Farm to table

FArm to Kids’ Table Eat Healthy Eat Local The Free Press MEDIA

Thank you so much for joining us at the second Farm to Kids’ Table Event!

We hope you enjoy the food prepared by the wonderfully talented

Chef Sarah from

Menu

Terrific Turtle Bean Dip

with Fresh Bread, Sliced Cucumbers, and Carrot and Celery Sticks

Stone Soup

(A Very Vegetable Soup with Brown Rice)

Apple Muffins It is our goal to teach kids how to eat healthy, balanced meals and to give parents the resources to make those meals using locally sourced products.

Support your local farmers and producers, we are all in this together to make our community great!

This event was made possible by our amazing sponsors:

1 • Farm to Table

presents

NEW!

KIDS CLIMB

OBSTACLE COURSE

sponsored by BounceTown

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 www.Climb2FeedKids.org Check us out on Facebook facebook.com/climb2feedkids Farm to Table • 2

FARM-TO-TABLE

A MOVEMENT Story & Photos by Cliff Coy 3 • Farm to Table

E

ver wonder where it is that your food actually comes from? For most American’s this question is a difficult one to answer. Most of the food that we consume is transported by plane, train and truck for thousands of miles across the country where it finally reaches its intended destination, your dinner table.

The produce that we pick up in our weekly grocery store visits is mostly grown elsewhere.

California produces a sizable majority of many American fruits, vegetables, and nuts: 99 percent of artichokes, 99 percent of walnuts, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, 95 percent of garlic, 89 percent of cauliflower, 71 percent of spinach, and 69 percent of carrots and the list goes on and on.

However, there is what is called the farm-totable movement which promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, usually procured from the local producer’s in someone’s area. This is sometimes a difficult undertaking, as places like Minnesota only have a limited growing period, which is why California is often used to grow so many of our fruits and vegetables, being that it can essentially produce these commodities year round.

Friesen’s Bakery, located in Old Town Mankato, is one of the local businesses that is spearheading the movement of farmto-table in our area.

“The farm-totable initiative or the farm-to-table movement is actually focused on purchasing locally sourced food and we have expanded it at Friesen’s to include trying to purchase anything locally that we can,” said Natasha Frost, part-owner of Friesen’s Bakery & Bistro.

“Whether that be a good, a service or a food.

As it relates to what we do in the front end of our shop, we try to buy locally through either The Food Hub, which has an amazing buying

program from local farmers, or we also try and purchase our goods and services from local vendors and we have carried on that tradition of locally sourced food through our partnership with Here We Grow.”

“From a cook’s aspect I would say that it is the biggest movement in the food industry that I have ever seen and it’s just going to escalate,” said Sarah Haayer, the Head Chef of Friesen’s Family Bakery & Bistro. “It’s become so big across the country. In our generation it was recycling, now it’s composting and there is so much more awareness of taking care of the planet and keeping things close to home. I think it’s just going to get bigger and better.”

The Food Hub was created through the Minnesota Valley Action Council and is a centrally located processing facility for fruits and vegetables for local farmers. The farmers are able to drop it off at one spot and The Food Hub does some minimal processing and then they provide those in bulk and can get it to school

Left: Sarah Haayer, head chef of Friesen’s Bakery & Bistro, stands by her stove in the kitchen of Friesen’s.

Middle: Honey that has been locally sourced from Moody Bee’s out of Madelia is available for use in Friesen’s Bakery & Bistro.

Top right: Locally sourced eggs from My Minnesota Farmer are now used in all Friesen’s dishes that require eggs.

Bottom right: Locally sourced squash, onions, carrots, and potatoes from The Food Hub to be used in various recipes at Friesen’s Bakery & Bistro.

Farm to Table • 4

Children of Here We Grow Early Childhood Center sit down to a locally sourced lunch.

Autumn Carson, age 5, and William Hagen, age 5 enjoys their pulled pork sandwich that has been locally sourced from Compart Duroc, at Here We Grow Early Childhood Center.

Odin Charette, age 2, devours his pulled pork sandwich that has been locally sourced from Compart Duroc, at Here We Grow Early Childhood Center.

5 • Farm to Table

districts, as well as working with local business’s to provide them with other options.

They are very new, in their first couple of years in with their business model and they are expanding.

