What is an Heirloom?

Heirlooms are typically open pollinated garden vegetables that can trace their lineage back to the early 1900's or late 1800's, or before.

Tomatoes are a good example.

A Trick For Better Heirloom Tomato Yields

Heirloom tomatoes are notorious for poor disease resistance.

One of the tricks we use to improve this is...

Baby Zucchini Squash with Salmon in Alfredo Rosa

Salmon is our favorite fish. We has some left over from the meal we had the evening before Jenna left for college. We combined the left over fish with Alfredo sauce, heirloom tomatoes and baby yellow zucchini. Add pasta to combionnation.

Horray for Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Local Ingredients

I have been experimenting with making grilled cheese sandwiches these last few weeks.  The grilled cheese is kind of a lost art. My mother used to use velveta cheese on white bread (not so healthy). But many upscale restuarants have redicovered the grilled cheese as a multi-faceted comfort food with unlimited possibilites and a full spectrum of local foods options.

Here are some ideas for putting a zip in your grill.

My Favorite Tomato

My favorite tomato is the heirloom Brandywine followed closely by the shorter season Pruden's Purple.

As a farmer you might think I am partial to these two tomatoes because of their superior disease resistance (I pick many varieties because of this). Or maybe outstanding yields, that is another selection criteria for some of our vegetables.

But these are my favorite tomatoes because of only one thing. It is...

10 Reasons I Like Fall

My farmer dad says that fall is his favorite season. I think he said that because he finally got to harvest all the stuff he worked so hard to grow that year.

1) Salsa Freak - Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions (see our simple recipe)
2) Candy Carrots - The adage is frost on the pumpkins, but we like frost on the carrots.
3) Leeks, Onions and Shallots "Oh My"
4) Heirloom Tomatoes for BLT's
5) Watermelon - 15 varieties
6) Winter Squash
7) Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkins
8) Cool Weather
9) Planting Garlic
10) Fall Broccoli

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.