All posts by Gary Huber

Apple Butter Bread

November 14, 2011
by Gary Huber

Apple Butter Bread 

I ran across this recipe at some point in the last week, and kept telling myself to give it a try, as I had a rather large jar of pumpkin apple butter that I needed to use, so today was the day.  I really enjoyed this quick bread made with my homemade pumpkin apple butter, but I think it would be equally delicious made with apple butter, or really any fruit butter you have on hand.  This is so tweaked about from the original recipe that it is now my own, so I won’t even give you the original.

Apple Butter Bread

2 cups flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 stick butter, melted
3/4-1 cup apple butter
3/4 c buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients.  Pour into a greased loaf pan, I had enough to also make a little mini loaf pan, bake for 1 hour 5 minutes, but check it near the end, as your oven may vary.  Cool in pan 10 minutes, then tip out and cool.

This would be a lovely tea bread, as it is not too sweet, and would be wonderful spread with a little of that cultured butter I know you all made!

2011 State of the Coop

November 9, 2011
by Gary Huber

The 2011 Annual Meeting of the Iowa Food Cooperative was a success!

Thanks to all who took part in making it happen, and to producer member Lavon Griffieon of Griffieon Family Farms for hosting the  event.

Thank you also those who attended, for the wonderful food and for taking part in the panel discussion.

Per request here are the slide show and the audit presented at the meeting.

2011 General Manager’s Report

2011 Audit Report

Green Fire

November 2, 2011
by Gary Huber

Green Fire – Thursday November 10th , 6:30 at the Waukee Public Library

The first full-length, high-definition documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, Green Fire highlights Leopold’s extraordinary career, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement. Leopold remains relevant today, inspiring projects all over the country that connect people and land.

Sponsored by the Raccoon River Watershed Association.

“There  are  two things  that interest me; the relationship of people to each other and the relationship of people to the land”
– Aldo Leopold

2011 Annual Meeting

October 28, 2011
by Gary Huber

Please Join Us for the Iowa Food Cooperative’s Third Annual Potluck and Business Meeting

Since launching in November 2008, your cooperative has grown to just over 600 members. Your business is making progress in a number of important areas, but more lies ahead and we need your input and help.

We highly recommend you attend this get‐together to share good food, hear how your business has been doing, and help guide the Iowa Food Cooperative into the coming year.

  • Date: Sat., Nov. 5th, 2011
  • Where: LaVon & Craig Griffieon Farm, 11655 NE 6th Street, Ankeny, IA 50021
  • Agenda:
    • 3:30 to 5:00 pm – Tour Griffieon Farm (optional)
    • 5:00 to 5:45 pm – Potluck Dinner ‐ please bring one main dish and one side dish (a salad, vegetable or dessert), plus your own table service. Drinks will be provided.
    • 5:45 to 6:45 pm – Panel Discussion – What is working and where are we going?
    • 6:45 to 7:30 pm – Annual Business Meeting (including elections of two new board members)

 

Directions To Griffieon Family Farm:

[simple_directions title=”Griffieon Family Farm” lang=”eng” address=”11655 NE 6th Street, Ankeny, IA 50021″]

2011 Annual Meeting

October 18, 2011
by Gary Huber

It will be on Saturday, November 5th at the farm of LaVon and Craig Griffieon just north of Ankeny.

There will be an optional tour of the farm starting at 3:30 p.m., followed by a potluck at 5 p.m. The business meeting will start after the potluck. It will include elections of one producer and one consumer board.

There will also be a panel of consumer and producer members who will discuss there experiences participating in the cooperative, plus an open discussion with members about its future.

Click here to see the invite

American Meat returns to Des Moines

October 7, 2011
by Gary Huber

If you missed the first screening at the Fleur 4 Theatre, join members of the Board for it’s welcome return on October 16th at 11:45.

 

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm

 American Meat is a solutions-oriented macroscopic documentary surveying the current state of the U.S. meat industry. Featuring, Joel Salatin, Chuck Wirtz, Fred Kirschenmann Steve Ells, Paul Willis, and tens of farmers across America, we take an even-handed look at animal husbandry. We explain how America arrived at our current industrial system, and show you the feedlots and confinement houses, not through hidden cameras but through the eyes of the farmers who live and work there. From there, we introduce the current revolution developing in animal husbandry, led by the charismatic and passionate Joel Salatin. We meet tens of farmers across the country who have changed their life to start grass-based farms, and we highlight every day tangible solutions that people can take, to change agriculture in America.

http://www.americanmeatfilm.com/the-documentary/

Go Raw and Relax

October 3, 2011
by Gary Huber

On Monday, October 17, sneak away for a rendezvous that’s good for you! Join holistic health and nutrition counselor Sheree Clark and chiropractor Dr. Laura Rehmer for a session that will leave you glowing the rest of the day. Sheree will demonstrate how to whip up healthy, delicious and portable lunches using raw, organic ingredients. Then Dr. Laura will share ways to love your body with soothing stretches and meditation. In just 90 minutes, you’ll be inspired to make some simple changes that can calm your mind, melt away stress—and help you live a more radiant life. Event will be held at the Hy-Vee Kitchen, at the northeast corner of I-35 and Mills Civic Parkway, West Des Moines from 6:30-8:00 p.m. $20 fee includes tastings.

For more information and to register, visit http://www.meetup.com/RawFoodDSM, email info@fork-road.com or call (515) 249-2992.

