My Holiday Table: A Letter From Our Executive Director

I love entertaining for the holidays and this year I will be doing a lot of it. 

From my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations to a fundraiser for the Iowa Food System Coalition; being a stop for a Christmas home tour fundraiser for the American Cancer Society to hosting a holiday party for all Black Hawk County employees and their families (I am a County Supervisor)–visitors come from miles around to see the over-the-top decorations and for the good food. 

But this year I will also be working to elevate the produce and products of Iowa.

Some of the highlights? Roasted squash from Hoffman Produce Farms served at Thanksgiving, along with homemade mashed potatoes made with potatoes grown by my brother. Pumpkin pies with locally grown pumpkins. At every gathering, a full relish tray, incorporating my very own home pickled items, like dill pickles made with cucumbers from the We Arose Co-op, and my homemade dill brussels sprouts and cauliflower also from Hoffman Produce Farms. 

I am very excited to purchase a half beef this year from Southern Goods/Grazing Cattle, from which I will be serving a slow cooked brisket on Christmas Day, and a prime rib roast. I will also be serving a locally cured ham from Steeges Meat Market. My meatballs are always a big hit for the season, and this year they will include a variety of ground meats including Italian sausage, and ground pork from the Gilbertville Meat Locker as well as ground beef from the half beef I am purchasing–the variety is what makes for a good meatball.

There will be a number of charcuterie boards made this season. Growing-up in Dubuque I developed a deep fondness for the wonderful cheese landscape of southwest Wisconsin. I recently made a trip to my favorite cheese shop in Monroe, the Alp and Dell and am fully stocked for the season. My favorite cheese they offer is the award-winning Grand Cru. One of the things I really enjoy is the wonderful variety of summer sausages produced by Iowa’s meat lockers. Some of my favorite varieties include the cranberry sausage made by Steeges Meat Market and the Swiss cheese and ham from the Elma Meat locker, in fact I love all of the varieties produced in Elma, they will all be making an appearance this holiday. I will also be filling out my boards with a selection of items from the Iowa Food Hub.

I have a love affair with savory tarts and think that they are the perfect easy-to-make, but elevated, holiday food. The combinations are endless, and they can be served warm or at room temperature. Some of the varieties I will make this year include onion and fig, pear and rosemary, and apple and leek. They will all feature a homemade crème fraiche made with heavy cream and buttermilk from Hansen’s Dairy. The pears and apples are all from Apples on the Avenue this year.

One thing I love to do on these cold dark winter nights is to gather a small group of friends around the warm glow of my raclette grill – a tradition of Switzerland where you take par boiled potatoes and vegetables along with sausages and then grill them on a marble top raclette grill. The grill has little trays that go below the heating element to melt your raclette cheese. This year will feature fingerling potatoes and brussels sprouts, and broccoli again from Hoffman Produce Farms.

Since Christmas Day also coincides with the first day of Hanukkah, I will be asking my nephew to make his wonderful latkes—something my late husband, Logun, used to do for me. They will be made with Iowa-grown potatoes,  an applesauce made with some of those wonderful apples I have stowed away, and a dip made with my own chives and sour cream from Country View Dairy.

Of course, there need to be some sweets for the holidays. This year I am planning on old fashioned popcorn balls made with popcorn from Fitkin Popcorn Company as well as some homemade caramels that include some of that decadent heavy cream from Hansen's Dairy.  Now I have a tendency to overcook my caramels and they start to enter toffee territory, but if they do all is not lost. My brother will simply make some of his wonderful toffee cookies. Speaking of my brothers’ cookies, he makes a wonderful shortbread thumbprint cookie. This year they will feature jams from across Iowa including Iowa Eats Well, Clear Creek Orchard, and Kaufman’s Kountry Kitchen in addition to some great ones made by my parents.

You can’t have all of this great food without something to drink. My new favorite Iowa beverage is the wide variety of ciders made by Paha Cider. I have my growlers all lined up and ready to be refilled right there at the orchard. I will also be making multiple batches of homemade Irish cream that will again feature that heavy cream from Hansens.

Planning out all of the local food choices for this year’s holiday table has been a lot of fun, but has come with challenges. Not everyone has the luxury or the ability to plan this far in advance or to make special trips for specific ingredients and products. 

This experience reiterates the importance of the work being done by the Iowa Food System Coalition and our 40+ food and farm partner organizations.I am deeply grateful for the farmers, producers, and food artisans whose hard work and dedication make Iowa's food system vibrant and thriving. We remain steadfast in our mission to make local food the norm, not the novelty. We must continue to build our local food infrastructure and forge relationships with supermarkets, big and small, until there are Iowa products in every aisle. I am very excited to be able to tell the story of Iowa through the foods showcased on my holiday table. It is a story of hard work, and stewardship to the land. It is a story of economic revival and good health. It is not a story of returning to the old ways as some might think, but rather a story that embraces the best of what is possible, one that puts great hope and optimism in our future. That hope and optimism is something I know we all need to carry with us into the new year and beyond.

 So, from my table to yours, happy holidays and hope in the new year.  

Chris Schwartz
Executive Director
Iowa Food System Coalition