Tag: local food

Categories
Reviews

D & D Pizza and Cafe

D & D Pizza and Cafe
D & D Pizza and Cafe

SOLON— Coming off the cold, windy fields at one farm, heading to another, I stopped in Solon for lunch. Monday being ruhetag (rest day) for restaurants, the selection was restricted. D & D Pizza and Cafe was open. I went in, favoring it over the gas stations, grocery store and bar.

The building is the second newest on Main Street, having been rebuilt after a fire during our town’s annual Solon Beef Days festival burned the former Breadeaux Pizza to the ground, killing one occupant. The restaurant is now managed by the person who owns the town’s grocery store. A bedroom community like ours needs a pizza outlet, and this one has survived.

When I entered, more than a dozen people were sitting in five groups. Most were construction workers coming off a job for lunch. Two construction workers were sitting on the same side of their table, eating and watching a flat panel television that was tuned to The Chew, which is a celebrity chef program on ABC. Mario Batali was explaining low country cuisine, and preparing a Huguenot Tart made of Blondie apples. The place was busy.

Merci
Merci

The decor is sports schedule posters tacked up on the walls, with beer advertisements that appeared to be provided by a local distributor. Perhaps in reference to the cafe part of the name, a trash receptacle had the French word “merci” on it, instead of the expected “thank you.” There is no table service, and the idea is to bus your own.

The all-you-care-to-eat buffet is the main luncheon feature. It had six kinds of thin crust pizza, bread sticks, chicken strips, and a salad bar with twelve items, and four dressings. The salad was fresh and appetizing. Soup of the day was chili, which fit with the colder weather. Beverages were fountain drinks along with bottled beer. The lunch buffet cost $7.41 including tax and a beverage. A soup and salad combo was available for a dollar less.

My dining experience was positive. The thin crust pizza was what one expects, the salad was made of fresh ingredients with an adequate selection, and the chicken strip I tried appeared to be made from actual chicken. Based on this lunch, I’d go back, or bring a friend for conversation. It is difficult to convey the idea of freshness, but this salad bar accomplished it.

D & D Pizza and Cafe fills a small town need, which is a place on Main Street for workers to go for lunch. It competes with Casey’s General Store for pizza, and with the nearby Solon Station, which has been offering a $5.50 burger basket at lunch time. Other Monday lunch competitors are Sam’s Main Street Market and RJZ Express which has takeout sandwiches. I’m not sure how much competition the restaurants located in strip malls south of town provide. My point is there is an active lunch marketplace, more than what meets the eye. Part of D & D Pizza and Cafe’s success is it recognized and caters to the lunch trade. While visiting Solon for the day, it is worth a try.

Categories
Writing

Last Days Before the Hard Frost

Moon Set
Moon Set

LAKE MACBRIDE— For two nights, I’ve covered the Swiss chard, arugula, parsley, collards, peppers and turnips with old bed sheets to protect them from a hard frost. The temperature hasn’t dipped down, so no damage. Not that we’ll eat a lot of this produce, but one more meal made with arugula, another soup stock of turnip greens, and one more dish made with flat leaf parsley would stretch the food budget and taste good as we go into winter. Snow is forecast for Tuesday, but I doubt it.

The work at the orchard will end soon. An abundance of apples remain, but most trees have been picked clean. The customer count reduces each weekend, and with it, so slowed my work until it was done yesterday. Except to drive tour groups on the John Deere tractor next Sunday morning, and to join my cohorts in the end of season staff potluck soon thereafter.

Work in our local food system has been a new connection to nature and agriculture. As if the world outside our compact geography slipped away and I’d gone native. It’s something I should have done long ago.

A trip to the county seat seems a long excursion. While a number of gatherings of friends there have been unattended, there are no regrets in staying local. There are new friends to be made in the environs of our life in Big Grove.

As the moon sets, and the day begins, much work lies ahead. The frost will come, and soon. In the meanwhile, the challenge is to make the most of each day’s diminishing sunlight— splitting time between intellectual work and the reality of temperate climate and the geography of local friends.

Categories
Work Life

Starry Morning

Apple Harvest
Apple Harvest

LAKE MACBRIDE— The sky was a dome of stars as the newspaper delivery truck made its way down the street. Outside to take the trash and recycling bins to the street for pickup, it was hard not to stop and gaze into the limitless space above. My clothing fit loosely from working low wage jobs this year, and the cool air found its way under the cotton knit and invigorated me, awakening possibilities. It lasted only a few moments, after which I grabbed an apple and ate it in Eve’s bower— forbidden fruit no more. The stuff of dreams and hope.

