Cincy’s First Bar Week
April 4-10 will be full of happy hour specials thanks to Yelp! Here is a quick interview with Alex Shebar, Yelp’s man on the scene for Cincinnaiti, with all the details.
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Seasonality
For the last 50 years or so, America has veered sharply away from her agrarian roots in favor of convenience. Generations of wisdom lost, because our supermarkets offer us boundless plenty, regardless of season. We enjoy culinary delights from every corner of the globe every month of the year. It was not always thus, and it is highly likely that it will not be for too much longer. It is not my intention to sermonize about Peak Oil. I’m offering you a way to combat it.
The event I originally wrote this for, the Eco Go-Go, featured a fashion show highlighting locally-owned businesses, selling eco-friendly goods and services. Now a bit about fashion – more specifically, about the phenomena of the fashion season: Way back, when Louis XIV was trying to figure out a way to help his country’s struggling economy, he put a couple of fairly ingenious things in motion: first, his mercantilist administration significantly slowed the importing all textiles and textile supplies from other countries, to bolster the then-stagnant French textile businesses. Then the brilliant marketing ploy – they encouraged these floundering fashion houses to market their goods based on the season in which they were intended to be worn. This concept evolved into the two major fashion seasons – Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer. This allowed for clothiers to offer the newly-fashion-conscious public new stuff to buy twice a year, effectively doubling their profits and cementing the industry for centuries to come.
I am sure that many of you are in tune enough with fashion do’s and don’ts to be confident in how you dress year round. Maybe you take great pride in being fashion-forward. I managed a few retail clothing establishments in my day, I can tell you that there are plenty of people who are brand-loyal and put great importance on who makes the clothes they wear. I am starting to see a trend of people who are as devoted to the source of their nourishment. I challenge you to be as discerning with your food. Maybe you are an avid label-reader at the supermarket, so I think you should also be as curious about where the food is coming from and when that food is in season. Fact is, locally produced food, enjoyed in season, is of far greater quality than the alternative.
Our country’s current food production paradigm is based on the assumption that transporting food from a handful of fertile places to the rest of the planet will continue to be very cheap. If our consumption follows its current trajectory – kiss those cheap Chilean sweet peppers and grapes goodbye. Perhaps the current economic downturn, coupled with the need to seriously back off of our fossil fuel usage and the gaining popularity of the local foods movement will help us find a better balance. Washington is working to help small-scale, startup urban farmers – to combat “food deserts.” Every day new articles appear about people turning abandoned lots into verdant food-producing oases. Could this trend be part of the solution for the rampant joblessness in our country?? True, farming is not for everyone. I have been selling produce from my own modest urban farm at Findlay Market for a little over a month now. Each market day, my sales improve. Sometimes a person will comment on how my wares are a little “expensive.” I remind them the food that I’ve grown did not have to be trucked across the continent, nor has it been sprayed with chemicals to hasten ripening or irradiated to retard spoilage. They still buy my tomatoes.
Cheers -
Dark Martha
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If You Can Make it Here…
Cincinnati continues to carry a stigma of being overly conservative and slow-moving. I found a compelling argument against that recently while conversing with local Permaculture expert, Braden Trauth. For you who are not familiar with Permaculture, the short definition: a design paradigm for sustainable living. You first observe your (natural) surroundings, then design your landscape, home and (eventually) community to maintain stability within the ecosystem , with the goal being to produce enough goods and services to not only meet individual needs, but also to share (or sell) your excess. Now some of you might think that this train of thought may run more smoothly in a more, ahem, progressive region like the west coast, but Braden has put down some pretty deep roots here… and the movement is growing. This February, Braden kicked off his third Permaculture Design Certification series – a two month session of classes that addresses all of the basics of Permaculture, culminating in student design presentations. Braden tells me that he hasn’t had to advertise these classes too much – his students from prior sessions eagerly spread the word for him.
During my discussion with Braden, he spoke of all of the interesting places he has traveled to and lived in over the years: an Earthship in the American Southwest, various destinations in India, etc., etc. – so I asked him, “What made you choose Cincinnati?” To which he replied, that other than the fact that his family hails from the region, Cincinnati is a marvelous place to try out a new business. I can picture many of you vehemently disagreeing with this statement, because at first, I did, too. You don’t hear about many new Fortune 500 start-ups coming from the Queen City; but Braden pointed out some key factors that make Cincinnati fertile ground for fledgling companies: relatively low property costs, and a berth of different, and often disparate demographics. I thought back over my own experience with local small businesses, and I had to agree with him. The last company I worked for started here back in the late 80’s, then expanded into New York City, and now Chicago –one of the things that made that company so very successful and competitive with much larger companies was the small overhead costs associated with their main offices being located here in Cincinnati.
I would like to draw attention to the fact that I was talking to a Permaculture expert about business. Not too long ago, even the most liberal and free-thinking of my colleagues, myself included, would have dismissed anyone who had lived off the grid in an Earthship as some kind of crunchy granola hippie free-thinker who had no concept of reality or the nitty-gritty of economics. I here stand corrected. Braden told me that there are many universities, not just those in California, that are incorporating some of the tenets of Permaculture into their Planning and Sustainability curriculums (Cincinnati State is slowly offering courses, and Braden recently taught a class for UC’s Engineering Department), and we share a hope that the trend will continue.
Braden said that we, as a (Western) Civilization, are slowly leaving our “teenager stage” – we are learning environmental responsibility the hard way: in human terms – that if you drink too much too often, you can’t hold a good job; if you drive your car as fast as it can possibly go all of the time, you are likely to hurt yourself and others, or end up in jail. Permaculture is a means to think about resource use from a new angle… but what’s funny to me is it isn’t new at all. Our ancestors lived in harmony with their surroundings (for the most part, anyway), and we are nearing a tipping point in how we use the resources that we have left. It pleases me that there are people like Braden who are working very hard to modernize these concepts to make them more accessible for the general public. There may be hope for our species yet.
Dark Martha
http://www.consciousurbanliving.com/
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Cincinnati Fish Fry Crawl – Week 1 – DeSales Church
A Weekly Report on Cincinnati’s Lenten Fish Fries…
I’m not Catholic. I just happen to like fish.
Having been raised in Philadelphia, we grew up with fresh fish, always beautiful and fresh. Not just the bland supermarket varieties like cod and flounder, but the more colorful and flavorful fish such as bass, perch, catfish, and crab, a giant undersea assortment apropos to a big coastal city with scores of fishmongers. On our many vacations to the beaches along the east coast, we learned to fish from piers, crab at my aunt’s house, and collect mussels in the bays not far from my grandmother’s beach house in North Carolina. We’d always eat what we caught.
Five years ago, my partner and I moved from Philadelphia to the much more landlocked Cincinnati. Fish was something jetted into Ohio, or trucked in frozen at best. It was mostly foreign to the region. People didn’t really eat it as much here, vocally announcing their dislike of all things from the sea. I mostly stayed away from it, wary of its origins, until I discovered good sources. I discovered Cincinnati’s local forms of sustenance, like Skyline and its orange cheese, or Dewey’s with its gourmet but definitely not Italian pizza. Fish wasn’t something I sought out here – it was just wrong to want it in a region so far inland. But I missed fish.
What I didn’t realize was that Cincinnati, so very German Catholic Cincinnati, bites the bullet and eats fish for religious purposes, during a six week period called “Lent”, the six week period we, in our house, also call “Fish Fry Season”.
During my first year came Lent. Driving around the city, I noticed signs for Fish Fries on many churches, VFW’s, and fire halls. “People actually eat fish here?” I said to my Northern Kentucky-born partner. “Only for religious purposes”, he said, as he explained how each Friday during Lent, Catholics are asked to not eat meat, and since it was a church requirement, many organizations held fish fries as fundraisers. Hmm. “Want to check out the church around the corner tonight for dinner?” “Sure.”
