Winter Wellness CSA

 ***Winter Wellness CSA Shares are limited! If interested contact me directly to be put on a wait list. We only offer 10 shares each season. One off Samplers Shares are sometimes offered during the winter as well. Organic greens and other farm goods are available 5 days per week at our farm store and at the Winter Mankato Farmers Market, held the 1st and 3rd Saturdays Nov.-March at Bomgaars from 9-Noon.

Winter Wellness CSA 2023

I’ve just marked another trip around the sun, feels like a good time to mark another start to our Winter CSA!

This year the CSA is going to change up a little bit!

Winter Greens CSA is evolving into our Winter Wellness CSA. As always, the highlight is our winter greens! Pea shoots, microgreens and salad mix will be accompanied by canned goods and herbal wellness items. This season the apple harvest was not abundant, so unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be able to add apple bags, as we do most years.

What's in the Shares? 

Winter Greens Feature – organic pea shoots, zesty microgreens, mustard greens salad mix.

Canned Goods Feature – applesauce, apple butter, jam/jelly, pizza sauce, salsa – with 1-2 items in each share pick up.

Herbal Wellness Items Feature – salves, lotion bar, elderberry syrup kit and more – holistic wellness comes from more than just food.

 

When are the Shares?

Winter Wellness CSA will have 7 pick-ups November—March. We like to start the week before Thanksgiving. Pick ups will look like à Nov(1), Dec(2), Jan(1), Feb(2), Mar(1), by my best estimate. Greens are picked up at the farm store, or the Mankato Winter Farmers Market (ONLY if dates line up). Shares are roughly every several weeks, dependent on the growth of greens. I am better at anticipating this now, but every once and a while I may have to push back a week if growth is slow (clouds and cold and such). Some flexibility must be honored to be a share member.

 

Cost is $240. $140 due up front for reservation, with remaining $100 due by first pick up.

 

Eggs – This year I’m not reserving ahead (it’s all based on the current batch of chickens), but I will take reservations the week of share pick up, as available. Eggs are $6/dozen.

 

How to get a share?

Shares each year are first offered to returning members. If spaces open up then they are offered to folks on the wait list. If any shares need further filling I'll post on social media (rarely happens!). 

 

Thank you!!

 

Brooke 

A Dozen Wonderful Ways to Use Your Apple Butter

Alternative Roots Farm apple butter is made with love, local and organic ingredients. We use only our organic apples, organic spices and it is now made with local honey from Moody Bees Farm. But what should you do with it besides putting it on toast?!

1. Top your oatmeal or pancakes! This is a great way to add some clean-eating sweetness to your breakfast routine.

2. Add it into baked goods. This is a great way to add some subtle apple pie flavor and make a great moist, delicious baked good. Think muffins, pancakes, bread and more!

3. Freeze into ice cubes. Toss the frozen ice cubes into your smoothie for a delicious apple pie flavor! Try it with bananas, almond milk and vanilla protein powder. This is also a great tip for using up apple butter that you aren't going to use up.

4. Spread on sweet potatoes. Dip sweet potato fries! Again, a great clean-eating option.

5. Yogurt topping. Drop a blob of apple butter in your yogurt, maybe add a squirt of Moody Bees Honey and enjoy a bowl of delicious yogurt of breakfast, a snack or healthy dessert! You can always add another dash of cinnamon or cardamom to add flavor and health benefits.

6. Muffin spread. Choose apple butter, instead of regular butter, for your next muffin indulgence. In summer it’s a great way to add flavor to those zucchini muffins. ;)

7. Add to your pork! Drop a dollop on your pork chop or loin.

8. PB & AB. Make a simple sandwich with apple and peanut butter - a double-butter sandwich. I think the kids will like this one!

9. Cottage cheese swirl. Drop a dollop in and swirl it into your cottage cheese.

10. Just eat it. Grab a spoonful of apple butter and enjoy the apple pie flavor. No guilt, just pure joy.

11. Add to roasted nuts. Drizzle over nuts that have been warmed in the oven and enjoy.

12. Top that ice cream! Add some natural goodness to your bowl of ice cream. Feel free to warm it up.

BBQ Bonus tip from a customer! Put a jar of apple butter, a jar of BBQ sauce and an ARF pork roast in the slow cooker, HEAVEN!!!

Made with Organic apples, local honey and organic spices. Apple butter is a clean eating treat!

September Farm Store Update

 

That's right, it's apple season once again and we are up to no good...

Farm fresh this week is fresh, raw apple cider.

We press fresh cider 3-4 times during apple season and it's available until it runs out. So, grab it while it's on the shelf and watch for updates. Use or freeze within 2 weeks of the pressing date.

Apple Updates

It's a less than bountiful apple season. After our early Pristine and Zestar! apples hitting the farm store shelf we haven't been able to stock apples for a couple weeks. We'll be doing our best here this week to bring apples back onto the farm store shelf - watch the socials for updates. The bulk of our apples harvested have gone into our Apple Shares, who make an up front investment in the season. 

