Art and foods that are Made with Passion
Archive for November, 2010
Indian Hill Art Show 2010
Nov 11th
The Indian Hill Art Show is Friday, November 12 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. and Saturday, November 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The annual event at the Indian Hill Church in Cincinnati will feature works from over 40 local artists. Works from Cincinnati oil painter Daryl Urig and art from the acclaimed Visionaries & Voices program will be available.
Works are for sale, which means that you can take home some great originals and prints. A whopping 30% of the proceeds go to the Indian Hill Church outreach programs. Get there early and buy quickly or your favorite piece might walk out the door with someone else.
Daryl Urig, nationally acclaimed oil painter, and MWP featured artist, will be debuting some of his works at the show. The Indian Hill Art Show is also sponsoring an online auction, so even if you can’t make the show, don’t forget to bid on these spectacular pieces of art.
Daryl’s auction item is a beautiful, signed and numbered print, titled “Relax“. Place your charitable bid today for your chance to win a gorgeous reproduction of an original plein air oil painting. Daryl is providing a sneak preview of his works that will be appearing at the show, located on his Web site.
Visionaries & Voices is an outreach program in Cincinnati for artists with disabilities. The artists of Visionaries & Voices produce outstanding and highly collectible works of art. Featured V&V artists include:
- Barry Davis
- Rosie Petrou
- Joel Whitaker
- Victor Dambowsky
- Kevin White
Indian Hill Art Show
Location:
Indian Hill Episcopal-Presbyterian Church
6000 Drake Road
Indian Hill, Ohio 45243
(513) 561-6805
Time:
Friday, November 12th
6:00p.m. – 9:00p.m.
Wine Tastings, Appetizers, & Complimentary Parking
$5.00 donation for adults
Saturday, November 13th
10:00a.m. – 3:00p.m.
Light Refreshments & Free Admission
Learn more about Daryl Urig and Visionaries & Voices from our featured articles.
Don’t forget to like Made With Passion on Facebook and follow MWP on Twitter for future updates about food and art that are made with passion.
Snowville Creamery – You’ve heard of grassroots
Nov 11th
Snowville™ Creamery provides great tasting, high quality, farm fresh, minimally processed milk and cream to consumers in Ohio and neighboring areas. They feed the cows a special diet, which yields milk that tastes better and is higher in Omega 3 fatty acids and CLA, which leads to leaner and healthier milk drinkers. Snowville Creamery isn’t keeping the cows’ diet a secret. It’s grass.
Warren Taylor is the owner of Snowville Creamery. He graduated from Ohio State University with a Dairy Technology degree and worked for Safeway Dairy Division designing production facilities for 10 years. He spent another 10 years as an independent consultant doing the same thing for such dairy giants as Land O’ Lakes, Tropicana, Dannon, and Daisy.
In 1995, Warren’s neighbors were farmers. Bill Dix and Stacy Hall had started a small herd of cows on their farm. Instead of raising only Holstein cows that yield more milk than other breeds, Bill and Stacy raised a combination of Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Friesian and Jersey cows. They mixed the herd for improved genetic diversity, health, and sustainability.
Bill and Stacy were passionate about raising a self-sustainable, grass fed herd. The cows were allowed to graze grass on their own. They were a healthy, happy family of cows that got plenty of exercise as they walked up the hill to the milking station twice a day.
Warren and his wife, Victoria, were treated with fresh milk from Bill and Stacy’s herd on a regular basis. Warren pasteurized the milk himself on the stove top and his family enjoyed the milk’s richer, creamier flavor and added health benefits. Warren and Victoria’s two children also loved the milk.
Our kids are milk drinkers. They’ll pour themselves a big glass of milk and empty it, and pour it again, and drink it again.
Victoria and Warren Taylor
In the winter, when Bill and Stacy’s herd were allowed to dry up and weren’t providing milk, Warren and his family had to return to the milk on the store shelves.
We were reminded every winter, the difference between Bill and Stacy’s milk and the typical milk in the marketplace.
Warren and Victoria believed that the superior milk should be provided to the rest of the world to enjoy and reap the benefits.
