birchwood cafe

Behind the CSA Box: Add-On Partnerships

This is the fourth post in a new SGT series that looks at CSA -- community supported agriculture -- from the farmer's perspective.

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Support Grow a Farmer, Build Long-lasting Structural Change

Grow a Farmer/ Main Street Project agripreneur program

It’s clear that we Americans need to select more healthy, natural and whole foods from the grocery shelves. What’s not always so clear are the ways in which we “vote with our dollars” in order to positively influence food policy and invest in the farmers who provide the good food. The farmers of the past, who have traditionally been older men from rural America, are now retiring and making room for two types of modern day farmers: big agriculture giants or young farmers. Many of our young farmers are turning out to be women and/or minorities. My question is: How do we support our small farmers, thereby, voting with our dollars.
 

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Autumn and Introductions: A New Voice For SGT

Weaning time is an autumn tradition around my family’s farm. It’s as synonymous with fall as Football Saturdays and pumpkin patches. Recently, we separated our 2011 calf crop from their mommas. Everything went smooth for the most part. Of course, the calves took it harder than the momma cows but after a day and a half of full-out bawling and whining, peace stepped in and normalcy was restored. As a rancher, I love getting in the new calf crop and evaluating them. 

 

The weather this fall has been a huge blessing. Weaning time naturally is very stressful for the calves. They’ve depended on their mothers all summer – it’s all they’ve known – and now it’s time for them to depend on themselves. It’s time for them to enter the next season in their lives. The sunshine and heat has made this year’s process much more palatable. 

 

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How My Garden Grows

Did you look at the header image for this post? I mean, did you really, really look at it? Did you notice the 3-inch pea plant poking up in the back? The tiny little green strawberries? The radishes and greens? That's my organic garden, friends. My garden.

I know, I know -- it's not cool to brag, and I don't mean to boast (but "I'm intercontinental..."), but of all the life challenges I've taken on in the past two years, growing a successful organic garden has always seemed like the one I was least likely to achieve. It's still early, you're probably thinking, don't take that victory lap quite yet. 

And still, looking at my garden makes me a little bit giddy. Here's a little bit of back story:

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Simple, Enlightening, and Tasty Earth Day Community Dinner at the Birchwood

Last Sunday night's Earth Day Community Dinner at the Birchwood Cafe was an event for the ages.

It wasn't just the food that made it that way, although the exceptional four-course menu (and appetizers) created by chef Marshall Paulsen featured pork belly, fiddle head ferns, beef tongue, and more (most foods purchased directly from local farmers). It wasn't just the music performed by Jack Klatt and the Cat Swingers either, although that was terrific too. It wasn't just the lovely dining room, which was decked out with the Birchwood's Sunday best.

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More Details About the Birchwood Cafe/SGT Earth Day Community Dinner on 4/17

UPDATED TO INCLUDE MENU, BELOW

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Last week, I wrote that Simple, Good, and Tasty would be co-hosting our first-ever Earth Day Community Dinner with our experienced, local-food loving friends at the Birchwood Cafe. This week, I'm excited to fill in a few of the details.

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Please Come to the Birchwood Cafe/SGT Earth Day Community Dinner on April 17!

It's been almost exactly two years since the first Simple, Good, and Tasty event, or what I'm now referring to as our "meal heard round the city" at the Craftsman in 2009. Did you know that our second-ever event, held in May of 2009, was at the Birchwood Cafe?

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Getting to Know "For the Health of It" Columnist Jill Grunewald

We at Simple, Good, and Tasty write, think, talk, and meet with people about local, sustainable, organic, good food all the time.

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New Coffee Shop Helps Peace Coffee Tell Their Whole Story From Bean to Cup

When I heard that Minneapolis-based Peace Coffee would be opening their own coffee shop this fall, my first reaction was not overly enthusiastic. Apart from a select few, coffee shops are not known to be hugely profitable, and I feared this new venture would pull resources from one of my favorite local companies and drag it down. Peace Coffee has been growing its fair trade, organic, bike-delivered, coffee bean business for years. Why risk all that the company has worked for rather than simply add new accounts and products to their already successful model? When I got the chance to speak with Lee Wallace, Peace Coffee's CEO ("Queen Bean" on her business cards), it all made sense.

"The new coffee shop allows us to prepare our coffee the way we envision it when it comes out of the roaster," Lee tells me, "most roasters know roasting but not about being a barista, and most baristas don't know much about roasting."

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Bow Down Before the Altar of Deep Fried Things on Sticks!

When Shari Danielson, our editorial director, recently asked me to share my "biggest food weakness," none immediately jumped to mind. Not too long ago, I might have answered conventional beef jerky, bad Asian food served in airports, unsustainable sushi, and/or gummy worms. But the joy of these foods has diminished over the past few years, and when given the choices these days, it's not that hard for me to pass.

My (amazing, wonderful) wife was quick to point out that saying "no" to these foods does not mean I don't have a food weakness. True, I'm not the guy who can't walk past the mini-donut stand without buying a bag, or the gal who sneaks a Big Mac when nobody's looking. My weakness is this: I love to eat things I've never tried before.

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