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IOWA RIVER VALLEY ®
Harvest, 2009 Celebrating the Abundance of Iowa’s Local Foods, Season by Season Number 13

Our Daily Bread

Frisian Farms Gouda
Bluff Brewhaus
Farming, Floods and Football
The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov
 Contents
edible
IOWA RIVER VALLEY Departments
4 Grist for the Mill
Harvest 2009

Harvest time
All of us at Edible are proud to call these folks our
Partners. ey understand the importance of 6 Notable Edibles
supporting local farms, local food, and the local Tasty tidbits to savor around Iowa
economy. Be sure to visit the Edible Partners listed 16 Edible Imbibables
here, and thank them for supporting sustainable Brewing Close to Home—By Katie Roche
food and Edible Iowa River Valley
21 The 99
To join the growing list of Edible Partners, please con- Louisa County—By Kurt Michael Friese
tact sales manager Rachel Morey Flynn @
319.241.4442 or Rachel@EdibleIowa.com 24 1,000 Words
Chiles at the Market
Augusta—pg. 27
26 Behind Closed Doors
Blackhawk Hotel—pg. 14 Lileah Harris—By Rob Cline
Blend—pg. 23
Bread Garden—pg. 32 29 Local Heroes
BrewNost—pg. 22 Time to vote for the best of food around
Cafe Dodici—pg. 12
Cafe del Sol Roasting—pg. 15 30 The Last Word
Peter Pringle’s e Murder of Nikolai Vavilov—By Kurt
Cart by Cart—pg. 15 Michael Friese
Design Ranch—pg. 28
Devotay—pg. 9
Edible Communities—pg. 31
Edible Communities Marketplace—pg. 25 Features
e Englert eatre—pg. 5 7 Frisian Farms
Fireside Winery—pg. 23 Two Iowa brothers make Gouda the old fashioned way
Hills Bank—pg. 15 — by Eve Adamson
Iowa City Farmers Market—pg. 15
Iowa Wine Trail—pg. 23 10 An Iowa Girl in Italy
Jasper Winery—pg. 28 A doctoral candidate revels in her work
John’s Grocery—pg. 20 — By Rachel Horner Brackett
La Reyna—pg. 14 12 Farming, Floods and Football
Local Food Conference—pg. 22 A visit to Kroul’s Farm
MidWestOne Bank—pg. 27 — By Michael Knock
Motley Cow—pg. 28
Muddy Creek Wine—pg. 14 18 Our Daily Bread
New Pioneer Co-op—pg. 20 Doing the Lord’s work in Laurel
— By Allison Gnade
Oneota Community Co-op—pg. 28
Robinson Family Wellness—pg. 5 20 Teaching The Science of Diversity
Scattergood—pg. 29 e Sand Hill Preservation Center
Shmuggle Knits—pg. 23 — By Renee Brinks
Sutliff Cider—pg. 14
Tassel Ridge Winery—pg. 2 31 Learning to Grow
UNI Museum—pg. 15 is campus garden is empowering students
— By Brian Morelli
Wheatsfield Co-op—pg. 29
On the cover:
Jocelyn & Lydia. Photo by Kurt Michael Friese

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 3

grist
for the mill

Dear Eater,

With Relish,

Publishers Kurt & Kim Friese on RAGBRAI, 2008

4 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009

 edible
IOWA RIVER VALLEY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & PUBLISHER
Kurt Michael Friese

MANAGING EDITOR
Kim McWane Friese
WRITERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS

Eve Adamson Rachel Horner Brackett

Renee Brincks Ben Minkler
Rob Cline Brian Morelli
Bryan Cline Criss Roberts
Kurt Michael Friese Katie Roche
Allison Gnade
DESIGNED BY
Kurt Michael Friese

ADVERTISING SALES
To become an Edible Partner, please contact sales manager
Rachel Morey Flynn @ 319.241.4442
or Rachel@EdibleIowa.com

CONTACT US
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Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 5

notable
edibles

Photos by Kurt Michael Friese

6 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009

 Frisian Farms
Two Iowa brothers make Gouda the old-fashioned way
By Eve Adamson

It’s good to be a cow at Frisian Farms.
Perks include lush pastures for grazing, an
open-air barn for munching on hay or
basking in the shade, twice-daily milking,
and a big bristly cow brush that rotates
whenever a cow leans into it to clean,
scratch, or groom herself. “It’s all about
cow comfort around here,” says Jason
Bandstra, eyeing the cows jockeying for
position against the spinning brush, which
runs 24 hours a day.
“I’m not sure that brush pays for itself,”
Mike mutters.
Fans of Frisian Farms Gouda cheese would
surely disagree. e washed-rind cow’s
milk farmstead cheese has a fresh, tangy
taste when young, and mellows into a
rich, complex, nutty, sophisticated cheese
as it ages—surely the final, happy result of
happy cows.
e Real Gouda
A small dairy farm off of small country
road outside of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and not
far from neighboring Pella, Frisian Farms
is not just a family business but a business
deeply rooted in the Bandstra family’s
Dutch roots and generations-long connec-
tion to dairy farming. “We’re 100%
Dutch,” said Jason, “and we grew up on a e Bandstra brothers, Mike and Jason, with their cheese maker. “We think our way results in a bet-
dairy farm.”
After earning his BS in agronomy from Iowa State University, Jason
and his wife purchased Frisian Farms in 2002 and Jason began buying
calves. Meanwhile, Mike earned a BS in dairy science and spent sev-
eral years in Maryland managing an organic dairy farm for Horizon
Organics, where he learned how to manage a healthy heard without
bovine growth hormone or preventive antibiotics, practices the broth-
ers employ in their dairy today.
e Bandstra’s herd of just over 70 cows enjoys a diet of approximately
70% forage, which makes the cheese richer. “A diet higher in grain re-
sults in more milk output but a lower fat cheese, so we try to maximize
flavor rather than milk output,” said Jason. Cows can come and go
from the barn as they please and spend most of their time in nice
weather out in the pasture. ey give birth in an open-air calving pen, milk back to 95 degrees to firm the curd and wash out the lactic acid.
mostly without any help, and while the cows are typically artificially
inseminated, the resident bull does his part. “He’s better than we are at cheese into molds that we press for 4 hours.
figuring out which cows are ready,” Jason says. “It’s all very natural.”
Photo by Ben Minkler
like the gouda in the red wrapper you buy
in the grocery store,” Jason explained.
“at cheese is melted into a big 400-
pound block so it has no cracks or ‘eyes,’
and that’s how they get the uniform tex-
ture. It’s mass produced. is cheese is
handmade, the authentic way. ey export
the red stuff, but this is the kind of cheese
the Dutch cheese makers pride themselves
on, the cheese they sell in Holland.”
From Cow to Cheese Wheel
e cows at Frisian farms get milked twice
each day. Most of that milk goes to Swiss
Valley Farms, a co-op of small dairies who
pledge not to use bovine growth hormone.
However, one milking each week is re-
served for making cheese.
On cheese day, the cows file into the milk-
ing parlor and take turns at the milking
machine. e raw milk is piped into the
cheese vat in the in the cheese house where
it is heated to 145 degrees for 30 minutes,
the minimum required for pasteurization in
the state of Iowa.
“Most cheese is flash-pasteurized at 212 de-
grees in the pipeline, which kills not only
all the bad bacteria but all the good cul-
tures,” said Mike, who is chief cheese
ter tasting cheese.” Mike laments that Iowa
is just one of 7 states that requires pasteurization of all cheeses. “Other
states like Wisconsin don’t have to pasteurize their cheese if they age it
for 60 days. You can sell raw milk cheese in Iowa, but you can’t pro-
duce it, which puts us at a disadvantage. We follow the rules and we
think we still come out with a pretty good cheese.”
After pasteurization, the milk is cooled to 85 degrees, then Mike stirs
in the traditional Kazu culture for Gouda cheese. “We mix in the cul-
ture for 20 minutes, then add rennet to coagulate the milk. We let it
sit for 30 to 40 minutes. It still looks like milk but the texture be-
comes more like gelatin.”
Next, paddles cut the milk until the curd is broken down to pea-sized
pieces. “Using a screen, we drain off about half the whey, then heat the
We mix it for 10 minutes, drain the remaining whey, and then put the

ese molds sit overnight, then are soaked in brine for 4 days. ‘We flip
After several years of producing only milk, the Bandstra brother de- them every 24 hours,” Mike says. After brining, we let them dry and
cided to expand into cheese making, specifically the cheese their ances- coat them with edible wax.”
tral home is most known for producing: Gouda. e Bandstras hired
a Dutch cheese maker to visit their dairy and train them in the art and Cheese-making day is a long day, beginning with the 4:00 a.m. milk-
technique of producing genuine farmstead Gouda. “is is nothing ing and ending with the pressing. “We take them off the press at about

