Frozen grapes are terrific trick to keep in your summer tool kit. They’re great treats for kids, fun to make as an activity, make good “ice cubes” for kids’ fruit drinks (lemonade!) and/or grown-up drinks (sangrias!), or they’re just lovely to pop in your mouth on a very hot day.

And frozen grapes couldn’t be easier to make. Here’s the ingredient list:

* Your favorite organic grapes, as many as you like.

And here’s how you make them:

1. Wash your grapes and let them dry.
2. Place grapes on a cookie sheet or pan in a single layer.
3. Place grapes in the freezer for one hour.
4. Transfer grapes to a plastic freezer bag or your choice of freezer storage container.
5. Remove frozen grapes from the freezer as needed.

Photo is licensed by Dana Payne under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In the town of Arauco in the La Rioja province of Argentina stands the oldest olive tree in the country, planted in the 1600s. Although not native to Argentina, the Arauco olive is highly prized for its buttery smoothness and meaty texture, and for the robust floral and fruity flavor notes it contributes to olive oil.

There, in the Antinaco-Los Colorados Valley, the cooperative producers of Riojana extra virgin, fair trade organic olive oil are cultivating much more than their 350 olive trees. Through cooperation, they are growing a healthy, vibrant and sustainable community.

When you purchase Riojana olive oil you are not just purchasing a delicious ingredient to enjoy, you are casting a vote in favor of cooperative, fair trade businesses—and helping more than 422 cooperative members continue to invest in a brighter future.

Reinvesting profits for health and education

La Riojana’s founders came from Italy to Argentina in the 1940s and began cultivating grapes for the production of wine, and planting olive trees as a natural companion plant. Certified fair trade by Fairtrade International in 2006, the members of the cooperative have invested more than $11 million Argentinian pesos (~ $730,000 US), primarily from the sale of their fair trade organic wines, in projects including a new drinking water supply for the village of Tilimuqui, where many of La Riojana’s workers and their families live. The fair trade premium has also been invested in production improvements, new community centers and medical equipment, but the most visible result of the cooperative’s reinvestment in its farmer members and their families can be seen in their commitment to education.

A new secondary school specializing in agriculture opened in Tilimuqui in 2010. Offering free education to children age 13-18, the school has had a profound impact on its community, providing a catalyst for local development, increasing employment by the creation of more than 50 new jobs at the school, and providing training in technical agronomy to help slow the migration of young people to larger cities. Since 2010, enrollment in the school has grown from 33 pupils to more than 300. With plans to build new classrooms, the cooperative hopes to expand the school’s capacity to 600 students in the next few years. The cooperative also provides kits of school supplies to children of its members, as well as free computer courses to adult community members.

Focusing on environment to ensure a bright future

Besides supporting health and education, the cooperative is invested in green initiatives and sustainability, so transitioning more of its growers to become equivalency USDA Certified Organic is another important goal. With a focus on becoming carbon neutral, La Riojana Cooperative is introducing improved water management techniques, the use of solar and bio energy and a reforestation project.

People often joke about how much Minnesotans like to talk about the weather. When it comes to produce, however, weather is not just small talk–for the most part, it is the reason we have or do not have produce to sell.

This is true locally – a late frost in spring can wipe out an entire autumn apple crop and a hot summer can cause cool weather loving lettuces and radishes to bolt requiring our buyers to bring these items in from California. Perhaps because we know and expect extreme weather fluctuations in the Midwest uncertain produce availability is easier to understand.

On the contrary, we have come to expect a constant, consistent, and copious supply of produce from California and Mexico. But uncertain weather conditions on the Western seaboard can have a dramatic impact on the produce we take for granted.

The drought in California over the past few years has been the topic of weather conversations and has raised fears over produce prices and availability. However, it was winter precipitation courtesy of El Nino that caused recent disruptions in the supply chain. In the first week of January, from the deserts to the mountains there was anywhere from a quarter-inch of rain to 12-feet of snow in the Sierras. As a result, despite sourcing daily from four distributors we saw some significant shortages in the produce department.

For vegetable crops, the rain came at a critical time of transition. Some parts of the state were already harvesting but others were preparing fields for planting. The rain prevented crews from doing either. The delay in planting will continue to impact availability in the coming weeks.