The remaining apples fall into five categories. A bowl of Cortland for apple crisp later today, a bushel of apples collected after the Sept. 19 storm blew them from the tree for apple sauce, a bin of the best apples for out of hand eating, and another bin of less perfect apples from the final pick, for a variety of purposes. A lot of the lesser Golden Delicious apples on the tree. They are available, but one suspects they will end up food for wild animals and insects, or as compost. The end of this year’s apple season is in view.

The plan for today is more chainsaw work in the yard. At least two more eight hour shifts will be required to finish cleaning up the fallen branches. A contractor is stopping by to estimate the roof repair from the Sept. 19 storm. The plan is to harvest the turnip greens and make soup stock, and finish gleaning the first garden patch, maybe the second. All of this is subsistence work, unpaid except that there is a buyer for the firewood I make, and food for our table.

As dawn begins to break, it’s time to leave the comforting glow of the computer screen and get to work. Just a few more keystrokes, and then off into the garden, seeking life, and redemption.

Categories
Work Life

Attire at Work

Work Clothes
Work Clothes

LAKE MACBRIDE— There was a time when wearing a suit to work was de rigueur. While commuting to the Chicago loop I wore and wore out countless suits purchased to fit into the corporate culture of 200 East Randolph Street, the Illinois Center and the Prudential building. Those days are over. Silk ties hang on a rack in the back of the closet, lined up behind woven plaid shirts purchased long ago. There are only one or two decent dress shirts on hangers until a funeral or formal presentation wants the attire.

My work clothes on the farm have become blue jeans, a T-shirt and a pair of Justin boots purchased while working in west Texas. No collar, indicating the meaninglessness of so-called blue or white collared work. Most of the people I know in the local food system are either working on a degree, have a bachelors, or have done postgraduate work and have a masters or doctorate. Some wear collars, and some do not. Clothing is functional and long lasting if it is anything— less a symbol of an arbitrary status or social class.

While writing, it’s the same attire, sans shoes with white socks. After buying cheap tube socks for decades, I switched to a heavy cotton sock purported to be for wearing with steel-toed shoes. They are deluxe. The cost of one of my Chicago suits could have purchased a lot of them.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Thunderstorm Coffee Break

Storm Over the High Tunnel
Storm Over the High Tunnel

RURAL CEDAR TOWNSHIP— A task list arrived via email from the farm at 8:17 a.m. It included work in the germination shed and the high tunnel. After arriving, and before getting very far, thunder and lightning began, and after a phone call to the owner, we decided to stop work in the structures until after the storm passed. It meant a coffee break in town.

I watched the cloud formations move in, and they threatened and thundered, and ultimately did not bring much rain. As soon as it begins to clear, I’ll head back to finish what was started. In the meanwhile, I made hot sauce, and an apple crisp from Cortland apples is baking in the oven.

Thunderstorm Rolling In
Thunderstorm Rolling In

A Cortland apple is a cross between McIntosh and Ben Davis apples, introduced in Geneva, New York in 1902. When peeling and cutting the slices, the browning of oxidation doesn’t occur as quickly as with other varieties. They are popular with people of a certain age, and last week I stopped by and picked the rest of what was on the trees at the orchard. There is enough to test my theory that any apple can be made into apple crisp… more than once.

The western sky is beginning to clear. As soon as the apple crisp is out of the oven, it’s back to the high tunnel to plant more seedlings. Better have that coffee soon.

Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
Categories
Kitchen Garden

Bushels of Apples

Golden and Red Delicious Apples
Golden and Red Delicious Apples

LAKE MACBRIDE— Two hours were spent outside eating apples from the tree… and picking them. Their ripeness was perfection, and as sweet as an apple could get, these seemed sweeter, especially the Golden Delicious.

With a two-year supply of condiments already in the cupboard— apple butter, pear butter, apple-pear butter, raspberry jam, grape jelly, wild black raspberry jam and others— the question is what to do with the three remaining bushels of apples. The answer is clear, eat them out of hand, bake them, and make applesauce.

Apple Harvest
Apple Harvest

My four trees produced more than 24 bushels of apples this season, the most I can recall. Growing conditions were almost ideal, and the fruit is mostly bug and fungus free. Having never sprayed these trees, they are as close to organic as can be.

As the season turns to winter, I’ll store some for as long as possible for apple crisp, and maybe an apple pie. To remind me of the brief dash of brilliance that was this summer’s apple crop.

