Apples :: Regent

Late Season • Sweet

Regent apples at market.

Ripens
Early to Mid-October

Characteristics

Well-balanced sweet flavor, honeyed, with plenty of acidity. Crisp, with a pleasing texture and flavor. Uses: fresh eating and cooking; holds it's shape when cooked.

History

Introduced in 1964, by the University of Minnesota. 

Parentage: Red Duchess x Red Delicious.

Storage

Keeps 3-5 months in storage. 

Notes

This is a favorite fall apple! It is sure to please your palate.

A bag of Regent apples.

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).

Apples :: Pristine

Pristine apple.

Early • Tart

Ripens

Late July

Characteristics

Wonderfully tart, crisp, juicy and firm, with flavor and sweetness under the tartness. Medium-sized lemony-yellow hued skin with a pink blush, and white to cream flesh. Great flavor, and keeping, for an early apple.

History

Introduced in 1994.

Parentage: Co Op 10 x Camuzat.

Storage

1-2 weeks.

Notes

Has a biennial tendency. 2018 was or first crop and we are delighted with the flavor and crispness for such an early apple! We are excited to add this to our long list of apple varieties.

Fall Apple Share Sign Up!

Fall Apple Shares   Sign up open for 2020!

$54.00 :: 24 lbs/4 lb Bag x 6 weeks 

Beginning the first week of September with pick up at the farm, or Saturday Mankato Farmers Market.

Each week enjoy a 4 lb bag with 1-2 varieties of our organic apples. A mix of standard, lesser known and sometimes old heritage apples. We send out a short newsletter each week, as a reminder of your share. Enjoy some apple nerdery and a recipe or two, along with the latest news from the orchard.

Pick up at the farm store Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays, or Saturdays at the Mankato Farmers Market, beginning the first week in September.

Sign Up Here!

Please contact us at info@alternativerootsfarm.com or via Facebook with any questions.

Covid-19 Note: Farmers' markets, and food access like our farm store, are considered essential services. We hope by September we wont be dealing with the same restrictions we are now, but if we are, or changes need to be made, we are committed to finding solutions to getting you your Apple Share!!

Cider Pre-Order by Jan. 10!

**Cider Pressing**
Pre-order cider for pick up next week, during store hours, or by appointment. $7/half gallon - use within 2-3 weeks, or freeze for long-term keeping. Pre-order by Friday, January 10.

Pick up during store hours - W/Th 4-7, F/Sat 9-12 - or by appointment. A limited amount will be available for sale at the store as well.

Straight, fresh, clean raw cider - no preservatives. Drink fresh, make popsicles for the littles, make your own hard cider, mix an adult beverage and more. Keeps long-term in the freezer.

Pre-orders help us know how much to press! We will be pressing next weekend, so please order by Friday - comment below, message, text Brooke at 507-412-7605, or email info@alternativerootsfarm.com

This will be one of our final, or maybe our final pressing, not sure! 

Apples :: Honeygold

Late Season • Sweet

Ripens

Late September-Early October

Characteristics

A high quality apple that is crisp, juicy and sweet with a honey-like flavor. The apple is golden to yellow-green, with a reddish-bronze blush. Honeygold is great for fresh eating and cooking - it makes a no-sugar apple pie. Exceptional storage qualities.

History

Developed by the University of Minnesota as a Northern alternative to Golden Delicious. Introduced in 1970.

Parentage: Golden Delicious x Haralson.

Storage

Keeps 3-4 months, exceptional storage qualities.

Notes
Bruises very easily. A very winter hardy variety, said to be hardy to -50°.

Apples :: Honeycrisp

Mid-Late Season • Sweet-tart

Ripens

Mid-Late September

Characteristics

Known for its exceptional crispness and well-balanced sweet-tart flavor. This pretty, dappled red apple is superb for fresh eating, for baking, and salad as well.

History

Developed by the University of Minnesota. Designated in 1960 as MN 1711, patented in 1988 and released in 1991.

Offspring: SweeTango, Cosmic crisp, First Kiss/Rave.

Parentage: Keepsake x Unknown.

Storage

Stores 6 months or more.

