Dan Alvarez signed his business up as “Indiana Grown” the first day he heard about the state’s program.
His family’s winery, Fruitshine Wine, sells, bottles and makes its wine in Monticello.
“Everything I can locally source, I do,” he said.
Fruitshine Wine is one of several businesses in the area that joined the “Indiana Grown” initiative, which labels what companies and foods are grown or produced in Indiana.
The winery, which opened Memorial Day weekend, grows at least half of its fruit on farms in White and Carroll counties. Alvarez said the rest of it comes from small farms in the area.
The business even bottles its wine in Mason jars from Muncie.
Alvarez said workers hand-smash and prepare fruits, such as peaches, in order to keep the process pure. The wine also doesn’t contain any preservatives or sulfites.
Since opening almost three months ago, Alvarez said about 1,000 people have visited the winery, with some coming out of state on a regular basis to purchase sulfite-and-preservative-free wine.
Another recently-created business, Schnabeltier, operates as a cheesery and winery in Rochester. Master Cheesemaker Glenn Goss said he personally picks up milk from a local family farm with pasture-fed cows.
“I don’t have a middle man getting my milk,” Goss said. “I know whose milk I’m getting and I know where and how it is.”
The company’s store opened Halloween 2014 and Goss said he’s been making cheese since last June. He said all of the employees and the owners live in Rochester.
“Everything we try to do, we do locally, and then we sell locally, and then make it locally,” Goss said.
In addition to cheese, Schnabeltier produces wine. Goss said the company started the wine making process late last year, so they had to source grapes from the west coast. This year, however, he said they’re going to buy grapes at a farm just south of Rochester.
Making Indiana grown products isn’t new to Hunt Family Farms. Owner and operator Nathan Hunt said his family has been feeding their own sows at their Amboy farm for decades.
“To me it’s a big deal that it’s a program now, we’re really excited about that, but as far as doing anything different, we really don’t. That’s just what we’ve always done and it’s now coming into fashion basically.”
Hunt said his family raises the animals outdoors, making them free range, and feed the sows grain ground at the farm. He said they then sell the animals to a butcher shop in Colfax that delivers the pork to local restaurants and meat markets.
Delphi-based Indiana Packers Corp. also joined the “Indiana Grown” program, as it partners with local hog farmers. The company’s daily production capacity is 16,800 hogs, according to its website.
Jeff Feirick, vice president of corporate planning, said the company is in the planning stage on adding the label to its products. He said acknowledging locally-grown products across the country is more common than it once was.
“I think it’s becoming more and more important,” Feirick said. “People are interested in where their food is coming from and I think it’s going to grow in popularity.”