Edible Communities Announces Edible Austin as the winner of a 2007 MarCom Award and 2008 EDDY Award

Edible Communities is pleased to announce two prestigous awards for Edible Austin. in their first year of publication!

2007 MarCom Awards
Gold Award—Magazine Photography/Cover
Edible Austin, Fall 2007

The MarCom Awards is an international competition for communications professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of print, visual and audio materials, with more than 5,200 entries in 2007.

2008 EDDY Awards
Award of Excellence in Publishing for Best Website
Feature: Edible Austin’s Marketplace Forum

Eight awards were bestowed this year by Edible Communities among it’s publication group of 50 magazines, judged by a panel of outside experts from the food and publishing worlds. Edible Austin was a finalist in four of those awards (Best Editorial—Short, Best Column Creation, Best Website Feature, Best Creative Idea) as well as the winner of the 2008 EDDY award for Best Website Feature.

Edible Communities 2008 Local Hero Awards
Honoring Local Food Leaders, Community by Community

This year’s Local Heroes were selected via an online voting process whereby readers of each magazine could nominate and vote for their favorite candidates in each of five categories including best farm/farmer, chef/restaurant, food artisan, beverage artisan and non-profit organization. The amount of participation and interest generated by our readers was staggering.

“The week in December when all the entries come in is one of the best times of the year for us,” said Tracey Ryder, Edible Communities president and co-founder. “We are awed and humbled by the efforts made in each community by their Local Heroes—those citizens in each community who make significant contributions to the local foods movement in their region. We know the message of building communities through food is being well-served by this incredible group of people.”

Congratulations to our Austin Local Heroes! We will honor them at our Edible Austin One Year Anniversary Party on April 20.

2008 Local Heroes – Austin

FARM/FARMER: Boggy Creek Farm, farmers Carol Ann Sayle and Larry Butler

CHEF/RESTAURANT: Jesse Griffiths, Dai Due Supper Club

FOOD ARTISAN: Tracy Claros, Sticky Toffee Pudding Co.

BEVERAGE ARTISAN: Mark and Matt Seiler, Maine Root

NON-PROFIT: Sustainable Food Center

When Edible Austin magazine launched at the beginning of last summer, Urban Roots was little more than an idea, a few determined staff and a myriad of grant proposals. The previous fall, the project was brainstormed, and by spring, community meetings were held as well as focus groups with youth in East Austin. By summer, program directors Max Elliott and Mike Evans were confident enough to set program dates for 2008. Edible Austin selected Urban Roots as the beneficiary of our first annual Eat Local Week for their energy, commitment and our shared mission of growing new organic farmers and food awareness.

We recruited over 40 restaurants and markets to feature locally-sourced entrees or food products—a portion of the proceeds of which were donated to Urban Roots—and invited Central Texans to experience a week of celebrating local food. The event raised over $8,000 for Urban Roots, as it made new connections for local businesses with local food producers and eaters alike.

Congratulations to Alamo Drafthbouse and the Sunset Valley Farmers' Market who won the top honors for most money raised in the restaurant and market categories! And congratulations also to Nikki Adame Winningham, our raffle winner of the generous Z Tejas chef's dinner for eight. Nikki says, "My husband (Charles) and I are just beginning to discover the joys of knowing where our food comes from and we're so excited to help others experience the same through Urban Roots. How could we not support such an incredible project? Thank you Z-Tejas and Edible Austin!”

Here’s an update from Urban Roots on their progress since then.

In December, we took to the streets to get word out to 14-17 year olds about our program. We talked about Urban Roots being a chance for them to give back to their community by growing food, donating and serving it in local soup kitchens, and selling it at farm stands in East Austin. The promise of cooking classes and public speaking training also appealed to the youth we talked to. When the dust settled after our feverish recruiting, 48 youth had submitted applications. We interviewed the lot in two sessions of interactive group activities coupled with individual interviews. What an impressive group! Our dizzying challenge was then to select 17 as our first farm interns. It was no easy task, but we are now underway at our new farm in East Austin. We are planting seeds in anticipation of our first harvest and are excited about joining the youth-agriculture movement that has rapidly spread across the country. Come visit us soon! —Urban Roots

We thank our 2007 Eat Local Week participating restaurants, markets, and contributors (listed below)—and look forward to following Urban Roots’ progress throughout this year and beyond. Above all, we thank everyone who went out and bought, ate and made local food to help Urban Roots break ground. And we look forward to doing all again in 2008!

