Salsas, jams, vegetables – choose a canning category and its likely Diane Roupe has at least one blue ribbon from the Iowa State Fair in it, if not more. Not too shabby for a woman who once had very little canning experience. “My mother and my grandmother both canned, but I actually never canned myself [...]

Yara Shoemaker worried her husband the first time she experimented with shot glass salads. “My husband came home and he saw all those shot glasses on the counter,” Shoemaker says with a laugh during a recent phone interview. “He said, ‘Are you OK?’” A former model, aesthetician and boutique owner, Shoemaker grew up in Syria [...]

IOWA CITY — When students at the Regina Catholic Education Center finish the school year May 31, they will have composted more than 11,000 pounds of food waste from their cafeteria since August. That waste once went to the landfill, where it took up space and generated methane, a potent greenhouse gas. But since August [...]

The demand for food that’s fresh and local just keeps growing. That’s just as true in retirement communities as anywhere else. “We used to serve what you would consider ‘industrial food’ — thaw it out, cook it, serve it,” says Laurie Fish, dietary services manager at the Hiawatha Care Center, a 95-bed skilled nursing facility [...]

  Chris Christensen wanted to delay getting “a real job” with a suit and a cubicle. At least that’s the joke version of why the Cedar Rapids native became a winemaker in California. In truth, it’s the combination of craftsmanship and science — two things Christensen loves — that piqued his interest. “I’ve built furniture [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS – Has this happened to you? It’s late and you’re hungry, but the thought of making dinner isn’t appealing, so you grab a frozen meal from the freezer. A few minutes later, dinner is served – maybe not the dinner you imagined, but at least it isn’t fast food. You can stop [...]

Editor’s note: One in a series of stories on poverty, a topic that The Gazette considers a content priority for 2013. CEDAR RAPIDS — Amanda Pieper was thrilled to see eggplant in the HACAP Food Reservoir last year, but the vegetable was ignored by the food assistance agencies HACAP serves. “We had a great donation,” [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — The Chicago Hot Dog is probably the most popular menu item at The Flying Weenie. Topped with mustard, onion, tomatoes, dill spear, relish, sport peppers and celery salt — or anything else the customer wants, according to the menu — this is a hot dog to sink your teeth into, and [...]

NORTH LIBERTY — In North Liberty five elementary schools can be found within a four-mile radius. Three — Garner, Penn and Van Allen — are all part of the Iowa City school district. Despite their geographical closeness, until this year the three school communities had never worked together on a project benefiting all of their [...]