Summer Squash

Did you know summer squash is not really a vegetable? The many varieties of summer squash are a type of “pepo”, or hard-walled berry that are harvested while the rind is still tender and edible. Summer squash is in season now and we are carrying at least five varieties (green and gold zucchini, crookneck, zephyr-my personal favorite for its sweetness-, patty pan, and calabacita, a small tender zucchini). Wisconsin Growers Co-op, Featherstone Farm, Heartbeet Farms, and Sin Fronteras are delivering these squash multiple times each week. Select firm, unwrinkled, evenly shaped squash and store in your crisper drawer.

Sin Fronteras

Sin Fronteras (Without Borders) is a Stillwater, Minn-based family-farm growing fresh, healthy Latino food. Farmers Eduardo Rivera and Madeline Shaw bring to the Twin Cities sustainably grown and at times challenging to find varieties of chile peppers, tomatillos, and espasote along with familiar roots, greens, and herbs. These foods can be found at area coops, the Linden Hills Farmers Market, and through a culturally appropriate Latino CSA. Look to their Facebook page for recipes using Sin Fronteras produce.

Wisconsin Growers Co-op

Wisconsin Growers Co-op was founded in 2006 to help 20 families maintain ownership of their farms. Its members are dedicated to the idea that if farmers take “good care of the soil, the soil will pay back with high-quality produce.” This mindset has proven effective; Wisconsin Growers often brings us produce all year long, from greenhouse radishes at the first sight of spring clear around the calendar to over-wintered parsnips. The key to the longevity of their growing season are labor-intensive, fossil fuel-free farming methods. On nearly 40 acres of the co-op’s land, these farmers plant, tend, and harvest crops exclusively using horses, horse machinery, and hand tools. In addition to more popular produce items such as potatoes, onions, and radishes, the Wisconsin Growers Co-op offers unique heirloom squash varieties, such as Queensland blue and Long Island cheese.

Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables

Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables started in 1995 as Jack Hedin and Jenni McHugh’s five-acre garden at the Zephyr Valley Land Co-op near Winona, Minn. Since then, the farm has relocated to land near the town of Rushford, Minn., and now employs nearly 50 people working on over 250 acres of optimal vegetable-growing ground. Beginning in late May with leaf lettuce, through a summer’s harvest of zucchini and cherry tomatoes, into winter squash and carrots in the winter, there’s hardly a month that Featherstone isn’t represented in the co-op’s Produce department. The farm is certified organic and is dedicated to creating a truly sustainable agriculture system. That includes geothermal heating and cooling for the packing shed, as well as a solar array that generates about 60 percent of the farm’s energy. Featherstone Farm also operates a large community-supported agriculture program.

Heartbeet Farm

Heartbeet Farm is a family farm owned and operated by Joe and Rebecca Schwen. Located in Zumbro Falls, Minn, the fields that now comprise Heartbeet Farm are the same fields that Joe was raised on and where he learned to farm. Recently, Joe and Rebecca have begun to cooperatively market their produce as Heartbeet Farms along with two nearby small family farms: Easy Yoke and Hare & Tortoise. Working together allows these farms to operate at a scale that enables them to directly interact with the plants, soil, animals, and farm ecosystem while still being productive, efficient, and sustainable. They employ a combination of draft horses, small tractors, woodstove heated greenhouses, and other technologies to grow a wide variety of vegetables. Look for beets, shiso, Hakurei turnips, and many other items from Heartbeet Farms throughout the growing season. All three farms are dedicated to farming in a healthful, holistic, and sustainable way and are certified organic.

Summer Squash

Did you know summer squash is not really a vegetable? The many varieties of summer squash are a type of “pepo”, or hard-walled berry that are harvested while the rind is still tender and edible. Summer squash is in season now and we are carrying at least five varieties (green and gold zucchini, crookneck, zephyr-my personal favorite for its sweetness-, patty pan, and calabacita, a small tender zucchini). Wisconsin Growers Co-op, Featherstone Farm, Heartbeet Farms, and Sin Fronteras are delivering these squash multiple times each week. Select firm, unwrinkled, evenly shaped squash and store in your crisper drawer.