So, the idea of doing this has been percolating around Victoria and I and Bill and Stacy for a decade and a half.
Warren Taylor, of course, knew how to build a processing plant, so he got together with Bill and Stacy and they agreed to create a creamery right there on Bill and Stacy’s farm. Snowville Creamery was born.
Warren Taylor, Stacy Hall, Bill Dix, and Dave Chase
They broke ground in December of 2006 and were in full production by December of the following year. Having the plant on the premises allows Snowville Creamery to minimally process the milk. Therefore, Snowville Creamery milk is fresher than most milk that you find in the supermarket. All milk from Snowville Creamery is on the store shelf within 48 hours of it being collected from the cows.
Snowville Creamery follows the minimally processed manifesto by pasteurizing the milk and cream to the lowest legal temperature, which allows the milk to retain more of its original flavor and nutritional value.
Snowville Creamery also doesn’t homogenize their milk. Homogenization is done to provide a consistent product to consumers. Part of the process puts milk under extreme pressure and pipes it through tiny holes to break down the fat molecules. This prevents the milk cream from separating, but it also drastically changes the properties of the fats. Some people who have difficulty digesting heavily processed milk from the store shelf can actually tolerate non-homogenized milk.
If milk were potatoes, Snowville Creamery’s product would be grandma’s lumpy, homemade mashed potatoes, whereas the other brands would be consistent, but unremarkable, instant potatoes, made from flakes. For those who like their potatoes to taste like potatoes, the latter doesn’t compare with grandma’s. Besides, the lumps are fun. Be sure to shake your Snowville Creamery milk before you drink it, otherwise all of the rich cream will end up in your glass, and that wouldn’t be fair to the next person.
Milk from Snowville Creamery is beneficial to you both in taste and nutrition. However, there would be no Snowville Creamery if it weren’t sustainable. The same passion that drives Warren Taylor and his team to deliver superior milk to local markets drives Bill and Stacy to be passionate about sustainable production. Grass fed cows produce less waste. The manure from grass fed cows can be put back into the earth, and naturally grown grass doesn’t have to be transported to the farm, which reduces emissions and cost.
Bill Dix and Warren Taylor
Sustainable farmers believe that with continuing ingenuity, there may be no limit to the size of farms that may be self-sustainable. However, currently, large factory farms are not sustainable. Factory farms must haul in feed and haul out manure. Sustainable farms do neither.
We are inspired by “food revolutionaries” including Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life, Michael Pollan author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, and Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Foods International. Likewise, we are inspired by Jeni Britton-Bauer, owner of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, who is an innovator and strong supporter of locally sourced ingredients such as Snowville Creamery milk & cream.
Another source of inspiration comes from within our Snowville Creamery team. They amaze us with their dedication to the cause of farm fresh, minimally processed milk. Good food for all!
You invest in the land, invest in the cows, and the rest is mother nature. Grass produces happy, healthy cows. The cows eat it, live in it, and sleep in it. Grass fed, pastured, cows are the simple formula. There’s no secret here. In fact, Warren Taylor will share his plans with anybody who asks.
Recently, Slow Foods Columbus sent 9 delegates to the Terra Madre Conference in Italy. Warren Taylor and Jeni Britton-Bauer were proud to be two of the members that were selected to share ideas at the conference with other food revolutionaries.
Minimally processed, grass-based milk is rich in Omega 3s and boasts 5 times the amount of CLA that aids immune health, increases lean body mass, and is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Besides nutrition, grass-based milk tastes like a dream! We have received hundreds of emails from persons all across the Mid-Atlantic region voicing their re-discovery of milk as a result of Snowville Creamery.
With our dedicated team of milk advocates, we are able to spread the good news of farm fresh milk at numerous community events, tastings, conferences, festivals and farm markets. We are truly grateful to have such strong grassroots support. Without the support of our customers and grocery markets, we could not bring farm fresh milk to market.