Farm Crawl 2011

September 28, 2011
by Gary Huber

Sunday, October 2nd from 11:00 am – 5:00pm 


Eight independent family farm operations, all within an easy drive of each other in south-central Iowa, are jointly hosting open houses. Enjoy a leisurely autumn day “crawling” from farm to farm (Okay, you don’t actually crawl, you drive yourself between farms).

Come visit south Marion County/north Lucas County (one hour south of Des Moines) to see each of our individual operations.   Tour the farms, visit the animals, meet the farmers, sample the goodies, purchase locally grown & produced products,  and have lots of fun in the beautiful Iowa countryside!  Visit special guest vendors at some of the farms.   FREE admission onto all of the farms (there is a charge to enter the corn-maze at Dan-D Farm).

NO PETS – for the safety of our farm animals and guests, please leave your animals at home.

New IFC Location in Merle Hay Mall

September 26, 2011
by Gary Huber

One Week Delay for Next Two Distributions

Revised Distribution
Updated Distribution Dates

We have been fortunate to have Merle Hay Mall as a partner since we launched in November 2008. We pay utilities and maintenance costs, but they provide us with space free of charge. Someone now wants to rent the space, so the mall has offered us another.

The new location is a portion of the public library that had been located towards the south end of the main north-south hallway that has Sears on the north end and Target on the south. The library’s new building is finished, so they have moved.

One issue is that we are licensed by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, and so we need to get this new space licensed. We have submitted the application, but there will be some work involved. For example, we need to replace some ceiling panels and cover some light fixtures. But the move is potentially a good thing because we’ll have more space, and our adding of more drop off sites makes having more space a nice benefit.

To give us time to get ready, we are going to delay the next two distributions cycles by one week. This means that instead the cart open on tomorrow, it will open a week from Tuesday (Oct. 4th). It will close the following Saturday (Oct. 8th) with delivery of ordered product happening on Thursday, Oct. 13th. The subsequent cycle will also be delayed one week (cart opens on Oct. 18th, closes on Oct. 22nd, with delivery on Oct. 27th), and then in November we go to our normal once-a-month cycle.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause.

We could also use some help with moving our equipment. We’ll let you know when that will happen.

Thanks. Don’t hesitate to reply if you have any questions or comments.

Gary Huber
IFC General Manager

Annual Conference: Agriculture for Life

September 19, 2011
by Gary Huber

Annual_Conference_2011_logo
November 3, 2011

9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. (REGISTRATION BEGINS AT 8:00 A.M.)
PARENTS HALL, OLMSTED CENTER, DRAKE UNIVERSITY
2875 UNIVERSITY AVENUE, DES MOINES, IOWA

Author of Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé, has traveled the world learning and sharing what she has learned about food and empowering people and communities. Be inspired by Lappé and others working to mend unintended, negative consequences of industrial agriculture on our land, water and air. Learn how you can help support a new Agriculture for Life in Iowa.

 

Frances_Moore_LappeKEYNOTE BY FRANCES MOORE LAPPE’

Eco Mind: Changing the Way we Think to Create the World We Want

Frances Moore LappĂ©’s extraordinary best selling book, Diet for a Small Planet, taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating. Moore LappĂ© will focus her conference lecture on concepts from her new book to be released in October. The highly anticipated EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want—described by Jane Goodall as “powerful and inspiring”–has been selected as one of Publishers Weekly’s top ten science books for Fall 2011.

Using food-related examples, Moore LappĂ© will argue that finding our power to make change requires a shift in one’s mental map from one focused on things to focusing on relationships of power. It means a shift from a frame of deficits to a frame of possibility. LappĂ© dismantles seven common “thought traps”—from limits to growth to the failings of democracy— that belie what we now know about nature, including our own, and offers contrasting “thought leaps” that reveal our hidden power.

Other conference speakers will build on Moore Lappé’s inspiration to reveal ways that Iowans are working to mend the unintended, negative consequences of industrial agriculture on our planet’s natural resources and how Iowans can help create “Agriculture for Life.”

Ricardo-Salvador

 

RICARDO SALVADOR

Iowa Fields and Food Policy: Good Intentions and Unintended Consequences

Ricardo Salvador will provide a historical overview of farming in Iowa and U.S. food policy—intentions, successes, and unintended negative effects on Iowa’s people, communities and our natural resources.

Dr. Ricardo J. Salvador is a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. Ricardo’s primary activities involve co-leading the place based work in New Mexico and the Foundation’s Food & Community Program, a change strategy to support transformation of the U.S. food system into one that provides “Good Food,” that which is healthy, green, fair and affordable for vulnerable communities and their children. In addition, he partners with colleagues to create and support programs that address the connections of food with health, environment, economic development, sovereignty and social justice. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2007, Ricardo was on the Agronomy faculty at Iowa State University (1988 – 2006), where he taught and conducted research in cropping systems and sustainable agriculture. READ MORE HERE.

 

SEE RIGHT SIDEBAR FOR REGISTRATION AND MORE INFORMATION

 

Members Meeting Begins at 7:30 a.m., November 3

PLAN TO COME EARLY TO LEARN ABOUT OUR WORK AND SHARE YOUR IDEAS

ONCE INSIDE THE OLMSTED CENTER, LOOK FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE MEETING ROOM

If you’ve registered for our conference, you’re a member of the Iowa Environmental Council! This annual meeting gives members an opportunity to meet our board members and to share their ideas for future directions of the Council. We hope you’ll join us for coffee and conversation.

 

Food images donated by Iowa photographer Diann Evans.