled or omelets)
  • Sausage patties
• Lunch and Dinner
  • New potatoes
  • Yukon gold potatoes
    
  • Broccoli
  • Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Snow peas
  • Sugar snap peas
    
  • Butter
    
  • Garlic chives
  • Cheese
  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Basil
  • Tomatoes
  • Green beans
  • Radishes
  • Turnips
  • Spring onions
  • Kohlrabi
  • Zucchini
  • Squash
• Dessert
  
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Rhubarb

We've also been buying "semi-local" milk (from Oberweis Dairy) and bread mix (from Hodgson Mill).

Cooking

We've been doing quite a bit of cooking. (Actually, most of the cooking is being done by Dawn, but I help!) Meals have included:

• Veggie lasagna (non-local noodles, but local garlic, spinach, kale, chard, onions, peppers, zucchini, and squash) -- Yum!
• Strawberry rhubarb crisp (non-local crust, but local strawberries and rhubarb) -- Delicious!
• Potato soup -- Good, although a bit thick
• Turnip soup -- Frankly, not so great

Our garden is growing fairly well. We even had our first harvest -- some basil, which we used in the lasagna!

Non-Local Moments

Of course, we've also had some very non-local moments. Most notably, we went to a potluck picnic. Actually, to be more precise, we organized a potluck picnic for a club, of which I'm the chairman. In addition to all of the non-local food we ate there (bratwurst or hotdogs, anyone?), we also wound up being the ones to take home whatever unclaimed food was left over (e.g. potato chips, hotdogs, brats). That means we've had a recent influx of junk food into the house. Since Dawn is a vegetarian and Lando is a picky eater (he's 4), that means the brats and hotdogs have been my responsibility to finish up.

We also had an ice cream truck moment. There we were, minding our own business, when suddenly we heard it. "Hello!" If you live in Springfield, you know that sound. Lando immediately declared that he wanted ice cream. We dithered for a few moments -- long enough for the ice cream truck to pass our house and head around the corner -- before (semi-)reluctantly agreeing. Now I just needed to catch up with the ice cream truck! It was probably 3 blocks away before I caught up to it. When I turned around, there was Lando, a block away and running full tilt! I doubt there's anything faster than a 4-year-old chasing an ice cream truck!

I think we also went out to eat a couple of times. Dawn insisted from the beginning that we allow ourselves to eat out twice a week, although we haven't been doing so.

Onward!

So not too bad over the last 17 days. The variety of food we're getting from the CSA on Tuesday evenings and the farmers' markets on Wednesday mornings, Thursday evenings, and Saturday mornings have been keeping things interesting.

Finding a local source of butter was quite helpful, and I think we'll soon be getting some local wheat for grinding into flour. Once we get local flour, we'll be able to make truly local bread, as well as local pasta!

Now that I've given a brief summary to get things caught up, I'll try to avoid falling behind again. One problem I had was, the farther behind I fell, the more effort would be required to get caught up, so I put off posting, falling even farther behind!

I've got photos from the CSA, a tour of Veenstra & Heck's garden, farmers' market stuff, and more! Stay tuned!

Day 11 - Fair Food!

We spent Saturday, May 30, at the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Fair in Wentzville, MO. If you go back to the Renaissance yourself, you'll find that they apparently imported all of their food from far, far away. We didn't expect to find any local food, and we didn't. Pork sandwiches, sodas, lemon shakeups, brownies -- all of the usual suspects. Of course, they also had turkey legs, but so far I've never been tempted to indulge in that unique renfair delicacy.

They did have homemade ice cream, though, so we had that. I've no doubt that the ingredients were very non-local, but it was the best we could do. And it was delicious!

At the end of the day, we dragged ourselves back to the car and stopped for dinner at St. Louis Bread Company (known around here as Panera Bread). After more non-local food, we were finally ready to drive back to Springfield.

Home at last!

Day 10 - Dinner at McDonald's!

Breakfast

On Friday, May 29, breakfast was rather rushed - cereal with milk from Oberweis Dairy. The last of the milk, by the way, so 3 half-gallon bottles lasted us less than 4 days. Wow!

Lunch

Due to my usual bad planning, I didn't have lunch ready the night before, so I just grabbed a few things on my way out the door - a tomato from Garrett Hydroponics (Chambersburg, IL, 64 miles west of Springfield), bread & butter pickles from Kathy's Kitchen (Virginia, IL), and lots of strawberries from Livesprings Berries & Produce (Chandlerville, IL).

Hydroponics

I have mixed feelings about hydroponics. On the one hand, it's a way to grow food locally when it might otherwise not be possible. On the other hand, I suspect it's fairly energy intensive (although I admit that I haven't researched it at all). More importantly, I find that hydroponic tomatoes just don't seem to match the taste of tomatoes grown in soil. Perhaps it's just psychological, but that's been my experience. Still, a hydroponic tomato for lunch beats going hungry!

Dinner

Dinner was 100% non-local. Actually, it was practically anti-local. McDonald's!

Yes, I know, but we have an excuse. We were traveling. We enjoy going to Renaissance festivals, and this weekend we went to the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Fair in Wentzville, MO. As soon as I got home from work, we finished loading up the car, then headed out. About halfway there, we stopped at a McDonald's in Pittsfield to have dinner.

I was reminded of the opening chapter of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. The first of the four meals was from McDonald's, eaten in their car as they drove. We at least went into the McDonald's and sat down to eat!

Day 5 - Local(ish) Lunch, Dinner Not So Much

Breakfast

Sunday, May 24, began with a very non-local breakfast - cold cereal. My dad and step-mom were in town visiting, and I knew that I needed to get the lawn mowed before they arrived for breakfast. With all of the rain we've been getting, you can't pass up any opportunity to beat the grass back into submission! That's one thing about convenience foods - they're convenient! Plus, frankly, I was getting tired of scrambled eggs!

