Farms & Gardens

We were down to very slim pickings when this week's Harmony Valley farmshare arrived (now that we've hit the cold months, the box comes just once every two weeks). I had been excited about it for days, especially as it became increasingly clear that we didn't have enough carrots to last the week.

Yesterday's post took a look at Thousand Hills Cattle Company and the advantages of grass fed beef.

There are purists who will argue that you can’t have pastured, grass-fed cattle in Minnesota all year round. These people have a point. Snow covers much of the ground in Minnesota for what seems like 6 - 8 months of the year. Thousand Hills Cattle Company, the largest producer of grass fed beef in the Midwest, deals with this harsh reality via a system of enormous hay bails, rolled up in the warmer months and rolled out across the snow during the winter.

Thousand Hills Cattle Company, a leading producer of grass fed beef in the Midwest, has its work cut out for it.

First of all, there’s the cost of their product. Although their cattle are relatively inexpensive to raise, according to founder Todd Churchill (they just eat grass, right?), the cost of transporting, processing, packaging, and shipping 24 grass-fed cattle each week is enormous - there’s just not much economy of scale. By the time it gets to the grocery store or co-op, Thousand Hills beef costs more than its corn fed (non-organic) counterparts, nearly every time.

Now that our Harmony Valley farmshare deliveries have slowed to just once every 2 weeks, I get especially excited when they come. Any lover of tasty soup recipes will tell you that you can never have too many root vegetables, too much squash, or too much garlic. And this week being the start of Thanksgiving ... well, let's just say I'm grateful once again for fresh, locally grown sweet potatoes to put beneath mountains of marshmallows and brown sugar.

Photo Credit: Univerity of MinnesotaWith the last of the mild fall weather eeking its way out, my friend and I decided to make the annual pilgrimage to the apple orchard and winery last weekend. Aamodt’s Apple Farm and the St. Croix Vineyards – conveniently located together just west of Stillwater – make the short journey too easy to pass up. If you’ve ever spent an afternoon on this idyllic little bit of land, you know how nice it is to escape the city, watch the kids jump around on hay bales, taste some lovely wines, and go home dreaming of what to do with your big bag of apples.

This is Harmony Valley's last weekly farmshare for 2009 - after this week, deliveries will come only every other week through the end of the year. I can't help but feel a little bit sad about it, although I know it'll give me a good opportunity to try new foods at my local co-op - and maybe even to get out to the St. Paul Farmers Market a few times in January.

I feel sorry for turkeys. They get no respect. For instance, the word “turkey” has become a commonly used derogatory term, as in, “You turkey!” And, whether or not it’s true, turkeys have a reputation for being so, shall we say, “intellectually challenged,” that they can drown looking up in a rain storm.  Even our esteemed founding fathers thumbed their noses at the turkey, choosing the bald eagle, instead, as the national bird. (Supposedly, the quirky Ben Franklin was the gobbler’s only advocate.)

It's easy to be part of a CSA during the summer - the produce is beautiful and plentiful, the variety fun and interesting. Having perused a bunch of other blogs throughout the prime growing season, it was sometimes hard to tell in what region of the country the producing farm was based. Everyone seemed to get carrots, radishes, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and much more.

Many of you know by now that I was neither born nor raised in the Midwest. But a few farmshare weeks into the cold season, I'm feeling like a true Minnesotan. Delicata squash? Baby white turnips? Red kale tops? If those things existed on Long Island, none of my family or friends knew about it. (We did have raisins for Halloween though.)

This week marks the end of October, the end of Daylight Savings Time, and the end of the season for most of the area’s farmers markets. So get out there and visit your favorites one last time, bid auld lang syne, and promise to greet them next spring when they return.

Minneapolis Farmers Market Manager Larry Cermak is a serious man.  He's been managing the market for 25 years, he tells me, and "this is the most miserable October we've had." The weather has been damp and cold, making it challenging for the farmers to harvest their crops - corn and soy beans are still not ready - and the sun hasn't shown its smiley face in what seems like ages. Larry is realistic, but not necessarily optimistic. "We need people to come out this week and next weekend," he tells me, "we need a big Halloween weekend."