Mark your calendars for Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 8, and make sure to plan something special for the important moms in your life. What it means to be a mom is a continually evolving concept that looks different in every family. There are stay-at-home moms, birth moms, adopted moms, step-moms, and many people who just step up to the plate and stand in as “Mom.” We should celebrate these individuals in our lives every day, but picking up a little something special or doing something thoughtful this Mother’s Day will mean a lot to those who do so much for us day in and day out. Seward Co-op has a wide array of gift options and plenty of seasonal ingredients to prepare a delicious meal sure to please any mom.

Mother’s Day Preview Event
Saturday, May 7 Noon–3 p.m.
Both stores

Browse locally made gifts, sample treats from our bakery and pick up some kid-friendly recipes for breakfast in bed. On Mother’s Day, May 8 from 8 a.m.–noon, treat Mom to a special brunch made fresh in our Deli. We’ll be rolling out white tablecloths and flowers to beautify our dining area. And if you’re planning to pick up a floral bouquet, we’ll custom wrap it for you from 9 a.m.–1 p.m.

P6 Meal for Mom

Honey takes center stage in this quick, easy and delicious meal for mom. The beeconscious sides that accompany the bee-centric main dish are simple and require very little preparation. Wherever possible, we call out P6 ingredients — products from farms or companies that meet at least two of the following criteria: small, local, and cooperatively owned. Whether or not the mom in your home cooks, we are confident she will be impressed and appreciative of your efforts and thoughtfulness.

Grilled Spring Chicken Sausage

4 Seward Co-op handmade spring chicken sausages (meatless options are available in our Grocery department)

1 package brat buns

1 jar Fleur de Beez Creole-style mustard

Weather permitting, get the grill started by filling a chimney with charcoal. Once all of the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour coals into grill. Arrange the sausages in a sauté pan and fill with water (or beer) until sausages are submerged in cooking liquid. Poach over medium-high heat until the internal temperature of the sausages registers 140°–145° F. Place sausages directly on grill grates to carefully char sausages for 3 minutes. If grilling is not an option, brown in sauté pan after poaching. Serves 4.

Honey-roasted Carrots

2 bunches of carrots

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. Beez Kneez Honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450° F. Cut carrots into thirds, then toss with oil, honey, salt and pepper. Place carrots on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 25 minutes. Serves 4.

Blue Cheese with Honey Spread

½ lb. Monforte bleu cheese

¼ cup Beez Kneez honey

1 Rustica baguette

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 450° F. Make crostinis by cutting baguette into ½-inch discs. Place discs on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toast in oven until bread is browned around edges, about 5–8 minutes. Place bleu cheese on plate and drizzle with honey. Serve with the crostinis. Serves 4.

Spinach Salad with Honey-glazed Pecans

1 Tbsp. Nordic Creamery butter

½ cup pecan halves

1 Tbsp. Beez Kneez honey

8 oz. spinach

1 pint raspberries

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. Locus Lane Vineyards verjus blanc vinegar

Melt butter in small frying pan over low heat, then add pecans and honey. Cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture is caramelized. Spread out on wax paper to cool. In a bowl gently toss together spinach, pecans, and raspberries. Add oil and vinegar and toss again until everything is coated. Serves 4.

Of the many reasons to love eating with the seasons, I find the anticipation of the next season’s harvest perhaps the most satisfying. The feeling of excitement for the return of certain fruits and vegetables after months away – when they are in their prime and often when we like to eat them most.

This summer, we’ve had our fill of vine-ripened tomatoes, succulent stone fruit, and hydrating melons – all of which require no heat or fuss to enjoy. As summer winds down and the weather cools, cool season bulk greens such as arugula, spicy mix, salad mix, and spinach have returned from Heartbeet Farm and we have been enjoying deliveries of late season raspberries. We’ll have both until the frost. We also have squash, sweet potatoes, and fall apples to look forward to cooking with and feasting upon for months to come.

