Tag: farmers markets

Winter Market: January Refresh

This Farmers Market brings the best of Minnesota’s harvests deep into Winter and features a few new health-focused vendors along with local favorites. Join us for the White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Market Season Finale; 9am-1pm on January 12th, 2019. Browse over a dozen local vendors indoors at Tamarack Nature Center, 5287 Otter Lake Road, WBT, MN 55110.

Shop Local, Eat Local + Healthy!


We can all use a little health boost after the Holidays, right! Bonus if we’re feasting on food grown close to home. Yes, even in January Minnesotan’s can enjoy local food. Like fresh greens, locally and humanely raised meats, fresh eggs and cheese- along with local honey, storage vegetable crops, breads, soups, and our furthest sourced food: wild Alaskan caught salmon!

Thanks to our neighbor farmers using high tunnels, greenhouses and indoor lights we can enjoy fresh food through the Winter. We’ll also have a wide variety of canned and frozen produce, jams and herbal products available. We welcome the “Brick Oven Bus” food truck and Platense handmade Empanadas to tide you over while shopping.


January Gift Basket Giveaway!!

Vendors have come together to offer an amazing assortment of local love- Register to win the day of. Details HERE!

Community Driven Market

This market is a true community driven event, bringing together many local community organizations. Pine Tree Apple Orchard donates free Cider tastings, which the White Bear Area Foodshelf volunteers serve up.

WBL Seed Library table

Our own White Bear Lake Seed Library will be sharing seed saving ans starting information. Ramsey County Master Gardeners will be onsite answering gardening questions and giving out free “table top” organics recycling kits. The Pollinator Friendly Alliance will have info on how to help our wild pollinators! Tamarack Nature Center will be sampling their honey and maple syrup and have a take home “seed art” project.

The coordinator of the market, Michelle Bruhn, also runs Forks in the Dirt and will be sharing some vegetable garden planning techniques. You can also register to WIN a One Hour “Veggie Garden Planning Session” with Michelle right HERE.

January Market Vendors

All Good Organics: variety of fall and winter vegetables, spices, sauerkraut.

Bell’s Maple Syrup: Pure Maple Syrup tapped from Sugar Maples in Cushing, MN.

Dahl Hobbie Farm:  Raw honey, honey-based 12 spice cough soothing formula, jams.

Eichtens Cheese & Bison:  variety of locally sourced cheeses, sausages and wild rice.

Gilbertson Farm: humanely raised beef and pork, chicken and eggs.

Great Harvest: yeast breads, rolls, scones, cookies and scruffins.

Hart & Soul Herbal: quality controlled, naturally sustainable herbal products.

Ingredients Cafe: scratch made soups and handmade gnocchi to go.

Platense: Tasty Argentinian handmade frosted nuts, popcorn + serving ready to eat Empanadas.

Morsels: Handmade granola bars + bites, cookies, cupcakes and caramels

Sailor Mercy: Hand crafted batches of immune boosting Elderberry Syrup.

Sassafras Health Foods: Promoting Healthy Living as a way of life with supplements and other whole food based items.

Unity Farms:  A variety of popping corn, spices and cold processed soaps.

Weeds Greens: High quality and huge variety of locally grown microgreens.

Wild Run Salmon: Wild caught Alaskan Salmon sold by the fisherman.

Me and Chomp the Carrot at the December Market

As market coordinator, my mission is to help us all make healthier, more sustainable food choices. Our choices result in healthier lives for us and our planet! Follow the WBL  Winter Market Facebook Event Page for up to date information and specials. Full vendor and community table list on Forks in the Dirt on the WBL Market page.

*Don’t forget to bring Cash as not all vendors take cards*

Dig Into the New Year with me and our local growers and vendors!

Michelle

December Farmers Market is Coming to Town

Ready, Set, GIFT!

We can’t wait for you to Shop Local + Eat Local with us at the December 8th White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Market! There are so many delicious gifts waiting to be found… We’ve curated the best local food growers and makers to give you a chance to do lots of your holiday shopping in one place! Don’t forget to fill your own Holiday tables with local foods too!

We all know receiving a consumable gift is the best…so giving them is the easy choice!

