Going Local

Best Irish Soda Bread Recipe

2010-03-16T10:07:45-04:00

I've tried lots of recipes for Irish Soda Bread and have generally been disappointed with a very dry bread. But this recipe is great. I like to use a local Indiana duck egg in place of the chicken egg and skip the caraway seeds. The bread is moist, flavorful, and makes great toast.

Why Do I Garden?

2010-03-16T07:26:05-04:00

A few weeks ago, Andrew Battjes, creator and author of the blogsite Andy's Green Page asked me to guest blog for his site. The topic: Why Do I Garden? For my answer, click here.

KenapocoMocha: Community Owned Coffee Shop

2010-03-11T07:07:00-05:00

Housed in a restored Victorian brick house, KenapocoMocha is an example of what can be done when people in a community rally together for a common good cause. When Debbie and Jim Chinworth decided to open up a coffeehouse in their town of Manchester, Indiana they looked to their fellow citizens for support. According to Debbie, "We were inspired by friends of ours in Bluffton, Ohio who started a similar venture. They offered friends of theirs the opportunity to invest in the business and it worked out really well. So we decided to try something similar and offered our community the opportunity to invest in the coffeehouse. We weren't sure what would happen. But we believed in our dream and the community believed in us-- we now have 64 community investors."

And, according to Andrea Zwiebel, author of the blog Changing the World One Meal at a Time, those investors have put their money into a solid investment. Andrea sent me an email in January asking me to list the coffeehouse in the GOING LOCAL Indiana Local Food Guide. She said "The food is so good! I used to go once a week before they opened the freezer section. (I live 30 minutes from North Manchester, so it must be good!) Their soups are amazing. Now I go once a month or so to stock up on the frozen entrees."

Debbie credits the popularity of the coffeehouse to their creative kitchen staff. In sharing her thoughts about why she chooses to cook with locally produced ingredients, KenapocoMocha's chef Katie Van (whom Debbie refers to as a magician with food) said, "At KenapocoMocha, we are very passionate about eating locally and supporting our agricultural community. In fact, we're a community-owned coffee shop with over 60 investors, so the very foundation of our business comes from a strong desire to nurture our local economy.

We have become well known for our soups, which vary each day, depending on the local ingredients available. We've been open since April 29, 2008, and have not made the exact same soup twice. Some of our customers' favorites include adventurous options like Pumpkin Chili or Peanut Butter and Jelly Soup, but they also enjoy many classics like Cream of Wild Mushroom and Chicken Lemon Rice. During the summer we get all our produce from North Manchester's Farmers' Market, which we freeze for use throughout the winter. We also have a local organic farmer with wonderful greenhouses from whom we get a variety of produce, including freshly picked mesclun greens for our salads.

We have a very close relationship with Hawkins' Family Farm. This wonderful family-owned CSA farm is our favorite place to get locally- pastured chicken, beef, pork and turkey (all organically-raised), and we use their eggs exclusively for all of our fresh baked goods.

We offer artisan baked breads, pastries and desserts (including oatmeal fudge bars, brownies and whoopie pies) along with our soups, salads and sandwiches at lunch, and home-cooked, original recipe entrees twice a week."

Specials are listed everyday on their site. Check today's specials here. Is your mouth watering yet? This place sounds incredible. Robert and I are planning on a lunch road trip to Manchester in the very near future with plenty of ice pack filled coolers in tow to take home some of those freezer meals.

Do you know of a great restaurant or coffee shop with a commitment to local food in your community? Send me an email about it- victoria@goinglocal-info.com

KenapocoMocha

01 East 2nd Street
North Manchester, IN 46962
Phone: (260) 982-4705
www.kenapocomocha.com

Photos: Courtesy of KenapocoMocha
Photo 1: Chef Katie Van (right) and her daughter Marielle (left) admire the local produce
Photo 2: Chef Katie Van (rear left) and Baker and Barista Sarah Hall (front right) plate salads for the lunch service

Making Ricotta: Part One

2010-03-09T08:14:00-05:00

I have been collecting homemade ricotta recipes for a while (ok...since 2005...no quick decisions being made here...) but never got around to making it. I attribute my reluctance to tackle the recipes as part laziness and part confusion. The recipes I've collected vary so much. Some use only milk. Some use milk and buttermilk. Some use vinegar--some don't. Some say let the curds form for only 5 minutes and others say wait several hours. No one can tell me which technique is the best so I have decided to try three of them and see for myself.

This past weekend I decided to make the recipe from Donna Hay which required nothing more than whole milk and white vinegar. Armed with two quarts of Traders' Point milk and champagne vinegar, I took my first step into the world of home cheese making. The results were delicious. My only disappointment was that the recipe said it would make 1 1/4 cups of ricotta and I got a mere scant 1/2 cup (can any home cheese making experts tell me what might have gone wrong here?).

With only a small portion of the ricotta, my visions of using it in any recipes such as baked ricotta, flew out the window. But if you can't fix it...feature it...So I decided to use the small amount I had for an appetizer--Robert grilled some crusty bread and we each created our own personal homage to the cheese--mine was sweet and his was savory. I spread my ricotta on the warm bread, topped it with a generous drizzle of local honey and scattered some chopped pistachios on it. Robert choose to rub his bread with a raw garlic clove, brushed on a little bit of olive oil, and then spread the ricotta on top of the bread. Both versions were wonderful.

Next weekend I'm trying the ricotta recipe that calls for buttermilk and milk. Will let you know...in the meantime, here's Donna Hay's recipe.

Ricotta

6 cups full cream milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar

1. Place the milk and a candy thermometer in a saucepan over medium heat and heat to 176ºF. Remove from the heat, add the vinegar and allow to sit for 5 minutes or until curds form.
2. Line a colander with fine muslin and place over a deep bowl. Use a slotted spoon to carefully spoon the curds into the colander. Do not pour them in from the saucepan--the curds will break if you do this. Allow to drain for 5 minutes.
3. Gently spoon the ricotta into a glass or ceramic dish and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Store in refrigerator for up to 1 week. Makes 1 ¼ cups.

Photo: Ricotta made using Donna Hay's recipe

Indiana Gardening Advice and Links

2010-03-08T08:57:00-05:00

Looking for some resources for gardening advice specific to Indiana? Try this one for general advice about growing vegetables and fruit in Indiana and this one to be inspired by how much you can grow in small spaces.