Farmer's Market Season is Especially Special For Shepherd's Way

This weekend marks the opening of the Minneapolis Farmer's Market and the St Paul Farmer's Market. It also marks a special day for Shepherd's Way Farms.

They're back to full scale production for the first time since a devastating arson fire in 2005 that killed hundreds of their lambs and ewes.

They'll be making their "debut" at the St Paul Farmer's Market this weekend sampling and selling their smoked, cooked Westlund sausage and knockout cheeses - Friesago, Big Woods Blue and both Shepherd's Hopes.

Look for them at the St Paul Farmer's Market this weekend and the Mill City Farmer's Market next weekend.

In an email earlier this week, Steven Read said:.

For now, we won't be bringing any of our wool to Saint Paul for sale, but folks can order them and we will deliver there. We will have wool pillows, comforters and mattress pads on hand for sale at Mill City. We will also only have our eggs and lamb cuts for sale at Mill City until we see how to balance our inventory.

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

New Email Listserv for Minnesota Urban Farmers

The Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture has created a MNURBANFARMERS listserv, which will provide a way for Minnesotans engaged in urban farming activities to correspond with one another.

According to the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, "the purpose of the MNUurbanFarmers listserv is to be a discussion forum relevant to urban agriculture activities. "

To sign up go to: http://www.misa.umn.edu

While you are there, take their urban agriculture survey to help keep them in the know about your interests and activities.

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

Ready for Ramps!

Ready for Ramps! - Dara & Co. - April 2011 - Minnesota

Word on the street is that fresh, local ramps will be making their seasonal debut at local co-ops this weekend. Hooray! Ramps!

What are ramps?
Ramps are tasty, wild leeks. Their small bulbs have a pungent, onion-like flavor and they have broad, green leaves that smell like onion as well. They emerge in spring around the same time as daffodils and tulips. They can be foraged in the wild near water and on hillsides in sandy soil, or you can grab a bunch at your neighborhood co-op.

Cooking with Ramps
As with so many ingredients in our kitchens, ramps pair well with bacon.

• Half a pound of ramps, trimmed and cleaned
• Half a pound of bacon, chopped
• Salt and pepper

1. First, separate the leaves from the bulbs.
2. Gently parboil the bulbs in water while you chop and fry some bacon in a pan.
3. Remove the bacon from the pan and set it aside.
4. Once the bulbs are tender, transfer them to the bacon pan and sauté them in the bacon pan with the drippings.
5. Add the chopped ramp greens to the bacon pan with the bulbs and cook until they are wilted.
6. Grab the bacon you set aside earlier and crumble it over the top of the bulbs and greens. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preserving Ramps
Can’t eat all of your ramps? Take a crack at preserving them for later use.

Make a ramp compound butter. Compound butter is butter that has been modified with additional ingredients. Herb butter comes to mind as a popular compound butter served at restaurants. Compound butters are great on broiled fish, bread, and are even good for making sauces.

• Half a pound of ramps, trimmed and cleaned
• 2 pounds of unsalted, cubed butter at room temperature
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parchment Paper (or wax paper)

1. Trim and clean the ramps.
2. Blanch the ramps by boiling them in water for a minute and then plunging them in ice water.
3. Drain the ramps and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
4. Slice the ramps into very small pieces.
5. In a large bowl or mixer, combine the butter, ramps, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.
6. Create logs of compound butter and wrap them in parchment paper. Store in container in refrigerator or freeze.

Not in the mood for butter? Try pickling your leftover ramps using a recipe from Twin Cities’ own Chef Shack rock stars. Read up on canning if you’ve never canned before. The University of Minnesota Extension has everything you need to know to get started.

• 1 lb cleaned, fresh wild ramps
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp. each of hard pickling spice (cinnamon, coriander, juniper berry, star anise, and cardamom)

1. Clean and soak wild ramps in cold water.
2. Trim root ends and scrub free of soil. Leave whole.
3. Place the raw, prepped ramps in jars while you prepare the pickling liquid in Step #4.
4. Pour vinegar, sugar, water, and spices in a heavy-bottomed pan and bring the mix to a rolling boil for 3 minutes.
5. Carefully pour the hot liquid mix over the ramps in jars and place self-sealing ring and top on each jar.
6. Cook the sealed jars in your canner for approximately 15 minutes. Keep a minimum of 2 inches of water boiling over the jars during cooking time.
7. Remove the ramp-filled jars from the hot water. Cool for 24 hours.