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 7

7:00 p.m.,” Mike says. After that, most of the work is in the waiting.
e Bandstras put the wheels into a temperature-controlled storage
area on cedar shelves at about 50 degrees and 86% humidity. “We
flip the wheels weekly and age them for about two months for young
Gouda and leave others up to a year ,” says Mike.
Although they’ve only been making cheese for about a year,
the Bandstras plan to age some of the wheels for two to five years.
Most of their aged Gouda has been aged for about 6 months. “Our
first thought was to age them for two months, but we thought the re-
sult was still a little bit too much like a cheddar or even a mozzarella,”
Jason said. “Aging for 6 months gives the gouda a more authentic,
mature flavor.”
A Gouda Future
Locals not only want to try the Gouda, but they want a glimpse into
the world of Frisian Farms, and the Bandstras admit they underbuilt.
“We thought we would have a viewing room so people could come
and watch the cheese being made,” Jason said. “We thought we could
have a little shop and sell the cheese. Now we’re using that room for
storage. We just don’t have enough space.”
e Bandstras could probably spend a lot more time giving tours of
their dairy, hosting events, and selling their products, if they had the
time and space. For a recent tour the brothers expected would be
small, 100 people showed up. “at’s our goal for Phase II. More
room, more help, and more production,” Jason said. “We would like
to make a nice reception area and be able to show more people what
we do here. We’re learning as we go.”
If the quality of Frisian Farms Gouda is any indication, the Bandstra
brothers must be quick learners. ey already have fans, not only from
around the state, where gourmet shops and wineries carry and feature
their young, aged, smoked, and cumin seed gouda, but from as far
away as the west coast, where Steve Jones, an Oskaloosa native who
owns Steve’s Cheese in Portland, Oregon, carries the brothers’ Gouda
and calls it “head and shoulders above most American gouda.”
“I was home last year and saw the Frisian Farms cheese at Tassel Ridge
winery,” Jones said. “I picked up a piece and was quite pleased to dis-
cover that not only was it from my hometown, but it was actually very
good. I called the guys up and I’ve been buying it ever since.”
8 www.EdibleIowa.com
When You Go...
If you stand at a high spot on the gravel drive that heads out to the
barn on Frisian Farms, you can see Tassel Ridge’s winery just a few
miles away. Tassel Ridge not only sells Frisian Farms Gouda cheese,
but has featured it during wine and cheese pairing events in the past.
Steve Richardson, vineyard manager and certified wine educator for
Tassel Ridge, offers his recommendations for pairing Frisian Farms
Gouda with Tassel Ridge wine:
The Frisian Farms aged Gouda goes nicely with the semi-sweet, un-
oaked Candlelight Chardonnay, Richardson says. However,
Richardson himself, and other red wine fans at the winery, think it
goes even better with Twilight, their 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Everyone at the winery agrees that Frisian Farms smoked Gouda and
Tassel Ridge’s new wine, In the Dark, make a perfect pairing. “In
the Dark is made with about two-thirds Iowa grapes, including St.
Croix and Marachal Foch, and about one-third California Syrah
grapes,” Richardson says.
Frisian Farms Gouda is available at farmer’s markets, restaurants,
wineries, food co-ops, and Hy-Vee grocery stores in Des Moines,
Ames, Pella, Oskaloosa, Council Bluffs, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City,
Coralville, and other locations. Or, buy it online. For more infor-
mation on where to find Frisian Farms Gouda cheese, visit their
website.
www.FrisianFarms.com.
2321 Highland Avenue
Oskaloosa
641.673.3306
Photo courstesy of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum
Harvest 2009
Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 9
 FlaAn Iowa Girl in Italyu
A University of Iowa Doctoral candidate revels in her work
By Rachel Horner Brackett
is afternoon my lunch was inter-
rupted by an all-too-familiar exclama-
tion from the driveway—“e pigs are
out again!” Growing up on a family
farm in northwestern Illinois I heard
this refrain regularly. We would hurry
to pull on muddy shoes and make a
mad dash outside to chase our hogs
away from a vegetable garden or prized
flower bed. As a PhD candidate in cul-
tural anthropology, I never imagined
that I would relive this scene decades
later and thousands of miles away in
Italy. My interest in food traditions
and heritage animal breeds led me to
the hills of Tuscany to study the Cinta
Senese, a strain of hog that was on the
brink of extinction twenty years ago.
Today the breed is being rediscovered
by artisanal salumi producers and con-
sumers, who prize the distinct and
mouthwatering flavor of its meat. In
order to better understand the story of
these pigs, as well as the people who
raise and butcher them, I have spent
five months living and working at the
Tenuta di Spannocchia, a 1,200 acre
estate that roughly 150 Cinta Senese
call home.
e Cinta Senese originated in the
rocky meadows and forested hills south
of Siena. eir distinctive white belt,
or cinta, was carefully selected by me-
dieval breeders who needed to separate their stock from other,
“wilder” breeds living in forests nearby. e Cinta is uniquely adapted
to the area—it withstands the hot summers, demonstrates a marked
resistance to infection, and thrives on the acorns and other vegetation
of the region, offering local farmers an income from otherwise unpro-
ductive land. However, the advent of industrial farming and subse-
quent introduction of larger, more prolific breeds like the Yorkshire
nearly wiped out the Cinta population in the 20th century. e
Cinta is a “grazing” pig, and requires wooded areas for foraging in ad-
dition to a typical grain diet. ey tend to be lively and energetic
(i.e., they have a hard time staying within the confines of their pens!)
and take up to two years to reach market weight. ese factors led to
decreased popularity of the Cinta among area farmers, and it has only
been through the efforts of local breeding consortia and groups like
Slow Food International that the breed has mounted a comeback.
Demand for Cinta Senese meats has driven the resurgence of the
breed. My own work at Spannocchia has focused on the butchering,
processing, and curing of traditional Tuscan salumi products. Every
part of the animal is utilized, and all of the processing is done by hand
in Spannocchia’s small “transformation kitchen.” Under the guidance
of an expert butcher and the estate’s farm manager, four Cinta are
butchered approximately every three weeks. In Italy, all salt-cured,
10 www.EdibleIowa.com
aged products are known collectively
as “salumi”—salame is only one of the
products that fall into this category.
In fact, the salame we make from the
Cinta often contains some of the best
cuts of meat. Because salame is often
one of the more affordable items, logic
follows that if a producer is making an
exceptional “lesser” piece of meat, the
same care will be taken with the more
expensive cuts. At Spannocchia it
takes our small team about 3 ½ days
to process the Cintas into a variety of
products. In addition to the prized
prosciutto hams, which are aged for at
least 18 months in a humidity-con-
trolled cellar, we craft several other
cured products. ere are rigatino
and gotino (forms of Tuscan pancetta,
or bacon), lardo (creamy white slabs of
back fat aged in salt and herbs), capoc-
ollo, and finocchiona (cuts aged with
wild fennel seed). Fresh salsiccia
(sausage) is a best-seller at the local
market, as is the traditional buristo
(blood sausage) and sopressata (head
cheese flavored with nutmeg and other
spices).
e unique and delectable flavor of
these Cinta products cannot be under-
estimated. One of the best parts of
my job is representing Spannocchia at
local markets, and introducing people
to the Cinta salumi. ere I have watched more than one connoisseur
swoon when he or she first samples a perfectly aged, hand-carved
piece of our prosciutto. Likewise, I have seen elderly Italians grow
misty-eyed when they take a bite of buristo and remember the flavors
and textures of their own childhoods. Without the concentrated ef-
forts of small-scale Cinta producers and the traditional knowledge and
methods of area butchers these experiences would disappear.
e Spannocchia estate offers an ideal environment for the Cinta and
the people who work with them. Until WWII the land was operated
under the mezzadria tenant farmer system that dominated Italian agri-
culture for centuries. e natural beauty of the area is apparent—
every window seems to open upon a bella vista—but traditional
agriculture has played an equally important role in preserving and
shaping the countryside. When the current proprietors took over
Photos by Rachel Horner Brackett
management of the estate in the early 1990s the land was not being
utilized for farming. eir original plan was to restore the 900 year
old tower and accompanying villa and farmhouses, but it soon became
apparent that these physical structures were intrinsically part of some-
thing bigger. It was impossible to improve the buildings without re-
covering the rural landscape surrounding them. Today the estate
holds a wildlife refuge, a sustainable forestry program, certified or-
ganic farmland, and a thriving agri-tourism program. In addition to
Harvest 2009
the Cinta Senese, the farm raises heritage breeds of sheep and cattle;
there are also native plant breeds in the extensive organic gardens. In
many ways, bringing back a small-scale, diversified farming system
was integral to the preservation of the property itself. Conservation
and sustainability are central themes here—in addition to maintain-
ing the natural environment, Spannocchia works to sustain the cul-
tural landscape of Tuscany.
It is easy to fall in love with Spannocchia. Cypress trees line the cen-
turies-old stone walls, and grapevines and olive trees dot the hillside.
A highly dedicated and energetic staff keeps the estate running with
the help of eight interns, who spend three months volunteering and
gaining a hands-on education in sustainable agriculture. Guests from
around the world can stay in one of the agriturismo rental houses or
in the restored villa, and have the opportunity to take traditional Tus-
can cooking classes or historical tours of the estate. ere are com-
munal meals every evening, where we feast on fresh, seasonal produce
from the organic gardens, meats that were raised or hunted on the
property, and a seemingly endless array of pastas and dolce (desserts).
Before dinner the community comes together to enjoy a glass of wine
that was produced organically on-site, either in front of a crackling
fire or on an outdoor terrace overlooking the sunset, depending on
the weather and season. Without a television or reliable internet
connection “conviviality” takes on a new gravity. Good storytellers
are highly valued here, and impromptu concerts by musically talented
staff and guests are common. “Nightlife” is a moonlit walk on the
property, often spurred by the hope of sighting one of the chinghiale
(wild boars) that venture out of the forest after dark. We are only
twenty kilometers away from the city of Siena, but Spannocchia feels
very remote. Chasing after a few escaped pigs is a small price to pay
for this experience.
For more information about Spannocchia,
please visit www.spannocchia.org.

