Fresh Local Greens through the Holidays
Eating local this holiday season won’t mean only root veggies, meat, dairy, & cheese. Thanks to some hard working and innovative area growers, you can supplement your holiday spread with fresh salads and cooked greens galore!
SNOW GOOSE FARM, VIOLA – A new venture from our veteran dairy buyer, Emily Bunting, and her partner Alejandro Puig will bring us all sorts of certified organic green goodies this winter! Being their first year in their two new hoop houses, they’ve decided to trial a wide variety of vegetables to see which grows best – yea for us! Watch for arugula, baby bok choi, baby green-top turnips, baby green-top beets, chard, cilantro, kale, lettuce, Napa cabbage, parsley, scallions, spinach, and winter salad mix. They should have at least a smattering of these crops through the holidays and into the spring, depending on how each yummy experiment ends up growing! If any of these veggies are new to you, ask one of us produce workers what to do with them – we love talking about food!
WELDEN FARM, BOAZ – Most of you have had Greg Welna & Mary Jo Borden’s winter spinach before. We’ve been stocking our bulk spinach bin with it November through March for many years (with some lulls in the depths of January/February if the sun refuses to shine). After trying to grow in-season summer/fall produce for several years, Greg got frustrated with overabundance and the low prices it brings and decided to give extended season growing a try instead. They experimented with several different cold-hardy crops in their two unheated hoop houses in 2005 before settling on spinach ever since for its consistency, flavor, and yield in the winter high-tunnel’s unique environment. They always sell out and get a price that makes sense. Their spinach tastes so vastly superior to normal spinach that you almost can’t call it the same vegetable. Enjoy it in salads or lightly wilted by steaming, sautéing, or simmering in sauces or soups.
RIVER ROOT FARM, DECORAH, IA – Another relatively new grower for us, Katie Prochaska and Mike Bollinger bought their small farm East of Decorah, IA last year after working on other people’s farms for over 6 years, including Seed Savers Exchange and Elliot Coleman’s farm in Maine. According to them, they’re “starting slow,” specializing in certified organic spring seedlings and spring/fall microgreens out of one of their greenhouses. And growing seed crops for Seed Savers while improving heavy clay soil in their terraced fields. And getting their other two hoop houses up (which are on tracks so they can be moved! Mike started a super cool moveable hoop house business called Four Season Tools - check it out!). Did I mention they don’t have a tractor & have two kids under 3? If that’s starting slow, I can’t wait to see what they accomplish when they really get going! Look for their incredibly delicious and nutrient dense microgreens (tiny greens mix, arugula, rose radishes, pea greens, and maybe more) to grace your salads and sandwiches and add instant class as garnish to any dish through the holidays.
www.riverrootfarm.com