dsmWeekly: March 20, 2024

A carrot's journey: Oak Park harvests its veggies from an on-site garden before they reach your plate as a beautifully prepared Carrot Wellington. (Photos: Billy Dohrmann)

FOOD & DINING

Four tips for a bountiful garden harvest in 2024

By Karla Walsh

In case you missed it, spring officially arrived at 10:06 last night. To make the most of the hopeful new season, we feel like digging into the garden — and stealing a few secrets from one of the most impressive gardeners in town.

As Oak Park’s multitalented director of operations, Billy Dohrmann oversees its culinary garden. Last year, the new Ingersoll Avenue restaurant partnered with Dogpatch Urban Gardens in June, early enough to harvest some veggies in time for the restaurant’s October opening.

“The beautiful thing about the garden right outside the kitchen door is that you pick and use items on the same day,” Dohrmann said. “This not only allows us to provide some of the freshest ingredients you could ever get on a plate in the dining room, but it also helps limit waste.”

This year, Oak Park has started much earlier (last week, in fact) and used the offseason to plan this year’s crops of fruits, vegetables and herbs.

We asked Dohrmann to give us the dirt on how to plant a successful garden at home.

Ask the experts. Rather than winging it, just planting wherever and watering whenever, Dohrmann suggests talking with local gardeners and vegetable farmers. He took notes from his friends at Dogpatch Urban Gardens, Grade A Gardens and other gardeners who’ve weathered a few seasons in Central Iowa. “A seed packet will give you some good information,” he said, “but someone who has had experience growing in the area knows more about how that seed truly reacts with the local soil, weather conditions and watering frequencies.”

Stock up on seeds. Dohrmann and his team plan to plant more than 45 different plants this year, an even split of veggies and herbs, plus a few fruits. Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash and basil will be in strong supply. For seeds, Dohrmann trusts Row 7, Baker Creek, Seed Savers Exchange and Johnny's Selected Seeds.

Make a map. Your best garden actually starts on graph paper, a computer or whatever mapping tool you prefer. Dohrmann said his team plans out each garden plot according to “the ideal planting and growth times for each variety.” Charting this ahead of time enables them to research and then prioritize “companion planting.” Certain varieties play well together, feeding one other the nutrients they need to thrive or deflect pests. (Pro tip: Search for “companion plants” on Google.)

Enjoy the fruits of your labor. At Oak Park, “the garden team and kitchen team are very much one and the same,” Dohrmann said. The whole staff shares garden tasks such as watering, weeding, pruning and harvesting. “So many members of our team, myself included, found the garden to be a place of peace.” They enjoy the garden’s goodies for snacks and staff meals, and guests can savor them in dishes that are, truly, as fresh as they come.

The Des Moines Gay Men's Chorus sings this weekend at the Scottish Rite Consistory. (Photo: DMGMC)

BEST BET

Des Moines Gay Men's Chorus sings Kelly Clarkson
Fresh off an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” slated to air Friday afternoon, the Des Moines Gay Men's Chorus performs a pair of all-Kelly concerts at the historic Scottish Rite Consistory on the north edge of downtown. The program, “Kelly: We All Need an Idol,” features brand-new arrangements of some of her greatest hits, including “Piece by Piece,” “People Like Us” and “Since U Been Gone.”

We’re “telling the stories of the LGBTQ+ community now, focusing on our common humanity and how we can be the role models we didn’t have,” artist director Eric Shepard explained in a recent dsm story. “We want to showcase those stories so people can see themselves in the work that we produce and, frankly, provide a little bit of hope for what’s to come.”

Get tickets for 7:30 p.m. on Friday or Saturday.

The Week Ahead

“Swan Lake,” (7 p.m. Thursday): The World Ballet Series tour glides into Stephens Auditorium in Ames, with Tchaikovsky’s timeless score and Nadezhda Kalinina’s updates to the original 1895 choreography by Marius Petipa.

AViD: Kaveh Akbar (7 p.m. Thursday): The Iowa-based novelist kicks off the Des Moines Public Library’s Authors Visiting in Des Moines speaker series to discuss his new bestseller, “Martyr,” about a first-generation Iranian immigrant’s search for meaning.

“Beyond Earth: The Quest for Life on an Icy Moon,” (7:30 p.m. Thursday): Kobie Boykins, the NASA engineer in charge of the current mission to send a spacecraft around Jupiter and its icy moons, takes a turn in Des Moines Performing Arts’ Explorer Series at the Des Moines Civic Center.

Andrea González Caballero (7:30 p.m. Saturday): The acclaimed guitarist Andrea Gonzalez Caballero, who’s been described as “the female voice of Spanish guitar,” will perform tunes from her latest album at Grand View University. Guitar players and students can join her for a free master class on Sunday.

Daimh (7:30 p.m. Saturday): The five-member Celtic band (pronounced “dive”) from the Scottish Highlands and windswept islands performs in the Celtic Music Association series at the Franklin Junior High Event Center.

Holi Celebrations (11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday): Dance, sing and toss colored powder in a crowd of revelers at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa, just outside of Madrid.

Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular (8 p.m. Sunday): There are cover bands. And then there are cover bands with lasers. Check this one out at Hoyt Sherman Place.

FOOD & DINING
Pizzazz: Michael Hanstad, the restaurateur who brought us Charlotte’s Kitchen in Johnston, opens Pepp’s Pizzeria today in Grimes. The restaurant takes over the former Mema’s Italian Grinders at 2250 E. First St. Hanstad plans to serve handmade “upside-down New York-style pizza with a Midwest flair.” Be one of the first to try the new place, but don’t wait to place your order — Pepp’s will sell 200 pizzas at a time, and when they run out, they’ll close for the day.

Why play just one piano when you could play 16? (Photo: Nathan Felix)

ARTS & CULTURE

Music for 16 pianos premieres tonight at Drake

By Michael Morain

Pop quiz, math nerds! When 16 pianists perform on 16 pianos in a brand-new piece at Drake University, how many keys will they be able to play?

OK, we’ll save you the trouble: That’s 1,408 keys.

The world premiere of “16 Pianos in Surround Sound” is set for 7:30 tonight and Thursday in and around the Anderson Gallery in the Harmon Fine Arts Center. The pianos will be upstairs, downstairs — and in the elevator.

“I’ve never written for this many pianos,” said the New York-based composer, Nathan Felix. “It’s been a journey, definitely.”

When he premiered an immersive opera in the gallery last fall, he wondered how many pianos were scattered across campus. Someone came up with a list — close to 100 — which inspired him to write the new project. He pared down his original score to “just” 16, which will be played by Drake music professors Nicholas Roth, Susan Ihnen, Ling-Yu Hsiao, Rika Uchida and a dozen of Roth’s students.
“The whole project is something that’s new and maybe even scary for some of the students,” Felix said. “But it’s great experience for them if they pursue careers in music.” (Besides, “played elevator piano” looks good on a resume.)

The hourlong performance comprises four parts and includes some of Felix’s water-themed videos that will play, on mute, in the gallery. Guests will be encouraged to wander the building and to listen how the music overlaps from one corner to another.

Oh – and this is important: The second movement calls for audience participation. It’s called “Music for Newspaper, Voice, Pens, Dog Toys, Foil and Pop Rocks.”