4 New Ways to Eat Frozen Green Beans

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by Maggie Montgomery
Eating locally—even about 75% locally, as we do now—means that in winter we eat a lot of frozen garden veggies. This week, my husband Dennis came upstairs after a trip to the basement freezer and said, “You know, there are a LOT of beans down there.”

I felt a little guilty. Growing green beans is mostly a “snap,” even in northern Minnesota. I plant several kinds every summer—Italian beans, Tendergreen, Contender, Jade, Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder and more. There are big, flat beans, yellow wax beans, bush beans and pole beans. Different varieties mature at different times, and I plant rows of the same variety weeks apart to assure an unending supply until frost. Dennis thinks it’s overkill, but I insist, saying “They are all different.”

It’s a pleasure to eat fresh beans in the summer. I also pickle some of the choice, young ones as dilly beans, and some years I put up a couple loads in the pressure canner. But we most often freeze the surplus because it’s easy.

When it’s time to eat the frozen beans, I cook them one way: steam them in salted water and serve them with butter on top. “There you go, Dennis,” I say, “Beans.”

On this Wednesday’s Morning Show on KAXE, I asked for some help with our frozen bean supply, and listeners sympathetically responded with some suggestions. I’m posting the recipes here in case you have plenty of beans too!

RECIPE 1:
Ken and Pam from Brainerd suggested a green bean shepherd’s pie: “We are just finishing up a really nice bean dish that Pam prepared recently. It is basically a Sheppard’s Pie with adzuki beans used instead of meat and a layer of green beans between the adzuki beans and the mashed potatoes. We thought it would be a very nice veggie start to the New Year. And a great way to use green beans!”

RECIPE 2:
Robert from Bemidji said: “Stir fry some beans in about 2 tablespoons of any type of oil that can hold up to high heat, and mix that with about 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, until they are as tender as you like. Drizzle with Tamari soy sauce, then put the lid on for a few minutes. It’s simple and delicious!”

RECIPE 3:
Julie from Cook suggested a cold or lukewarm green bean salad: Steam some beans. Cool them in water. Add crumbled feta, chopped red onion, chopped fresh (or frozen) dill, and your favorite Italian dressing.

RECIPE 4:
Ross emailed an Indian recipe: Bihari Green Beans Marsala, from Julie Sahni:

2 T oil
2 T sliced almonds
½ c. finely chopped onion
3 large  cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1 t sweet paprika
½ t red chili pepper flakes
¾ t kosher salt
¾ cup coconut milk
¾ # green beans in 1” pieces
1 t lime juice
2 T chopped cilantro

1. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Cook almonds, stirring, until golden. Remove the almonds from the oil and set aside.
2. Add onion, garlic and spices to the saute pan and return to heat. Saute until the onion is tender and begins to fry, about 4 minutes
3. Add coconut milk and beans. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, covered, until the beans are tender, about 6 minutes
4. Sprinkle beans with lime juice and toss lightly. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and garnish with almonds and cilantro. Can be serve with rice or roti flatbread if desired.

Raw or Pasteurized

A bill in the MN Legislature (HF255) would expand opportunities for farmers to sell their milk directly to consumers. The new proposal created a big on-line discussion of the health and economics of raw vs. pasteurized milk.

The current law allows consumers to buy milk products at the farm. The new bill would allow farmers to sell at farmer markets,  through consumer buying groups, home delivery, and farm stands.  Most dairy producers and Department of Health and Agriculture officials worry the expansion of direct sales could lead to more illness from raw milk products.  Raw milk advocates tout the health benefits of raw milk and the economic opportunities for small dairy farmers.

Raw vs Pasteurized
On 91.7 KAXE's Local Food Report Maggie Montgomery talked to Mark Kastel, co-director and senior policy analyst at the Cornucopia Institute, a small farm advocacy organization based in southwest Wisconsin. The Cornucopia Institute supports small farmers who sell pasteurized and raw milk, and does not advocate for one over the other.

