Market Menu for August 16, 2014

We are starting our late summer carrots this week. Yes, you guessed it. These are amazing CANDY CARROTS. We will have a bushel this week and every week. If you haven't tried these you don't know what real carrots taste like. Check it out.

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes are ripening at an accelerating rate. We have all been waiting with great anticipation for the field grown, vine ripened, and delicious gems of August. Well they are here, we will steadily build our tomato repertoire over the next few weeks. We planted some heirloom tomatoes about 8 weeks before the cherry tomatoes so we are leading with those for the season. The cheery cherries are also starting this week. 

Beautiful raspberries! Credit: Reed Petersen

Tomatillos are gaining momentum. We will have about 15 pounds this week and more to come.

Time to freeze or can beans. We will have 4 bushels of the amazing french fillet beans this week. See Brian's post on how to freeze beans.

Our second crop of baby red and Yukon gold potatoes is in full swing.

Squash blossoms remain a favorite at our market stand. Brian's post on 10 ways to use squash blossoms remains a perennial favorite.

The basil is really doing well and we will start to offer the gallon bags for the same price as lettuce this week.  Here is a post on 10 ways to use fresh basil.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, August 16, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Mentonymy

It has been a while since we have explored an uncommon vocabulary word. Mentonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept.

For example, "Wall Street" is used as a metonymously to describe the US financial and corporate sector and "Hollywood" is used as a metonym for the US film industry.

Let's look at some mentonymy examples from the farm.

Date Night Movie -The Hundred-Foot Journey

Lisa and I went to a movie for our date night this week. We don't usually pick that venue for date night as we find it is better to do something where we can talk. I also don't usually do movie reviews on our blog. But I'm going to make an exception for this one.

I had seen a trailer at another movie a month or so ago and this looked like something Lisa and I would both enjoy. Turns out it was an excellent movie. Great themes. Very uplifting. No profanity. No violence. No sex.

Here are five reasons you might like this movie...

Diversity on the Farm

We grow over 75 varieties of vegetables on our farm. From an agricultural stand point that is diversity at its finest. Is that the real diversity on our farm or does diversity run much deeper?

Lets explore true diversity on our farm.

Market Menu for August 9, 2014

Tomatoes rule the later part of the summer. We have all been waiting with great anticipation for the field grown, vine ripened, and delicious gems of August. Well they are here, we will steadily build our tomato repertoire over the next few weeks. We planted some heirloom tomatoes about 8 weeks before the cherry tomatoes so we are leading with those for the season. The cheery cherries will be along soon. 

Beautiful raspberries! Credit: Reed Petersen

I have been experimenting with some gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches using local ingredients these past few weeks. The approach is simple, but the results are far from ordinary. These are not you mothers grilled cheese sandwiches. For more information on the retro grilled cheese remade for the new millennium click on the link.

Time to freeze or can beans. We will have 4 bushels of the amazing french fillet beans. See Brian's post last week on how to freeze beans.

Our second crop of baby red and Yukon gold potatoes is starting this week. I've been experimenting with potato salad recipes with arugula. I made up a combination I think you'll enjoy.

Squash blossoms remain a favorite at our market stand. Brian's post on 10 ways to use squash blossoms remains a perennial favorite.

The basil is really doing well and we will start to offer the gallon bags for the same price as lettuce this week.  Here is a post on 10 ways to use fresh basil.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, August 9, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Rites of Passage on Our Farm

Wikipedia says, "a rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's transition from one status to another".

We have lost many of our traditional farming rites of passage as we have move from an agrarian society to an urban society. We see value in many of our agricultural traditions that mark a transition from a child on the farm to a full contributing member of the farming tribe.

Here are a few of these rites of passage...

Changing Oil - A Lost Art and a Rite of Passage

For you guys out there (and maybe a few of the ladies) do you remember when you changed oil with your dad for the first time?

Well as a society we hardly do that for ourselves anymore. I like to do hands on projects and know how to fix stuff and it has been years since I have done an oil change.

Well the farm truck needed an oil change and so I decided I would show Reed how to do it.

Here is how it went...

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.

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.

Market Menu August 2, 2014

Did you know that salsa has recently passed ketchup as the condiment of choice? We are starting to get a blush of red on a few tomatoes and should have some  fully ripe by next week. We have a few tomatillos, jalapeños and lots of cilantro. Can you
spell salsa?

Beautiful raspberries! Credit: Reed Petersen

Congratulations to Reed for his "best of show' at the Olmsted county fair last week with his Walla Walla Sweet onions. They are beautiful, and have amazing mild flavor. For those that like things a little zippier, we have Chipolini onions and sweet red onions.

Time to freeze or can beans. We will have 5 bushels of these amazing french filet beans. See Brian's post this week on how to freeze beans.

Our second crop of baby red and Yukon gold potatoes is starting this week. With the severe winter we managed to avoid Colorado potatoe beetles completely, so the potatoes this year are beautiful.

Andrea finished harvesting all the garlic this week so it is in the process of curing. We will bring some of the first heads again this week. Nothing like fresh garlic to note the peak of summer's fresh flavors.

The basil is really doing well and we will start to offer the gallon bags for the same price as lettuce this week.  Here is a post on 10 ways to use fresh basil.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, August 2, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)