Brian's Gravy for Biscuits and Gravy

One of my favorite breakfasts is "Biscuits and Gravy". Most restaurants get their gravy off the truck, meaning they bought a premade gravy instead of making it from scratch.

When I am home I can make it from the ground up and it is amazing. Here is the recipe I used this morning.

Farmers Market Cucumber Salad with Honey-Lime and Yogurt Dressing

One of the tastes of summer is cucumbers and this salad rocks with a Greek yogurt based dressing. Perfect for diner or lunch.

Treasure

You know the old saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure". Well we had a good example of that at the farmers market last week. Before I explain what happened let me give a little background.

We had a great onion crop last year and we have been selling onions all winter and on into the spring. These  are the Spanish onions that will keep for 6 months or more. Well these onions were picked in early September so we are way out on the edge of the bell curve, probably six sigma or something like that, with these onions lasting 10 months.

The onions that are well grown and well stored don't really go bad they just sprout (meaning they wake up and start growing.)

That is the start of the weird transaction we had at the farmer's market...

Thinking Differently - As easy as 1, 2, 3

Farmers can often circumvent the conventional wisdom and improve their bottom line by just thinking differently.

Let's look at some examples...

What Do You Suggest for My Broken Heart

One of our favorite customers stopped by this week and asked "What do you suggest for my broken heart?"

We get some weird requests from time to time and this one was a little strange. I wasn't sure if she was asking for relationship help. I could have referred her to a counselor or pastor.

The riddle was soon solved...

Onion'n'Leeks

With the title of this post, I bet you thought I was going to do a Guns'n'Roses parody. Not.

Saturday was amazing weather so the boys (Reed, Johnny & Chris) finished planting 6000 onions and 3000 leeks. We still have 2000 cippolini onions to go, but we ran out of compost.

Here is why the compost is important...

The Science & Creativity Behind Great Coleslaw

We had a great cabbage crop this fall and so I have been experimenting with any coleslaw variations and recipes. This has been a very tasty and healthy fall. We are now heading into the heart of winter and we still have about 120 heads of cabbage left.

So how does this delightful salad called coleslaw work?

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.

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...

How to Grow Cipollini Onions

Cipollini (pronounced chip-o-lee-knee) were once the province of high end restaurants and gourmet magazine. But they are becoming more common at local farmers markets. We have grown these little gems for over 10 years. We start our cipollini onions from transplants. We started planting about 3000 plants last night and will finish by the weekend (weather permitting).

Here is how we do it.

Time to Plant Onions

Whether from plants or seed it is time to plant onions. We plant about 15,000 onions and leek plants each April. The first step is to...

First Compost of the Season and Spring Onions

I got the first load of compost at the Waste-to-Energy facility today. I think they mark the start of spring by my first pick-up load of compost. It is nice to see everyone after a long winter. I got about 150 pick-up loads last year so I am one of their better customers.

My first pick-up load of compost of the season is typically used for the...

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

A Simple Fresh Salsa Recipe

A salsa kit contains all the vegetables that it takes to make a great salsa. Once the tomatoes start we offer this weekly. It can vary a little from week to week early in the season, don't worry about the exact proportions, about anything works. The kit typically contains the following:

• Tomatoes
• Bell Peppers
• Jalapeno
• Sweet Onions
• Tomatillo
• Garlic
• Cilantro
• Salt and Lime to Taste (not included)

We suggest you add salt and lime, but we don't grow those so they aren't included.

It would typically be about twice the cost to gather up all the ingredients separately so this is a pretty good deal. Makes 1.5 quarts of salsa.

A Simple Fresh Salsa Recipe

Instructions to assembly your salsa. It is easiest to use a food processor, but you can make salsa with just a sharp knife.

Chop up the garlic, cilantro and jalapeno first (if you want it hotter, leave the seeds in, otherwise remove the seeds). Add bell peppers, tomatillo and sweet onions and pulse the food process several times to chop. Cut tomatoes into quarters and pulse again to chop. If you want chunky only pulse a couple of times. If you want a smoother salsa, pulse a few more times.

Enjoy!

Kick it Up:

• Add some of Petersen's sweet corn, cut kernels off the ear (a great way to use up leftovers)
• Add black beans
• Add chipotles
• Add more Jalapenos
• Double the recipe size with your own tomatoes or buy some extra

Baby Patty Pan, Zucchini and Kale White Sauce

I made a delightful white sauce with very small Patty Pan and Zucchini squash, Baby Kale and Sweet Onions last weekend. We will have all of these at our market stand this week. I used Ricotta cheese as the base for the sauce. You can get hand made pasta at the Farmer's Market, or use any pasta you wish. I used bow tie pasta as I had that on hand.

It was very good, give it a whirl.

Ingredients:

1 box of patty pan squash (Petersen's)
1 box of baby zucchini squash, tips and stems remove and sliced into bite sized pieces (Petersen's)
Large bag of baby kale (Petersen's)
Large Sweet Onion, diced (Petersen's)
8 oz of Low Fat Ricotta Cheese
1 cups of low fat milk
white pepper to taste
salt to taste
pinch of cayenne or chipotle pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced (Petersen's)
1 tsp of arrow root starch or corn starch dissolved in a small amount of cold water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound pasta of your choice (bow tie, spiral, penne)

Directions:

Prepare pasta of choice and drain while finishing sauce (most pastas take 8-10 minutes to cook)

Saute onion with olive oil and garlic. When on)ion is starting to soften add patty pan and zucchini. Cook about 2 minutes (don't over cook squash). Stir in Ricotta cheese and milk, salt, pepper and cayenne. Warm up to where it just starts to bubble, add arrow root starch to thicken. Bring back to a simmer and add kale. Wilt kale and gentle stir into the sauce. Serve over pasta.

