Beautiful Edibles Focuses on Food Advocacy to Help Nourish the Community

Mary and Roger Winstead, along with their son, Jonathan, grow an array of produce at Beautiful Edibles. Photo credit: Nathan Lambrecht

Mary and Roger Winstead have always had a passion for good – and good-for-you – food. Mary grew up on a market farm where her parents raised strawberries and onions. Roger’s family had a farm nearby in Warrick County.

While their careers took them down different paths – accounting for Mary and landscape architecture for Roger – they continually found ways to garden no matter where they lived, even in urban apartments or rental homes.

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In 2016, they had an opportunity to move back to southwestern Indiana. Roger’s family had a small plot of land available to them in Paradise. Moving their growing from avocation to vocation, the Winsteads started Beautiful Edibles, raising produce such as kale, Japanese salad turnips, several varieties of lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and edible flowers. They also grow mushrooms in a 1930s-era parking garage located in Evansville.

“We always picked things to grow that we like to eat,” says Roger, explaining that they focus on unique items not always available in grocery stores.

For example, instead of green beans, theirs are purple. Rather than the commonly found cabbage, the Winsteads grow Napa cabbage and bok choy.

See more: Hayden’s Home Grown Brings Farm Flavor on Wheels

Photo credit: Nathan Lambrecht

Love for Local

As a landscape architect, Roger used plants that would provide more than just shade and a lovely aesthetic.

“My passion was looking for plants that would do functional things in the landscape but also be good for you,” he says.

He and Mary continuously focused on companion planting, flowers that attract pollinators and repel pests.

“Companion planting was always part of our integrated pest management and our use of biologicals, and then the plants we used were edible,” Mary says. “Using plants for multiple purposes is the way it was intended for things to grow, and it just makes sense.”

The Winsteads list several favorite edible flowers and their flavor profiles. Angel wing begonias taste like SweeTarts. Nasturtiums have a peppery zing. Borage, also known as starflower, tastes like a melon or cucumber. The flavor of gem marigolds mimics tangerines or melons.

Their philosophy is simple: Food grown on healthy land via responsible farming yields healthy food. So, they care for the soil to support both their customers’ and their own health.

Photo credit: Nathan Lambrecht

Rob Lacer, Beautiful Edibles mushroom assistant, packages pink oyster mushrooms for delivery to local restaurants. Photo credit: Nathan Lambrecht

The health benefits and distinctive flavors of mushrooms have long appealed to the couple. Foraging for morel mushrooms is a long-held tradition in their part of Indiana, Mary says. Roger learned mushroom foraging and growing tips from mentors and workshops, and soon, the Winsteads were inoculating their own logs to grow shiitakes.

Trial and error over the years have yielded an extensive growing operation, from which they offer lion’s mane, oyster, black poplar, chestnut and other varieties of mushrooms.

All Beautiful Edibles offerings are available through Local Source, an online aggregate of cooperative farmers. Through this food hub, customers can order products ranging from retail beef cuts, eggs, chicken, pork, honey, pecans, fruits and vegetables from more than 20 local farmers, including the Winsteads, who helped start Local Source in 2022.

The Evansville-based nonprofit Urban Seeds helped facilitate a grant to support the launch of Local Source.

See more: Mother and Daughter Duo Keep the Losure Farms Legacy Alive

Photo credit: Nathan Lambrecht

Community Access

Photo credit: Nathan Lambrecht

Urban Seeds supports community health by increasing access to nutritious food and opportunities for farmers across southwestern Indiana. One initiative is the Nourish program, which provides low-cost grocery bundles.

“Beautiful Edibles is one of our regular providers for our local produce bundle,” says Maria Marton, Urban Seeds executive director.

Marton says Mary and Roger are leaders in the local food environment and amongst their farming peers. In fact, Mary now serves on the Urban Seeds board of directors.

“Having someone on our board to explain how decisions may impact the local farm community and also provide perspective on the challenges farmers face has been an incredible addition,” Marton says. “Too often, the farmer’s perspective is left out of conversations about procuring local food.”

Mary’s knowledge as a farmer, paired with previous public accounting experience, creates a valuable asset to the board.

“People with food security missions are not always in tune with what is happening in the farm community, and I think that is our own fault,” Mary says. “A lot of farmers are people who like to be working alone in the field or the garden. As much as I like to work with my hands, I spent almost 20 years working in public accounting, so I’m very familiar with finances and computer systems.”

Those skills dovetail with the couple’s mission of providing for their community.

“That’s always been the driving factor for us, to be part of changing the local food system with the tools and gifts we were given,” Mary says.

See more: Award-Winning Hoosier Farmers Cultivate Climate-Conscious Farming in Indiana