The Snowville Creamery milk plant is located in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio just outside of Athens. They distribute their product to over 80 grocery stores throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati. Their milk is also used at many coffee shops such as Coffee Emporium, Donkey Coffee & Espresso, and A Touch of Earth in the North Market. You will also find their products in Whole Foods Markets in the Washington DC area, Pittsburgh, Lexington, and Louisville. Visit the Snowville Creamery Web site to discover all the locations where you can get their great tasting milk and cream. Also, be sure to friend Snowville Creamery on Facebook to stay in touch with all of the great things happening with Snowville Creamery, Warren Taylor, and the milk industry.
I originally discovered Snowville Creamery last summer, at a local screening of the movie Fresh. Fresh is similar to the film Food, Inc., except Fresh talks more about solutions, like sustainable farming and community gardens. Warren Taylor was on a panel discussion after the show, and it was inspiring to see the passionate way that he talked about the farm, the cows, and his milk. Snowville Creamery is helping to lead a food revolution. Supporting it is as simple as making an informed choice at the supermarket. Pour a glass of passion from Snowville Creamery and join the revolution.
Watch a video blog, narrated by Warren Taylor, hosted by Whole Foods Market.
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Five Star Foodies
Nov 4th
Five Star Foodies® is a locally owned, family run business that provides gourmet vegan foods and drinks to the Cincinnati area and online. Five Star Foodies is dedicated and compassionate about food thanks to a family tradition that’s been passed on from generation to generation.
Valerie Williams is the CEO of Five Star Foodies. The inspiration behind the company began over 30 years ago, when Valerie was just 14. Inspired by Dick Gregory’s book, “Cookin With Mother Nature”, Valerie marched into her family’s kitchen and threw away all of the unhealthy foods. She then immediately declared that the family was now vegetarian. According to Valerie, her family embraced the change.
My mom, having always been an outstanding and innovative cook, had no problem continuing on and hardly missed a beat without the meat and many other ingredients I wouldn’t allow.
The family developed many new recipes over the years.
In 1980, they started a vegan restaurant in Cincinnati, named Christo’s and Drivaki’s. It was a ground-breaking endeavor in the field of vegan cuisine. Valerie’s three eldest sons practically grew up in the restaurant. Yet, unfortunately, Christo’s and Drivaki’s was before its time, and the restaurant closed in 1987.
Having never forgotten those days, Valerie’s son Christian wanted to revive some of the award winning recipes. He helped Valerie create Five Star Foodies as a way to continue those quality, gourmet vegan foods.
Valerie is proud that she raised all five of her children vegetarian. Strict vegetarians and vegans question their food sources. They must develop a real relationship and trust between themselves, as consumers, and their food sources. Ultimately, a large number of vegetarians, and vegans, become foodies. Foodies are people who are passionate and educated about quality food and nutrition.
It is our passion to create outstanding delicious and nutritious vegan food. Our company is a business with a “conscious.” This is to say we feel that throughout our daily practices, operation, and leadership we have a higher purpose that transcends profit maximization. Our focus instead is on delivering value to our stakeholders, employees, customers, suppliers and the community. We exemplify the culture of a conscious business and the acronym TACTILE (Trust, Authenticity, Caring, Transparency, Integrity, Learning and Empowerment). Tactile means something that can be touched and felt. When a person walks into a conscious business, such as ours, they can actually feel the positive energy in the air. This is what we try to create and pass on to the energy, integrity and mouth-watering deliciousness of our food.
Indeed, Valerie raised more than vegetarians. She raised five foodies. They don’t just eat and cook food. They live it.
The kitchen is where the key members of our family and company feel at home and find the most joy! It’s where we come together to rejuvenate and to ignite our passions through food.
Valerie’s mom, Mary, always at the heart of the family business, helps out with Five Star Foodies five days a week. Valerie’s father, an artist, also lends a hand when needed.
Valerie has been in the food industry for over 35 years. She has worked as a personal chef, taught cooking classes, worked in the grocery retail business, and catered. Valerie also passed the passion on to the next generation.
My son Graydon is a trained chef with a food science degree and would remind you of a mad scientist in the kitchen. He gets that look in his eye when he starts to create and develop anything to do with food.
Mary (Mom), Graydon, and Valerie Williams
Valerie’s eldest son Mundy is a self-taught graphic artist and creates all of the company’s graphics, packaging, Web site, and marketing materials.