Extras for the Holiday Market

  • Ramsey County Recycles will be giving away FREE REUSABLE BAGS to the first 100 shoppers!
  • Chomp, the BearPower Carrot Mascot will be on site for photos from 9-10!
  • Fresh Roasted Hot Coffee from Ox & Crow Coffeehouse

 

Don’t forget to Enter to Win this Locally loaded Gift Basket ~ The December Market Giveaway!

Entering to win here will also start your monthly email membership with Forks in the Dirt!

Meet the December Farmers and Makers 

All Good Organics:   With their own Farm Store on their farm in Lino Lakes, Butch and Kris will have a wide variety of farm fresh produce. Some of their offerings include greenhouse grown lettuces, full variety of fall/winter vegetables, frozen summer vegetables, homemade canned items (best sauerkraut!) and farm made spice blends! I visited with them last spring and got a great tour of the farm! 

Dahl Hobbie Farm:  Susan is known for her jellies, jams, raw honey and her honey-based 12 spice cough soothing formula. She’ll also be bringing some specialty chutney.

Eichtens Cheese & Bison: Our closest cheese producers are bringing a large variety of locally sourced and crafted cheeses. They offer some of their summer sausage and MN Wild rice as well. They’ll also have gift boxes available. My new favorite is the herbed gouda, it simply makes everything better.

Gilbertson Farm: Jessy brings a well rounded selection of humanely raised beef and pork, chicken, DUCK,  eggs. They sell a variety of cuts and blends. We love their pork sausage. They make a mean Wild Rice Brat- and their pork chops cook up tender and with so much more flavor than anything store bought. Plus the animals all had a great life!

Great Harvest Sharing their amazing Breads!

Great Harvest: If you’ve been to the WBL Summer Farmers market you’ll remember these breads- and likely Sheldon the happy purveyor of so many samples 🙂 They specialize in yeast breads. They’ll bring breads, rolls, scones, cookies. Their monster cookies are legendary- their scones are my favorite!

Green Bros Micros: The Green brothers, really- Brandon and Nick Green recognized the benefits of urban farming and took the plunge to start growing micros as a delicious, nutritious addition to your diet. Fresh and local GREENS in our MN winters are such a treat!

Hart & Soul Herbal: Vanessa Hart crafts an all natural line of apothecary healing and aromatherapy products. Using the fewest steps between God and consumption, these high-quality-controlled naturally-sustainable unrefined products are made in small batches in White Bear Lake.

Sigrid of Hoppel Poppel sharing her German sourdough style breads

Hoppel Poppel Breads:  Sigrid shares her German roots through baking amazing sourdough breads and pastries. Her caramel rolls alone are worth a visit to the market. Some of her heavily seeded loaves are a meal in themselves. She’ll bring a variety of European style breads and pastries.

Ingredients Cafe: A White Bear favorite, the chefs at Ingredients are whipping up some scratch made soups to make your at home weeknight dinners simple and delicious. **NEW ITEM: Hand made Gnocchi at the December market** A special shout out to Ben Pratt, owner of Ingredients for volunteering his time to cook for the Harvest Party at the YMCA this Summer!

Ox & Crow Coffeehouse: Mara at Ox & Crow has created a wonderful coffeehouse in the Mahtomedi.. We’re looking forward to having her locally roasted specialty coffee beans and house made chai teas served hot. She’ll also be bringing

Platense: Vanessa brings us a taste of Argentina right here in Minnesota! She uses authentic family recipes for traditional frosted nuts from Argentina. The flavors might not be local but they are locally well-loved!

Mark and Linda of Suzi Q’s Dang Good Western Dressing!

Suzi Q Western Dressing:  “Dang Good” Western Dressing brought to you by Linda (Suzy Q) and (Cowboy) Mark from right in town. They had their first Summer selling their dressing at the WBL Summer market, and it was such a hit they’re bringing it to the Winter market too!

Unity Farm: Moses of Unity Farm is an emerging farmer with a bumper crop of popcorn, tomatoes and peppers. He’ll be sharing his dried, canned and blended produce. Moses is a farmer with the Minnesota Food Association. 

Community Driven Winter Market!

We’re so lucky to have HUGE support from so many local community groups. These people make this Winter Market a true event, and we’re lucky to have them!