Luckily, we still have root crops stored from local harvests to sustain us. Some such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and onions are familiar staples. Others, like celeriac, are less frequently used but offer hardy substitutions when their tender counterpart (celery) is unavailable. Underappreciated and underutilized in the winter months are the roots in the brassica family: turnips and rutabagas.

Turnips are one of the earliest cultivated vegetables. What began as a spindly root has developed over centuries into several varieties ranging in color from pure white to deep magenta and in flavor from sweet to pungent. The white salad turnips of the summer tend to be crisp, juicy and sweet. The gold, scarlet, and purple top turnips are also crisp but tend to be denser and more assertively flavored. While winter turnips have a lovely mustardy flavor raw, their buttery sweetness is drawn out when tossed in oil and roasted.

Rutabaga or swede is closely related to the turnip and may be a cross between the turnip and cabbage species. Rutabaga is milder, sweeter and starchier than a turnip. The pale yellow flesh is rendered sweeter and more golden by cooking. Boil and mash rutabagas for a rich and peppery alternative to mashed potatoes, add to soups, or roast with rosemary and thyme along with other winter vegetables such as squash, onions, potatoes, and beets.

Winter Roots Soup

1 white onion, peeled and roughly chopped

4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch fresh thyme

1 ½ cup celeriac, peeled and roughly diced

3 cups mix of rutabaga, turnips, and russet potatoes, peeled and roughly diced

2 ½ quarts organic chicken stock

½ cup single cream

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3-4 Tbsp. truffle oil

In a large pot, cook the onion in the olive oil for about five minutes until translucent and soft but not browned. Add the diced vegetables, a bunch of thyme tied with kitchen twine, and stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the cream, bring back to a boil, then remove the thyme and purée. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Then add the truffle oil tablespoon by tablespoon until the soup is flavored to your taste. Keep in mind, the oil can vary in strength depending on the brand. Finish with chopped parsley and thyme.

Ginger Glazed Turnips
Now is the perfect time to make these ginger glazed turnips as all of the ingredients are in their prime.

The yellow ginger harvest has begun in Hawaii and we are once again receiving weekly shipments direct from Kolo Kai farm. This ginger is the freshest we see all year – harvested on Mondays we receive shipments each Wednesday. The papery skin is just starting to develop so for the most part no peeling is required. Juicy and tender, the ginger grates like butter.

Citrus season is also in full swing and while a navel or Valencia orange would work well for this recipe, one could also play around with specialty citrus. Try a TDE tangerine for a robust orange flavor with a pert but balanced acidity. Or a blood orange for its berry-like accent. Or choose from any of the many rotating oranges, tangerines, or mandarins that will come and go over the next few months.
When selecting turnips, choose from scarlet, gold or purple-top turnips.

1 lb. turnips, scrubbed and cut into wedges

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1-inch piece of ginger, grated

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. honey

Juice and zest from ½ orange

3-4 sprigs thyme

Salt and black pepper to taste

In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the turnip wedges and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the turnips begin to caramelize (about 10 minutes). Add the ginger, garlic, honey; stir to combine. Add orange juice and thyme and cook until the juice has reduced into a glaze. Finish with zest and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Rutabaga Latkes
Just about any recipe that calls for potatoes can be made more flavorful and healthful by substituting with rutabaga. Latkes, or potato pancakes, are often associated with Hanukkah but they have far reaching roots in many European cuisines. They are incredibly versatile–they can be made with a number of different vegetables and can be made savory or sweet. My personal favorite are rutabaga latkes with smoked salmon and crème fraiche.

1½ lbs. rutabaga, grated

½ cup white onion, grated

1 tbsp chopped garlic

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

4 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp Grapeseed oil

Heat oil in a large skillet. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent but do not brown. Add rutabaga and cook until just tender. Remove from the skillet and allow to cool in a large bowl. Once the vegetables have cooled, add the salt, pepper, and eggs. Stir to coat the vegetable mixture. Add the remaining oil to the skillet. Using a small ladle or measuring cup, add scoops of mixture to the skillet and flatten. Cook until browned on both sides. Serve with lox and crème fraiche garnished with chives.