Just as quickly as ramps appear on shelves and menus around the city, they disappear, so grab some of these tasty harbingers of spring while you can!

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

Alemar Cheese Announces Fromage Blanc

Alemar Cheese, makers of Bent River Camembert, are sourcing Cedar Summit Milk to create a new product, Fromage Blanc.

Keith Adams, of Alemar Cheese blogged about it this week.

"Some people compare it to a lighter version of cream cheese, and there are definite similarities. For me, it's a blend of cream cheese, yogurt and creme fraiche. There is the acidic tang common to all of them, but the texture is not quite the same. What sets it apart is the amazing milk from Cedar Summit Farm. The milk's great complexity and depth shine through, leaving a long, distinct and pleasing aftertaste."

Apparently, you can sample the new Fromage Blanc on flatbread at Vincent on Nicollet Mall and on cupcakes at the Craftsman. I'm looking forward to bringing some home to my own kitchen.

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

Minnesota Pizza Round-Up

Slice and Serious Eats in New York has compiled a roundup of pizza called the United States of Pizza. They tracked down Minnesota food blogger, Aaron Landry, for the Minnesota pizza round-up. Slice and Serious Eats definitely picked the right guy for the job.

Called the "Minnesota pizza blogger extraordinaire," pizza has been one of Landry's most covered topics in Minnesota, and you can read his round up of the best Minnesota pizza here: The United States of Pizza: Minnesota. I second his Black Sheep and Galactic Pizza picks. Add a comment there if agree or if you've got a pizza to add that he missed.

Although he vacated Minnesota for Hawaii last December, he's still producing Heavy Table, and I'm glad to see he's still showing love for the land of 10,000 lakes.

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

Cure In A Bowl

Cure In A Bowl - Dara & Co. - April 2011 - Minnesota

When the only cure for last night is warm and spicy soup, Tortilleria La Perla serves up some of the Twin Cities’ best cure in a bowl. As you’re sipping your soup and recalling the details of last night, you might ponder the white, slightly fluffy, slight chewy grain that is floating in your soup. It’s nixtamal, or hominy, which is dried corn that has been soaked and cooked in limewater or ashes, and then hulled. Its popular uses include soups such as Pozolé and menudo in its whole form, and when it’s ground it can be used to make tortillas and tamales.

After spending more than a few hours contemplating the complex texture of the nixtamal in my soup, I decided to prepare some from scratch at home using Minnesota-made Native Harvest Hominy, produced by the White Earth Land Recovery Project. They’re on a mission to recover the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation in Northwestern Minnesota. One of their major efforts is preserving native crops, and they prepare their own hominy with ashes from burned hardwood.

The process of turning the dried hominy soft and tender was simple. It was time-consuming, but no more so than preparing dried beans for a soup. I rinsed the dried hominy and then soaked the kernels in water overnight. The next afternoon, I brought the soaked kernels to a boil and then allowed them to simmer for about two hours, stirring occasionally until they were al dente. Once they reached that perfect tenderness I seasoned them and added them to a bowl with black beans, spicy shredded pork (tinga), cilantro, and onions and ladled some broth over the bowl. It was superbly comforting and worth the effort.

Native Harvest Hominy is available locally at Seward Co-op, but if you’d rather just sit down with a bowl of soup than make it, check out Tortilleria La Perla—especially if you’re in recovery mode from last night.

Ready, Set, Sow

Ready, Set, Sow - Dara & Co. - March 2011 - Minnesota

The arrival of my seed order last week was comparable to Christmas at our house this year. My excitement was extreme, so much so that I could barely open the package. With my hands shaking in anticipation, I carefully sifted through the packets, daydreaming about a bumper crop of dill and green beans.

