Buy Fresh Buy Local Harvest Party

October 13, 2013 marked the Buy Fresh Buy Local-Iowa Chapter's 4th annual Harvest Party.  What a fantastic event!




Buy Fresh Buy Local is a campaign project of the Drake University Law Center that helps connect the community to local, farm-fresh food. Local farms, businesses and restaurants can become members to help support the project and connect with the public about getting easy access to local, fresh products.





The event is held at the Olmstead building at Drake University.  Drake University is home to the organization and there are lots of opportunities for students to get involved in the project.




The Harvest Party is Buy Fresh Buy Local's yearly fundraiser and what a party it is!  Supporting farms, restaurants and businesses donate local food items and time for preparation and serving. The public can buy tickets to the event to partake in lots of dishes prepared for them from all of these fresh, local ingredients.  There is a raffle with donated items from businesses as well, and all of the profits go to support this great organization. Tickets were $20 or $50 per family.






Part of the fun is getting to chat with farmers and business owners about their products and put a face with the person behind what you're eating.  It's so nice to know where your food is coming from and that it is the very best to be feeding yourself and your family.

Sponsors for the event include: The Des Moines Farmer's Market, Maytag Dairy Farms, Kitchen Collage, Campbell's Nutrition, Devour Des Moines, HoQ Restaurant, Drake University, Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation & Development, The Richard Deming Foundation and Sodexo.

Follow Buy Fresh Buy Local Greater Des Moines on Facebook for updates about upcoming events and about next year's Harvest Party, because you don't want to miss it!




Here is the wonderful menu for the evening (just click on it to view it larger).  Everything was fantastic!  About 200 people purchased tickets to the event and it has gotten bigger and better every year!  --------------->





Some of our favorite dishes of the evening included lamb meatballs and beet chocolate cake.  There are too many to mention, but we loved them all!




Eat, Play, Love Des Moines is hosting an event on November 7, 2013 at Confluence Brewing Company to benefit Buy Fresh Buy Local! This free, family-friendly event will offer local vendors and lots of fun and prizes Click here for more info!  Come out for dinner to support this awesome organization and eat some more great local food!

Gateway Market...and more!

So normally I stop into Gateway Market Cafe just off of the MLK exit off of 235 to eat a leisurely lunch of a panini and soup or lobster mac & cheese and salad or sometimes the pad thai, yum.  Just about everything in the cafe is awesome.  They also serve breakfast everyday which is fabulous because there aren't a ton of breakfast places on this side of town.

Anyway, this particular day the temperature outside was upwards of 104 degrees and I had some wonderful Cleverly Farms tomatoes and some goat cheese that I got at the Cheese Shop the night before and I was itching to make something yummy, but that was easy and didn't require much cooking on this already toasty day.

By the way, if you haven't taken a class at the Cheese Shop yet, you really must.  This particular evening, Larry from Cleverly Farms was showcasing his tomatoes and it was amazing.  All of the classes include wine and/or beer pairings and a cheese tray all about $30 or so, a steal!!  (See the top left photo for photos from the class).

So from Gateway I picked up some bread, Niman Ranch maple bacon, (yum), lettuce, and of course some Thelma's Treats Ice Cream sandwiches for dessert.  At 104 degrees, how can you not eat ice cream?!

Anyway, I'm sure you can guess, I made BLT panini's.  I fried assembled my bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes and in the same pan heated my sandwiches on both sides. Heaven!

Super easy, super fresh and super amazing!  So there you go.  All of my favorite places for the week include Cleverly Farms for the amazing tomatoes (which I now a fan of even though for 30 years I've claimed to not like tomatoes), The Cheese Shop (My personal Disneyland) and Gateway market for providing me with a plethora of my favorite Farmer's Market ingredients that I can get anytime of day, everyday.  

Center Grove Orchard & Howell's Pumpkin Patch

I LOVE fall and everything about it from pumpkin spice lattes to cider donuts to apple pies....ok....I guess there is non-food stuff I like about it too, like visiting the pumpkin patch!



We are so lucky in Des Moines to live pretty close to some awesome farms that get decked out for the fall and provide some pretty great family fun.




My two favorite places to visit are Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge and Howell's Pumpkin Patch in Cumming.  Both are less than an hour from pretty much anywhere in the metro.  They both offer corn pools, tractor rides, duck races, hay rides, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, slides and much more!  Including apple slushes and cider donuts! YUM!



You can ride out to the pumpkin patch and pick your own pumpkins or pick from stashes ready to go.  At Center Grove you can pick your own apples too.  They both offer farm animal petting areas as well.





At Center Grove you can jump on the giant jumping pillow and sling shot apples.  Both have snack bars available.




Both locations are fun for any age and I would totally recommend making both stops this fall.  Howell's often has pony rides for kids.




Center Grove farm yard opens up on September 7th! Yay!  Pricing is $9.95 during the weekend and $7.95 on weekdays.  Kids 3 and under are free.




Howell's opens on September 21st and admission is $8.