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 11

 Farming, Floods and Football
A Visit to Kroul’s Farm
By Michael Knock
This fall is business as usual at Kroul’s Farm Gardens and Greenhouse
just south of Mount Vernon. On this warm Saturday afternoon in
September the sun is shining in a bright blue sky. Tanner, a 14-year-
old border collie, snoozes outside the greenhouse while owner Kay-
lene Kroul talks sweet corn and Hawkeye football with a customer
inside.
Business is steady, especially now that the big game is over. Iowa beat
UNI, 17-16 in an exciting finish, and it’s a topic of conversation as
customers – some dressed in Iowa black and gold and others in Pan-
ther purple – show up to buy the homegrown produce.
“Did you hear who blocked the kick?” one customer asks Kaylene in
reference to the recent game as she bags up two dozen ears of sweet
corn.
Kaylene follows the Hawkeyes closely. Her son, Matt, started at de-
fensive tackle for Iowa for four years, earning academic All-Big Ten
honors before being drafted by the New York Jets last summer. Today
was a big day in the Kroul household. In addition to working the
Cedar Rapids farmers’ market, the Kroul family expected to learn
whether Matt had made the Jets’ practice squad.
12 www.EdibleIowa.com
“I forgot to put out my ‘Go Hawks’ sign this week,” she responds be-
fore changing the subject back to the corn. “We’ve only got two rows
of sweet corn left to pick and then we’re done.”
The customer looks disappointed.
“I probably should have bought more then,” he says. “Have you heard
anything about Matt? Did he make the team?”
What a difference a year makes. Kroul and her husband John have
been farming this land for 28 years. They’ve got 525 acres and a
prime location along Highway 1 in the Cedar River valley where they
raise both the traditional corn and soybeans along with garden pro-
duce including beets, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and pumpkins.
Though technically not organic, Kaylene says they never use chemical
pesticides or fertilizers on their garden crops. That produce makes the
rounds – as do the Krouls – at a trio of weekly farmers’ markets in
Cedar Rapids, North Liberty and Mount Vernon.
The land in the river valley is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the
soil is rich, and you can’t miss Kroul’s along the well-traveled route of
Highway 1. It’s a spectacular spot almost equi-distant from Solon and
Mount Vernon.
In 2008, however, the river was not the place to be as the Cedar went
over its banks and wiped out much of the growing season.
“I came home that Monday from my mail route and I said to John, ‘I
think we need to start moving things,’” Kaylene remembered. “But he
didn’t believe me. By Thursday, he was starting to change his mind.”
Kaylene said friends and family helped them move their equipment to
the higher ground. While the farm had experienced some flooding in
the past, the water had never reached the greenhouse.
“The water has always come up to the back greenhouse, but no far-
ther,” Kaylene said. “I thought to myself, ‘The Krouls have lived here
all their lives, and if they say it won’t flood, it won’t flood.’”
But this was 2008. The water rose, and it just kept rising. Ultimately,
it nearly filled the basement of the Kroul’s home rising to just a few
inches below the ceiling. It also inundated the greenhouse where the
family had stored their air compressor and generator.
“We ended up just shutting the doors so things didn’t just float away,”
Kaylene said.
Still, the Kroul’s kept their perspective. Their neighbors lost their
home in the flood. It was also a year in which Kaylene’s father and
best friend died. After the water started going down on Sunday, they
started cleaning up and salvaging what they could.
“We didn’t cry about (the flood),” Kaylene said. “There was nothing
you could do.”
A year later, the farm is back. Kaylene said the vegetables have rarely
Harvest 2009
looked better and sales have been good. Not even another flood – this
one in late August – could slow them down. Moreover, unlike last
year sunny days followed and helped dry out the soil. The Krouls also
bought a vegetable washer to help them clean up the produce before
sending it off to market.
“Have you seen the new vegetable washer?” Kaylene asks Pedersen as
she stops through the greenhouse.
Pedersen says that she has. In fact, she says got soaked with water
when she tried to shut it off.

“Don’t you have any pumpkins this year?” asks a customer who “Did you have a good market this morning?” Pedersen asks.
stopped in to Kroul’s on her way back home after the game.
“It was really good,” Kaylene replies. “It was very busy, and we sold
“They were flooded last week,” Kaylene replied. out of sweet corn.”

“Again?” the customer asks with a look of surprise on her face. “Who At that moment, another customer arrives and the cycle begins all
would have thought that would happen two years in a row.” over again. “Have you heard anything about Matt…?”

Kaylene assures the woman that the pumpkins will be fine. John
agrees.

“After last year, it’s all good,” he said. “It was a little tough on the hay,
but it’s OK now.”

It’s a good thing. Pumpkin season is a big time of the year at Kroul’s as
thousands of people descend on the farm to explore a maze built out
of hay bales or to look for the perfect Jack o’ Lantern for Halloween.
Friends and neighbors help pick the pumpkins every year before har-
vest. Some do it out of a sense of neighborliness or to return a favor –
John often helps out with haying on nearby farms - while others have
something else in mind. Years before when John coached football at
Mount Vernon, his players would help out on the farm at pumpkin
time, looking, in Kaylene’s words, “to show the coach what they could
do.” Nowadays, some pumpkin pickers have other motivations.

“The rule is if you want to deer hunt on our land, you have to pick
three loads of pumpkins first,” Kaylene explains.

One volunteer is Rose Pedersen. Rose, whose specialty is flowers, has

volunteered out at Kroul’s for years. Kaylene said Pedersen is always
teaching them something – such as the proper way to deadhead gera-
niums - to make their flowers look better or last longer.

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 13

 edible
iowa river valley
Opportunities are available for upcoming issues.
Contact sales manager Rachel Morey Flynn @
319.241.4442 or Rachel@EdibleIowa.com

14 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 15
 Edible Imbibables
By Katie Roche

Brewing Close to Home

My basement laundry room smells like when Pepsi went to a bagging system
bread spread thick with jam, a perfect mix and voila! Some simple putting-to-
of yeasty sweetness and anticipation.  Where gether and you have a quality “this
I normally fold my daughters clean cloth ain’t no PBR” home brew that can
diapers, a nice French Russo wine is fer- last about 2 years, cold and ready to
menting in a 5 gallon Bisphenol-A (BPA) drink on demand.  The supplies for
free plastic bucket. We soon transfer it by such a set up pay for themselves after
siphon to a glass carboy and then it’s si- only one batch as compared to 2
phoned into clean re-used wine bottles with cases of a comparable craft beer.
homemade labels ready for gifting in the Plus, you have bragging rights be-
holiday season.  A little will be corked in cause you made it yourself. In Chris’
smaller re-used beer bottles to sample peri- case you also have the ability to fulfill
odically over the coming years, to see how it your wife’s request to make her a dark
ages.  For ninety bucks in juice and approx- beer of her choosing, perfect for
imately 4 gallons of our own filtered tap coaxing breast milk, as a reward for
water, we’ll gross 30 bottles of wine at $3 a that sweet little baby she carried
piece for very little work. I hope to call it around for nine months.  Lucky gal.
the “Three Legged Red” after our beloved
tripod dog Mitra who passed away just last Before my husband Sicilian Joe and I
year. started brewing with our friends
Canadian Jason, Brooklyn Pete, Lep-
In this economy it’s no surprise that DIY rechaun Micheal and Bacon Candy
enterprises like home brewing are taking Anna, we thought you had to be a
off. I bought my Russo juice and equip- rocket scientist to brew. In fact,
ment cleaner from Jerry Anderson, the Canadian Jason IS a rocket scientist
owner, operator and resident brewing ex- so embarking on the endeavor with
pert of The Bluff Brewhaus, Dubuque’s him was, at first, slightly intimidat-
neat little brewing supply store. Jerry ing. Canadian Jason smartly set us at
opened his doors in 2006 and the limp- ease with these fabled words: “Can
ing economy has yet to throw a crutch you clean a dish?”  Yes!, we replied
into his business.  In fact, his risky jump emphatically, “I can clean a dish!”
from a 20 year position as an engineer to Jason then explained that bacteria is
follow his bliss and open The Bluff Everything you need for a batch of Bluff Brewhaus IPA really the only enemy of home-brew-
Brewhaus has only helped to solidify his ing. Follow the steps and if your sys-
disenchantment with the corporate envi- tem is clean, you are liable to make
ronment he found himself slugging away in. With his well stocked something drink-ably delicious that will NOT, I repeat, will NOT
back room lab, Jerry Anderson is perfecting recipes that will be mass make you go blind.  Boil those bottles, use a sulfur cleaner, explore
produced by Dubuque’s Bricktown Brewery where he is now, thank- non-sulfur cleaners and do what you have to do- but if it’s clean, it’s
fully (after years of shifting brewers), serving as master brewer. While on.
restoring Bricktown to quality, The Bluff Brewhaus is booming, or
rather brewing and this once “brew for fun” guy is now supplying all The thing that got me really excited while talking to Jerry Anderson
the ingredients for decade tested recipes and advising hordes of new- was his line on rhizomes, the clippings from the root balls of hops
bies and tinker happy brewmeisters on how to create their perfect liq- plants.  One little clipping (between $10-70 depending on the source
uid inspiration.  and it’s proven brews) vines 25 feet in one season and grows way more
than one home brewer needs for even the most avid operation. Hops
Right away you know that Jerry knows what the hop he’s talking can be stored frozen or used fresh. With the worldwide hop shortage
about. The kind faced and cool Mr. Anderson has been experiment- that happened in 2008 you might even be sitting on a new form of
ing and brewing for a long time: 25 years to be exact. While hanging currency.  After about three years you can dig up the root ball, sell the
Photo by Kurt Michael Friese

out in his store I spoke with one customer named Chris who started
brewing three years ago.  With Jerry’s help he’s acquired some books
and loads of advice, which have helped him tweak standard recipes to
appease his palate’s desire. As a beer brewer Chris mentioned the sav-
ings in making your own beer and the innovative make-your-own
keg-erator parts that Jerry has gathered at the Brewhaus. Take a basic
cooling system like a dorm fridge on max, some Co2 and plastic lines,
some old stainless steel 5 gallon Cornelius kegs that Jerry bought out
clippings and replant the rest. Repeat. I am planning a shade trellis
draped in hops in my yard and trying my hand at farming some of
my own brewsky.  Take that Canadian Jason. The student now chal-
lenges the master.
So, maybe wine and beer just aren’t what your interested in.  Jerry has
all the goods and expertise to have you sitting on a nice Meade, some
serious Sake and even a nice and fizzy lambic.  Sake sounds especially

16 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009

fun because good sake is kind of pricey and bad Sake is readily avail-
able.  We Americans tend to drink our Sake hot because it’s actually
not very good and the warmth disguises the ick.  A good sake can be
sipped cold or even room temperature and should have a lovely, hard
to pin point, cloudy taste and the same hard to nail down cloudy ef-
fect.  A sake’s alcohol content is determined by the amount of rice
you use (more rice = higher alcohol content) and the bite or lack
thereof is defined by the kind of rice you use. You can make a killer
sake for about $20 plus a bag of tasty jasmine, which is my prefer-
ence.

I personally can’t stand most commercial lambics (the traditional

fruit-infused beer of Belgium), but the lambic I sampled from Jerry’s
kit was silly good: light, not too sweet, not too syrupy (which tends to
be the problem) and not a trace of vinegar.  Jerry can also walk you
through the fairly simple process of making a nice Meade.  This may
end up being my new signature wedding gift as the term honeymoon
comes from the Northern European tradition in which newlywed
couples drank this bittersweet wine, then called metheglen, for a
month after the wedding to bring them good luck in the marriage.
Jerry has some nice honey in stock, but you could also grab a honey
(local to you or the couple) and make it really personal. Heck, brew-
ing could even be a family activity. Get the kids making their own
soda and make them work for that teeth rotting treasure. With Jerry’s
help you might even be able to make it kind of healthy. Kind of.

Jerry has plans for classes in the works, but for now you’ve got his at-
tention one on one.  He can walk you through the malt, show you the
way to corking and best of all the store is almost entirely free of
kitsch. With only a few bumper stickers and knick-knacks to throw
you off course, the store is simple and practically perfect for everyone
from the amateur to the lady trying to get her hoppy brew to bite her
back.  Tell Jerry hi for me when you stop in and let him know I have
the Three Legged Red almost ready for his critique.

When You Go...