Notes

Named Minnesota's state fruit in 2006. Known as Honeycrunch in Europe. With the success of the Honeycrisp apple it is hard to believe that at one point it was slated to be discarded.

2018 Fall Apple Shares

**Fall Apple Shares are now sold out** You may purchase apples from us beginning in mid-August, by contacting us directly, or shopping at the New Ulm Farmers' Market (Saturdays) and the Mankato Farmers' Market (Tuesdays/Saturdays). Also, watch for our apples at Co-ops in the region! Don't forget to let us know if you are interested in an Fall Apple Share for next season!

Fall Apple Shares Now Available!

Please holler at us with any and all questions!

Fall Apple Share
$54.00 :: 24 lbs/4 lb Bag x 6 weeks Sept 5/8 - Oct. 9/13 

That's $2.25/lb, regularly $2.50/lb! Filled with standard and heirloom varieties, which change week to week - the best of what's in season. This year we will be harvesting around 25 varieties, in a few years that will jump to over 50! Featuring organic & transitional organic apples hand-picked by your local apple farmers, John and Brooke. Weekly reminders will be sent out, along with nerdy apple information and recipes! Winter Apple Shares (new!), Applesauce and Apple Butter Shares will be available later in the season.


Delivery: *Please pick an option that works for all 6 weeks.*
     (1) Saturday - New Ulm Farmers' Market, 9:00-12:00 am, Cash Wise lot, 9/8-10/13
     (2) Saturday - Mankato Farmers' Market, 8:00-12:00, Best Buy lot, 9/8-10/13
     (3) Wednesday - In-town New Ulm, 5:45-6:45 pm, 1221 Settler Trail, New Ulm, 9/5-10/9
     (4) Wednesday - At the Farm, 5:45-6:45, 11197 130th St., Madelia, 9/5-10/9

Reservation: Email info@alternativerootsfarm.com to reserve your share and confirm your delivery choice, or holler at us with any questions.

Payment: Due at the time of reservation, cash or check please.

Photo Update May 19 :: Bloom Edition!

Full bloom in the orchard is a splendid thing - amazingly beautiful. Last weekend full bloom peaked. The home orchard had the most blooms it has ever had; we are excited because it looks like we'll be able to taste of some of the old heirloom varieties we are growing, for the first time!

Just before bloom, this stage is called "open cluster."

Young orchard trees. 'Smokehouse' is all blooming this year!

The Lake Crystal orchard blooms over the sloping hillside, full of promise for a great season. This site adds a couple new varieties of apples for us, including Fireside.

Farm dog Hazel, following along.

Just a Friday night out at the orchard, running the pups, mowing, picking up wood, enjoying the outdoors and potential of the beautiful trees.

Farm dog Odin helping out.

The New Ulm orchard, our first site we began with, is the most splendid we have ever seen it. The trees were loaded with blooms!

 

Being loaded with blooms is a grand thing, but that is only part of the process! Good pollination is a MUST to get that fruit hanging on these trees. We wander the orchards, observing for pollinator activity - native, honey and bumble bees. Two sites are close to woods and many native bees are out and about. While we weren't seeing as much pollinator activity at the home orchard, closer inspection, as petals began dropping, shows good results. There are many tasks between now and harvest, but I am looking forward to August and ripe apples!!

Photo Update :: May 7

It felt pretty darn good to plant the first transplants of the season! While it was 13 days later than planned, it's assured that no matter what the season begins sometime - sometimes late, sometimes early, sometimes really, really wet. This is a great start. 

Lettuce and kale went in first. Parlsey, basil, leeks and onion plants have followed. Radishes, spinach, peas and beans are waiting underground for their time to germinate.

Rhubarb looks great and asparagus is finally poking up!

Shellee's Greenhouse, in Madelia, is carrying Alternative Roots Farm organic sweet and hot peppers, heirloom tomatoes, ground cherries and tomatillos. Stock your garden with local plants, while shopping at a local greenhouse!

We have some other transplants available at the farm, check in with Brooke if you are looking for something.

