Thank you once again to the many people who were part of this year's Food for Thought Festival on September 16-17th.  What a fabulous couple of days we had tasting, talking about, and celebrating  healthful local foods.

It was a true honor to welcome Joan Dye Gussow as our keynote speaker.  Dr. Gussow's expertise and wealth of life experiences provided inspiration to all who came to hear her talk at the Friday Night Forum and again at the Festival on Saturday.
 

Local Night Out - Dining Sustainably is Delicious

Food for Thought events actually kicked off on the Wednesday night before the festival with the first ever "Local Night Out."  Fourteen local restaurants participated by serving special meals prepared with locally sourced ingredients.

From a slice of pizza to fine gourmet dining, there were options in every price range to enjoy a great local meal at a great local restaurant. St. Martins House even participated by preparing their Wednesday night free meal with produce donated from Quann Community Gardens.  

Hey, let's go out for dinner. 
It's Local Night Out!

We know that at least 150 people chose to support participating restaurants specifically for this event.  Not only did diners enjoy a wonderful meal from fresh local ingredients, but they made sure the restaurants knew how much they appreciated the effort to support local farmers.

And the reviews (not surprisingly) were raves.  “Excellent nightly specials,”  “fabulous local entrees,” “enthusiastic and well-informed staff,” were just a few of comments we received from people who enjoyed a meal at one of the participating restaurants.  Restaurant managers reported, "very enthusiastic response," "we were bombed!," and "several customers said it was the best meal they'd had in a long time."

A huge thank you to our first "Local Night Out" participating restaurants for hosting such a great event and for supporting local foods:  Blue Marlin, Bunky's Cafe,The Dardanelles, Eldorado Grill, Greenbush Bar, Harvest Restaurant., Ian's Pizza By the Slice, L'Etoile, Lombardino's, Nadia's, Ovations, Quivey's Grove, Roman Candle, and White Horse Inn. 

REAP is currently seeking funding to continue working with restaurants and other food services to serve fresh local foods every day, and to create a "branding" for those restaurants so diners can "vote with their forks" by patronizing restaurants that commit to buying locally. 

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Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Jumps Into a New School Year.

In September, REAP's farm-to-school program, Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch (WHL), entered its fourth year working to bring healthy local foods into lunchrooms and classrooms in Madison's schools.  WHL continues to grow and expand in new directions and we're excited by the great start we're off to in this new school year.

First, please join us in welcoming Gill Davidson to the WHL staff as our new Education Coordinator.   

Gill comes to us with a degree in nutrition and great enthusiasm for educating young people about food.  Gill will work alongside Project Coordinator, Doug Wubben,  to coordinate educational activities that expose youth to healthy, local foods through hands-on (and mouths-on) experiences such as classroom tastings, field trips to farms, "farmer-in-the-classroom" lessons, school gardening activities and after-school cooking clubs. 

In addition to working with our established pilot schools, Gill and Doug have begun outreach to new schools in the district and are beginning to put together the framework for a resource packet designed to encourage farm-to-school activities in schools throughout the state.  

In the coming months, more schools will participate in classroom tasting sessions.  Additionally, school-wide veggie tastings, a vegetable snack pilot program, and the first-ever Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch school fundraiser project will be conducted. We're always looking for community volunteers to help conduct classroom lessons, help serve at tastings, or assist in other ways.  If you enjoy working with kids, this is a great way to contribute.  Contact Gill or Doug at gilliand@reapfoodgroup or dwubben@wisc.edu.

Meanwhile, changes in cafeteria offerings by the Madison school food service are also moving forward.  In October the ‘Wisconsin Harvest Muffin’  made with local carrots and sweet potatoes, was on the district-wide breakfast menu.  Figuring out how to get fresh vegetables processed into a food-service-ready form has been one of the most challenging pieces of the local food chain pie.  We’re excited about the steady progress being made, with our partners at Willy Street Co-op’s new off-site kitchen, as we work out all the kinks involved with producing shredded carrots, cooked/peeled/mashed sweet potatoes, diced peppers and onions, and other ingredients.  Hopefully we'll be seeing vegetarian chili and soups using Wisconsin peppers, onion, potatoes, and carrots on school menus in the very near future.

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch is currently seeking funding to continue this important work with our schools.  Our current WHL funding runs for one more year, and there is so much more to do! We hope to expand to more schools in Madison as well as to additional school districts in the coming years.  Community support is critical to keep this project going.  Please consider including REAP in your end-of-year giving.  Donations are tax-deductible and any size gift makes a big difference.  If we all pitch in, we really can influence the way in which our schools serve food and food education to our kids. 