“I think that it’s a really exciting opportunity for our region and for our producers to really gear up and expand not only on what they have available and to extend the growing season but also being able to hire more people,” said Natasha. “When farmers have a place like The Food Hub to do all this for them they can focus on what they do best, which is growing great food and The Food Hub can focus on that food having a home.”

Another business that Friesen’s has partnered up with is the Here We Grow Early Childhood Center which is a Reggio inspired center for toddlers and preschoolers. Their toddler and preschool classrooms utilize an exploration based curriculum that works to meet state and national standards, and their hours of operation are longer than a traditional ECFE or preschool program, to provide a learning environment for working parents.

This means that they believe learning should be child-led and not directed. Teachers are seen as facilitators of learning and whenever possible learning is done outside.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the Reggio Emilia Approach originated around the town of Reggio Emilia in Italy, out of a movement towards progressive and cooperative early childhood education which values the child as strong, capable and resilient; rich with wonder and knowledge.

Every child brings with them deep curiosity and potential and this innate curiosity drives their interest to understand their world and their place within it.

One of the ways that Here We Grow’s staff, with the help of Friesen’s allows them to explore and learn about their environment is through the farm-to-table movement. This approach allows the children to learn about the various food they are putting into their bodies, where it comes from and how it gets from the ground to their dinner plate.

Last year the kids of Here We Grow were super into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so the staff took that opportunity to teach the kids about what turtles actually eat, where turtles live, and look into any type of reading explorations that were about turtles. They have learning objectives for the kids, but it is

based on their interests because that’s how they believe the children learn best. This year they had a lot of grasshoppers in the backyard and salamanders with all of the rain. So they explored bugs and would see what kinds of bugs the kids could find in the garden.

“We grew tomatoes our first year in business and when they came in a preschooler went outside and said, “Oh look, someone hung tomatoes on our plants like a Christmas tree!”” said Elizabeth Bangert - Owner/ Director of Here We Grow Early Childhood Center. “That was an example, to me, why it was important for them to know where their tomatoes come from. Next year we are going to try something where families who live in apartments can have garden plots on our land so that they can come and garden and take their food home.”

They used to have parents bring meals from home and were looking to partner with someone who could do meals that also incorporated the garden because they’re located on two acres of land in Mankato, so the children have a garden that they help take care of and that helps teach them where food comes.

“The farm-to-table movement is really about helping people understand where their food is grown and supporting the local economy,” said Natasha. “One of the fantastic opportunities that we have with our partnership with Here We Grow is to build that at a very early age and help the kids learn about vegetables and fruit and real whole foods. That’s our focus on our catering partnership with Here We Grow and we want to do that in a way that supports local growers but also incorporates those carrots from the Food Hub or the squash from Valley Veggies or the local pork from Compart Duroc. The way that we do that is to provide Here We Grow information about the farmers and about the producers so they can incorporate those conversations with the kids as they are eating the food.”

The partnership that Friesen’s has developed with Here We Grow is really foundational to their business model and their success. It has

Locally sourced green beans are served with the children’s meal at Here We Grow Early Childhood Center. These green beans have been sourced from The Food Hub.

paved the way for other partnerships, for example, Arizona Olive Company, which is right next door, where Friesen’s exclusively sells baguette bread. They do the same thing with the local business Curiousi-Tea, where they have a specific salad that is sold there that is just for that particular shop.

“We get creative and we support each other and refer people to each other’s businesses,” said Natasha. “The people who have their kids in Here We Grow are our customers and we want to make sure their kids have healthy bodies that are supported with good food and have healthy brains because they have such good instruction there.”

The world may not ever be able to go to a solely locally sourced economy, it just isn’t realistic as we live in a global economy. But, if businesses like Friesen’s continues doing everything that they can, they and other businesses like them can build the movement, build the local small businesses and producers and support local farmers.

“I think that strong vibrant communities are caused by the people who run the businesses being invested,” said Natasha. “They are here, they care about what happens with our streets, they care about the kids that are going to our schools. They are invested in the success of our community. So by supporting local business you can help keep the dollars within the Mankato economy. And you are supporting your neighbor and making people friendlier.”

Farm to Table • 6

get your hands

messy

Birthday Party Package

• Over an hour long of hands on fun!

• Cake decorating demonstration • Create your own cookies and cupcakes • Get your hands messy making cherry & apple bread

14

$

per child

Take Home Goody Bag $10 Value

8 children minimum Special dietary requirements available upon request.

