Hunt Utilities Group

What a treat!  I had the pleasure of taking a tour of Hunt Utilities Group in Pine river, MN.  It is such an incredible organization that is leading the way in "resilient living".  Most people are currently focused on "sustainable living" but Hunt Utilities Group is taking it a step further and has coined the term "resilient living".  The idea is to live sustainably and comfortably; using natural and sustainable building materials and practices.  There are a lot of Americans that want to do there part and live sustainably but do not want to sacrifice a beautiful luxury home.  Hunt Utilities Group is facing this problem head on and making it easier for us consumers to participate in sustainability.  The campus is, for lack of better words, soooo cool; I couldn't believe how many things they are working on. Hunt Utilities Group is doing amazing things with building materials and have already built a couple of highly efficient buildings.  The main building on campus was made of stacked straw bales and then covered in cob.  Cob is a mixture of dirt that is mostly clay, straw, and some sand; mix these into the right consistency and voila, you have an ancient and very strong building material.  The main building is about 4500 square feet and it only cost $750 to heat for a whole year, that's like $60 bucks a month even in the freezing cold winter months. They also have a very large garden and a couple of hoop houses; I had a chance to walk through and see all the things they are growing. They are using a lot of sustainable farming practices.  They are effectively growing food as well as learning by experimenting with new sustainable farming ideas.
Hunt Utilities Group is the for-profit organization but the campus also houses two not-for-profits.  Happy Dancing Turtle is helping to teach sustainable lifestyles while building community, they focus on food and water security, energy conservation, and environmental stewardship.  If you are in the central Minnesota are and want to get involved check out there website, here is a link, Happy Dancing Turtle.  RREAL, is the other non-profit, which is focused on providing sustainable energy (specifically solar power) to the masses.
I wish I had taken pictures but there are lots on their website which I have put a link to in the "links" tab.  When I left there, I felt refreshed. It is  so cool to see a company putting so much energy into sustainability.  I met so many interesting people with big ideas for the future. If you are ever in the area, stop in and check it all out.

When we got back from Pine River, Lissa had prepared a small birthday dinner for me.  It was so sweet of John and Lissa to think of me.  My birthday is not until the 29th but I will be out of town for it.  Lissa made an incredible hors d'oeuvre, seriously a stroke of genius.  It was slices of bacon slathered with a cheddar jalapeno cheese and then wrapped in kale leaves.  The bacon was obviously delicious, the kale was fresh out of the garden and had great flavor, the cheddar jalapeno cheese gave a little zip to it and then of course I put hot sauce on it (specifically the hot sauce I made with Grant last week). It was so good, and we spent the next 15 minutes thinking of ways to mass produce and sell these delicious little treats. For the main course we had barbequed chicken and  coleslaw with grated carrots and radishes from the garden.  For dessert, a raspberry cheesecake; Lissa makes the best cheesecake ever.

John and Lissa also got me presents, which was incredibly generous considering all they do for me already.  They had a t-shirt made that said, "I'm so excited!! I am literally a dirt magnet intern" This really sums up my first few months at King Gardens, I honestly can't tell you how many times in a day I say the words "I'm so excited", the truth is there are so many new things to do and learn that I am constantly in a state of excitement.  As far as being a dirt magnet...it is true, if we start at 7:00am, by 7:04 I am filthy dirty.  I can get dirty just walking to the gardens, some people might think it's weird but I think it takes a lot of skill to get as dirty as I do.  Lissa also picked out a gorgeous pair of earrings for me, you can sort of see one in my right ear.  Needless to say, I love them and I will be wearing them a lot.  I also got some lavender roll on perfume, which smells so good I could bathe in it.  I had such a good birthday dinner and really appreciate John and Lissa for making it special for me.

Still Growing

First thing this morning...torrential downpour.  John and I tied and pruned the tomato plants in the hoop house until the rain let up a little.  They grow so fast that it is becoming very difficult to keep up with them.  You can see how badly it needed to be done. 