Sin Fronteras

Sin Fronteras (Without Borders) is a Stillwater, Minn-based family-farm growing fresh, healthy Latino food. Farmers Eduardo Rivera and Madeline Shaw bring to the Twin Cities sustainably grown and at times challenging to find varieties of chile peppers, tomatillos, and espasote along with familiar roots, greens, and herbs. These foods can be found at area coops, the Linden Hills Farmers Market, and through a culturally appropriate Latino CSA. Look to their Facebook page for recipes using Sin Fronteras produce.

Wisconsin Growers Co-op

Wisconsin Growers Co-op was founded in 2006 to help 20 families maintain ownership of their farms. Its members are dedicated to the idea that if farmers take “good care of the soil, the soil will pay back with high-quality produce.” This mindset has proven effective; Wisconsin Growers often brings us produce all year long, from greenhouse radishes at the first sight of spring clear around the calendar to over-wintered parsnips. The key to the longevity of their growing season are labor-intensive, fossil fuel-free farming methods. On nearly 40 acres of the co-op’s land, these farmers plant, tend, and harvest crops exclusively using horses, horse machinery, and hand tools. In addition to more popular produce items such as potatoes, onions, and radishes, the Wisconsin Growers Co-op offers unique heirloom squash varieties, such as Queensland blue and Long Island cheese.

Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables

Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables started in 1995 as Jack Hedin and Jenni McHugh’s five-acre garden at the Zephyr Valley Land Co-op near Winona, Minn. Since then, the farm has relocated to land near the town of Rushford, Minn., and now employs nearly 50 people working on over 250 acres of optimal vegetable-growing ground. Beginning in late May with leaf lettuce, through a summer’s harvest of zucchini and cherry tomatoes, into winter squash and carrots in the winter, there’s hardly a month that Featherstone isn’t represented in the co-op’s Produce department. The farm is certified organic and is dedicated to creating a truly sustainable agriculture system. That includes geothermal heating and cooling for the packing shed, as well as a solar array that generates about 60 percent of the farm’s energy. Featherstone Farm also operates a large community-supported agriculture program.

Heartbeet Farm

Heartbeet Farm is a family farm owned and operated by Joe and Rebecca Schwen. Located in Zumbro Falls, Minn, the fields that now comprise Heartbeet Farm are the same fields that Joe was raised on and where he learned to farm. Recently, Joe and Rebecca have begun to cooperatively market their produce as Heartbeet Farms along with two nearby small family farms: Easy Yoke and Hare & Tortoise. Working together allows these farms to operate at a scale that enables them to directly interact with the plants, soil, animals, and farm ecosystem while still being productive, efficient, and sustainable. They employ a combination of draft horses, small tractors, woodstove heated greenhouses, and other technologies to grow a wide variety of vegetables. Look for beets, shiso, Hakurei turnips, and many other items from Heartbeet Farms throughout the growing season. All three farms are dedicated to farming in a healthful, holistic, and sustainable way and are certified organic.

Local mushrooms: king oyster, lion’s mane and oyster

A few weeks ago, I attended the organic farming conference hosted annually in LaCrosse, Wisconsin by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services. In workshops, keynote addresses, and casual conversation there was much talk of the increasing instability of the region’s weather. There were countless references to all of the extreme conditions farmers have faced in recent years. The long, bitterly cold winter of 2013-2014, the late, wet spring that followed, and the early frost this past October resulted in a truncated and tempestuous growing season. Conference attendees also recalled a few years ago when we enjoyed an early thaw – what seemed the promise of an extended growing season – only to suffer an April frost which delayed planting and had disastrous effects on orchard fruits across the region.

