Iowa Life Episode 204

[Charity Nebbe] Coming up on this episode of Iowa Life, we'll learn about a chef turned farmer and forager in Story County.

[Man 1] Being a chef before I started doing this full-time, we grow products that we're going to want to cook with, that I would want to see come through my restaurant door if I was working there.

[Nebbe] We'll meet autism awareness advocate Tyler Leech.

[Man 2] I thank you for putting your best bare foot forward for autism.

[Crowd] Thank you!

[Nebbe] And we'll learn how the urban bicycle food ministry delivers food and personal items to people in need.

[Man 3] There is a huge need out there in the community. And that is where the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry fits in is offering a free meal on a Thursday night.

[Nebbe] It's all coming up next on Iowa Life.

[Announcer] Funding for Iowa Life is provided by

The Pella Rolscreen Foundation is a proud supporter of Iowa PBS. Pella Windows and Doors strives to better our communities and build a better tomorrow.

And by, the Lainie Grimm Fund for inclusive programming at the Iowa PBS Foundation.

[Nebbe] Hi, I'm Charity Nebbe and this is Iowa Life. Just a short drive from Des Moines, Lake Ahquabi State Park outside of Indianola has been a popular destination since it was founded in 1936. Iowa is home to more than 60 state parks and they are great places to visit, hike, kayak, canoe and enjoy Iowa's natural beauty. It is also possible to forage for food in Iowa's parks. State law says that anyone can forage on public land unless it is specifically posted otherwise. As this Story County farmer is discovering, food can be found in surprising places.

[Man 1] We're doing a farm to table today with everything a hundred percent local as much as we can. A huge amount of the stuff we actually grew on our farm and then everything down to the flour, the spices.

Whenever I do like an event like this, I want the first bite to kind of set the pace for the rest of the night. The acidity from the tomatoes, the sweet savory bacon and then this Thai basil, just think of it as way more flavorful than an Italian basil.

All right, we're bringing out the next two courses here. So, we're sharing this family style. This is a farm to table dinner. This is kind of like a communal event, so similar to Thanksgiving we're passing the bowl to each other. So, pass it along and enjoy.

Restaurants are an amazing place to be. There is an amazing tight knit group of people to work with. But there's a lot of downside. Not a lot of time spent with family and friends.

[Andrew Hoffman, Hoffman Farm & Forage] When I graduated culinary school, I went into the restaurant scene in Cedar Rapids and was introduced to a ton of local farmers and then decided that I would rather have my time be that.

So, growing up on a farm we were pretty self-sufficient with produce. We did a lot of canning. We raised our own chickens for meat, for eggs. We raised our own cattle. And not until I moved out and went to school did I realize the quality of food that we were eating. That was really when I started to try to put my full focus on making food. So, it has been built into me from a young age, pulling produce right out of the garden and taking it to the hose and rinsing it off and eating it.

Hoffman Farm and Forage, we are a chef-focused farm. Being a chef before I started doing this full-time, we grow products that we're going to want to cook with, that I would want to see come through my restaurant door if I was working there. The other aspect is foraging. We do a ton of foraging. That kind of started as a hobby of mine. It's a huge income boost for us when we are able to forage mushrooms. Mushrooms are essentially like a protein. It's as if we were to bring beef to the market, but it's mushrooms.

We like to sauté them in a little butter. I like to say, however you like mushrooms is kind of how I'd suggest you cook them that way. So, you'll probably be most successful that way.

It's fun to be able to talk to people and see how excited they are about that. Or, "I've never seen this mushroom, can you explain it to me?" How do you cook it? Or, I don't like mushrooms and then you kind of try to broaden their horizon. There's just so many other better mushrooms out there. I get bored easy, so if I just farmed, I would hate it. So, first it was photography and then I've started to ID the mushrooms and then cook with them and eat them. So, my day is literally split in thirds cooking, foraging and farming.