Realgoodfood

by Heidi Holtan

This week is the debut of the audio documentary I put together in the last few months as part of the class some of the staff at KAXE participated in put on by Milt and Jamie Lee. I was honored to participate in this workshop and learned some amazing things about telling a story through radio.  Thanks to the MN Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as well as the Blandin Foundation for making this possible.

So what is Realgoodfood all about then?  Sometime last year, I started thinking more about food....finding interesting, good food when you live in a rural, northern place.  Food coops have been expanding throughout northern Minnesota - farmer's markets are growing in popularity -more and more people are subscribing to CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture).  All of this interested me, but I didn't know what story I wanted to tell.

So I grabbed the recording kit and got in my car and visited a farm in Bovey, Virginia (Natural Harvest Food Coop), Bemidji (Harmony Natural Food Coop)  and Brainerd (Crow Wing Food Coop) in search of people making and selling good food.  Hope you enjoy my audio story!

Crow Wing Food Coop

by Heidi Holtan

Last month I visited the Crow Wing Food Co-op in Brainerd. They've been around for 30 years, but because of the push to support local food producers and a move to a newer, brighter building, the co-op is exploding.

Desiree Hopkins is a mother of 3 and a member of the coop. I asked her why she shopped there. "The girls of course" she said. "And they are super smart and seeking out healthy, local food."

When you walk into the coop - the bells on the door ring, and more often than not, someone greets you with a smile. While I was there for about an hour I saw a young woman with a baby buying organic baby food, a mother and daughter who asked about using food stamps, a member dropping off older editions of Mother Earth News, a woman who sat at one of the tables with her laptop, using the Co-op's wi-fi and drinking coffee with her gluten-free cookie... as well as farmers dropping off produce and tourists stopping in on their way to Duluth.

So why, in this down economy, have the food co-ops in our listening area not just been able to stay afloat, but find themselves expanding? Throughout the summer I'll check in on the Natural Harmony Food Coop in Virginia and Harmony Natural Foods Coop (who is also expanding) in Bemidji. You can listen here to the audio story of Crow Wing Food Co-op.

We got great response to our Local Foods segment this week...

Maggie talked with Richard Thompson from Isle,MN this week on her local food segment. Richard grows peaches, pears, apricots and other things you don't necessarily think of as Minnesota Grown products. You can hear the conversation here.

We got great response to this, including Joel, a farm educator and retired market farmer from Mahtowa had some great advice for growers:

Hi Maggie-

Thanks for mentioning the kale query this morning.

Best date to start your tomato plants depends on a number of factors: date when you plan (or feel is safe) to set out, germination and early growing conditions, available light and temperature during "adolescent" seedling growth, length of day and sun angle once you start using natural light conditions for seedling growth, and growing medium fertility.

Best approach is to count backwards from your transplant date. Under ideal conditions, a tomato seedling only needs 8-9 weeks to attain a nice stocky profile with a strong root system. Given a transplant date of June 5, this would mean starting the seedlings around April 1. On this schedule, by the time you pot the seedlings up and get them into natural light (hopefully), it will be mid to late April and day length and sunlight will be quite favorable for rapid growth of stocky seedlings. This is the simplest way to approach the question.

Once you start pushing further back toward winter, a number of factors complicate the issue. I find that when I start tomato plants in early March, I don't usually have seedlings ready to transplant until mid to late May. That's because the light conditions are not as good and temperatures are lower. Of course, you probably don't want to transplant any earlier than mid-May unless your greenhouse is reliably heated.

I start my plants in one of two ways, depending on conditions: 1) in the basement in a germination chamber which has about 15-20 gallons of water with an aquarium heater. Four 11 x 22 flats can fit on lath set over this water which I try to maintain at 75-80F for nightshade germination. Two shop-lite fixtures with one cool and one warm flourescent in each provides close to full spectrum light. As long as the growing tips are kept within 6-10" of the lights, the plants don't get too leggy. Another factor that causes leggy plants is consistently warm growing conditions. A more natural day/night variation of at least 15 degrees F seems to promote a healthier growth. In general, I try to get my seedlings in natural light with more diurnal temperature variation as soon as possible.

