Apples :: Haralson

Late Season • Tart • Heirloom

Haralson apples.

Ripens

Late September to Early October.

Characteristics

A complex tart flavor and firm texture. This distinctive apple is crisp and juicy, with characteristics that make it great for fresh eating, cooking, cider and storage. It is said to make a great-tasting and perfect-textured pie. 

History

Developed by the University of Minnesota, 1922 - a Minnesota heirloom.

Offspring: Honeygold.

Parentage: Malinda x Wealthy.

Storage

Keeps 4-5 months in storage, while retaining good flavor.

Notes

For years Haralson was the number one apple in Minnesota. The variety tends towards biennial bearing (altering between high and low yielding years).

CSA • Week #1 • Let's get this party started!

What a beautiful day Wednesday was! Our first round of CSA harvest completed and 28 boxes of seasonal, organic, fresh, gorgeous produce delivered to our members. It feels good to be back folks - thank you for the support, enthusiasm and humor!

Week #1 CSA Newsletter ~ featuring: farm news, freezing rhubarb, rhubarb tips, shallot vinaigrette, handy tools for the kitchen, recipe sources.

CSA Box #1 • June 14, 2017

In the Box: 'Winter Density' heirloom romaine, chives, 3/4lb rhubarb, apple butter, kale mini bunch, 'Pirat' heirloom butterhead lettuce, All Hail! Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam , green shallots, spinach, CSA newsletter, veggie storage guide, ARF produce seasonality chart.

When life gives you hail, make strawberry-rhubarb jam! With having hail 4 times so farm this spring, it's a miracle the strawberries were the only thing really affected. With the multitude of bruised berries members received some jam this week, in place of fresh berries!

We kick off the year with salad season! Whip up some vinaigrette with the fresh shallots and chow down on some greens.

Some humor shared during delivery from rockstar CSA member Pat. Thanks for the chuckle! :)

More Orchard, Less Lawn

As we have grown our orchard at the farm it feels like giving the lawn more purpose (and less mowing). This past week we added twenty-three heirloom apple trees to the farm orchard! Sixteen new varieties. (Getting a head-start on Arbor Day?!)

New apple trees, in the farm orchard with established
apple, crabapple and pear trees.

We started in 2011 with two apple trees on the farm - an existing Honeycrisp and a Honeygold. During 2012-2014 we planted some pears, plums, honeyberries and crabapples, as we continued to build the home orchard, while managing the Augustine orchard.

Last spring we planted out five of John's first apple grafts (Enigma, Mantet, MN 1628, Wealthy and Sweet 16) and three more plums (LaCrescent and Hanska).

Hazel and the new apple tree plantings.

This year we add the varieties Monarch, Baldwin, Carter's Blue, Golden Russet, Bottle Greening, Crimson Beauty, Calville Blanc d'Hiver, Wismer's Dessert, Red Seek-no-further, Green Pippen, Shiawassee, Spencer, Knobbed Russet, Ortley, Black Ben Davis and Hubbardston Nonesuch. Colors ranging from brown to dark purple-red, to green and yellow. Fresh eating and baking varieties. Ugly and beautiful orbs of splendid flavor.

This winter John grafted 100 more trees, which we will plant out shortly into their nursery beds, and then be planted out to their permanent locations in 2016. Grafts expand the stock of varieties we currently have, as well as add to our list with Stark, Porter, Smokehouse, Christmas Pearmain, and Hooples Antique Gold.

Plan to expand your apple palate folks, we have a lot of good fruit coming down the pipeline!

{Field-to-Table} Flint Corn

If you have been to visit our table at the co-op's indoor markets over the last couple of months you would have seen bags of multi-colored corn kernels. A rainbow of colors from red to blue, yellow and even striped. All these kernels came from the same variety of corn--Mandan Bride--all could come from the same ear. This will be a fleeting winter treat for market-goers and a special treat for this year's CSA and Farm Share customers. Our Mandan Bride, as well as our (red and yellow) Roy's Calais flint corn will not be at summer markets.

Preparing for market with shallots and heirloom flint corn.

I recently re-read an article John found last year The Search for Mandan Bride and along with our recent sales of flint corn I wanted to highlight just how awesome this corn is. Last season was our first experience growing flint corn, with the intention of using it for cornmeal and animal feed. In the fall, the first corn we ground up (using our coffee grinder) was made into cornmeal muffins. I was amazed and delighted how much of a difference you could taste in fresh, heirloom, homegrown cornmeal. Store bought is no comparison.

