Magnesium 101, The Miracle of Magnesium

Magnesium is essential to more than 300 biochemical processes in the human body and over 3,700 magnesium binding sites. The functions the need magnesium include:

• Blood pressure regulation
• Protein synthesis
• Neurological function
• Blood sugar control
• Energy metabolism
• Antioxidant production

Most of the US population is deficient in magnesium.

This post is about magnesium rich natural food sources...

Ten Below on the French Riveria Part II

In our last post we made the observation that, many of the Minnesota "locals" do not realize that South East Minnesota is at the same latitude as the southern coast of France. The Reveria is known for its mild Mediterranean climate and stands in stark contrast to the Minnesota cold.

The reason for this is Minnesota is land locked and is exposed to the Canadian Arctic weather systems. While the southern coast of France has a hugh body of warm water call the Mediterranean Sea to moderate its climate.

But the real key is the amount of sunshine both locations get...they are the same.

So why all the fuss and why does this matter?

Turning Hostile in to Habitat

Spring in Minnesota can be wild and unpredictable. You won't be able to do any serious tillage until middle to end of April. So what do you do if you want to get a jump on the growing season and get things planted as early as possible?

Baby Potato Salad with Arugula

We are starting into our second crop of the year for baby potatoes. We find that Yukon Gold and Red Norland do well and are very early in our cool Minnesota spring conditions, yet do well in the warmer summer months as well.

I like to experiment with recipes and I have been trying variation of the lowly potato salad. These baby potatoes work will for making potato salad as they have a waxy texture and hold together well.

The subtle flavor of potatoes jacked up with arugula is an amazing combination. I've combined the flavor of roasted and seasoned browned and crisped potatoes with a zesty mustard vinaigrette. This simple recipe is easy to construct, see recipe below.

What seeds can I plant for a fall garden?

Along about the first of July the garden centers box up all their remaining seeds and send them back to the seed companies. But you know as a educated and well informed gardener that the season is far from over. In fact some of the best vegetables come from the fall garden.

I just got my fall seed order from Johnny's seeds in Maine. Let's talk about what you can plant from seed that will thrive in the fall.  Here is my top 10 list.

10 Ways to Use Fresh Basil

There is nothing better than fresh basil. Even non-Mediterranean Minnesotans are highly attracted to this very healthy food. We sell basil during the main growing season for the same price as lettuce. What a great deal. Like many things that are good for us we love the taste of basil. Here are 10 ways to use basil:

1. Pesto, one of the most popular. See our post on how to make your own fresh pesto.
2. Layer a few leaves on your hamburger as you grill or serve. Also looks great.
3. Pizza sauce. chop finely and add 1/2 cup to your favorite sauce. Also is good with a white sauce.
4. Pasta sauce. Add 1 cup finely chopped to your favorite sauce.

Plants That Do Well Together in Pots

There are a number of combinations of garden plants that do well together in pots. Here are 10 combinations:

1. Sunflower, squash and peas. Similar to the three sisters that were planted by the native Americas when the Europeans first settled in America.
2. Two peppers do well in pots. They also do well planted together in the garden.
3. Combinations of herbs, such as Basil, Rosemary and Thyme.
4. Edible flowers such as pansies work well with shorter herbs.

Ten Reasons Why Day Length Is Important

Right now sunrise is at 5:28 am and sunset is at 8:51 pm here is Rochester, Minnesota. I am writing this at 4:30 am on Friday so it is still pretty dark outside. I like to rise early and Friday's are my day for a men's small group at our church. So the coffee is on and I am listening to some Hillsong tunes on YouTube.

Day Length Illustrated in this Picture, Taken at About 8:00PM in April. Photo Credit: Reed Petersen

Right now the day length is approximately 15 hours and 21 minutes. In about three weeks we will top out at nearly 16 hours during the spring/summer solstice. Other than if you are a morning person "like me" or like to work in the garden until bed time "like me" (feels like double dipping this time of year) why should you care...

First Fruits

We had some beautiful 50 degree weather today. I took Reed to do his driving test after work, he passed. Good job Reed!

I got home a little early so I planted our first greens of the 2014 growing season.  I planted...

Minnesota Cooks: Petersen's at the Minnesota State Fair Sunday, August 24, 2013

The Petersen's will be a featured farm for the Minnesota Cooks event at the Minnesota State Fair on Sunday, August 24, 2013. If you are at the State Fair today we'd love to have you join us at 12:00 at Carousel Park.

Our farm, Greenleaf Gardens, is paired with Rainbow Cafe in Pine Island, Minnesota for the event. Rainbow Cafe uses lots of fresh ingredients from local farms, one of which is ours. There was a brief article in the Post Bulletin this week in the State Fair Section on Friday.

Jennifer Richards and Jeremy Olson own the Rainbow Cafe will be serving samples with our Heirloom Tomatoes, Sweet Onions, Arugula and Basil. Jennifer baked the rolls she will be using. There will be samples from various restaurants across the Minnesota from 10:00 - 4:30. Our presentation is from 12:00 to 1:00. There will also be an information table for the various farms.

The Minnesota Cooks organization chooses 12 farm and restaurant pairs from across the Minnesota. They are published in a beautiful calendar each year. You can get a calendar if you visit the event or we will have some at our Rochester Farmers Market booth as long as they last.

See you at the Minnesota State Fair.