(nature sounds)

So, a lot of times when I'm randomly walking around looking for mushrooms, I'm looking at tree canopies and trees for what kind of trees they are. I'll be looking for downed dead logs depending on what I'm looking for. Most likely if it's in season you'll find some. We started with just my wife and I loving nature. Our weekends were spent hiking. We would go out in the woods. We would hike, we would find nature and you want to learn about it. So, you start to educate yourself, you start to learn more and then you start to comprehend the different aspects of edible food that is out in nature.

Tucked back under this log are two little ghost pipes or corpse plant. So, you can see it's completely white. This one is a little older so it's turning a little black. They don't get their nutrients from the sun at all. They latch onto the mycorrhizal undergrowth, which is basically the root network of mushrooms. And the root network of mushrooms lives off of the decomposing material of trees. Mushrooms to plant trees through that, it's super cool.

There's like some interesting aspects to foraging that people have a little bit of I would say maybe apprehension. It's such a foreign thing for the States especially.

This is a coral tooth, coral tooth mushroom. It's in the same family as lion's mane and it has amazing medicinal benefits.

So, Iowa State Extension has a licensing class where you can go and you can get certified to be a licensed forager. I remember my first class back in like 2015 or something it was, it was a small classroom, there was maybe ten people in it. And then the class that I had this past spring it was a lecture classroom, it was full, there was a few hundred people in there. And that's just one class of a dozen that they do a year. And it's exciting. It's fun to come across something like that.

So, these still have a little bit of time on them. They call them watermelon radish. That bright color right in the middle. This piece of land is pretty dear to my heart. It was my great-grandfather purchased this property in the 1940s. Late fall 2020 we purchased a house in Roland. And the fall of 2020 we tilled ground to put our first garlic crop in. At that point, we just full-headed transitioned and moved the farm here. We had to build all new clientele, we had to find new markets. And really, I just want to work with the product that we grow. I genuinely enjoy being able to present a meal and be like hey, this is one hundred percent locally sourced from Iowa, even down to like a 20, 30-mile radius within Iowa. But to be able to take this family farm, create a community built around it, I mean, it's wonderful and hopefully able to show that experience to the next generation. It's been outstanding. I'm excited to continue to grow and continue to move forward with everything we're doing.

[Man 2] Follow me, troops.

[Tyler Leech, Des Moines] The Barefoot Autism Challenge was something that I thought of back in 2017. The challenge lets people understand a sensory aspect of autism by walking barefoot during the month of April and share what advocating for someone who is autistic means to them.

Just this last April, I coordinated an event with the Des Moines Arts Center to give a tour of the museum completely barefoot and encouraging other guests to do the same.

Most of the time people view autism as just a communications issue but there's a lot more to it than that.

I thank you for putting your best barefoot forward for autism.

[Crowd] Thank you.

(applause)

[Tyler] As someone who is autistic, what I want people to understand about me is that I am a fun guy to be around and I can be a good friend and if you take the time to get to know me it can be a pretty neat thing.

[Woman 1] One, two, three ...

[Crowd] Barefoot!

[Tyler] I was diagnosed when I was 22 months old. It was a moment where I was talking normally but then lost my language and didn't get it back until another couple of years. I didn't fully grasp what autism was until I was around 11 years old. And I didn't think I was any different from any other kid at the time.

I have done some advocacy work and I shared a story of how I was pulled over by officers and detained until my state legislator and he helped pass a bill that allowed autism designation on driver’s licenses.

[Sheri Leech] Tyler has really overcome a lot. He is actually doing some training with the police academy for autism awareness and he has also done things for Wells Fargo where he has flown out on business trips and educated people on autism. He is really wanting to make a difference and he truly is making a difference.

[Tyler] I have been attending Lutheran Church of Hope since about 2007, maybe 2008.

I feel like what I gain from Hope is a sense of being a part of a community and I learn a lot about myself as a Christian and some things that I could do to change different aspects of my life.

[Jamie Richards, Revive Young Adult Minister] Tyler is always able to find the silver lining or to find a way to turn something that is difficult into an opportunity for hope. I think that Tyler is one of the most positive people that I know, one of the most resilient and hopeful people that I know.