Valerie’s son Christian, her nephew Josh Goldstein, and her sister Sarah Wise help fill in the remaining spots of the company. Five Star Foodies was founded in 2007, and thanks to all of the combined talent and passion, by 2008, the family business was already a success.
Five Star Foodies offers a variety of vegan items that you can find in local stores and online. In the refrigerated section are an assortment of ciders that are made from raw, fresh ingredients. The ciders start with fresh squeezed apples from local orchards, and other raw ingredients are added for variety. The Ginger Cider is the company’s most popular drink, and is also my wife’s favorite. It’s a tart and fruity cider with a satisfying amount of fresh, spicy, ginger. The new Veggie Cider “Green Label” is my favorite.
The Veggie Cider Green has vegetable juices added, so it’s a guiltless way to consume your regular serving of vegetables. There are similar veggie cider drinks from other vendors, but I’ve yet to find one as enjoyable as Five Star Foodies’ veggie mix. It’s naturally sweet, and the fresh ginger and hint of celery adds a bit of zing. It makes for a healthy drink that’s every bit as enjoyable as a carbonated soft drink, like ginger ale. The Veggie Cider Red is similar, but contains added beets. The Hibiscus Cider has more vitamin C than orange juice, but contains a lot less sugars. A swig of the Jamaican Cider will make you think you’re in the Caribbean.
In the freezer section, you’ll find Five Star Foodies’ frozen vegan selections, like their best selling Artichoke Burger. Kids love the Sloppy Joe, and the flame roasted Gourmet Griller is great all year around. You just heat and eat, so it’s easy to add these meatless alternatives to your diet.
Valerie describes her influences and inspirations.
My influences are Julia Child, Suzy Adrian from La Petite Pierre, international cuisine, exotic spices, exotic salts, kimchi, kombucha, family meals, any reason to celebrate, and my unquietable mind that is constantly composing new menus and infinite product possibilities.
Valerie is proud of all of the hard work that’s been put into Five Star Foodies and the accomplishments that they’ve achieved.
It’s easy to think of all the mistakes we’ve made but what’s more amazing is all the things we’ve intuitively done right. I’m proud of our endurance (since it’s been a little like being on a stair master) and our ability to hold on to our vision all the while continually finding ways to get around all the many obstacles a small business faces daily. We’re thankful to have been graced with so many good people along the way, and hope that continues. So it’s not a single prized accomplishment, it’s everything that we’ve created thus far and continue to create each day. Five Star Foodies for us is a prized accomplishment!
Five Star Foodies is dedicated to providing quality and kind food. Purchasing their products supports local food providers and a family that cares.
We are a vegan company, but the most important thing to us is the quality and integrity of our ingredients. We strive to promote and provide healthy eating solutions, even if it starts with only one meal a week.
Valerie has the following words of advice for those trying to get started in the food industry.
Get ready for the ride of your life! It’s been like a constant treadmill. There’s so much uncertainty—endurance and courage are your only hope and best friends, but that’s where all your growth lies, personal and business. I’ve been in the food business my whole life and there is a specialness to the relationship bonds that are created under the stress of long hours, creative energies and pushing each other to the limit.
Five Star Foodies is doing what they love, with the people they love. It’s a simple formula, really, and it produces food that is truly made with passion.
You can find Five Star Foodies’ delicious entrées and beverages at Whole Foods Market throughout the mid-Atlantic region, Bigg’s/Remke Markets, Keller’s IGA in Clifton, Clifton Natural Foods, Cincinnati Natural Foods, Park + Vine, Madison’s at Findlay Market, Keegan Seafood, Coffee Emporium, Bon Bonerie, Salt of the Earth, Carl’s Deli, The Loving Hut, Susan’s Natural World, as well as many natural food stores throughout the Tri-County area and Washington D.C.
You can also purchase their products online, directly from the Five Star Foodies Web site. To stay in touch, like Five Star Foodies on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
Click the “I heart this” button to show Five Star Foodies some love and to request more similar stories. To stay up to date about local foods and art that are made with passion, like Made With Passion on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
