As you may have heard, I started a campaign last fall that I called “Raise the Bar.” It was an effort to lift state restrictions on infusing alcohol in restaurants and bars. Our own Sen. Joe Bolkcom crafted the idea into bipartisan legislation that passed the Senate nearly unanimously, 48-2. Recently, behind closed doors in the Iowa House State Government Committee, the bill was quietly euthanized. No explanation given, no word on who killed the bill or why.

A little background: What we (I received considerable support from the Iowa Restaurant Association and fellow restaurant and bar owners statewide) were trying to do was make it legal for bartenders to do what you are perfectly allowed to do at home — infuse flavors like vanilla or raspberry into spirits like vodka or whiskey. Perfectly legal in dozens of other states. There is no fermentation or distillation of any sort involved in the process; it is merely a way for creative bartenders to bring you some interesting new flavors in your libations. The laws preventing it not only ban “adulteration” of liquor but also their storage in any container besides the original bottle. This all dates back to pre-prohibition laws that were aimed at the less-than-scrupulous tavern owners of the day who would drink the good stuff and replace it with rotgut or homemade bathtub gin.

That was 100 years ago. Carrie Nation is dead. And if you can trust me, as your chef, to put raspberries in your vinaigrette, you can trust me to put raspberries in your vodka. But some Iowa House members don’t see it that way, and we’ll never get to know which ones.

Only one group formally opposed the bill: the beer distributors’ lobby. They contended that it amounted to a “crack” in Iowa’s sacred “Three Tier System,” which governs all alcohol sales, distribution and production in the state. The supposition being that the proposal would make bars — who are part of the retail tier in this system — into producers like breweries and distilleries (a separate tier). Not so, since as I said there would be no distillation or fermentation, nor any off-premise sales of the concoctions, but that’s what they thought.

To her credit, Rep. Vicki Lensing had crafted an amendment to allay those concerns and some others, but she was never granted to the opportunity to introduce the language, and not even she knows exactly why. The committee was convened by Rep. Stewart Iverson, R-Clarion, who promptly dismissed all observers. An hour later, when observers were allowed back in, the infusion bill had been removed from the agenda, effectively killing it for the year.

They say there are two things you don’t want people to know how you make ’em: laws and sausages. Despite their loud advocacy for lifting restrictions on small businesses, too many representatives are protecting the status quo. I would name them but no one knows who they are.

This is not the end, mind you. We will bring the issue back up in the next session, and Iverson is not running for re-election this year, so there is hope that we may be able to at least get it out of committee. The only item to get out of that committee, by the way? A proposal to increase transparency government (but only local and county, not state). You can’t make this stuff up.

Tags: food politics, Raise the Bar // 2 Comments »

SO! You’re interested in becoming a vendor at the NewBo City Market.  I have a LOT to report to you as we have many new and exciting developments.  Most importantly though is the announcement of two informational meetings for potential vendors (like you!).  More on that below, but first…

We are BREAKING GROUND!  The date is chosen and the ducks are in a row, so we hope if you are free you’ll join us for the festivities and see the “before” image as the old Iowa Steel warehouse begins is metamorphosis.  Come to 1100 3rd Ave. SE on Monday, April 16th at 10:00AM to see the ceremonial shovel placed to earth.

Tour the Site!  All are welcome for our last public tour of the space before it becomes a construction site, this Sunday, March 18^th at 3pm.  Still not sure where the market is located?  That’s OK, there’s a map right here.

We have a STAFF!  You may have noticed that it’s Kurt Friese who is writing this.  That’s because I have taken a position with NewBo City Market as “Director of Healthy Foods and Advocacy.”  What this means to you is that I am your point of contact for getting signed up and set up to be a vendor at NewBo.  When we finish that process, I’ll turn you over to Julie Palmer, who is our Director of Operations.  Think of it as though I’m your real estate guy and she’ll be the landlord (of course it’s more complicated than that, but that’s the simplified version).

Also on board now is our new Executive Director, Ann Poe, who some of you will know as a member of the Cedar Rapids City Council.  She was also community liaison to Cedar Rapids from Rebuild Iowa during flood recovery.   Ann was development director of The Czech and Slovak Museum and instrumental in bringing President Clinton and Czech President Vaclav Havel to the dedication of the museum in 1995.

The MEETING!  The first informational meetings will take place in April in both Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.  The purpose of the meetings is to review the newly-minted vendor criteria and guidelines, various costs, dates, and FAQs.

We only need you to attend in one place or the other, but we do want to get as many people as possible into a meeting, and so to that end we’ve set up something called a “Doodle.”  For the uninitiated, this is a very simple web-based tool for determining optimal meeting times.  So just go to the link below, write in your business name and check off all the times that would be best for you.  We’ll choose the ones that have the most people available.  As I said, you only need attend one, but you may choose to do the Doodle for both locations, on order to have more options.  No obligations here, no required attendance (though you really should come), and attending will not commit you to becoming a NewBo vendor (that comes later).

To choose times for the Cedar Rapids Meeting, click here

To choose times for the Iowa City meeting, click here.