These past few days we have been enjoying balmy temperatures for March in the middle North. While the extra sunlight and warmer weather have many of us feeling giddy, for our region’s farms we’ve had a worrying winter of low precipitation and there is little trust that this apparently early spring will translate into a longer or more reliable growing season.

Considering all that our local farmers are experiencing and adapting to, it is a wonder that we have such a bountiful supply of locally grown food even in our more temperate months. It is all the more wondrous that Seward Co-op is able to offer locally produced food year round. As our lead buyer noted recently, “Local season never really ends, it just changes.” Just as we worked through the last cases of Wisconsin Growers (Mondovi, Wis.) sweet potatoes, we began to receive deliveries of Living Water Gardens (Wells, Minn.) hydroponic basil and English cucumbers.

Along with hydroponically grown produce, we’ve begun to receive more regular deliveries of oyster and king oyster (with an occasional treat of lion’s mane) from the Northeast Minneapolis-based Mississippi Mushrooms. Local turnips, winter radishes, onions, beets, and potatoes also help bridge the growing years. Soon enough, Living Water Gardens will be regularly delivering vine-on tomatoes – and after a winter of imported tomatoes, this is a milestone that for us will signal the official start of the 2015 growing season.

Each winter, when our shelves reflect a lull in local produce, we are working with local farmers to plan for the next year’s planting. Each year, we work hard to develop new relationships with farms, grow sales with farms that we only support minimally, and maintain the relationships we have with our current core farms. In 2015 we will be working directly with 33 local farms. We hope that the opening of the Friendship store will enable us to work with even more farms in 2016.

It’s definitely apple season in Minnesota. A coworker and I were reflecting on how lucky we are to have Hoch Orchard with its nearly infinite number of organic apple varieties. They change by the week, and sometimes we only have the more unusual kinds, like Akane and Golden Russet, for a few days. So if you’re an apple fan, it makes sense to pay close attention to that part of the department. Apples aren’t the only good thing around right now. Lately, the Produce department resembles Aladdin’s magic cave — it’s never more colorful around here than right now. Here’re a few notable jewels:

Blue potatoes from Wisconsin Growers: Hurrah! I can make my favorite potato dish. Potatoes, sliced thin on a mandoline, coated in a slurry of olive oil, shallots, thyme and a pinch of saffron, roasted with chopped pistachios. The combination of blue and green makes this dish especially appealing.

Ripe hot peppers, such as pimento, Jimmy Nardello, and cherry bomb. I’m not much of a chili connoisseur. However, I do like just a little rising heat combined with ripe sweet pepper, and in varying degrees, these peppers deliver. I’ll probably cut one into rounds and toss it with the sliced potatoes mentioned above. Ripe, hot peppers, as opposed to the green Jalapeños and serranos we always carry, are only seen at this time of year.

Last of the local corn. It’s not so tender as it is in the summer, and it may have lost some sweetness, but try it chopped in hunks, rolled in olive oil and a little cayenne, and roasted at the same time as the potatoes. It browns a little and gets quite chewy and savory. It’s just fine as is, but you could dress it up with grated cheese and crema for an approximation of Mexican style elote.

The small pome fruits. Very cute. At the time of this writing, we have tiny Seckel pears, which are sweet and hazelnut flavored in an astringent jacket — I’d recommend peeling them. Hopefully, they’ll be around for a while. They’re perfect for a rustic fruit and cheese plate. But if we don’t have them, there’s always the reliable chestnut apple. It’s like a full-sized apple condensed by half. They’re the perfect size for a child’s lunch.

Pomegranates. To open, slice just below the part that sticks up like a little crown. Then score the sides and pull apart. This technique is much more fun and less messy than just chopping the fruit in half. I’ve used chunks of pomegranate like this on a fruit plate, and the whole thing resembled those Dutch still-life paintings.

Local Raspberries. There’s really no way to avoid eating a whole container of these things — and why would you? The season is so short. Carpe diem! They are excellent with a little Crème fraîche.