The pullets are almost 6 weeks old and have most of their feathers in. While they are indoors we give them grass treats everyday - they go nuts for it! The hens are fiiiinally out on green grass!!! The yolks will start getting a deeper orange color from the natural nutrition of grass and bugs.

The home orchard was expanded again, to finish our plantings here. A new block of plums and apricots was added, along with more apples!

New apple trees!

Apricot flower buds.

Plum patch, with the field and winter greenhouse beyond.

We continue to provide microgreens to the New Ulm Community Market and Co-op for their Thursday Spring Markets - 2:00-7:00 pm on Thursdays.

Follow along here, on facebook and Instagram for the latest and greatest!

Orchard Update 2.10.18

Big Changes

Late last season we decided to make some big changes on the farm, what does that mean for our orchards? Well, for one thing, orchard management becomes top priority for us, as we strive for the increased quality for our delicious fruit and for our customers. We have leaned up our farm systems so we can put more focus into the orchard.


What does this mean for you?
More apples! More nutritious fruit, as we focus even more in depth on tree health.
More locations! You'll be able to find our organic, and transitional organic, apples at both the New Ulm and Mankato farmers' markets this season.
More fruit! Time after time folks request more fruit. We have over 20 varieties of apples to offer and our first apricot crop is just around the bend.

The Universe Listens

With the hard decision, a weight lifted and we could feel it was the right decision. And the universe responded, with opportunity. Did I mention "More Fruit!"? Our orchard is ever expanding. Our core orchard - that lit John's orcharding inspirations - just outside New Ulm continues to produce great organic apples; from our first crop, until now, 18 varieties thrive there. At our home orchard, over 300 young trees continue to mature, with a few of the oldest trees beginning to give us modest harvests; when these trees all mature we'll have over 50 varieties to temp your tastebuds. Lastly, the opportunity, our new orchard location, just outside of Lake Crystal, increases our diversity and gives us the ability to transition more land into organic production; having another location also make us more resilient, in case of events such as hail, wind, or frost. It's going to be an exciting year!

Right Now, In the Orchard

John has been busy the last month with pruning. There is some catch-up maintenance work to do in the new orchard. Pruning is so very important for the health and vigor of a tree, and for organic management. John will be leading a Fruit Tree Pruning Class on March 3, to share these important skills.

Fruit Tree Pruning Class

Learn to Properly Prune Your Fruit Trees!

This half-day workshop will cover the basic principles of pruning your fruit trees, fruit tree anatomy, timing of pruning events, pruning for consistent fruit production and different tree shaping techniques.

Pruning in the apple orchard.

Join and share the facebook event!

We will begin the workshop with classroom style instruction and then we will be going outdoors to practice pruning. You are invited to bring your own pruning tools if you have them, otherwise we will have tools available for you to try. Please be dressed appropriately for the outdoor session of this class (second half). 

***Please bring your own lunch to the workshop.

What: Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop
When: March 3, 2018
Time: 9:00am-1:00pm
Where: New Ulm Public Library, 17 North Broadway, New Ulm, MN
Cost: $25/ Participant
Other: The cost of the workshop must be paid in advance. Call 507-439-6541 or email info@alternativerootsfarm.com to reserve your spot. Please send check to Alternative Roots Farm, 11197 130th St., Madelia, MN 56062. Registrations must be paid by February 23, 2018

Apples :: Cortland

Mid - Late Season • Sweet-tart • Heirloom

Ripens

Late September to Early October

Characteristics

A rich sweet-tart flavor that is aromatic and vinous. The bright white flesh has a nice coarse texture. The medium-large apple has a deep burgundy stripes over green-yellow skin. Cortland is a great all-purpose apple that makes a nice textured puree; it is great for fresh eating, cooking, as well as salads, because it is slow to brown.

History

Developed at Cornell University, Geneva, New York, 1915.

Parentage: McIntosh x Ben Davis.

Storage

Keeps for 3 months.

Notes

One of the first successful varieties developed from the popular McIntosh, the parent that it gets it's white flesh from. It is a very hardy tree, tolerating winters down to -40°, making it great for Minnesota!