Or 2) If weather is warm and wood furnace is not being used regularly (we also have a cookstove in kitchen which provides shoulder season heat), basement gets cold and it gets difficult to keep the germinator warm enough for good results with nightshades, even when the water is 80F. Possibly better insulation of the chamber would be the answer. Anyway, under these conditions I use our propane oven. Pilot light keeps the oven at a nearly ideal temperature for nightshade germination. A couple of downsides to this method--we have cooked more than one flat over the years and you need to monitor the flats quite closely and get them into light as soon as seeds start to germ.

I have two large south-facing windows with a 30 degree angle that is just about right for direct sunlight in February-April. I can fit four 11 x22 flats on the ledges of each of these. Diurnal temperature variation is more than adequate (On below 0 nights I need to protect the plants from freezing).

I try to move the seedlings out to the greenhouse (only heated as necessary) sometime in early May. No point in rushing them into the ground, because soil in an unheated greenhouse takes quite a while to warm up after it thaws out and I like to plant my seedlings deep. Also, if the weather gets too cold to protect them with my somewhat meager heating sytem (propane wall heater) I can always bring the flats into the house. Once the plants are set in the ground, it's a commitment!

With the above method, I never need to worry about hardening off my plants. Research shows that tomato seedlings exposed to 50 degree or lower temperatures during "adolescence" are more productive, so the cool nights are a positive which counterbalances the slowing of growth due to lower average temperatures.

Even if light and temperature conditions are ideal, seedling growth will not be satisfactory unless the growing meduim is fertile. While seeds need virtually nothing to germinate, once they've been potted up in a growing medium, they like plenty of nitrogen for the green growth, and adequate levels of phosphorous, potassium, and micronutrients are also important. I use 2" soil blocks made with peat, compost, good garden soil, vermiculite, wood ashes, and lime. I try to use wood ashes that include powdered bones from remains of chicken, turkey, venision etc. we've cooked or processed. Alternatively, you could use bone meal. Generally get pretty good results with this mix. When seedlings get to 1/2" in diameter, they should be potted up again to something like a 4" pot (I don't have a 4" blockmaker--they're fairly expensive). Once they're in 4" pots, they are not as easy to bring into the house if a cold night threatens them, although I don't have nearly as many plants to manage now so it's not that big an issue.

Setting out plants in the (mostly) unheated greenhouse soil on May 20, I generally expect the first short season hybrids to ripen around Aug 1 and heirlooms to start mid to late August. The real benefit comes from the quantity and quality that come in September when outdoor tomatoes are either blasted by frost or of dubious quality due to the consistently cool nights. I can usually keep a greenhouse producing fairly good quality fruit through mid October, possibly providing one or two nights of supplementary heat. After mid October, the declining day length and more frequent need for supplementary heat make continuing to keep things going a questionable effort.

I don't have much luck with setting slicing tomatoes outdoors here, but normally set out some Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes with tomatillos and husk cherries. Our average last frost date here is June 4, so I usually monitor weather carefully the first 10 days of June and set out in a warm period. Setting plants out on a pre-determined date can be a big mistake if the first 2 nights they are stressed by near-freezing temperatures and cold soil. As long as plants are still happy in their pots, better to wait a little longer.

Basil plants grow much more quickly and are also much more sensitive to cold. Germinating in a warm medium and potting up after a week to 10 days, they can be ready for transplant in 3-4 weeks and will be ready for harvest 2-3 weeks after transplant. This assumes they are not stressed by cold. Even a touch of frost will kill nearly all your plants completely, and the cold soils frequently encountered in the 1st half of June may set them back so much they never do well. When I transplanted basil outdoors, I used to aim for a warm window in late June-early July. Once I started planting them in a greenhouse, I found that early June was about the right time for transplant. Just for some perspective on the importance of warmth for basil. I used to set out 300 plants in a greenhouse and got 100 to 150 lbs good quality leaf with minimal stem annually. I estimate I would have needed 2000 or more plants set outdoors to get this kind of production in our climate (although I never set out more than 700). And even then, the quality would not be nearly as good.

