Heritage Farmers Market

A few days ago I stopped in at the Heritage Nursery year round farmers market in Rapid City where Dee Holmberg and Black Hills Milk sell their products and noticed that Trudy Draskovik is now selling dried tomatoes, eggplant, and chili peppers there. I invited her to tell us more about them, and here is what she wrote:

Just some info about this ancient practice of preserving foods from before the days of refrigeration, canning, and freezing. The practice of drying foods was used by many indigenous peoples and our ancestors to insure food would be available in the leaner times when the ground was covered with snow and the availability of fresh produce was non-existent.

Dried tomatoes or eggplant can be reconstituted by boiling water and soaking for about 10 minutes. Then chop them up or add them whole to pasta dishes, homemade artisan breads, grain dishes, stews, cheese dips, lasagna, minestrone, cream cheese (for that bagel in the morning!) or almost any food that your imagination can think of!

To use the chili peppers–I crumble them between my fingers and flavor my olive oils with them before adding my foods to the oil, or crumble them into soups, meats, potatoes, or anything that needs a little heat. (Warning) They are hot so don’t rub your eyes after crushing!

My plans are to offer many more dried foods this summer at the Farmers Market, if the state rules will allow that.

Check back tomorrow for Trudy’s recipe for penne pasta with sun dried tomato spinach pine nut sauce. Mmmm.

Selling dried tomatoes, eggplants and chili peppers at 3500 W. Chicago, Rapid City, in the Heritage Nursery building. Also selling fresh herbs and canned items at the Black Hills Farmers Market in season.

The Rapid City Journal interviewed Janelle Peterson, food services director for the Rapid City Area Schools, about changes being made to the district programs. Chicken fajita salad for lunch. Oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast.

Peterson sees herself as an educator and the school food programs as opportunities for students to learn about nutrition and to try new foods. You can read the RCJ article here.

Established in 1931, Dimock Dairy is the oldest cheese plant in South Dakota. Dairy cows are not treated with growth hormones and cheese is free of fillers. In Rapid City, Dimock cheeses can be found at Don’s Valley Market, Smith’s Liquor Gallery, Cutting Edge Meat Market, and Dee Holmberg. In Sturgis, DakotaMart also carries Dimock cheese.

The article by Tamara Adler shows how to expand holiday-style cooking throughout the year and save money without sacrificing taste. French and Italian cooking evolved in the countryside where every leftover food item found its way into something easy and economical and seasoned with herbs, not chemicals. It’s all a matter of perspective, Adler says, thinking long term instead of hurriedly putting together every meal.

Adler wrote the book on this subject: “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.”

The FDA confirms the use of ‘modified atmospheric packaging.’ The MAP coating prevents oxidation, so the ripening and decay processes are slowed. Lettuce is a prime candidate.

You can see the videos and read the whole story on Dr. M’s website.

This is yet another reason for buying local from small farmers we trust. No local lettuce this time of year, but local cabbage is sometimes available from Black Hills Milk.

The Pennington County Master Gardeners will host their annual Spring Fever event at the Rapid City Ramkota Inn on Saturday, February 25.

The featured speaker will be Dr. Jeff Gillman, associate professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Minnesota. Gillman is the author of “The Truth about Organic Gardening” and “The Truth about Gardening Remedies.”

This year an added feature of the event is the Dakota Local Food Network sponsored seed exchange. Do you want to share your leftover seeds from last year? Better yet, did you save seeds from garden plants that did well in last year’s garden and will you share them with others? This is an opportunity not only to share seeds but also to hobnob with gardeners who have valuable information about which plants do well in our area and which do not. For more info on the exchange, click here.

During the Spring Fever luncheon two faculty members from South Dakota State University, Dr. John Ball and Dr. Jonathan Nixon, will be available to answer questions.

For more information and to register for the event, click here.

Read this Rapid City Journal article to learn more.

Several Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have a limited number of available subscriptions for the 2012 growing season. For those of you not familiar with a CSA, it basically requires you to pay in advance or “subscribe” to a local grower for a season. In return, you receive a weekly ‘share’ of fresh, locally grown produce. Your share varies each week depending on a variety of factors including what is coming into season, recent weather events, etc. A CSA assures you of receiving the freshest, tastiest, and most nutritious produce available. The CSA programs listed below currently have shares available. If you are aware of any others, please let us know!

• Battle Creek Gardens will be offering 50 CSA subscriptions this year. This CSA program will most likely fill up so be sure to reserve your share early. For more details on the Battle Creek Gardens CSA program, click here.
• Also delivering weekly to the Rapid City area is Harmony Enterprises of Chadron, NE. There will be at least two (and possibly three) separate CSA seasons. Add-ons to your share might include fresh eggs, poultry and honey. For more details on the Harmony Enterprises CSA program, click on the “Recent Newsletter” tab at the bottom of the website page. (Note: Updated information will be available in March 2012.)
• Cycle Farm in the Spearfish valley will have an informational meeting on their new CSA program. It is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 19th. For more details, click here.
• Another new CSA to be offered in 2012 is located in the Sturgis area. Bear Butte Gardens will be offering only 25 subscriptions so sign up soon. For more details on the Bear Butte Gardens CSA program, click here.