Farm to fork to community

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Community and good food were celebrated at the Wildwood Golf Course Social Hall.

Dinner was served Sunday evening with a variety of foods, all locally sourced from Floyd County, to around 75 people.

“The mission of the event is just to celebrate community,” said Farm to Fork Worker Laura Cunningham.

This the second annual Farm To Fork dinner. Last year saw the event take place on the pedestrian bridge.

“This year we decided to change up the venue,” Cunningham said. “The social hall here has a really great rustic feel.”

“It’s an all locally sourced meal,” Cunningham said. “All put together by Chef Ted (Smalley) of HyVee.”

Cunningham represent SkyView Farms, by Nora Springs, which supplied the beef for the event.

“Every course has a featured farmer from Floyd County,” Cunningham said.

Last year Erwin Johnson missed the meal because he was out of state at the time, even though his farm supplied the lamb.

He determined that if they ever have it again that he’d make it.

“This year I’m coming just as a consumer,” Johnson said.

This is the 100th anniversary of the Floyd County Farm Bureau, and this is one of the activities that the Farm Bureau helps.

“My hope is that people will discovery that they don’t have to go down to Costco in Waterloo or Walmart in Mason City to get all their foods,” Johnson said. “In fact there are some that getting grown here locally.”

The idea of the Farm To Fork dinner is to showcase the local food of a community, Johnson said.

“There is a network of local producers,” Johnson said. “We want people to know that we have a plentiful supply.”

The five-course meal offered a Mediterranean cucumber salsa in a won ton cup as an appetizer with ingredients brought in from the David Zimmerman Farm.

The soup was autumn squash with Parmesan crisps, also from the David Zimmerman Farm.

Chef Ted from HyVee made an Asian vinaigrette over mixed greens and fresh vegetable chop with the mixed greens from Twisted River Farm and the onion from David Zimmerman Farm.

The main course was a grilled black Angus steak with herbed butter and red wine reduction and toso baked potato, with the beef from SkyView Farms and potato from the Childs Family Farm.

The dessert was a chunky apple compote tart with autumn spiced fresh whipped topping, with apples from Apples on the Avenue and the honey from Port and Bees Honey.

The wines were all from Iowa based wineries including Cow Catcher from Trainwreck Winery in Algona, Lace Curtain White and Red 52 from Ardon Creek Vinyard and Winery from Letts and Star Spangled White from Tassel Ridge Winery in Leighton.

“It’s really great to meet new folks and talk about what we do on our farm, finding a connection over where we live and what we do for a living,” Cunningham said.

The Farm To Fork dinner was put on by the Floyd County Farm Bureau, HyVee and Healthy Harvest From North Iowa.