Pine Tree Apple Orchard has once again donated their Hot Apple Cider! It will be served by White Bear Area Emergency Food Shelf volunteers. Let’s help hungry neighbors while shopping local 💚

Two happy shoppers with their FREE table top composting kits from Ramsey County!

Pam from the White Bear Lake Seed Library will again be spreading seeds of knowledge, and giving you info on starting your own seeds. We are so lucky to have a free and trusted source for locally saved seeds! Great blog and info at their link above.

The Ramsey County Master Gardeners will be available to answer gardening questions and and spread the word (and free starter kits) for the Ramsey County Composting program!

Viva Musica reps will be demonstrating their “Kindness Rocks” art program for schools.

Forks in the Dirt:  That’s me 😉 I’ll be there with a table to talk growing your own, backyard chickens, composting, canning and/or finding the best local food resources. My mission in getting this winter market together is to help us ALL make healthier, more sustainable food choices- for our own health, and the health of the planet!

Follow the WBL  Winter Market Facebook Event Page for up to date information and specials.

Can’t wait to Dig In and see you there!

– Michelle and the fabulous farmers and vendors of the WBL Winter Market!

Winter Farmers Market Season is HERE!

Welcome to the WBL Winter Farmers Market!

This marks our second season of Winter Farmers Market in White Bear Lake!  We can’t wait to share all the amazing food from these local growers and makers!

Nov 10 – Dec 8 – Jan 12
9-1 at Tamarack Nature Center

Community Supported Market

Again, I’m blown away by the community support for this local food event. We all love our weekly Summer Farmers Markets in downtown White Bear Lake, so this is a natural extension to keep a good thing going. At last year’s first ever event we had over 500 shoppers visit us at Tamarack Nature center. This year, we’re seeing if we can grow our love of local by holding three indoor markets this Winter. Adding on site Food Trucks and a coffee shop to keep it interesting- we’re ready for you to make this another successful market season!

ENTER TO WIN $20
“Market Money” to spend your way on Nov 10th!

Shop Local Eat Local

These Winter Farmers Markets give us all a way to shop local foods a little longer into the season. The November Market “Gather” gives you the opportunity to fill your hostess gift bags and Thanksgiving tables with the best of this season’s harvests of vegetables, meats and dairy, along with freshly made preserves of all kinds! Most items for sale are sourced from White Bear Lake and surrounding communities. We’re excited to offer many returning local farmers along with a few new additions to round out your shopping list.

Meet the November Farmers and Makers 

Butch and Kris of All Good Organics in their Greenhouse

All Good Organics:   With their own Farm Store on their farm in Lino Lakes, Butch and Kris will have a wide variety of farm fresh produce. Some of their offerings include greenhouse grown lettuces, full variety of fall/winter vegetables, frozen summer vegetables, homemade canned items (best sauerkraut!) and farm made spice blends! I visited with them last spring and got a great tour of the farm!

Dahl Hobbie Farm:  Susan is known for her jellies, jams, raw honey and her honey-based 12 spice cough soothing formula. She’ll also be bringing some specialty chutney.

Eichtens Cheese & Bison: Our closest cheese producers are bringing a large variety of locally sourced and crafted cheeses. They offer some of their summer sausage and MN Wild rice as well. They’ll also have gift boxes available. My new favorite is the herbed gouda, it simply makes everything better.

Jessy and I at the last WBL Summer market

Gilbertson Farm: Jessy brings a well rounded selection of humanely raised beef and pork, chicken, DUCK,  eggs. They sell a variety of cuts and blends. We love their pork sausage. They make a mean Wild Rice Brat- and their pork chops cook up tender and with so much more flavor than anything store bought. Plus the animals all had a great life!

Great Harvest: If you’ve been to the WBL Summer Farmers market you’ll remember these breads- and likely Sheldon the happy purveyor of so many samples 🙂 They specialize in yeast breads. They’ll bring breads, rolls, scones, cookies. Their monster cookies are legendary- their scones are my favorite!

Hoppel Poppel Breads:  Sigrid shares her German roots through baking amazing sourdough breads and pastries. Her caramel rolls alone are worth a visit to the market. Some of her heavily seeded loaves are a meal in themselves. She’ll bring a variety of European style breads and pastries.

Ben Pratt of Ingredients getting ready to cook for this Summers “Harvest Party”

Ingredients Cafe: A White Bear favorite, the chefs at Ingredients are whipping up some scratch made soups to make your at home weeknight dinners simple and delicious. A special shout out to Ben Pratt, owner of Ingredients for volunteering his time to cook for the Harvest Party at the YMCA this Summer!

KDE Farms: Brian and Roberta raise grass fed highland cattle right in Hugo. They’ll be bringing cuts of beef, whole chicken and eggs. I had the chance to visit their farm this Summer, here’s the article that resulted from our time. Roberta also makes some tasty local maple syrup!

Ox & Crow Coffeehouse: Mara at Ox & Crow has created a wonderful coffeehouse in the Mahtomedi.. We’re looking forward to having her locally roasted specialty coffee beans and house made chai teas served hot. She’ll also be bringing

Platense: Vanessa brings us a taste of Argentina right here in Minnesota! She uses authentic family recipes for traditional frosted nuts from Argentina. The flavors might not be local but they are locally well-loved!

Sailor Mercy: Dani  hand crafts each small batch of immunity boosting  Organic Elderberry Syrup. Made with all high end, organic products, plus local raw honey and un-fluorinated water this is the good stuff! . Her company names combines her twin daughter’s names with her passion for local and organic. She also makes amazing “no moo’ hand crafted chocolates.

Suzi Q Western Dressing:  “Dang Good” Western Dressing brought to you by Linda (Suzy Q) and (Cowboy) Mark from right in town. They had their first Summer selling their dressing at the WBL Summer market, and it was such a hit they’re bringing it to the Winter market too!

Fresh MicroGreens from Weeds Greens!

Weeds Greens: Matt Green of Weeds Greens supplies some of the best restaurants in the metro- and luckily our market too. They grow chemical free hydroponic micro greens, fresh herbs and baby greens right in Lakeville. Fresh and local GREENS in our MN winters are such a treat!

New at this Farmers Market

Coffee Corner!

We’re excited to offer hot coffee and Chai from Ox and Crow, and specialty sourdough bakery goods from Hoppel Poppel in the party room at Tamarack. This is right off the main Atrium by the community booths! so you can munch and sip while learning about other ways to make meaningful local food choices.

Food Trucks!

Kicking off this season’s winter markets we’ll be joined in November by both  Gateway Trailside + Smokey’s  Pub n Grill.  After you work up an appetite shopping and or hiking the trails you can grab lunch from two local food truck favorites!

Community Boosters

Pine Tree Apple Orchard is generously donating some of their tasty apple cider! A local favorite for apples, all kinds of apple baked goods and their pumpkin patch (not to mention strawberry picking in the Summer) Pine Tree is once again on board with making sure our cups overflow!

The cider will be served by our local White Bear Area Food Shelf volunteers. Cash donations to the food shelf will be accepted and appreciated!

Tamarack Nature Center will be sampling and have more information on how to get involved at the nature center. Plan to take a walk around some of the many miles of trails around the Nature Center and enjoy the nature where your food comes from!

Pam from the White Bear Lake Seed Library will again be spreading seeds of knowledge, and giving you info on starting your own seeds. We are so lucky to have a free and trusted source for locally saved seeds! Great blog and info at their link above.

The Ramsey County Master Gardeners will be available to answer gardening questions and and spread the word (and free starter kits) for the Ramsey County Composting program!

Viva Musica reps will be demonstrating their “Kindness Rocks” art program for schools.

Forks in the DirtThat’s me 😉 I’ll be there with a table to talk growing your own, backyard chickens, composting, canning and/or finding the best local food resources. My mission in getting this winter market together is to help us ALL make healthier, more sustainable food choices- for our own health, and the health of the planet!

Follow the WBL  Winter Market Facebook Event Page for up to date information and specials.

Can’t wait to Dig In and see you there!

– Michelle and the fabulous farmers and vendors of the WBL Winter Market!

Farmers Markets Summer 2018

Get your Fix of Farm Fresh the easy way, there’s a farmers market almost everyday!

I really like really local food… So of course I wanted to share my favorite Farmers Markets in my corner of the Twin Cities with you!

I shop these markets to: buy ‘new to me’ varieties to test before I grow myself, buy in bulk for preserving and to buy the crops farmers have started early or keep growing late in greenhouses to extend our local fresh food season. I also love chatting with the farmers and vendors, and I get some good insight into my own home gardens listening to the experts.

We are absolutely feeling the bounty of local farmers’ hard work up North right now. The food rolling in is dripping with sun ripened sweetness; from the cucumbers  to the zucchinis. And with a little planning, can be served on your table the same day it was picked! These Summer bounties make our MN Winters worth it, am I right!?!

For tips and secrets on ‘how to’ shop a Farmers Market like a pro, read this article! 

Summer 2018 Farmers Markets

Continue reading

Winter Farmers Market Tomorrow!

I wouldn’t want you to miss out on all the food!

The first White Bear Lake Winter Farmers market is tomorrow, Saturday December 9th from 10am-2pm, at Tamarack Nature Center. Link to map and directions HERE.

This is a one day only event and a great way to fill your holiday tables and check off gifts with sustainable items from your neighbors.

HERE is a previous post all about the market, from vendors and community tables to the donated apple cider.

The Facebook Page, HERE will continue to have updates, like this  basket of goodies I’ll be raffling off at the market!

Thanks for following along on this journey to find good, simple, local food- I truly appreciate it.

Can’t wait to Dig Into the food this Saturday!

**Looking forward to sharing recipes made with all the local food I bring home from this market!**

Michelle

 

Secrets to Shopping Success at Farmer’s Markets

Dig In Deep at the Farmer’s Market

An early season market haul 🙂

I’ll admit it, my first few trips to the farmer’s market were pretty much like trips to a grocery store. Most of us are just not used to shopping directly from IRL farmers. While I can respect shopping a farmer’s market like a grocery store (you’ll still get super-fresh, tasty, nutritious foods) …for me, part of the Farmer’s Market experience is being able to connect with the farmers. I’m looking to knock out a few chains in the old food chain by visiting. And then there’s the plain old fact that the food tastes phenomenal! Sometimes even better than even your own home-grown produce, I mean these people are the pros after all. Through the last decade I’ve gathered some tips to help you make the most of your market visit.

Ask Away!

I get it- at first asking questions can be a weird thing; maybe we’re too “Minnesota Nice”, or maybe we’re just not used to being able to ask anything about our food. But really, isn’t getting closer to ‘Farm to Table’ eating why you’re at the Farmer’s Market? Don’t be worried about offending a farmer by asking them why their farm isn’t certified organic; you’ll learn so much about the how and why of their farming techniques you can’t help but feel good about eating it.

Here are some questions to get you started:

“Where is your farm?”
“When was this picked?”
“Do you use organic methods?”
 “Any new crops coming next week?”

These questions should get most farmers going! They’ve worked hard to grow and bring this food to market, their name and livelihood is dependent upon people caring enough to buy the food they grow again and again (another 180 from the supermarket).

White Bear Lake Farmers Market 2017

Powers of Observation

“There’s visual evidence behind the display table to give you big clues to how the farmer handles their food,” that’s a tip straight from a farmer who’s been selling at markets for almost 30 years. Continue reading

Ode to Asparagus

Fat and happy asparagus spears growing in the ground.
Delicious Asparagus Spears

I’ll admit it, I’ve been obsessing over Asparagus. One of the first veggies to appear in Minnesota each year, these delicacies have a unique flavor that stand alone and plays well with others. These beautiful asparagus  are also packed with powerful nutrition and their season is short, so let’s get right down to business.

Buy or Grow?

The cute little bundles of asparagus hanging out in their wading pools of water in the supermarkets can be hit or miss when it comes to taste and texture.

Tip: Always look for tight buds at the top; once the flowers start unfurling, a chemical to strengthen the plants gets released and makes for woody stalks.

Asparagus Comes from Where?

Recently there’s been a big shift in supermarket asparagus, so it more than likely comes from outside the U.S., namely Mexico and Peru. Between NAFTA and the California drought, it has been tough for U.S. growers. (I am not wading into political waters, just sharing what I’ve been reading.) “It is, you see, a uniquely labor-intensive crop to grow,” according to Cherie Watte, executive director of the California Asparagus Commission, in this interesting article, “75 percent of the production cost of asparagus derives from labor.”

Continue reading

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