On Wednesday, February 7th, local producers and residents from the Cedar Valley came together to celebrate the success in locally based products. At the beginning of the dinner, we started with a social hour where people took time to connect and talk about anything with everyone. At our social hour, we had a cash bar and a butter board containing apples and honey from Becks, red wine from Cedar Ridge Winery, yellow onion from Iowa Food Hub, garbanzo beans/chickpeas, and French bread from Singing Sourdough. The butter board and hummus were a massive hit with the guests having not even a bread crumb left over. The cash bar included local beverages including Paha Cider that is owned and operated by Mark Westbrock of Solstice Farm.
Onto the second course, the French onion soup. The following ingredients were yellow onions from Iowa Food Hub, baguettes from Singing Sourdough, and metable and white cheese from Hansen’s Dairy. After finishing the delectable soup, we moved onto our introduction with Jodie Huegerich, the UNI Local Food Program Manager, who made the Farm to Fork Dinner possible and something for us all to look forward to. Jodie discussed how important this dinner is not only for herself, but the entire community to represent the impact local producers have on the Cedar Valley. Then Chef Matt from Diamond Event Center/Jorgensen Plaza talked about the process of creating the courses. They work with local producers for this event and weekly for their restaurant, Gilmore’s Pub, and for their resident meals.
Onto the third course, we had the main entree, beef burgundy with mashed potatoes and gravy and quinoa polenta cakes with marinated mushrooms for the vegan option. The ingredients were mushrooms, garlic, cornmeal polenta, and carrots were provided by Iowa Food Hub, red wine from Cedar Ridge Winery, potatoes: red, yellow, and russet were produced by Adolphs Produce and Bakery, and miso from Iowa Miso.
While indulging in our meals, we heard the main speaker of the night, Wendy Johnson from Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, discuss her thoughts on ethics of local food production from her experiences and with the changing world. Johnson asked us all this question, “should food growing be a public service?” We all need to take part with our local producers and government to help provide access, hopefully free, nutritionally sound food. “Farmers need to keep up with the chain,” explained Johnson, “learn from the past and not be held back by new ideas”. Working together, the Cedar Valley community can change the way local producers sell and increase the amount of nutritious, dense foods consumers purchase and consume.
As Wendy’s keynote speech came to an end, everyone’s favorite came out, dessert. The apple cobbler had the ingredients appeals provided by Becks. At the end of the night, we all had a great time eating, talking, and learning from each other on how local producers can interact with our community even more.
“Thanks for your work to pull it all off… perfectly!”–Megan Hannam
“Thank you for a wonderful event last night. I was so glad my schedule allowed me to participate. I met a lot of neat people that love local foods and all you are doing. It’s great to get recharged after speaking to passionate people”.–Laura Elfers, Silos and Smokestacks
LOCAL FOOD INGREDIENTS SOURCED FROM: Adolphs Produce & Bakery, Beck Orchards, Cedar Ridge Winery, Hansen’s Dairy, Iowa Miso, Iowa Food Hub, Marks Family Purebreds, Singing Sourdough.
Author: Bryleigh De Jong, UNI Student Employee for the UNI Local Food Program
