Salty Caramel

Jeni's is on the Road Again. Up next: Farm Aid.

Willie Nelson is taking his beloved bus:Classic car nut (and model train enthusiast) Neil Young is rolling there in style:John Mellencamp is hopping a ride in a trailer:Dave Matthews? Well, unless he figures out a way to charm whatever driver passes him along the highway, he's walking:

Where are they going?

Where we're going--Farm Aid, which Kansas City is hosting Saturday Aug. 13.  

Since 1985, when Nelson, Young, and Mellencamp founded the day-long concert and "good food movement", Farm Aid has raised almost $40 million in a gallant effort to keep American farmers on their land.  Each year, Farm Aid sets up camp in a different American city and the food made with homegrown crops is as much of an attraction as the soundtrack provided by A-list musicians.

While Jeni is rounding out the Lone Star State leg of her Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home book tour, our crew is deadheading on I-70 west and hauling everything they need to make Jeni's Farm Aid offering, the Sweet Corn Shortbread Sundae, a special sundae made with these Ohio ingredients:

• from-scratch biscuits (made in our kitchen)
• blueberry sauce and whole blueberries (Hirsch Fruit Farm)
• sweet corn ice cream (made by us with Hirsch's corn and Snowville Creamery's grass-grazed milk and cream)
• whipped cream (Snowville)
• mint (Jorgensen Farms)

Our crew is serving the Sweet Corn Shortbread Sundae to 100-150 V.I.P.'s during a private dinner party on the eve of Farm Aid and Saturday our crew will ensure that each musician's dressing room includes Salty Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Strawberry Buttermilk, and Pictachio & Honey ice creams.

Our crew also has been advised not to inhale too deeply if they somehow end up inside the tour bus of long-time green farming proponent Willie Nelson and they have been instructed to file a detailed report about everything Farm Aid early next week, so stay tuned.

Until then, cheers to the American farmer and cheers to everyone who buys food directly from the people who grow it.

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings From Texas!

Thanks for the great enthusiasm during Jeni's sold-out demonstration last night in Houston.  On tap is another sold-out cooking class:

(6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Austin, Texas

See you there and see you at the rest of this week's Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home tour stops:

Aug. 11 (6:30 p.m.); SOLD OUT: Central Market Cooking School, Dallas, Texas

Aug. 12 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Fort Worth, Texas

Following Texas, it's back to Ohio (more on those dates to come).

Questions about anything?  Hit us up on Facebook.

Specific questions about the recipes or anything else in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home?

Hit us up at the fabulous Forum.

 

 

Jeni's Lone Star State of Mind: The Splendid Book Tour Takes Texas

Jeni is barnstorming the Lone Star State this week, with Houston on tap tonight:

Aug. 9 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Houston, Texas

See you there and see you at the rest of this week's Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home tour stops:

Aug. 10 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Austin, Texas

Aug. 11 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Dallas, Texas

Aug. 12 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Fort Worth, Texas

Following Texas, it's back to Ohio.  More on those dates to come.

Questions about anything?  Hit us up on Facebook.

Specific questions about the recipes or anything else in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home?

Hit us up at the fabulous Forum.

 

 

 

 

 

Splendid Ice Creams, Splendid Table, Splendid Dayton

Photos from the Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home tour continue to pour in, including a keeper of Jeni with the fabulous Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table (above), taken during Jeni's Minneapolis visit early this week.

Details of the air-date of Jeni as Lynne's featured Splendid Table guest are TBA, but today you can catch Jeni on television and in person in Dayton.

Jeni's Thursday July 14 schedule:

• Good Morning (live) 8:45 a.m. on WKEF-TV (Channel 22, ABC)/WRGT-TV (Channel 45, Fox), Dayton
• News at Noon (live) on WDTN-TV (Channel 2, NBC) Dayton
• Books & Co. at the Greene in Dayton, Ohio (talk, Q&A, & tasting), 7 p.m.

