Home Grown Indiana

Book Review in Indiana Living Green

The current issue of Indiana Living Green (ILG) magazine includes a review of Home Grown Indiana. You can check it out here. In case you're not familiar with ILG here's their self-description. You've found the right place to be green! Here at Indiana Living Green you will find the latest news about environmentally friendly practices and products for a sustainable lifestyle. Indiana Living Green will include information you can use to find a green lifestyle that you can live with — one that is both earth-friendly and doable for you and your family. Published bi-monthly, the magazine will profile those living the green lifestyle and provide earth-friendly tips and resources.

Home Grown Indiana on Too Many Cooks! Wednesday, July 23

Scott will be a guest on Too Many Cook! tomorrow (Wednesday, July 23) at 9:30 am on WICR 99.7. The following is the promo they sent out about tomorrow's broadcast. You can also listen live online. Details below. 

Patti and Gary will take a culinary trip around the Hoosier state with a guy who's stepped up to the forefront of the Indiana food scene with his Hungry Hoosier brand.  The dual-careered Scott, by day, works in community and economic development for Purdue University, and by evening and weekend writes a syndicated weekly newspaper column that runs in several central Indiana newspapers.  In 2006 and 2007, his newspaper column received first and second-place best-column awards from the Hoosier State Press Association.  He also writes a monthly Hungry Hoosier column for the Indianapolis Monthly magazine, and his  “food travels” for WFYI-Indiana's Across Indiana have earned him a 2007 Great Lakes Chapter Emmy nomination.

Check out Scott's website at www.hungryhoosier.com. His most current entry details a recipe for a martini made with fresh Indiana blueberries!

We asked Scott to be on the show today because the book he co-authored with Christine Barbour, "Home Grown Indiana: A Food Lover's Guide to Good Eating in the Hoosier State" from I.U. Press, hit the warehouse today and will be available in bookstores in a couple of days. Scott says it's available now on Amazon.  The book covers more than 400 producers, restaurants, markets, and festivals in Indiana.   

Scott's 2007 Emmy nomination from a piece he did for Across Indiana about the annual raccoon supper in Hibernia, Indiana, a small burg along the Ohio River in Clark County.  It seems that the local chili fund raiser had lost its luster, and some of the locals reinstated the tradition of serving up raccoon. You can view the segment here: The Meal Behind the Mask.

Please call into the show with your favorite Indiana food finds, and questions and comments for Scott, Patti, and/or Gary.   With the high price of gasoline, this is definitely the time to explore the Hoosier state on vacation!  The call-in number is 317 788 3314, and if you are not in the nine county area surrounding Indianapolis, you can listen to Too Many Cooks! live online every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time at http://wicr.uindy.edu/how_to_listen.htm.

Eating Local in Unexpected Places

Most foodies are not surprised to find great locally-grown foods on the menus of some of Indiana's best chef-owned restaurants. Home Grown Indiana covers lots of these dining destinations. What gets me even more excited than straight-from-the-farm micro greens on a fine-dining menu, is local foods in places where you would least expect it and Home Grown Indiana will point out these gems as well.

Did you know you can get a locally-raised pork chop at Holiday World and Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana? At Holiday World you will also find locally-grown vegetables when they are in season. Reserve your copy today to find out where in this great theme park you get a taste of local flavor. You'll also find lots of other great food destinations along the way to wherever you are headed in the Hoosier State. 

News Publication Date: July 22

We just received a revised date for publication - July 22, 2008.

Home Grown Indiana in the Indiana University Press Catalogue

The new Indiana University Press Fall/Winter 2008 Calendar is now available (here). Home Grown Indiana can be found on page 23. The catalogue says that it will not be available until October 2008 but we're told it will be in the warehouse and ready to ship on July 7.