The Bluff Brewhaus:
Open M-F 10-6, Sat. 10-5
(Sunday he’s brewing at Bricktown)
372 Bluff Street, Cable Car Square, Dubuque
563.582.5420
www.BluffBrewhaus.com

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 17

 Our Daily bread
Doing the Lord’s work in Laurel
By Allison Gnade
Folding her hands together, Teresa Paul looks up. In response to my
question about whether their family farm is more inclined towards
promoting their business or their lifestyle, I’ve asked her to separate
two sides of the same coin. As Teresa explains, they’re indivisible, and
their family business is a benefit to their great lifestyle. For the Paul
family, growing grains without chemicals, milling them into top-qual-
ity stone-ground flour, and inviting customers out to their idyllic
family farm tucked into the rolling hills of central Iowa are embedded
in the fabric of their daily life.
Steve Paul’s parents, Wayne and Betty Paul, started the farm in 1959
just outside of Laurel, situated midway between Marshalltown and
Kellogg amongst the rolling row crops of Iowa. Wayne’s education in
agriculture from Iowa State University taught him to farm corn and
soybeans with chemical-input methods, which he pursued for several
years. By 1964, however, with the influence and encouragement of a
friend, Wayne felt that “God wanted him to create something less ma-
nipulated by man” and turned to chemical-free, organic methods of
farming. After implementing crop rotations and applying organic fer-
tilizers and other natural cultivation methods, they were convinced
that they had chosen the right path, fulfilling their role as good stew-
ards of the land.
The family started by milling cornmeal, and soon added steel-cut oat-
meal and whole wheat flour to production. Their specialties of 7-
Grain Flour, Cereal, and Pancake Mix soon followed. The family
business has since grown with the new generations – their online store
(www.paulsgrains.com) now offers nineteen varieties of whole grains,
twelve cereals, and fifteen flours. Additionally, the family raises grass-
fed beef and free-range eggs.
All of their fields and grains are certified organic. Certification ex-
penses made certifying their milling room unfeasible, thus, they pro-
mote their organic grains as “Chemical Free.”
2006 brought the opportunity for Steve and Teresa to carry on the
family business. Luckily, the family members were, as Teresa tells me,
“all created by the Lord with different interests.” Teresa acts as secre-
tary and processes their online orders while her husband Steve mans
the bookwork and mechanical jobs around the farm. Of their six
children, the eldest daughter Abigail designed and created their web-
site, Susanna mills their grains and also keeps bees and goats, Daniel
accomplishes all their field work, and the two younger daughters help
with bagging their flours and grains.
Devotion to their customers who depend on them for wholesome
Iowa grains motivates their family business. As for their business phi-
losophy, they simply aim, Teresa explains, “to produce a product as
natural and wholesome as possible – as close to the unadulterated
grain that God originally created – since it is healthier for our bodies.”
In a state where the vast majority of crops are inedible to humans be-
fore extensive processing (and furthermore are frequently slated for
animal feed rather than for human nutrition), the crops the Pauls
nurture are unique.
Following their understanding of God’s desires includes improving
the lives of their neighbors, as Matthew 23:37-39 insists: “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
18 www.EdibleIowa.com
with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ” To
promote the wellbeing of their fellow neighbors across the country,
they feel that “part of loving our neighbor would be to provide prod-
ucts that are wholesome.” Amidst a food system that can be compli-
cated and impersonal, the Paul family shows great respect for both the
eater and the land, and promotes the connections between the two.
The family shares a wealth of information on their website, including
recipes, photos of the farm, and tips for people with allergies to gluten
and other foods. Unlike many businesses with online stores, the Paul
family also comes face to face with many of their customers, who stop
by the farm to pick up their orders. Surprisingly, about half of their
customers place orders over the phone and pick them up themselves,
directly from the farm. In this great example of the farm-to-table
movement, the Pauls invite their customers onto their own home
ground to see for themselves the people and environment that culti-
vated their food. The grains, raised naturally without chemicals, har-
vested by real people, milled by real people, packaged and sold by real
people, benefit a real family.
The Pauls have a bounty of farmyard animals that children, students,
and adults alike love to admire. Chickens, goats, beef cattle, cats,
dogs, a dairy cow, and guinea hens flock the family farm. Patience,
one of their two dogs, has been trained to herd the stubborn nanny
goat, Clarinet, back into her pen after her daily escape. The guineas
climb to a precarious roost in the trees every night, and the laying
hens retreat into their coop for nighttime protection. Teresa tells me
about evenings spent around a bonfire near the guineas’ tree, singing
songs backed up by the guineas’ crooning. The lifestyle comes to this
family naturally.
Customers also come naturally to Paul’s Grains. The business spends
no money on advertising and depends on word-of-mouth to spread
their name. Staying a small business is fine – and preferred – by the
family: “If you get too busy, then it’s work,” Teresa explains. Al-
though they’ve been encouraged by customers to sell their products at
larger grocery stores, the Pauls prefer to maintain their close, personal
connection with their loyal customers through their small family busi-
ness, a situation they feel can only be found by keeping their business
small.
Some customers come once a year, some every few weeks. Carloads of
college students (such as those from the Grinnell College local foods
buying co-op) and families drive to pick up their grains, eager also to
visit a diversified family farm. Farms like these have become a rarity.
The demand for their grains has grown over time, through satisfied
customers spreading the word to others looking for excellent, local
foods. Though many of their original customers were individuals
with a desire for a healthier lifestyle stemming from health problems,
Photo by Allison Gnade
a more widespread interest in healthy eating is currently spurring the
interest of a broader audience. Many come to them looking for food
they can trust, unadulterated by chemical practices, from real people.
Return customers are a testament to the quality of their grains. Be-
cause their flours are milled-to-order and contain no preservatives,
they taste fresher than most grocery store flours. In my own compari-
Harvest 2009
son of their whole wheat flour against another organic whole wheat
flour from a large company in the Midwest, I found the Paul’s Grains
flour truly to be more flavorful. In a raw state, their flour had a nutty
flavor, while the other had very little flavor. In bread, their flour
added an appealing, earthy taste to the loaves I made with it. In terms
of freshness, Paul’s quite obviously has the upper hand.
Flours without preservatives (such as theirs) need to be refrigerated or
frozen to maintain the stability of its oil. Flours that can sit around
for a year and not go rancid, Teresa explains, probably contain preser-
vatives. Customers, showing their conviction by becoming regulars,
also tell the Pauls that they can taste the difference.
On a bit under a hundred acres of certified organic farmland, the Paul
family grows spring and winter wheat, spelt, barley, corn, rye, soy-
beans, and buckwheat. They produce familiar items like cornmeal,
pancake mix, oatmeal, and grits, and they offer a very broad variety of
whole grains, fresh milled cereals, and fresh milled flours. A steel burr
mill cuts their oats – steelcut oats retain more of their nutrients than
rolled oats, which must be steamed first – and two stone grinders mill
their flours. Their flours are milled to order, heat sealed, and almost
immediately picked up or shipped. Combination packs of their hot
cereals and their best sellers entice the curious customer. They also
offer grains that they can’t meet the demand for or that can’t be raised
in an Iowa climate – like rice, quinoa, and unbleached white flour
Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com
(which must be processed more than whole wheat flour) – from other
organic farmers.
In addition to their online store, Paul’s Grains are featured at Gateway
Market in Des Moines, Henry’s Village Market in Homestead (near
the Amana Colonies), Linn Street Market in Marshalltown, through
the Farm to Folk CSA (Community Supported Agriculture share) in
Ames, distributed more widely by United Natural Foods, Inc., and
brought to the local public through farmers’ markets in Grinnell and
Des Moines. Occasionally the family also offers their grains at street
markets and craft fairs in central Iowa, posting on their website to in-
form their customers on where to find them.
The Pauls love the flexibility of their family farm schedule so they can
get to know their customers. On their farm daily, amongst the ani-
mals, the grain crops, and their family, is a certain place to find them.
Its farms like these that Iowa should be known for.
When You Go...
Orders can be placed online at www.PaulsGrains.com or by phone
at 641.476.373. They appreciate two days notice for pickup
orders at the farm, which is located at 2475-B 340th Street, Laurel
19
 Teaching the Science of Diversity
Glenn Drowns and the Sand Hill Preservation Center
By Renee Brincks
Glenn Drowns planted his first veg-
etables when he was five years old,
in a shallow square of sawdust
topped by soil swept off a dump
truck.
“Dad made his living by going out
on federal land and finding little
pockets of soil. He hauled it into
town in a dump truck so that peo-
ple could cover up the lava rock and
plant a lawn or small garden,” says
Drowns, who grew up in rural
Idaho. “Our land was just rock –
big rock.”
Lettuce, radishes, turnips and green
beans grew in those early days. As
his yields increased, so did Drowns’
interest in gardening and plant
breeding. Eager to live where the
land was rich, he moved to Iowa after graduating from college in
1984. Four years later, using money saved from his teaching job,
Drowns purchased 40 acres near Calamus. The seeds for Sand Hill
Preservation Center were sown.
Today, Drowns and his wife, Linda, sell more than 2,000 types of
heirloom seed, including 600 varieties of tomatoes, 400 kinds of
squash, 130 types of sweet potatoes and some 100 sweet corn vari-
eties. They tend their 10-acre organic garden mostly by hand, and
they pack seed orders the same way. More than 230 breeds of heritage
poultry scratch about the farm, shipped in batches of 25 chicks to all
corners of the country. Sand Hill Preservation Center customers have
compact plots along the California coast, expansive Midwest back-
yards and urban rooftop gardens in New York.
M. Ames of Templeton, CA, buys Sand Hill poultry and plants the
company’s tomatoes, corn and rutabagas, among other vegetables. She
says Sand Hill fills its packets with more seeds than other suppliers; in
addition, the enticing range of options often inspires her to buy more
seeds than fit in her garden. However, Ames orders from Sand Hill for
reasons beyond just value and variety.
“I like to use heirloom varieties a lot – I think it’s good to preserve
them – but I also like to support Sand Hill Preservation Center.
They’re really nice to work with. The company has a lot of integrity,”
she says.
Sand Hill’s primary mission has always been genetic preservation, ex-
plains Drowns. Some tomato varieties sell out every year; others
might not register five sales in a season. Regardless, they remain in the
catalog.
Similarly, Drowns has raised Barred Holland chickens since 1992
though he once went five consecutive years without a single sale of the
breed. Then, this year, the Barred Hollands sold out.
“If it makes it as far as our catalog, whether it’s a chicken or whether
it’s a pepper or whether it’s a pumpkin or a tomato, then it has some
20 www.EdibleIowa.com
genetic worthiness that I think
should be kept. It may sit on the
shelf for ten years, but finally some-
thing kicks in and the interest picks
up,” Drowns says.
In addition to maintaining rare
breeds and uncommon seeds, Sand
Hill’s founders reach out to educate
others. The center is not open to
the public, but small groups occa-
sionally tour the garden by appoint-
ment. Drowns partners with Seed
Savers Exchange in Decorah, dis-
playing heirloom poultry at the fa-
cility’s Heritage Farm. He judges
4-H poultry competitions and, as a
full-time junior high and high
school science teacher, brings his
plants and animals to class when
discussing animal behavior, genetics
and related topics.
The third arm of the Sand Hill Preservation Center mission relates,
quite simply, to earthworms and butterflies and songbirds and box
turtles. When Drowns purchased his 40-acre farm, he set aside 10
percent to leave untouched.
“When I got the place, I shouldn’t have been able to afford it. So, I
kind of said I would give 10 percent of it back to God’s creatures and
that’s what I’ve faithfully maintained,” he says. “I’ve just let nature
take its course. Whatever blew in has come up there, and I have all
these native trees and vegetation that have started growing.”
Several species enjoy that vegetation, including a number of birds not
otherwise spotted in the area. Drowns has since stopped farming an-
other ¾-acre patch of flood-prone land. The decision brought “great
grief ” from the people who cut his hay, he laughs, but reactions to his
approach have been positive.
“It is not conventional, but I think most have been supportive,” he
says. “Most people probably think it’s just the crazy science teacher
doing something bizarre. That doesn’t bother me.”
Drowns’ methods are different, in part, because of the challenges he
faced before moving to Iowa. As an Idaho gardener, he battled hungry
pests, frost in July and such rocky, high-pH soil that vegetables some-
times couldn’t grow. In response, he developed plants better suited to
tough conditions. His early-maturing Blacktail Mountain watermelon
withstands cool night temperatures, and his short-season sweet corn
grows just 2 to 3 feet tall but produces ears in about 50 days.
Photo by Kurt Michael Friese
“We’ve sent that seed as far north as the mountains around Fairbanks,
Alaska, and they’ve had sweet corn,” Drowns says. “In Iowa, you look
at it and think ‘Who would want to grow such short little stuff?’ But,
when I was little, I dreamed of having fresh sweet corn. Only about
one in three years did we get it. That’s something you don’t think
about here.”
Harvest 2009
Understanding growing conditions in other regions helps Drowns bet-
ter serve Sand Hill customers, and they value his experience and can-
didness. Dan Barker, who gardens in Neenah, Wis., says the company
will send trial seed packets and make helpful suggestions. He finds the
perspective useful.
In addition to a curiosity about their food sources, consumers are in-
creasingly concerned about their own environmental impact. Drowns
says customers often ask how they can make a difference when they
don’t have the resources or space for a large garden.

