Down on the Farm: Exploring Diselrath Farms

Co-op farms in Indianapolis: I had no idea these were actively being done. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Diselrath Farms on the Indianapolis south side.

Tucked inside the 465 loop, Diselrath offers both co-op farming and a farm store open on Saturdays. Members pay a small fee (about $5 per week) and work three hours a week for a share of produce or discount on meats such as chicken or pork.

On this Saturday morning, the Diselraths opened their farm to several local bloggers and "Future Farmers."

The children - from toddlers through pre-teens - loved the opportunity to learn about what goes into the farm, from a simple lesson on crop rotation to what it takes to raise chickens and harvest eggs.

Sarah Diselrath showed the Future Farmers about how they rotate crops each year. If you look closely, these are all the rows of tomatoes, but those furthest to the left were the rows that weren't quite in last year's pig pen! (Hence the power of compost.)

Checking out the baby animals was a highlight for the kids, though this little goat didn't get nearly as much love as the baby chicks.

The kids went to hunt for eggs as well. I think the biggest excitement of the morning was the children stumbling on a hen trying to lay an egg - though I think their shouts of surprise stopped her in action.

There is something to be said about growing your own food. Too many kids are complacent and think their green beans come from a can you get from a store; munching on a green bean freshly picked (as in seconds) is an entirely different experience. Future farmers feeding the future bacon really helps kids connect the dots about where our food comes from.

Southport Farmers Market

The amazing looking asparagus I landed
at the Southport Farmers Market.

Yesterday I had my first look at the Southport Farmers Market, located next to the Southport Antique Mall near Madison Avenue on the Indianapolis south side. The market opened late last year and is opening for its first full season this week.

The Southport Market has untraditional market hours: 9 a.m to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays. 

After this long winter, I'm not surprised that there wasn't much for produce available when we stopped by for a late lunch hour Friday at 3. There were three bunches of think, locally grown asparagus (which we quickly snatched up) and a tub full of rhubarb to test. There were cheeses and meats, breads and a few crafts folks. But what was sorely missing were plants! I'm hoping it was because of the threat of rain, and I'm more than willing to give it another lunch-hour look.

Green Bean Delivery: 5 reasons to love the "Big Green Box"

Friday evenings, when we get home, my kids go never just inside. Instead, my youngest sprints to the  back door to see if the "Big Green Box" has arrived.

We've been happy members of Green Bean Delivery for years. This organic produce and natural product delivery service has been a wonderful addition in our home as we try to reach a healthier lifestyle.

We heard about Green Bean Delivery through one of the local green magazines, and decided to test it out. My husband initially balked about the price, but as we quickly found the produce far surpassed any of the offerings we could find at our local grocery stores. (That, and at the time, we had toddlers, so not having to check out produce while juggling two little ones was an extra blessing!)

Here are five other reasons to check out - and love - getting the Big Green Box in your home:

1. The quality and options are amazing. I love that I can have delivered to my home organic Asian pears, local apples, local shitake mushrooms and more. And, I love that in those rare instances that the quality isn't up to their standards, they will substitute an item - with an apology!
2. It's completely customizable. Unlike with a CSA subscription, you can decide not to partake in a certain item - or load up on something you love. Needless to say, you won't see a lot of peppers or kale in my box! You can also add on items as well.
3. You can start or stop at any time. Green Bean typically offers a weekly or every other week delivery option, but you can log in and even set your account to deliver on certain weeks if desired. I typically put my account on hold during the summer to support my local farmers, and there is no problem with that.
4. Customer service is wonderful. Any time I have contacted customer service, I have received a response within hours. In the rare instance an item was bad, I was immediately credited on my account. 
5. They look out for their people. We've had several storms that have shut down our city this past winter, and I'm impressed that Green Bean Delivery has sent out notices saying its delaying delivery by a day or two to keep their employees off the roads. 

We usually get a large produce bin every other week ($49), but they have two smaller bin options as well.

