Category: Food Artisans

Paul Fehribach, chef-owner of Chicago's Big Jones restaurant

Localicious: One of the Year’s Most Delicious — and Virtuous — Tasting Events

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

by Roberta Laughlin, FamilyFarmed This is what happens when you invite top chefs who seek out local and sustainable food for their menus, match them up with farmers who produce the region’s best ingredients, and bring them all together in one place for one great night. You get Localicious, Chicago’s unique, one-of-a-kind party on March 20 that gives Read more about Localicious: One of the Year’s Most Delicious — and Virtuous — Tasting Events[…]

Good Food Accelerator

Jenny Yang’s Growing Tofu Business is an Immigrant Food Story With a Modern Twist

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The stories of immigrants achieving success by making the foods of their native lands are parts of the history and social fabric of the United States. But Jenny Yang of Chicago’s Phoenix Bean tofu has an immigrant food story with a modern twist. While millions of people have come to America to escape poverty or oppression, Yang first came to the U.S. from her native Taiwan a quarter-century ago in pursuit of higher education.

Michael Bashaw, Whole Foods Market Midwest President

Whole Foods Exec Cites ‘Empowering’ Corporate Culture as Key to Chain’s Success

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

There is hardly a bigger Good Food movement success story than that of Whole Foods Market. So Michael Bashaw — president of Whole Foods Market’s 48-store-and-growing Midwest region — had a very attentive audience when he spoke Monday (Feb. 2) to entrepreneurs, financiers, and others associated with FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Business Accelerator program.

Shane Christensen of dailyServing

dailyServing ‘Functional Food’ Products Aim at a Healthy-Conscious but in a Hurry Society

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Americans are increasingly health-conscious and concerned about what foods they are putting into their bodies. While there are plenty of nutritious and tasty whole foods out there, it is easy to fall back on the old, less healthy habits of doughnuts or candy bars or chips.
This is an issue that dailyServing, a Chicago-based food startup, aims to address.

Koval Distillery Oat Whiskey and Ginger Liqueur

Koval Hot Toddy: A Crafty Winter Warmup

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Good Food on Every Table recently posted a story about Chicago’s Koval Distillery and its key role in establishing and growing the craft distilling industry in the city and region. But readers don’t live by words about craft spirits alone. You want recipes!

Robert Birnecker and Sonat Birnecker Hart of Chicago's Koval Distillery

How Chicago’s Koval Distillery Launched a Local Craft Spirits Boom — and Its Own Competition

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

It was just seven years ago when the married couple of Sonat Birnecker Hart and Robert Birnecker decided to give up high-level professional careers in the Washington, D.C., area, and start up their Koval Distillery in Chicago. As recent as that seems, they did not join the craft spirits movement within the city of Chicago. They launched it.

Raj Karmani of Zero Percent (right) and Michael Bashaw of Whole Foods Market

FamilyFarmed’s Financing Fair Accepting Entrepreneur Applicants

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

To sustain and expand on that growth, though, entrepreneurs and investors must be able to connect and build businesses that expand the supply of Good Food products in local markets. That is the goal of FamilyFarmed’s annual Financing Fair, which is currently accepting applications from entrepreneurs who want to participate.

The Chicago Hum-dinger cocktail

Giving Your New Year’s (and Brunch) Bubbly Cocktails a Local Kick

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

New Year’s Eve approaches, and the mind turns to bubbly wine. And New Year’s resolutions. And I can tell you from experience that few things stimulate creative thinking about those resolutions than a sparkling wine cocktail spiked with potent distilled spirits.

The Big Jones Cookbook

Southern Tradition is the Sauce for Chicago Chef Paul Fehribach’s New Cookbook

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Paul Fehribach has always been generous about sharing his recipes at his Southern-themed Big Jones restaurant in Chicago. Now he has compiled his tips into The Big Jones Cookbook, coming out this spring.

Good Food Business Accelerator logo

Good Food Business Accelerator Fellows Have Diverse Interests But One Goal: Success

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

There is plenty of diversity among the Fellows in FamilyFarmed’s new Good Food Business Accelerator program. But they share a drive to succeed a commitment to expand the Good Food movement.

The National Restaurant Association's Top 10 Food Trends for 2015

Good Food Movement Principles Star in 2015 Restaurant Trends

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The National Restaurant Association’s annual predictions of top culinary trends are out — and it looks like 2015 will be another great year for the fast-growing Good Food movement.

Sarah Katz

First Person: How Your Food Business Can Nourish Its Bottom Line Over the Holidays

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Opportunity awaits you if you own a food-related business if you’re prepared to compete in the crowded holiday marketplace. If you want to have a successful holiday season, now’s the time to get started! Here are some tips.

Henry Schwartz of MobCraft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin

Crowdsourcing Ferments Financing — and Recipes — for Wisconsin’s MobCraft Brewery

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

MobCraft, a start-up craft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin, has gotten some buzz lately because of their efforts at crowdfunding equity investment. But crowdsourcing has been integral to their operations — even their beer recipe development — since the get-go.

Chicago Independent Spirits Expo industry panel

Industry Experts Shared High-Proof Insights at Chicago’s Independent Spirits Expo

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Craft spirits tasting events are, by their very nature, fun. But the annual Independent Spirits Expo in Chicago, the latest rendition of which was held Tuesday (Sept. 30), also has a highly informative side. A panel of industry experts ended with a roundup of insights on the outlook for the spirits industry in the years ahead.

Tiny But Mighty Popcorn's Gene Mealhow

Heirloom Popcorn Gets New York Times Spotlight With Focus on Iowa’s Tiny But Mighty

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The rising interest in heirloom (or heritage) varieties of food — and the important role that popcorn producers such as Iowa’s Tiny But Mighty have played in that trend — has caught the eye of The New York Times.

Chicago Event Highlights Scrumptious Pantry’s ‘Eat It to Save It” Approach to Heirlooms

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Lee Greene of Chicago’s Scrumptious Pantry is among the food artisans across the nation who are using and drawing attention to heirloom ingredients that — to the detriment of diners — had largely faded from public consciousness.

Mother Choriza sausage by Red Meat Market

‘Mother Choriza’ Children’s Book Elevates Good Food Ethos — and Puts Butcher in the Hero’s Role

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

You know that the Good Food movement has taken another step into the mainstream when the protagonist of a new children’s book is a butcher producing “Good Meat.”

Craft beer is using more locally produced ingredients.

Sustainability on Tap at Chicago-area Beer Fest

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

For most people who attend craft beer festivals, it’s all about the beer. But craft beer fits comfortably within the big tent of the Good Food movement.

Accelerator Aims to Speed Good Food Growth

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The Good Food movement needs more thriving farm and food businesses. Many farmers and entrepreneurs require help to develop the business skills and access to the resources they need to succeed. Enter FamilyFarmed.org’s new
Good Food Business Accelerator (GFBA), which aims to address those needs.

First Person: Everything Old is New Again at Weston’s Antique Apples

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

Interest in reviving heritage varieties of fruits and vegetables is on the rise. But for almost 80 years and for four generations, Weston’s Antique Apple Orchard has been keeping heritage apples growing in New Berlin, Wisconsin, located just 20 miles southwest of downtown Milwaukee. Genevieve Weston, whose great-grandfather established the orchard, gives her first-person account.