“In the catalog, I enjoy the descriptions. You can tell Glenn is growing
these. It’s not like he’s just buying bulk seeds from somebody and
repackaging them. He knows his product,” Barker says. “It’s very hon-
est, and you can be confident that what he says you’re going to get,
you’re going to get.”
While many suppliers are environmentally conscious, he adds, few
seem to be living the philosophy in the same way that Glenn and
Linda Drowns do.
“You don’t have to go out and try to save 150 varieties of sweet pota-
toes just to make your mark, and that’s not why I do it, either. But
everybody can do something no matter where you live, even if it’s no
more than hanging a bird feeder or planting a tree that attracts birds
or beneficial insects. I leave a few milkweed plants in, because if the
monarch butterfly doesn’t have milkweed, it’s not going to do any-
thing...It doesn’t have to take a great deal of effort. Everyone can do
something to make this planet just a little bit better place.”

“It’s just him and his wife, and he’s doing this because it’s his passion.
Sand Hill Preservation Center
www.SandHillPreservation.com
He cares very strongly about it,” Barker says. “I don’t think he’s doing 563.246.2299
this to get wealthy. I think he’s doing this because it’s what he really The Sand Hill Preservation Center website includes instructions for
wants to do and he feels it’s important.” requesting catalogs and ordering seeds. The center is not open to
the public, but small groups sometimes can visit by special
Drowns maintains those connections to his customers and his prod- arrangement.
ucts by keeping Sand Hill Preservation Center small. A few employees
assist with orders and garden work as needed, but the owners also
weed their own plants, produce their own catalogs and put in several
hours of chores and bookkeeping duties each day – all while maintain-
ing jobs off the farm.

The reward for this effort comes not in income or recognition,

Drowns believes, but in saving rare and old-fashioned breeds. He cites
a customer who recently ordered several packets of a tomato seed de-
veloped by her grandfather. The family thought the variety had been
lost.

“To be able to give back to family members something that’s so special

to them, that is the reward,” Drowns says.

He also finds satisfaction in consumers’ growing awareness and appre-

ciation of heirloom seeds and poultry. Twenty years ago, many consid-
ered his preservation work a fringe hobby. Today, he senses an
attitude shift.

“In 1988, if you dealt with these weird seeds, there was something a
little wrong with you. Why wouldn’t you want the biggest and the
most modern and the best? It was the same thing with the poultry.
Now, people are realizing that the modern commercial chicken has no
flavor and it’s the old-fashioned ones that do,” he says. “That change
has been the most outstanding and the most gratifying: to see that
people are going back, understanding more the importance of what
they eat and how what they eat is grown.”

Critiques of industrialized food, such as those in the films Food, Inc.

and Fast Food Nation, contribute to these changing attitudes. While
Drowns hasn’t investigated a link between the release of such movies
and an increase in his sales, he does see anecdotal effects.

“There are times when we get this rapid interest in catalogs, and Linda
and I say, ‘What is the reason for that?’ I have no doubt that certain
things that are triggering people’s thinking about this,” he says.

