Edible announces local hero awards

Each year Edible asks its readers to nominate the people they feel are Iowa's Local Heroes in five different categories. These heroes exemplify the passion, hard work and perseverance required for excellence in their individual fields of endeavor.

In this third year, the Edible Iowa River Valley Local Hero Awards have now seen their first repeat hero, first Iowa City Restaurant hero, and first non-wine Beverage Artisan hero. Their names are placed among those from the other 61 Edible Communities member magazines across the United States and Canada .

Congratulations to this year's winners, and be watching for the 2010 nominations to begin in Edible's Harvest issue, due out Sept. 1.

Best Farm/Farmer

Susan Jutz, ZJ Farms, Solon

2008 Heroes: Shelley Squier & Mile Donnelly, Squier Squash and Donnelly Farms, Hinkleton

2007 Hero: Bob Braverman, Friendly Farms, Iowa City

Despite losing a barn to the 2008 storms, Susan Jutz has continued to operate one of the area's most popular Community Supported Agriculture ventures, Local Harvest. With lots of help from fellow farmers and artisans, Jean Donohue of HueHill Farm who grows the herbs and most of the vegetables for the winter share, and Laura Krouse who also operates Abbe Hills CSA in Mount Vernon, Susan has expanded the operation to include winter shares, multiple pick-up locations and even Thanksgiving turkeys.

Susan also helped create Local Foods Connection, which is now a two-time Local Hero Award winner. Active in many organizations that support local, organic, sustainable agriculture, Susan is a true hero to women in farming and to fans of good fresh food everywhere.

ZJ Farms

5025 120 th St NE, Solon

ZJFarms.com

Best Chef/Restaurant

Masae Judge & Harriet Woodford, Leaf Kitchen, Iowa City

2008 Hero: Steve Logsdon, Basil Prosperi's Lucca, Des Moines

2007 Hero: Enosh Kelly, Bistro Montage, Des Moines

All of us at Edible are a little extra proud that this charming café in our humble home town got the nod from readers this year. Masae and Harriet are doing wonderful things with food from loads of local suppliers: Café del Sol Roasting, Johnson Honey Farm, Chocolate Manor, Ruzika's Meat Processing, Highland Vista Farm, Organic Greens, Pavelka's Point, and Farmers Hen House to name but a few.

Originally a simple tearoom with a wide selection of high quality teas and tisanes, Leaf Kitchen quickly won favor with Iowa City residents for their fresh homemade breakfasts and lunches (do not miss the buckwheat crepes). Recently renovated and expanded, Leaf has just begun offering dinner too – can't wait to get there for that.

Leaf Kitchen

301½ Kirkwood Avenue, Iowa City

319.338.1909

LeafKitchen.Weebly.com

Best Food Artisan

Mike and Jason Bandstra, Frisian Farms Gouda, Oskaloosa

2008 Heroes: Herb & Kathy Eckhouse, La Quercia Prosciutto, Norwalk

2007 Hero: Simone Delaty, Simone's Plain & Simple, Wellman

We'd like to think Edible readers became fans of this amazing cheese after reading about it in the pages of our 2009 Harvest issue (it was issue 13, with the cute little girls and the pumpkins on the cover), but more likely it was the luscious quality of the cheese itself that carried the day for Mike and Jason and Frisian Farms Gouda.

As Eve Adamson wrote of the cheese back then, “The washed-rind cow's milk farmstead cheese has a fresh, tangy taste when young, and mellows into a rich, complex, nutty, sophisticated cheese as it ages – surely the final, happy result of happy cows.” A diet of 70% forage and the rest homegrown grain makes these happy cows healthy too, and six months of aging brings out the unique character of this Dutch-style classic. Our readers clearly see bright things ahead for the Bandstra brothers.

Frisian Farms Gouda

2321 Highland Avenue, Oskaloosa

641.673.3306

FrisianFarms.com

Best Beverage Artisan

Scott Ervin, Sutliff Cider, Lisbon

2008 Heroes: Jean, Paul & Mason Groben, Jasper Winery, Des Moines

2007 Heroes: Bill & Rona Wyant, Fireside Winery

These days you can find just about any kind of beverage made by someone, somewhere in Iowa, but you'll own find one producer of high quality hard cider, and that's Scott Ervin at Sutliff. His own website puts it best:

“We are dedicated to the culture of apple growing and their use in premium apple ciders. Our handcrafted ciders always contain 100% fresh squeezed juice and are never blended from concentrates. We use a combination of table apples that include, but are not limited to, Jonathan, Gala, Cortland, and Macintosh. The apples we use come from many local orchards, including our own small orchard on the estate where we are growing many varieties of traditional cider apples. We use an old style rack and cloth press because we believe this method allows our ciders to have exceptional taste and freshness.”

Their newly renovated tasting room in the historic old barn on the orchard grounds will reopen in April – great place to visit on a country drive or a bike ride.

382 Sutliff Road, Lisbon

319.455.4093

SutliffCider.com

Best Local Non-Profit

Laura Dowd, Local Foods Connection, Iowa City

2008 Heroes: Chris Grebner, Luke Prottsman, & Stan Laverman, Reclaiming Roots, Iowa City

2007 Hero: Laura Dowd, Local Foods Connection

We're not sure we could have thought of a better choice to be the first repeat winner of the Local Hero award than Laura Dowd and Local Foods Connection. Laura's tireless work for this important cause is a testament to the vitality of the movement for real food.

Local Foods Connection, which was founded in 1999, is a charity that recruits volunteers to help on CSA farms, and in turn collects shares from those farms to distribute to families who cannot afford them. More than that, they provide cooking and nutrition education, farm visits, even cooking utensils, pots and pans. Laura often liked to say that while some families are reluctant to go on the requisite farm visits, the only thing harder than getting them to go is getting them to leave – they enjoy the farms that much.

Local Foods Connection

319.338.2010

LocalFoodsConnection.org