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.

Squash Blossom Salsa

A wonderful combination of flavors and textures from unusual ingredients. We have a good supply of squash blossoms now at the farmers market.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup diced sweet onion
1 cup finely diced zucchini or patty pan squash
1 Roma tomato
1-inch piece of jalapeno (more to taste)
4 tablespoons cilantro leaves
1 clove garlic
4 squash blossoms
juice of half a lime

Directions:

1. Place onion, 1/2 of the squash, the tomato, Jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and squash blossoms in a blender and blend until chunky
2. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet and add remaining diced squash. Saute over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the puree from the blender or food processor and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the salsa is thickened and any excess liquid had evaporated. Salt to taste and set aside to cool. Chill in refrigerator.

Serve with chips, quesadillas or tacos.

Kick It Up:

1. Add some corn.
2. Add more Jalapeno
3. Add more tomato
4. Make a bigger batch with more blossoms and proportionally more other ingredients.