New University of Minnesota Extension Website Offers Local Food Resources

MARIE FLANAGAN

A group of folks from the University of Minnesota Extension, Buy Fresh Buy Local South Dakota, FARRMS (North Dakota), North Dakota State University Extension, and the Northwest Regional Partnership (Minnesota) have teamed together to launch a new Community and Local Food Resource website.

Announced this spring, the website contains extensive links to tools, videos, articles, reports, fact sheets, websites, and more that will help farmers, extension educators, and communities who are looking to build their local food system infrastructure.

Researchers received a SARE grant to work with rural Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota communities to identify needs. They hope the website will address their needs through the tools and resources for farmers, community groups, Extension educators, and others interested in local food systems.

"The release of this website coincides with the kick-off of a new season of farmers markets, CSAs and farm-to-institution programs,” said Greg Schweser, community food systems planner for the University of Minnesota Extension’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships. “It will be useful to those working in local foods seeking production assistance, expanded marketing opportunities, developing stronger businesses, creating new sourcing options, educating citizens and crafting more beneficial public policies.”

Cross posted from New University of Minnesota Extension Website Offers Local Food Resources - Twin Cities Taste - May 2013 - Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

Sweet Science Ice Cream Available at Verdant Tea

DUSTIN BLACK

The Twin Cities has a new ice cream stop to add to your list this summer. Sweet Science, a small ice cream company with big flavors, has landed a fulltime retail location.

Ashlee Olds started making ice cream for friends five years ago. After working at Black Sheep Coffee Café and Rogue Chocolatier, she was inspired to make a line of small batch ice cream called Sweet Science, with a logo in the shape of a vanilla molecule.

With a Business Management and Entrepreneurship feather under her cap from Metro State, Olds works in her community commercial kitchen space in St. Paul where she uses local products like Castle Rock organic milk and other certified organic ingredients, “with names you can pronounce.” Her notably smooth salted caramel is their mainstay flavor, but Olds also is whipping up nontraditional flavors like blood orange (pictured here) stracciatella (inspired by La Marianna’s Italian gelato), rhubarb cinnamon almond, and strawberry buttermilk.

Previously, Sweet Science ice cream was somewhat tricky to track down, with monthly tasting events at the kitchen space, and scoops for sale at food trucks or events. But this week, Olds announced that in early July pints of Sweet Science ice cream will become available at Verdant Tea’s new location in the former Seward Coop space in South Minneapolis.

Olds and Verdant Tea met at North Coast Nosh. There, they sampled each other’s products, and as they learned more about their individual business philosophies, the more they fell in love with the idea of working together. Once they get their bearings in the new space, they hope to combine their products to offer tea and ice cream flight pairings, and even chai and matcha milkshakes.

“Starting in early July, you'll be able to stop by Verdant Tea's new shop and buy pints and cups of Sweet Science—all day any day,” said Olds. “Their hours will be 8 a.m.-8 p.m., which means our customers can stop by and get Sweet Science ice cream almost anytime.”

With ice cream labels that cleverly nod to the periodic table of elements, you can’t miss Sweet Science pints. I’m fond of the blood orange flavor, a riff on the classic Dreamsicle, but if you’d rather sample before you buy, swing by the next Sweet Science tasting event this Friday, June 14, 2013, 5-8 p.m. at the Sweet Science commercial space on Pierce Butler Road.

Cross posted from Sweet Science Ice Cream Available at Verdant Tea Retail Space - Twin Cities Taste - June 2013 - Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

Record-Breaking Year Brings Sweet Smiles for MN Syrup Producers

SAPSUCKER FARMS

Despite what some consider an excruciatingly long winter, followed by a cold and snowy spring, Maple syrup producers in Minnesota are smiling. It’s no wonder—most of them produced record levels of syrup this spring.

Minnesota is the most north and west of U.S. states to commercially produce maple syrup, according to Jerry Jacobson, vice president of the MN Maple Syrup Producers Association. The association boasts about 100 members, many of whom attended the annual MN Maple Producers Association Annual Meeting and reported record years for 2013.

“At the meeting, everybody said they did better and many reported record crops. About 80% at the meeting said it was their best year ever,” said Jacobson.

The mystifying weather accounts for the record year, he says. “The late spring, combined with all the snow we had, meant temperatures were moderated so that the trees didn’t warm up too quickly.”

Maple syrup is made from sap, and producers need about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Throughout Minnesota, trees produced high levels of sap during the three-week sap run this year, and the sap they produced was good quality, according to Jacobson. In neighboring Wisconsin, producers reported record-breaking levels as well.

“Wisconsin’s 2013 maple syrup production was 265,000 gallons, more than five times the production of 2012,” said Greg Bussler with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (PDF). “This is the highest production since NASS began keeping track in 1992.”

Debbie Morrison at Sapsucker Farms in Mora, Minn. was a bit anxious about this year’s season, especially after last year's drought, which yielded just 10 gallons of syrup. But Sapsucker ended up making 210 gallons of syrup, matching their all-time previous record.

“For about two weeks, the sap was just gushing,” said Morrison. “We were doing everything we could to collect it and cook it. It gushed, and gushed, and gushed for about two weeks. The sap was so beautiful and pristine this year. It was the best sap we’ve had. It made amazing, light syrup.”

Jacobson said that at least 60% of syrup entered for judging at the Annual Meeting of the MN Maple Producers Association was grade A, light amber, the highest quality in maple syrup ranking.

But could there be too much of a good thing? Jacobson and Morrison both assured me that producers won’t have any trouble selling their syrup.

“In Minnesota, most syrup producers sell out of everything they make, which is about 20-30,000 gallons annually,” said Jacobson.

Morrison echoed that sentiment, saying, “We’re pretty sure that we’ll be able to sell it all.”

Grade A, light amber syrup is sometimes called “fancy” syrup, and it’s highly sought after by in-the-know syrup fans. Available at local co-ops, farmers' markets, and specialty shops around the state, look for a bottle of maple syrup made in Minnesota, and top your flapjacks with some record-breaking syrup this summer!

Cross posted from: Record-Breaking Year Brings Sweet Smiles for MN Syrup Producers - Twin Cities Taste - June 2013 - Minnesota

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]