Let's Go Crazy - Fall 2023 Issue

COVER: Purple Inspiration Photography: Elizabeth Hannah Studios, with special thanks to Jason Michael Thomas for the gorgeous green and purple produce 

This issue celebrates the spicy love of life, a life that is crazy, that goes too fast sometimes and that truly is precious. This September 3 we celebrated our 10-year anniversary of being storytellers of the soul of Indiana food, soapbox preachers to advocate for positive change, for inclusion, for those without strong voices and for those who just want company in sharing in the greater good.

photograph: Ellie Brown

This issue was first called “Golden Years”—after a favorite song of mine by David Bowie—but as we got into putting the issue together we realized the crazy goodness of each story and the reflection our youth, the creativity we breathe, the peace we seek and the magic that surrounds us—all symbols of the color purple. And who better represents purple than Prince himself?

This issue’s cover is part of our ongoing series of inspirations combining mono colors, a song and our beloved Elizabeth Hannah, who has created many of our covers including every issue this year. This one includes purple onions and turnips grown by our friend Jason Michael Thomas (who is a crazy badass) and an elephant hibiscus from my own garden, planted when my youngest daughter, Mara, was born. All are important ingredients in this issue and in my life.

We have enjoyed every single word we have printed in our 38 issues thus far—more than 400,000 copies distributed, 21 million pages printed with more than 7.2 billion words scribbled across the pages. So, let’s go crazy celebrating and savoring the amazing work all our contributors, artists and features have put towards this stellar issue.

With gratitude and hope, 
Jennifer Rubenstein 
2023 Indiana Grown Commission Board Member

The fun part of a song-themed issue is the memories it brings back. Let’s Go Crazy comes with a flashback to the late ’80s when a young me first saw his Royal Purple Badness in concert. Purple suddenly became my favorite color after seeing Prince in action—and it still is a color that I associate with special. That includes the purples in foods such as dark opal basil, shiny perfect eggplants, forbidden rice and purple pole beans (although I feel a little deflated when the beautiful purple turns green when you cook the beans). Purple in nature is most outstanding. I think specifically of the vague purple that appears when Northern Lights dance across the night sky. Or, more down to earth, the beautiful purples shading autumn leaves.

Purple, to Prince, was also an apocalyptic color. In Let’s Go Crazy he warns that “if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy, punch a higher floor.” Interpret it as an encouragement to take charge, to determine the direction you are going and to imagine beyond what’s in front of our eyes. After (another) summer of record-breaking extreme weather and wildfires, we need to punch for a higher floor, or else that elevator will take us down.

With pleasure, 
Francine Spiering