Comments
On Monday, we hosted our first-ever fundraiser, the Local Food Throwdown in the wonderful joined spaces at Landing Beer Company and Utopian Coffee & Kitchen. Local food enthusiasts, chefs, and producers joined us for an evening of friendly competition and inventive and flavorful food and drinks.
Wow! There are no words to express our gratitude for the support from our local food community for helping make it such a success. Between the sold out ticket sales, the generous donations of fun local food-themed experiences and foods in the silent auction, and pledges to the new Northeast Indiana Farm to School Fund, we exceeded our fundraising goals for this inaugural fundraising event.
Congratulations to the winners of the first Local Food Throwdown:
Best Cocktail: Nicky Nolot, Tolon, for The Huntress with Old Hamer Cask Strength Rye, Chanterelle infused raw honey, Zucca Rabarbaro Amaro, Hoffman Certified Organics Mangalista Bacon, candied walnuts, and local honey comb
Best Appetizer: Matt Nolot, Tolon, for Smoked Beef Tartare with corn husk aioli, egg yolk jam, and foie gras crackers
Best Entree: Samantha Yim, True Kimchi, for Kimchi Fried Rice with aged spicy Napa kimchi, Hawkins Family Farm bacon, gochujang, and rice
Best Dessert: Hetty Vorderman, Hetty Arts Pastry, for Caramelized Fall Spiced Apples with honey caramel, yogurt vanilla bean pastry cream, hazelnut brown butter crumble
and apple crisp
The event featured the following:
~Appetizers~
Aaron Butts, Copper Spoon, Pork Carnitas with pickled vegetables, jalapeño, spicy greens, and hot sauce
Johnny Perez, Mercado Restaurant, Birria De Hongos with
lion’s mane, oyster, shiitake mushrooms, blue heirloom Mexican corn tortilla, jack cheese, radish, and cilantro
~Entrees~
Adam House, Landing Beer Company, Pork Roast with turnip puree, wagyu tallow confit potatoes, warm sumac carrot salad, Utopian gravy, and apple Slaw
Bo Gonzales, Bravas, Frijoles a la Gallega with Butifarra Blanca, Galician white beans, caldo broth, braised onions, Catalan pork sausage, salsa verde, and pickled chilies
~Dessert
Corey Bowers, Chance Bar, Milk Panna Cotta with
local plum-blackraspberry jam and hay-smoked sunflower crumble
Jim Huffman, Walnut Hill Catering & Events, Organic Popcorn Shooter, “Liquid Popcorn Ball”, with maple pearls and honey foam
~Cocktails
Spencer Maule, Mercado Restaurant, Maria Sabina’s Carmel Corn with Sierra Norte Yellow Heirloom Oaxacan Corn Whiskey: infused with Windrose Urban Farm shiitake mushrooms, Estancia Raicilla Maximiliana, Balam Sotol Durango, Derrumbes Tamaulipas Destilado de Agave: Funkiana, Univittatta, Americana agaves
Cynar, Salted Garwood Orchard's sweet corn demerara syrup, Angostura Bitters, and lemon oil
Trevor Scovel, Copper Spoon, Tomato Martini with gin washed with Heirloom Tomato Oil, local heirloom tomato water, Noily Prat Original Dry Vermouth, and fermented tomato oil
Hat tip to the following farmers and producers for the local
and regional ingredients featured in the above culinary creations:
Gunthorp Farms
Berry Hill Farm
Hawkins Family Farm
Grant Creek Farm
Schmucker's Produce
Wood Farms FW
KC CountryAcres
El Huerto Urban Garden
Ambrosia Orchard, Cidery & Meadery
Cook's Orchard
Grassroots Farmstead
M&C Honey
Wholesome Meadows Farm
DeCamp Gardens
Small Acres Specialty Farms
Winger’s Sugar Bush
Pine Creek Honey
Hoffman Certified Organics
Windrose Urban Farm
JR Kelly Company: The Horseradish House
Mouzin Brothers Farms
Bee Great Local
McComBees Apiaries
Garwood Orchards
We are thrilled to be featured in a national documentary being broadcast locally on PBS Ft. Wayne at 2:00 today along with Gunthorp Farms and Hawkins Family Farm. Watch it! If you miss it, here’s a link.
SUNDAY, 9/19 at 2pm - the local showing of a national PBS documentary featuring 3 northeast Indiana farms!
Our segment features three culinary businesses: Gunthorp Farms, Hawkins Family Farm and Joseph Decuis Restaurant and their efforts to promote a healthy regional food economy, including their path to victory to against troubling proposed state legislation in 2015.