    Click Here to find out how to support REAP!

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Dane County Board Votes to Form Local Food Policy Council 

In response to overwhelming citizen support, including 11 testimonies and over 200 citizen petition signatures, the Dane County Board voted on October 6th to create Dane County’s first ever Local Food Policy Council.  The Council will consist of 12 members appointed by County Executive Kathleen Falk and representing a diverse range of interests related to food production, processing, distribution, and consumption in Dane County.

The council will be responsible for increasing the county purchases of local foods, improving and supporting direct marketing opportunities for local growers, and assisting with the development of local food projects.  The Dane County Local Food Policy Council is one of approximately thirty food councils in North America. 

The formation of the County Food Policy Council was a key recommendation of the Local Food Policy Advisory Subcommittee (LFPAS,) which was established in June of 2004 by the Dane County Environment, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.  The subcommittee was charged by the County Board with making recommendations for improving the local food system.  Recommendations were based on the subcommittee’s research and the input of hundreds of key stakeholders and community members. 

Individuals interested in serving on the Dane County Food Council should contact County Executive Kathleen Falk, falk@co.dane.wi.us or Supervisor Kyle Richmond at richmond.kyle@co.dane.wi.us. 

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Farm Fresh Atlas 2006 - Registrations Coming Soon

Planning is underway for the 5th annual Farm Fresh Atlas, our regional guide to farms, processors, and businesses that sell local and sustainably grown farm products.  Applications to be listed in the 2006 Farm Fresh Atlas will be sent out in late December.  If you know of a farm or business that would like to receive an application, please send their name and address to Miriam Grunes at miriamg@reapfoodgroup.org.

[Click Here to view the on line version of the 2005 Farm Fresh Atlas]

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Fall Seasonal Recipe
Autumn Streusel Pie with Cheddar Pastry

by Barbara Estabrook, Rhinelander
First prize winner in the "Sweets" category,
Food for Thought Recipe Contest 2004

"Last year I made this recipe with apples from trees our neighbors planted several years ago. They are the most delicious apples I have ever tasted. They do not spray their trees and also grow organic vegetables. They are the best neighbors anyone could have and they share! Our daughter-in-law's parents tap maple trees on their land so we are fortunate to have a direct source for maple syrup. Both ingredients are in my recipe along with Wisconsin white cheddar cheese and Wisconsin butter. It is a recipe I created after searching through old cookbooks for new ideas. I wanted a different ‘twist’ to an apple pie and I believe that the combination of apple, cheese and maple syrup did it. It was an instant hit!”    

Pastry Crust:
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely shredded Wisconsin white cheddar cheese, chilled
1/4 cup chilled Wisconsin butter, cut into pieces
2-3 tablespoons ice water   

Filling:
5-6 cups peeled, sliced tart apples (Wisconsin grown)
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Wisconsin pure maple syrup plus 2 tablespoons, divided
2 cups shredded Wisconsin white cheddar cheese   

Streusel:
3/4 cup chopped toasted hickory nuts or walnuts*
1/2 cup flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons chilled Wisconsin butter, cut into 1/4-inch thick pieces  

Also: whipped cream lightly sweetened with maple syrup (optional)   

Heat oven to 400 degrees. For pastry crust, mix flour, salt and cheese together in a large bowl. Use a pastry blender to work the butter into mixture until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle water, one tablespoon at a time, over crumbs, tossing with a fork for 1 minute after each addition. When dough starts to pull away from sides of bowl, form dough into a ball. Flatten ball into a 5-inch disk and place between waxed paper. Roll out dough to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Remove paper and fit into plate; flute edges. Refrigerate until ready to use.  

For filling, toss apples and lemon juice together. Mix flour, cinnamon and sugar then stir into apple mixture. Stir in 1/3 cup maple syrup. Spoon mixture into the pastry-lined pie plate. Set shredded cheese aside for later. Bake apple mixture 30 minutes.  

Meanwhile, make streusel: Combine nuts, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add butter and, using your fingertips, rub butter into dry ingredients until coarse crumbs form. Refrigerate until needed.  

After pie has baked 30 minutes, remove from oven. Reduce temperature to 375 degrees. Distribute shredded cheese evenly over filling. Sprinkle streusel over cheese to cover. Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Return pie to oven and bake until top is golden, 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm or cold, with whipped cream slightly sweetened with a small amount of maple syrup, if desired. Makes 8 servings.   

*Hickory nuts are sometimes found at farmers markets; if they’re unavailable use walnuts. Toast nuts at 350 degrees until slightly golden, 6-8 minutes.   

Copyright 2004 Reap Food Group