Summer Greens Are Amazing

For the freshest, just out of the garden flavor, visit our farmers market stand for some amazing greens. We are at the market right now getting set-up (I wrote and scheduled this post at 4:00 this morning.) I think the cooler weather over the last few weeks has contributed to the exceptional flavor. We have:

1. Baby spinach is back after taking a break for a few weeks.
2. Spring mix with gorgeous baby kale, 4 varieties of lettuce, baby beet greens and a touch of sweet ruby
3. Red Russian Kale micro greens, very small
4. Baby Kale
5. Arugula, Arugula, Arugula zesty and fresh
6. Sweet Ruby
7. Cress
8. Dandelion Greens

Don't miss the fresh basil and cilantro. 

We picked 20 pounds of beautiful basil yesterday evening. Stand half way between the onions and the basil for the Italian experience.

A Simple Arugula Pesto

With the taste of Arugula Pesto still fresh on my tongue I thought I would write down the recipe. We has some really nice baby leaf arugula at the market today. It had a nice full flavor without being too spicy as arugula can be in the summer months. We succession plant every few weeks to keep our greens top quality.

The unique thing about ARUGULA pesto is it stays bright green even during cooking.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh ARUGULA leaves, packed
2 cloves garlic (1 clove if you don't like strong garlic or if they are very large)
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts (you can toast or use raw)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese

Directions

Process ARUGULA, garlic and nuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Add oil slowly and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in cheese if using immediately. If freezing leave the cheese out.

We used the pesto as a bruschetta on some fresh bread. We toasted our bread and that mellows the ARUGULA a little for a spicier pesto toast the bread and then put the pesto on it right before serving.

ARUGULA pesto works well on pasta and can be used to stuff squash blossoms.

Arugula and New Baby Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of the staples of of the summer time menu. Small new baby potatoes are the most flavorful and beat the socks off the storage varieties in the stores. Our arugula is also way more flavorful than store bought arugula. I think it is the minerals in our soil that punch up the flavor. These two vegetables are dynamite in the traditional potato salad with a little kick!

One of the keys to a good potato salad is to mix the dressing and the potatoes before the potatoes cool so the dressing is soaked up by the cooling potatoes.

Ingredients:

1. 2 lbs new potatoes, baby red or Yukon gold
2. 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3. 1/4 cup mayonnaise (you can make your own fresh if you'd like)
4. 3 small sweet onions like Walla Walla or Alisa Craig
5. 2 cups of arugula leaves, baby sized or roughly chop bigger leaves
6. 1 small bunch fresh dill, chop dill weed finely

Directions:

Fill a 5 quart pot 3/4 full of water. Bring to a boil and add potatoes. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until you can pierce the potatoes easily with a knife or fork. Drain potatoes and put them back in the pot. Slice warm potatoes into quarters. Add to a large mixing bowl.

Mix.together the yogurt and mayonnaise. Toss the potatoes with the dressing, then toss with the onions, arugula and dill. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Let rest in the refrigerator for an hour before serving.

Amazing Arugula

Did you know arugula looks just like baby broccoli when it germinates? It also has some of the same cancer fighting phytonutrient that broccoli has. Both are close cousins botanically and so, have similar baby leaf and stem characteristics.

To get the arugula to perform at its absolute best flavor and nutrition you  must have peak mineralization in your soil. We are constantly working on remineralizing our soils using kelp, highly mineralized salt, fish emulsion, rock powders and compost.

We occasionally sample arugula from the store in the winter and it won't hold a candle to the flavor and shelf life of our arugula grown in mineralized soil. Our kids love arugula on salads and sandwiches. It also makes a zesty brilliant green pesto, which is good on pasta or bruschetta.

There are a number of different arugula types. The more highly serrated leaves are a little more zesty and the smooth leaves are a little milder. We like to cut arugula at the baby leaf stage.

We had never even heard of arugula before about 7-8 years ago. Then it started to appear in more of the gourmet magazines and people started asking for it. So what the heck, we tried it and we were hooked as were our customers.

We typically have a very good product and some of the upscale restaurants buy from us at the market.   Nosh, ZZest, and Pescara are all frequent buyers.

Heavenly Tasting Greens

It is show time in the garden for those heavenly tasting greens. Lettuce, spinach, kale, mizuna, tatsoi, cress and arugula are our favorite greens. They are especially flavorful compared to store purchased greens. We have been told this by our customers many many times and they often ask why this is. Some customers have even gone so far as to do a taste test.

There are several reasons for this amazing flavor.

First we work very hard at remineralizing our soils. We add kelp meal, low magnesium lime, and highly mineralized salts. These minerals replace those removed from the soils over the years of farming activity.

Second we use several inches of compost in each bed. The substrate for this compost is vegetable matter such as leaves and alfalfa hay that brings up minerals from deep in the soil. These minerals are maintained by the compost. Compost is not a fertilizer perse, but it does contain a nice amount of slow release nitrogen that is just right for light feeding greens. It is more of a soil amendment that feeds the microorganisms in the coil. A primary purpose for the compost is to provide a weed free shield for the greens to get ahead of any weeds that may be present. This makes for a low maintenance growing site.

Third we harvest the greens Friday night right before market. They are extremely fresh for the market and that gives them incredible shelf life. We have had many customers tell us that they have been able to enjoy their salads for two weeks after purchase.

The best way to get the maximum shelf life is to wash the greens you purchase and then spin or pat the greens free of moisture. Then put them in a zip lock bag with a paper towel to collect any residual moisture. It is the anaerobic conditions where drops of moisture collect that cause spoilage.