Food expo highlights Dubois County producers and healthier options for food sources

Purdue Extension Dubois County is hosting the 2023 Local Foods Expo at Sultan’s Run Golf Club, 1410 N. Meridian Road, on Tuesday, August 22. Doors open at 5 p.m.

According to Chelsea Brewer, the Dubois County Extension Director and Health and Human Sciences Educator, the Local Foods Expo began as a way to introduce residents to the area’s vibrant and thriving locally-produced food system.

“We have a ton of producers,” she said. “You can all sorts of products here, but it’s not well known.

Locally produced items can be found in stores, but Brewer pointed to the lack of a centralized hub for these items as a stumbling block for anyone wanting to feature them in their recipes regularly.

The expo helps raise awareness of what is available as well as provide a great meal featuring local meats, produce and greens as well as beers and wines.

Chef Phil Barth will prepare this year’s meal, which features Fischer Farms beef, produce donated from the Fleck Hopf family and fresh greens donated by the Sisters of Saint Benedict — the Sisters have an outdoor garden and a hydroponic garden to grow items for their own use. The dessert will be a homemade carrot cake.

Here is a more detailed menu:
Appetizers:
Antipasta Skewers with Local Tomatoes and Herbs
Steckler Grassfed Farms Cheeseball Bites
Salad:
Local Greens, Tomatoes, Cucumber, and Roasted Corn with an Herb Vinaigrette
Entrees:
Fischer Farms Tri-tip Steak, Grilled Zucchini and Squash, Roasted Red and Yellow Potatoes
Vegetarian:
Roasted Eggplant and Tomato with Quinoa
Deserts:
Carrot Cake by Susan Elkins

“This is an incredible meal prepared by a five-star chef,” Brewer said. “It’s not something that you’re not going to find all the time around here.”

Tickets also come with a sampling of beer from Yard Goat and wine from Bloomington-based Butler Winery. A cash bar with a variety of canned beers from Hoosier breweries will also be available.

Before the meal, attendees will also be able to peruse the local offerings in a pop-up market on the patio of the Sultan’s Run Club House overlooking the 18th hole of the course.

Brewer explained that the 2022 expo gave an overview of what was available in the area. But this year, the speakers, Doctors James Farmer and Julia Valliant, will talk about creating avenues for locally sourced foods and healthy outcomes for consumers.

“Locally produced food is exponentially healthier for us,” Brewer explained. “When you pick a vegetable, it starts to nutritionally deteriorate three hours after harvest.”

Factor that into the miles driven across the country, the time sitting on a grocery store shelf and then the time it sits in a fruit basket at your home before you eat it.

“Things can be up to three weeks old before you actually eat them,” she said, “compared to if you go to a local farmers market where they generally picked it maybe a day before.”

Through working with Dr. Farmer, Purdue Extension has determined there is a need to create an aggregated hub for residents to purchase items in the off-season. “So that’s definitely something we would like to grow to (a hub for these items),” Brewer said. “Right now, we’re in the awareness stage trying to increase awareness so we can get community support for something like that.”

It is also good for the local economy.

“That’s another thing that we love about local foods is that every dollar that is spent locally comes back locally,” Brewer said. “So if I purchase something at the farmers market or from one of those vendors here on Tuesday, it’s something that they can directly use for their kids maybe or at a small business providing support in a way that keeps the economy here growing.”

Tickets to the event highlighting locally sourced food, wine, and beers can be purchased here for $30.

The evening begins with happy hour, and a pop-up farmer’s market at 5 p.m. Dinner is served at 6 p.m. At 6:30, Dr. James Farmer and Dr. Julia Valient will begin their talks. You can learn about them in the flyer below.

Brewer said she hopes that the event creates more awareness and relationships with the attending vendors so those avenues for consumers become more readily accessible.

She also credited the hard work of many of the local producers in Dubois County.

“I hope anyone attending walks away with an appreciation for all the hard work that these vendors put in during the summertime,” Brewer said. “They are pulling some long hours, and for most of them, this is sort of a passion project or their hobby.”