Hope this is helpful.

Joel

Now Hear This! Audio Highlights from KAXE

There is always a lot going on around the KAXE Studios, and this last week is a good example. Here is a sampling of recent audio highlights:

Making Sausage of Proposed Out-State Health Coverage
Republican commentator Chuck Marohn and DLFer Colleen Nardone talk about Governor Pawlenty's proposed change to allow Minnesota residents to buy health insurance from companies located outside the state.

Guido's Guide to the Arts
Steve Downing (Guido) is what you might call a renaissance man. Writer, patron and slave to the arts, hunter, hair model, connoisseur of fine wine, beer and food, recycler and fashion guru.

Heidi and the Bullhead Queen
Minnesota author Sue Leaf talks about her memoir "The Bullhead Queen: a Year on Pioneer Lake" where she asks the questions what is our relationship to wild animals and what is our responsibility to them?

Digging For Your Roots
The 28th Annual "Digging For Your Roots" Genealogy and Local History Conference is Sat. Oct 17th at the MN Discovery Center in Chisholm and we talked with Dr. Melissa Stewart, the new museum director and she talked about tracking down the source of a quilt.

Gun Lake Potato Farm
Roger & Markel Vogt talked about the potato harvest this year, and the growing season, varieties and marketing the Gun lake Potato Farm in Palisade.

Monthly Forestry Update w Eli Sagor
University of MN Extension educator Eli Sagor gives his monthly update about Minnesota forests. Eli manages www.myminnesotawoods.org

Namco Museum Essentials
A downloadable game for the PS3 network which includesPacman!!! But is there anything else do this boringly-named game? LISTEN!!! And enjoy more at The Binary Boys page.

The Public Speaking Bear is Going To Maul You
Aaron Brown would much rather give a 5 minute talk than die horribly before his time. Public speaking is a like a bear that never kills but instead just bats you around for 15 or 20 minutes every time it sees you. Check out more from Aaron at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com. On Between You and Me.

Subtleties for Sound Bites?
Michael Goldberg has the Last Word on "Public Speaking." Let's face it, things were never like they used to be...what about our own time, right now - when all the world is one wide web. On Between You and Me.

Blue Interlude

by Scott Hall

If there was any doubt about the difference between fresh locally grown food and trucked-in store-bought varieties, consider the difference between the u-pick strawberries and the ones bred to survive the time from farm to market. The locals are juicier with better color and flavor. Even better tasting were the wild raspberries Jennifer brought in for our pancakes last Friday morning.

The u-pick strawberry season is about over so I asked one of our local strawberry growers, Stu LaValiere, when the blueberries would be ready. He said they are late too - maybe ten days to two weeks, but the crop looks good. Marshall Helmberger at The Timberjay reports the wild bloobs are coming in up in Lake Vermilion country, though not at peak yet. I appreciate the science, energy and infrastructure it takes to get fruits and veggies to market from far away producers, and I'm glad the store-bought varieties are there, but the local difference is no lie. Get to those local farmer's fields and markets while the time is ripe. Here's a link to the Minnesota Grown Directory and you can still stop by KAXE and pick one up.

*thanks to Kevin McCoy for his citizen journalism in the berry patch! Way to hunt down Scott Hall!

How to Build a Tripod Pole Bean Fence

by Maggie Montgomery

Pole beans are fascinating. They are delicious and indeterminate and have long tentacles. Indeterminate plants produce beans all year, unlike bush beans that produce just one main crop. Pole beans also mature later than bush varieties and for that reason don’t always produce well in northern Minnesota. They need scaffolding to support their vines, which can grow to 10 feet or more! Nevertheless, they are fun to experiment with in the garden, and this year I built a pretty nifty scaffold for our Kentucky Wonders.