Last spring, on the Dara & Co blog, I covered the basics of sowing heirloom seeds, why they’re important, and where to obtain them. I still stand by what I said a year ago. Aside from the charm, the world of heirloom growing is still fascinating. It's exciting to be growing flowers, vegetables, and herbs that contribute to biodiversity.

Perhaps one of my most interesting “finds” this spring is the Monticello Kitchen Garden Sampler—White House Edition seed collection. Inspired by the new Thomas Jefferson garden at the White House, this seed sampler gives you a chance to plant seeds that are growing in the White House garden, and were among Jefferson’s favorites from his original kitchen garden, including: Tennis-ball Lettuce, Prickly-seeded Spinach, Red Calico Lima Beans, Sesame, Globe Artichoke, and Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage.

Ordering heirloom seeds online from Monticello or Seed Savers is a breeze these days, but perhaps you’d like to support a local business or talk shop with other local gardeners. There are several shops throughout Minnesota that are seed rack locations for Seed Savers, a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Seed Savers’ seed packets available at local shops give you the basic information you need in order to plant and grow everything from rows of heirloom tomatoes to rainbows of snapdragons.

Check out this list of Seed Savers seed rack locations in Minnesota

Albert Lea Seed House 1414 West Main St. Albert Lea, MN 56007 Phone: (800) 352-5247 Cook Country Coop 20 East First St. PO Box 1433 Grand Marais, MN 55604 Phone: (218) 387-2503 Seward Coop 2823 E Franklin Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55406 Phone: (612) 338-2465 Moms Food Co-op 122 N Buchanan St. Cambridge, MN 55008 East Side Food Co-op 2551 Central Ave. NE Minneapolis, MN 55418 Phone: (612) 788-0950 Mississippi Market 1500 W. 7th St. St. Paul, MN 55102 Phone: (651) 690-0507 Bluff County Co-op 121 W. 2nd St. Winona, MN 55987 Phone: (507) 452-1815 Bob & Judy's Farm Market 18366 County Road 14 Big Lake, MN 55309 Phone: (763) 263-1171 Linden Hills Co-op 3815 Sunnyside Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55410 Phone: (612) 922-1159 Sailers Greenhouse 17011 Sunset Ave. Shakopee, MN 55379 Phone: (952) 403-0630 Mississippi Market 1810 Randolph Ave. Saint Paul, MN 55105 Mother Earth Gardens 3738 42nd Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55406 Phone: (612) 724-2296 Drummers Garden Center 281 Saint Andrews Dr. Mankato, MN 56001 Phone: (507)388-4877 Linders Garden Center 270 W. Larpenteur Ave. Saint Paul, MN 55113 Phone: (651) 488-1927 Hillside Greenhouse 1934 4th Ave. Windom, MN 56101 Phone: (507) 832-8300 Rainbow Food Coop 103 S. Main St. Blue Earth, MN 56013 Phone: (507) 526-3603

Abrahamson Nurseries 20021 St. Croix Trail N. Scandia, MN 55073 Phone: (651) 433-2431 Amelia's Flower & Garden Shoppe 910 W 36th St. Minneapolis, MN 55408 Phone: (612) 208-1205 Eggplant Urban Farm Supply 1771 Selby Ave. Saint Paul, MN 55104 Phone: (651) 645-0818 Greenwood Plants 6904 NW 18th Ave. Rochester, MN 55901 Phone: (507) 282-1988 Delano True Value 1005 Crossings Dr. Delano, MN 55328 Phone: (763) 972-7272 Natures Nest Farm 5412 Brighton Ave. SE Montrose, MN 55363 Phone: (612) 759-1478 Just Food Coop 516 S Water St. Northfield, MN 55057 Phone: (507) 645-7415 University of MN Lanscape Arboritum 3685 Arboretum Dr. Chaska, MN 55318 Phone: (952) 443-1403 Mazopiya 2571 Credit Union Dr. Prior Lake, MN 55372 Phone: (952)233-9142 Kingsley Mercantile 2 Main Ave. N. Harmony, MN 55939 Phone: (507)886-2323

Need a little information about how to sow your seeds once you have them? The University of Minnesota Extension Service has loads of information that will help you sow your seeds inside. Have some great tips for sowing seeds in a drafty Minnesota kitchen or living room? Please share!