Green Bean Delivery has grown to include Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Muncie, Anderson, Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Harrison, Batesville/Oldenburg, Louisville, Lexington and St. Louis. For more information visit greenbeandelivery.com.

New/returning GBD lovers! Green Bean Delivery has a special discount code for you: “15GGMml” It is good for $15 off your first order and expires March 8. It is for new members and reactivations only.

Great gourds

Grabbed a few fun snaps at the farmers market we visited in Memphis. These are just plain fun!

Hunter's Honey Farm

Honeybees and Daisies. It's a good mix.

Today, our Daisy Girl Scout troop visited Hunter's Honey Farm in Martinsville, Ind., a drive but one well worth it. The 100-year-old honey farm had a Girl Scout day, where the Daisies could visit, see the bees in action, see how the honey gets from the comb to the table, make their own honey bear and create their own beeswax candle.

The girls were amazed to watch bees in action, see tiny bees emerge from the hive and see a young bee lick - yes, lick, fresh honey off a mom's finger. (I didn't realize bees ate honey as well as produce it.)

They learned that smoke staves off the honeybees, that the "boy bees" don't sting people, and that honey has lots of health benefits. I'm interested in testing out the theory that local honey can actually help people with allergies, any idea that sounds much better than giving my allergy-prone child a shot of Claritin every day.

It was a great afternoon, and the activities were able to entertain both my 3 year old and a friend's younger children, who have all had the chance now to make their own honey bears (a source of pride for my little guy) and candles (which were amazingly easy to make.) The honey farm offers these tours and activities on a regular basis, and the price is no worse than an afternoon at the movie or Children's Museum. They have some seasonal activities as well, like a forestry tour and a beehive tour as well.

Soap's on!

For a toddler who's suddenly obsessed with lining things up, nothing seems cooler than lines of multicolored, scented soap at the farmers market.

For a full 20 minutes on Saturday, I watched as the little guy brought one bar after another up to his nose, then carefully placed them back down in a train-like line. A near-meltdown occurred when I tried to coax him away from the table. The owner was amused, chuckled and tucked away her card in the bag when I broke down and placed an order.

Her parting gift? Two slivers of soap, one for each child.

My guy proudly clenched that soap in his fist as we trotted around the market, occasionally catching a sniff of his bar. We had an nearly incident-free morning, until I began to drive away.

"Moooommmm!" I heard in that whiny drawl, strung out as only a tattle-telling kid can do. "He ate the soap!"

Dang. It's bad enough we had to call poison control a few weeks ago because he ate my deoderant. (And, I might add, not only the "powder fresh" but also the "shower clean" varieties!) Now we had to call the poor soap lady, who was thinking she's getting an order and instead was peppered with questions on what actually in those bars. Thankfully, we had no health issues as a result.

Some parents threaten to wash their child's mouth out with soap. Ain't going to work in my home.

Shopping local can save you money

Shopping sales and clipping coupons is an easy way to save some cash when planning your weekly meals. But here's a secret: The biggest sales aren't in stores.

Sure, you can scour the weekly ads trying to do the mental math as to who was the best deal on ground beef or milk or pasta that week. And you can quickly spend hours scanning the Web for coupons and other hot deals. But I'll be honest. It makes me crazy. And all too often those ads and printed-off coupons lay untouched. I'm not alone in feeling, frankly, burnt out.

Want the truth? The farmers market is where it's at. In our area, we've got another three months of locally grown produce to enjoy, and I'm all for that. Why wouldn't you hit one up? It's easy. It's fast. It's healthy. It's got easy parking. The "checkout" people are friendly. And you get better bargains and variety than you would at your supermarket, where it's been shipped from who knows where.

Take last weekend. For less than $10, we came home with:

• a bunch of garlic
• a cantelope (which I'm proud - or scared, not sure which - to say my 18 month old insisted on carting around the market!)
• 3 zucchini
• a foot-and-a-half tall basil plant (I didn't want to strip my poor ones at home bare for a recipe).
• 3 kolhrabi (which I've been curious about trying)

Compare to the grocery store:

• $4 for a bunch of garlic. It's a little larger, but not significantly
• $3 or so for a cantelope, trucked in from who knows where
• $1 or more per pound for zucchini, depending on when you hit a sale
• $4 for a few old stems of basil, wrapped in plastic and wilting
• and I've yet to see kolhrabi.

The trick with this is watching the seasons. While you can save by shopping seasonally at the grocery store, the savings increase even more when you buy local. Sure, I could pick up a bell pepper at the store for the $1 each they're on sale for right now. Or, if I wait a few weeks, I can buy them often for three for $1 at the markets.

The next time you shake your head about the sales or wonder about what coupons to clip, set the stress aside and eat local instead!

Greening the gift exchange

The office gift exchange. It's the one thing I dread about the holiday season.

There are few things I like worse about Christmastime than buying a random, $5-10 gift that would be acceptable to any or all of my co-workers. By over-generalizing to our staff, the end result is that you're off to shop for a gift card, a bottle of wine or treats, or some cheap thing from the Target dollar spot to fill your sack for the trade. It's impersonal, and it bothers me to no end.

This year, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of the usual Starbucks gift card, I headed next door to a new gift shop in the strip mall where I work. I was able to shop locally, help support our local economy and hopefully keep a new business in business, something that's tricky to do these days.

Wow. Eight dollars can do a lot!

Voting with your dollars makes sense this holiday season, or at any time for that matter. I probably could have bought a gift similar to it at Wal-Mart or another chain store, but it was nice to help out a new business in town.

There are other ways to help make your office gift exchange a little greener, or at the very least, a little more local:

Buy organic or locally produced coffees, wines or foods. We received Endangered Species Chocolate in our bags this year from our bosses (which hit both criteria for us!).

Make it yourself. One of the most coveted gifts in our office has been a co-worker's offer to bake cookies for the recipient. A batch of homemade cookies was never fought over so much!

Buy the gift of time. Limited by the dollar funds? Offer to take that person out to try out the local restaurant of their choice.

Going generic? If you're stumped and reaching for a candle or holiday craft, at least purchase it at the one of hundreds (so it seems) of craft fairs going on this holiday season.

If you must buy the gift card, buy it for a local business as opposed to a chain.

What does your workplace do? Have you finally tossed the gift exchange? Or have you come up with fun alternatives to this tradition?

Binford Farmers Market report

The Binford Farmers Market made its November debut today at 62nd and Binford Avenue in Indianapolis, inside an empty store in the strip mall.

We arrived at the Binford Farmers Market just after 10 a.m., when the market opened, and it was already packed with shoppers trying to get goods for Thanksgiving weekend. While we didn't see the promised turkey vendor, we did see lamb and beef producers, a small number of produce tables (selling lettuces, shitake mushrooms, which I splurged on, and a few random items), and several stands offering premade cakes, bars and pies. Traders Point Creamery had samples of its egg nog, which was fabulous - if I wasn't diabetic and watching my weight, I'd have been all over that. Plenty of art booths were on hand as well. After all, Christmas is coming.

I credit anyone who tries to make a go of holding a farmers market in Indiana after November. It's a tough sell. Even with vendors selling homemade food items (pies, sauces, etc.) it's got to be a challenge to get a good variety of items out there.

If you're trying to eat seasonal and local and are looking for a basic mix of healthy produce or meats to round out your diet, you may have some luck at the Binford Farmers Market. However, if your budget is tight, this is not the place to do so. You will be able to find meats and produce far cheaper at the local grocery store, though it may not be local, organic or as fresh.

The Binford Farmers Market reopens in two Saturdays (Dec. 6).

Staying local, supporting neighbors in an uncertain world

More than 200,000 of my neighbors are out of work, the state of Indiana says. It's a headline that's easy to shake your head at if you're not directly impacted.

But you can do something. What is you could make a difference and help ensure one person's job? Or keep dollars in your local economy? Would you do it?