[Tyler] Revive is the young adult ministry at Lutheran Church of Hope. I shared my bocce skills with my Revive friends. For the Special Olympics State Summer Games in Ames, Iowa, I got the gold medal in bocce.

I have had the great honor of being named male athlete of the year.

I started out with Special Olympics in 2001. I was curious about bowling, soccer, basketball and golf. This past September I participated in Special Olympics unified golf with my dad.

With the practice I've done with bowling, I'm getting ready for the district tournament. For the districts, if I get the blue ribbon, which would be first place, then I'll be eligible to go to the state tournament.

Yeah! Strike!

Living with autism isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's how you choose to live with it that determines who you are. And it also depends on the help you get from different people and the kind of people that are in your circle.

Yes!

I've met some more new friends along the way, one of which is looking into helping me get into the dating world.

Times two makes 34.

[Sherri] Now that Tyler is older, he wants to use his voice and make sure that everyone knows that people with autism and special needs need to be included and need to be embraced and loved and supported.

Oh, it looks good. Look at that, that's perfect!

[Tyler] I just want to continue doing what I am doing right now and I am just looking forward to seeing what life has in store for me.

[Nebbe] Several of the structures at Lake Ahquabi State Park were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp during the Great Depression. Today, we are going to reach back into the archives to learn more about this program and to hear from some of the men whose hard labor built the lodges, dams and trails that are still found at many of Iowa's state parks.

Iowa's natural landscape holds many wonders, rolling hills, deep river valleys and outstanding geological features. Nestled within that natural beauty are iconic structures that are themselves a work of art, like the boathouse at Backbone State Park, the stone bridge at Ledges and the spillway at Beed's Lake. These projects and dozens more were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

The CCC was a government program founded in the midst of the Great Depression by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1933, nearly one in four Americans was out of a job and there was an urgent need to employ young men. The men who joined the corps were young, some would say still boys. They were the boys of the CCC.

(music)

[Don Foley, CCC Boy, Interviewed in 2002] We did help a lot of people that really were down and out and it got them going a little bit because there wasn't any money, nobody had any money.

(music)

[Owen Beaman, CCC Boy, Interviewed in 2002] Times were rough. My dad had died and I and my brother were still at home and you couldn't find a job or anything. And we had lost the farm where my dad had spent his lifetime saving up to buy the farm and he owed quite a bit on it and you need eating money, my mother needed eating money.

♪ Why did I join the CCC? ♪

♪ Why did I join the CCC? ♪

[Nebbe] Only single men between the ages of 18 and 25 whose families were on relief were eligible to join the Civilian Conservation Corps. In exchange for hard labor, a CCC boy received room and board, clothing, training and a monthly paycheck of $30, $25 of which was sent straight home to his family.

Just the idea of three meals and a bed were enough to get many young men to enroll in the CCC.

[Otto Schwartz, CCC Boy, Interviewed in 2002] It was run very much like in the Army. We slept in Army cots, we made the bed like the Army, we had things, cleaned things like the Army, we polished our shoes like they did in the Army, very much so. It was good training, I'll tell you what. I grew up in a hurry.

[Nebbe] The camps operated under military style rules, but it wasn't all work. There were sports teams and educational opportunities.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was designed to help not only the nation's human resources, but its natural resources as well.

Much of what we enjoy today in Iowa's state parks, we owe to the hard labor of more than 46,000 young men.

[Beaman] I look at it now and it was probably the best thing that ever happened to us, us young people then that didn't have a job. And I think it was a good deal. I think Franklin Roosevelt knew what he was doing.

[Nebbe] Food insecurity is defined as a lack of access to safe and nutritious food, or the inability to obtain food in a socially acceptable way. It is estimated that more than 340,000 Iowans are food insecure. Every week, the Urban Bike Food Ministry comes together to serve radical hospitality one burrito at a time.

[Man 4] There's over 2,000 homeless within Des Moines.

We always say they're in plain sight. You'll see them at a corner with a cardboard holded up asking for money or something like that.

There is a huge need out there in the community and that is where the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry fits in is offering a free meal on a Thursday night.

