Local Food in Iowa

[Devotay]

I'm looking to all you Heartland Gulleteers to help me out.

I am launching a new magazine, "Edible Iowa River Valley," and while I know the area fairly well, I don't know it all. So please post your recs for the best food, best farmers, best artisans in the region that runs from the Des Moines/Ames metro east to the Mississippi, and I'll try to get some recognition for the folks who are doing the local/sustainable thing really well.

[phlawless]

There is Lincoln Cafe in Mt. Vernon run by a good friend, Matt Steigerwald. He definitely is on the local/sustainable team, and his food is fantastic; like it says so here.

[Devotay]

There is Lincoln Cafe in Mt. Vernon run by a good friend, Matt Steigerwald. He definitely is on the local/sustainable team, and his food is fantastic; like it says so here.

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Thanks for that, yep we've got him, in fact he was kind enough to buy an ad with Edible, so we like him even more.

Matt was one of the first we turned to. While he was building his gem on the prairie in Mt. Vernon, he spent several months working for us at Devotay. A great guy with real talent - Lincoln Cafe is doing very well.

[guardcat]

La Quercia artisan cured meats:

http://www.laquercia.us/index.php?id=1

[Devotay]

La Quercia artisan cured meats:

http://www.laquercia.us/index.php?id=1

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Another good call. Herb & Kathy Eckhouse debuted their prosciutto di Americano at Slow Food Iowa's Field to Family festival last year.

It's great stuff, and anyone who hasn't tried it should go out of there way to find it.

What else is out there gang?

[ronnie_suburban]

Not too far east of Des Moines are the Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, IA.

=R=

[Devotay]

Not too far east of Des Moines are the Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, IA.

=R=

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Maytag's good, Ronnie, but have you tried Schwarz und Weiss or Harmony Blue from Golden Ridge Cheese in Cresco? Blows Maytag out of the water

[mander]

Not too far east of Des Moines are the Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, IA.

=R=

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Maytag's good, Ronnie, but have you tried Schwarz und Weiss or Harmony Blue from Golden Ridge Cheese in Cresco? Blows Maytag out of the water

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Good call on the Golden Ridge - unbelievable. I assume you also have Simone in there. Did a pizza dinner at her place this summer that was well nigh close to perfect.

[Devotay]

Good call on the Golden Ridge - unbelievable. I assume you also have Simone in there. Did a pizza dinner at her place this summer that was well nigh close to perfect.

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Glad you got to go to Simone's, it's a real treat, like dining in a Grant Wood painting. She was one of our original Slow Food members here (we started with 4 and now have 62, as well as 4 more convivia statewide - not bad )

Simone is also one of the famers in our CSA, Local Harvest, which is hte best run one in the area IMHO.

[Devotay]

Said to say, Golden Ridge has folded. A Google search turned up this:

Business news and notes

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Ames cheese plant halts operations

DES MOINES -- An Amish cheese plant in northeast Iowa has halted operations amid production problems and member complaints that the plant was using electricity and other modern technology to make the cheese.

The Golden Ridge Cheese Cooperative in Cresco stopped accepting milk from its Old Order Amish farmers and stopped making cheese several months ago, said Dan Gingerich, a co-op board member and an Old Order Amish dairy producer.

He said debt and religious disputes contributed to the decision to close. He said the Old Order Amish -- who shun modern conveniences such as automobiles and electricity -- were unhappy with how the plant was run.

He also cited "quality problems" with the cheese that has caused the co-op to lose about $1 million. It was not immediately clear what quality issues needed to be addressed or what caused them.

Cryin' shame. I never had any quality issues with them, and had written about them extensively in an effort to support them. I sure hope they find a way to start making that amazing Harmony Blue again, somehwere, somehow...