This scaffold consists of three tripods made of popple (aspen) saplings and two top poles. I tied each tripod as shown, and stood it up. Standing up a tripod correctly is a little tricky. The outer two poles have to form a Vee to hold the third pole in the crotch for stability. Don’t force the tripod into formation too hard, or you’ll break a pole and have to re-tie the whole thing with a new post (voice of experience). The idea is for the Vee to hold the third stick rather than letting any pole hang by the ropes.

An upright pole attached to the middle tripod provides a center post to tie to. I used scavenged twine from hay bales to create the net and tie the tripods together. Someone said a bean scaffold is a garden sculpture! It sure is kind of neat to look at, and should get better as the beans grow.

The photo above was taken on July 4th. The beans are just coming up. The sprinkler somehow edged its way into the picture too (maybe because it also is a tripod)!

Cutworms

by Maggie Montgomery, Master Squisher

Cutworms. I hate them - and I’m someone who hates to hate anything!

The cutworms have been rampant in my garden for the last two years, attacking the tender, young plants. Cutworms can topple hopeful rows of young onions or carrots, beets or spinach, leaving short, dead stubble in their wake. They eat at night, hide out under the soil surface by day, and are especially active during cool, wet spring weather. They are fairly small when young, but lately I’ve seen some an inch and a half long.

I find them near newly-beheaded plants. I dig around with my fingers, sifting the soil. Digging, sifting…sometimes I find the worm, and sometimes not. When I do, I calmly and smugly squish the thing to death between two rocks, or with my gloved fingers, or between a rock and a stick. Once this year I found half a dozen large cutworms in one row of young onions! Only half the onions are still alive, but it could have been worse!

Most people protect bedding plants from cutworms by wrapping the stems with aluminum foil, or cutting the bottom out of a paper cup or part of a milk carton, burying the bottom under the soil, and planting inside the protective barrier. It is not true that the worm wraps itself around a stem to cut it. Cutworms chew through plants, so putting nails or other partial barriers near plants might not help.

Row crops are hard to protect. Besides obsessively hunting cutworms in the morning, we’ve tried sprinkling the rows with crushed eggshells and diatomaceous earth. The eggshells didn’t work at all. The diatomaceous earth only works on dry ground. The “earth” feels soft, but is actually made of tiny sharp skeletal remains of sea creatures. When the worms crawl over it, it cuts their bodies and dehydrates them. It’s not a pretty thought. There are problems keeping diatomaceous earth dry, but I think it works a little bit.

I’ve recently researched cutworm control. Cutworms are the larvae of moths that lay their eggs in grassy areas. To limit their population in the long term, we have to keep weeds and vegetation out of the garden. We have to till the soil in the fall, and again in the spring. I should surround the garden with mulched flowerbeds, or install walkways to keep the grass away from the edges. If we expand the garden into a grassy or weedy area, there will be more cutworms in the new space. The worst cutworm infestations generally occur where grassy areas have recently been broken up to create a new bed. Some garden professionals recommend treating affected areas with Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. Btk is a naturally occurring bacterial insecticide specific to caterpillars but harmless to humans and the cutworm’s natural enemies. I have never used it. Yet.

This sounds like a lot of work, but we’ll try it in the hope that it will save a lot of cutworm hunting and seed replanting in the future. If we can get this set up and make it part of our gardening routine, the onions should survive better next year!

Organic Farmer David Massey

David Massey has been an organic gardener for 40 years, and loves to talk about soil chemistry. He explains that the health of the soil is very important to the plants he grows and their effect on the body. He also says that whenever he has moved from a place, he has left behind a plot of improved soil. Many things indicate soil type to David Massey: buildings, native plants, geology…he conducts soil testing and adds the low or missing constituents to help counteract a soil’s weak points.

David is 69 years old and a retired chemist for HB Fuller in the Twin Cities. He farms land in two different locations: three acres in White Bear Lake, and 640 acres near Pequot Lakes in Cass County. His business is called Northwoods Organic Produce. David grows heirloom vegetables in raised beds and a small greenhouse in White Bear Lake. His Cass County land consists of sustainable forest, upland pasture for hay and about 8 acres of intensively-farmed land surrounded by a 10-foot-high deer fence.

