Duos

Need a gift for that hard-to-buy-for relative or boss? How about one for a best friend who’s a foodie, or a colleague who loves to shop local? Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest is a new coffee table book that features vivid photography and personal stories from more than 80 Hoosiers involved in Indiana food. The book includes entrepreneurs such as Sun King Brewing Co.’s Clay Robinson and Goose the Market’s Chris Eley; chefs such as Duos’ Becky Hostetter and R Bistro’s Regina Mehallick; as well as producers and growers that supply them – including Greg Gunthorp and Dave Fischer.

The book retails for $24.95 and is sold at a variety of local stores including Homespun, Silver in the City, Indy Reads Books, Big Hat Books, Book Mama’s, and the new West Elm store at The Fashion Mall at Keystone. It is also available online at www.IndianaHarvest.com. All proceeds benefit Indiana Humanities, which creates engaging humanities programs for Hoosiers.

Over the next few weeks, several Indianapolis locations are hosting free book signings with author David Hoppe and photographer Kristin Hess. At the events, the books will be available for 20% off the cover price for $20.

Locations and times of the book talks and signings:

Thursday, Nov. 29 from 6 – 8 p.m.
Book signing at New Day Meadery (1102 Prospect Street, Indianapolis)

Saturday, Dec. 1 from Noon – 4 p.m.
Holiday Author Fair, Indiana History Center (450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis)

Friday, Dec. 7 from 4 – 7 p.m.
Holiday Harvest book signing at Sun King Brewing Co. with Duos (135 North College Avenue, Indianapolis)

Friday, Dec. 7 from 8 – 10 p.m.
First Friday book signing at Murphy Art Center with People for Urban Progress (Murphy Art Center, 1043 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis)

Wednesday, Dec. 12 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Book signing at Goose the Market (2503 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis)

At Goose the Market, local producers, food advocates and chefs all featured in Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest will be available to sign autographs, dedications and talk one-on-one with guests about the challenges and successes of Indiana’s local food future. New Goose products just for the holidays will be available including special releases made from the goods grown and cooked up by people featured in the book.

“Through our Food for Thought program, we met an amazing group of people involved in Indiana food,” said Keira Amstutz, president and CEO of Indiana Humanities. “We wanted to share their stories about making a living through food, how the creative, entrepreneurial passion drives people to take risks and introduce food-based innovations, and how Hoosiers’ efforts are working to solve food-based challenges across the street and around the globe. These are the stories we will be telling about through our book.”

Commissioned by Indiana Humanities, Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest features a broad spectrum of Hoosiers statewide, and is a legacy of the two-year award-winning program called Food for Thought. Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest was published by IBJ Publishing and printed by an Indiana company.

Local marketing firm, Intelligent Designs Media, has teamed up with ten of the biggest food trucks in Indianapolis to launch the first-ever food truck festival in the city. The event, “Taste Of The Trucks 2011,” will be held on August 13th from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. at 61st and Broadway Park in Broad Ripple.

After reading about and experiencing the burgeoning food truck scene in Indianapolis, Intelligent Designs Media President, Steve Neville, and Director of Sales, David Butz, knew what they had to do: “Food trucks are such an amazing concept,” Neville said. “And when I saw that there were so many new trucks around the city serving up so many diverse foods, I knew I had to figure out a way to raise awareness of this growing culture.”

Their idea: an organically grown festival that is run by local businesses, supporting local businesses.

“We are all trying to make this festival as grassroots a festival as possible to fit the concept of food truck advertising,” Neville explained. “Food trucks in Indianapolis run their entire business through the power of word-of-mouth and, most importantly, social media. And if they can run successful businesses through these platforms, then we want to do the same for the festival.”

And, so far, the idea of spreading the word through social media is working. Within 24-hours of the announcement of the festival on Facebook, the event already had 110 confirmed attendees and the food trucks are spreading the word to their followers on Twitter.

“The buzz this event is generating is more than we could imagine,” Butz stated. “I think this will be a great opportunity for the community to experience local businesses at their best, and tastiest.”

The event is family-friendly and admission is free. The food trucks will be charging their regular prices for the food offered, with sodas and water also available for purchase. The trucks participating are: Scratchtruck, Mabel On The Move, Fat Sammies Ciao Wagon, Hoosier Fat Daddy, Duos, TheNYslice, Groovy Guys Fries, Scout’s Treat Truck, Tacos Without Borders, and West Coast Tacos.

Guests can RSVP their attendance on Facebook. Just search for “Taste Of The Trucks 2011”