We had a bountiful season last year, for which we are grateful, so we see some reduced crop on some more biennial bearers, but we also have had a hard year with pests. Bear with us! Grab apples and cider when you can and know that your support makes a difference to small business owners like ourselves. 

On the Farm Store Shelves

Garlic

Eggs

Raw apple cider

Apples - as available

Applesauce

Jams/Jellies - Apricot NEW, Elderberry Jelly LIMITED, Strawberry Rhubarb, Apple Butter

Elderberry Syrup Kits

Herbal Tincture

Salves - Bug Bite, Healing

Calendula Lotion Bar

More Farm Store Details

Fruits Update!

Plums - Crop came in really nice! Decent crop. There will be some plums at the farm store yet this week and if they do make it to market Saturday there will just be a handful!

Apples - Our early season apples are not bountiful this year, most of them headed into early Apple Shares (benefits of being a CSA member!). This means kind of a slow start to the season! Usually we start cranking up mid-August and go into high gear in September. Feel a little like hurry up and wait right now! Folks grabbed the last of the delicious crabapples and Kindercrisp at market last Saturday.

McIntosh and Cortland coming up! Watch the socials for updates on farm store stocking and market lineups.

We are picking over 40 varieties of apples! Much more goodness to come!!

Apricots & Elderberries - Grab an Apricot Jam! Elderberry Jelly is a new seasonal item!

BACK TO MARKET - Find us Saturdays 8-12 at the Mankato Farmers Market in the Best Buy parking lot, through October 14.

Fruit Update

Apricots - done for the season! These aren't predictable, given their early bloom, SO, we'll see them again...when we see them! Apricot Jam will continue!

Raspberries - done for the season! We're hoping the patch recovers for a bountiful crop next year! An 80% crop loss, plus drought, made for a short season. We'll be mad rabbit hunters this coming winter...

Blackberries - a good, small start to a new crop! expect more in years to come!

Coming...

Plums - not looking like a big crop, so watch for updates. I may take some of the small crop for jam/jelly, as that was a hit 2 years ago!

Apples - getting started in August!!! Apple butter should be back in stock by September!!

Pears - a small crop like last year, perhaps, also still getting started!

BACK TO MARKET - August 12th is the plan! Saturday in Mankato only - 8-12 in the Best Buy parking lot!

Sowing Seeds: Celebrating Local Foods & Lost Skills

Sowing Seeds: Celebrating Local Foods & Lost Skills

Sunday, July 23^rd - 11:00am-3:00pm - Alternative Roots Farm, Madelia

Together let's plant the seeds of a more sustainable and resilient future! Join the Minnesota River Chapter SFA for a fun and memorable afternoon that’s all about celebrating local foods and rediscovering traditional self-sufficiency skills! 

Sowing Seeds: Celebrating Local Foods & Lost Skills is coming up on Sunday, July 23^rd. The event runs from 11:00am-3:00pm and features kids activities, a food truck, pop-up farmers market, 10 skill share demos, organic farm tour, and a flax-to-linen demonstration. 

Skill shares range from Canning 101 to Mushroom Prep & Preservation to Seed Starting 101 and more. The event is being hosted by Alternative Roots Farm, a certified organic farm focused on organic perennial fruit, pastured heritage pigs and more. 

Tickets: $10 for adults, kids under 12 free. Reservation only, no walkups please. 

Parking: Gravel road. 

Join the Facebook event for more updates, full schedule and information. 

Register HERE. 

Volunteer HERE.

Brooke Knisley, Alternative Roots Farm

Mary Fischer, K & M Fisher Farm

 

 

July Farm Store Updates

July Farm Store Updates!

July brings an uptick to the season, more bounty and blessings from the land!

Fruits

We have been berry picking! Daily raspberry picking is now added to the schedule - get them while they're available! Limited inventory, and no bulk orders, this year, due to large crop loss (rabbits). You may be lucky enough to snag a rare container of black cap wild foraged raspberries!

Fruits will just continue to roll in over the next month - apricots are blushing, plums will be on their way and NEW to the shelf will be blackberries this year!

We are also truly on the cusp of apple season, as we pick our earliest varieties in late July.

More In Store

Garden produce is coming in and more selection will be available over the coming weeks. Kale is in stock. Watch for cucumbers, green beans, celery and tomatoes.

NEW Bug Bite Salve is in stock!! Wild harvested and hand crafted, this salve is sure to cool and soothe itchy bug bites.

In Stock: Eggs, kale, seasonal garden produce, herbal healing salve, bug bite salve, calendula lotion bars, herbal tinctures, applesauce, apply syrup, strawberry-rhubarb jam, herbal bug spray, cool it spray, raspberries, black caps.

Sowing Seeds: Celebrating Local Foods and Lost Skills

Register HERE

Volunteer HERE

Facebook event HERE

We can't wait to see you at the farm for this unique event!! It's going to be a great day for the whole family - kids activities, food truck, skills demos, farm tour, market shopping! Hope you can make it!