Touching lives one person, one job at a time is one great benefit of supporting local agriculture and local vendors. Obviously there are taste, environmental and wellness benefits involved too. Food is shipped shorter distances and hasn't lost the nutritional value from sitting on store shelves.

In the end, helping out the little guy is a big part of supporting local food producers. It's a reason why I started going to farmers markets many years ago. I knew who was bringing me my Kansas corn - it was the guy outside of town. I met the people whose lives directly touched mine in a way we think so little about.

Truthfully, it's easy to shop locally. You've likely done it. If you've taken your child to the pumpkin patch or an orchard, you support local growers. If you go to a Christmas tree farm or a farmers market, you support local growers. I encourage you to find one opportunity to do it again, even if it's researching online and making a note of when next year's markets open.

We don't know what this economy may bring. Some say things will get worse. But what if we can make a difference, look someone in the eye and, together, make a mutual decision to have a healthier life, a healthier land and a more sustainable economy, just by shopping from the farmer around the corner.

Related posts for Indiana readers:

• Home Grown Indiana: A Review
• Waiting for Winter Farmers Markets
• Eating Local: Indy Southside Secrets
• My CSA Experience (2008)

The name of this CSA, one of the oldest in Indianapolis, was deleted from this post on January 28, 2009. I have been falsely accused of libel by this CSA and will no longer promote them by using the name of the organization.

Ten steps on the path to being green

Low Impact Man recently asked readers what their recommended first steps for going green were. Here are 10 great ideas from reader comments to get you going:

1. Read. Find something that sparks your passion. Beth Terry writes: “I'd give him/her the article "Plastic Ocean". That was my way in, the piece that broke my heart and made me realize I had to do something.” Brandon Watkins recommends another site: The Story of Stuff.
2. Explore your passions. Writes Jenn: “If you're a foodie, start with good food and using less. If you love to bike, work that into your routine. If you're already a bit wiggy about water use, then explore all those options first. It's much easier to start on a change if you're already inspired.”
3. Take small first steps. Switching to CFL bulbs, buying reusable bags and limiting your paper towel use are three examples of quick wins.
4. Be mindful of how you spend. Saving a few dollars or cents may not be worth any long-term damage. I was reminded of that very thing a few weeks ago when I mentioned I’d swapped aluminum cans for plastic cups of Diet Coke to save some cash. Adds Hanna: “Buy less things. Don´t buy on impulse. Ask yourself if the thing your [sic] buying is something that you REALLY need. If something you own works don´t buy a new one.”
5. Go local. Frequent the local farmers market. Writes Brandon Watkins: “I feel like there's something genuinely mind-altering about knowing where your food comes from, meeting the people that grow it, and getting a reminder every time you make a meal about your impact on the world and your own effort to be ‘green.’ …It forces you to think and build localization into your mindset.”
6. Go even more local – grow in your own backyard. Onions, lettuce, tomatoes and herbs are simple things that can even be planted on a balcony container. “Getting in touch with your own food by getting your fingers dirty is the quickest way to change your thought patterns about other green issues,” Gavin writes. “A little bit of action to feed yourself goes a long way in the change to a more sustainable lifestyle and to help solve one of our planetary issues.”
7. Put off plastic packaging. Avoid plastic bags and non-recyclable containers. Look at what items you purchase that can be not packaged in plastic (i.e. buy in bulk, visit the local market or don’t rewrap produce in another layer of plastic.)
8. Change your transportation. Look into bicycling, walking, carpooling or anything that doesn’t demand one person, one motorized vehicle.
9. Make changes at home. Shorten your shower; unplug electrical items when not in use. Limit your dryer use. Turn down the water heater.
10. Recycle what you can. You might not have the luxury of curbside recycling for everything, but look at what you can do. At my home, we recycle #1 and #2 plastic and cans at home; drive the office paper, junk mail and newspaper to a freestanding drop off on the way from daycare and leave the plastic bags in the drop-off contained in Kroger. It is not always convenient, but it works for now.