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 21

 Behind Closed Doors
By Rob Cline

Refrigerator Diagnostics
Lileah Harris’ job isn’t terribly Emphasis on the organic
appetizing.
Quite a few of the items in
As a pathologist at St. Luke’s Lileah’s refrigerator are organic.
Hospital in Cedar Rapids, she For example, she has a jar of Dick-
spends much of her time examin- inson’s Organic Blueberry Fruit
ing and diagnosing patient sam- Spread. “This is my favorite one
ples, and my guess is that the (of the company’s varieties) and I
details of her work, while no keep it around,” she explained. “I
doubt fascinating, would make usually try to have a back-up jar of
lousy dinner conversation. this—one in the fridge and one in
the pantry—so I don’t run out.”
Nevertheless, Lileah is an undeni-
ably delightful conversational- A bottle of R.W. Knudsen Family
ist—soft-spoken, but inquisitive, Organic Concord Grape Juice was
engaging, and kind with a ready sitting on an upper shelf, but it
smile and a quick wit. Her inter- isn’t Lileah’s favorite of the com-
ests are wide-ranging, and she is pany’s beverages.
always curious about the passions
of others. “It doesn’t taste anything like their
Organic Just Concord Grape
While I have known Lileah for Juice,” she said. The juice is a
less than a year, I have known— stand-in for the actual fruit. “I
or known of—other members of love Concord grapes, but you can
her large, prominent, and tal- hardly find them anywhere in any
ented family for a long time. Her store.”
father, Percy Harris, was the Linn
County Medical Examiner for While Lileah does much of her
many years and I often chat with shopping at Hy-Vee in Cedar
him and his wife, Lileah, at Rapids, she does make an effort to
Hancher and other cultural get down to Coralville with some
events. Her brother Grant and I regularity.
went to high school together, and
back then his impressive trumpet “I try to go to New Pioneer Co-op
playing presaged his career as a about once every three months.
professional musician. Her That’s where I prefer to buy pro-
equally musical brother Peter was St. Luke’s pathologist Dr. Lileah Harris (right), and her daughter, Lark duce because it’s always nice and
a member of Bruce Hornsby and it’s more organic.”
the Range in the late 1980s. I met her sister Sarah at the Jane Boyd
Community House and Sarah’s enthusiastic efforts helped my wife Take out and Tex-Mex
start a dance program there.
“We’re kind of heavy on take out food this week,” Lileah said, point-
Until recently, Sarah was also the coach of Jane Boyd’s LEGO League ing out leftovers from Oasis Falafel in Iowa City—a recommendation
team, and my son is a passionate participant in the program. Lileah’s from her brother David—and food from two Mexican restaurants,
daughter, Lark, is also on the team, and so it is through the world of Gringo’s and Carlos O’Kelly’s.
competitive interlocking brick play that I met Lileah and her hus-
band, Randon. Despite the double dip of Mexican, Lileah hasn’t found an area restau-
rant that satisfies her longing for the Tex-Mex she enjoyed when she
The aesthetics of lemons and Randon and Lark lived in Houston. Since moving back to Cedar
Rapids in 2005, she’s been on a quest for that taste.
“I’m a lemon lover,” Lileah revealed as we opened up her KitchenAid
Superba to reveal the brightly colored fruit in her produce drawer. She She sites the exceptional popularity of the breakfast burritos on offer
likes lemon in iced tea and in water and, of course, as the source of at the Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers’ Market as evidence of the
Photo by Bryan Cline

fresh-squeezed lemonade, something she had recently served when she paucity of what she’s looking for in the area.
had her family over for a summer dinner.
“You can get them anywhere in Houston,” she said wistfully.
But she also appreciates more than just the tart taste of the fruit. “I
think lemons are pretty because they’re bright yellow,” she said. “I
think citrus fruits are beautiful.”

22 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009

Beans for breakfast

Speaking of breakfast, Lileah keeps one of her morning meal favorites

in the freezer.

“I love soybeans,” she said. “I eat those for breakfast in the car on the
way to work.”

There were also plenty of lima beans in the freezer.

“That’s a vegetable that Lark likes so I try to keep that around.” The
recently replenished supply featured Birds Eye Fordhook Lima Beans.

Coffee in the freezer, coffee in the fridge

A couple of cartons of Haagen-Daz graced the freezer, a fat free rasp-

berry sorbet and another branded with the “five” logo which is in-
tended to let the consumer know that there are only five ingredients
in the ice cream: milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and, in this case, coffee.

When coffee is desired as a beverage rather than an ice cream, Lileah

can reach for the Yuban Premium Coffee in the fridge.

A delightful parting gift

Before we wrapped up our conversation, we sat down to enjoy a bev-

erage—coffee for Lileah and Lark, and Tazo Organic Darjeeling tea
for me (my son, photographer for this edition of the column, politely
declined). Though I’m a fan of other Tazo varieties, I had never had
the Darjeeling, described on the box as “A refined tea with floral &
nutty notes.” More succinctly: it’s tasty.

When I said as much, Lileah graciously grabbed an “extra” box from

the pantry, sending me on my way with a new favorite to add to my
collection of teas at home.

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 23

 The 99
Every Iowa County, One bite at a Time

Louisa County
The 99 Spanish-language soap
Louisa County operas on the TV. We es-
pecially like the chicken
The search for the or steak tacos with a their
best food in each of oil-based chile sauce.
Iowa’s 99 counties
rolls on as we make If great tasting food and
our way up river no-nonsense atmosphere
from Lee and Des are your thing, then travel
Moines counties to another half mile along
Louisa. Together Highway 92 to the aptly-
these three counties named 92 Roadhouse.
make up the Delta, They have a catfish fry
in a sense, of the Edi- every Friday that’s worth
ble Iowa River Valley the drive, as well as Wall-
– it’s where the re- eye “fingers,” and good
gions three big rivers, burgers too, all at fair
the Des Moines, the prices. But the highlight
Cedar, and the Iowa is definitely the pies, all
all meet with each homemade by the owner’s
other and the mighty mom, we can especially
Mississippi. recommend the chocolate
cream. Not sure what
In a region once that special kick is in that
known for spectacu- pie, but we suspect maybe
lar melons, Louisa mom sneaks behind the
County’s farms have e 92 Roadhous in Columbus Juncton has a catfish fry every Friday bar when she makes this
– like so many oth- treat.
ers – mostly succumbed to the era of fence-row to fence-row corn and
soy. Not all of them though, as is evidenced by the presence of Tom So take an afternoon, enjoy the fall colors along the Iowa and the
Wahl and Kathy Dice, whose Red Fern Farm nurtures a wide variety Cedar, and enjoy the taste treats of Louisa County. And look for The
of fruit and nut trees near Wapello. 99 in Muscatine County next time.

Most notable among his trees are the paw paws, which you may re-
member reading about in these very pages (issue #4, summer 2007),
and the chestnuts. Tom and Kathy are active members of the Prairie
Grove Nut Growers Association (formerly the Southeast Iowa Nut When you Go...
Growers Association). They also grow hazelnuts, heartnuts, persim-
mons and Asian pears. Now’s the season for the chestnuts though, so Red Fern Farm
order soon through their website or by phone. 13882 I Avenue, Wapello
319.729.5905
In downtown Wapello try Johnnie B’s, right there on the river, for big www.RedFernFarm.com 
steaks and traditional Iowa family fare. After a fire last year Johnnie
Hess rebuilt in a larger facility across the street so as to take advantage
of the river view. Most locals say it’s their favorite place in Louisa Johnnie B’s
County. 210 Van Buren Street, Wapello
319.523.5024
Travel west from there on busy Highway 92 and you’ll find Columbus
Junction – though you’ll need to watch closely because the bridge that Panaderia Santa Ana Restaurant and Bakery
takes you over the confluence of the Cedar and Iowa Rivers there also
takes you right over downtown. So take a hard right on 2nd Street and 214 Main Street, Columbus Junction
Photo by Kurt Michael Friese

circle around to Main for a plethora of Hispanic culture in a single 319.728.5010

block.
92 Roadhouse
There you’ll find numerous bodegas and taquerillas serving up au- Hwy 92 West. Columbus Junction
thentic Latin food of all types. One favorite is a bakery and restau-
rant called Panaderia Santa Ana, where the tacos and tortas are all 319.728.2215
fresh and hand made, with a variety of homemade hot sauces, as you
enjoy an ambience of displayed Mexican-style wedding cakes and

24 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009

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Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 25