Apples :: Lodi

Early Season • Tart

Ripens

Mid-July. Lodi has a biennial tendency, so it may only bear every other year.

Characteristics

This medium sized apple has a green-yellow skin with juicy flesh. This is a soft-fleshed, tart and juicy apple. Okay for fresh eating, but best for cooking. Lodi cooks down fast, it makes a great sauce.

Parentage: Montgomery x Yellow Transparent.

Origin: Geneva New York, 1924. Developed by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.

Storage

Short storage life of 1-2 weeks.

Photo Update 3.8.17

Some photos around the farm, this week! It's time to get back into our photo update routine. With nice(r) weather and thawing ground we will be getting more active outside. Dear me! You'll need some pics of the greenhouse plants in the next one - things are growing!

Ragnar's favorite place to hang out these days is on top of the cozy, warm chick brooder. He just sits there and watches when I am tending to them. They are growing fast and have their awkward young feathers coming in.

The piglets were weaned this week. One by one we are winning them over and getting them to flop down for belly rubs. Elsa, pictured, is quite happy to to be done nursing.

We have been busy canning shredded chicken and chicken stock/bone broth. Read our blog post From the Pantry :: March for other kitchen shenanigans.

Canned chicken and broth.

John is gearing up for grafting apple, apricot and plum trees for the farm, as well as teaching a grafting workshop in New Ulm this Saturday. The workshop is tidied up and ready to begin!

The first round of Sponsor-A-Tree signs are finished! We are so grateful for our members' financial support of our growing orchard. For orchard updates check out our Apples page.

Signs for our members/farm fans who have sponsored a tree.

Crazy winds have been defining the last week and the first spring storm rolled through on Monday, March 6th. The smell was delicious, but I'll hold on to winter for a bit longer. Normal temps are good for the orchard trees - breaking dormancy early/bud development ahead of schedule always comes with the threat of frost damage.

Things are growing around the farm already - chives above, rhubarb below.

Rhubarb growth.

Cedar posts for trellising.

Just around the corner is tree planting on our new land!! John and Larry have been busy harvesting cedars for the apple tree trellis system. Below, John has staked out the tree rows on the new land. (The Quonset hut is ours now too!)

Apple tree row staking on our new land.

I have been enjoying hard boiled eggs more frequently - good, easy, healthful protein! Look at those beautiful yolks.

Hard boilers.

 That's all for now, thanks for stopping!

Orchard Update, From Up a Ladder

Pruning tools and piles in later winter.

With the early February thaw, orchard pruning and any clean-up from the winter is in full-swing!  The mature trees are taking their final shapes with each cut, while the young trees are being formed for future years.  

Pruning mature trees is much different than pruning the young; over pruning the young trees can stunt them for a long period of time, whereas the mature trees are able to rebound the stress of pruning more quickly.  

Soon to follow pruning will be grafting, staking out the new orchard area, transplanting trees from the nursery and sticking in those companion plants for the trees!  

Come April, the Alternative Roots Farm will have a whole new look.


Follow orchard updates on our ARF Apples page and on facebook.

That's a Wrap! Orchard Style

This week we finished cleaning up the orchard, as well as the veggie field. We cleaned up a few more apples for the pigs winter stash, and picked a few more Haralson hanging on for our winter eating.

The pigs winter apple stash. We like them eating produce as long as possible!

 The orchard looks beautiful. We picked up the ladders and bins, and took down our insect traps.

Our off-site orchard. 

Johnny picking a few more Haralsons for us to snack on.

John is a mountain climber...being an orchardist is a great compliment. Here he is picking apples....mind you I am laying flat on the ground to take this...and he is horizontal in the tree. :)

Johnny having fun picking horizontally.

That's a wrap on our fifth season managing the orchard.

 Trees planted in 2016 at the home orchard.

Nursery trees ready to be planted out in 2017.

Nursery stock for our growing orchard.

 A wonderful day working in the orchard together. Thank you for supporting organic agriculture! Apples are the 2nd most contaminated fruit/vegetable, we take pride in bringing these healthy fruits to our community!

The kids will be happy to eat apples (and some pumpkins) until they run out!

The "kids."