Lunch

When my dad and step-mom arrived, we had lunch on the front porch - cheese sandwiches, salad, and strawberries. The strawberries were local, as was the salad. The bread was made in our bread machine, using bread mix from Hodgson Mill, a company located in Effingham, IL (85 miles southeast of Springfield). Is the wheat they use local? Probably not, but it's as local as we can get at the moment. The cheese was from Wisconsin. The salad dressings were not local.

Dinner

For dinner, we invoked the social exemption and had dinner with them at Baker's Square. I had a BLT and fries. Well, at least all of the ingredients could have been local, even though they almost certainly weren't.

The next day they were heading back to Texas, so that was it for the social exemption for awhile!

Day 4 - Yes, We Have No Strawberries

Breakfast

Saturday, May 23, began with a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. As before, the eggs were from Triple S Farms (Stewardson, IL, 77 miles SE of Springfield), and the honey on the toast was from from Sasse's Apiary (Chestnut, IL, 88 miles NW of Springfield). The bread, butter, and the milk were all non-local.

Market

I then made a quick trip to the Old Capitol Farmers' Market. My main targets were strawberries and green beans. I struck out on both counts. The guy at the Living Springs Berries and Produce booth told me that they sold out of their 35 flats of strawberries at 7:53 AM. Did I mention that the farmers' market doesn't officially open until 8:00 AM? The last of the green beans were gone by 8:30 AM. The trip wasn't a complete loss, however, as I got sugared pecans from Voss Pecans (Carlyle, IL, 90 miles south of Springfield), snow peas, and broccoli. Where did the snow peas and the broccoli come from? Well, I wrote that information down on a piece of paper, which I then cleverly lost. *sigh*

Food Not Lawns Talk

The reason the trip was rather quick was that I was scheduled to speak to the Springfield Food Not Lawns group at 9:30 at Lincoln Library. The title of my talk was "My So-Called Locavore Life". (I'll post a link to the PowerPoint file here as soon as I can figure out a way to do so!) I had briefly met Carrie and Don Moorman, the organizers of the group, at Meet Your Local Producers. Due to conflicts with my work schedule, I hadn't been able to attend a Food Not Lawns meeting before. The turnout wasn't especially large, which wasn't surprising given that it was 9:30 on a Saturday morning, but everyone was quite interested in the topic and I had a good time.

When I was preparing the talk, I was worried that it would be too short. ("Let's see. 44 slides, 30 seconds per slide, that's only 22 minutes. Hmm... I better ramble a bit.") Well, I rambled alot! Somehow I talked for over 2 hours about:

• how I became interested in becoming a locavore;
• my first steps last spring and summer;
• how things got sidetracked by the house purchase;
• our intentions to resume the project this year;
• the various reasons I have for becoming a locavore;
• and local resources for locavores.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I think everyone else did, too. However, if I ever give this talk again, I definitely need to ramble quite a bit less!

Lunch

For lunch, we had a salad, with strawberries and sugared pecans for dessert. The lettuce, chives, and radishes were all local, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA (Rochester, IL). The sugared pecans were from Voss Pecans (Carlyle, IL, 90 miles south of Springfield). I'm sure the sugar on the pecans wasn't local, but I won't quibble; they're good! The strawberries were also local, although I don't recall from where. The cheese on the salad wasn't local, but it was from Wisconsin, which isn't too far away. (After it's gone, we'll be using cheese from Ropp Jersey Cheese (Normal, IL) and other local sources.) The salad dressing was non-local.

Visitors!

Later that afternoon, my dad and stepmom arrived for a visit from Texas. We invoked the "social exemption" and went out to dinner with them at Panera Bread, where I had the Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich and drank a Mountain Dew.

"Social Exemption?"

I probably ought to post a page here explaining what our "rules" are. For us at least, becoming a locavore isn't intended to be a religious conversion. Eating something non-local isn't meant to be a sin! So we have some "exceptions" or "exemptions". The most obvious one is that we're still using up any non-local food that's already in the house. And Dawn won't be giving up her chocolate, coffee, or tea. (I probably won't be giving up my oranges, although I won't buy them in the dead of winter!)

In addition, we have a "social exemption": When going out with friends or family, or when eating at their house, enforcing locavore restrictions just isn't practical. After all, part of my motivation for becoming a locavore is improving community ties; if we can't socialize with people, that sort of defeats the purpose! Dawn also wants an exemption for one lunch and one dinner out each week.

Of course, if there are too many exceptions, then you're not really being a locavore! We haven't really chiselled our rules in stone yet. I think we're both sort of feeling our way a bit to get a better feel for what we really can't do without.

In any case, as I said, this isn't intended to be a religion. There are benefits to being a locavore. We're just trying to make the changes needed to make those benefits a reality.

Two Events This Weekend: Meet Your Local Producers, plus Local Harvest Fundraiser Dinner

Just a reminder, as I mentioned earlier, that the Illinois Stewardship Alliance will be holding their 2nd annual Meet Your Local Producers farm expo and holiday market this Saturday, November 22, 2008, 10 am - 3 pm, in the Illinois Building of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

I had said that I would definitely be making it to this year's event. As I write this, I'm not sure whether that will be the case. We've removed the lovely purple shag carpet in our son's bathroom, exposing plenty of mold and rotten subflooring, which we've replaced. We're pretty much down to the final steps before we lay down the vinyl tiles -- just in time for my dad to come visit us on Sunday! So it remains to be seen whether I'll make it out there this weekend.

In addition, the Illinois Stewardship Alliance will be holding a Local Harvest Fundraiser Dinner that evening, at 6:30 pm at Maldaner's Restaurant in Springfield. Visit their web site for more details about the dinner.