I look forward to seeing all of you at one (or both!) of the meetings.  Until then, the best way to reach me is via email, at Kurt@NewBoCityMarket.com

Peace,

kmf

Tags: Agriculture, Events, food, health, Iowa, NewBo City Market, Press Release // 1 Comment »

Photo from the video Tamar Adler Talks About An Everlasting Meal.

Editor’s note: It’s unanimous these days: Cooking food from scratch at home is one of the best ways to eat sustainably without breaking the bank. It also enables eaters to easily support food producers who use environmentally sound, ethical, and humane practices. But most Americans can’t pull this off regularly. We recently invited Kurt Michael Friese and Tamar Adler — two people who have strong feelings about the importance of home cooking — to have a conversation for Grist. Adler is a chef, cooking teacher, and the author of the new book An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace; Friese is a chef, the editor of Edible Iowa River Valley, and the author of two books, including A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland and Chasing Chiles: Hot Spots on the Chile Trail (which he co-authored with Gary Nabhan and Kraig Kraft).

Kurt Michael Friese: I think Americans have been sold a bill of goods: I think they’ve been coerced into believing that cooking is a chore akin to washing windows, something to be avoided if possible and then done as quickly and grudgingly as they can manage. Too many people believe they don’t have the time. That’s the most common excuse anyway. And of course they do — it’s all a matter of priorities.

Tamar Adler: My sense is that there are three variables. A study that came out earlier this year found that 28 percent of Americans stayed out of their kitchens because they were scared they didn’t know how to cook. The other two variables are obviously time and money. The same study found that one-third of Americans spent more time thinking about what to cook than actually cooking. In other words, we have a very skewed relationship to the act of cooking.

The thing about priorities is that if we don’t know what cooking actually means — that is, the kind of cooking that makes deep sense in our lives — then of course we don’t have time, or money.

It takes a very long time to cook in a way that isn’t sustainable, and it’s very expensive. And it makes sense to feel bullied by being told to make something that takes a long time and costs a lot of money a priority. But of course, that’s not what we’re saying. It just takes a lot of explaining and careful guidance to show the whole picture of cooking, and how much it can give you, if you do it with a certain mindset.

Kurt: I have long said that I may be a part of the last generation to have learned to cook at his mother and grandmother’s apron strings. And if people are no longer learning to cook from their parents (because their parents didn’t learn either), then we need to find some new ways to teach them. One thing I’ve called for is something I call The Public Hearth.

Tamar: That sounds wonderful.

There’s lots more!  Read the entire conversation @ Grist.org

Tags: Books, cooking, food, food cost, food politics, food security, Food Writing, Grist.org, health, Technique // Add Comment »

Yes, meatloaf, casseroles, and other comfort meals can be found in church basements across all of Iowa’s 99 counties, but this is a state that knows its food and wine.

When I read Stephen Bloom’s screed against our mutually-adopted home state I was, like many Iowans (including his boss at the University of Iowa), insulted. I could not figure out which aspect bothered me more. My world revolves around food, and Bloom seems to have gleaned his information about what we eat in Iowa from a high school production of The Music Man.

Comfort food reigns supreme. Meatloaf and pork chops are king. Casseroles (canned tuna or Tatertots) and Jell-O molds (cottage cheese with canned pears or pineapple) are what to bring to wedding receptions and funerals. Everyone loves Red Waldorf cake. Deer (killed with a rifle is good, with bow-and-arrow better) and handpicked morels are delicacies families cherish.

I do not mean to claim that these dishes cannot be found in Lutheran church basements in all 99 counties, even if he is wrong about cottage cheese being in Jell-O molds (the cottage cheese is served on the canned pears, or more often on cling peaches), and even if, as a restaurant professional for 32 years, I’ve never heard of “Red Waldorf cake” nor has my fifth-generation Iowan wife. We think he must mean red velvet cake, which is common, though not nearly as common as the magnificent pies that are baked here. All this food can indeed be “comforting,” but as in so many other parts of his diatribe, Bloom chooses a couple small examples of something he’s seen here and concludes that it must be so for everyone across state.

Read the rest in The Atlantic

Tags: Agriculture, Articles, Atlantic Monthly, Devotay, Edible Iowa River Valley, Farming, food, food politics, Food Writing, Iowa // Add Comment »

In the US each individual state has its own set of laws regulating the production, sale and consumption of alcohol.  Naturally this results in a wide array of goofy, arcane, or sometimes just plain stupid liquor laws.  Some are enforced, others are not, and still others see that very enforcement lead to a reversal of the law, something I’d like to see here.  I’ll get to my problems with Iowa’s laws in a minute, but first, a little sampler from a few of the other states around the union.

Texas is one of the national leaders in this regard.  It is illegal in Texas to consume more than 3 sips of beer while standing.  But even if you sit down, you can be arrested for public intoxication while still in the bar.  And if you’re under 21?  Not a problem as long as you are with your parents – or spouse.  The age of consent in Texas is 17.