THANKS TO: 34th Street Café, Alamo Drafthouse, Angel Valley Farm, ASTI Trattoria, Austin Farmers’ Market, Bleu River Grille at Texas Culinary Academy, Blue Dahlia Bistro, Boggy Creek Farm, Carmelo’s, Casa de Luz, CHOMP Cookies, Cissi’s Market, City of Austin, Clementine Coffee Bar, Clifford’s Original Wine Bar, Cocoa Puro, Cotton Gin, Dish-a-Licious, Dripping Springs Vodka, Eastside Café, FINO, Good Flow Juice Company, Greater Austin Area Restaurant Association, Greenling Organic Delivery, Guero’s Taco Bar, Home Slice Pizza, Iron Cactus, Jade Leaves, J. Black’s, Jeffrey’s, Kerbey Lane Café, The Leaning Pear Café & Eatery, Magnolia Café, Maine Root, Moonshine, Navajo Grill, NXNW Restaurant, Paula’s Texas Spirits, People’s Rx, Primizie Osteria, Satay Restaurant, SAVVY Vodka, Sunset Valley Farmers’ Market, Sweetish Hill Bakery, Sweet Leaf Tea, Teo, Tito’s Vodka, Treaty Oak Platinum Rum, Ventana at Texas Culinary Academy, Wheatsville, Whip In Cornershop, Z’ Tejas

But first back to Day Four and the Holiday Cocktail Mixer photos! We really will post these, I promise!

But in the meantime, here's a photo from the Austin City Council chambers on the night of December 6 when we received our official proclamation from the City for Eat Local Week. We brought crates full of samples of what's in season during Eat Local Week for the council members to enjoy.


From left to right: Urban Roots program directors Mike Evans and Max Elliott, Edible Austin publisher Marla Camp, Council member Mike Martinez, Edible Austin associate publisher Jenna Noel, Edible Austin advisory group member Suzanne Santos and YouthLaunch executive director Russell Smith.

Tuesday was our day to try out Magnolia Cafe's Thunder Heart bison burger with chipotle BBQ sauce for lunch (see photo below of their Daily Special board). It was amazing -- very flavorful and delicious. The chipotle sauce was also great for dipping the home fries in. We really hope they can keep this item on their menu after Eat Local Week is over. Then we stopped by J. Black's for their special South Texas Kobe Beef Sliders and local brews at happy hour. Yummy. Then home to find that Jeff had made himself dinner with Chuck and Teppi Schmidt's Fredericksburg Grassfed Beef fajita cuts that we bought at the Farmers' Market on Saturday, which he cooked with local green peppers; accompanied by a salad from Boggy Creek Farm greens and veggies. He said it was wonderful. Luckily there are leftovers for me to try later...

Monday was a lot of fun -- checking out what different restaurants were serving and finding out how things were going. We heard from Teo's that they were selling out of their rio star grapefruit sorbettos every day. Eastside Cafe sold out of their Betsy Ross chilli / salad combo special over the weekend and Elaine had to drive to Manor to meet Betsy Ross to get more product to keep the special going through the week. The bison burgers are a hit at Magnolia Cafe (will be going there for lunch today to try them). And we got this note from Susan Hawkins, who went to Guero's Taco Bar for her local lunch:

I went to Guero’s today for lunch, thinking that I had a little time, and I was curious to see what their “Eat Local Week” offering was going to be. I walked in, and on the chalkboard, there it was, Spinach Salad with goat cheese. Now, I have had many spinach salads in my life, and have always kind of liked them, but that’s only because they have been all about the bacon. I ordered this one, to support the cause, and was totally blown away. I ordered the salad dressing on the side so I could control the amount, but I never even touched it. This salad was amazing! When the waiter, Moe, delivered it to me, he smiled and said, “hey, my neighbor makes this cheese”, how cool is that? At any rate, I started in on it and found myself thinking, oh my, this is so great I have to call everyone I know to come here. And then I thought, No, if I do, they will run out of it before I have a chance to come back tonight and have this again! I’m not making this up. It was the best salad I have ever had. The spinach (from Boggy Creek Farm) was perfect, the goat cheese (from Pure Luck) was so flavorful, but not overwhelming, and the mushrooms were almost crispy on the outside and tender inside ... really perfect.
I was so impressed that the lady at the next table ordered one also! Thanks local producers and Guero’s! What a hit! — Susan Sides-Hawkins

Awaiting a report on the Alamo Drafthouse's Food and Movie night....In the meantime, please send us your stories!

And this just in....check out a super Eat Local Week special happening tonight at J. Black's.

Live in-studio interview with Boggy Creek Farm's Carol Ann Sayle and exec chef Justin Raiford of 34th Street Cafe on KVUE morning news kicked things off. The highlight of my day was taking my parents (actually they ended up taking us) to Eastside Cafe for Elaine's fabulous Betsy Ross chili and seasonal garden salad combo that's their featured entree for the benefit. Wheatsville Co-op hosted Urban Roots in the afternoon telling shoppers about the program and encouraging them to take the "name that seed" challenge—and to buy raffle tickets for the Z'Tejas special chef's dinner—a great way to make a donation and maybe win an all-local $1000 value dinner party. Tonight my husband, Jeff, and I had Peach Creek Farms green chile sausage, Pasta and Company ravioli and sauce and a salad of farmers' market lettuces and greens, carrots, tomatoes and broccoli (steamed lightly, rinsed in cold water and added to the salad). Took about 15 minutes to prepare. Please send us your eat local week eating and drinking experiences. We'd much rather talk about your adventures than what I'm eating every day this week. Our much-appreciated advisory group member, Cathryn Dorsey, has started her "diary of a newbie-locavore" and sent us this first-day offering. Now send us yours!