Eating Minnesota

What do you look for when buying food? Taste? Appearance? Convenience? Price? Must it be natural (chemical-, additive-, and hormone-free)? Environmentally friendly? How do you know what you’re paying for? Labels, displays, and fliers can inform, but in the hands of marketers, they often merely seduce.

This past year, organic food sales jumped 17 percent, making it the fastest-growing category in the supermarket business. But organic is not a panacea, as consumers of E. coli–tainted California spinach learned last year. Where is the path through this labyrinth?

Minnesotans, head home.

“Local is always the best choice,” says Lucia Watson, chef/owner of Lucia’s Restaurant, Wine Bar, Bakery & Takeout, in Minneapolis, tossing up reasons such as freshness, flavor, variety, and support for farmers and small businesses. But the idea of “local,” the concept of place, trumps all.

“Our menu is not routine, but reflects temperature and daylight as well as what comes out of the field,” Watson says. In February, mashed root vegetables taste better than sliced tomatoes. Come August, those sun-split tomatoes seem even juicier because we’ve had to wait. If we are what we eat, then in eating local, we know where we are.

Nothing beats crunching a crisp, juicy-sweet farmers’ market strawberry at 6:30 a.m. on a July Saturday. But what do you look for once the harvest is over and you’re inside a brightly lit supermarket?

“Know where your food is coming from,” advises Barth Anderson, R & D coordinator for The Wedge Natural Foods Co-op in Minneapolis. “Talk with the person in the store who buys it; then ask questions.”

“Labels are helpful to a point,” explains Dale Riley, owner of Fresh Seasons Market in Glen Lake. “But butchers, like Dave Barber, our meat guy, can answer questions in a way no article or label can. There is so much conflicting information. In the end, what shoppers need is a place to go with people they can trust.”

When I am rushing to buy a loaf of bread or a carton of milk, I’m not going to ponder our byzantine food chain. Instead, I try to buy directly from the farm (or via a CSA or farmers’ market). If that’s not practical, I shop at a co-op or retailer whose staff knows where their products come from and how they are grown/raised. If you can’t get a satisfying answer from a retailer, odds are your store is not serious about these issues. But there are plenty that are.

The Green Shopper’s Guide
Look to the following market and specialty shops for the best selection of local foods.

Farmers’ Markets Natural Foods Co-ops Specialty Retailers Guide to Local Brands    Dairy    Fruit/Vegetables    Meat    Smoked Meat & Fish    Learning More

Farmers’ Markets
Midtown Public Market— Ethnic, vibrant, local, organic, sustainable. Saturdays May–October, Tuesdays mid-July–October. 3451 Cedar Ave., Mpls., 612-724-7457

Mill City Farmers’ Market—The first in Minneapolis to focus on organic and artisan food producers, family farmers, and small businesses. Saturdays May–October. Chicago Ave. at S. 2nd St. (adjacent to the Mill City Museum), 612-341-7580

Minneapolis Farmer’s Market—The state’s largest open-air market is a street fair with vegetables. Seek local meat, honey, poultry, fish, maple syrup, organic produce, and herbs. Many growers are there on alternate Saturdays through the off-season too. Note: many vendors sell nonregionally grown goods. Weekly, April–December. Lyndale Ave. N. at 3rd Ave. N., 612-333-1718

St. Paul Farmers’ Market—Features vendors (some with organic or sustainable goods) from no more than fifty miles away. Off-season, find cheese, honey, beef, poultry, duck, turkey, game, wild rice, and maple syrup. Saturdays April–November, Sundays May–November. 290 E. 5th St., St. Paul, 651-227-8101 [top]

Natural Foods Co-ops
The Twin Cities is a hotbed of co-ops (some of us recall stocking produce or cutting cheese twenty-five years ago to work off our membership fee). Today virtually all operate like grocery stores, requiring neither membership nor work to buy there, but offering special discounts and rebates to members. Shunning goods produced with chemicals and preservatives, most co-ops do not have the broad selection of commodity brands and packaged foods found in a typical supermarket. The difference between co-ops and grocery stores is their mission.

Co-ops are uniquely committed to their communities and employees and are preoccupied with selling local foods, supporting sustainable farms, and insuring fair prices for farmers. Each is a wonderful source of information about natural foods, sustainable agriculture, food safety and consumer control, nutrition, and health and provides recipes, classes and other resources. Since their inception, our natural food co-ops have been at the forefront of food trends, influencing mainstream retailers. A complete searchable listing is available at mwnaturalfoods.coop.