In the past few weeks, squash availability really blossomed. Now, beyond the standard butternut and spaghetti squash we have acorn, blue hubbard, buttercup, red kabocha, red kuri, and delicata. Over the next few months, this list will grow to include over a dozen winter squash varieties each with unique flavors and textures suited to different preparations.

Butternut squash makes a richer and nuttier pie than any pumpkin pie I’ve tried. Roasted buttercup is my favorite for a pureed soup. For a quick snack, halve a delicate squash lengthwise, brush the flesh side with olive oil and tuck a clove of garlic and a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme in the cavity and place flesh side down on a baking sheet. Roast until soft and fragrant. Add a little butter, salt and pepper and eat right out of the skin.

I love simmering thick wedges of a red kuri squash, skins on, in 1 cup dashi (Japanese broth made of kombu and bonito flakes), 2 Tbsp. mirin, 2 Tbsp. sake, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1 Tbsp. soy sauce and a pinch of salt until the broth is reduced by half and the squash is tender. Equal parts savory and sweet, this makes a delicious side or could be eaten over rice with a little of the cooking broth poured over.

Squash risotto is perhaps my favorite way to eat winter squash. In a heavy pan, heat a tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 cups of squash (butternut or buttercup are great here) cut into ½ inch cubes. Cook until the squash begins to soften – around 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of Arborio rice, stir to coat the squash and cook for a few minutes until the rice begins to appear translucent. Add ½ cup of dry white wine, stir until the wine has evaporated. Add in heated vegetable or chicken stock ½ cup at a time allowing each to be absorbed by the rice up to 3 cups in total. When finished, the rice should be tender but not soft and the squash should be fully incorporated. Add ½ cup of grated parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and garnish with sage and more parmesan.

To navigate the many squash varieties, look to Produce staff. Information is also posted next to squash displays with basic flavor profiles and suggested uses. In the next Sprout! newsletter, Snow, Seward Co-op’s Produce Buyer, profiled the squash varieties expected from our local farms this year. Perhaps the best way to become familiar with the different squash varieties is to try and taste them all!

On an icy visit to Len Busch Roses (LBR) in Plymouth recently, there was a fizz and spark in the greenhouses.

“Everything builds up to this,” said Jason Lenz, LBR’s director of business development. “It doesn’t get any bigger than Valentine’s Day.”

Here at Seward Co-op, you’ve see Len Busch Roses’s flowers all year long—though maybe not quite so many as you’ll see in the next two weeks. Indeed, you may smell roses from the parking lot before you ever enter the store, we’ll have so many.

Sadly a good-smelling rose is a rarity in many American stores these days.

“Smell these,” Lenz said offering a bouquet of a dozen scarlet roses. He smiled as members of his tour took in the flowers’ scent. “Raspberries, right?”

Comparing LBR roses’ outstanding fragrance to inexpensive commodity roses from the giant rose-industry “farms” in South America isn’t really fair. Have you ever purchased a rose bouquet from a big-box grocer or garden store recently? The price is attractive, of course, but those flowers often have no appealing smell (if they open at all).

“Those roses have to travel all the way from Ecuador,” Lenz explained. “So they’ve been bred for hardiness and longevity, while that classic rose fragrance has just gone away, year by year.”

Sadly for a company with “Roses” in its name, LBR has watched its rose production diminish from 50,000 stems per year to 10,000–15,000 per year (due to their concentrating more on growing alstroemeria, gerbera daisies, tulips, tropicals, and ferns). Because the South American rose industry is so enormous, streamlined, and inexpensive, it puts huge pressure on smaller American producers like LBR to lower their prices.

“And now it’s Africa undercutting South America,” Lenz said, referring to titanic industries in South Africa and Kenya, which are even cheaper and have massive global reach. A rose can be cut in the morning in Kenya and appear in a British grocery that same night.

So how does a flower producer in Plymouth compete? Mainly by telling a story of sustainability and local pride. That’s why LBR is a P6 producer after all.