Before

After

Once the rain let up a little bit, Lissa and I did some planting.  We planted a couple types of cabbage that will be made into sauerkraut at the end of the season.  We replanted some sunflowers in the big garden and of course did a little bit of weeding. In the hoop house we planted some more broccoli, more kale, and some more pak choi.  We will be pulling the first crop of peas out very soon and will have a lot more room in the first hoop house. I also spent some time looking at all the things going on around the farm.  I thought you blog readers might appreciate some of these pictures

The carrots are really growing...baby carrots for the CSA soon.

BEANS

The other door is in...but we still need to level the dirt in front of the door

Cucumbers

John turned the compost

Summer squash

Potatoes are starting to blossom

Harvest and Market

Another day that was rainy and cold; it is the middle of June and I was wearing a sweatshirt all day.  I don't know if the sky knows how much I like the sun and I would appreciate a little summer before winter starts again.  No matter what the weather is doing, the vegetables have to be picked...

Now we need to bag it all up...

Getting ready for Thursdays CSA pickup is usually a little hectic but now that we are also getting ready for the farmers market makes it is a lot crazier.  The farmers market is so much fun for me, I get to talk to new people about local organic food, which is something I am very passionate, all day long.  The people of Walker are really starting to embrace the farmers market and it is exciting to watch it grow and change. 
All the storms we have been having, have left some unfortunate marks on the farm.

The winds blew this tree across the electric fence

The rain has pummeled the Poppies and Iris'

The rain has also had some positive effects...everything is growing.

APPLES!!!

Purple basil poking through

6 more kinds of lettuce

Making Bread

It is officially the first day of summer and it is raining and cold...thanks northern Minnesota.  Unfortunately, farming does not stop when it is raining.  I started my day with tying tomato plants, they have grown so much, and I can't believe how quickly.  There are some that are as tall as me, that is not saying much as I am pretty short but at least it is an impressive height for a tomato plant.  I found a cherry tomato plant with 32 tomatoes on it; the cherry tomatoes will be the first to ripen and John thinks there will be some tomatoes by the second week in July.  With the weather we have been having I feel very sorry for the Minnesota farmers that don't have hoop houses, we were able to start growing stuff in March and there are a lot of farms that just started planting crops a few weeks ago.

I went over to Grant and Christy's house to learn how to make bread.  Christy makes the most incredible foccacia bread and she agreed to teach me the recipe.

Onions and garlic

Adding flour until the right consistency

Ready to let rise

Forming the loaves and getting ready to bake

I had to leave before it was done baking but I am sure it turned out awesome.   In the last week I have seen some pretty cool things around the farm; here are a few pictures.

Huge snapping turtle

We cut this cabbage a few days ago and new leaves are already coming up

Dew on the nastertium leaves

Farmers Market

The first farmers market was a total success; it was a great day to sell vegetables.  We all woke up early in the morning to pack the trailer with tables and tents and of course vegetables.  In addition to the delicious organic vegetables we sold 5 different kinds of jams; nectarine and grand marnier, quad-berry, strawberry and raspberry preserves as well as raspeberry jelly.  We had some spicy sweet relish, apple butter, and some incredible organic sauerkraut for sale.  Christy made two kinds of mustard, a maple mustard and a honey mustard which flew of the shelf, they were both delicious.  We had tomato plants and lots of herbs including two kinds of mint. It is nice to see a small town like Walker, MN have a weekly farmers market.  It is a great way for me to meet the people of Walker, MN.

Getting set up

Mixed greens

Cabbage, Pak Choi, Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Peas

If you will be in or around Walker this Thursday (June 23rd), we will be at the farmers market from 2-6pm (hopefully it isn't raining).  In addition to all the things I mentioned before we will also have some baked goods.  Lissa is going to make some cheesecakes, some sweet and some savory (you have not had better, she makes them with a lot of love) as well as some homemade blueberry muffins.  Christy is making some loaves of focaccia bread, I am headed over there in a few minutes to learn from her. I have always wanted to learn how to make bread, so here I go...

Re-planting

After we harvest vegetables there is new space to plant so I spent most of the day planting. I planted lemon basil, lime basil, and purple basil; I can't wait to taste the lime basil.  I also planted parsley, dill, cilantro and garlic chives.  I then planted some decorative gourds and few pumpkins as well as another row of beans and some more cabbage. I found some mushrooms growing in the compost bin, this is a very good sign.  Seeing fungal growth means that the compost pile has perfect conditions for decomposition.  The thermometer reads 115 degrees, it sure is heating up fast. 