Summer came all of a sudden, curtailing ramp season. I hope you got a taste while they were still around, but if you didn’t, there are still lots of interesting early season local products around.

For instance green garlic, which is simply the first shoot of the garlic plant, uprooted, cleaned and bundled together. As the year goes on, these shoots will develop a tough inner stem, form the familiar garlic bulbs and eventually end up in the far corner of the produce department on the root rack. But right now, they are tender enough to chop up like tender scallions.

One way that I have been using them lately is in a ramen soup of my own invention. The grocery department now carries three varieties of ramen style rice noodles from Lotus Organics. I like to use the black rice kind-while the noodles are boiling in about a cup and a half of water, I drop a spoonful of miso in a large cereal bowl and loosen it with a little water. When the noodles are a minute away from being done, I crack an egg into the water, add chopped garlic scallions and finely chopped cooking greens. When the noodles are done, the egg should be perfectly soft poached and the greens just tender. Pour the whole business on top of the miso slurry and stir gently a couple of times. This is a very versatile recipe and also quite soothing to the digestion. I have made it with chicken broth, added other proteins or vegetables, and tried more elaborate seasonings.

Another local item is rhubarb, which used to be known as pieplant since that was just about the only use that people had for it. In our modern era, when we seem bent on reinventing the flavors of just about everything, rhubarb can be found in chutneys, sodas, raw salads, you-name-it. But my favorite way to eat it will always be the way my grandparents served it to us, cooked with sugar into a sweet compote and then spread on buttered toast after dinner. It’s just like pie but easier and faster, and probably a little healthier. These days I might add a drop of orange flower water and use honey instead of sugar.

It was by chance that I discovered how delicious grapes and mint are when combined. It is finally grape season in California, and we have a display as wide as a small beach in the Produce Department. Red, green and black are all quite delicious. Rinse them, cut in have and toss with some finely chopped mint for a deeply cooling salad.

Watermelons are so crisp and delicious this year. This year we’ve decided to carry bins of seedless and seeded simultaneously. My preference is for seeded, both because I enjoy sitting on the porch and spitting the seeds into the yard and because I find the texture to be consistently better. However, seedless are generally just fine as well, and kids often prefer them. Our signage to indicates the variety but in general, seeded watermelons are elongated and the seedless are rounder and a bit smaller.

Prices and availability are subject to rapid change in the Produce Department. Please call ahead if you’re making a special trip for an item at Seward Co-op.

Hoch Orchard and Gardens is owned and run by Harry and Jackie Hoch. Located near La Crescent, Minn., Hoch has a long tradition of growing fresh fruit. A handful of the farm’s original trees, planted in the 1940s, are still on the farm, though production is concentrated on newer varieties. Besides 50 varieties of apples, Hoch Orchard also grows grapes, plums, apricots (cold-tolerant varieties they have developed right on the farm), cherries and berries. It is a testament to Harry and Jackie’s farming ability that they are able to grow such high-quality fruit organically, as apples are very vulnerable to pests and disease. Hoch Orchard and Gardens was the featured Know Our Grower July 31 – August 20. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Aug. 4.

Grower: Jackie Hoch

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
Harry has been involved with fruit farming most of his life; I began farming 26 years ago when Harry and I met. Producing good food for our family and sharing the bounty with others are motivating reasons we farm. Developing a sound system that respects the environment and brings diversity to the farm is one of the many reasons we continue to farm.

Can you describe your approach to farming?
We are trying to become a closed loop system and the integration of animals to the farm is essential to meet that goal. Nowhere in nature is there a system that doesn’t include animals. The pigs and chickens are strategically rotated to help us with disease and pest control. The pigs eating the apples in the fall after harvest removes the potential insects that could have been in the fallen fruit. The pigs also help us be eating the pumice (apple waste like skins and seeds) we produce when making cider.

What distinguishes your products from other local growers?
The fruit and products we have are both local and certified organic. The sauce, juices and jellies are made from the fruit we produce. Our fruit is harvested and delivered directly to the store so the time from harvest to the consumer is not very long. Sometimes we have apples that are picked and packed one day and to the store the next day. It can’t get much fresher than that.

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
For fruit, the best way to enjoy it is fresh picked! The peak flavor and textures make the fruit fantastic!