One last thought: A comment by arduous: “Being mindful of how your actions affect others. Everything else stems from mindfulness.”

$30 at the organic market gets you....

Traders Point Creamery's Farmers Market was my destination yesterday morning. Visiting the Green Market is a treat for my family, in part because of the drive and in part because we take full advantage of the trip, visiting the cows and chickens (a treat in a 2 year old's eyes). We also take part in our usual tradition of visiting the Dairy Bar, relaxing with a cup of mango ice cream (for the toddler) and the best chocolate milkshake you will ever have (for the grown-ups).

As an experiment, I brought $30 with me to see what I could find at the organic market for my guests this weekend. Given the rising prices for food overall and also for organics, I was curious to see how I'd come out.

I was very surprised to find that not everything organic or natural was more expensive thn non-organic items at the grocery store.

Here's what I purchased:

• Organic eggs, $4 per dozen. Granted, I feel $2.50 per dozen that I pay in the stores is a bit much, but that extra $1.50 not to have to go stand in line in Kroger on a weekend was worth it.
• Fruit salsa, $5, was my splurge. I am very guilty of buying impulse items, and this was this week's purchase. However, my 2 year old loved it, and it made a great compliment to a simple lunch of crackers, cheese, and smoked salmon. I'll have to locate a similar recipe.
• Pork steaks. At $1.99 a pound, this was very comparable - and possibly cheaper! - than prices at the groceries. And having bought from this Mennonite farmer in the past, I know that the pork steaks are leaner and tastier than most pork chops I find in the store. We finally found dinner for six!
• Breakfast sausage, $3.50 a pound. Again, it's comparable in price to the stores, and would make a good accompaniment to my blueberry baked french toast for brunch.

After spending only $17 at the meat stand, I still had $4 left, more than enough to cover my milkshake at the Dairy Bar.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a variety of items that I didn't buy, simply because of space in the fridge or because I already had enough on hand. Already at the market: salad mixes, pastas, breads, handcrafted soaps, coffee and specialty items. Even though the growing season in Indianapolis doesn't officially start for another month, I can't wait to see what the summer holds, and I am glad to know the summer's bounty will be affordable, even if it's organic.

Making real change in gas consumption

Gas this morning hit $3.49 a gallon, a record in Indianapolis. Which means in about 48 hours I’ll get another “stick it to the gas companies by not buying from Exxon” e-mail.

These kinds of e-mails make me nuts. First, there are no Exxon stations here; second, the stations that are here do very likely buy from Big Oil; third, a one-day hold on purchases just means you’ll have to buy the next.

Want real change in your gas prices? Consider doing some or all of the following:

• Trade in your SUV. And if you can’t, be smarter about when and where you drive.
  
• Avoid drive-through banking, restaurants or other services. You’re just burning gas while you wait. Park the car and go inside. You might burn a few calories instead of gas that way.
  
• Switch your schedule or route and avoid rush-hour tie-ups. A few minutes can make a difference.
  
• Move or change jobs, if needed. We found that when we moved to the other side of the metro, we saved enough in gas each month to make up the difference in our mortgage. And that was when gas was only $2 a gallon (the good ol' days.)
  
• Watch your speed, your air filter and your tire pressure. All affect your mileage. You can even do my dad’s trick and keep a log of mileage on the odometer and how much added to the tank. If your mpg is going down, get your car looked at.
  
• Carpool or take the bus, if you have that flexibility.
  
• Ditch the gym membership and the drive back and forth. Get a bike or a pair of tennis shoes instead, and enjoy your weather in the spring and summer months.
  Piggyback your errands into one trip, or at least to and from the office.
  
• Got a Netflix membership? Watch something online instead of having it mailed (and save the USPS the plane fuel from shipping).
  
• Buy local. We don’t need grapes from Argentina. Enjoy the seasonal variety of locally produced produce, and help the little guy in the process.

More later. I'm just getting started!