Cover Art

Here is the cover art for Home Grown Indiana. You can click on the image to enlarge it. Indiana University Press Graphics Dude Jamison Cockerham did a great job with this. Here's a little deconstruction of what you'll see here. The title "Home Grown Indiana" is really three different images. The word "Home" is from a cross stitch, "Grown" is from a rustic farm-stand sign, and "Indiana" is from the Interstate welcome sign seen as you enter the Hoosier state. Surrounding the title are some shots of the many delicious products you can find across our great state. The book will be available July 7th.

A "Home Grown Indiana" Dinner Party Menu

Last night I cooked dinner for six and used fresh, seasonal, local ingredients for as much of the food as possible. Having just finished Home Grown Indiana, I had an easy time sourcing all of my ingredients. This is one of the scenarios we had in mind for the HGI reader - those who enjoy finding the best ingredients as much as the enjoy cooking and eating with friends.

In early May, not much is "seasonal" but I managed to score some Indiana asparagus and, of course, meat and dairy is always in season. I also used locally-owned merchants for much of the stuff I could get just about anywhere. Here's the menu I put together.

• Appetizer - Crostini with Chevre, Caramelized Onions, and Mission Fig Marmalade
• First Course - Salad of Endive, Fennel, and Blood Oranges
• Second Course - Mini Shrimp Scampi Pizza
• Intermezzo - Limoncello Granita
• Third Course -Beef Tenderloin Marsala with Roasted Asparagus and a Gratin of Potatoes and Artisan Cheeses
• Dessert - Flourless Chocolate Torte with Mint-Infused Ganache

Ingredients for the evening’s dinner came from the following Indiana farmers, artisans, and shopkeepers:

Cheeses from Capriole Farm, Rockville and Traders Point Creamery, Zionsville
Asparagus from Melon Acres, Oaktown
Beef from Fischer Farms, Kenya
Herbs and Spices from Terra Spice Company, Walkerton
Eggs from Stout’s Melody Acres, Franklin
Chocolate from David Alan Chocolatier, Lebanon
Mint Oil from Wappel Farm, San Pierre
Wines from Grapevine Cottage, Zionsville
Coffee from Hubbard & Cravens, Indianapolis

As of July 7 (HGI publication date) a task like this will be much easier for those who have a copy, not just Christine and me! I hope you plan to buy one (or two, or three!).

Early Reactions

Our publisher, Indiana University Press, has given us a publication date of July 7, 2008. We're excited that it will be out just as so much wonderful food is coming out of Indiana's rich soil.

We're also starting to get some early reactions to some advanced copies that were sent out. Here's one from the creator and producer of Chefs A'Field, a wonderful award-winning PBS series on local foods. It is a great program and we're so pleased to have Heidi's reactions. Here is what she had to say:

Home Grown Indiana provides the map for a delicious adventure that is bursting with flavor, personality, and fine foods. . . . Make this book your trusty guide for family outings and country drives and the basis for tastily eating your way across the Hoosier state. - Heidi Hanson, Creator and Producer of Chefs A'Field.

About Scott

Scott Hutcheson has two careers. By day he works in community and economic development for Purdue University and has used his nights and weekends to become a professional writer. Home Grown Indiana is his first book but his writing can be found in many other places. He writes for Indianapolis Monthly magazine and has an award-winning syndicated newspaper column. Scott also writes and produces for Across Indiana on WFYI Indianapolis public television, contributes to the nationally distributed Eat Feed Midwest podcast, has a weekly radio show on WIRE, and is creator of the HungryHoosier.com website. Scott also teaches food writing in the culinary career training program of Second Helpings. He and his wife Lisa live in Lebanon with their sons Henry and Oliver.

About Christine

Christine Barbour is a political science professor at Indiana University, where she teaches about American Politics and the Politics of Food, and a writer, whose primary food gig these days is working as the food editor at Bloom Magazine. She has also written about food for the Bloomington Herald Times , Indianapolis Monthly, and Indianapolis Dine. She is the author of Indiana Cooks, with Scott Feickert, as well as Home Grown Indiana, with Scott Hutcheson. An early Indiana advocate of eating local, she helped found Slow Food Bloomington in 2003, and continues as its co-director, with Dave Tallent. She blogs at www.myplateoryours.net.