Spring has sprung…..finally.  Well, the weather isn’t cooperating, but the produce is finally starting to arrive.  I have been looking forward to the arrival of our first local asparagus in the next couple of days.  This is really MY first indication that we are finally over the cold and dark.  Next week we will feature the local asparagus on at least three items on the menu and also our produce supplier is bringing us a new local spring mix.  I really enjoy this time of the year after trying to be creative with beets, turnips, carrots, potatoes and the occasional box of kale through the winter months.

Today is Earth Day.  Nourish has committed to featuring a new sustainable shrimp from a company called Laughing Bird.  The great thing about it is that no habitat or environmental damage is part of the raising or harvesting of these shrimp.  This company is also going to offer scallops in the future as well, so keep checking in.  Today we’re featuring shrimp po’boys with remoulade sauce on the menu and a salad featuring the shrimp as well.

Another big announcement for the day is that voting begins for a contest that I entered to support our commitment to sustainability.  I have been selected as one of twelve chefs from across the U.S. & Canada to compete for a chance to cook my recipe for the James Beard House (like the Grammys, but for chefs) in May.  I chose to feature cider braised pork shanks from Fischer Farms and oyster mushrooms from Hawthorne Farms, paired with creamy smoked tomato grits, in a comforting dish perfect for this time of the year as the cool evenings are hanging on.  This dish utilizes several local offerings from some of our suppliers and is part of how we at Nourish try to keep our guests connected to the farmers that are our life blood.  The voting will happen on YouTube and the top 5 get to go to the James Beard House in New York City to show their stuff.  How about a little support for Nourish?

Just around the corner, we will have Indiana strawberries, heirloom early tomatoes, spring greens, as well as great products from our partners from Fischer Farms, Capriole Farms Goat Cheese, Viking Lamb, Fair Oaks Farm Cheese and many others.  Stop in and see what we have every week…..the menu is always changing.

Be patient….Think SPRING.

@uplandindy kept the beer (and conversation) flowing all night long.

@kylehodges1 aka DJ TwinPeaks manned the turntables.

IMA’s Top Blogger, Katie Neville graced us with her presence.

iPads in circulation. Always a people pleaser.

We’ve got a few ideas up our sleeve for the next BlogAnon. Until then, see you on the internets.

At my house, there is no such plan. We plant randomly, but with fervor. There are few successes, and more than a few bare spots where things refuse to survive. I don’t take it personally, I just plant something else in its place. Garden books are voraciously read through the winter months, but when spring comes, all knowledge and carefully made plans are obliterated at the first sight of a perennial sale.

We are going to have a real garden in the new rental house, no matter what. Enlisting the frenetic planting skills of a seven-year old boy, we got started at the first sight of a seed sale. My son doesn’t think that the planting directions are really important. He just wants to put the seeds in the ground and see what happens next. The single soybean that came home from school in a tiny bit of dirt is proudly growing in a beautiful blue pot next to the front door. We just want to see what happens next.

Along with the ever-extending line of terracotta pots filled with tomato plants, basil, pepper plants and cantaloupes, is the row of egg cartons filled hopefully with watermelon seeds, more cantaloupes, chives, carrots and purple basil. Only my son knows which one is which. He just wants to see them grow. I hesitate to tell him that the carrots might not make it – they are all carefully clustered into a very small pot. Small seeds, small pot. He has it figured out. Each afternoon, he tours his domain and shouts at anything new that is sprouting. The line of morning glory seeds along the front of the house is a bit disheveled, but the pride he takes in knowing that he planted something that is growing, is outstanding.

My daughter approaches planting methodically. Plant only a few things, but make sure that they are in the right sunlight, the right amount of shade. She actually reads the directions on the seed packages to decide where to grow her crop. This year, we are determined to attract butterflies and ladybugs. The hand-painted ladybug house is now surrounded by sweet pea seedlings and a row of sunflowers. Plants are carefully selected, based on their butterfly appeal. Someone in the neighborhood might object to the fact that they are growing in the small space between the sidewalk and the street, but our theory is that it looks better now than it did before. My daughter’s planting program is all about making things look beautiful. The strawberry pots that hang from the front porch are hers too. As the berries ripen one at a time, the hope still exists that there will be a big enough crop to share for breakfast.

I love the fact that my children understand the importance of growing things – sometimes, just for the sake of growing them. It is a rare year that our garden’s bounty is ample enough to keep us sustained through the summer, but we keep trying. The kids understand that the Saturday morning trips to the farmer’s markets are more than just an opportunity to say hello to every single dog at the market. They are starting to notice that there are always different fruits and vegetables for sale. They are inclined to take a risk and try vegetables that they would have otherwise rejected, simply because the farmer took the time to explain their wares to two curious minds. Beets have been offered, prepared and consumed. The farmer told them that they were sweet and delicious and he knows FAR more than mom or dad does. We had a small setback when the sweet peppers must have gotten crossed with the spicy ones. That particular booth is now given a wide berth, but they will be trusted again, especially when strawberry season starts. One night at dinner, one of my beloved offspring announced that he only likes apples from the farm market, because they taste better than the ones from the grocery store. Outstanding. A small victory for local produce.

It is never easy to get my children to eat different vegetables, but I find that they need to have some input about what should be served. For St. Patrick’s Day, I took them to the store and offered to make a dinner that was completely green – whatever they wanted, but it had to be naturally green, no food coloring. Thirteen green vegetables and herbs were gathered for the feast. And the feast was prepared by the enthusiastic guests. And devoured. The best meal, ever.

image via Flickr

When asked about planting, and what it means to them, I was surprised and optimistic about the responses from the kids. It is fun to watch things grow. I feel as if I am doing something important for the environment. We love to compost all year round so that we can make great soil for the gardens. Knowing how to grow things will help farmers stay in business. We like to make the gardens look beautiful and love to eat what we have grown in the garden. We like to go outdoors and pick herbs to use for dinner. The food that we grow tastes better – how can we grow more? What else can we grow?

Local foods taste better. The opportunity to work with local growers, local producers and farmers at Nourish at the IMA has opened up a whole new world for me, personally and professionally. There are so many wonderful and unexpected ingredients that are being produced within a 150 mile radius. Our menus change often, so that we can offer the freshest and best ingredients at their absolute peak. I have been stalking the vendors at the weekend farmers’ markets to see which products we can showcase at Nourish. It has certainly been a learning experience, but one that I enjoy sharing with my children.

They are listening, and they are hearing what I am trying to explain to them, but more importantly, they are discovering it for themselves. And the lesson that they discover is more powerful than the one I try to enforce.

Image Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

I’ve always been interested in why advertisers do what they do. How do ideas get generated and why are they executed in the ways that they are? Where did the Energizer Bunny come from? And what exactly is Fahrvergnugen? 

Sometimes marketing campaigns are absolutely genius and other times they are absolutely ridiculous. If you’ve ever watched the show Mad Men, you’ll know that there’s a lot of thought and planning that goes into every message. A strong, clear, and creative marketing plan is the foundation for everything you see on tv, hear on the radio or read in a magazine; it not only articulates the messages (what), but it also outlines the audience (who), the objectives (why), the media channels (where), AND provides the reasoning for it all.

We’re just now finishing up the final points of our 2010 Marketing Plan. It’s been exciting to work on and also exhausting. In order to give you a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes work of museum marketing, I thought I’d share with you some of the basics of how we put together our plan.

Step 1: We broke the IMA apart into 10 different marketing categories.

1. Brand
2. Exhibitions
3. 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park
4. Public Programs
5. Membership and Individual Giving
6. Oldfields-Lilly House & Gardens
7. Events and Facility Rentals
8. Nourish Café and Catering
9. Retail – IMA Store, IMA Gallery Shop, Design Center, Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse Shop, Lilly Shop and the IMA online store.
10. New Media and Web

Step 2: We did a modified S.trenghs W.eaknesses O.pportunities T.hreats (SWOT) analysis for each. Full Disclosure: Because this is the part of the process that I like the least, the IMA’s plan only lists each category’s Strengths and Challenges (We’ve listed about 10-15 for each).

Examples of Strengths and Challenges:

Brand
Strength: New brand identity is fresh and dynamic
Challenge: New brand identity has yet to permeate public awareness

Membership and Individual Giving
Strength: New member-specific programming such as Member Night.
Challenge: Decrease in total IMA membership.

Step 3: We listed 10-20 marketing objectives for each of the categories.

Examples of Objectives:
Public Programs: Raise awareness of the Toby as a unique venue for movies.
Events and Facility Rental: Increase revenue from weekday facility rental. Emphasize the IMA’s meeting spaces.

Step 4: We identified the target audiences for each category. By determining the intended recipient of the message, it’s much easier for us to craft messages and identify media channels.

Examples of Target Audiences:
Nourish Cafe: Butler University and Marian College students
100 Acres: Nature and Wildlife Enthusiasts

Step 5: We crafted the Messages for each of the categories. (This is my favorite part of the process!) The Messages are the audience’s key take-aways from our marketing efforts. They communicate the value or benefit of the category (Retail, Exhibitions, etc.) and help to distill down our communications to  essential sound bites.

Step 6: We identified available media and created strategies for implementing and integrating Messages across the channels. By integrating core messages across traditional channels (print, tv, radio) and non-traditional (web, social media, grassroots), we hope that our campaigns will  have a broader reach and a greater impact.

Step 7 (Current stage): It’s now time to take the marketing plan to our colleagues in other departments and get their feedback. If all goes well, we will finish up our media buying, start on in print, tv, and radio production, and debut the new marketing plan in early 2010.

Stay tuned for updates on the unrolling of the marketing plan, the implementation of a new social media strategy, and the in-house production of a very exciting brand campaign!

Check out the Tastes of Spain 2 week menu after the jump as I get back to Sacred Spain TAP design tasks and website updates. Stay tuned for Daniel’s post tomorrow with some exciting info about the multimedia goodies we’ve been working on!

Tastes of Spain (2 week menu):

Soups

• Roasted fennel and lentil soup with smoked paprika and chili oil (V/VG)
• White Chicken Chili

Sandwiches

• Flatbread Sandwich with Oven Roasted Vegetables, Red Pepper Hummus Spinach and Olive Tapenade (V/VG)
• Hot Turkey Sandwich with manchego cheese, roasted red peppers and saffron aioli
• Tuna Salad with capers and sundried tomatoes with Spanish olive oil & shallots (G&G)

Salads

• Spinach Salad with Grilled Chicken, shaved red onions, goat cheese, potatoes, mint and tomatoes tossed with sherry saffron vinaigrette (G&G)
• Mixed Green Salad with roasted portobello mushrooms, balsamic glazed beets, mandarin oranges, fennel, carrots, toasted paprika orange vinaigrette (V/VG)

Pastas

• Sundried Tomato Ravioli with Olives, Fresh Tomatoes, zucchini, squash and Artichoke Hearts (V)
• Cavatappi with Serrano Ham, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, grilled sweet corn with cabrales blue cheese and toasted almonds

Pizza

• Chicken Albondigas Pizza (Garlic, Chicken and Lemon Sausage) with Roasted Mushrooms & Sweet Peppers
• Indiana Tomato, spinach, eggplant & 3 olive pizza with Cabrales blue cheese and mozzarella (V

After a full day of shouting “Watch your eyes!” as the strobes went off, we found the results well worth our efforts. The shoot took place on a Monday in the IMA’s new Design Center (store) for easy access to product. Our challenge was to include items from the Museum Store, Design Center, Greenhouse Shop and the newly opened Nourish Café. Keeping a consistent look and feel between these entities took some extensive product planning, and having holiday products in early September also posed some limits. Luckily, we had Tascha as our pro photo editor, Matt the daring designer, and Tad and Mike, two amazing photographers on the team.

A little humor you won’t spot in the published pages of the magazine — We included a pair of cat salt and pepper shakers in the shoot full of bird decorative items. A porcelain origami crane ornament took the hungry kitties’ place in the final shot. We also all fell in love with the Charles and Ray Eames House Bird available in the Design Center for $210. You might call that funny too…

Look for the “Shop & Celebrate” photo spread in the new issue of the magazine this October, and have your holiday shopping list handy.