I can’t wait to go to the opening day at the Midtown Farmer’s Market this Saturday. Not only will I be able to pick up delicious bread and whatever brave vegetables manage to show up despite threats of snow, there’ll be a live sheep shearing event!

My grandparents raised sheep for decades for meat and wool, selling the wool to Pendleton and processing the meat in their small scale abattoir until the 70′s (this is when the USDA changed the rules and we went to a feedlot model for meat production). Seeing springtime sheep events like lambing and shearing was a thrill for me as a kid, so I’m excited for my daughter Johanna to see a bit of it for the first time.

The highlight of the market is the Real Bread folks (Brett and Mary) who have helped make the market such a success. Check out Brett’s excellent blog about local food Trout Caviar. I’m signed up to get a loaf of their delicious chestnut bread and another with figs and whatnot in it called very fruity. Yum.

Comments Off

Ever since the first European explorer’s boot pressed a hitchhiking seed from the homeland into New World soil, the spread of exotic invasive plants has threatened native plant communities in North America. Some plants were brought over with a specific purpose in mind– food–only to escape the garden and run rampant where they are unwanted. Garlic mustard is one of these guys, and it’s a tough competitor for native woodland flowers and tree seedlings across the country.

Rather than eradicate it with noxious chemicals, why not harvest it before seedset and enjoy it for its original purpose: eating! That’s what the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary has done this year with their
“Garlic mustard goes gourmet” campaign. Partnering with my favorite Twin Cities locavore restaurants Lucia’s and Heartland, garlic mustard harvested (aka weeded) in the garden will be served up in delicious entrées. What a great idea.

Comments Off

Now that spring is finally arriving in the Upper Midwest, we are all gearing up to blaze out of our hives into our gardens and farmers markets. I only hope that the bees who jet out on their own spring forays make it home this year, or our gardens and markets may have less to offer than we hope for.

You may have heard last year that many honeybees leaving their hives on their way to flowers got lost on the way home. Beehives across the country turned up empty, and many crops went under-pollinated — reducing crop yield by a scary margin for many farmers. This phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder (C.C.D.) and was witnessed from Maine to California and even abroad.

We don’t know why this is happening to bees, but here are some opportunities to do what you can to support the bees and farmers:

Plant a wide variety of native plants and flowers in your garden to provide bees with the right kind of nectar and pollen for your region throughout the warm months.

Shop at your farmers market or subscribe to a CSA. The Seward Co-op is hosting their CSA fair this weekend. This link also has a great list of links to local farmers to check out. I’m especially looking forward to the Midtown Farmers market opening on May 3.

And, of course, skip the chemicals in your lawn and garden care and avoid GMO’s everywhere. These are on the list of possible causes for C.C.D., but who needs an excuse to do this anyway?

Comments Off

Congratulations to my friend Paula McCartney on her current exhibition at the Rochester Art Center. Paula’s birding work will catch you by surprise–so scientific, but look closer at that bird and you might notice something about each bird yourself. Is she documenting wildlife or documenting humanity vs. nature? Where do we fit in to nature these days? And who is in control?

Comments Off