Organic Beef Lunch & ‘Faces of Our Farmers’ Show Headline Winona Food Forum March 7

CONTACT: Linda Grover, 507-457-6483; lgrover@co.winona.mn.us

2/27/09
WINONA, Minn. — Just who is growing food in the region and what the best of it tastes like will be featured at the annual Local Foods Forum and Expo Saturday, Mar. 7, at Winona State University’s Tau Center. The day's theme is, "Faces of Our Farmers," in honor of a University of Minnesota Extension-sponsored photography exhibit to be unveiled during the 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. event. Tickets are $15: reservations are required by Mar. 5 and can be made by contacting Linda Grover at 507-457-6483 or lgrover@co.winona.mn.us.  Exhibitors are invited to apply for limited display space for $40, which includes one registration. 

The program will begin with a focus on who is growing and who is buying local foods in Winona County and beyond, to be followed by a cooking demonstration by a young chef who specializes in preparing it in his Wabasha, Minn., restaurant. Sara Nelson, a consultant to the Winona County Economic Development Authority (EDA), along with Annalisa Hultberg of the University of Minnesota, will present results from two recent inventories of local producers and would-be buyers, including school district staff, hospital dieticians and restaurant owners.

Chef Chad Rielander of The Old Ways Restaurant in Wabasha will demonstrate and discuss how to prepare the lean meats that characterize grass-fed animals. He also will speak about keeping a larder as a way to eat locally throughout the year. Rielander began cooking at Chet's Tavern in Saint Paul, Minn., before heading south for work on a farm and top positions in Signature's Restaurant in Winona and Nosh's in Lake City. His own restaurant opened last June with a stated emphasis on locally produced ingredients prepared in a made-from-scratch kitchen.

Lunch will feature organic, grass-fed beef from Earth-Be-Glad Farm in Lewiston, Minn., along with vegetables, potatoes and even a mystery ingredient in the dessert purchased from nine other area farmers. Some of those farmers are featured in the "Faces" exhibit and will be introduced prior to the start of the meal.

The afternoon program will turn to those "Faces" when U of M Extension educator Tom van der Linden leads attendees through the exhibit, which was designed to showcase the diversity of farmers and farms in Winona County. Exhibitors will get their chance at the microphone during a “Sound Bites” session, and the day will finish with Scott Patterson of Equal Exchange Minnesota speaking about food decisions that support family farmers around the world.

Financial sponsors and organizing partners include Bluff Country Co-op, Earth-Be-Glad Farm, Great River Organic Milling Company, the Land Stewardship Project, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Organic Valley, the University of Minnesota’s Organic Ecology Program and Extension Service, Winona Farmers’ Market, and members of the EDA Local Foods Committee. The EDA Committee's mission is to increase the business of local food by encouraging the production and consumption of foods grown in the Winona region.

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