I spent the rest of my day weeding, there is always plenty of that to do around here.  As it gets later in the season and all the vegetables get a little larger they will help shade some of the weeds and it will be easier to keep them down but until then I have nicknamed my right hand herbicide.

The eggs in the Robin's nest still haven't hatched, I am getting a little nervous because I have not seen the robin in a couple days. John told me that it is not that uncommon for that to happen, and a lot of times they will shove the unhatched eggs out and re-lay eggs. I guess we will wait and see what happens, I will keep checking.  On the other hand, I did see some baby robins nesting on the ledge above my door. 

The iris' have started to bloom, they are such beautiful flowers

Meet Grant and Christy

I have talked about Grant and Christy quite a bit in this blog but have not properly introduced them. Christy is an archeologist, she has been a professor, and worked for the state and in her spare time she is an organic farmer. A very talented woman and literally an encyclopedia of information, she is great to have around.  Grant is a soil scientist and can literally build anything...literally. He has a passion for learning and is extremely creative, he is also great to have around.  Together, I am pretty sure they could save the world.  I had the pleasure of hanging out with them last night, we started by taking stroll through their hoop houses...everything looks amazing.  There are tons of tomatoes on their vines and peppers all over the place, broccoli and cauliflower are getting huge, onions are growing quickly, and the lettuce looks beautiful.  They also have a couple peach trees, some pear trees, and a brand new nectarine tree.  

A few tomatoes growing

Tomato rows

Look at all those peppers

Pepper rows

They are growing fast

 

 

Looking at broccoli

Pear tree

The seasons first peach

Once we walked around the gardens there was some real work to be done.  Grant and Christy make the best hot sauce, seriously the best hot sauce I have ever had.  We are getting dangerously low around here and I have been begging them to make more.  They agreed, as long as I helped make it...so I did. Normally they use fresh peppers but since it is only June and the peppers are not ready yet, we used dried chile peppers from last year.  There is a crop of chile peppers planted right now that will be made into hot sauce at the end of the summer. 

That's a lot of chiles

Re-hydrating the peppers

After picking, de-seeding and re-hydrating the peppers we added salt and then let the peppers ferment for about a week.

A Lot of Vegetables...

Just poking through

I forgot to post about planting peppers, there are about 25 different kinds from sweet to hot and a total of 200 pepper plants.  We had the holes dug for a while but we had to wait for the weather to get better to put them in the ground.  The  peppers have been in the ground for a few weeks now and we are just starting to see some peppers on them.  It wont be long before we are eating them.  With so many different kinds of peppers there will be so many great recipes to try. 

About a month ago we decided to experiment with growing ginger...we planted three ginger roots and nothing has happened.  We used ginger root from the grocery store and we came to the conclusion that they were probably sprayed with some sort of anti-growth hormone.  After doing a little internet research I found that most of the ginger root you buy in the store is sprayed to prevent growth.  I would assume that organic ginger root would not be sprayed but unfortunately organic ginger root is harder to come by up here in Longville, MN.  We will either look for ginger root on the internet or I will pick some up next time I am in the big city and we will start over.

We have been eating really well here the last few days.  With so many things coming out of the ground Lissa is getting very creative with her meals.

Fried fish with homemade cocktail sauce, veggie stir-fry, and a mizuna salad

Smoked pork chop with pak choi and mushroom stir-fry

Mizuna pesto baked chicken

The mizuna pesto is incredible (seriously, incredible).  We used it on burgers and as a dip for chips and finally used the last of it on this chicken.  I posted the recipe in the recipe tab of you would like to try it.
Things are growing quickly and I wanted you all to see how things are coming along, those of you that are part of the CSA can see what you can look forward to in the next few weeks.

tiny little grapes

raspberry buds

Sugar snap peas

Cucumbers

Summer squash are putting on their secondary leaves

Potatoes

Mixed greens

Carrot

Eggplant blossom

There are also quite a few flowers coming up so I had to take some pictures to show you. 

Calla Lily

Hibiscus

Iris

Yellow lady slippers, the pink ones should be up in a couple weeks