Local Food Mn

This recipe came to me from my new friend Michelle O’Kelley. She says it originally came from Bon Appetit in August 2000, and was recently delivered with her CSA box. According to Michelle, "it’s so simple and I happen to have all the ingredients on hand (except the Pernod)." We're getting tons of fennel from our farmshare this month, so a new recipe for it is welcome in my house. Here goes:

Fresh Fennel Vichyssoise

The person working in this picture is not me!

I received this letter from Susan Berkson, longtime environmental health advocate and co-host of "Fresh & Local" (on AM950, Saturdays, 8 am), in response to my question regarding her role at the Minneapolis Farmers Market, and whether the market is misunderstood within the local community. I liked the letter so much I decided to publish it, with Susan’s permission, of course.

My role is busybody. Not really. Bless the market, they asked me to host their new radio show and I said, Yes, and. Yes, I will host and I want to do social media and help with x, y, and z. So here I am.

Mill City Farmers Market is always overflowing with fresh food, families, and foodies. On a recent visit there, director Marjorie Hegstrom talked to Live Green Twin Cities about the market's mission, its growth, and its waiting list that’s a mile long. I met Marjorie at the Market at 6:30 am, ensuring there was plenty of time to watch local farmers and food producers (who had arrived as early as 5:30 am) set up their stands beside the mighty Mississippi River before the market opened at 8:00.

I recently had a chance to help the great team at Riverbend Farm in Delano, MN pick and pack their weekly CSA/farmshare harvest (they produce 80 shares each week). Riverbend is a terrific, well-respected farm, which provides foods to many local Twin Cities restaurants, including the Birchwood Cafe, Common Roots, Corner Table, and many others. Here are the photos I took, along with a few notes from the day.

Here's what my family is getting from our CSA this week. The picture and the text below come directly from Harmony Valley Farm's weekly email.

I'm very glad to let you know that we've locked in a date, time, and location for our August Simple, Good, and Tasty local food meal. Here are the details:

When: August 19, 8:00 pmWhere: The Strip Club, 378 Maria Ave, St. Paul, MN 55106Cost: $35 for 3 course meal, not including tax, tip, or boozeContact: 651-793-6247 (restaurant), lee@simplegoodandtasty.com (me)

The Strip Club is a cleverly named steakhouse, widely loved since it opened last year in St. Paul. It's in a beautiful space, and I've talked with Executive Chef JD Fratzke several times - he's not only a great chef, but also a superstar of a guy.

What a great feeling to get some good press, especially from Rachel Hutton at the City Pages, whose Hot Dish blog I visit on a regular basis. Here's what she wrote:

The local food website Simple, Good, and Tasty relaunched this weekend to include a couple of very useful features: a local foods-related events calendar (Troutfest at Mill City Farmers Market this Saturday, etc.) and a directory of local food producers and retailers (farms, co-ops, restaurants).

The blog says loads of other nice things too, which you can read here. Thanks Rachel!

This is an excerpt of an article I wrote for Live Green Twin Cities. To read the entire article, click here.

The next Simple, Good, and Tasty local food dinner, on July 29 at the Red Stag Supper Club (that's head chef Brian Hauke in the above picture, left) in northeast Minneapolis, is completely full. For the lucky 50 people who signed up first, here are the details: