Green Zebra Heirloom Tomatoes

People often come to the market looking for 'big red tomatoes'. We've all become acustomeed to big tomatoes but there is a fascinating and tasty world of heirloom tomatoes with a wide variety of texture, color, and flavors. My number one favorite tomato is the Green Zebra which is green with a bit of yellow skin when ripe. The flesh remains green. It is absolutely awesome, and nothing like those end of season green tomatoes that we attempt to re-purpose. Watch for our wide variety of heirloom tomatoes in July.

Buying what is in season...

Last night customers were asking for sweet corn and tomatoes. At this market vendors must sell only what is produced within a fifty mile radius. It's too early for sweet corn and tomatoes. When you see sweet corn and tomatoes this time of year at the grocery stores or at those cute corner farmer's stands you should understand that their products are not locally grown, and probably come from Texas or South America. If you come to our market in September and expect to find strawberries you will be about three months late. Buying in season from local producers ensures that you are receiving freshly picked produce grown with the hands of the vendor on the other side of the table.

A Great Market Day...

It's seventy degrees and a great day to visit the market. Today Linda is being assisted by our adult children. They started helping when they were very young and continue as indentured servants. Each has been involved in the beekeeping, gardening, canning, and baking and can answer your questions about our products from a position of experience.

Highlights today include baked goods from the 'unreliable bakery.' We make what we feel like making. If it's good we have it until it's sold out. Stop by our booth first before goods are gone. Touring the market while eating one our individual strawberry cheesecakes cannot be beat, especially when the strawberries were picked this morning.

Our produce is coming along fine after some much needed rain. We have lettuce and onions now and anticipate sweet corn by the end of July. We pick our corn daily so you can be assured of its' freshness...none of it is that Texas corn that was picked two weeks ago.

Weeding is always a challenge in a chemical-free gardening effort. My current favorite tool is a long handled push/pull tool that cuts off weeds below the surface. I've found it very effective if used daily. If your schedule means less frequent weeding you may find the weed parts restarting with enthusiasm. A quick racking can minimize that effect.

Blackberries and Clover

This past week was noted by two nice rainfalls but I still spent time watering in consideration of a forecast of three days with temperatures deep into the 90's. It will soon be time to hook up the automatic sprinklers. The tomatoes and squash, in particular, need lots of water. All the squash is up now and it will be fun to watch over the next month the rapid growth. The Bodacious, Seneca, and Quickie sweet corn is up. The Quickie is a 60-day variety with small sweet ears. We should have that available by late July.

Red and white clover is now in full bloom. It this picture the clover provides a nice backdrop to the still fragrant blackberry blossoms. This weekend we'll segregate the blackberry honey in the beehives before the big closer nectar flow begins.

Virtually all of our produce is planted and we simply need some nice overnight rains to nurture the plants and germinate the seeds. The peas, beans, and corn are up. This year we've planted more than fifteen varieties of summer and winter squash and half of that is showing.

Gardening is a great opportunity to be outdoors and enjoy spring. Working the soil is rewarding and challenging and at times painful. By this time of the year I can be a bit surly after 'clawing at the earth' for a few weeks and I truly dislike the tiller, rakes, cultivators, and hoes but eating fresh, healthy food that you grow yourself makes it worthwhile. We ate a nice salad of spinach and assorted greens with chive flowers so you June garden can complement your table.

Blackberry Honey

On Friday the blackberries were in full bloom with many honeybees working the fragrant blossoms. Our blackberries are 'thorned' and they inflict damage later in the season when the bears, birds, and I attempt to enjoy the fruit. We'll watch the bees closely over the next days and mark and segregate the frames. The first bloom of wildflowers is also out now and we like to keep the honey identified to very the very best, unique, limited source honey to your table. If you try our blackberry honey you'll never go back to clover.

First Market Results

Thirteen vendors showed up for the first market of the season. Leslie has added several new vendors including meat and pottery. It's still early for vegetables but radishes and onions disappeared quickly into the bags of early shoppers. As summer progresses you can expect more than thirty vendors.

This is a farmer's market of locally grown and produced goods. You will find products when they are season. There is no MN sweetcorn yet and will not be any until July. You can buy sweet corn and bananas right now at the MPLS farmer's market but it's not locally grown unless you live in Venezuela.

Our limited-source honey was very popular along with our wild blueberry pies. The bee colonies are building up nicely and are really bringing in the pollen. When the nectar flow starts they'll fill every available bit of honey comb with nectar. When they collect the nectar it is ingested and mixed with enzymes in their stomachs. After being put in the comb excess moisture is evaporated by the airflow caused by thousands of bees. Once the correct moisture content is achieved the bees put a wax coating over the honey and it remains in place as their winter store...or until I steal it and bring it to the Shoreview Market.

The better half's new Zinfindel Wine Jelly was the most popular project at our booth and sold out quickly. We could only talk about it to the second wave of friendly marketeers but they were appeased with the homemade strawberry jam and carmelcorn (with and without nuts).

The flower photograph is actually from last year so don't expect fresh cut flowers yet although there were at least two vendors with bedding plants. I dug the beat up watering can out of a long ago farmer's homestead dump a number of years ago. It's very quaint and has a large rusty hole in the bottom. Sorry, but it's not for sale.

First Market of the Year - June 2, 2009

It's a beautiful day for the first Shoreview Market of 2009. We'll have great baked goods including carmel corn, molasses cookies, pies, date cookies, and sweet bread. The beekeeper has taste tested all of these items and can vouch for their value and flavor.

Obviously this whole farmer's market thing started as an outlet for our surplus honey so we'll have a good selection of liquid and spun honey...perhaps samples, as well.

It's a bit early for produce but our onions and radishes are doing well so perhaps next week on those. Most of our planting for the season is done and we're already seeing the emergence of squash and sweet corn. Spring is always quite a challenge. We have late freezes in MN so plants such as tomatoes are at risk deep into May. The better half continues to take this spring gardening as a 'teaching moment' to remind me that 'it's too early' or 'this needs to get planted right now or we won't have anything to sell.' As near as I can tell, that translates into about ten days of frenzy. I'm not sure how it can be 'too early' if the weeks are growing but that's why the better half does the planning and I claw at the earth.

We're pretty low-tech on the agricultural side. Currently we use about an acre of space which is a combination of raised beds and open gardens. We attempt to do minimal tilling and supplement the soil with our own compost and a bit of natural fetilizer. On the beekeeping side we remain small and focused on good tasting limited-source honey.

This is One of the Top Five Markets in the State

Sandy Martin, Shoreview Mayor, writes a nice column for the Shoreview Press. In the May 26th issue she commented "This is a great place to buy Minnesota-grown fruits and vegetables, baked goods, meats and flowers. The market is considered one of the top five in that state for homegrown products. Special events will be held on June 2, July 7, August 4, September 8, and October 13."

The better half of this market duo was a charter member of the Shoreview Market over ten years ago selling the lesser half's honey. The limited source liquid and spun (creamy) honey remains very popular with our local customers. Our product lines continue to expand and now include locally grown vegetables, fruits, baked goods and something new and different every week. We're not just about green beans and tomatoes.

Memorial Day Weekend

Rain is the only missing component right now for a great market year. This past weekend marks the completion of planting for sweet corn, potatoes, onions, 'greens', and a wide range of summer and winter squash. We're about half done with the heirloom tomatoes and sweet and hot peppers.

The bee colonies are building up nicely with the queens (one per hive) laying about 1500 eggs per day. This should give us strong colonies for the major nectar flow which starts mid-June and runs into July. To date the worker bees (about 20,000 per hive right now) have been working the dandelions and apple trees. The June nectar flow that is for the beekeeper and for our customers. The rest of the summer is for the bees.

So far this year we've been challenged with equipment repairs (tiller & mower), water issues (no rain and problematic pump), many ticks, and a few early mosquitoes.

We look forward to the start of the Shoreview Market in June and seeing our old customers after a winter's rest and sharing our bounty with new customers and friends.

Bees & Honey

After a long, long winter we have forage opportunities for the honeybees with a good crop of dandelions. This nectar flow along with the early flowering trees will carry them into mid to late June for the major nectar flow. Queens are laying heavily now (1500 eggs per day) and if nature works this correctly we'll have plenty of bees at the peak of the nectar flow. The workers are collecting many types of pollen which is the primary food and protein source for the larvae.

It's been a good spring for the bees but the beekeeper got stung on the eyebrow quite a way from the hive while repairing a fence. The key in honeybee stings is the remove the stinger by scraping it off with a fingernail. Benedryl can help reduce swelling. If you are allergic to bee stings, don't become a beekeeper and be prepared for the worst by having a readily available dose of epinephrine.