Upcoming Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home tour dates:

 Tuesday July 19 (noon): Williams-Sonoma, Des Moines, Iowa

Thursday July 21 (3 p.m.): Williams-Sonoma, Nashville

Saturday July 23 (11 a.m.): Sur La Table, Cleveland

Tuesday July 26 (4 p.m.): Star Provisions, Atlanta

Friday July 29 (5:30 p.m.): Giant Eagle Market District (South Hills), Pittsburgh

Saturday July 30 (noon): Giant Eagle Market District (Shadyside), Pittsburgh

Saturday July 30 (4 p.m.): Giant Eagle Market Dictrict (Robinson), Pittsburgh

Saturday Aug. 6 (2 p.m.): Barnes & Noble (Polaris Fashion Center), Columbus, Ohio

Monday Aug. 8 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, San Antonio, Texas

Tuesday Aug. 9 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Houston, Texas

Wednesday Aug. 10 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Austin, Texas

Thursday Aug. 11 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Dallas, Texas

Friday Aug. 12 (6:30 p.m.): Central Market Cooking School, Fort Worth, Texas

Saturday Aug. 27 (11 a.m.): Sur La Table (Easton Town Center), Columbus, Ohio

Saturday Sept. 10 (noon): Anthropologie (Easton Town Center), Columbus, Ohio

Thanks a ton, all of you, for your enthusiasm and for the great feedback you've been sharing on Facebook, Jeni's fan page, and the Forum at jenisicecreams.com.

As always, when you have questions, comments, and photos to share, by all means, please do!

### 

 

Nashville Is A-OK With Me: Craft Food, Drink And Dry Goods On Parade Every Day in Music City

Share

Hot & Cold, Jeni's new "micro scoop shop" in Nashville, Tenn. Hot & Cold is a partnership with Bongo Java Roasting Company, Music City's premiere coffee purveyor.

I'll never forget the first time I went to Nashville. I was headed down to meet my future mother-in-law and Charly took me to Hatch Show Print, the oldest working letterpress in America still there on the main downtown drag, Broadway Avenue. If there's an enduring example of Nashville's do-it-yourself spirit, I think Hatch might still be it.

Over the years I've often thought of Nashville as Columbus' sister city when it comes to creativity and positive folks engaged in uncommon pursuits. We're proud now to be able to say we've united with two of those people, Bob Bernstein and Irma Paz Bernstein in a new "micro scoop shop" as were calling it, Hot & Cold.

After three recent great days and nights in Nashville, my husband Charly and I can agree: 

TRAVEL: JENI SETS SAIL FOR MILAN—AND A BENEFIT FOR VEGGIE U

 

Jeni, taking a break for the camera during the 2009 Food and Wine Celebration in Milan, Ohio 

In October Jeni will be off to share her story with people from around the world at the Slow Foods Terra Madre conference in Italy. The closest she'll get to Italy before fall will be Saturday (July 17) when she heads to the outskirts of Milan, Ohio, for the 8th annual Food and Wine Celebration at the Culinary Vegetable Institute (12304 St. Rte. 13) to benefit Veggie U., a not-for-profit organization embattled to fight childhood obesity and to educate kids about healthful diets and how to grow nutritious food.

A few tickets are still available to the general public for the "earth-to-table" celebration, which begins at 5 p.m. and runs 'til 9. It's always a great time under the tents, which are arranged on the garden-ringed campus of Veggie U, where Jeni will share her story (and ice creams) alongside 30 personable and enthusiastic others who will serve their distinct foods and drinks derived from delicious fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs and meats cultivated by small-scale farmers.

Can't make it to the Veggie U benefit? Please consider a modest donation when you order Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams on our Web site. Add 25 cents to any order and we'll match it. Simple as that.

If you can make it to the benefit, we'll see in you sunny Milan! 

TRAVEL: A visit to Jorgensen Farms

A trip to Jorgensen Farms where Val Jorgensen grows our peppermint. Casey brought along her tiny-little toy Japanacam which, yes, takes video. We're pretty excited about this, our first ever video on saltycaramel.com.

Visiting Jorgensen Farms is like going back in time for the afternoon. It only takes 30 minutes to get there from our kitchen, but it feels much further away. The bees buzz about the lavender lazily...sheep and their lambs stroll the pasture...a breeze rustles fields of peppermint, sunflowers, just-poking through azaleas.