This documentary was inspired by the book, Welfare for the Rich: How your Tax Dollars End up in Millionaire’s Pockets - and What You Can Do About It, by Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers.
Join our celebration of local food by watching!
Saw your story on PBS----GOD bless you for fighting the bad guys.......:))
We are so thrilled to have Wabash County featured on Input Fort Wayne!
Join Wabash local (and VWC board member!) Adam Stakeman and he takes you along to 9 of his favorite things to see, do, and eat in Wabash County!
How many of these have you experienced?!
Hawkins Family Farm ▪️ Wabash Cannonball Chili Cookoff▪️ Modoc's Market ▪️ KenapocoMocha Coffee Shop▪️ Salamonie Lake ▪️ 13-24 Drive In ▪️ Eagles Theatre ▪️ mill foundation - roann ▪️ Bailey's Pizza Parlor▪️ land trust ▪️ Hathaway Preserve At Ross Run - ACRES Land Trust ▪️ Wabash County Adventure Series ▪️ White Rock Recreation ▪️ The Wander Brand
📸: Katie Jones (Creative Lead for Visit Wabash County)
https://www.inputfortwayne.com/features/wabashguide.aspx
Thank you Hawkins Family Farm for the amazing carrots! What a great partnership in helping to feed our hungry neighbors i
I have a friend interested in buying the veg share, but he is wondering about how much comes in it each week (so he can determine if 1 or 2 shares is best for his family)?
It's National CSA week! Consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture farm share program (CSA) to share both the risks and the benefits of a local farm’s food production with our hard-working farmers. You can search for many of the nearby CSA's in our Local Food Guide.
Please consider joining a CSA with:
DeCamp Gardens
Narrow Road Farm
The City and Field Co.
Hawkins Family Farm
RiverRidge Farm
Junk Ditch Brewing Company
Hungry Dog Farm
Countryside Produce
Soil Shepherd Farm
Fox Trail Farm
Gateway Farms
https://www.neifood.org/local-food-definitions
Radish kimchi lookin mighty fine 😎
Our fave, 2021 Good Food Foundation winner, perfect bite of crunchy spicy goodness. We make ours with Korean Radish aka Mu (무) from Hawkins Family Farm
My family of four was all very excited to be getting dinner from Junk Ditch Brewing Company during Savor Fort Wayne. What a great way to spruce up a weeknight! Junk Ditch does a great job preparing and even “plating” their carry out meals.
Junk Ditch uses so many great local ingredients so we have tons to show you! Everyone in my family found something amazing and local on the Savor menu.
We started with the GK Baked Goods famous Pretzel and Cheese from the first course menu, as well as the Butternut Squash Harissa Soup made with squash grown by Country Garden Farm & Market, Junk Ditch's own local farm. Such a warm and rich soup with squash as the shining star.
Each of our entrees was outstanding! The Burger features Wood Farms beef and came with a perfectly cooked over easy egg. Crunchy slaw and a freshly baked GK bun topped off this burger perfectly. The egg came from Country Gardens and so did the amazing produce that went into the slaw and the pickles.
The BBQ Chicken Pizza was perfect. This crust truly can’t be beat, so light and crispy. Hawkins Family Farm provides the tender grilled chicken found on the pizza. Country Gardens produce is featured as well, with thinly sliced jalapeño and cilantro adding great flavor.
The Vegan Khoa Soi featured beautiful produce from Country Gardens. This dish was a Thai delight with crispy tofu, rice noodles and an amazing coconut broth. Add to that the thin sliced radish, Thai slaw and cilantro from Country Gardens and you’ve got one happy family doing Savor Fort Wayne carry-out style.
The Pork Ramen was phenomenal. Gunthorp Farms pork helped to make a beautiful and incredibly savory broth. When the creamy egg yolk from the Country Garden egg hits the broth it creates something magical. The thinly sliced radish topped the dish perfectly.
Since we were at home, we all took a long pause before we broke out the desserts. We were reminded once again why we love to eat at our great local restaurants. The cake and pie truly couldn’t be better, the creamiest frosting and the flakiest crust. Thanks, Junk Ditch!
Got our first Hawkins turkey this year and it is wonderful!
Thrilled to announce that our Radish Kimchi (my fave) and Spicy Napa Kimchi (everyone’s fave) are finalists for Good Food Foundation Awards!
We were selected out of 1,928 entries after taste testing and vigorous vetting for sustainability. Winners will be announced January!
Thank you to our farmers Hawkins Family Farm BroxonBerry Windrose Urban Farm for allowing us to source local produce for our kimchi.
#}