515 N Riverfront Drive • 507-345-4114 info@friesensfood.com Monday-Saturday 6am-6pm; Sunday 6am-2pm Supporting our community! Everything we carry is produced onsite!

7 • Farm to Table

Help the farmer color the produce

515 N Riverfront Drive • 507-345-4114 info@friesensfood.com Monday-Saturday 6am-6pm; Sunday 6am-2pm Supporting our community! Everything we carry is produced onsite!

Farm to Table • 8

From

Apples t Apples A tale from Welsh Heritage Farms

O

By Marianne Carlson

nce Upon A Time, there were two teachers, Larry and Pam Harbo.

They had three lovely children and lived in a small cottage outside the Twin Cities. One day they got a call from grandma.

“I want you to come back home to Lake Crystal and be farmers,” grandma said to Larry and Pam. Pam’s mother inherited two farms, that her Welsh ancestors settled over 100 years ago, when they first came to Minnesota.

“I planted the seed in Larry’s head about being farmers and the more he thought about it, the more it grew on him,” Pam said with a laugh. “After a lot of discussion, we decided to plant an apple orchard.”

Larry and Pam packed up their children and all their belongings and left behind their life in the big city. When they arrived at their new farm, in 1982, they immediately began planting apple trees.

It took several years for the trees to grow and produce enough apples to sell.

“When we first started, Larry sold apples out of his truck at the farm site and I literally picked apples with Tim on my back,” Pam recalled with a smile. “Tim is the youngest of our three kids.”

9 • Farm to Table

Baker

Pam

Farmer Larry

The original orchard is now 36 years old and during that time, Larry and Pam have taken on new identities. To their customers and friends, they are now known as Farmer Larry and Baker Pam. Tim, now a full-grown man, has taken on many responsibilities and helped Welsh Heritage Farms expand its operations and product offerings.

“Apple farming is very labor intensive,” Tim said.

“Apples bruise easily so they must be picked by hand and you have to use a certain Art, Design, technique. You have to lift and and Illustration

by W. Miles twist the apple away from the tree, leaving the stem on the apple. Otherwise the apple has a little hole in it.”

Tim said he is still dreaming of the day when they invent an apple-picking robot.

The Store

In order to give their customers, the best products and the best service, the Harbo family built a store right off Highway 60.

Over the years, their operation has continued to grow. They have added on to their store, not once, not twice, but … three times!

Farmer Larry and Baker Pam, and Tim have made many changes to their business over the years. In addition to the 18 different kinds of apples they sell, they also sell other kinds of seasonal fruit and vegetables.

The store opens in mid-July and people can purchase apples that are available in the early season as well as Michigan blueberries and cherries, as well as Missouri peaches.

Farmer’s Larry’s apple cider donuts are a crowd favorite!

“He makes them fresh every day,” Baker Pam said with a smile. “After 10 years, it has become a bit of an art form.”

“Getting the recipe just right, took some time,” Farmer Larry said. “Figuring how much apple cider to use in the batter and finding just the right amount of oil to use has been trial and error.”

The number of donuts they make each day, depends on the time of year and the day of the week, Baker Pam explained.

“Usually, Farmer Larry makes 12 dozen each day, but on Fridays, he makes 22 dozen,” Baker Pam said. “When they’re gone … they’re gone.”

The store opens at 10 a.m. during the week, 9 a.m. on Saturdays and 11 a.m. on Sundays. If you get there early, you might be able to see some of the behind-thescenes magic.

A large window inside the store looks directly into the bakery. So customers can come into the store, sample apples, shop for their favorite products and watch Baker Pam and her team of bakers, make 27 different kinds of homemade pie.

Farm to Table • 10

The Fall Festival

Every weekend, starting in September, the Harbo family hosts a special activity or event as part of their Fall Festival.

The festival kicks off with Tour Day. “Anyone who is curious about how everything runs around here can come and check out the operation from front to back,” Tim said. “They can watch us pack and peel the apples so that they can be used to make our delicious homemade pies.”

Craft Day with the Kids, the Caramel Apple Bar and the Pumpkin Carving Contest are all part of the festivities that should not be missed, Tim said.

One of the newest additions to the family operation is Harbo Cider, an alcoholic beverage made from pressed and fermented apples.