Both locations actually offer birthday party packages!  How fun for a kid with a fall birthday.  And there are special discounts for school tours too.



There is also a farm in Ankeny called Williamson's Pumpkin Paradise that is FREE everyday.  We haven't been there yet, but it's on our to-do list for this fall!  They open on September 29th this year.




Wherever you visit you are sure to have a lot of fun.  Enjoy the Fall!

Big City Burgers and Greens

I've been trying to get into lunch at Big City Burgers and Greens for months now and it just hasn't lined up for me, but I finally made it in the other day and of course I've been missing out.

Big City is located at 400 locust street downtown (right near Nolan Plaza).  They are only open for lunch Monday - Friday so they are mad busy during lunch.  But they really have it down to a science to get everyone in and out and back to work in under an hour.  They have seating inside, outside and even in the lobby of the main building it's inside of.  You can order online before you come down to expedite your process or stand in line that moves pretty fast but can be long.  

We didn't order ahead and stood in line for about 10 minutes and ordered two burgers and Big City Fries (OMG the Big City fries..to.die.for) and were in and out in about 40 minutes.

Josh got the blue cheese burger and I got a cheddar and mushroom burger.  Both were really good.  But the highlight of the meal was thin cut fries with with asiago cheese and white truffle oil. Totally crave-able.

Other menu items include a variety of impressive salads like the DSM with steak, sweet corn, bacon and goat cheese.  I can't wait to go back to try some salad combinations, but I'll still be getting the Big City Fries to go with.  That good.

They also have a kids menu with grilled cheese, chicken bites, etc so you can totally make this a family outting.  Perhaps meet your significant other who works downtown here for lunch.

They use hormone and antibiotic free beef and there is a real emphasis on local ingredients and environmentally friendly packing here.  I also noticed root beer floats, soft serve and milkshakes on the menu.  You can really round out your environmentally friendly meal here and I suggest you do!  

Hope you get a chance to check it out soon if you haven't already!

Fresh Cafe & Market

You might never know this awesome little cafe existed if you weren't looking specifically for it.  Fresh Cafe & Market shares a building with offices and a dance studio on 25th street in West Des Moines.  It's close to the Clocktower Square Shopping center off of University.

While the outside is unassuming, the shop is bright and colorful when you walk in the main entry and it's easy to spot on the first floor of the building.

Fresh Cafe has a plethora of fresh juices and smoothies, raw food items and vegan items.  Grilled summer paninis, raw lasagna, raw vegan tacos, gluten-free pasta primavera were just a few of the selections.

I went with the raw lasagna on my first visit.  I was shocked by how flavorful the lasagna was. The "pasta" was zucchini slices, the "ricotta" was a cashew blend and fresh tomatoes and raw marinara gave it a burst of flavor between the layers of zucchini.  It was topped with a walnut "sausage". I would definitely order this again.  I washed it down with a wheat grass lemonade which had quite the earthy flavor which was drinkable, but I had to remind myself that it was good for me to be able to finish the last few sips.

I noticed they had some vegan cupcakes and brownies available too.

What a great place to explore some healthy meal options without having to try these recipes on your own.  The prices are reasonable and the menu items range enough that you can test the waters without diving right into totally raw on your first meal.  But try it, because you might just like it!

HoQ

We had an amazing dinner at HoQ restaurant last week.  The owners Suman and Cynthia Hoque are super nice and I just love the farm to table movement they support.  Just about every ingredient in every meal is sourced by local and/or organic farmers and most items are naturally gluten-free.  They also offer local beer and wine from the bar.

The restaurant is simple and contemporary and white linen table-clothes give it a fancy feel, perfect for a date-night or celebration.  Cynthia says don't hesitate to bring in kids though, Suman can fry up a mean grilled-cheese sandwich!

On this particular evening, my husband and I enjoyed Amuse-bouche of eggplant with tatziki sauce and pickled asparagus and cucumbers.  Very tasty and a lovely pre-cursor to our appetizer of "Pork Love".  A juicy piece of pork atop cauliflower au gratin.  It was very good and the cheesy au gratin was a perfect pair with the seasoned pork.

For main courses I ordered the braised beef with smashed potatoes and green beans.  The seasonings they use are out of this world.  Fresh chives were dominant in the potatoes and it was fantastic.  Josh ordered the short rib with forbidden rice and kimchee and couldn't believe how tender it was.  He enjoyed the "forbidden rice"accompaniment, but couldn't pinpoint the overwhelming flavor.  We asked after the meal what was in the forbidden rice and come to find the dark color comes from duck liver!  Who knew?  Amazing bold flavors in all of our dishes.

We ended the meal with Suman's homemade ice cream trio.  I was most excited about the salted caramel, but the chocolate and vanilla were equally as smooth, creamy and addictive as were the homemade shortbread cookies that came with.

They're open Monday thru Saturday at 11am and they also offer a Sunday brunch which I can't wait to try.  They offer vegetarian options daily and are very open to altering meals to taste or food allergies.  Love this place!