“Simply” Fun Day at The Indiana Artisan Marketplace

A couple weekends ago Adam and I had a great day date.

We took our time getting up and headed to Indy for brunch.  I was so excited to take Adam to one of my new favorite restaurants, The Garden Table, in Broad Ripple. 

Broad Ripple is a fun area of Indianapolis full of unique restaurants, bars, and other neat amenities like workout studios and boutiques.

At The Garden Table, the menu showcases seasonal produce, cheese, and meat from local producers. The meals are simple, fresh and made from scratch.

While I love the food and juices, I really love the style of the restaurant. It’s clean and unfussy. The Chalkboard walls illustrate the farms they work with and menu items in a beautiful, whimsy script. Glass Weck jars sit at every table full of water and they even had the super cool, new purple Ball jars holding silverware.

For brunch, Adam opted for the Lox Toast. He had been having dreams about it since I had showed him a photo of it on their instagram account weeks earlier.  It, apparently, didn’t disappoint because I didn’t even get a bite.  

Which really wasn’t a problem because I enjoyed every bit of my order, the Garden Toast, topped with mashed avocado and juicy tomatoes. It was light and had a fresh bite to it thanks to the lemon juice and micro greens.  

We also shared a flight of four of their cold pressed juices.  The deep blue, thanks to activated charcoal, Detox Dream was our favorite with The Garden Gate, full of beet and carrot juices, as a close second.

After our satisfying brunch, we headed a little further south to the Indianapolis Fair Grounds for the Annual Indiana Artisan Marketplace.

Every year, members of Indiana Artisan come together to connect with consumers and each other. One of Adam’s longtime friends, Andy, is a member and makes beautiful furniture.  Check him out at http://coleandsonsinc.com/. 

Adam and I absolutely love this marketplace.  We are always impressed by the woodworkers who make everything from baskets and boxes to neat kitchen tools.  We enjoy seeing the skill of the painters and jewelry makers.   But, not surprisingly, what we really enjoy is checking out all the “Foodists.”

There were so many different food vendors this year.  It was great to see some of our old favorites like Best Boy and Co.

All the Best Boy products are all natural and all of the profit (yes, 100%!) goes to charities for children and families.

Last year, Adam fell in love with their Redhead Hot Sauce and ran out of his last bottle a few weeks before the marketplace.  

This year they had come out with a new Brunette Hot Sauce, which they convinced Adam to buy because I was right next to him.  Looking at me, they said, “You gotta get the Brunette Sauce too!”  Their sales tactic worked like a charm.

In addition to the new Hot Sauce Flavor, they also just rolled out new stone ground mustard’s.  We picked up a jar of each flavor and I have loved using the Deli Style Mustard on anything from pretzels to salmon to salads.  

Another one of our favorites that we were introduced to at last year’s Marketplace is Fermenti Artisan.  Fermenti Artisan is a company that makes fermented products like sauerkraut, Kim-Chi, and curtido.  They take extra care to source local, organic and nutrient dense foods.

Their products are so good.  Adam literally will eat their Kim-Chi right out of the jar.  I love to add it to stir fry, pho and even to salads.

This year, as we stocked up on more Kim-Chi and krauts, I noticed that Fermenti Artisan had a new product: Kombucha.

I was excited.  I love kombucha and would love to try to make my own one of these days.  When I mentioned this to the owners who were manning the booth, confused looks crossed both of their faces.

“You know what kombucha is?” they questioned.

I laughed, knowing that they had probably sized me up.

Kombucha is a fermented tea with an added culture of bacteria and yeast. It is known to have a variety of amazing health benefits.  

It is also know to have a little bit of a “crunchy, granola, hippie” type following.

… Apparently, I don’t look the part.  

But, it’s all good.  I am more into diamonds than dreads anyway. 

My favorite new find this year was Sage’s Simple Syrups.

I literally squealed, “What a GREAT idea!” as I walked into their booth.

I love making craft cocktails and making simple syrup isn’t hard by any means; it’s just kind of annoying because of the dishes and time involved.  This make’s it easy because the work is done. You still get the complex flavor of a handcrafted cocktail.

Sage’s Simple Syrups is owned by a husband and wife duo and they create a various different flavors of simple syrup mixes.  Their diverse flavors include things like Mango Ginger, Guava, Peach Lavender and even Coffee Vanilla Bean.

In talking with Bryna, the wife behind the brand, I learned that the mixes are named after their daughter, Sage, and that her husband actually doesn’t drink.  His motive for the product was because he didn’t want the alcohol, but still wanted to have the feel, flavor and fun of a cocktail.

Each simple syrup bottle includes a cocktail recipe and a mocktail recipe.  But, they also encourage customers to have fun and get creative.

I was immediately drawn to the Lime Mint flavor because I like Mojitos.  And, as much as I love adding my homegrown mint to cocktails like Julup’s and Mojito’s, the leaves can be kind of annoying.

Mojito drinkers will understand… It clogs your straw.  You suck too hard and you get a big chunk of mint leaf in your mouth.  This eliminates the problem!

Excited to give it a try at home, I made a Mojito without a trip to the grocery store for limes or mint.  Club Soda and rum are staples in our liquor cabinet.  

The flavor in the cocktail was a great balance of bold yet not over powering or too sweet.  I am excited to try other Sage’s Simple Syrups flavors, like Cucumber Basil, this summer at the lake and at cookouts to keep life a little more simple.