Right now, the farm has 60 varieties of cheese for sale, but that number will grow to over 100 varieties by September. Tim and his wife, Libby, recently opened a new store in St. Peter called The Cheese & Pie Mongers. They offer the same delicious homemade pies from Welsh Heritage Farms and then some.

“The Fall Festival is a special time for us,” Tim said. “It has grown over the past few years as more and more people find out about us. It’s the perfect way to spend a fall day –sampling some of our apples and cheese, even doing a craft with your kids. For us, the festival is the beginning of the holiday season.

It’s a blast. Come and join us.”

Varieties of Apples:

State Fair, Whitney Crab, Beacon, Paula Red, Ginger Gold, Esteval/La Crescent, ZESTAR, SWEETANGO, Red Baron, Chestnut Crab, Sweet 16, Honey Crisp, Cortland, McIntosh, Haralson, Regent, Honeygold and Fireside.

See the website to find out which are best for pies and apple sauce or munching right off the tree.

Cool Apple Facts

Apples have been grown for thousands of years in e Asia and Europe, and wer a eric brought to North Am

by European colonists.

There are mor e than 7,500 diffe rent kinds of apples grown around the world.

Apple trees are large if grown from seed, but small if grafted onto roots (rootstock).

The apples can get just as big because they are not working to create more tree, they are working to create more fruit. These trees are often tied to a trellis to help the smaller trees battle the wind.

11 • Farm to Table

Other Delicious Treats

Harris Honey • Apple Sauce Apple Butter • BBQ Sauce - 5 kinds Pickled Peppers • Pickled Eggs Peach & Apple Salsa • Mustard • Popcorn Salad Dressing • Jams & Jellies Spring Grove Soda Pop

Color the Apples How many apples are on the tree?

Farm to Table • 12

20758 528th Ave., Lake Honey Crisp and SweeTango Apples Available NOW!!!

TAKE HOME

Don’t forget about our Apple Butter, Jams and Jellies!!

One of our famous homemade pies!

• Caramel Apple Pecan • French Apple • Strawberry Rhubarb • Blueberry Pie

Over 100 varieties of cheese to choose from

20758 528th Ave., Lake Crystal | 507-726-6562

“Come for the Apples, Stay for the Hard Cider!”

By Welsh Heritage Farms Lake Crystal

507-934-9066

13 • Farm to Table

317 S. MN Ave, St. Peter

e Crystal | 507-726-6562

APPLE FEST 2017 ACTIVITIES Come out and have the orchard experience first hand during our fall events in September and October. U-Pick apples available daily! Call 507-726-6562 for exact times.

September 24

October 14 & 15

TOUR DAY

Photos in the Orchard

Check out our operation from front to back. Learn how we pack, peel, and turn our delicious apples into homemade pies!

October 8 Noon - 4 p.m.

Reindeer in the Orchard

Visit the reindeer from “Crystal Collection Reindeer” at the orchard.

They are fuzzy, furry, cute and cuddly – how can you go wrong?

September 30 & October 7 Horse Play

Mini Horses and Draft Horses will be out at the farm for kids and adults to enjoy. Kids will be able to pet the Mini Horses and the Draft Horses will be pulling families around in a wagon.

October 29

6th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

October 14

Bring the family in for that perfect fall photo with ID Photography.

10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

15 minutes session 5 Digital images Photo print release online gallery

50 + Tax

$

Shipping & handling not included www.intuitiondesignphotography .com/fall-in-the-orchard2017

Kids Craft Time with Lois & Mary -Apple Head Dolls- Carve a pumpkin for

October 22 Sample Day

We will be sampling a little bit of everything - Apple Cider Donuts, Apple Pies, Popcorn, Jams, Jellies, Apple Butter and lots of cheese!

a chance to win $100 cash and other prizes.

Sign up at least five days prior. Call store for details.

Farm to Table • 14

Color the Owl

15 • Farm to Table

SEE CHOOSE ENJOY ART OUT WWW.CITYARTMANKATO.COM

View 27 Sculptures

Outdoors in City Center Mankato Details at www.cityartmankato.com

Sculptures by various artists A Program of:

Vote for your favorite sculpture until October 31!!

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

ADVERTISING COURTESY OF

THE FREE PRESS MEDIA Farm to Table • 16

17 • Farm to Table