The dean of local co-ops is The Wedge on Lyndale at 22nd Street in Minneapolis. Its local and organic produce section remains without peer, while its in-house bakery produces many unique specialty breads and some killer treats. The Wedge’s staff is superbly knowledgeable, customer-focused, and can answer almost any question about how the foods it sells are grown or produced. [top]

Specialty Retailers
Clancey’s Meats—The best source for local meat—beef, lamb, pork, poultry, bison, venison, elk. “We visit the farms we deal with and know how they are sustainable, how they treat their land,” says owner Kristin Tombers. Arrive flexible—Clancey’s offers a limited selection and cannot always stock requests promptly. 4307 Upton Ave. S., Mpls., 612 926-0222

Coastal Seafoods—With all the concern over mercury, PCBs, depleted oceans, polluting fish farms, and genetically modified fish, seafood is not the cure-all it once seemed. Yet, Coastal general manager Tim Lauer says, “Wild halibut and salmon fishermen have been extremely responsible in their practices. When it comes to farm-raised fish, it’s really up to the source. Some farms—Star Prairie, in Wisconsin, for example—are meticulously sustainable.” Mpls., St. Paul, Wayzata

Guide to Local Brands
Look for the following great local food labels in area groceries and co-ops or buy direct from their farm stands (where available). All area retailers stock certified organic produce, but Kowalski’s and Fresh Seasons Market (Glen Lake) work especially hard to stock and label local items. [top]

Dairy
Bass Lake Cheese—Colby, the authentic Wisconsin cheese, is made from local milk in a refurbished eighty-nine-year-old creamery near Somerset, Wisconsin. Buy direct only. 715-247-5586

Cedar Summit Farm—Milk, ice cream, and PastureLand cheese and butter from this three-generation dairy farm in New Prague. The farm store offers direct purchases, events, and demonstrations. 952-758-6886

Eichten Hidden Acres Farm—Best known for its gouda, this Center City dairy’s cheese is available throughout the Twin Cities and from its market and deli/bistro. 651-257-1566

Hope Creamery—Produces European–style unsalted butter from a farm in southern Minnesota rivaling any from France. Available at local retailers.

Love Tree Farms—Nationally acclaimed Wisconsin sheep-milk cheese is available at the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and through the mail. 715-488-2966

Organic Valley Farms—A co-op of sustainable dairy farmers producing milk, half and half, cheese, cream cheese, and butter. The most broadly available local organic dairy products.

Pastureland—Butter and cheese from cows pastured throughout southwestern Minnesota.

Pride of Main Street—Milk and Helios Nutrition products from Sauk Center. Committed to working with local farmers (and supplying r-GBH-free milk). Available at local retailers.

Shepherd’s Way Dairy—The sheep-milk cheese, produced near Northfield, is renowned locally. Its Friesago is a nutty Manchego-style cheese. The farm store is open Saturday mornings.  [top]

Fruit/Vegetables
Gardens of Eagan—Renown for its sweet corn, tomatoes, and winter squash. The Farmington farm’s products are sold at Twin Cities co-ops and Whole Foods Markets, as well as at its July–October farm stand. 952-469-1855

Hoch Family Orchard—Hoch grows more than fifty varieties of apples, some of them heirloom types, plus stone fruits and tree fruits from its orchards in LaCrescent. Available at local natural food co-ops and at the orchard. 507-643-6329

Pepin Heights Orchards—The largest orchard in the state, known for its Honeycrisp apples. Sold at retailers across the Twin Cities and directly from the orchard on U.S. Highway 61 south of Lake City. 651-345-2305

RiverBend Farm—This Delano farm supplies our best restaurants and many of the natural food co-ops. Look for signs in specialty retailers. [top]

Meat
Bar Five Meat and Poultry—An Arlington producer of free-range poultry, turkey, duck, and eggs. Check out its smoked chicken, turkey, and duck at the Minneapolis and St. Paul farmers’ markets. 507-964-5612

Bubba’s Beef—Valley Natural Foods Co-op is working with nearby farmers to sell free-range, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free old-fashioned cuts of beef that most stores no longer carry. You’ll find Bubba's flavorful hanger steak and bone-in shoulder roast for a real pot roast. Valley Natural Foods, 13750 Co. Rd. 11, Burnsville, 952 891-1212

