June 2009

Strawberry Picking at Harmony Valley

picking-berries1Strawberry Day at Harmony Valley Farm in Viroqua, WI was just about everything I hoped it would be - loads of gorgeous strawberries to pick, a fun group of people to pick them with (carloads of people from the Twin Cities and Madison, mostly - where Harmony Valley drops off a combined 1100 vegetables shares each week), and a pot luck lunch that would make anybody proud to be a Midwesterner. The best thing about the pot luck - besides the fact that it went on forever and was replenished constantly - was that every one of us has just about the same groceries.

Read more »

Have a Toast and Taste at the Arboretum

toastandtaste[UPDATE: I just got a note with a few more details from Judy Hohmann, Manager, Marketing & Public Relations for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum:

"New this year are ‘green’ prize drawings including two sets of touring bicycles, cooking classes at the Arboretum, signed cookbooks, basket of natural soaps and balms made in Waconia by SunLeaf Naturals, etc.

We’re using compostable party ware. People can reserve online at www.arboretum.umn.edu/toastandtaste.aspx or call 952-443-1400."]

Read more »

The Great Scapes

scapes1Before last week, I didn’t know what garlic scapes were. I’d never seen them, smelled them, or touched them, and I most certainly did not know where they came from. But our Harmony Valley farm share delivered local, organic scapes to Minneapolis last week - and oh, how far my family has come in one short week.

According to Mother Earth News:

Read more »

This Week’s Box of Farmshare Goodies

csa1116/18 UPDATE: I just got an email from Terri Kromenaker at Harmony Valley. She points out that “the fruit share is NOT necessarily local – try as we might, there just aren’t a lot of Midwest organic growers, so much of the fruit comes from the west coast. We’ll get WI cranberries in the late fall, hopefully some WI/MN apples in the fall and maybe some blueberries from MI this summer,  but this week’s box is all Cali, I’m afraid.” Thanks for the clarification, Terri. I’m sorry for the error!

Read more »

Greg Reynolds from Riverbend Farm Describes His Old Potato Picker

A 90 second video from our day planting onions with folks from the Birchwood Cafe and Common Roots Cafe at Riverbend Farm. It’s a short, worthwhile watch that gives you a sense of the equipment out there (not all of it still in use) and what Greg Reynolds is all about. Riverbend supplies organic produce to many restaurants in the Twin Cities.

Read more »

6/21 is Strawberry Day at Harmony Valley Farm

strawberrydayAfter all of this blogging about the local, organic Minnesota food we’ve been getting from the Harmony Valley Farm CSA, I’m excited to finally get the chance to visit the place. Harmony Valley has named Sunday, June 21 Strawberry Day, offering farm tours, strawberry picking, and other fun activities for the whole family from noon to 6 pm. Here are the details of the event, straight from the Harmony Valley site:

Read more »

Michael Pollan on Bill Moyers Journal (11/2008)

Here's a terrific 22 minute Bill Moyers piece, aired near Thanksgiving 2008.

Read more »

This Week at the St. Paul Farmers' Market: 5 Great Picks

tracy1There’s little question that Farmers’ Markets are an easy and affordable way to support your local food producers while getting out and enjoying the festive open-air environment. So I jumped at the chance to report from the fabulous St. Paul Farmers’ Market for the Simple Good and Tasty blog! My favorite part about shopping the St. Paul Farmers Market is knowing that the vast majority of the food sold there was produced within 50 miles of the place.

Read more »

Learning to Love Kohlrabi

kohlrabi When the most recent batch of local produce came from our Harmony Valley CSA last week, my kids wanted their pictures taken with each new vegetable. My daughter's colorful dress seemed like the perfect backdrop for this beautiful purple kohlrabi, which we ate over the weekend. To my less-than-expertly-trained palate, kohlrabi - which I'd never eaten before - tastes very much like cabbage.

Read more »

Unpeeled: A Living Beverage

unpeeled Unpeeled is a probiotic beverage, which means (from their website): Unpeeled is a 100% naturally cultured (kombucha) green tea with cold-pressed fresh crushed, raw ingredients, then barrel-aged to maximize nutritional value (probiotics) and to promote a fresh, crisp, smooth flavor. The brainchild of a former NASA wastewater engineer, Unpeeled claims the following benefits:

[Better] Digestion – ... Fermented foods promote healthy microorganisms in our GI (Gastrointestinal) tract, regulate the level of pH in the GI tract and act as antioxidants, A healthy GI tract is critical for a strong immune system. Better Nutrition – Fermented foods produce beneficial enzymes that allow our bodies to absorb more nutrition from the foods we eat. Fermented foods contain isothiocyanates found in whole unheated vegetables and therefore help fight and prevent some diseases. Unpeeled provides your body with whole food nutrition that helps support the body’s natural energy.

Read more »