Categories
Writing

Salt Fork Kitchen Debut

Salt Fork KitchenSOLON— Readers have asked for a review of Salt Fork Kitchen. While I did attend the grand opening on Sunday, I’m not ready to give the new restaurant a full review after only one visit.

Salt Fork Kitchen will struggle with the fact that it occupies space where restaurants have continuously failed since our family moved to the area 20 years ago. When one walks in the door, the experience is dejá vu, and all the work done by the new proprietors competes with memories of meals and experiences past. The bar is in the same place, the tables appear the same as the last go-around, and while the framed images on the wall are different, the look is as it has been. Strike one.

Huevos Borrachos
Huevos Borrachos

There is often a thick looking man leaning on the railing outside the main entrance smoking a cigarette. He was there Monday, day two of the restaurant, and one presumes he is affiliated with the business. There is a reason Iowa went smoke-free, and his presence and the aroma of burning tobacco in the air is not inviting. Strike two.

On the positive side, the wait staff was friendly and helpful, and my breakfast of huevos borrachos, or drunken eggs, was different and tasty. The coffee was good.

The bill was reasonable. I was the cashier’s first customer, and she handled the transaction cheerfully. Percentage-wise, I left a big tip, with hopes that next time first impressions can be set aside to take stock of what has the potential to be a great local eatery.

Salt Fork Kitchen didn’t win me over the first time, but this is a small community, and a person has to eat breakfast or lunch in town from time to time. I’ll be back, with a more balanced view of Salt Fork Kitchen.

UPDATE: 10/22/13 The Solon Economist wrote an article about the opening of Salt Fork Kitchen. Find it here.

Categories
Writing

Inventory of Local Producers

LAKE MACBRIDE— During 2013, in addition to our own garden, I spent time working with or studying the following fruit and vegetable producers that are part of the local food system in our area. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Abbe Hills Farm, Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Jack Neuzil, Solon, Iowa.

Kroul Farms, Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Rebal’s Sweet Corn Stand, Solon, Iowa.

Turtle Creek Orchard, Solon, Iowa.

Wild Woods Farm, Solon, Iowa.

Wilson’s Orchard, Iowa City, Iowa.

ZJ Farm, Solon, Iowa.

Categories
Writing

Apples on the Move

Livestock Apples
Livestock Apples

LAKE MACBRIDE— Johnny Appleseed’s birthday is on Thursday, and there has been a lot of apple action. The economy of apples is on the move in late September and October.

The windfall of apples in our yard created three groups. I picked the best for out of hand eating and making apple butter and apple crisp. The seconds went into a big cart and down the street, where a neighbor pressed them into four gallons of cider, with the apple pumice planned for livestock. The rest went into large plastic tubs to be traded for eggs. If a person is going to have apple trees, something should be done with the fruit.

Growers no long plant apples from seeds. The use of selective breeding, resulting in cultivars, or branches grafted to root stock has become the norm. Heirloom apples like Red Gravenstein, Wealthy, Cortland and Saint Edmund’s Pippin have given way to Honeycrisp, Jersey Mac and Jonafree. When I chat with modern apple connoisseurs, they eschew my humble Red Delicious apples, discovered in Iowa. More’s the pity, as naturally ripened and off the tree, they are some of the most flavorful apples to be found.

As summer turns to fall, now is the time to harvest the crop and use it. Participating in the apple culture is one of the benefits of living on a planet hospitable to our species. We should take advantage of it.

Categories
Writing

Salt Fork Kitchen Grand Opening

Salt Fork Kitchen
Salt Fork Kitchen

SOLON— Salt Fork Kitchen, 112 E. Main St., is slated to open for Sunday brunch on Sept. 22 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., with jam session. My friend Bill posted this note about the grand opening on Facebook,

I’ve been helping open Salt Fork Kitchen, Solon’s newest restaurant, get up and running. Supplied by it’s own farm (Salt Fork Farm). Chef Jay, and crew sport a great menu. Everything made from scratch from fresh ingredients. Sauces, by Jay, are incredible, as is everything. Home made bread, and biscuits, and yesterday was hummus making. I could go on, and on, so please come by, and enjoy. Grand opening this Sunday, September 22nd, 8:00 to 2:00. Jam session so follow, so bring your fiddle, guitar, or bluegrass bongos.

The restaurant grew from Salt Fork Farms and readers can find more information at the website saltforkfarms.com. Here is a snippet,

Salt Fork Kitchen is a long time dream of Eric’s. It will be a locally sourced, made from scratch restaurant providing quality food at a fair price for you, and the farmer.

The article I wrote with background information can be viewed here. If work schedule permits, I plan to stop by for the opening.