Category: Community

The IFC Takes Nationwide Health Fair by Storm

July 19, 2013

With the help of enticing Gouda cheese from Frisian Farms and super-fresh snap peas from Maxwell Farms, participants were successfully ‘tempted’ to stop by the Iowa Food Coop table at the Nationwide Health Fair. Located in the Locust St. Skywalk, around 150 people passed by the display, many stopping to try the novel Gouda curds or ask just how a food coop works. Several were interested in the snap peas and excited to learn about the variety of local produce available. Aside from the samples, brochures and trial memberships were given out, and a bunch of friendly faces stopped to chat about the local food scene in Iowa. With over 1100 products in the current shopping cycle, the IFC wasn’t a tough sell!

A big thanks to Nationwide for the opportunity.

From Iowa With Love

November 27, 2012

by Gary Huber

From Iowa with Love

By Rita Pray

Being of the age when I need to start getting rid of clutter instead of collecting more, I am inclined to give gifts that are consumable rather than “stuff” that sits around. Hence, for the last couple of years, I have shopped the Co-op for holiday gifts. I especially like to send all-Iowa gifts to my family that is flung all across the country—a sort of “look what you could have if you lived here” reminder.

A recent blog posting on this website listed the wide variety of products that would make great holiday gifts. Obviously, you have to consider things like mailing and timing of the gift-giving when purchasing food-related items. I recently boxed several collections of items to send to out-of-state family—things that won’t be spoiled if they aren’t opened for a month. I love that all of the items show the from-Iowa label.

My finds for a non-perishable, family-friendly, general-happiness gift box were as follows:

Salamander Farms Popcorn on the Cob ($2.00/2 ears)

Elements of Rejuvenation Soy Candle ($7.50)

Fieldstone Farms Beeswax Candles ($6.50/2 3” pillars)

Two Rivers Honey Bear Sample Size ($2.00)

Wildwood Farms Spiced Cocoa Mix ($2.00)

Twin Girls Autumn Jam ($5.50)

Country Harvest Blueberry Jam ($5.00)

Timber Ridge Summer Sausage ($6.00)

Heart of Iowa Soapworks Pot Scrubbie ($2.50)

Fieldstone Farms Honey Straws ($1.25/5)

Approximate Dollar Value=$40.00;

Recipients’ Iowa-Product Induced Happiness=Priceless.

11/27/2012

IFC Annual Potluck and Meeting Is Set For November 3rd!

October 18, 2012

by Gary Huber

IFC members and producers, MARK YOUR CALENDARS! We will be conducting our annual meeting on the 3rd of November, a Saturday, at the Mickle Neighborhood Resource Center in Sherman Hill from 5-7. All members and producers are encouraged to attend! There will also be a tour of the Mickle Center’s kitchen facilities beginning at 4, highlighting the kitchen’s progress to become a licensed facility.

At the meeting we will discuss our struggles and successes over the past year, and where we will go in the coming year. We will also elect new board members. This meeting will be fun and informal, and children are welcome to attend.

Please bring along a main or side dish for the potluck if you can. IFC will provide drinks. Table service is requested as well, we will need some people to bring silverware and plates.

The address of the Mickle Center is:

1620 Pleasant Street
Des Moines, IA 50314

Please contact us at info@iowafood.coop if you have any questions regarding the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!

The Jennie Effect… you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

February 3, 2012

by Gary Huber

1.21.12 is a date that I was awakened to the power of creative marketing. Here is how it went down, and it started with a magazine article.

The Journey

I’ve heard that gamblers can request to be put on a list that would bar them from entering a casino. If there was such a list for Farm Show Magazine, I would put myself on it. This candy store of on-farm inventions has often led me down the path of “wishful thinking” when I should have been sticking to my daily ”task at hand”.

But when I read an article in the magazine about a pig farmer in NE Iowa by the name of Carl Blake, I began my journey to an event (which I’ll describe in a bit) that awakened me to the power of creative marketing.

Carl raises a rare breed of pig called Swabian Hall. The meat from his pigs recently won a prestigious culinary award and is rapidly gaining national attention. When I read the article on Carl’s pigs, I began to ponder linking up with Carl to help with an idea.

My idea builds on the knowledge that pigs are much more efficient at retaining omega-3s in their tissue than cattle. If I could include flax-fed pork in our products, they would contain higher omega-3s, and our flax-fed beef would provide high levels ruminic and vaccenic acids (CLA’s). If I could put these two ingredients together, we’d have a flax-fed beef/pork “miracle” snack stick product.

With my mission of creating a new product in mind, I contacted Carl and thought “this could be a marriage made only in Iowa!” (or is this heaven?).

Carl and I agreed to meet at a Des Moines event a couple of Saturdays ago where Carl was to roast one of his amazing hogs. When a 9″ snow storm halted Carl in his tracks, he asked if I would sub my beef for his pork at the event. I agreed and was treated to one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

The Event

When local tomato growing phenom, Jennie Smith , decided to go to grad school in New Zealand, she asked a few of her foodie friends (around 150) to help her get there.

Jennie Smith of Butcher Crick Farms

Undoubtedly the most charismatic person I have ever met, Jennie managed to skillfully pull-off this unique fundraiser that included an auction of donated gifts, three local restaurants serving gourmet dishes, two wineries handing out samples, music by Dustin Smith, and one star-struck cattle farmer (me) serving smoked rib-eye. The event was held in a really cool facility owned by Kirk Blunk Architecture in East Village.

Jennie’s Seed the Farm event was not only inspiring but marketing genius. The lesson of the evening for me was that in a successful event, there is always more than one beneficiary. From networking to socializing to the joy of helping out a friend, Jennie made sure that we were all rewarded by the experience. Just watching Jennie “hold court” during the live auction was worth the price of admission! I left the event wondering if I had done enough for the “cause”.

The Rub

The take-away is that I will never again look at marketing a product, an event, or myself quite the same. Hopefully some of the “Jennie Effect” will rub off on Timber Ridge as we launch our new beef/pork miracle stick. As Carl would say, “stay tuned, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”