[Robby Collier, Chief Burrito Slinger, Urban Bicycle Food Ministry] The Urban Bicycle Food Ministry is a mission. The simple answer is we make food and we give it away.

Currently, we're making 800 burritos. 300 turkey and cheese sandwiches. 420 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And we also hand out fruit to the homeless and food insufficient of Des Moines.

It kind of expanded from cycling.

All right, welcome. Glad everybody is here tonight. If you do not ride a bike, we do have car routes. We have chase vehicles, so you don't have to think I won't be able to help, you'll still be able to help.

Lord, we just ask that you watch over our friends on the street. We thank you for this beautiful weather and the opportunity to get back on our bikes. Lord, we ask that you bless the food for the nourishment of the body and that you keep us safe that we can come back and do this again next week.

[Matthew Kolodziej, UBFM Volunteer] Sometimes I'll come in early and I'll prep stuff to make sandwiches and to get the routes ready. And then my favorite part is actually going out on the routes and connect with the people that we serve.

(intermittent chatter)

[Kolodziej] I was out on the streets. A few years ago, I was actually homeless myself. I was hungry and tired. I saw these people, about four or five people with the carts on the back of their bicycles and the yellow shirts and asked if I was hungry.

The longest that I actually made it on the streets not using some type of shelter or something like that was two weeks. And so that is one thing I think when I go out and serve the people on the streets that I see every week because I know how harrowing that is.

You feel unseen. You feel like you're suffering alone except for the people that you're with.

So, to be seen by somebody and then served, having conversation and it planted a seed.

I get to see people that I've known for many years and it's sad and also when they see me and they see that there's that potential and that spark of hope. I usually have multiple interactions throughout the night that connects me to my humanity. And to be able to go out and have the opportunity to serve and have those connections and feel like a human being really helps me work through whatever I'm working through.

The feeling of going back, riding back down the strip and riding back home, I think about how grateful I am to have a home to ride to.

Patience and compassion are not something that people have for the homeless.

[Man 5] How are you doing tonight?

[Woman 2] Good. I'm worn out already.

[Man 5] Oh, you are? How about some dinner? Yeah. How many bags do you need tonight?

[Woman 2] Two.

[Man 5] Just two? Amy back there with you tonight?

[Woman 2] Yeah, I already got hers.

[Man 5] Oh, you got hers.

(music)

[Lola Moore, Unhoused Friend of UBFM] They're not afraid to accidentally be touched by you because even some of the people that bring food and say that they're here to help you, they still are scared to catch your contagious homelessness or something. We ain't contagious.

Those are the people that if I need something, if I'm in trouble, I have an issue, am I going to run to the police first or the burrito people? If I have a chance, I'm going to talk to the burrito people first because I have a better chance of getting help that way.

[Collier] I understand that sometimes it's a touchy subject, that a camp is in a certain spot where maybe it should not be. But we'll still try to serve those people.

[Man 6] How many are you tonight?

[Man 7] That's ten.

[Man 6] That's ten. Do you need socks?

[Collier] But when you hand somebody a burrito and they have that thing opened within seconds and they're eating right in front of you because they're so hungry, they might not have something to eat for the last day or two, I will enable that every single time because people should not go hungry.

[Man 8] Burritos!

[Collier] Our numbers are increasing and we don't get to serve everybody we used to because we run out of food. We just can't produce enough because we don't have enough volunteers. We can't produce enough because we don't have enough money. We don't serve enough because we don't have enough routes.

I think as a society if we can do something to help move people up, get them out of that situation, it's better for them, it's better for the community, it's better for everybody.

[Man 8] Burritos!

[Collier] We offer grace, love, respect and hope one burrito at a time.

[Nebbe] That's all for this week. Thank you for joining me as we learn more about how Iowans build healthy lives, outdoor spaces and community. I'm Charity Nebbe. See you next time for more Iowa Life.

[Announcer] Funding for Iowa Life is provided by

The Pella Rolscreen Foundation is a proud supporter of Iowa PBS. Pella Windows and Doors strives to better our communities and build a better tomorrow.

And by, the Lainie Grimm Fund for inclusive programming at the Iowa PBS Foundation.