Kick It Up:

Serve Over Potatoes (Petersen's)
Serve Over Saffron Rice
Serve Over Seafood like scallops or shrimp
Add a little more cayenne.
Add some fresh Rosemary (Petersen's)
Add some fresh Basil instead of Kale, price is the same at our stall (Petersen's)
Add some fresh Thyme (Petersen's)
Add more garlic or several shallots. (Petersen's)

Shallots: the Jewel of the Allium Family

If garlic is the rose and onions are the pearl, then shallots are the jewel of the Allium family. We picked a few shallots for market this week, they are getting close to full maturity. They are beautiful big shallots. We typically plant in a double row like we do onions and we used lots of organic fertilizer. One of the rows was planted to a single row and had the benefit of enough fertilizer for two, so the shallots are really jumbo in that row.

Shallots have the delicate garlic flavor that the gourmet chefs love to use to give dishes that light fresh taste so unique to shallots. They don't yield as well as onions so they are a little more expensive but they are well worth it. Fresh shallots are amazing.

Starting this week we will have new crop shallots. We just finished the last of the shallots from 2012 so they keep amazingly well. Very few sprout at normal conditions, unlike onions, that often sprout if the conditions aren't just perfect. Yet they know when to grow very quickly when planted in the soil in the spring.

We keep our own shallots for seed from year to year. I got the original seed from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, in Grass Valley, CA about 10 years ago. They are French shallots. Unlike garlic where you want to plant the biggest cloves possible, small shallots can grow several large shallots the next year if given excellent conditions.

I see in the seed catalogs you can start shallots from seed but I have never tried it. Seems like they'd not have enough time to size up. But I can't speak from experience. When you grow shallots from shallots you keep from the previous year that is called a set, just like it is for onions; which make them identical.

Shallots are a green leafy plant that likes extra nitrogen for the first 1/3 of the growing season. Then when we hit the long days near the end of June the shallots become storage machines and really start putting on the pounds. We back off on the fertilizer and watch the amazing transformation. They need an inch of water a week until the last two weeks before harvest, when they need to dry down and cure.

I'll include some recipes using shallots in future blogs.

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.

Weed'em and Reap

Our farm team has done an excellent job this season with weeding. We have a world champion weeding team. When the weeds get over about six inches we typically pull them.  When weeds are smaller we use a stirrup hoe or wheel hoe.

With the plants like onions where we use compost in the row, we don't usually have substantial weeds until mid season. We are on the second and final weeding for onions, leeks and shallots. They look excellent and will take care of themselves for the rest of the season.

Recipe for Delicious French Filet Bean Sauce

I developed a very tastey sauce for french filet beans. I used basil, rosemary, garlic and sweet onions.

Prepare the beans for sauteing by removing the stem and tip. You can chop the beans into smaller pieces or leave them half size.

Dice 1 cup of basil, a table spoon of fresh rosemary, two cloves of garlic and a small sweet onion. Cook in olive oil or coconut oil. Mix all ingredients and saute with green beans.

Serve warm or if you don't finish it is also good cold or warmed up.

Onion Leaves Tell Their Own Story

We were out counting the leaves on our onion plants this evening. No, we weren't bored and had nothing better to do. We are approaching the summer solstice when we have the longest days of the year here in Minnesota. This is the time when long day onions start their bulb enlargement. The number and size of the leaves on your onions will indicate the size of the onions bulb. 

This is because each leaf produces one ring on the onion. So the more leaves the onion has the more rings it will have and the larger the leaves, the larger the rings. Woohoo, now we are all going to be out counting our onion leaves, as well you should be.

Typically an onion produces a pair of leaves every two weeks during the growing season after it gets established after transplanting, The onion should be fertilized organically every 2-3 weeks. The largest leaf is generally the ninth leaf and this is the time that you want to do your last fertilization as the onions peak nitrogen needs are then. Also the plant is making the transition from is green leafy stage to being a super storage machine.

The perfect number of leaves is a lucky 13 and if the onion produces this many leaves it is usually a sign that the plant is approaching maturity. Not all onions will produce 13 leaves, sometimes 9 to 12 leaves are produced, depending on the conditions. Not to worry if you don't get 13, you can still have some beautiful onions that will keep well and be delicious to eat.

For jumbo onions that break the records at the fair, strive for the lucky 13.

So what number did we get on our onions?  We found some twelves and a few tens, the onion pictured above has eleven leaves (the first is hidden by the second). So things are looking good.

They haven't started to enlarge yet. In a normal year we would have seen some bulb enlargement by now, I think this is because we had to plant them about three weeks late. They are just getting to the mature stage now and enlargement will follow. We would often be harvesting baseball sized onions by now and be well on the way to the slow pitch size. We might not get those huge sizes this year, but I could be wrong as the season has been very good in all other respects. We have weeded well and fertilized with fish several times. Water has been abundant.