David grows 7 varieties of blueberries, 3 of strawberries, 2 types of raspberries, black raspberries, asparagus, 20 types of heirloom tomatoes, 20 types of organic potatoes, over 2,000 plants of 6 types of broccoli, several varieties of cabbage, herbs, beets, carrots, rutabagas and much more.

David Massey also saves heirloom seeds, especially saving several varieties of squash available nowhere else and a northern variety of corn. He participates in seed savers’ exchanges in Decorah, Iowa, and Toronto, Canada. .He has been developing markets for his food over time, and says he could sell more food than he can grow. His customers include 3 food co-ops, 10 restaurants and 2 grocery stores. He works hard all season and admits it’s a challenge for a 69-year-old man to farm using organic techniques like hand weeding and planting.

Soup and Pickles

Christie from East Bethel MN sent some recipes and a hand-written note with stories about the recipes to KAXE. Here’s what she said:

“I am an avid fan of KAXE and listen mostly over the Internet. I try to catch most weekday morning shows and have long enjoyed the Local Food Scene report. I wished I could’ve crunched on your pickles like Scott Hall. I wanted to share a family recipe sure to be crunchy, but I believe that is because they are refrigerator pickles (their only drawback, in my opinion). My great aunt would slice them. I prefer spears. She lived and worked in a small town drugstore in central Wisconsin. She would make them in a 5-quart bucket and take them to work. Word would get our and the local business folks would stop in at the store for their coffee-pickle break. She’d bring home an empty bucket the same day.

Great Aunt Olga’s Refrigerator Pickles

2 quarts water
1 quart white vinegar
3 cups sugar
1 cup salt (can use ¾ cup)

Bring above to a boil and pour over layered onion, dill and cucumbers. Store in refrigerator. Can eat after 24 hours. Last at least 6 months.

Please pass this soup recipe on to Heidi. I was sorry to have missed that show [Between You and Me, talking about soup] but hope to catch up on the submitted recipes. Sorry the recipe [below] is vague, that was how it was shared to me and it always tastes great and can be prepared fairly quickly for soup.

Red Lentil Soup

1 cup red lentils
5 cups broth

Saute onion in butter, add lentils and broth, season with cumin and bay leaves and a couple slices of lemon. Juice rest of lemon to add at the end.

Cook/simmer until lentils are soft, 25-35 minutes

KAXE is a true treasure and everyone deserves kudos for helping deliver its pleasures. Thank you—Christie from East Bethel MN (a KAXE member)"

Local Food: Winter Advice from Growers

by Maggie Montgomery

Last year, as part of our local food diet, Dennis and I built a tomato house out of 16’ cattle panels covered with plastic. It was part “hoop house,” but not as tall and wide as a real hoop house, and part “chicken coop,” based on a design of Jane Grimsbo Jewett’s (but lacking the chickens, of course). We grew a bumper crop of tomatoes in there, without the blight we normally get in the garden.

We wondered what to grow there in Year Two. Would it be safe to grow tomatoes again, or should we rotate the crop? Dennis was also interested in trying to grow early greens, and possibly some melons.

Two KAXE members offered some advice that I will pass along:

Jeanine said she grows 6 or 8 hills of melons in her “hoop house.” She recommends heavy mulching and these varieties:

Minnesota Midget cantaloupe
French Orange French cantaloupes from Nichols Garden Nursery in Oregon
Edonis French cantaloupes from Johnny’s
Watermelon: Sugar Baby, Starlight, Small Russian

Joel Rosen suggested growing cucumbers, melons, basil, pole beans and eggplant. He also said we could probably grow tomatoes there again if we want to!

He told us lettuce and other greens would take almost twice as long to mature if transplanted early into the tomato house, and this might delay planting the tomatoes afterward. He suggested planting Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan), broccoli rabe (or rapini), mustard greens, baby bok choy and tatsoi.