R and R

Foster parents are encouraged to build a couple days of "respite" into each month so that the extra stress on household life doesn't get overwhelming. Last month we took Douwe camping and this month was a get-away just for Jeff and me.

Jeff set up a general itinerary for the weekend based on a book he gave me for my birthday last year called Homegrown Indiana, which is a geographically based directory of restaurants, farms, wineries, orchards and special food products that can be found generally close to home in the state of Indiana. Attentive food consumers tend towards a more "locavore" diet, which means choosing foods that are grown and produced as locally as possible to cut down on transportation energy waste, and to increase the chance of personally knowing and directly supporting the farmers and producers.

We have a slowly growing list of ingredients from local sources in our pantry:
Real maple syrup: Made in our county at Deep River County Park, a case lasts us about a year.
Milled grains (cornmeal, flour, pancake batter etc.) New Rinkel's Mill
Corn: summer fresh, frozen for winter: Bultema Farm
Honey: a guy at Highland farmer's market sells locally made honey
Blueberries: July fresh, frozen for winter: Eenigenburg's in De Motte
Strawberries: June fresh, frozen or jellied for winter: Johnson's in Hobart
Apples: September fresh, sauced for winter from Village Farmstand or County Line Orchard
Tomatoes: August September fresh, made into sauce for winter from our back yard this summer!
Canned Store Tomatoes: Red Gold is a central Indiana brand, we want to start stocking these!

Friday morning we got on the road, Route 41 south. Our first stop travelling south toward Indianapolis was supposed to be a restaurant called Maize in Lafayette. Unfortunately, it was no longer there so we ate at the new restaurant at that address and it was ok but I forgot the name.

Then we headed east toward Elwood, IN which has a small building called a meadery. We had our first tasting session of mead, which is made from fermented honey and one of the oldest fermented drinks known to civilization. New Day Meadery had several types of mead, honey only and fruity so it was fun to try them all and buy a few bottles.

Our next stop was a gem, in a really nice town just north-west of Indianpolis called Zionsville. Trader's Point Creamery is a beautiful rustic dairy farm that has cows and makes milk, yogurt, cheese, etc, hosts a Friday evening Farmer's Market which meanders onto a beautiful deck and patio where they serve a Patio Meal on Friday nights. The weather was absolutely perfect, an accordionist was serenading our lasagna meal, and chickens and cows were wandering nearby in the pasture. They have a Netherlander named Fons Smits using his agricultural skills at the creamery. Drinking their chocolate milk is pretty much like drinking a chocolate shake. It was a very fun place to visit and looks well set up for barn weddings and banquets, beautifully landscaped.

On Saturday morning, we walked from our downtown hotel to Cafe Patachou and as soon as we saw the menu we decided we were coming back the next morning too. My favorite part about the restaurant besides the food was a mural on one of the walls made of colored string and pushpins.

After that we walked to the City Market, but it wasn't what we expected and pretty much closed, so we shopped a bit in the mall, then drove to a little "foodie" spot/deli/charcuterie/wine and beer cellar called Goose: The Market. Jeff's plan for lunch was to get some bread, salami and cheese and take it to a park somewhere. And this was the perfect place to get all that and the kind of little tiny corner store that we would set up if we ever dared get into the mom-and-pop corner food store niche. It was really nice. We bought a pint of Trader's Point Chocolate Milk, some Capicolla and Mortadella, a baguette, and a chunk of cheese also from Trader's Point, and a savory deli salad with a unique ingredient list: cantaloupe, olives, feta. Very good, but a bite or two is plenty. We also bought some "Local Folks" ketchup, and some Shagbark Syrup from Hickoryworks which was mentioned in our book. We popped the lunchfood in our cooler with the ice bucket borrowed from the hotel, and drove back up to Zionsville to check out the little main street shops. Then we meandered around trying to find how to get into White River State Park which is downtown on the river, but we kept getting into the zoo entrance, finally we found where we needed to park and sat under a gazebo overlooking the river and ate one of the tastiest lunches in a long time. Even the bees wanted in. Can you tell we love to eat?

After lunch we wandered the park for a bit and then went to see the Informant before dinner.
We had a nice supper at R Bistro which is known for its menu of five appetizers, five entrees and five desserts which change weekly to make the most of whatever foods are in season locally. Let's see, Jeff had the carrot-ginger soup and I had a duck sausage w/melon/blueberry salsa (I'm starting to love the savory fruit combos!).
My entree was mushroom-potato quesadillas and Jeff had beef brisket with something good I forget. And we shared the chocolate crepes for dessert.

Next morning, back to Cafe Patachou for house-made granola, and pear-walnut-brown sugar french toast. Jeff loved the self-serve coffee station here and the fact that he could take a to-go cup on the way out.

On our way back we made a few stops off of Route 65. In a small town of Brookston, we found Two Cookin Sisters, which has a load of canned delights: Carrot Cake Jelly, Hooch Cherry Jam, the "loud and bossy" Big Sister Salsa, and several other preserved fruits and veggies. We bought a bunch for gifts. Then we got lost and finally found a horse, cow, pig, chicken farm which is run by a young family who just decided to take up farming (also working a job in Lafayette)and raise some heritage breeds, bought some land and put up buildings. We bought some pork (already processed and frozen) and a dozen eggs and asked a few questions. Jeff and I both have moms that grew up on farms, and yet we have been raised in the Chicagoland suburbs and think it is a novelty to be on a real family farm and see a real farmer walking his cow to the back yard and telling us how he processes his chickens.

We headed north then east to Monticello to a winery called Whyte Horse and tasted the wines that were made from grapes grown on their own property. Ate lunch at Monical's Pizza, then back north to Valporaiso where Karma and Gabe were staying. We were early so we tasted a few wines at Anderson's Winery in Valpo, then went to see if a little food shop in the square was open but it wasn't.

And then it was time to pick up children and head home to get ready for a new week of regular life. A weekend away, there's nothing like it.