In 1965, founder Len Busch began his company by growing pom poms and then expanding to roses four years later. Though his son Patrick is CEO now, Len is still around.

“He comes in once a month to give us our beatings,” Lenz joked.

Since 1965, the company has grown to include over 500,000 square feet of greenhouses and an intricate steam system run on salvaged brush from local communities, chipped for two boilers that provide the steam (on this particular day, a line of gray-barked, brittle Christmas trees was ready to provide steam for the Valentine’s Day rose buds). This system provides over 90 percent of the energy needed at LBR.

With increased regulation on the floral industry, LBR has had to institute a rather involved IPM (integrated pest management) system, using spiders, wasps, and other beneficial insects to control mites that enter the greenhouses. LBR spends $25,000 a month on this system.

“Oh, yes, we take [sustainability] very seriously here,” Lenz said.

Today, the company employs 180 full-time workers who enjoy full benefits, and this stands as a stark contrast to South American and African flower companies, too. The global flower industry in third-world countries has frequently faced serious charges of abuse aimed at them, including: child labor violations, low pay, exposure to toxic pesticides and fungicides that have been banned in the U.S., firing injured or pregnant workers, etc. Meanwhile, longevity at Len Busch Roses in considerable.

“I started working here 27 years ago,” Lenz said, a little sheepishly. “Started when I was 15, went to college, then came back to get a job [here] in Plymouth. What can I say? It’s a great place to work.”

Paying a little extra for LBR roses than the commodity roses you’ll find at other stores makes a ton of sense. It’s not just an investment in your sweetheart, but also in the Earth, and for the greater good as well.

Seward Co-op’s Flowers and Plants from Len Busch Roses (Plymouth, MN)

Starting Thursday, February 12th, Seward Co-op will carry these flowers for Valentine’s Day.

Cuts
Gerbera Daisy – 3 stem bunches for $6.99
Alstroemeria – 10 stems for $12.99
Stargazer Lily – 2 stems for $7.99
Asiatic Lily – 3 stems for $7.99
Tulips – $9.99
Roses- 12 stems for $29.99
Snapdragons- $14.99

(We’ll also have Mixed Bouquets at various price points – but these are not totally local grown)

Potted Plants (locally grown; many of these aae in the store now!)
Cyclamen – 6-inch for $12.99
Kalonchoe- 6-inch for $12.99
Bulb gardens – 4-inch for $5.99/ large $12.99
Orchids – 4-inch for $23.99; 2-inch for $14.99
Azaleas – 6-inch for $21.99

Also from LBR (but not locally grown)

Jasmine wreaths (beautiful scent!)
Azalea trees
Many mixed bouquets
Single roses sleeved with greens
Half dozen rose bunches
Cut orchid bouquets

Read about this Saturday’s event Seward Co-op’s Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Sampler

Wheatfield Hill Organics, a fifth-generation family farm located in the rolling hills outside of Durand, Wis., has been supplying Seward Co-op with bins of sweet corn and melons for the past few years. The farmers, Helen and Bob, along with their daughter and her family, tend to their land and crops with the highest environmental standards in mind. That practice pays off with some of the tastiest high-summer produce around. It’s always a great day when those bins of sweetness show up on the Produce shelves. Check out their Facebook page for updates on harvest and other farm stories. Wheatfield Hill Organics was the featured Know Our Grower Aug. 21 – Sept. 3. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Aug. 25.

Grower: Helen and Bob Kees

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
I was born and raised on this farm. It’s in our blood to care for this piece of land.

Can you describe your approach to farming?
Sustainable, inter-generational, and circular.

What distinguishes your products from other local growers?
Certified organic since 1997. Permaculture (asparagus, blueberries, raspberries, fruit trees) interspersed with annuals (sweet corn, melons, tomatoes, peppers, barley, forages). Rearing the fifth generation of farmers in our family!

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
WITH OTHERS!!!