Callister Farms—Sells truly free-range, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free chickens at natural food co-ops and at its seasonal Thursday farm stand. 507 527-8521

Kadejan—Naturally raised, free-roaming beef, chicken, and turkey, available at most local retail outlets. 320-634-3561

Sleeping Cat Farm—This Litchfield farm sells chicken, eggs, and grass-fed beef cuts at the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market. 320-693-8449

Thousand Hills Cattle—This Cannon Falls processor works with Upper Midwest farmers who raise cattle that are 100 percent grass-fed, and use humane, sustainable practices. Its beef is packaged in a variety of cuts and sold throughout the Twin Cities. Direct bulk purchases by phone. 612-756-3328

Tollefson Family Pork—Offers the area’s best brats, tenderloins, and bacon—at the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. Order online. [top]

Smoked Fish & Meat
Morey’s—Its smoked salmon and fish garnered acclaim from The New York Times not long ago. Available at many local grocers.

Hidden Stream Farms—Gentle smoke and a deft hand with salt means the “flavor of the bacon comes through,” says Clancey’s Kristin Tombers. Hidden Stream, in Elgin, sells bacon, smoked ham, and a variety of fresh and smoked meats direct and through Clancey’s as well as at select co-ops. 507-272-4157

Thielen Meats—This eighty-five-year-old family business in Pierz (there is a similarly named business in Little Falls that is not this one) specializes in smoked pork products, but is best known for its bacon. This is pork from heirloom hogs, bred to have lots of fat marbled throughout the meat. Thielen sells direct at its store, ships, and sells its bacon at major Twin Cities grocers. 310 N. Main St., Pierz, 320-468-6616 [top]

Learning More
EatWellGuide.org—A searchable database by location for farms, markets, and restaurants that specialize in sustainably grown food.

MinnesotaGrown.com—This database is a guide to Minnesota-grown products, searchable by product, region, or farm name. [top]

Look for these Labels Antibiotic free means the animal has not been treated with antibiotics. The concern is that overuse is making antibiotics less effective, particularly on people. Food Alliance Midwest is a third-party program that uses a certification seal identifying food from farms that are environmentally friendly, and socially responsible. FAM recognizes more than fifty certified farms throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas and more than 100 certified foods, including produce, meats, and dairy products sold through retail and food-service partners. Fish Forever certifies that the Marine Stewardship Council considers the seafood as sustainably raised. Whether seafood can be “certified organic” is currently being considered by the USDA. There’s no way to “certify” what wild fish eat or to control their habitat. Farmed fish raise a number of health and environmental concerns: If not carefully controlled, their wastes pollute ground water and, if bred with wild fish, compromise an entire species. When raised sustainably, farmed fish can be tasty, healthy, and leave no environmental impact. (Coastal Seafoods is the best resource in town for cooks with concerns about which seafoods to consume.) Grass-fed and pastured refers to how the animal was raised, but there is no standard or certification. The eggs, milk, and meat of these animals is naturally higher in omega-3’s (essential fatty acids), which researchers believe are crucial to healthy brain development as well as conjugated linoleic acid, believed to prevent cancer. Non-GMO identifies foods that have not been genetically modified using recombinant DNA technology to make them resistant to insects or to increase shelf life. We do not yet know the long-term effects of GMO foods on people or the food supply. It is suspected that they promote antibiotic resistance and may alter the integrity of organic crops through cross-pollination. GMO foods are banned in Europe. In the United States, unless marked non-GMO, most soybeans, yellow corn, canola, papaya, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, radicchio, cotton, canola, and dairy products are GMO. Certified Organic is not a guarantee that a food is non-GMO, but it increases the likelihood that it is. Local labels identify food from within the “food shed” or five-state region. The label comes closest to identifying food that meets the vision of organic pioneers. rBGH-free identifies milk and dairy products from cows not treated with a hormone that increases milk production. It’s suspected that rBCH disrupts human hormone and thyroid functions. Sustainable designates methods that preserve the health of the land and the health and economic interest of food-industry workers.

Beth Dooley is a Minneapolis writer specializing in food and cooking topics, the author of several cookbooks, and coauthor of Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland with Lucia Watson.