Culinary Ride pairs bicyclists, food on Eastern Iowa trek

It was 12:45 p.m. on Sept. 20. I was sitting on the edge of a gravel parking lot surrounded by raspberry bushes. Around me abandoned bicycles and bicyclists littered the area, the riders taking part in plucking ripe raspberries for a sweet treat. I directed my attention, however, to the carnitas taco - topped with homemade pickles, cheese curds and kimchee mustard - in my hand. I had arrived at the Northern Ridge Berry Farm located off a gravel road near Oxford on two wheels alongside 200-plus riders as part of the fifth annual Iowa City Culinary Ride. We had just ridden 21 miles for this taco. And it was totally worth it, even to this non-biker.

Until three months ago, I hadn't ridden a bike in a decade. I had been hearing about the Iowa City Culinary Ride for a few years and the thought of combining a long, leisurely bike ride with stops for local food seemed like something I should at least experience once. I decided to spring my 25-year-old Schwinn Mirada from storage and rediscover the world of cycling. So, this past Sunday I biked from my house in Iowa City to join area cyclists at New Pioneer Co-op for a light breakfast and coffee before the 55-mile ride.

Audrey Wiedemeier, who organized the first culinary ride in 2011, stood atop a picnic table to address the crowd with last minute details before we set off. Wiedemeier started the ride as a way to promote both cycling and the array of local food grown and served in the area. She and her team at RadTour Productions start planning the route in January and work to include farms as part of the route. The ride has become so popular that they also planned similar rides in Cedar Rapids, the Quad Cities and Marquette this year.

It was a shotgun start with a few bikers setting the pace and matching the excitement in my gut with music blaring from sounds systems attached to their bikes. We wound around areas of the University of Iowa and landed at The UI Student Garden. There Griddle Me This, typically an Iowa City Farmer's Market vendor, offered us our next course - The Ultimate Iowa Bloody Mary. The drink was created by NewBo City Market's Get Fresh and garnished with a skewered tower of local food. As promised the drink was filled with local foods like beets from Echollective Farms near Mechanicsville and lemon cucumber pickles from Muddy Miss Farms in Iowa City. My biking buddy, Anne Kapler, and I sipped our drinks while UI students gave tours of the one-third-acre garden that a small group of students volunteer to work every year.

From the garden we hopped on Clear Creek Trail which connected us to North Ridge Trail by The Coral Ridge Mall. These trails often heavily wooded at times seemed to transport us out of Eastern Iowa ever so briefly. The North Ridge Trail took us to our second stop, the North Liberty location of Yotopia, an Iowa City based business that uses local products to make their yogurt. For the riders they featured a breakfast bar with their just launched Plain Greek yogurt and a variety of frozen yogurt options. We could top our yogurt with granola from New Pioneer Co-op and raspberries from Northern Ridge Berry farms. Good timing, because the berry farm was our next stop.

Part of the goal with the culinary experience says chef Gaby Weir, who is part of the RadTour team, is for chefs to try to use products and produce from the farms on the route. From there, chefs are to use ingredients from other area farms and vendors helping to truly give participants an almost entirely locally sourced cuisine for the day.

After the Yotopia stop, the real biking adventure began as we braved busy Penn Street in North Liberty, crossed over Interstate 380 and slowly saw the din of the city traffic transform into the silent walls of dried up cornstalks, yellow-flowering soybean plants with only the crunch of gravel road beneath our tires. Oh, and of course, the beats of some of the 'DJ” bikers along the way.

Ten miles later I found myself eating that taco, eager to rest my Jell-O legs. Local Burrito, a food truck from Iowa City, created this slightly spicy dish, with thanks in part to Rehberg's Pork based out of Walker. Owner Denny Rehberg was dishing out his pork to weary riders offering a smile and demonstrating in a very clear way that Iowa consumers and Iowa farmers are closely tied together.

From there we headed about 6 miles to Henry's Village Market in Homestead to eat food created by Chef Julie Parisi who owns Zaza's Pasta & Italian Market in Iowa City. Her roasted chicken, Swiss chard and quark tortelloni was a most welcome bite.

A quick check of our watches and we knew we needed to head out to make the 2:30 p.m. cut off at Augusta restaurant in Oxford. On this stretch especially I enjoyed the wide swathes of Grant Wood-esque rolling hills, the sightings of miniature horses and loaded apple trees amid working farms. The always welcoming Augusta brought the most surprising dish of the day, Chef Ben's Crepe Gateaux, layered with brussels sprouts, broccoli and squash, some of which was from North Ridge Berry Farm as well as Prairie Breeze Cheese from Milton. This crepe casserole was much more than I expected. The autumnal colors layered between tender crepes created a Neapolitan looking savory dish that first made me skeptical, but won me over after one bite.

It was soon 3 p.m. and we began the 5.2 mile route to the final rural destination, Rapid Creek Ranch. This route contained some of the hardest hills (gravel is definitely surprising in this way). this fact cemented by Anne's busted bike chain and derailleur 15 minutes after we left Augusta. A biker kindly waited with my biking buddy until his group's 'sag wagon” came back to get her. while I rode on with another member of his group to our next stop.

A series of difficult loose gravel hills which involved lots of grunting, heaving breathing - and, yes, I'll admit, some walking - was quickly turned into laughter and amazement as we spotted an old school bus turned chicken coop in a field owned by our next stop's farmer.

A couple minutes later, we rode into Doug Darrow's family farm and tasted some of his grass-fed beef in Devotay's Sesame Braised Beef dish served with roasted pumpkin, brussels sprouts and drizzled with a tomato and raspberry chutney. Our perch was the highest of the trip, giving us a broad view of the 160-acre farm just south of Oxford.

While many culinary riders began the long 15-mile bike ride back featuring more of the dreaded gravel hills, I decided this amateur biker was ready to enjoy four wheels back with my biking buddy and her busted bike. Our gracious driver, Peg Bouska of Iowa City, who was aiding a group of friends, drove us slowly down the country roads stopping for any worn-out bikers along the way and trading stories as we took in the Iowa countryside.

Twenty-four miles after my taco on the side of the road (and 40 miles of cycling), I arrived back to Iowa City with a dusty bike, a slight sunburn, some aching quadriceps and absolutely no regrets.