Pennsylvania has a whole slew of arcane laws (they still have the state stores that Iowa got away from during the 1^st Branstad administration), but my favorite is that they apportion liquor licenses based on population. Philadelphia has more restaurants than their allotment permits, so restaurants are forced to go “BYOB,” or to buy licenses from closing restaurants on the open market, often for as much as $250,000.  Cushions the blow of losing your restaurant I suppose if you can get a quarter of a million dollars for a piece of paper. [Read more →]

Tags: beer, cocktails, food politics, liquor, Raise the Bar, Table Wine, wine // Add Comment »

Industrial agriculture, like most powerful business interests, has a very effective lobbying organization not only in DC, but also in state capitols around the country.  Over the last few years they’ve been stung by surreptitious video recordings taken on a few farms showing examples of egregious animal abuse, unsafe working conditions, and environmental degradation.  See examples here, here, and here.

Needless to say, it makes them look bad, which of course they don’t like.  Now let me state right from the start here that I and the organization I represent, Slow Food USA, are not at all anti-farmer, and firmly believe that a vast majority of America’s farmers are honest, hardworking, industrious and well-meaning keepers of their land and heritage.  That said, there are exceptions, and like in any industry, a few bad apples can make the whole bunch look bad.

But instead of working hard to stop those few bad actors, Big Ag’s response is to try to criminalize the whistleblowers.  And their first attempts, in four states (Florida, Minnesota, Iowa and most recently New York) are so far reaching as to beg obvious 1^st amendment questions to say the least. [Read more →]

Tags: Agriculture, Animal Cruelty, CAFOs, capitalism, Farming, food, food politics, food security, health, Iowa, Slow Food // 2 Comments »

There is nothing more flavorful and succulent than a spit-roasted lamb

About 2 months ago Kim and I set out to accomplish a long-held goal: to build a roasting spit in our backyard and spend no money doing it.  The inauguration of our successful endeavor occurred Memorial Day weekend.  Here’s how we did it.

Building the spit:

A spit is little more than a stone-lined hole in the ground.  Some dig straight down (as for a Luau or a New England Clambake, some are dug into the hillside.  We chose the latter because our backyard is a long gentle slope.  If yours isn’t, you may have some extra digging to do and/or you may need to bring in some fill dirt.  In any case, what’s desired here is a strong earthen support for the bricks that make up the back of the spit.  This back wall helps direct the heat, making the roasting process more even and efficient. [Read more →]

Tags: Agriculture, Articles, BBQ, conviviality, cooking, food, Food Writing, Iowa, Meat, Real Recipes, recipe, Slow Food // 3 Comments »

THERE was a frost expected here two weeks ago, but Gary Paul Nabhan, a conservation biologist and inveterate seed-saver, was out in his hardscrabble garden anyway, planting his favorite food, hot chilies.

Chiltepin, chile de árbol the one that scrambles up trees, Tabasco, serrano, pasilla, Chimayó. These are only a few of the pungent peppers that Mr. Nabhan and two other chili lovers — Kurt Michael Friese, a chef from Iowa City, and Kraig Kraft, an agro-ecologist studying the origin of hot peppers — collected on a journey that began two years ago, in northern Mexico, and took them across the hot spots of this country.

Read the article at  Hot on the Trail of Chili Peppers – In the Garden – NYTimes.com.

Tags: Agriculture, Articles, Book Review, Books, Chasing Chiles, Farming, food, food security, Food Writing, gardening, Gary Paul Nabhan, Kraig Kraft, New York Times, Seeds // Add Comment »

A lot of people who read my essay about fixing our cooking problem pointed out that many people do not have the equipment needed and that accessorizing a kitchen properly is expensive.  It need not be so.  Mark Bittman showed us all 4 years ago that it takes about $200 to get the essentials, and $300 to be well equipped to handle most cooking jobs.  Not chump change, to be sure, but doable for a large majority of us and a reasonable investment for the return (the money saved by cooking for yourself is significant).

By MARK BITTMAN

Published: May 9, 2007

THE question I’m asked more often than any other is, “What kitchen equipment should I buy?”

Like cookbooks, kitchen equipment is a talisman; people believe that buying the right kind will make them good cooks. Yet some of the best cooks I’ve known worked with a battered batterie de cuisine: dented pots and pans scarred beyond recognition, an old steak knife turned into an all-purpose tool, a pot lid held just so to strain pasta when the colander was missing, a food processor with a busted switch. They didn’t complain and they didn’t apologize; they just cooked.

But famous TV chefs use gorgeous name-brand equipment, you might say. And you’d be right. But a.) they get much of that stuff free, the manufacturers hoping that placing it in the hands of a well-known chef will make you think it’s essential; b.) they want their equipment to be pretty, so you’ll think they’re important; and c.) see above: a costly knife is not a talisman and you are not a TV chef.

via The Minimalist – A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks – NYTimes.com.

See the link above for the whole essay (originally in the NYT), and follow Mr. Bittman around the store where he procured his gear in the video embedded there.

Tags: conviviality, cooking, food, food cost, food security, hunger, New York Times, Op-Ed, Technique // Add Comment »

Tags: Agriculture, Articles, Biodiversity, capitalism, conviviality, cooking, Elissa Altman, Farming, food, food politics, food security, health, Huffington Post, hunger, Michael Pollan // 3 Comments »