 Learning to Grow
is campus garden is empowering students
By Brian Morelli
On a late August evening here in Iowa City, the scene at the Univer-
sity of Iowa student garden is one of celebration and reunion — the
reason, a feast. For this college town, August is a return to normalcy;
students are back from summer break.
That’s part of why these friends are all smiles, but only part.
Reconnecting always makes a great excuse for a good meal. Ripe pro-
duce is another. But this season at the U of I student garden is some-
thing special. It will be the organic garden’s very first autumn harvest.
“We are all learning together,” said Kyle Sieck, a former U of I student
who works on the garden. “We are developing an economy here.
This is the beginning of a food system change.”
Some of this group tended the garden through the summer. For oth-
ers, they sowed the seeds in the spring and returned home in late May
or June. They last saw the garden when it was still taking hold. At
that time the bounty could hardly be imagined. Now, tomato and
pepper plants stand six-to-eight feet tall in the greenhouse; broccoli is
waist high and starting to seed; zucchini plants are crawling along the
ground in full bloom; and sunflowers are stretching for the heavens.
About 30 students have worked together to cultivate the garden from
scratch since it was tilled in March.
On this picturesque day with a full sun and rich blue sky, a group of
26 www.EdibleIowa.com
students sit in the grass by the garden. Sieck, who also works on
Echollective Farms in Mechanicsville, grabs hold of a cantaloupe, lays
it on a wooden cutting board and slides through it with a long blade
as juices dribble out. Inside is a vibrant orange flesh. Then, he passes
slices around the circle.
“Wow. This is amazing,” said Giselle Bruskewitz, 20, a U. of I.
sophomore from Elgin, Ill.
The melon is merely an appetizer. Group members weave through
the garden popping off a green pepper, unearthing radish and carrots
and trimming kale. This will all go in the main course – a well de-
served one at that.
The students have reason to gorge on the fruit of the earth. After all,
it is a result of their effort both on the front and the back end.
Students really spurred the garden project on from the beginning.
Emanating from a student group called the U of I Environmental
Coalition, students worked with U of I facilities officials to get the
Photo by Brian Morelli
land early this year —- about one-third of an acre on a largely unde-
veloped, far west part of campus. They talked the student govern-
ment into paying for a greenhouse that will ideally allow vegetables to
grow year round. They created a memo of understanding with food
service officials where U of I agrees to purchase at market value what
the garden grows and use it – that is after the gardeners eat their
share.
Harvest 2009
“It’s a real sense of empowerment to be able to grow your own food,”
said Mike Loots, a U of I senior, as he rinsed carrots in a bucket. “To
cook this food with my roommates definitely beats eating Raman
Noodles.”

The passion from the students – that was self-generated. Or was it?

Interest among students in developing campus gardens seems to be

growing across the country. No identifiable groups track this, but
campus gardens are seemingly sprouting up all over: Southern Illinois
University-Carbondale, Western Carolina University and University
of Kansas, among others. Others, such as University of California-
Davis, Michigan State University and Iowa State University have gar-
dens as well.

Richard Geer, U of I. food service manager who has helped the cam-
pus garden project take off, worked with the University of California
at Davis garden and helped launch campus gardens at Bryant College
in Rhode Island and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

“There is a growing knowledge base out there between students and

faculty,” Geer said. “I think everyone has become aware of what we
need to do as a population to preserve our planet for the next genera-
tion and the generation after that.”

U of I food service workers make two trips a week to the student gar-
den to pick up produce, Geer said. Quantities vary and veggies vary
as the seasons change. The food is featured in the salad bar, it goes on
special catering menus and otherwise is fit into dishes by chefs, Geer
said.

“We take anything and everything they give us,” Geer said. “The
chefs love it because they know what is coming. They know how
fresh it is.”

Students and Geer say they hope they can get more land for the gar-
den to grow.

There is adjacent space, but whether that will happen won’t be de-
cided until the project gets a formal review between Thanksgiving and
Christmas, Geer said. Thus far, it has been a success, Geer said.

In addition to food, the garden has served as a resource for academics.

It has been a classroom and fits into environmental majors and certifi-
cates. There is also a plan to start a farmers’ market with produce
from the garden in the campus student hub called the Iowa Memorial
Union. It didn’t quite make it up this year, but Geer said he expects
it to happen next year.

Still, right now the garden is merely an experiment. At best, it sup-

plements the food supply at the giant university. At some point,
though, the hope is that the garden can truly support the bellies of the
students.

“The garden can definitely expand,” Sieck said before dinner. “We
could definitely put a lot more in the UI food system.” 

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 27

28 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009
 1,000
Words
Photo by Kurt Michael Friese

Harvest 2009 www.EdibleIowa.com 29

 The Last Word
By Kurt Michael Friese

The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov

Journalist Peter Pringle’s seminal and Crick had broken the genetic
book “Food, Inc.” may not have code. No precursor to Monsanto,
been the basis of the recent hard-hit- he did not envision genetic manip-
ting documentary of the same name, ulation in a lab but rather in the
but it was likely its inspiration, as his field, through controlled natural se-
participation in the companion lection, based on ideas he had
guide to the movie would seem to learned in Darwin’s own library in
indicate. at said, I would hope Cambridge.
that his most recent book, e Mur-
der of Nikolai Vavilov, does become “Nikolai Ivonovich Vavilov was a
a major motion picture, because it is bogatyr, as the Russians say, a man
a ripping yarn of danger, intrigue of incredible powers, a Hercules.
and betrayal set in pre-and-post rev- He was indeed an international fig-
olutionary Russia and other points of ure, a fearless explorer, a plant
interest around the globe. hunter who saw more varieties than
any other botanist in his time. His
Now that’s quite a statement to make collection of seeds from five conti-
about a biography of a botanist. nents captivated the scientific
ey are not exactly known to most world.”
as gallivanting adventurers. But
Pringle’s account of the life and Vavilov’s work may well have saved
times of the man he calls “one of the millions during Stalin’s terror, but
great scientists of the twentieth cen- instead he was blamed for the same
tury” is a non-fiction account that starvation he set out to prevent.
would put even the fictional Indiana When his brother Sergei, once and
Jones to shame. Nikolai Ivanovich apparatchik himself, learns of his
Vavilov, academic, professor, vision- brother’s death – not even execu-
ary, is portrayed as both hero and tion but rather “Dystrophy from
tragic figure in the true Shake- prolonged malnutrition,” he wrote
spearean sense, betrayed by his own in his diary:
brother, as well as the very people
and government he worked for. “A terrible cable. e cruelest death
among my kim…. My reaction: to
Here’s our hero trekking to the “roof die, by all means to die…. And
of the world,” the Pamirs, on the Nikolai wanted so much to live….
edge of the Russian Empire just before the fall of the Czar; Here he is God, is everything a mistake?”
in post-revolutionary Petrograd, then called “e City of Ravens” for
the starvation all around; And here he is in Afghanistan, risking his Today though the legacy of Nikolai Ivanovich lives on. In a dooms-
life to find the origins of specific grains; en in the Carpathians as day vault on a Norwegian island about 800 miles from the north
the second great war erupts across Europe, characteristic ill-fitting fe- pole, and in two smaller vaults at the Seed Savers Exchange in Deco-
dora and all, being arrested and sent to a remote Siberian prison. rah, Iowa. Pringle concludes:

In a real-life irony hard to dream up for fiction, the man who found
the keys to feeding a starving, war-torn nation, died of starvation in
Stalin’s Gulag before that same brother could save him.
I spoil no surprise endings here of course, it’s right there in the title.
What makes the story worthy of interest is the contributions this man
managed to make in the face of unbelievable obstacles, both his own
and those that history thrust before him. It helps that Pringle is a
journalist and story-teller of the first order who can make the simple
search for seeds into an unputdownable epic.
Beginning with Gregor Mendel’s laws of heredity, Vavilov “laid out
grand plan for ‘sculpting’ plants to human needs” long before Watson
“Now, seven percent of the earth’s arable land is sown with genetically
modified crops, new varieties heavily patented by agribusiness that has
no plans to share them. And, for the moment, each nation will have
access only to its own seeds (in the Norwegian vault). Even so, these
seeds will hopefully be safe from anti-science demagogues, ideology,
censorship, willful neglect, and political expediency.”
ough I remain hopeful, my studies of the agribusiness corporations
make me skeptical at best.
e Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: e Story of Stalin’s Persecution of
One of the Great Scinetists or the Twentieth Century by Peter
Pringle. Published by Simon & Schuster, New York ©2008

30 www.EdibleIowa.com Harvest 2009