"One key factor in the variety’s delicious flavor, Van Eeckhout told me, was that the corn was freshly ground. But even more importantly, it was ground whole. Most commercial cornmeal is made from yellow dent corn, or field corn, which has much tougher outer hulls on each kernel than the sweet corn we eat as a vegetable. Those fiber-rich outer hulls and the protein- and fat-rich core of each kernel—called the germ—are removed before grinding, robbing the cornmeal of nutrients—and flavor. Mandan Bride ears contain a combination of flint kernels (which are enclosed in hard shells) and flour kernels (made entirely of soft starch), adding interest and substance."

2013 flint corn stand

We trialed three different varieties of flint corn in 2013--Bloody Butcher, Roy's Calais and Mandan Bride. The very tall stand pictured is Bloody Butcher, which performed poorly at our site and we are not interested in trying again at this time. On the right is the Mandan Bride, which we were very happy with.

"It’s also, according to Van Eeckhout, “a real pain in the butt” to grow...weak stalks tip over before the corn has dried...So it must be picked by hand—never mind the laborious process of shucking, drying, and grinding."

The process of harvesting and processing this corn was indeed rewarding. It's nice that the harvest comes all at one time in the fall. John and I enjoyed walking through the rows, catching up in the evenings oohing and awing over the brilliant colors as we picked.

"All this corn was shucked while watching Sons of Anarchy or Breaking Bad." John wrote on a card accompanying a Christmas gift of flint corn to a friend. Netflix has indeed been a helper during such shucking and sorting exercises.

We may grown some flint corn for 2014, on a smaller scale, but we have to be conscious about the rotation, as corn is hard on the soil and our space is limited.

John holding an array of flint corn cobs.

One of the benefits of being small, independent, and organic (in transition to organic certification) is that we get to choose what we grow, we get to experiment and trial unique items. Last year also ended up being a great year to grow this corn, as we were surrounded by a sea of soybeans, not corn.

A customer stopped by yesterday at market and commented, just as the author in that article, that her polenta was exceptional and she really enjoyed it. We haven't tried making polenta at home yet, simply cornmeal muffins and pancakes, but it's on the list of new things to try!

Alternative Roots Farm will be at the New Ulm Community Market and Cooperative's indoor market again on March 8th, 9am-1pm. Stop by and pick up some flint corn, it may be your last chance in 2014!

Brooke at market, with Megan Burris, owner of
Imbue Botanicals. Photo courtesy of Megan.

:: The Latest from {Alt.Roots} ::

• Newest Farm Newsletter: February Farm News •

• CSA Shares still available :: Full Shares, Half Shares, Monday & Wednesday delivery •

• Farm Shares still available :: 3 remaining, $100 or $150 amounts •

Call or email to reserve a share!

• Why Heirloom? •

Quotes from The Search for Mandan Bride, Minnesota Monthly, Nov. 2006

Why Heirloom?

Check it out, we added a new page to our website talking about why we choose to grow heirlooms.

Be well!

Three Sisters Gardening

The three sisters garden is a traditional native American method of growing corn, pole beans and squash together.  The individual crops benefit each other in multiple ways, make beneficial use of growing space, and together they provided a healthy, balanced diet.

The pole beans climb the corn, the corn utilizes the nitrogen the beans fix in the soil and the prickly squash leaves keep critters and pests away and act as a living mulch--keeping the soil cool and moist.  Nutritionally, protein is supplied by the beans, while carbs & fiber are provided by corn; squash supplies important vitamins (including C) and antioxidants.

I have always wanted to try the three sisters method, and am using a modified version this year--why not grow some corn and beans amidst the bed of squash?  

Soaking the beans before planting helps ensure moisture
and speeds germination.  Left: peas. Right: Hidatsa Shield Figure beans.

In the foreground is a bed prepared for squash, with several mounds running down the middle of the bed (where the flags are).  The mounds are meant to provide adequate drainage, while allowing the soil to warm.  I have planted 6 mounds, with two more to go for a second succession, with corn and beans, then I will plant my row of squash down the middle of the 46' bed.

Foreground: squash bed with three sisters mounds.
Background: pole bean trellises. 

The beans we are growing in the three sisters method are different varieties of dried beans we want to try out, so we'll have a little of each to eat at the end of the year--Cherokee Trail of Tears, Kentucky Wonder and Hidatsa Shield Figure.  The Cherokee and Hidatsa varieties are traditional Native American varieties, and are also both listed in Slow Food USAs Ark of Taste.  Kentucky Wonder is an excellent snap bean, which can also be used as a dry bean--we are growing then as snap bean this year as well.

As for the corn varieties we have Bloody Butcher and Bear Island Flint corn.  Bloody Butcher can be harvest young, for sweet corn, or used at maturity for decorative purposes, meal or flour, and has excellent drought tolerance.  Alternative corn varieties!!  But we have sweet corn coming up too!!

A simple diagram of a three sisters mound.
[Photo from: kidsgardening.org]

What one mound might look like into maturity.
[Photo: AIHDP]