So, my first fish fry was in our neighborhood, and I was, no pun intended, hooked. The commanding Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church, at the corner of Madison Road and Woodburn Avenue, in East Walnut Hills at what’s commonly referred to as DeSales Corner. DeSales’ Fish Fry is one of the best in the city, I’ve found.
For its fried fish dinner, DeSales starts with fresh whiting, and hand batters each piece it fries with a corn meal batter. Three or four pieces are served on a platter, with your choice of mac and cheese or fries, all served with cole slaw and your choice of wheat or white bread. It’s plain food but it’s all homemade and there’s a lot of it. The mac and cheese is creamy and cheesy and served from big vats with a crispy top. The cole slaw tastes like my mom’s.
Baked varieties of fish, pizza, or just a “Fish slider” are available as well as the fried dinners. Look for a newer looking school structure sort of behind the church, it’s a busy place. Place your order at the window, and pay, they give you a ticket, go find a seat and listen for your number. When you hear your number, raise your hand and one of the school’s students will deliver your meal. Drinks include canned sodas and coffee and are $.50 extra. Raffles happen on the stage, take a chance on the Split-the-Pot!
The DeSales’ Fish Fry is one of the hidden gems of the city, always delicious and plentiful! We always try to get there at least two times during this six week cycle. The food is consistently good and made fresh each week. We’ve taken many friends there who had no knowledge of fish fries, and they’ve even gone back on their own!
Each week until Easter, my faithful Doug and I will be scoping out the best in Cincinnati fish fries. Tonight? I think we’re going to the West side to St. William for week two. Stay tuned.
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I Know Where to Get the Good Stuff
I never thought that going to a farmer’s market was unusual. Both of my parents were avid gardeners, and whatever we didn’t raise ourselves, we’d buy from local farm stands. Suffice it to say that I am more than a little geeked about how much of a destination our beautiful little burg’s markets are becoming, thanks to how Cincinnati is fostering a healthy population of food lovers, and a burgeoning locavore culture. The historic Over the Rhine district, just blocks from downtown, features Findlay Market, Ohio’s oldest continuously operated public market. If you have never visited Findlay, I strongly recommend you check them out!
Some of my personal favorites: Kroeger Meats (no affiliation with the supermarket chain), for the tastiest, most interesting sausages in town; Herbs and Spice and Everything Nice, because this fellow KNOWS his spices, and won’t hesitate to let you sniff the quality for yourself; Dojo Gelato for the always-necessary treat for you after a shopping trip well shopped; and the farmers with their myriad of local goods will be coming back soon, some as early as next month! There are a few of the neighborhood farmer’s markets still churning along, including my own beloved Northside Farmer’s Market (Wednesdays from 4:30 to 7:30 – currently at North Presbyterian on Hamilton Ave.), where I can still get not only locally raised honey, but local fresh eggs, pasture-raised chicken, beef and pork, organic microgreens, even apples… just a few of the things available in the dead of winter. Here is a listing from CORV for the local providers from the 2009/2010 season.
I cannot tell you how excited I get every time I see a fine dining establishment sourcing goods from local farmers… meaning I jump up and down and do a little dance! The farmer I buy my honey from (Richard Stewart at Carriage House Farm, from North Bend, Ohio) at the Northside market also supplies more than a few of the finer local restaurants, including Chalk and Jean-Ro Bistro. This past summer, I hooked up a downtown bartender friend of mine with cucumbers and nasturtium flowers from my own home garden for his fancy specialty cocktails. This is more than just a fad. Chefs are proud to tell their customers where the food they serve is coming from, and more and more people are finding out just how wonderful that food can be when it hasn’t traveled across the country, or across the planet to get to their plate. I encourage you to try to buy one foodstuff from a local producer every shopping cycle. You will be pleasantly surprised by the quality and you will be supporting your local economy more so than spending exclusively at a big-box chain retailer.
Dark Martha
http://www.consciousurbanliving.com/
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