Ham Sandwich Indicted!

An exercise-bike powered ice cream maker. This past weekend's Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) organized tour of Snowville Creamery wasn't all fun and games...someone had to make the ice cream! (Ok, yeah, it really was all fun.) The first stop on OEFFA's Sustainable Farm Tour series took us to Pomeroy, Ohio to see exactly how Snowville Creamery produces its amazing milk, cream, and ice cream (they make the base for Jeni's!). Upon arrival, we were greeted by a four piece string band, a table of cookies, chips, and salsa (all locally made!) and an unending supply of Snowville milk (white AND chocolate)! Honor your partner, honor your corner. After introductions by pasture and herd owners Bill Dix and Stacy Hall, and Creamery owners Warren and Victoria Taylor, we made our way out to the pastures to see cows doing what they do best: eating grass. The milk starts here. From the pastures, we moved to the milking parlor, where Bill showed us where 18 cows at...

So, this past weekend (Feb 13-14) was the annual Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) conference in Granville, OH. OEFFA defines itself as "a membership-based, grassroots organization, dedicated to promoting and supporting sustainable, ecological, and healthful food systems." Members include farmers, farm markets coordinators, educators, political activists, chefs, educators, and people like myself, who are just interested in finding healthier ways to feed ourselves and our local agricultural community. This was the first year I attended the conference, and was able to go on a discount in exchange for volunteering four hours of my time over the course of the weekend. The volunteering was an interesting experience in and of itself, but first, I want to share a bit about what I did. First up: Cheesemaking!! Saturday morning started off with a class on how to make fresh mozzarella and ricotta in your home--in less than an hour! The class was taught by Angel King of...